Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Missionary Wednesday

Good afternoon my awesomely awesome parents and awesomely awesome littlest sister!
Ack. no i'm still in the same branch as before. the new sisters wont come until the middle of Augest we found out. so we still have some time :p
Ack our branch has issues. sister sparks and i were trying to do some service for two memebers and the branch president basically told us not to help them because he didnt think they deserved our help. and he's denying one of them a temple recommend because he doesnt like the person. i dunno its a stupid personal reason. sister sparks and i are still going to help her because she is still a faithful member. (plus he cant really tell us who to serve and who not to serve :p)
wow 89 degrees! i would kill for that kind of temperature! i think lately the temp has been about the same here.... a steady 7 billion degrees F. :) it's nice though ^__^
We have just about lost all of our investigators again. >__< We think the Jehovah's Witnesses have been around our area and they told Co Bay some bad things about us. (Its funny we never actually SEE the jehovah's witnesses, but we know they are out there. *cough*satan in disgues *cough*) So Co Bay has been avoiding us. we are thinking we might have to drop her. :(
Chi Lieu and Anh Hu'o'ng have disappeared off the face of the earth. at least through them we were able to meet Em Buoi, Em Phuc and Em Thien...the three cutest most awesome kids on the entire planet!! (none of them are related they just live in the same neighborhood)
Em Buoi is 13 years old. She's studied about Christ before. her faith is so strong and she is so knowlegeable. she loves reading the book of mormon and as soon as she goes to church for 8 times she can be baptised! ^_^
Em Phuc is 11 years old. He loves singing the hymns! We talked to his grandmother yesterday and she agreed to meet with us at 5pm today. hopefully she will start learning with em phuc to and she can be baptised as well.
Em Thien is about 11 or 12 i think. He talks really loud and he loves reading too. He's more of a challenge to teach because he gets bored and interupts alot.
Because of these 3 kids we have made our lessons more fun and more interactive. and literally if i could i would shove them all into my suitcase and take them home with me. ^_^ no joke. that's how weird i've become on my mission. I worry so much after sister sparks and i leave who will be there for them you know? *headdesk* ack..i cant think about that it makes me soooo sad!
the other day when we were teaching them, sister sparks was testifying. Em phuc started to get really really close to her and all of a sudden he wacked her on the forehead. Sister sparks was a little taken back and i couldnt stop laughing. Em Phuc was like "moi" which means 'mosquito' and he wiped it from her face. XDD it was seriously the funniest think i have seen on my mission! Co Nu'o'ng's progress has been amazing too. she participates when we teach her kids Em My Lam and Em Kim Anh. her knowlege is growing so much and she smiles so much more too.
As for using my art talent...orz i try but i dont have much time to draw these days. we've been using the pictures for like sunday school and primary though. usually when i do draw its for other missionaries to like cheer them up and stuff. but there really aren't any sidewalks here in Cambodia to draw on...its like italy where everything is right on the street. and the few sidewalks they do have are in front of government buildings...and i dunno if they would appreciate Joseph Smith's face on their front step. XD ahaha
yeah wendy told me about the mis-hap...goodness gracious. *shakes head* what are we going to do about them? :) I'm sure wendy is taking good care of them though.
Well i should go now. Another week down. one more to go :)
Love
Sister Holloway

PS
I got your package last week!! thank you soooo much! i love the cds! i play them everyday!!
also the dresses were a bit...large for me..so i'll have a sister in our branch tailor them..no problem
Thank you again!! I can't belive i almost forgot to tell you!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Missionary Wednesday

Good Afternoon Mommy Daddy and Kaity!

Whoo, today we are all so exhasted already...and its only 1215! we hurried up and did our grocery shopping this morning so that we could go to the Russian Market. :) We went to KFC after for lunch.

This week was good. Co Nu'o'ng was confirmed on sunday! now we are teaching her 3 daughters. 2 of which are old enough to be baptised, but her younger granddaughter (who is so stinkin cute!) has to wait til she's 8...she's only 3 or so right now. :) It's been amazing to see the changes in Co Nu'o'ng these past few months. She's more loving toward her children, her understanding is growing, and she smiles so much now! When Chi Thuy and I started teaching her in March/April she hardly smiled and was so sad...but now she's smiling and laughing alot.

The lesson yesterday with Em Kim Anh and Em My Lam (Co Nu'o'ng's daughters) we came up with an awesome object lesson. We gave everyone an oreo and explained that an Oreo has three parts: 2 cookies and a cream filling. the two cookies represent Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ because they have bodies. the cream filling is the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost doesnt have a body so he can be inside of us. :) it was super creative i think. and at least we got oreos after the lesson :P

Chi Lieu and Em Bui and Em Phuc all have a baptismal date now! Chi Lieu, and Em Phuc will be baptised the end of july. Em Bui has to wait until she goes to church 8 times in a row because she's under 18 and we arent teaching her parents. we also have to ask her parents for permission to teach/baptise her. We pray that her mom's heart will be softened so that she can at least learn with us still.

Yesterday at district meeting Anh Ca Hung complimented me on how well my vietnamese is progressing....ack! *blush* its nothing really... moving on..

Friday was kind of a hard day. I suddenly started feeling anxious and worried about nothing! I havent had that problem since i've been here, then suddenly it just came up again! However i tried to focus my thoughts on other things and it went away when we met with Chi Hu'o'ng and we shared a scripture and tesified to her.

Monday we went and visited a member Chi Linh. You know those kind of members that are really good, but they kind of have thier hands in everything going on in the ward? yeah she's one of those. and she spend 1 1/2 hr talking about all the dirty secrets in our branch. awesome. well i've already faced the fact that branch 10 will never be my home ward in utah, so i just cant let what she says about other people bother me.

In my personal studies in the morning, i finished the book of mormon already and now i'm going through and reading all the footnotes. its been like 1 week and i'm still in 1 Nephi 2. :) It's been pretty fun doing that. i spent the whole 30 mins sometimes on one verse. ^-^

On sunday we didnt have any investigators at church. we were kinda bummed, but these past few days we've been trying to use the Book of Mormon to resolve thier concerns...which is kinda difficult sometimes. Like yesterday with Co Bay, she was worried because she didnt want to throw away her parents (give up being Buddist basically) so we shared about how families are so important in God's plan and how we can live forever with them if we live rightously. She went from wanting to be met every day to only 2 times a week...thats not a good sign. but who knows maybe she will change?

As of yesterday i havent gotten your package yet. we are going to the mission home again today, hopefully its there! I'm so excited for it!!

Wow i almost forgot Kaitlyn will be 12 next month! holy cow! so old already! :P

Sometimes i wake up and i still cant believe i'm actually in Cambodia...living away from my family...and surviving! its amazing the things you can do with the Lord's help! The other night at dinner the other sisters were talking about thier older brothers and how when they got home from thier missions they cried so much. I know i cry inside sometimes because i know my time here is almost over. *sigh* also i wonder what it will be like having a native companion. they actually wont come unil the middle of Aug now. dang. but until then i'm working as hard as i can on the language so i wont struggle as much when they get here. (of course it will still be a struggle, i just hope i'm strong enough to handle it.) :)

okay well it think that's enough rambling for this week. all in all i'm doing great. I'm loving the person i'm becoming and none of this would be happening if you and dad hadn't talked me into it ;) i love my Savior Jesus Christ very much. I know he lives and he loves all of us. I know the Atonement is real and through that sacrifice we can be healed from our mistakes, sorrows, and disappointments. I love you all very much! and I will continue to kien tri den cung! (endure to the end!)

Love
Sister Holloway