Remarkably Revelatory Week in Battambang

HELLO--

I have no time. We had to leave this morning to Siem Reap for zone conference. 

The beginning of the week definitely had Khmer New Year hangover. We were ambushed by an army of little children spraying us with water guns and pouring baby powder all over us. I was actually kind of scared. 

So, not much to report this week and I have no time. I just want to let you all now that God listens to our prayers. If we pray sincerely to Him, He listens and He will answer. This week I stressed out a bit. I prayed. I think maybe this prayer is in the top 3 most sincere prayers of my life. My prayer reached through the ceiling and clouds and made it all the way to Heaven. I could truly feel Heavenly Father listening. I could feel His love. 

This past week I have been studying about Heavenly Father and being a child of God. Now I know. I know for a surety that I am His daughter. And that's the most important identity to have. Anyways all is well. I know that Heavenly Father literally listens and answers and loves us. He has been telling me that He loves me and that I am His daughter for about 20 years now and this week He smacked me in the face with it. 

Good bye and have a great week!!! Battambang has my heart. 

កំខ្វាលរ ផៃណការបស់ព្រះ

Love always, 

Sister Mortell

ស៊ីស្ទើរ ម៉ូរធែល

Maddy wasn't able to send pictures this week, but luckily a sweet member sent some.

Quick Quality Week in Battambang

Hello Everyone!

Well kind of a crazy week here in Cambodia. Monday I had a great birthday. Thank you to everyone for the birthday emails and love. In honor of my birthday, Sister Kosal wanted to do our make-up so we were turned into Srey Sa'ats. (pretty girls). I’ll send some pictures. And right after that we had to rush to a branch FHE. So that was interesting... we stand out because we're white and we stood out even more. Super fun!

So this week was crazy because of COOL CHNAM. The Khmer New Year! Battambang. It's basically as big as Christmas. So proselyting this week was a bit difficult but we made do. President Christensen had us do a read-a-thon of the gospels in the New Testament on Friday. Super fun. We dressed in comfy Khmer clothing and hung out at the church with all the Battambang missionaries, ate food and read the scriptures and watched Bible videos. Then on Saturday we deep cleaned our house. Kind of disgusting but greatly appreciated. Then Saturday night all three branches in Battambang had a party. We played fun Khmer games, ate Bubba (yummy rice porridge), and threw baby powder in everyone's faces. (For Khmer New Year everyone throws baby powder all over everyone's face. We were biking around and everyone on moto just had white patches of powder on their face haha). Also warning! If you are in Cambodia during Khmer New Year and you are white, you are a pretty huge target for water balloons. We were biking and there were random people all along the street and people in trucks would throw water balloons at us and everyone else. Also this pretty old grandma lady sprayed me down with a water gun and this old lookpuu got me with a bucket. I was very thankful because Cambodia is definitely in the middle of hot season. Anyways it was super fun. Also I think I still have baby powder in my hair. 

I hope everyone had a great Easter. Cambodia doesn't really celebrate Easter or know about it. But you can feel the love of God and the mercy of our Savior wherever you are. This week I have been studying in the scriptures and every other resource I can find about Heavenly Father. Everything about Him, begins with love. I am thankful that He loves me, imperfect and sometimes super pathetic me. And I know He loves you too. And I've realized that I know without a doubt that other people are children of God. It's so easy to know that and believe that for other people. But I'm coming to realize, believe and know that I am a daughter of God too. The song, "I am a Child of God" includes me and it includes you. Heavenly Father is so good to us. And I feel privileged to be able to share His love and message with the Khmer people. 

Have a great week!! Much love and Khmer sniff kisses, 

Sister Mortell

ស៊ីស្ទើរ ម៉ូរធែល

Thanks to our very own Sister Kosal--haha

Branch party--the Khmer style is fancy skirt and white shirt.

Practically Perfect Week in Battambang

Hello Everyone!

I don't have much time so I'll make it quick! Basically this week was awesome. Last p-day was way super fun. Cambodia is probably the coolest and most interesting place on the earth.

Also! Remember last week when it was randomly raining HAHA nope. Thursday (wait might have been Friday) was so unbelievably hot. We biked so far. I got sunburned pretty badly. But I’m good now. So hot. We passed by a bunch of these moto cleaning places and they were hosing down their motos and I literally wanted to pray to have one of the people accidentally spray me. But now it’s okay.

This week we did service two times! First we... moved dirt! haha. We filled in this member’s house with dirt to level it out. Then for the second service trip we built a house! haha we made this foundation for a house. All these people were helping and they were way confused about all these white people who kind of know Khmer that were trying to build this way sketchy house. But hey it was way fun.

Then General Conference! We watched it yesterday and Saturday. So GOOD! Conference was so inspiring. And we had interviews with President and Sister Christensen. They came up for conference. It was so fun to be with them and spend time with them. I have a testimony that I was called to my mission president. He is amazing. I admire him so much. He is basically trying to establish this new, inexperienced church in a 3rd world country and then he still loves and cares about each one of his missionaries. If you want a crazy, busy busy life, try being the Cambodian Phnom Penh Mission President. He is amazing. Anyways... I was just uplifted and encouraged and motivated to be better this weekend. I encourage everyone to pick one thing from conference. And apply it. Make a plan and apply it. I will try too. From this conference I especially loved Elder Rasband's talk about the Holy Ghost. I also loved President Uchtdorf's talk. But hey who doesn't love President Uchtdorf?

Anyways no time, sorry, much love to you all. REMEMBER God is in our lives every step of the way. Let's thank Him for it! Have a great week!

Sister Mortell

Some random general conference thoughts

1.  Weren't you so surprised that they changed the name color background to blue?
2.  Didn't the women choir leader look like Jennifer Garner?
3.  Ally (and everyone else from River Valley Elementary), didn't you burst out laughing when Elder Holland talked about “All God’s Creatures Got a Place in the Choir?” I started laughing and the elders just looked at me.
4.  I don't know if I would drink the rain in Cambodia.
5.  Yes conference was awesome!



Last p-day, we went to Phnom Bandann

Born and raised in Idaho but my heart is in both

Why is Cambodia so cool?

Accidentally Asian squatting because it's a habit. Also white handbook all the way. And I added only a couple of the pictures to the very impressive study wall.

President was in town and it's Sister Christensen's birthday too so we went to a nice cute breakfast place. Super cute and delicious! Battambang has some way touristy places.

Voneat surprised me at the email shop with some birthday cake a few minutes ago!

Obviously Outstanding Week in Battambang

Hello everyone! A great week in Battambang! I love it here. Let's see what has been going on... It's raining a ton here. So weird! April is supposed to be the hottest month of the year and it’s been raining. Maybe rainy season is coming early! I hope so. April is a super excited crazy month! We have conference and Khmer New Year. Khmer New Year is huge in Cambodia. I'm super pumped about. We'll see how missionary work goes. I hope everyone enjoyed conference. We will be watching General Conference this next weekend. I am so excited. Let's see... This was an exciting week for our area. We had two new investigators come to church this week. They are both referrals from members. The members here are so good. If they have a testimony they make sure everyone knows it. They are a diligent and determined people. They inspire me to do better. 

I can't remember what happened this week. Too much good all the time that I can't even think of what to write home. Well this week we had a pretty cool member activity. The Branch council and the Elders and Sisters all piled in the first counselor’s truck. We sat in the back of the truck and we all went proselyting together. We visited a ton of members and tried to encourage them and show our love to them. It was a super cool experience. Our Branch missionary leader is so awesome. In most of my other areas the branch mission leader is less active haha. So we did that for a couple hours and then it poured. Poured so much! And there we were, squished next to the elders quorum president and relief society president in a back of a truck with literally buckets of rain from the sky drenching us. So fun. Then we ate baby duck egg soup to celebrate. Good times. 

I'm still at the beginning of Battambang but I love it. I feel like this area has a lot of potential. There are so many great members here. Not much else to say but I know without a doubt that God's love is real and it's way bigger than any Cambodian rain storm. And I know if we pray to Him and ask Him for His love and then try with all of our heart and might, we can be witnesses of His love. 

Goodbye and write you soon, 

Sister Mortell