Week 15 "The Cambodian people have been waiting for the missionaries"

Elder Nhem outside their chapel

Email home 2/23

Man this week has been pretty dang hectic! It started off with me being sick.. Oh joy. This is how I see it, people spend lots of money on diets and work outs to get slim and tan in America.. just come to Cambodia for 2 weeks and you'll be set. I promise it works hahaha :P But let's see so this week was interesting how it all worked out. So we have this Ohm Seng who we are trying to teach but his nickname is the Drunk Dragon so yeah... But he actually has a lot of friends in the Village so he has been the source of a lot of contacts and one of these days we will convince him to allow us to teach one lesson where we actually knows what is going on. It is really sad, the one downfall of the village is alcohol. I noticed all the other problems we have with people in there stem off the alcohol. The gambling and abuse problems all stem off it and it's just so sad, but I know through the Atonement of Jesus Christ they can be healed of these terrible addictions and I pray everyday the Lord will make me an instrument in His hands to help the people realize it.But yeah so on a positive side the Lord has been at work preparing people's hearts and minds for the Gospel, the first guy we met this week was super cool, he told us he had a dream about Jesus and that if he has Christ reach out to him he would accept so when we walked up to his house explaining how we are representatives of Jesus Christ and want to teach about Him he quickly accepted and now he's a progressing investigator (: Super sweet how that worked out! And then another cool thing is this Ming Siam we have been visiting. She is a recent convert and has a really hard story so we try to visit every week. It turns out her daughter heard a lot about what the previous missionaries taught and wants to learn more so we started teaching her and she already committed to baptism! She is planned to get baptized on the 9th with our other Ohm Ohn we are teaching too! (: It's super exciting! The work is moving along and we are working our hardest to fulfill our purpose. I was sick this week and felt really bad because sometimes I had to stay in and rest because my trainer made me do so but I still love him and I'm glad he did because I started feeling a lot better. I know as long as I give it my all the Lord will accept my efforts and I saw the fruits of my labors yesterday at church when the most people showed up since I arrived here! It made me so happy to see a filling up chapel on Sunday (: And yeah it's hard but this mission has it's really funny moments too, like when we had our bedframes finally delivered but were already assembled so we had to lift them up through the second story window and it as just Elder Cannon, Me, and a little Cambodian guy in Steung Mian Cey named Ya :D It was hilarious we passed the bed up to him and then I had to sprint up the stairs to help him while Elder Cannon tried to hold it up and it just was quite the scene! Then another experience everyone back home would crack up about is we went to visit this less active lookpuu and it turns out they have over 20 dogs and I'm pretty sure I've never been more scared in my life. Ever. But it was an amazing lesson and he invited us back so it's okay, it was worth the scare (: But yeah so this week, hardest week of my life. Not going to lie, I'm really sick, lost a lot of weight, and saw and experienced things in Trash Village that I never want to again. The hardships here for the people are unreal and it's so hard seeing them go through them, especially as I grew to love them more and more everyday. But as a servant of the Lord I do my best to comfort them and help them receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I know He supports us through all our trials and they can find peace and comfort through Him. I know He is supporting me because I need it. I'm learning and growing so much and my relationship with God has grown in expressively strong. Even though it's hard, there's nothing else I'd rather be doing. I hope you all have a great week, I'll keep you in my prayers.
Love,

Elder Spencer Paul Nhem

 He's looking a little sick :(
He has lost 25 pounds.

One of the Elders birthdays.  Dinner out!