Episode 13: The One with Christmas!

Hello everyone! I hope the holidays are treating you all well.

Christmas here was crazy! Our mission president let us sleep in until 8:00, which was awesome. We then visited members all day because people get cranky and apparently sometimes violent when strangers knock on their doors and interrupt their major national holidays. I think I ate 6 or 7 meals on Christmas, because everyone we visited seemed very concerned about us going hungry. We have a saying here (especially in the Samoan ward) that when you eat with members, you don't eat until you're full, you eat until you hate yourself, unless it's rude to stop, and then you keep going. I thought this was a joke at first, but people get seriously offended if you don't eat their food! We even have people send us plates and boxes home sometimes. But I'm certainly not complaining, because I only have to spend about $15 on groceries every week.

I also got to Skype with my family on Christmas, and that was definitely the best part for me. A member asked us if talking to our families is hard and makes us miss home, but honestly it doesn't. I think that if you are out on your mission because you want to be out on your mission and you love what you're doing (which I do), then talking to your family is just added awesome because you get to share your excitement with them. But, if you hate being out on your mission and you don't want to be here, I can see how talking to your family could definitely make that worse.

I've learned a lot about perspective this week. On Saturday, Sister Humphereys and Sister Johansen were both sick, so Sister Rydalch and I went proselyting together. We were talking to people coming and going at a large central bus stop. We talked to one woman who was very bitter about religion. She said she prays every day, but nothing changes in her life. She said all churches have ever done is try to take her money, and that they never try to help her with her needs. We asked if there was anything we could do to help her out and she said she was short on bus fare, and asked if we could give her some money, which we are not allowed to do. We said we couldn't help her, but that if she ever needed help around her house or in her yard she could call us. She grumbled some swear words, said church people are all the same, and left. About 5 minutes later, as we were walking back to our car, we stopped and talked to a man in a wheelchair. We asked how he was doing, and he said he was having a "blessed day". He wasn't interested in learning from us because he had to catch a bus, but wished us luck in spreading the good word. We asked if there was anything we could do to help him out, and it turns out that he was also short on bus fare, and again we couldn't help him. But instead of grumbling or swearing, he said " I understand. Don't worry, God will provide a way. Have a wonderful day." and he left to catch his bus. Seeing two people with the same problem but such different reactions was really humbling to me. I think sometimes I am the grumbling lady, letting hard things that happen to me make me bitter and looking for someone to blame or take my anger out on. Instead, I want to try to be like the man who trusts that "God will provide a way", and considers every day a blessed day, even when I'm in a wheelchair and short on my bus fair.

The work is a little slow right now. A lot of people like talking to us and acknowledge that our message makes them feel good, but not a lot of people want to change their lifestyle to fit with what they are learning. It makes me kind of sad to see such great potential from such amazing people not really coming to anything, but I'm hope that our interactions are still having a positive impact on their lives. I also know that we are working hard and doing the things we are supposed to be doing, so if we have enough faith and trust in the Lord's timing, we will find people that are willing to change.

I love my job and I love you all. Keep being awesome!

Love,

Sister Lemon

Episode 12: The One about the Members

Hello again everyone! Merry Christmas!

Ok, so this week I want to talk about all the church members here that are so amazing and I already love them all, and because I love you all, I want to tell you about them.

First is the Wheelocks. Brother Wheelock is our Ward Mission Leader, meaning he facilitates missionary work in our area and helps connect the full time missionaries with the local members. He is also kind of a surrogate dad, and I'm not sure if that's part of the job description, or if that's just how he is. He actually reminds me of my dad, but older. He loves baseball and telling stories about anything and everything. He also does funny little dances and likes to help us pull pranks on the other missionaries (nothing bad, of course). His wife, Sister Wheelock, is one of the sweetest ladies ever. She always feeds us goodies and tries to keep Brother Wheelock from telling too many stories and getting off track. The Wheelocks have 11 kids (holy cow!), and one of their daughters, Kaesee, is 14 and goes out knocking with us at least once a week. Talk about an awesome youth! She voluntarily gives up 2 hours in the evening to go out in the cold and rain and knock on strangers doors with us. I could go on about the Wheelocks for days!

Another amazing family is the Bakers. They are both converts to the church, and they absolutely love missionaries. I think it is because they are so grateful that missionaries didn't give up on them, even though they had lots of issues in their lives, and that with the help of the missionaries, they were able to turn their lives around and be happier. We go to their house about once a week for dinner or service, and every time we go there, they take a picture with us and we put it in a photo album they gave us. They love photos. There are pictures all over their walls. They are also really enthusiastic about trying to help us find people to teach. No one in their family has joined the church, but they are trying to convince their kids, grandkids, and other extended family to meet with the members.

I just met a new family this week who had been out of town. They are the Leslies. They have 2 little kids, Garrett and Bailey, who are hilarious! We were talking to them at dinner on Sunday, and Elder Lewis asked Garrett if he had been good enough for Santa to come this year. Garrett looked at him and said "Christmas isn't about Santa, it is about Jesus. We should be good so that Jesus will be proud of us." It was so funny, mostly because it was true, and because a 6 year old was rebuking our District leader! Brother Leslie teaches a senior design class for mechanical engineers at a local university (I can't remember which one). He also makes the most delicious Spanish rice I have ever eaten.

Sister Bartholomew teaches the Sunday School class that we take our Cmbodians to (and then have to translate for them). She served a mission in Hong Kong about 20 years ago, so she knows a lot about Asian culture, and is also supper enthusiastic about sister missionaries. She is really awesome at making sure Taa (our one active Cambodian grandpa) feels included in the discussions, even though he speaks pretty much no English.

Oh, and then there is the Meekers. Brother Meeker was one of the original missionaries in Thailand, and then just this summer they returned from a senior couples mission, also to Thailand! They are awesome at helping us when we have investigators come to church, and because Brother Meeker speaks Thai, he can sometimes communicate a little bit with the Cambodians, which is awesome when it comes to helping them feel welcome.

Well, I could go on about members forever, but maybe you want to know about me. Yesterday was the mission Christmas party, which President and Sister Blatter put together for is. It was way fun, because 200 missionaries is always a recipe for fun. We sang and did skits and all kinds of crazy shenanigans. The missionaries in my mission are really the greatest people ever.

I want to leave you with 2 Nephi 25:26, which says " And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." That verse pretty much speaks for itself, but I have been thinking about it a lot recently, so I thought I would share it with you.

Love you all lots, and I hope you have a joyful Christmas with your families.

Love,

Sister Lemon

This is me and my companion, Sister Humphereys. For some reason we always crack up when people take pictures of us, so they are all a little goofy looking.

This is me with all the missionaries that came in the week after me. I should have come in at the same time as all of them, but Cambodian sisters are a little off from the other missionaries up here, in more ways than one!

This is me with President and Sister Blatter like a week ago. Sorry it's late.

Episode 11: The One with the Miracle Knocking Session

Hello friends! I only have about 20 minutes to write to you all today, so forgive me if this is short, but life is ridiculously busy right now!

Ok, so I want to talk about Sunday. We have church at 9:00, so we got there at 8:40 or so to greet and set up the headsets for translating the meetings into Cambodian. Sister Johansen was speaking in Sacrament meeting, and the four of us were supposed to teach Relief Society. At about 8:50 we get a call from the sisters in the Lincoln Ward, which shares our church building but covers a different geographical area. It turns out that one of the sisters was very sick and could not make it to church, but one of their investigators had gotten baptized the day before and was going to be confirmed (the second part of baptism) in their Sacrament meeting at 11:00, so they really needed to be there for her. So, Sister Johansen stayed to give her talk with a ward member designated to be her companion, and Sister Rydalch drove us to the Lincoln sisters's apartment (you will remember from last week that neither Sister Humphereyes nor I can drive). Sister Humphreyes stayed with the sick companion, I became Sister Peters's companion in the Lincoln ward, and Sister Rydalch went back to our ward to be with Sister Johansen again. In the midst of this, no one was translating for the two Cambodian grandpas who speak no English!

Well, needless to say, I was a little thrown off. I was glad to help put, but I was feeling very frustrated because I had to abandon all of my plans to meet with my investigators to do work in the Lincoln area, and I went to a total of 5 hours of church. I was beginning to feel like it was going to be a wasted day and I wasn't going to get any work done. Then cam our 5-7 knocking hours, which I was just not in the mood for, but I decided to just buck up and deal with it because being grumpy about knocking wasn't going to change anything. Sister Peters picked a street, and we just went for it.

And I cannot believe how amazing the next 2 hours were.

The very first house we knocked on, a lady answered the door with her 5 year old daughter. We started to see if she was interested, and she cut us off. It turns out she had lost her phone and she was panicking about finding it in the dark. She asked if we could call it for her, and of course we did. We then spent a few minutes with our flashlights trying to find it. It eventually turned up, and Jessica (the lady) thanked us. Then the cool part came. She said "you know what's weird? I was just wishing I had someone to call my phone when you showed up. I had been praying to find it, wishing I had a flashlight, and then you showed up with 2 phones and 3 flashlights. Isn't that crazy?" We then spent 45 minutes with her talking about the miracles that Heavenly Father gives us every day, and how He had answered her prayer. She is now scheduled to be baptized on January 2nd, and we never even went in her house!

At this point I was feeling tons better, and everything that hadn't gone my way that day would have been worth it just for that experience with Jessica. But Heavenly Father has promised to bless us beyond our sacrifices, and so the miracles continued.

A few houses later, a woman opened the door who turned out to be a member of our church who hasn't attended in several years because her husband is not a member. We had a great talk with her, and she told us that she thinks it is time her husband learned bout our church. She said he is very open to it, but that his father is a pastor of another religion, and her husband doesn't want to offend his dad by looking into other religions, but she wants to start having the missionaries over to see if he is ready yet. We prayed with her and her 3 sons, and the power of the Spirit was so strong.

Almost to the end of the street, we knocked into a lady named Rebecca who looked like the kind of people who usually yell at us and slam their doors. Think lots of tattoos, facial piercings etc. (I'm sorry for stereotyping, but I learned my lesson). We asked what her experience was with religion, and she told us that when her dad died when she was 7, she started distancing herself from God because she felt angry and betrayed. She rebelled for a long time, but recently, with her kids births, she decided to start building that relationship with God again. She said she had started praying and she reads the Bible every day by herself and every day with her kids. We talked to her about the power of scripture, and about how she can feel that same power while reading the Book of Mormon. She agreed to read it and pray about it, and was really excited that there was more scripture available to her. We also talked about how families can be together forever, and how she will have the chance to see her dad again. She also wants to be baptized, and the Spanish speaking elders are going back to meet with here again tonight.

So, in summary, here is what I learned:
1. Obedience brings blessings and miracles.
2. God answers prayers, and sometimes He will answer them through you.
3. I should not try and guess who is ready for the gospel and who is not.
4. No matter how great my plans for myself are, or how frustrated I might be when my plans get interrupted, God knows what I need and He will put me where I need to be when I need to be there. I just have to trust Him.

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Lemon

Episode 10: The One in Tacoma!

Hello everyone! Sorry it has been so long. I'm sure you are all dying to know about life in Tacoma. From now on (for the foreseeable future at least), I will be emailing on Tuesday or Wednesday because the library isn't open on Monday.

Also, this week has been crazy! My new companion's name is Sister Humpherys. She is almost done with her mission. In fact, this is her last 6 weeks before she goes home. We also live with and share a car with Sister Johansen and Sister Rydalch, who are the other two Cambodian speaking sisters, and who will be my companions after Sister Humphereys goes home. The 4 of us are the only 4 Cambodian speaking sister missionaries outside of Cambodia. Isn't that crazy?! Actually, they should call us bilingual sisters, because we act as the Cambodian speakers for all of Washington, as well as the English speaking sisters for the small area where we go to church. Our day is about half English and half Cmbodian, which is a challenge, but it's tons of fun! We like to teach Cambodian phrases to the English and Spanish missionaries because they think it's funny to try to speak Cambodian and we think it is funny to listen to them. So far they know "baptism, or no?", "dear Heavenly Father", and "clap twice".

In case anyone was wondering, it rains A LOT here. Usually it's a "drizzle" meaning you can't see individual raindrops, but you still get soaked. Yesterday I had on a blazer, a coat, and a raincoat, and I still had wet arms! Luckily, we have a car, but unluckily, neither Sister Humphereys nor I can drive it because you are not allowed to drive your first 6 week or your last 6 weeks. So, Sister Rydalch drops us off in the morning, and we pretty much walk everywhere until she picks us up at night to take us home. It's wet, but we meet a lot of people! We also go out knocking doors from 5:00 to 7:00 every day, which is conveniently when it tends to be the wettest.

We are teaching some really cool people right now. One is named Om (Aunt) Bo. She's 60 years old and she moved here from Cambodia in 1942 After she escaped the Khmer Rouge. Then, while living in Tacoma, she got shot in a drive by through the wall of her house (apparently she lived in a sketchy area at the time), and now she is paralyzed on one side of her body. She likes to tell us lots of stories about living in Cambodia and Vietnam. She says she first learned about Christ when she was trying to escape the Khmer Rouge by fleeing to Vietnam. She stated praying that Jesus Christ would help her get out safely, and she has believed in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ ever since. She also thinks it is super funny that I speak Cambodian. I'm not sure why.

We are also teaching an older man named Al and his mom, who is 90 years old! They live in the cutest little green house with a white picket fence and the warmest fireplace on the face of the planet. We met them while knocking one night, and they are just the nicest people ever. Al loves family history, and has actually done family history work with the church and volunteered at our family history center for 30 years now! They really like to talk with us, and they are so sincere in asking and answering questions. When we teach them I never want to leave.

The ward members here are also amazing. I would try to explain them to you all, but I have neither the time nor the words. So just know that the WA-TAC is the coolest place ever and I absolutely love it here!

I want to end with a scripture. It is 2 Nephi 22:2, which says " Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation." I know that, because of Christ, we can always have the strength we need to make it through whatever life throws at us. A lot of things this week should have scared me (such as literally everyone here has an attack dog and sometimes they just leave them out in their front yards!), but I have put my trust in the Lord, and that makes everything okay, because I know I will make it through all the hard things.

I love you all lots! Pictures are on their way.

Love,

Sister Lemon

This is me on then day I arrived in Tacoma. From left to right: Sister Humphreys, me, Sister Johansen, and Sister Rydalch.

This is my district (plus the APs) at our weekly meeting today. It was our district leader's birthday, so we brought everyone party hats. Also, for some reason, we have the 40th street sign.

Episode 9: The One with Thanksgiving!

Hello everyone! This week has been awesome and crazy, partly because it was my last week in the Missionary Training Center, and partially because of Thanksgiving.

It seems impossible that I have already been here for 9 weeks. In a weird way the MTC has started to feel like home. I'm really going to miss it here (I don't know if I ever thought I would say that!), especially the people. Everyone I have met here is so amazing and I have grown with them and because of them. My district particularly is super close. We like to say we are a big, weird family. It's going to be hard to leave them tomorrow, but I know they are all going to do amazing things in Cambodia, and that there are equally amazing people waiting for me in Tacoma.

Now, Thanksgiving. It was amazing! Elder Oaks, one of the twelve apostles, came and spoke to us in the morning, and his daughter, Jenni Oaks Baker, played the violin (she is a professional violinist with the something-or-other symphony). It was a great way to start the day. Then, we had a thanksgiving meal, with tons of amazing food. They even had eggnog and apple cider, and a Utah favorite, fluff salad. I thought I was going to be disappointed, but the food was actually amazing. Different from what I eat at home, but still delicious. After lunch, because I am in a leadership position, I helped set up for our humanitarian project while the rest of my zone had a discussion of the devotional. We then went to another devotional about the importance of humanitarian work, and how we show gratitude through serving others. After the devotional, we vaccum packed meals for needy children in Utah and some surrounding states with a group called Feeding Children Everywhere. They are really cool organization, and you should look them up. We packed over 357,000 meals, and they had to stop us an hour early because we had used up all the supplies they had brought! It was super fun, and it felt so good to know we wer4e helping so many people. When we were done with the humanitarian project, we helped clean everything up, and then ate sack dinners in our classroom. We then watched the movie "17 Miracles", which I thought was going to be super cheesy, but I actually loved it. Then, to close out the night, we went to a "gratitude tribute", which was a combination of talents, short talks, video clips, and singing. I don;t really know how to explain it, but it was an amazing experience.As we left the auditorium to go home, the ushers gave us all a candy cane to kick off our Christmas season, and all the trees on campus were light up in different kinds of light. It was kind of magical.

Speaking of Christmas, this year's Christmas video clip came out on Sunday, and it is super cool. Here is the link if you haven't seen it yet, or if you have but you want to see it again. Just click the play button right under the words "A Savior is Born"

In other news, I have spent all day packing. It is hard to fit everything I need for 16 months into only 140 lbs (2 50lb suitcases and 1 40 lb carry-on bag). But as i was packing and feeling stressed about making everything fit, and wishing I wasn't limited to 140 lbs, I thought of all the people in the world who don't even have 140 lbs of anything, and here I was complaining that I'm only allowed to bring that much on an airplane. It really changed my attitude, especially because the faces of some of the Cambodians that my teachers taught and my companions will meet came to my mind, and suddenly going with out a few of the things I wanted to take with me didn't seem so hard.

Also, we got our Cambodian script name tags this week! Mine says Sista Lehmin. It's so cool!

These past few days, I have had the song "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" stuck in my head. If you have never heard it, I highly recommend you go to youtube and look up Vocal Point's rendition of it. It is awesome. Anyway, the lyrics are amazing, and are an amazing poem even without the music, but then the melody really brings out certain words and it's just an amazing whole. So, on Friday morning, I analyzed the lyrics as if I were analyzing a poem (because I'm a big nerd and that kind of thing is really fun to me), and I was studying some of the scriptures that the lyrics come from. One of them is Alma 5:26, which says " And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?" The answer of course is yes, and I love that. If you have ever felt joy in your life (which i know you all have), you can feel that joy always, you just have to choose what aspects of life you are going to focus on. Now, I'm not saying life isn't hard, because that would be a ridiculous statement. But I have come to realize over the past several weeks that good things and bad things will both always happen, but the ones that affect us most are the ones we focus on. I can choose to focus on the fact that I'm struggling with reading Cambodian, or i can be excited and grateful that I have the chance to learn such an amazing language and use it to help people. Realizing this has helped me develop a positive attitude, because even though things are hard, life is also an amazing gift.

Well, I have run out of time. i will write you all again next week, this time from Tacoma!

Love,

Sister Lemon

This is my district with one of our teachers, Lokruu (the title for a male teacher) Mickleson. Saturday was his last day of class with us because he got promoted, so after 3 years, we are the last district he will teach. I feel really lucky that I got to learn from him, because he is an amazing teacher and he really cares about all of us. Also, pardon my cheesy grin. I was laughing at something. I don't remember what.

Episode 8: The One with the Flight Plans

Hello everyone!

So, we were supposed to get our flight plans on Friday, and we went at lunch to pick them up. They weren't there. We went after dinner. They still weren't there. We were all very sad, thinking we wouldn't get them until today. But then our district leader got them right before the place closed, and surprised us with them right before we all went back to our residences that night. It was super sneaky of him, but we were all so happy!

Speaking of flight plans, I am flying all by myself because I am the only missionary in any language going anywhere in Washington on Tuesday (as in a week from tomorrow). I never thought I would say this, but it is going to be so weird not having a companion with me for a few hours! I have to report to the travel office at 4:30 A.M., and I will be in Tacoma by 10:00. That's before the rest of my district even reports to the travel office!

This week has been relatively uneventful otherwise. Mostly everything is just the same. But this upcoming week is going to be crazy! We have a bunch of departure meetings, and Thursday is a crazy day because it is Thanksgiving. Actually, I'm really excited for Thanksgiving. We are going to have a traditional Thanksgiving meal, 3 devotionals, a giant service project, and a talent show. It should be really cool!

We taught another Skype lesson this week, and this time we taught 3 people at the same time, and one of them isn't a member of our church! I was really nervous about it, but it went better than I expected, and afterward she told our teachers that she thinks she would like to learn more about our church from the missionaries in Cambodia!

On the language front, this has been a really good week for me. My fluency has gotten a lot better, and I rarely need to use English. I think one day this week my whole district is going to try to go a whole day with no English, which made me really nervous before, but now I feel like I could do it no problem! My pronunciation is not very good right now. but even that is getting better. And I can read without looking at my alphabet! Well, I still need it for some of the letters, but mostly not. This all gives me hope that maybe an actual Cambodian could understand me. Yay!

I want to leave you with a thought from John 4:18, which says "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear". I have been thinking about this scripture a lot this week because there are lots of things about leaving the MTC and heading out into the real world that scare me. But I know that there is nothing to be scared of when we have our Heavenly Father on our side. He loves each of us perfectly, and therefore will not let anything happen to us that we cannot handle.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Love,

Sister Lemon

Episode 7: The One with the Snow!

Hi everyone! It snowed all morning here and I am super happy about it! I'll send you pictures of it after this.

This week we taught a lesson via Skype to someone actually in Cambodia! Her name is Somaly, and she was super nice. I was super nervous about it, but it went really well, and now I am a lot less nervous about teaching real people rather than role plays! I'm also feeling both more confident and more lacking in my Cambodian language all at once, which is weird, but motivational.

In other news, I get my flight plans this Friday! it seems so crazy that I leave the MTC in 2 weeks. I started feeling like I was never going to leave. I love the MTC and the people here, but I am so excited to get to Tacoma and teach real people!

I sang in church yesterday. I was shaking the whole time because I was so nervous! But I think it went OK. The number is called "His Hands" by Kenneth Cope, and it is super beautiful. If you have never heard it, you should look it up. The lyrics are amazing.

I have started working on free throws every morning during gym time, and on Friday I made 20 in half an hour. That is not really important, but I thought you all might like to know.

We had the chance to do a new missionary orientation for some English speaking missionaries this Wednesday. It was really cool to have a glimpse back to my first day 6.5 weeks ago and see how much I have learned and grown since then. It was a very unique experience, and it really helped me appreciate that all my hard work is actually paying off.

This week in choir we sang "Nearer My God to Thee", and it was so powerful! Did you know that hymn tells the story of Jacob wandering in the desert as he is running away from Esaw who is trying to kill him? If you listen to it with that story in mind, it takes on a whole new layer of meaning. For example, it says "darkness be over me, my rest a stone", which I always assumed meant the singer was sleeping very soundly, but what it really refers to is Jacob sleeping in the desert with a rock as a pillow.

My favorite line from "Nearer My God to Thee" says "So by my woes to be, Nearer my God to Thee", which I absolutely love! I wan't to be the kind of person who uses my hard times to grow closer to my Heavenly Father rather than make me bitter or sad.

I want to leave you with a scripture from John 13:17. It says "If ye know these things, happy are ye if you do them". I have been thinking a lot this week about how to go from someone who knows a lot about the gospel to someone who shows they know a lot about the gospel through their actions.

Well, that is all for this week! stay warm everyone.

Love,

Sister Lemon

My district in the snow!

Look how beautiful the temple is in the snow!

This is my companionship playing in the snow this morning. It really was snowing. I don't know why you can't see it in this picture.

Is this artsy or boring?

Episode 6: The One with the Dairy Allergy

Hello everyone!

This week has been great!

To start out, I have discovered I am allergic to dairy. I was feeling sick after most meals, and I couldn't figure out why. I figured it must just be that the food was heavier than I am used to. Then, last Sunday, I threw up everything I ate, which was a little unfortunate, but I decided I needed to figure out what the problem was. After some experimenting, I have discovered that it is dairy. I'm ok if I have a little cheese or ranch, or if it is cooked into something, but milk, ice cream, or cream based soups are a problem. But the MTC has 3 different kinds of non-dairy milk available for me and non-dairy ice cream that is super delicious, too! And I feel a lot healthier and happier, which is what is really important.

It snowed for the first time since I have been here this week! It was just a little bit, and none of it stuck, but it still made me really happy. The weather here is beautiful and fall-y, but the buildings are always freezing! I bring a coat to wear during class and then take it off when I go outside!

Also, for those of you who know about my Cambodian scripture case, I met the girl who gave it to me this week! For those of you who don't know, I met a girl on an online advice site who gave me lots of advice about the Cambodian language, and sent me a Cambodian scripture case because I won;t have the opportunity to get one. It was really awesome to meet her and to be able to thank her in person.

Now for the funny story of the week. I was teaching a lesson on repentance, and I was talking about how repentance has two parts: praying for forgiveness and help from our Heavenly Father, and changing our actions and desires to be better. I was really into it and feeling really good about it, but when I finished my thought, the person had this super confused look on his face. Sister Pace asked if he head a question, and he said "repentance has two what"? Long story short, I told him repentance has two stars. I clarified "not stars! Parts! Repentance has two PARTS!" We laughed about it, but then he said he understood and it makes sense to him.

My biggest takeaway this week has been that life is all about the attitude you face it with. My district all has an amazing outlook on life and a desire to grow and become better, rather than complain or get discouraged. It is amazing to see how far that outlook takes us.

I want to leave you with a quote from Tuesday's devotional by Elder Richard J. Maynes. He said"keep your faith higher than your fear". I love that! It is ok to have fears or worries, as long as you don't let them overwhelm your hope. Life isn't easy, but we always have our loving Heavenly father on our side, and with His help, we can do anything. Therefore, our faith should always be higher than our fear.

I love you all! Have a wonderful Monday!

Love,

Sister Lemon

P.S. This is all the sisters in my district in our Halloween costumes. The first is us dressed up like each other, and the second is us in our own clothes so you can compare and see what a great job we did!

Episode 5: The One with the Apostle

Hi friends!

Wow, this week has been amazing! First of all, an apostle came to the MTC!! Tuesday devotional was given by Elder Neil L. Anderson. He spoke on overcoming adversity and finding deliverance through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He said to think "opposition isn't going anywhere, am I?" I love that! Life is always going to have struggles, but we can always choose to let it hit us, or to fight back.

Also this week my companions and I were asked to serve as the Sister Training Leaders for our zone. This is an assignment similar to being an RA at college. We each meet with one third of the sisters once a week to see how they are doing and to help them resolve any concerns they have. We also do an orientation for new sisters on their first day, among some other things. And we go to lots of leadership trainings on Sundays! We work with the other Cambodian sisters, as well as the Cantonese and Thai sisters. It's a lot of work, but I am so excited for this opportunity to serve these sisters. They are amazing!

In fun Cambodian language tidbits, this week I learned the word for twins. it literally translates to "two of the same child", which sounds pretty accurate to me! I just think it would be super funny to say "he gave birth to two of the same kid" or "they look so similar, they could be two of the same kid".

Every Saturday we do an activity called Teaching Resource Center, or TRC, where we meet with returned missionaries that have come back from Cambodian missions, and we talk with them (in Cambodian) about the gospel and their experiences with it. In the past, we have only met with missionaries who served in Cambodia, but this week my companionship met with two volunteers who both served in Boston speaking Cambodian! It was really cool for me, because that is literally the first time I have talked to anyone who was or is Cambodian speaking in somewhere other than Cambodia. And they were both really good at the language, which gave me a lot of hope that I will improve even without full immersion.

In other random thoughts, I tried a persimmon this week. It tasted like a cinnamon peach kind of. i liked it a lot, which is good because apparently Cambodians eat a lot of them. When i get back from my mission, I may only be able to get my new favorite foods at Asian markets!

Also, for halloween, my district all dressed up as eachother, and it was really funny, but for some reason i don't have the pictures yet, so I will send them next week!

To close, I want to share a thought from one of my excellent teachers. We were talking about a particular person we are role play teaching, whose name is Radii. He doesn't have a job or a family, ad he's really sad. The one thing that makes him happy is his friend who is a member of our church. We were getting stuck with how to show him that the gospel can help him be happy. Our teacher asked if we had asked him to pray for help finding a job. We said we had taught him how to pray, but hadn't told him specifically what to pray for. Our teacher said "If Radii finds a job now, he will have received a job. If he prays for a job and finds a job, he has received a miracle. The miracle isn't the outcome, it's the faith that leads to the outcome." Heavenly Father wants to give us miracles, not just experiences. I know that God will bless us whether we pray or not, but that if we pray, he will show us miracles.

I love you all, and I hope to hear from you soon!

Love,

Sister Lemon

Week 4: The One with the Head-butt Sneeze

Hello everyone! can you believe that this week, I will have been in the MTC for a whole month?!

To begin, let me explain this week's title. One day, I was walking through the hall to class after lunch and it was pretty crowded because everyone was trying to get to their various classrooms. Suddenly, I had this huge sneeze, and I turned my head so as not to rudely sneeze on my companion. Well, in the process of trying not to get her sick, I ended up headbutting some random elder in the elbow, and got a little goose egg on my head! How unfortunately unlikely is that? I apologized profusely, and then busted up laughing.

This week we worked on reading a lot, and it is super fun. Our teachers also explained to us why we have to learn to read Cambodian, because most of the Asian languages don't have to. However, as some of you may know, after the Vietnam war, Cambodia was ruled by the Khmer Ruge, which was basically communist to the extreme, and they wouldn't let anyone go to school. Everyone just had to work in the rice fields all day. They Cambodian people get to go to school now, but a lot of the older generation never got that opportunity, and therefore they don't know how to read. So, any scriptures we want then to know, we have to read for them. I think this helped us all get more excited about reading because we are doing it for others who cannot do it for themselves. Actually, in that way, it is kind of like Jesus Christ's Atonement, because He overcame death and sin for us, which we could never do for ourselves.

Also in Cambodian culture news, I learned this week that "rice" and "food" are basically synonymous in ever day use. One of the first questions you ask when you greet someone is "have you eaten rice yet today?" because if they've eaten food, you can assume at least some of it was rice. The exception is white people. They assume all white people are French, and that French people love bread, so the question to a white person is "have you eaten bread yet today?". Apparently they think it's really funny, and they laugh when the white people say yes.

Other than that, I don't have a lot to say this week. I feel like everything is starting to get pretty routine (finally!). Everything is still amazing here. I grow closer to my companions, my district, and my Savior every day. Some days are hard, but I have such amazing teachers and friends here, that I never go to bed frustrated. Basically I'm just super happy and I'm loving my mission!

I want to leave you with a thought from choir this past Tuesday. We were singing a number called "I Feel My Savior's Love", and the choir director (who is AMAZING at both music and telling engaging stories) brought in this little girl who is one of his voice students. She is 8 years old, and just got baptized, and she is adorable! She sang us a song, and we were all infatuated with how cute and innocent she looked. Then the choir director said something along these lines: we all believe that God loves Mia (this little girl). It isn't hard to believe that, because we all already love Mia, and we just met her 5 minutes ago. She looks so pure and adorable, how could we not love her? Remember, that is how your Heavenly Father views you. He sees you as one of His little children. Compared to him, you have so little experience, and you are so innocent and cute. God loves you, even when you have a hard time loving you.

I just loved that, so I thought I would share it with you all.

Anyway, that is all I have to say this week. I hope everything is going well for all of you, and I will write you again next week! Until then,

Love,

Sister Lemon

This is all of my district's name tags. We thought this picture was "creative".

This is my district with Brother and Sister Moon, who used to be the presidents of the Cambodia mission, and are now our leaders at the MTC.

This is my district this morning, featuring the temple and the Cambodian flag.

This is our weekly Smatching Smunday picture. I think this one was the best one yet, even if I had to wer Sister Nguyen's skirt! I am wearing polka dots, too, they are just in my hair.

Episode 3: The One with the Football Devotional

Hello friends! It is Monday once again, which means it is time for my weekly update!

Yesterday was Sunday, which means we have a speaker come for a devotional. Basically cool people come here twice a week and share an uplifting or motivating message with is. They are always amazing, but yesterday's was really cool because my companion, Sister Pace, was asked to give the opening prayer, so we got to sit up on the stage with the speakers. It was cool to be so close to them. The three people who spoke were Chad Lewis (a former NFL tight end and the NFL ambassador to China), Taysom Hill (the BYU quarterback who apparently everyone loves), and Steve Young's nephew (who is in the MTC right now learning Mandarin and preparing to serve in Australia!). I have therefore dubbed this the football devotional. Now, if you now me well, which you all do, you probably know how clueless I am about football. I was therefore a little disappointed to find out that the speakers were all football players, but they were actually super cool! I don't have time to tell you everything that they said, which was all amazing, but I will share with you this thought: There are going to be hard things in your life no matter what. There is nothing you can do to change that. What you can do is decide how to respond to hardships and what kind of attitude you will have through it all. I feel like I've heard that about a billion times, but it has so much more impact when a pro football player is telling you about the time when he hiked Mt. Kilimanjaro with a man who had lost his leg in the Afghanistan war, and the attitude this man had.

In other news, my companions and I taught Relief Society (a Sunday school class for women) yesterday. Our adult leader was super impressed and told us it was the best Relief Society lesson she has ever been to in the MTC! She was either just being nice, or Heavenly Father taught her directly, because I don't feel like we really taught anything so much as just learned from everyone's comments. It was a great experience for me.

Now for a funny story! Most of our time here is spent preparing and practicing to teach in Cambodian. One of the ways we do this is by role playing, in which our teachers act as people that they taught on their missions, and we practice teaching them each day. This week, I was trying to encourage one of the people we were practicing teaching. He said he felt like he wasn't good enough at praying and sometimes he felt embarrassed about it. I was trying to say "we aren't perfect at teaching in Cambodian, and you aren't perfect at praying, but if we just keep trying, God will help us get better ". What I actually ended up saying was "we aren't perfect, but you are", and then I realized my mistake, and in trying to correct it, I said "wait, no you're not. You're not good at praying". Oh, man! I felt so silly. Luckily, he was very understanding, and he said he understood what I meant to say, and that my mistake actually made him feel better about not being perfect. So I guess it was an inspired goof!

I can also read some Cambodian now! It takes me a really long time, and I have to check my alphabet chart pretty frequently, but I'm working on it! Maybe by my next update, I'll be able to read whole sentences! I can only hope.

Well, that is all for this week! You guys are the best, and it means a lot to me that I have all your support. What an amazing life I am blessed with!

Love,

Sister Lemon

This is me and Sister Curtis, my room mate from BYU! She got here on Wednesday.

Smatching Smunday

Here are our Smatching Smunday pictures, guest starring Sister Brown, who also accidentally wore orange and white with us!

The Cambodians and the Vietnamese on our temple walk. Elder Phan died.

This is the "silly" version. Elder Phan disappeared.

Pictures from Week 2

Hello everyone! I have now been at the MTC for 12 days. Sometimes it feels like it has already been 12 weeks, and sometimes it feels like it hasn't even been 12 hours. It's crazy and fun and I love it! Also, just a warning, but this email will not be any particular order, because I have a lot I want to tell you all about, but i can't remember what order it happened in!

First of all, the ambassador's visit last week was pretty anticlimactic. He was just a really nice little Vietnamese guy, and he just asked us where we were all from and then left. I think he spent more time with the two elders learning Vietnamese. Also, if you were hoping to see a picture of me with the ambassador, no such luck, because it didn't happen. But I have lots of other great pictures coming your way, so fear not, you will see my pretty face later today!

As for the title of this email, here is the story:

A few days a go I wore rain boots to class because they're really cute, even though it wasn't raining. They're black ankle rain boots with a big white bow on the front, which I promise is important to the story. That evening, one of the Elders who is going to Cambodia Vietnamese speaking said my shoes looked like something you could eat! "They're like black licorice or gummy bears for your feet" is what he told me. He is from New Zealand, and apparently rain boots look different there.

My district played basketball together during Saturday gym time, and it was so fun! I was afraid I would embarrass myself because, as you probably know, I'm not very athletically inclined. But my district is awesome and they were all super supportive of me, even though I broke the rules like 5 times and I made an illegal shot that they let me count anyway (kind of. We aren't allowed to keep score in the MTC.) This probably sounds insignificant, but it just really made me feel so happy and loved.

My district also all went to choir yesterday, and it was amazing. We were all kind of hesitant to do it because we had to miss an hour of our studying time, but we decided just to try it out, and it was definitely worth it. The choir director is an amazing storyteller, and he teaches us a lot about the gospel as he explains how he wants us to sing what we are singing, The number we are practicing right now is beautiful as well, so it was a great use of an hour.

I also taught my district's Sunday school lesson yesterday, which was a little bit scary because I didn't know about it until yesterday morning, and I had to teach the same afternoon! But my district always has awesome discussions, so it went really well despite my lack of preparation.

In Cambodian Language news, we started learning how to read script on Saturday! The alphabet has 74 letters, and I don't have them even close to memorized yet, but I'm working on it! Cambodian script also isn't read side to side, it's read in loops! The main consonant is in the middle of the word, and then the other consonants and vowels go around it. But it looks way cool, so I'm excited to get better at it.

I want to end with a scripture that has really stuck with me this week, and I think just embodies missionary work and my experience here really well. It is Alma 26:12, which I cannot quote exactly, but it says basically that in our strength we are weak, but with God's strength we can do anything, and that is why we can even hope to be successful missionaries (or parents or students or anything else). You should look it up because it is excellent.

I hope you have a wonderful week, and look forward to pictures shortly!

Love,

Sister Lemon

Episode 2: The One with the Gummy Boots

Hello everyone! I have now been at the MTC for 12 days. Sometimes it feels like it has already been 12 weeks, and sometimes it feels like it hasn't even been 12 hours. It's crazy and fun and I love it! Also, just a warning, but this email will not be any particular order, because I have a lot I want to tell you all about, but i can't remember what order it happened in!

First of all, the ambassador's visit last week was pretty anticlimactic. He was just a really nice little Vietnamese guy, and he just asked us where we were all from and then left. I think he spent more time with the two elders learning Vietnamese. Also, if you were hoping to see a picture of me with the ambassador, no such luck, because it didn't happen. But I have lots of other great pictures coming your way, so fear not, you will see my pretty face later today!

As for the title of this email, here is the story:

A few days a go I wore rain boots to class because they're really cute, even though it wasn't raining. They're black ankle rain boots with a big white bow on the front, which I promise is important to the story. That evening, one of the Elders who is going to Cambodia Vietnamese speaking said my shoes looked like something you could eat! "They're like black licorice or gummy bears for your feet" is what he told me. He is from New Zealand, and apparently rain boots look different there.

My district played basketball together during Saturday gym time, and it was so fun! I was afraid I would embarrass myself because, as you probably know, I'm not very athletically inclined. But my district is awesome and they were all super supportive of me, even though I broke the rules like 5 times and I made an illegal shot that they let me count anyway (kind of. We aren't allowed to keep score in the MTC.) This probably sounds insignificant, but it just really made me feel so happy and loved.

My district also all went to choir yesterday, and it was amazing. We were all kind of hesitant to do it because we had to miss an hour of our studying time, but we decided just to try it out, and it was definitely worth it. The choir director is an amazing storyteller, and he teaches us a lot about the gospel as he explains how he wants us to sing what we are singing, The number we are practicing right now is beautiful as well, so it was a great use of an hour.

I also taught my district's Sunday school lesson yesterday, which was a little bit scary because I didn't know about it until yesterday morning, and I had to teach the same afternoon! But my district always has awesome discussions, so it went really well despite my lack of preparation.

In Cambodian Language news, we started learning how to read script on Saturday! The alphabet has 74 letters, and I don't have them even close to memorized yet, but I'm working on it! Cambodian script also isn't read side to side, it's read in loops! The main consonant is in the middle of the word, and then the other consonants and vowels go around it. But it looks way cool, so I'm excited to get better at it.

I want to end with a scripture that has really stuck with me this week, and I think just embodies missionary work and my experience here really well. It is Alma 26:12, which I cannot quote exactly, but it says basically that in our strength we are weak, but with God's strength we can do anything, and that is why we can even hope to be successful missionaries (or parents or students or anything else). You should look it up because it is excellent.

I hope you have a wonderful week, and look forward to pictures shortly!

Love,

Sister Lemon

A selfie of my district and the two Vietnamese speaking elders on our temple walk yesterday, thanks to Sister Nguyen's selfie stick.

Smatching Smonday

Me and Sister Pace being goofy

My nametag and the temple

The temple in the sunshine

Our district at the temple with Brother Seow, on of our adult leaders (not the Vietnamese ambassador). He is very cool, very wise, and very Asian!

Pictures from Week 1

elders in the district

district at the temple

sisters in the district

studying

Hi everybody!

I have reached my fist planning day here at the MTC, and therefore my first opportunity to email you all.

I love it here! My experience so far has been nothing but positive. At the end of every day, We spend 15 minutes reflecting on our day, and every day I just feel so happy and grateful and full of joy at the amazing opportunity and experience this is.

I am lucky enough to have TWO companions, not Just one. Sister Pace and Sister Clark are awesome, and I'm so glad I get to spend all day every day with them. I'm still getting used to having to take 2 people with me everywhere I go, but they're so great to be around, that I don't even mind

I also have an amazing district (class). There are 4 elders ad 7 sisters, which is actually pretty huge compared to most other districts. Everyone in my district is going to Cambodia except for me, which is funny because whenever anyone asks us "where are you all going", someone answers for the group with "we are all going to Cambodia", and then I say "Except for me! I'm speaking Cambodian in Tacoma!"

Speaking of Cambodian, I am loving learning this language! Its very different from the other languages I've learned because the constructions are actually very simple, but the vocabulary and pronunciation is hard. But I definitely feel hopeful about my learning. I can already pray and bear my testimony, and we taught a (very short) role play lesson completely in Cambodian on our third day here! I know that Heavenly Father is helping us, because what we have done during our time here would be IMPOSSIBLE without Him. We are also a real support for each other as we learn together and help each other.

We have a really special event later today. The ambassador from Vietnam is coming to observe our district and decide whether to open Vietnam to missionaries! Right now only Vietnamese people can go into Vietnam as missionaries, but they are considering changing that, and this visit is going to help influence that decision. No pressure! A staff member is going to take a picture of us with the ambassador, so I will get to send that to you all next week.

Speaking of pictures, I promise I have some, but I have to send them in a separate email, so look forward to those shortly.

Also, my trio lives with 2 sisters who are going to Hong Kong, which is really cool because we get to hear them speak in Cantonese sometimes. They also like listening to us try to speak Cambodian.

The MTC has also unlocked in me a love for salads! I know that probably comes as a surprise to some of you, but the salads here are DELICIOUS!! Pretty much all I eat is soup, salads, and fruit, and it's awesome.

Well, I know I kinda jumped around there, but I just have so much to say and I'm so excited to share everything with you all. In summary, I love the MTC, the gospel is awesome, and I will send pictures shortly.

Love,

Sister Lemon

P.S. I would love to hear from you all! You can email me at this address, and I will check it (and respond!) every Monday. Or, while I am in the MTC, you can use DearElder.com to contact me. This is really cool because it is free, and they actually print your messages out and give physical copies every day! All you have to do is go to DearElder.com, select "write a missionary", and then follow the steps. Info you will need is:

My Mission: Provo MTC

My Unit Number: 261

My Departure Date: DEC01

Mission Code WA-TAC

I hope to hear from you soon!

Mission Map

I have been asked a lot of questions about what part of Washington my mission will cover. This map shows where I will be serving for the next 18 months. I cannot wait to share the gospel with the Cambodian people who live here!