Another good week full of teaching opportunities. I feel like I always say that, but it really has become the norm. I continue to be amazed at how we seem to always be blessed with people to teach. It was not like this before Elder Sturgell got here. I think he has brought an excitement and energy not only to our companionship but to our whole little Cambodian district. He’s contagious and it’s apparent in our work. I'm finding that being enthusiastic is a huge part of having success in missionary work. It's been such a blessing to have him here.
His training is officially over. (did I say that last week?) Three months gone already and now he's available to go wherever and do whatever. Transfers are this week and it'll be interesting to see what happens. I've been in this area a long time, a little more than six months I think, so maybe I'll get transferred, but I could stay too. Elder Fowler and Elder Low were both with their trainers for an extra transfer after they finished their training so we’ll have to see what happens with that.
Unfortunately this week we decided that it was time to drop Heng. We found out he has no idea what we have taught him. Just to give you an idea of how lost he was, he thought Obama was our God. We really have tried to do everything we can for him. We taught him in Khmer, in English, with members, without, we got him to come to church, to come to a baptismal service, we read with him from the Book of Mormon daily, explained, re-explained, bought him Dum-Dums for the smoking etc.. So we decided it just may not be his time right now. We've kept a very good record for him. We have that in the area book. Maybe we’ll try again in 6 months. And Soroth did not come to church again. Yikes. Not sure what we're going to do there...
On the bright side, we picked up four new investigators this week! Two of them came by way of referrals! I know God is helping us. We're still following up with them so it's hard to tell if they're going to be solid yet or not, but we'll see. It's amazing how whenever things seem to die down something else pops up in it's place.
Funny story-- so we’re at the Cherry complex, a.k.a Cambodia, and we knocked on this door. A guy yells out from inside, "Not today! I'm busy. I have to cook before my wife gets home from work." We start walking away but I had to go to the bathroom really badly. We decided to turn around and ask if we could use his restroom. Of course he said yes. (duh! he's Cambodian). I get out of the restroom and there is Elder Sturgell standing next to this guy holding a Book of Mormon. He’s explaining things as this man is sitting cross legged on his Cambodian mat crushing spices. We ended up reading almost the entire first chapter with him and having a lesson together after all. We actually felt like he's got some potential. He had some really good questions. It must have been inspiration to down that water bottle just before going out that morning!
Another highlight, Elder Sturgell had the idea of looking up Cambodian names in the phone book so we can find new pockets of Cambodians and people to work with. Good idea right? I sat down and thought of every Cambodian name I could think of as he plotted points on our map. Sure enough we found a clump and so that very next day we headed over to check it out. At first it seemed to be a huge belly flop. There were just enough addresses and signs to keep us out there but, nothin'. (So I asked Elder Rodgers what he thought, and do you know what he said? The gro-cer-y store.) Okay, no but seriously I asked Elder Sturgell what he thought and we decided to try just one more address before heading in. Sure enough we got in, and we got to teach a lesson, and now we have a new investigator. Not only that, she said all her neighbors were Cambodian too. So it’s like we found another pocket to work with!
I think God wants to bless us but he tests our faith first. Was it Jeffery R. Holland who said something like, "when miracles don't happen it’s because people aren't willing to go to the edge. It's at the edge where miracles happen." I've definitely seen that in missionary work. It always seems to be at the end of a long day or just before going in to dinner that miracles happen. And not only with missionary work, but I’ve seen that in my life and in a lot of other people's lives too. I know God will bless us if we continue to trust in Him.
Love you all!
Elder Hicken
Love you all!
Elder Hicken
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