Lots of pictures of Elder Phnom Penny doing service in Preak Toal (trash village).
What an amazing email home, I am truly blessed to be Spencer's mom.
This week has been GREAT! It started great and ended great too (: Last
Monday after P-Day ended we went to Preak Toal and visited some members
and it was great just meeting with them and sharing the Gospel and
playing with all the little kids and just seeing their lovely smiles,
and I'm starting to understand this lesson so now I can talk about stuff
with them (: But yeah I'm finally healthy again, I can hold down food
and everything, but to be honest I threw up one last time week and
that's because I chugged down 4 chocolate milks, man chocolate is good
(: But anyways since I finally healed up I really could focus on the
work this week and man the results were great! I really wanted to
contact a lot of people and practice speaking so we did a lot of that
this week. And also looked for every opportunity to serve and found
many! We washed dishes for some people, helped people break recyclables,
and I even got to help someone put a roof on a house!... well.. a shack
but still! (: And I noticed service opens the peoples hearts and then
they wonder why American's are walking through the poorest part of the
country and possibly the world where people make on a good day 3-4
dollars and we explain we are there to just simply help. And then we get
to teach them about something that brings the greatest joy in the
world.. that's a very special privilege. I just love seeing the light in
people's eyes as they realize this life has more purpose to it then
just working all day and living in very simple terms. There is more to
come after this life and they have a purpose here to learn and grow and
find and experience happiness. And even better when they realize they
are not alone but that each and everyone of them is a child of God and
that He loves them and supports them is all that they do. That is one of
the sweetest moments of this work is seeing people realize their
potential and grabbing a hold of it and changing their lives. It reminds
me how it is all worth it. But another cool thing this week was I went
on my first exchange and I got to spend a day with Elder Lao. Now that
day was pretty crazy! We headed out just trying to set up appointments
for that afternoon and ended up doing tons of service and contacting
people left and right. It really humbled me to see Elder Lao be willing
to talk to or help anyone and everyone. Even if he doesn't know the
language perfect he tries and I've been trying to follow that example
now. I just go at it and if I need help I have my amazing companion
Elder Cannon to help me. And the work is still moving along nicely, I
have my first baptism this week on Sunday for Aleen, it'll be a pretty
cool experience. She is sooooo ready and has the desire (: And we have a
couple investigators really moving along and coming to church too! When
I first got in the area we had 60 some people coming to church and we
made a goal to get over a 100 and yesterday we had 101! (: I was sooooo
happy! It just shows that our efforts are paying off. Sometimes it is
really hard and we feel like we aren't doing much but then I start
seeing the results and it's really satisfying! (: Now for the funny
moment of the week.. maybe two! First was once again with dogs, I was
super stoked to just be out and doing the work and I decided to try a
road we've never been down so I go barging down it and then 3 huge dogs
come running towards me barking and I've seriously never ran so fast in
my life! I was SOOOOO scared! So that was the first time this last week I
screamed like a little girl.. But then here is the thing, I screamed
like that again in the same day! I was riding my bike home from day and
was going over trash mountain and there was goats everywhere so I made
some bahhhhh noises and stuff and next thing you know a huge goat comes
and rams my bike and nearly knocks me off! I screamed so loud and
pedaled home so fast... just wow. But yeah I love the work. This week
was amazing. I really just love the people so much. I'm even willing to
walk to church through heat that feels like the Sahara Desert to help
the members get to church (: I willing to trudge through nasty smelly
water which I'm positive has a lot of human waste in it to get to
members houses. I'm willing to get over 100 mosquito bites on my arms to
visit and teach a lesson to a willing child of God for exactly that
reason. Every person is a child of God and deserves to know it. Every
person on the Earth deserves to feel love. Love from Heavenly Father and
love from other people. I truly love these people with all my heart and
I'm starting to forget myself and just love. Cambodia is my home and
boy do I love it. Until next week, have a great one,
Elder Spencer Paul Nhem
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