Second Week in the Missionfield

Many of the Cambodians we meet here are already members, but either claim to be Buddhist or are not interested anymore, so when we knocked on the door to one Cambodian man and during our conversation he pointed to a picture of Christ with a little picture of President Hinckley tucked in the corner, I felt so happy for him! I think he's in his upper 60's, and doesn't go to church because he has health problems, but he also asked whether God understands Khmae since everyone here speaks English. We did our best in explaining the Tower of Babel, and honestly, I could only understand maybe one out of 50 words he said, but Sister McQuivey said for some reason she was able to understand the gist of what he was saying and answered to the best of her ability and while he went to get something she quickly filled Sister Walker and I in what was going on. I bore testimony of the Book of Mormon, and he said he had one in large print but couldn't find it, so we tried to give him one, but he wouldn't take it.

For the closing prayer, So Him is his name (I'm pretty sure), volunteered to say the prayer and in it expressed thanks for sending these three sister missionaries to his house. Before we left he touched his heart and kept saying something about his heart feeling good and when we explained that was the Holy Ghost, he said he hadn't felt that way in 10 years since he stopped going to church. Afterwards, we couldn't stop talking about that lesson for at least an hour as we reflected on the Spirit that was there and the way he had been touched.

The next time we met with him he brought out a bag and pulled out his large print Book of Mormon, a hymn book, a Liahona from 2003 with a picture of President Hinckley and his wife, and some pamphlets. "I didn't lie" he told us happily, as he displayed his church materials which made us smile and say "good, good!" in Cambodian which I would write, but can't type in Romanization.

The Cambodian reunion went really well. Of all the people we personally went house to house to hand out fliers and invite to the party, only one showed up, and that was because she had a friend in the ward who asked her to come. There was one woman who was excited to go and made 100 egg rolls for it, but couldn't because her brother showed up unexpectedly from Oregon. But about half the people there were Cambodians; other American members were there to reminisce with the Cambodians about the time they did have a Cambodian branch and served together. Most of them are still familiar with the church only because they have visiting teachers and home teachers that still contact them, which I'm extremely grateful for since we have found so many great contacts through the members! So Visiting Teaching and Home Teaching are important!

It's nice now that the Cambodian reunion is over we can focus our efforts more on meeting and teaching the contacts we've received instead of getting to as many houses as possible to hand out fliers to the reunion, and there are so many great people to work with! This past week has been both humbling and inspiring as I've learned more about my purpose as a missionary here and how much change is to be made both for me, and the work here. It's hard doing pioneer work and with the whole Tacoma mission as our area, but it's the Lord's work, and I know that with Him, anything is possible!

- Sister Dunster

P.S. If you get a chance, check out my favorite song of all time: "I Love the Lord" sung by the BYU Men's Chorus. :)