Invitations

 

Thursday at 8:35am: Wyatt arrives!!!(Delta flight 7869)

You are welcome to come to international arrivals at Terminal D 

with us to greet him when he arrives. 

Sunday at 10:30am: Wyatt speaks at church.

Sunday from 7-9pm: Open house

Everyone is invited!!!

The Final Say

"Shaking hands with future president of America u know."

This is my last email home. Sok Hour passed his interview! I'm super jealous, because he chose Elder Christensen to baptize him. But it's all good--he added me on face book so we are BFFs forever. 

Before haircut

After

Man I don't know what to say for my last mission email EVER. Maybe I should just say that I know that nobody is perfect, but through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can be made perfect. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God; anyone that will read, ponder, and pray in the name of Christ about it can know just as well. I also know that God loves each one of us with a love that nobody can fathom. We can experience a taste of it, but we can't fully understand it. I am mostly thankful for the opportunities over these 2 years to be God's investigator. While I was trying to teach other people the right way, God was silently (and sometimes not so silently) teaching me. I have learned to love the scriptures. I know that I am not perfect. In fact, I know about a lot more of my weaknesses than I used to, and I know Jesus Christ's Atonement can empower me to overcome those weaknesses. I am grateful that God sent me to this wonderful country. I love the people and their culture, and I will miss it a lot. I am excited to say that I have helped them as best as I could to strengthen them spiritually and build up their stakes of Zion. I know that words can't really explain (and if they could, it would take actually 2 years to explain), but I love my mission and will think about it for the rest of my life. I thank my Lord that in His infinite mercy, He saw it fit to improve me as a person and allow me to draw nearer unto Him.

Elder Hall

P.S.See you in 10 days, I'm not gonna email next week, since I'll be doing some last minute sight seeing and souvenir purchasing.  I won't skype you, either--sorry. Just wait a little bit more. It will be a better surprise. I love you!

 

 

Update on Investigators

Welllllll here is some bad news. Sopheap is unfortunately moving back to his province of Kampot today. He came by the church to tell me last night. I told him someday if he comes back to Phnom Penh he should come back to church. Also he promised me he would keep the Book of mormon close and pray every day. Sad, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. He didnt have enough money to keep learning in Phnom Penh and he just won a scholarship at a college near his house. He gave me a hug and I told him to have a good life and made sure he added me on facebook and then we parted ways.

One of Sopheaps friends named Pheakdey has started making time to meet with us more, and went to church yesterday as well. He is doing well. He accepted a baptismal date for January 14th (sad face). 

Sok Hour is still doing super well. He gave us mangos the other day and we were just talking about life and how hard it is and he summed up the conversation with "man this life is hard, Ill just wait till next life, whatever" haha. He said he would cut his hair, but he wants to keep it until he gets baptized. I think he is my favorite investigator I have had my whole mission, teaching him is like a roller coaster. We went over what feeling the spirit is like by reading in Helaman 5 : 45-47. Man he has changed so much in just these few weeks. 

Also sok hour is getting interviewed at the end of the week!

ELder Hall 

A New Heart

My investigators are progressing well. And in fact yesterday was stake conference. We got Sok Hour there and then Sopheap and 5 of his friends went. It was the best stake/district conference I have attended on my mission, and it happened right at the end. WOW! It was amazing. The Stake President is one of the most powerful leaders this entire country could have to offer. He is also one of the first members in the country (baptized 18 years ago). I asked him if he would adopt me after my mission (sorry, mom). Haha. 

We have found some new investigators--like this one guy from Kratie who lives across the street from an OLD investigator. I knew a couple places by his house, because when I was in Kampong Cham, we took a trip to look at dolphins in Kratie. Anyways, we met him a couple weeks ago. He asked the old investigator a ton of questions, so last night when we went to go meet the old investigator, he was like, "Sorry. My kid's sick and I gotta go, but you gotta go take care of that kid across the street, he's been bothering me with questions all week." 

Elder Christensen is doing great. I don't really help him that much as he's been helping me. He's such a positive person and a hard worker. It's hard to remember how much time I have left. 

Sopheap is meeting us tonight with all his friends. He is progressing the most out of all of them. Also, Sopheap watched the baptism last night, and the stake president was at the baptism and personally invited him to continue learning with the Elders and to follow all the commitments. Man, the stake president really just gets it. 

In one of my personal studies, I was reading in 1 Samuel chapter 10 and it talks about how Saul felt the spirit and received a "new heart" from God. I was studying about the Holy Ghost and how it affects people, but when I read that, it just kind of hit me. I was thinking about it for a long time and just really liked it. Then when we were teaching Sok Hour, he was having some issues believing that God could help him through his sins. He believed that he is always going to be the way he is because "that's just how his heart is." At that moment, I knew exactly why that scripture had been pressing on my mind, so I shared it with him, and he soaked it in like a dry sponge. He just thought it over in his mind after reading that scripture, and just kind of savored it, and then said, "God can help me, God can do anything." It was a really special moment. 

 

Elder Hall