It was kind of a tough week for us, with appointments falling through and investigators not showing up to church. Heng and Soroth told us they were going to come to church but they just didn't come, along with a ton of other less actives. It was disappointing. We even called, texted, and met with them to do all we could to get them there. We've really been trying to get our investigators to progress. We know that coming to church is necessary in order to do so. Last night we just decided to eat our problems away and finish off the apple pie we had in the fridge (haha) but seriously, I guess that's just how it goes sometimes. Everyone has their agency, but we're still trying to figure out what more we can do to help them. Thank you for your prayers! On the bright side though, it gave us the opportunity to do some good tracting this week. We haven't done that for a while. Tracting gave us some new potentials. We are especially excited about this one girl who said she's recently been looking for a church to attend. We've got an appointment with her tomorrow morning at 11, so we'll see what happens there.
Although Heng wasn't at church, we've begun reading the Book of Mormon with him. We're trying to set up a schedule with him where we can read the Book of Mormon together every day for just 10 minutes. As missionaries we're told all the time that the Book of Mormon is our most powerful tool so we’ve decided we better use it with Heng to help him overcome, what seems to him, an insurmountable hurdle. We also gave him some "dum-dums" (the little suckers) and told him to pop one in every time he wants to smoke. We’ll see if that works…
Soroth was actually able to meet with us quite a bit this week. We got to the law of chastity with him via the Ten Commandments. It was just kinda weird. For some reason we weren't able to teach how we had wanted to, but that's okay. He knows he cannot get baptized unless he is married. Citha, his girlfriend was like, "yeah, you should pray about it" so that was good. We'll keep following up with that and hopefully make a plan there. He was supposed to be at church yesterday but another no show. Saturday night we even tied his tie for him and everything. Elder Sturgell and I were just standing by the door Sunday morning hoping he'd come, but he just never made it. The Colts' lost on Saturday I guess, and that must have been a real heart-breaker for him! Since he wasn’t at church we may have to drop him unless he starts keeping his commitments.
On a side note, Soroth's girlfriend's brother, named Jonathan Pong had some pretty shocking news for us the other day. He's actually a less active member! Wow! We're now working with him since he lives at Soroth's house also. And then, you’ll never believe this. So, his girlfriend was larger and had been complaining of stomach aches for a while. Then the other night, apparently her stomach pain got really bad. Since she was screaming in pain they rushed her to the hospital. A few hours later...a baby! Jonathan is a father! Wow! She had a baby in her stomach and they didn't even know it! The baby is perfectly healthy, which is a miracle because she was drinking and smoking and stuff. Crazy!
Other highlights, we had an apartment inspection this week. May I just take a moment and say we rocked it! Last inspection there was a “Best Apartment in the Mission” award and Elder Sturgell and I decided to go for it this time around. I think we might just get it. We decked our apartment out with pictures, we cleaned every corner of the place, set up the furniture all nice, had good smelling things going etc. It was quite the transformation from a ghetto shack into a pent house! I'm pretty proud of us. We should find out the winner in the next couple months.
One last thing, I got to teach Cambodian Sunday school yesterday. Every once in a while the teacher will ask one of the missionaries to teach just so the students get a chance to hear from somebody else. I was pretty nervous preparing for it. In the past, Elder Skidmore had always just done it, but since he's not here anymore I guess it was my turn. I think it went well. There are of course things I would do differently next time but overall I felt good about it. I actually really enjoyed it. This year we're learning form the Gospel Principles book, which will be so good for our ward. The topic this week was "Our Heavenly Father" so I got to talk about the Godhead and how they are three separate beings. I explained it by way of the first vision. I also showed that really good picture they have with Jesus Christ and God talking to Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove. Elder Sturgell said there was a lady behind him going, "no,no they're one" but then the lady next to her was like, "no they're are separate beings, look at the picture." So, I’m glad I had the picture up. It's going to be really good for our ward this year to keep going through the Gospel Principles book because there's still so much confusion about basic doctrines, just because there are so many converts in the ward, and it's all so new to them.
Okay everybody's waiting, I gotta go.
Love you all!
Elder Hicken
Okay everybody's waiting, I gotta go.
Love you all!
Elder Hicken
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