What Happens When: It's ALMOST Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
If you ever want to come to Cambodia, I will tell you that December is the month to do it! Right at the end of rainy season, so everything is still so fresh and pretty, low dust, low(ish) humidity and temperatures and it's actually colder than any other time of the year! pretty good! Also because CHRISTMAS is in December and people here need to see some Christ-like light around this time of the year too. :)
In the area this week, not too much progress with the investigators... a bunch of them went back to their hometowns for a while so we're just waiting for them to get back and continue learning. In the mean time, we found some new investigators to teach named Nari and Sopheak and they're younger, but they're a bunch of fun! They both followed us for 30 mins while riding on the back of their dad's moto all the way across the city in rush hour traffic just to find the church! Now that they know where it is, I hope they keep coming and learning with us. It was kinda fun to teach them both with their dad there too because even though he says he has no interest in learning about Jesus, he was definitely listening and kept getting exciting to answer the questions we asked even though they were for his daughters to answer. He even committed to pray every day this week at the end of the lesson. I don't know how much the daughters wanted to learn with us, but, as long as someone's getting something out of our lessons, that's good huh?
I cannot believe that Christmas is this week. Time has flown! I remember Christmas last year, I had just gotten to cambodia and I was in my training, and I could barely speak any khmer and I thought the humidity was going to kill me. Look how far this mission has brought me. Now I can sing songs in khmer and the humidity hasn't killed me yet! This year has flown by SO FAST. As a missionary, I have learned so much about trusting Heavenly Father and relying on the Atonement of His son, Jesus Christ, to help me every single day. I have had experiences that have brought me to a better understanding and deeper gratitude for the Savior. I have been blessed to see just a small part of the everlasting love that God has for His children! All of this has happened in such a short amount of time. I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to be a missionary! There is nothing better, I PROMISE!
I used to hear "How are you spending Christmas break?" "Where are you spending the holidays?" all the time back when I used to talk to people that speak English, and I was reminded about it this morning when I found this quote : "May we not spend Christmas, but keep it." I really love this quote because as President Monson reminds us, we must have the Spirit of Christmas all year round, which is the Spirit of Christ. I think about how it's hard to spend Christmas away from my home, family, friends, and all the fun festivities, but I think about how fortunate I am to keepthe Spirit of Christ with me all the time and the opportunity to share His gospel every single day! Don't let the warmth of the cookies and fun of Christmas pass you buy just in a week. That's sad. We should all try to hold on and have Christ in our hearts all year round! The Holidays are just a motivating kick-start! Christmas will be well kept by us here in Cambodia! I hope the same for you! Love you, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Love,
Sister Haddock