Bamboo Train, Tuek Umpov, Cheat's mother, and Viral Infection and long bus rides :/

Monday March 6, 2017 at 12:52AM

Hello Families and Friends,

Today is has been good. It is preparation day of course and it has been fun. This morning, after our studies and cleaning of our house, we quickly got out of the house to ride the Bamboo train again. I can never get tired of the train. Haha. It is the closest thing you can get to a roller coaster. It's a Khmer roller coaster..nah not really. The route goes through the forests, rice fields, and a few streams. At the end, they would souvenirs and really nice paintings of Angkor Wat and elephants. They are beautiful. There were many tourists  who were riding the train there though, which made me feel really weird seeing so many white people. Most tourists here are from Europe, not very many from America. Which is really interesting. Anyway, we then came back and went to shop for the week's groceries and supplies. Today is one of the hottest days. Cambodia is a jungle and gets really hot but super humid, as well.  So once we got to the streets market, we became roasted crickets. But we got to drink sugar cane water (tuek umpov) and it is equivalent to the satisfaction you can get out of drinking a really good lemonade out of a hot day.

These couple of weeks has been pretty rough but I have grown a lot. I ate something from the market and I think it was from the raw veggies, but I might have gotten sick from something else as well. But the next day and 7 days, I got really sick. I was told I got a  viral infection.

However the couple of weeks was a miracle.  I got to see a recent convert's mother. It was an amazing experience, a reflected mirror of my life. The recent convert's name is Chearta. Like me, she is a pioneer and wanted to serve a mission, but her mother was really against the church and does like it when Chearta goes to church. Her heart has been softened lately, though. So one of the branch members and the senior missionaries decided to plan a visit/ lunch with her family. I was so thrill, because this is such a great opportunity for me to have. But the night and day before the visit, I came down with that high fever from the infection.I had worms in my body and my throat was so much in pain. I was half conscious. I started coughing up- clots of blood and the sickness was beating me inside out. I really needed Heavenly Father's help. However, I really wanted this visit with Cheata's mother to happen, I wanted to meet with her mother. It's like if I don't have the chance to teach my mom, God is allowing me to share my experience and help this girl out. To really help her family come to know the Gospel. To help my family in Cambodia whether it is blood-related or not. So out of exhaustion, but with complete sincerity, I placed my head on my pillow and prayed to Heavenly Father. The next morning was a miracle. I felt better, still weak, but enough to walk and enough to speak and to go out to meet with Cheata's mother. I believe that God gave me enough strength to help this girl out. I do believe in miracles and it was God's answer to my prayer. After that day of our visit with her mother, I got another fever, but I am better now. The week after, my companion had to take an immediate trip to the closest province to a secure hospital to get her illness daignosed. We took a creepy taxi to Siem Reap ( They literally packed as much people as they could in a car, there were 2 people sitting in the driver's seat! One trying to drive the car!). Once we got there, we found out that there wasn't a specialist at that hospital. So we had to take the bus the next morning to the city. It takes about 6 to 8 hours to get from the (countrysides--known as Kets) to the capital city. But my companion was a trooper and endured through it. I waited for her and went in to hear the results. To be honest, I felt really scared as I waited, but all is good now. She had her illness diagnosed and she is doing well now. She is ending her mission soon and is so strong. So this week felt pretty strange. We are now back in the ket.  Sister Sung's health is normal now and as a matter a fact we both rode the Bamboo train this morning. It is very strange to take everything all in, hah! But it is what it is, you have just have to make the best of it.

Sickness is not an abnormal thing in Battambang or just Cambodia in general. So many memebrs and less-actives here are sick. Some have grown closer to Christ and some have grown weaker. I feel the most helpless here in Battambang, mostly when I first got here. It hurts really bad to know that they are dying and I wish I was a doctor. I just want to be in a corner and be in a fetal position. I keep telling myself, it is OK. But it really isn't. Seeing people on their last breaths and watching them in pain is not an easy thing. It is painful. It is something I am trying to accept.  However,  I've learned that the healing power is love. It may sound really cheesy, but it is the best medicine to help one knows of their worth in this life and the eternity to come. I have learned so much  about love when I am on this mission. To love those around you in every circumstance. It's so weird to say it out before my mission and believing in the word you say then is different now..on my mission. However, to have experienced what you believe and what your faith holds unto give you a deeper perspective and strengthens your faith in Christ so much more.  


Love,
Sister Sok


Some recent pictures and bamboo train

Why isn't the fish dead?!!!

Sunday February 19, 2017 at 9:35PM

Hello,

I hope and pray that you are all well. This week has been crazy good. We went to visit a member who needs some spiritual uplift  from the missionaries. (The members love to give us food for the missionaries. They are so kind). Her house is literally in the middle of nowhere and we always feel so bad when she gives us food, because she is so skinny and her house is so poor. However, it is very rude that we don't accept the gifts or food they give us. Most of the time, they don't even ask us if we wanted the stuff, they just give it to us. hah. Anyway the lady gave us live fish and hah she bagged it up. So they were moving all over the bag while I was riding my bike. It was a very hot day and we parked our bikes to teach one of the recent converts at a school. We heard some noise in the back where we parked our bikes, but did not bother to pay any attention to it. We went on teaching. After the lesson, we found our bag that was full of fish to be half full with fish and a huge hole in the bag. We only had 2 fish left.  The rest escaped. Then we went on with the rest of the day, biking and teaching at peoples' houses in the hope that the fish would die. We got home and one wouldn't die. So we had to wait until its last breath until we cook and eat it.

This week,  we wen to visit a less-active. She is very sick and we were so grateful that God has prompted us to see her that very day. We rode to her house and her neighbor asked if she was even inside at all. She locked the inside of her house and we couldn't get in to see if she was OK. The whole  village crowded to find ways to get inside. My companion opened her windows and saw her laying half conscious on the bed. She could barely open her eyes. We quickly called the branch president and the elders to come to  help. She is now a bit better, but that experience was pretty scary.

Things are going good here. I really enjoy my Khmer companion Sister Sung and her presence again. She was my trainer, but now is just a regular companion. So weird and interesting.  My Khmer vocabulary has increased and it feels different when people actually think I live in Phnom Penh and I am not an American. So I am adjusting to the culture pretty well. One of the memorable things Sister Sung has taught me about the Khmer people is that the idea of religion and the concept of "doing good will give you good" is very predominant. However, yes any religion has its good part, however what the Khmer and the way of the Khmer Buddhism is missing a part of is the crucial TRUTH of SALVATION. That yes in terms of the natural law of the land, if you do bad, there will be consequences and such. However, the pursuit of reaching higher, higher truth is skewed in their religion here. They are missing that ascending truth that they can be saved for eternity through Jesus Christ. The idea that they can be saved.

Things are still good, hard and exhausting, but I am doing OK and I am healthy. Thanks for all of your help and love. There is much for me to learn and I'm trying to take it in and accept it. I am trying very hard to keep the spirit alive and to do all that I can light up the purpose of why I am called here, to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

With love and gratitude,
Sister Sok

Below are pictures when Sister Sung first trained me (and when I was fresh out of the MTC) and hah now together again.

Over the Battambang Bridge: His strength for her limbs

Monday February 6, 2017 at 12:13AM

This week has been a good week of progress and the start of changes in missionary work. I'm really excited and I love the Branches I am in. I am still in Battambang and transfers just happened. My companion, Sister Luke ( who was ill with narcolepsy) has to be transferred back to the city where she can be close to the mission home. Sister Sung is my companion again. I was her companion during training. My health is good even though there are weird things happening to my body. However, I am still able to function well.

The lifestyle here is so different from what I am used to in America. Just the way people speak, markets, the humidity, culture of the church here, our schedules and timing, the over all culture. Usually, people here take showers 3 times a day and they eat dinner really late. So little Sophia's body is like a twig with skinny arms, legs, and face, but I am starting to see a little pouch of rice pack.  I look a little like an alien, to be frank. For exercise, I love to run. We'd wake up at 5:30 and go on our daily runs at the church and we get to see the sunrise in the morning. 5:50 is the prime time for sunrise, so that's always been a blessing to see. Lunch is a challenge sometimes. Usually since some of our areas are far out, we'd just pack lunch and eat it at the riverside on the grass with the member's help and hah also with the cows and horses by the water. It is so beautifully green. My ex-companion has narcolepsy, so we usually go back home to have her rest and study language. She finally got her medicines! So now it is just a matter to see if they work. She's a trooper. I have learned a lot on being patient and this young woman has taught me many lessons. She's is such a chill companion and her nature helps me so much when I turn into the uptight, work, work, work sister Sok.

There are other strange but hilarious stuff that goes on here, as well. Like the other day, when riding our bikes. We passed this half-naked guy on his Moto (mo-ped) with his whole family and his wife trying to arm her kids from falling off the moto, while picking lice off her husband's hair. All happening when this man is trying to ride his Moto. Man, I wonder where they were going!

So this week: I've seen so many progress of working together with members! Miracles have happened and we were so blessed to witness them. Missionaries in this mission only get to teach people of their same gender. There is this family investigating the church referred from a member. So we got to teach the female in the family. They are such a blessing to my life. Their mother's name is Oum Vannie. She is around her 70s and a very faithful seeker of Christ. I don't have much time, but I will tell you of a miracle that she shared with us. Oum Vannie could not walk straight due to an illness she had. It is a struggle for her to get up and walk off a normal distant for an average person. She has really hard times riding her bike. So, one morning at church, we were waiting for her presence. Sacrament meeting started but we didn't see her. All of the certain, we heard the door being opened and there she was rushing to sit by us. we could just see the sweat pouring out of her pores down her entire face. I could feel the exhaust and heat lingering around her frame. I was like Oum, what happened?! She said, sister "I biked to church". She later on told us: Sister I believe I truly believe! God gave me strength to get here. Her house is pretty far from the church and there are hills on the way. I mean, we are talking about an old woman who could barely walk, let alone ride her bike!

She talked about how she had to stop every now and then to regain her strength. In every fiber of her limbs and spirit she prayed to the Lord to provide her the strength to get to church! She had to cross this famous Battambang bridge, but she could not have any strength left to carry her through. She described" I humbly prayed to God with all of my total dependence and all of the certain, a burst of energy overcame my feeble body and forged me to go onward. I got off my bike and walked it over the bridge! Description of what happened does not do it justice. You would have to be in the lesson to see the change of heart and spirit of resilience, of the Lord she brought INTO her heart.

Her husband and her whole family have changed. The elders had to teach her husband. Her husband went from lying half conscious on his bed from over dose of alcohol and smoking to a complete 180 changed man. One night, the elders called me saying that they would visit him for the last time and would prob drop him, but as soon as they saw him neatly and nicely dressed with buttoned up shirt and good pairs of pants on welcoming them inside, they were so surprised. Oum Vannie had been a light to him. He saw how his wife changed and started coming to church with her. I think one of our most powerful lessons was when he saw his wife cries, he left the lesson and went to the back of his house and started sobbing. The moment was nothing but divine silence for a bit. My companion and I truly cherish those moments. The video attached is of that day when the spirit was so strong. Her husband had joined in the lesson. Haha, we had to teach them both. I had a feeling to pull out my camera and recorded that moment.  We always start out the lessons with singing "How Great Thou Art" to her. It is a tradition, they love it. Their relationships have grown and they are one of the cutest couples! Actually, I am going to just share the video!

I can honestly say that my life is being converted (even if it is refining process) to come closer and closer to Christ. I don't have a set game plane of the person I know I will be, but I know who I once was and how I have changed. I would only hope that my conversion would continue to grow. I have learned more about having charity this past transfer and I hope to continue to attain more of this very attribute. No matter what I do, this love of Christ is what I can offer. I have learned that one the hardest things I am experiencing thus far and will  be is sacrificing and offering up my desires and the agency of self-centered desires on His altar and completely trying my best to understand and do God's will. To do what He asks of me even if it makes no sense. I have learned that you do it anyway despite the outcome or the circumstance you are in. I read a letter written by an inspiring missionary. You probably may have heard of him, His name is Ricchardi:   "The mission experience is to do what you are told, when you are told, to go where you are asked, and know that the blessing comes from enduring what I ask of you. This is not about you; it is about opening your mouth at all times in all places. Doing my will without thought to the end result or consequence… this is what serving a mission is."

I am striving, striving my utmost best of what I have to serve Him. I know I fall short, but I nevertheless I love Him and I know God loves me. I cherish it every single day, to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. I hope that my letter has uplifted your day and have made you feel closer to Christ. I know that the Gospel is true and I am glad I got to know you!

On P-day, we got to ride what is called "Bamboo train and we got to go to this waterfalls place!" It was way beautiful.

Love,
Sister Sok

A Place to Rest

Sunday January 22, 2017 at 11:05PM

Hi Hi families and friends,

This week is another week of miracles. We made a plan with the relief society president, members, and young women's president that we will meet together on Saturday mornings to visit the less-actives in Branch 3. So far, our attempt has brought a miracle. We went to a less-active's house and found out she was very sick. She hasn't been to church for quite a while. She is shameful of coming back to church, since she has been less-active for a while. She told us she was sleeping for death to come. She is hopeless and feels that life has no meaning. As we talked with her, we just felt like things weren't going forward at all. However, the relief society sister kept speaking and comforting her up until we said, "you are a child of God and to Him, the price of your life is worth more than anything in this world, more than what you can comprehend". Tears of grace came down and she told us that she was actually wanting to go and buy poison pills for herself. She felt such a spirit from that visit. Often times I wonder if the lessons we teach have such power that the spirit could really impact someone's life that day. That once, we leave their place, we leave them hanging with the spirit of God, compelling them to desire it more and more unto repentance. Nothing is more important than if the lessons have relevance in that person's life. Once relevance is there, the spirit can easily enter their hearts. I am learning more and more of the purpose of the Restoration, not just on the Gospel, but also restoring my innate self to understand my identity from Heaven. If that makes sense. I am trying to think of ways to have effective lessons. I feel that the spirit is most powerful when I leave their house and a part of me, a part of my conversion is left with them. That once walking out of there, I am leaving a part of me with them and taking a part of them with me. I am more and more seeing the change in myself. Not in a boasting way, but as I lay down at night, I start to think about the people we teach and really feel the love I have for them. To be honest at the beginning of my mission, many thoughts would come to mind. But now it's almost like you really think about their suffering and feeling so helpless because you can't fix their illnesses or the circumstances in a blink of an eye. That is what the Gospel is teaching me, the imprints we leave in our conversion to better understand the eternal perspective. No matter how poor our states are, having Jesus Christ is ENOUGH! That there is a place for us to rest.

Another miracle happened when we went to visit another less-active's house. She happened to not be home. She is suffering from lung disease and is very sick. We got her some fruits and met with her mother who isn't a member of the church. We visited with her mother for a while and went off to visit other less-actives. Little did we know, God granted us such a tender mercy, because we saw her at church the next day even if we didn't see her face to face. Her mother felt inspired that the Relief Society president have shown her care for her daughter.

In another lesson, I don't know why! I remember sitting on a straw mat on dirt floor, in this straw -bamboo built house. A surge of of this weird feeling came over me. I realized that: Dude! My comp and I are sitting on dirt, preaching the Gospel to this single mother. I am no longer in my air-conditioned environment and studying engineering . It was such a strange feeling on how things happened so quickly. Like Wow, what happened?! I've been a member of the church for 2 years! and I've been on my mission for almost half of a year now. Where did the time fly to? Crazy!

Here are some things I thought was interesting:

Things in Cambodia that may or may not happen in the U.S

1) A little kid starts to pull down his pants and pees on the carpet during a church lesson
2)While you are biking, there is a roasted dog head in front of yah.
3) A man juicing sugar cane  while bees are stinging him
4) Teaching at a fruit stand on the streets while Chinese funeral is going on and white tourists trying to buy your investigator's fruits
5) Old ladies trying to kiss you because they think they could inherit your skin and face.
6)Members asking if we could take them to the U.S or if you can marry their sons.
7) Blow drying your clothes, because you didn't have enough time to hang up your laundry
8) Having ants in your food and shrugging off your shoulder that it's normal
9) Biking in 1/2 forests and 1/2 city areas every single day

Happy New Year!

Sunday January 15, 2017 at 10:59PM

Hello families and friends,

I hope you all have a Happy New Year! Sorry it's a bit too late to say this.

I am doing well. It's a bit challenging to try to write down all of the experiences I've had this week in 20 minutes. However, I will do my best.

Hah, it's been crazy. First, I got an emergency companion transfer. Her name is Sister Luke. I got her permission to share you her experiences.  Haha here we go: I am still in the same province, Battambang and the same two branches, though. Sister Luke has the rare condition, Narcolepsy. She served in Battambang but in another branch. She has been struggling with the condition and her last companion for a while. It was hard for both of them. But she had requested to transfer in my areas, since they are not 100% in the woods. Hah. It's quite an experience, because she falls asleep when she bikes sometimes and in the lessons as we are teaching people. She can fall asleep and go into this trance-like state any time. It's way scary, but hilarious at the same time. She is such a trooper, though. So whenever we bike, we have to bike side by side and I have to constantly talk to her. The mission has been trying to research for the meds and things look pretty hopeful for her! As long as she takes an hour/ 40 minute..I think she will be Ok. It seems to be working at least.

It's been hard, but God has blessed my companion and I with so many miracles. Heavenly Father has been teaching me more and more everyday how to have charity in this transfer, one of the hardest things I am trying to have. The mission is really changing my life for the better. I get to see a broken family whose father abuses the kids or drinks and never comes home to him diverting into 180 degrees of change. I get to see him come back to church with a clean slate and a happy family. He gave up all the bad things in his life and really now wanted to take care of his family to the best of his ability. I get to see so many more people changed. In my mission, we are not allowed to teach the opposite gender. But it's super cool to see how our visits with his wife and his wife changing and being such a wonderful example. He is now changed because of her examples through Christ.

Another day of miracle happened. It's so crazy. One morning, my comp, a recent convert, and I were so ready to get out and bike to all of the less-active members' houses. None of them wanted to meet us at the time. So as we were riding our bikes back, I passed by a small dirt road that lead to an investigator we always try to visit but she was either in Japan or just never there. It was a miracle as I felt like I had to turn into that small dirt road and saw her outside of her house. As soon as I parked our bikes, I had another feeling to just asked if we could clean her house and wash her dishes for her. She said yes and we went right to work. We spent the entire morning helping her clean her house. She was so sweet and we asked her if we could share her a message. Notice, we had planned for her at all!!! So here we prayerfully and desperately asking for God's help. I thought of the simple yet sweet story of prodigal son, teaching people from the approach that God really is our loving heavenly father. Little did I know that the story completely compelled her to come back to church. She told us how much that parable meant to her. She told us that she has committed some things in her life that she was not so proud of and she felt "disgusted". Her family has been broken for a while. She is a single mom who is holding onto her life as much as she can to make a better life for her son. Repentance has been an emphasis in the mission and is dear to my heart. This is the only way I can ever grow closer to Christ.

I remember in one of my meetings, we were learning about our time in the mission. I remember how excited I was reading the first few paragraphs of the call and stopping my breath to get over the last few. I realize that my time here in the mission is crucial. That I am " expect to devote all of my time and attention to the Lord". The mission at first is very exciting and the drive is fresh. The mission can get very mundane at times, the spark can get weaker. However, every bit that a missionary is, he or she is of Christ. Converting and forgetting or losing yourself more and more of who you are on this earth and the recollection your true identity and who you were in heaven. Obedience and preaching the conditions of salvation, faith and repentance are what I am trying to internalize.
" Behold his mission is given unto him, and it shall not be given again." -D&C 58:16

Sister Sok

Sister Sok and Sister Luke

Sister Sok- a miracle in the jungle

Monday January 9, 2017 at 2:48AM

Hello,

Happy Monday! I hope all is well and that you are all experiencing life to the fullest.

I am doing well and ok, thus far in the mission. There are trials and hardships as expected, however I am growing a lot from the diverse experiences.

One of the experiences:

Some of the people's houses we taught are about an hour- 1 hr and 1/2  of bike ride away from the church and where we live. My companion and I went to an area called "Kompoul Kpous". I remember feeling absolutely exhausted when we got there and almost none of the less-actives and investigators members were there, because they all went to another province to harvest rice. The whole village was quiet. We couldn't really call a lot of them, because they do not own phones. At the end of the day, the sun started to set. The village is basically in the middle of a jungle and not as populated as some of the areas I am used to biking to. Right as soon as we started to leave to bike back home, one of the members, named Lina (who came with us to teach), her bike got a flat tire. I was getting worried because, the area was getting pretty dark and the village was not so safe to bike through at night. I started praying in my heart. We then continued onward and walked our bikes with our member. We saw this old abandoned shack, it's a small bike shop shack. We called the owner, but no one was there. Fortunately, the bike pump was there and Lina used it to pump in sufficient air. We were eager to bike out of the foresty area and get back on the main roads. So we did and made it back home on time and safely. It was such a tender mercy. The lord answers prayers through mysterious ways. Who would have thought a bike pump would be randomly laying around by an abandoned shack in the midst of a forest? Who would have thought?

Sister Sok

Merry Christmas!!!

Sunday December 25, 2016 at 9:55PM

Hi oh my Hi!

Sister Sok here from Battambang, Cambodia! MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I hope all is well and thank you so much for the letters and the wishes! I am definitely not having a white Christmas, but the jungle here absolutely has its own beauty. I am finished with my training and I'm so excited to lead out the 2 branches with my new comp, sister Winder. They both extend all the way to the borders of Thailand, so let's hope I don't lead my companion to another country.

One of our investigators got baptized on Christmas Eve. She is absolutely a light to me. None of her family members wanted her to join the church. She struggled a lot, but just to see that she has given up so much to become the pioneer of her family is inspiring. Sacrifice is sacred.

My mission president told me that Battambang is a hard place. But I do believe that once you really start to love the people, it become part of your heart . It's hard in many ways. One of the hardest things is to see people die and suffer because of the broken families. That's why the Gospel is such a light for them. The Gospel or just the concept of God alone is so revolutionary to them. Who is this Jesus Christ who promises them that they can "live again"  that " someone feels every bit of your pain" " that God is their Father in Heaven" "that your suffering is for blink of eye in comparison to eternity" that "they can start a new life" " that there is more it than this life" "that families can be forever in the eternal perspective".  When they start to be on their path of conversion, it is the brightest thing you can see in people's eyes. Another hard thing is many people here worship statues and their ancestors. They are not ready to let go of their traditions, not because of religious standings but family traditional upbringing, respect the bloodline and such. Battambang is kicking my butt, but once you get to know the people, you just fall in love with them. The experiences are worth the physical and emotional hardship.

We got to harvest rice a few days ago before Christmas. It was exhausting but one of the most wonderful experiences I've had thus far. A lot of the services we have been doing have been building houses and harvesting rice. It's super cool to be harvesting rice the way the Khmer people have been doing since ancient times!

The missionary life is wonderful, it truly does change people. The person I was to the person I am. My companion is teaching me to make real Khmer food. We don't usually eat out due to health issues. We make most of our meals at home. Many of the missionaries here get tapeworms, but we can just take the pills to get rid of them. I have weird things happened to my body, but I am healthy thus far. Anyway, not much time but I love you all!

With gratitude and love,

Sister Sok