What Happens When: It's a Valentine's Miracle!
Suisadaay!
Happy Valentine's day to you all. Hope you spend it with everyone you love! Just in time for Valentines (not really a huge deal of a holiday here, but still fun enough to celebrate) we witnessed a miracle this week! A recent convert family that was baptized in our ward between Feb-Nov of 2015 includes A mom, daughter and a son. They and the rest of their family had to move back to the country side a few weeks ago and we were so so sad! They are so solid and love everything about the gospel. We were worried because out in the kites, sometimes finding the church building can be rough. (gps on an iphone is not really a thing here and everything is so spread out, it's way hard if you don't have something to ride). anyway, before they left, We got their phone number and some info about where they thought they would be living and we sent it to the missionaries out in that kite. Well, the missionaries had not had any success in contacting this family, and we were all super sad about that. BUT THEN. We got a random call a few nights ago from one of the elders in a different area of that kite. He said his companion and he had gone contacting to a far away place they usually don't go because it's just miles of rice fields. They finally found some people and asked them if they wanted to know about Jesus Christ, and the people said, "no, but our neighbors are Christians, you can go talk to them". So this elder and his companion went to this neighbors house and the neighbors see them and start running outside yelling, "ËLDERS!" and it was our long lost Recent Convert FAMILY! They were so excited and grateful the elders had found them. There were 3 miracles we pulled out of this story: 1. The mom had been praying every day for the Lord to show her some way to find out where the church was. 2. The elders never go out to that area, but just decided to go out contacting to find people to teach. 3. It is the complete opposite area from where we told the elders to look in the first place. Lesson learned: the Lord will prepare and provide for each of His children when they have faith! When there's a will, there's a way! I'm so grateful this sweet family was found! Also, sometimes the Lord is preparing things that we don't even know are in the works. So glad this family can continue going to church. That sure was an answer to our prayers! This week I had the pleasure of bowling with the mission presidents wife, she rolled a strike on the first round... :) Our less active members are continuing to come to church and rekindle their faith. Yesterday one of our cute girls we visit named SreyKiyo came to church with us for the first time in forever! She is in the process of re-learning all over again to really build faith. OmDally came again, and apparently, even though she is like 70 and has hurt knees, she biked all the way up to the church. SO AWESOME. Before I came here, I don't think I understood the amount of sacrifice it takes for a lot of members to attend church. Even affording transportation is hard enough for a lot of our members here. Hopefully, we will get home/visiting teaching as an existing thing here in the ward soon too. Lots of work to do here, the church has only been here for 20 years, so there are a lot of areas that could use a push to help the members and wards.
This week I ate some raw clams. You put them between your teeth and crack them open and slurp out the inside... pretty fishy, but I actually like it.
I also had a way fun exchange with Sister Sok this week. She's half Khmer, from Australia. We found out we are soul sisters and 24 hours wasn't nearly enough time! I love exchanges. They are such fun to make new friends for life! By the way, for those that have asked, biking is like the craziest, most fun thing. I never thought I would say I like bikes (hence, my double broken arms past {ask me later}) but It really is the way to get around here, especially since traffic laws don't really exist anyway. I'm a pro weaver and I haven't had a terrible crash yet... so knock on wood.
Thanks for all the emails and letters. I love you all!
Som Sok Sabaay!
Sister Haddock
Valentines day with my sisters. Pink red and purple!
Exchange sleepovers cuz sometimes you gotta - except me and my compie are not in this picture...sorry
Lunch with Sister Semones after zone training.
