Power of Prayer

Just loving missionary work by the Mekong River

The work is super cool. In district meeting on Tuesday last week, the district leader committed us to pray for each of our investigators by name and by need EVERY TIME we pray. So we did that each time and we saw some pretty cool miracles.

Mission selfy of the day

1) We got 5 investigators at church! Remember the guy that didn't have mirrors or a helmet? This time, he brought a helmet, mirrors, his wife and a new investigator that lives with him (and just got back from Thailand, but had been taught by the missionaries before. So he knows everything and wants to get baptized). 

Big ol' beetle

2) This week we were biking past a house where an old lady was chopping wood out front of her house. I biked up and was like, "Hey, do you want help?" and she was like, "No, that's ok!" But that did not faze Elder Slavens. He just walked up and was like, "Do you have another axe?" And they gave us one, so we just took over for like 30 minutes chopping firewood. Then when the pile of wood in front of us was all chopped up into small enough pieces, we were like, "Is there anything else we can help with?" and they just point across the street to this huge 30 foot-long stack of firewood. So we laughed and told them that we were teachers about Jesus Christ and asked them if we could come back. They said on Saturday at 11AM, yes, we could come back. (So usually in this situation, people tell us to come back at a later time so they have time to pack up their stuff and leave, haha--I'm only kind of joking). However, this was the week that we were just getting super down and dirty and detailed with our prayers, so we included them, and Saturday morning at 11AM, we did go back and they actually did let us teach them. And then they asked really good questions about prayer and God, and they told us we could go back tomorrow at 11 again. So I'm still praying really hard for them. 

District meeting potluck

3) So there is a drunk guy in Kampong Cham. He is super drunk all the time. Allllll the time. Every morning, he's still drunk from yesterday, wakes up in a drunken stupor, stumbles down the street to buy sraa soh (a whole bottle of fermented cocktail of various cambodian fruits for only 25 cents). This happens all day long. So anyways, Elder Slavens and I decided we're going to make some time for this guy, because he is so far down the drain that I think past elders and future elders have pretty much given up hope, but for some reason I know we can do something. So this week we are going to spend about 15 minutes a day with him just checking up and praying with him to keep the temptation away. (He's also on the list of the people we pray for everyday.) The other night while he was drunk we did our best to teach him to stop drinking. Then we rode down the street on our way to our next appointment, and get like a minute or two down the road, when I realize that we were going the wrong way, so we turn around and bike back towards his house. Then we pass by this store and see a scrubby man, clearly drunk, slurring that he wanted more sraa soh, and holding out his water bottle. It was our friend, so we jumped off our bikes and ran down and we were like, sorry bubs, you're not gonna go against us that easy and took the water bottle, threw it away, and bought him a water. When we start walking back to his house, he kept telling us thank you. 

District meeting still photo

Every day when I look back at a hard day's work and look forward to doing it again the next day, it makes me more excited than I used to get for Christmas. I can't explain to you how much joy I get from putting in all my effort to change people's lives and then actually seeing it work through the power of God. I love this work and I am seriously dreading the day I have to go home. I mean not completely dreading it, but there are moments where I do. 

Love, 

Elder Hall