March 4th

This past week we prayed that Say would be able to keep the Word of Wisdom as his baptism came closer. He got a blessing after church, and a week beforehand we called to see how he was doing. A few weeks ago he cut down from 20 to 10, and this week he regretfully said he'd only cut down from 10 to 2 cigarettes a day which we were ecstatic about! And when we talked to him the next day at our lesson, we found out he didn't smoke again after that phone call. We had given him cinnamon gum, cinnamon toothpaste and cinnamon mouthwash - anything cinnamon to help him stop because we heard that makes smoking taste bad, and it worked! We also gave him Pero so he wouldn't have to drink coffee, and he's been using that as well.

The baptism was so good! We sang a musical number of I am a Child of God, half in Khmer, and we worked out the baptism so the first speaker was a Cambodian member (they all drove from Tacoma which is 30 minutes away) who would be active if he could go to church, but he has to take care of his grandchildren because his son-in-law has heart failure. It was so good! It warmed my heart to see him teach from his own Preach My Gospel, and I understood at least the gist of what he was saying. The other talk was given by an active Cambodian member, also around Say's age who is well rounded on gospel topics as he has a whole shelf of church books both in Khmer and English that he loves to read (didn't understand as much of his talk on the Holy Ghost). Sawine gave the opening prayer, and Sister McQuivey gave the closing, so the entire program pretty much was in Cambodian. The ward mission leader said he didn't understand a word, but he felt the Spirit and understood that we were well instructed during the baptism. I loved every second of it, and even President Weaver was crying by the end.

The following Sunday after Say was confirmed, we had just finished Gospel Principles and Say was saying goodbye, since he's leaving for a 3 week long trip to Boston to visit his mom. He said he doesn't plan on telling his family he's now a member because they're Buddhist and would try to influence him to stop going. I asked if he planned on taking his Book of Mormon with him. He pointed to his scripture case (which contains every pamphlet we've ever given him, every church program he's gotten, his Gospel Principles manual in Cambodian as well as his Bible and Book of Mormon) and shook his head. I figured he didn't quite understand, so I asked if he would take his Book of Mormon with him. He said "Oh, yeah, which one?" and opened his scripture case so I could point out his "preah koompii" to which he asked "Take it with me everywhere?" I nodded and he smiled, saying that he would. He is the sweetest! I couldn't ask for a more golden first investigator!

Love you!!

Sister Dunster

 Bro Hohaia, Elders Shuler and Geddes, President Weaver, then Say, me, Sister Walker, and Sister McQuivey.

  Us with Say and the one other Cambodian member in the ward, Sawine with her three children Veehah, Veasana, and "Monkey" (the girl).

 Us with Say! And those are the elders in the ward we've been working with who helped get rides, communicate with the ward, and help set up the baptism, Elders Geddes and Shuler.

 Us with Say!