Pushing a Wheelchair Down a Rocky Path and Pictures of Sen Sok

One really cool thing this week is that we found a very old member.  She has been a member for over 10 years.  We were contacting and this guy came up and told us his mom knew us.  So we followed up and found his mom who is paralyzed on her right side, but her mouth seems to be okay.  She literally just sits and sleeps on a bed all day.  We talked with her and found out she was a member. We tried to stop by a few more times that week.  On Saturday we met her and told her we were going to take her to church.  She put up a little fight, but we solved her concern.  Her main one is that she would not have enough time to shower.   

I do not know if I have told you how they shower here, but they have huge, massive pots they fill with water, and they have a little pot scooper that they scoop water up and wash themselves with.  She told us usually she gets to shower once a week.  Or longer.  So, we moved all of the stuff to help her and set up a chair and pulled out the moto bike from the house so that she could shower.  Once we pulled out the bike, we went outside and shut the door.  Then when she was sitting back on the bed and was clothed we put the bike back inside and told her we would be back.  We have a wheel chair at the church, and we got to the church a little early and walked to her house with it.  Not too far, maybe a 4 to 5 minute walk.  So I carried her (deceptively heavy) from her bed to the wheelchair, and then we pushed her too church.  She said she felt very happy and loved being at church.  She left after the second hour.  We pushed her back home, I lifted her to her bed, and then we left.  By the way, it is not very easy to push an older, 70ish year old, woman on a dirt/rocky road.  More like small paths really.  I felt really happy to serve her, and it feels good to find someone who is a member and to bring them to church.  She tried to tell me that next week she would not come because it is too hard for us.  Yeah right.  We are coming back every single week. 

I came to the realization that sometimes I feel like I live in a farm-like petting zoo.  I have seen some type of Asian buffalo, cows, chickens, ducks, huge wild turkeys, horses, goats, huge wild frogs, etc.  I look out my door and a cow is 20 feet from my house eating my neighbor’s tree.  Sometimes you just have to laugh.  I watched someone cut off the head of a huge frog and skin it in front of my eyes.  Pretty cool.   

There are some awesome sunsets here.  I guess in the city I could never see them, but out here they are really pretty.  By the way, I have learned there are 5 words for rice.  One for when it is growing.  One right after they cut it.  One when it is ready to be cooked.  One when it has been cooked and ready to eat and another when it is put in a stew type thing.    

We spent most of the week contacting.  I do not know if this will sound like a big number, but we contacted about 64 people.  It is a lot when you are squeezing in a few investigators, recent converts, less actives, etc.  The Most of the contacting was not immediately beneficial.  We had some people interested but usually they had a reason they could not learn.  We have a few return appointments; we will see how they turn out.  Either way, I see this past week as a testing period.  The Lord wants to see our diligence and our desire.  And while I know we were not perfect in any way, I really think that we tried hard and tried to share with people the gospel.  Maybe in the future they will learn, but for now I hope and believe that somehow the Lord will bless us with referrals or someone who will want to learn.  

People Just Kept Coming

This has been a great week.  We were blessed with a lot of miracles this week.  Lots of new investigators just kind of showed up.  At church, this lady who had looked us up on the internet came and was totally interested.  Another recent convert brought her friend who is super interested and told me she knows it is true.  Sunday was awesome yet insane.  People just kept coming.  There were these three girls who showed up wanting to interview us for a school project because we were American.  They didn't want to stay for church but we swapped info, and I said I would call them later.

  

 
Things are going well.  We have a lot of investigators with goals right now, and we need to focus on helping them really progress towards baptism and take those final steps.  I don't know what it is about this area, but I feel like this is the land of eternal investigators.  We are working with a girl right now who prays every day, reads the Book of Mormon (is currently in Alma 54), and still doesn't want to get baptized because although she believes all of this, she still believes in Buddhism.  She accepted a goal though and came to church, which is big for her.  We will keep working.   

We had a wonderful miracle this week with our investigator Wang Zi Rong's family.  Last week her mom (who previously has been very supportive of her daughter but not personally wanting to investigate) had a very special experience with prayer when her mom was in the hospital.  I felt prompted this week to call her and ask if we could send the Elders to give her mom a blessing.  I called, and she said yes.  The hospital was out of our area, and we asked the zone leaders if they would be willing.  They were very willing to serve and said afterwards that it was a very spiritual experience and that they had committed the family to pray every day together for their grandma and grandpa's well being.  The next day the mom called me thanking us for sending the Elders and saying that they had prayed and that her mom was doing a lot better.  She was very touched by it, and I believe that she will get baptized.  It is hard to meet with her right now because she spends a lot of time at the hospital, but I believe one day soon she will understand that baptism can mean that she can be with her mom forever – no matter what happens.  Her daughter is doing awesome and is progressing towards her 24th baptismal goal.