Hiiiiiiii !

Happy Christmas Season!!!

This week was so busy and so good!! I dont have a lot of time and no pics (sorry mom), but ill do a quick review!

We went to a christmas party is SMC with a bunch of our inv and members for our stake, and we went to a christmas concert for the entire city made up of a bunch of youth from a couple of the wards, my comps tire popped (created a perfect opportunity to find a new potential), played with cute kids, played hackysack with the youth in the church parking lot, biked in the pouring rain and got soaked, and then proceeded to teach in our dripping wet clothes all over the church floor, made delicious cinnamon muffins, found roti (kinda like a crepe), ate a ton of indian food, went to cold stone, a student from eng class saw us sitting at the chruch waiting for an inv so she went and bought us food, got our legs waxed (actually it was terrible, never try it in cambodia, they might run out of wax halfway through and make you lay there forever while they try to figure out what to do, and talk in khmae thinking you dont actually know what theyre saying-itd make a great memory tho), walked outside and felt cold for the first time since coming to cambodia, found 3 super solid potentials, and of course, taught all day long every day. so so happy!!! 

basically, the gospel is the best. and the happiest. give your heart to god, and you can be happy!! so read your scriptures and come to church!

love you all! have a great week!

Sis Smith

HI 

this week was awesome!! again, of course. dont have a lot of time, but maybe my favorite thing this week was when we went to the psaa (market) and decided to buy baguettes. But because we are buying a weeks supply of bread, we asked for 10. and literally, EVERYONE started talking about it and telling other people. it was hilarious!! 

other than that, our investigators are progressing (so so happy) and we've found a ton of potentials!! Sometimes I just wish I could just baptize everyone so they could be happy! and just help them understand that this is eternal salvation!! 

so basically everything is going well here in cambodia!!. heres a pic of us at church with a bunch of our fav neakmings​​.

Dont forget to study the scriptures every day! have a good week 

love, sis smtih

APPY CHRISTMAS SEASON!!!!!!

christmas is cambodia is INCREDIBLE. basically, its non existent (because they're a buddhist country) but we (missionaries) are spreading Christmas cheer for all to hear. :)

We had a GREAT christmas devo, my koon got up and talked about christ is beautiful khmae, and decorated for christmas (ill attach pics), and saw so many miracles-including a baptism!!

Bong Serei Roth got baptised and it was seriously a miracle. Sunday was crazy, but she showed up, and was SO SO SO SO nervous, but SO SO SO SO happy and excited. and it was so wonderful!! 

sorry, dont have a lot of time this week, but i love you all!!

missions are the best, and they're even better in cambodia

sis smith

pic 1: decorating for christmas

2:our thanksgiving feast (mostly lots of papaya)

3 and 4: Bong Serei Roth baptism!!!

This week was AWESOME!! we got transfer call (im staying the same with my koon), and we went on exchanges to Steng MeanChey (so happy because thats where i was born), and ate thanksgiving (ill attach pics), a member called me super fat (nothing really new-i get called fat and huge all the time), and we had stake conference. So basically, it was another great week here in Cambodia.

And I just wanted to share a quick thought with you all. 

3 Nephi 17 holds some of my most favorite verses. I remember growing up, and as we all do, things happen that hurt us, that cause us to break, and tear, and scar. For a long time, I held those scars too close and tried to cover them up with a whole bunch of different things. What I want to share with all of you today is the healing that can come through Jesus Christ. In 3 Nephi, it says: 

7 Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled  with mercy.
9 And it came to pass that when he had thus spoken, all the multitude, with one accord, did go   forth with their sick and their afflicted, and their lame, and with their blind, and with their dumb,   and with all them that were afflicted in any manner; and he did heal them every one as they were brought forth unto him.
10 And they did all, both they who had been healed and they who were whole, bow down at his   feet, and did worship him; and as many as could come for the multitude did kiss his feet,   insomuch that they did bathe his feet with their tears.

This is the promise i want to share with you all. Truly, through Jesus Christ we are healed. Our scars and hurt that cannot be covered up are made whole through Him. He is the way. He is the only way. So I invite all of you, those who may have never learned, those who are hurting, those who need to be made whole (this includes all of us), to turn to him. Turn everything over to him, and let him heal you. You can feel peace, you can feel happiness and fullfillment, and love again. 


Pics: 1. me and a recent convert, ming sopia. shes incredible! she sells food every day on the side of her house, so shes ALWAYS busy and ALWAYS working but anytime we stop by she always lets us read the bom with her for 15 minutes. she holds my heart because her faith is so strong. 
2+3. random pics of cute kids in my favorite area. this area is so poor, and the people are so humble and so ready to hear the message of the gospel.
4+5 (attachments) this is us on thanksgiving at the senior couples house. basically theyre the best because im pretty sure pumpkin pie never tasted so yummy. also, isnt the top of their apartment building beautiful?!!

LOVE YOU ALL. 

sis smith

This week i just have pics because pics are way better than words anyways. Also i don't have a lot of time today, but i hope you all find time to  eat octopus for me!   Hmmmm, turkey might taste better!  :)  

HI FROM CAMBODIA 

just killed a spider that was running around next to my keyboard and didnt even scream. if that doesnt just sum up everything ive learned in the last 6 months here, im not really sure what does.

This week was truly one of the best. So many wonderful things, and once again, not a lot of time to share all of them!

but one of the best memories is from last pday. we wanted to go explore a wat (the place that buddists go to worship AKA where monks live) so we went to one close to our house, and just started talking to the people there. maybe there was a miscommunication, because he thought we wanted to worship, and i thought he was just taking us to see the different rooms. but we get inside this room, and half of it is filled with statues, and buddas, and food offerings, and he starts lighting the candles, and he gives us incense, and we just sit there for a few minutes pretending that we dont understand that hes telling us to pray. it was way fun.

also, got to attend a wedding! that was cool. weddings here are all out!! they last for days, and are big and beautiful! 

but i think the coolest, happiest, best thing that happened this week was that we had 2 of our inv at church! and they are both so so solid. please pray for bong phana, and bong serei roat. bong serei roat is a referral from a member, and shes incredible. she spent 40 minutes riding around phnom penh trying to find our church but made it eventually and stayed for the full 3 hours! 

this week as we were out contacting, we were exploring some new places in our area. we came across a poom (kind of like a neighborhood), that is some of the poorest places ive ever been here in cambodia. and it was one of those moments where it hit me how much these people hold my heart. we just started talking to them, trying to build a relationship, and the kids follow us around holding our hands, and it fills my heart with so much love, but then breaks it at the same time, because i want so much more for them. 

anyways, basically cambodia is the best. its so happy and warm all the time. 

good luck this week! keep studying the scriptures and coming closer to christ. 

sis smith

hi hi hi

so this week has been INCREDIBLE

i am training! My koon is from america, and she's awesome! This week, we had a ton of our appointments fall through, so we contacted a lot. And seriously, so many miracles. 

One night, we had everyone cancel on us, so we just decided to bike around and talk to people. and i see this guy sitting on the sidewalk next to his car, which has the hood up, and i was like, well, i know nothing about cars but it looks like its broken, so he probably needs help. so we stop, and i ask him if he needs any help, and he starts laughing. and im like, yah, i know im this random white girl-i actually cant do anything to help with your car. the first thing he says to us, in perfect english, is "hey, you're mormons, right?" and im dying inside, because how often do you see a miracle unfold right before your eyes?! anyways, so of course we say, yes we are mormon missionaries! and he says, "i can tell because of your brand", and then he explains further, ÿa know with the bicycles and the helmets and the outfits, and the big hearts" so we keep talking to him, and he tells us that hes already called everyone on his phone, and no one can help him so hes just gonna wait, and "we are truly angels because a million people had already passed him, and we were the only ones that stopped" all i know is that god shows us every day that He is there. He is in all the intricate moments in our lives. He walks with us. and we just have to open our eyes and see Him. 

the gospel is the most wonderful thing. i am so honored to be serving in His name. i promise all that more happiness, more peace, more blessings that you can even imagine are waiting for you as soon as you turn your life to christ. its true, as missionaries, we do not offer money or food or housing. here in cambodia, we see these needs on a daily basis. but what we do offer is of much more worth, and has a much deeper effect than simply feeding someone a meal, or giving someone a bed for the night. what we offer is jesus christ. 2 Ne 26:25  Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price.

have a great week!!

pic: my old camp and i killing comp unity with matching skirts!

Sis Smith

HEY AMERICA

so this week was pretty awesome! a lot of our appointments fell through, so Sis Stratford and I just decided to go contacting. way fun, also way good because God blessed us with a couple new inv that we're super excited about. 

training is going really well, sometimes i dont know whats going on, because khmae is hard and sometimes still sounds like gibberish. but thats the fun part! guessing what people are saying:) basically the missions the best. cambodia is so fun and happy and warm and beautiful. its like the perfect summer day every single day!! 

dont have a lot to share today-it was a pretty typical week:) but wonderful, of course!!

pic 1-4: my and my new comp!

pic 5: my old comp on the way to transfers at the mission home!

pic 6: my sweet inv ming vinnak. we were soaking wet but the work goes on:) 

So this week was crazy. but incredible, as always!! :)

we have this one awesome inv. such an inspiration! she told us this week that shes so busy with work she doesnt eat breakfast or lunch! but she always makes time to meet with us-anytime we ask. i just think that if we could all be a little more like that, putting whats most important first, our lives would fall a little better into place. how often do we make excuses for not staying the full 3 hours at church? or not attending young mens/young womens? are our excuses holding us back from receiving full blessings of the gospel, and from coming to know our savior on a more personal level? i believe as we put Him first, in front of EVERYTHING-even eating-the blessings of the gospel will be ours, and our lives will change. 

right now, we are over 2 wards, one in ToulTomPong, and the other in Chaktamok. Our ward in CTM is just a bunch of neak mings (basically moms). and all i can think about is how in the last gen conf so many people talked about how it will be strong women that will lead the growth in the church in the last days. so watch out CTM!! growth is coming!!

also, we discovered this new wonderful food. (mom-stop reading here) anyways, we make a PB sandwhich, and then we french toast it, and then we cover it in myboy (sweetend condensed milk). and its a heart attack, but so so delicious. 

oh also, we got transfers! so im staying here, and saying goodbye to my koon (shes headed to austrailia in a couple weeks to continue her mission there), and ill be training a new koon! so send lots of prayers my way 

basically, cambodia is the happiest! ill send pics next week!

love sis smith

Hi fam! THis week was another fantastic week here in Cambodia!

Probably the best part was gen conf. im obsessed. like i was excited for it, cause i knew it was gonna be good, but THEY KILLED IT. seriously, every talk was so applicable and so beautiful and basically the gospel is so true. so join:) 

also, the other happiest part of this week was that i went on an exchange with my MTC comp!! We live together, but we never proselite because we have different companions. but for gen conf, since both of our comps are khmae, they watched it together in khmae, and we got to watch it together in english. SO HAPPY. just like in the mtc. also, it was way cool. we got to proselite together and teach lessons, which we havent done together since the mtc. it was super awesome to see how much we both have grown. 

basically, the mission's the happiest. if your thinking about going on a mission, or about investigating the church, take the leap of faith and do it. what do you have to lose? i promise it will be the best decision of your life. 

love you all!

sis smith

HI HI HI FROM CAMBODIA.

ok this week was awesome! its still raining and still flooding! biking is the funnest. pretty sure when i get back to america, ill be a biking professional:) 

probably the best part of this week was when all the sisters in the mission got together and watched womens conference. i am so amazed at the wonderful talks. women are truly so important in gods work. also, how good was sis eubank's talk? SO GOOD.let us continue to invite more and more women to link arms and stand for truth together. also, we started an annual womens conf activity, which i hope will continue to be as amazing as it was this last week. we received a lot of training from the senior couples and our mission president. and ate delicious food:)  also im  STOKED for general conf this upcoming weekend. i know it is truly from god. 

we had a wonderful experience this week in eng class! every week we teach english on wed nights and sat mornings, and we always give a spiritual thought after (to hopefully contact people that want to learn). eng class is usually a super great place to get inv because these are the people that are voluntarily coming after long days of work, that are tired, and often have kids, but want to improve their life, so they are willing to sacrifice to learn. and these are the exact people that want to learn about christ. but for whatever reason, this last transfer, it has felt like our pretty steady stream of inv from eng class dwindled and kinda died. it felt that our spiritual thoughts werent having an effect of these students, and it was pretty discouraging! but this week, when we asked someone to give a closing prayer, this ming that comes every week, doesnt talk, and has never wanted to learn before, volunteered. and she gave the most beautiful prayer! so it was just a reminder that the effort we put in to eng class truly matters, and to not give up, because even if someone didnt used to want to learn, it doesnt mean they dont want to learn now! 

keep studying your scriptures every day!

love sis smith

HEY FAM!!

This week was incredible!!! i dont have a lot of time (again sorry!!) but it was a wonderful week! im learning so much!

this week was a huge holiday, so we spent a lot of time inside reading the scriptures and updating records. it was so awesome! we took Eld Nelsons challenge-reading all the references about Jesus Christ. It was beautiful, learning more about Christ. Also happy because we got to watch a movie!! (The Restoration). 

It was crazy here in Phnom Penh, for the holiday, almost everyone goes back to their hometown, so the city was super quiet, and there was no traffic!!

overall, it was a great week! love you all! keep reading your scriptures!!

sis smith

ps keep praying for ming vinnak! thanks:)

pics: 

1. ft me and my beautiful comp on top of a huge shopping mall

2. same

3 the wonderful sis i live with

4 my mom and i reuniting at the read a thon during the holiday

5 me and my comp riding home from the read a thon (the streets were all flooded)

6 both my moms

7 my second mom during an exchange

8 sis lunsford and i (my mtc comp)

9 another one of my comp:)

Some wonderful person who was visiting Cambodia took this picture of Hannah and sent it to us today.  So fun!

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

I have no time-again. sorry!

but, its been another great week. cambodia is basically the BEST!!!

still getting to know our new area, and on the bright side, we didn't get lost! I'm living in the same house with my MTC comp-so thats a party.

just want to share a couple thoughts real quick. Mos 27:36-37 is such a cool scripture! i know in all of our lives, we are put in places (in areas in our missions or in classes at school, or in houses with roomates, etc) for a reason. its not chance that miracles happen all around us every day. we had a wonderful lesson this week with one of our investigators. i was able to share some personal experiences with her, that connected us together on a deeper level. She had some of the same struggles that i used to have, and i know that one of the reasons i was sent to this area is for her. and i know that all of us, in every phase of our life, are put next to people for a reason. take the time, and the effort to look outside yourself. to find ways to administer to those around you. we truly can become an instrament in the lords hands in other peoples lives!!

i hope you all have a great week!

pls pray for our inv, ming vinnak and that she can get legal documents so she can get baptized:) thanks!!

Love sis smith

When mom asked Hannah how she was "really" doing....

hey so i thought id send you a quick update on me. :)

I love love love Cambodia:) its amazing here! I'm living with my MTC campanion and its basically the happiest, cause she knows me best out of anyone here on the mission. I think God knew that i needed her cause its only been 4 days into the new transfer, and its been the roughest one yet. My comp is khmae and theres just a lot of culture differences we have to get used to. But things are already getting better, so its going to be a good transfer! so living with my companion health is rising:)

Physically, I'm doing super good. I try to eat really healthy, because everything here is made with a ton of oil and rice lolz so ususally i eat just veggies and meat for lunch and i feel amazing!! and of course, a ton of fruit-which is my favorite:):)

Spiritually, I'm, doing really good. I had a really cool exp yesterday at church. About a year ago, i heard this talk about how in order to use the atonement in our lives, we have to break. and i read it at least once a month, and since being on my mission, i read it quite often. as the last couple of days have been rough, i have just focused on the fact that its ok that its hard, its ok to break, its ok to not be the perfect trainer, or to get lost (were whitewashing), and its ok that my comp and i dont agree because all of that allows us to grow and to use the atonement. but sunday was pretty rough, and we were sitting during the sacrament, and i just flipped open my scriptures, and it opened to a scripture in that talk i read all the time about how christ changes our hearts. execkiel 11:19-20. it is definitely one of my favorite talks. it reminded me once again that i truly am graven upon the palm of His hand. and its not going to be easy, changing hearts never is. but he will give us little by little, so that line upon line, our hearts can be changed. so spiritually, everythings going way good. im learning so much about the gospel. before the mission, i never felt adequate to talk about gospel topics, or to teach or to share anything because i didnt understand enough. but now im very confident. my personal study every day is probably my fav part of the day, because i just get to learn and bask in the wonderfullness (this is the closest translation of a word in khmae but i cant think of what else it would be haha) of the gospel. 

emotionally, im doing way good. its incredible to be such an intricate part in the lords work everyday. tp truly help others on their path to true happiness. mom, im so blessed to be here. sometimes, i still pinch myself in awe that god thought i was good enough to come to this tiny corner of the world where people have nothing, and hearts are broken, and miracles-like real straight miracles-happen day to day. it is awe-inspiring. i wish i had to the words to explain the awe i feel about the gospel, and the atonement and the people and the experiences here. 

the language is really hard. im training and whitewashing, which should be fine, cause im training someone who grew up in this language, but whats hard is making up for what she doesnt yet understand about missionary work, when i dont have the language skills. i know more than ever that the gift of tongues is real, but i honestly dont know if ill ever be fluent in this language, past being able to share what i need to about the gospel, which is really hard to begin to realize. because i know as long as i can share the gospel, thats whats important, but i love these people so much i want more than anything to be able to converse easily with them. But this is not an easy language, and i only have 1 more year to learn and share the gospel. so just pray that i will receive a TON of help from God. but it really is going good! and i have learned A TON in the last week as i have had to take the lead. god is truly so good.

Also super stoked for General Conference. Its always one of my favorite times of the year. let me know if the fam needs anything! also soon theres a holiday here, so we will just get to ready scriptures and stay inside all day. which sounds like a dream:)!!! 

So overall, im doing way good!! Im learning so so much and growing a ton. i love you and the fam and am so grateful for the support you always give. 

have a great week!

sis smith

HI FAM

this week was way awesome! i dont have a lot of time (as usual), but i want to share a couple things with you all

first, it rained SO MUCH this week. we were biking and unfortunately the way we needed to go was next to the sewer, but because it rained A TON it flooded, so the street and the sewer was all mixed together, but as a missionary, we just rode though it:) so i may or may not have smelled like sewage for the rest of the day:)

also, im pretty sure i talk about her a lot, but we have this investigator, ming vinnak. shes INCREDIBLE. when we first started meeting her, she would break down a lot because she's had a lot of super rough trials, but now every time we meet her, she laughs and praises god. its wonderful to see how the gospel changes lives. it is the only true path to happiness. 

this gospel is the best!! keep reading your scriptures and praying every day!!

pics: me and my koon (child), me and ming Vinnak (in the red pants), and me and srei mom (another inv in the pink shirt)

love sis smith