Cambodia Did Me In

Sorry for the lack of email last week, this week and last week have been interesting. Little bit hard and super crazy. Let's get into it.

Last last week-okay last week was interesting haha. Someday we don't get out as much as I want to so that can be frustrating, cause I don't feel like we're doing as much as we could be. And I just had a hard time being patient with people around me as well. But we were able to have such an amazing lesson with this one bong. I love her and her family so much. She has a special needs kid and they're so very poor. My heart is always so tender to them. During the lesson, I was able to share why we have so many challenges in this life and how all of them, if we choose, can be for our good. I also think I've shared this before but I'm trying to listen to every general conference talk ever recorded and man that's been such a blesing. They just speak straight facts all the time and it's been amazing to put a couple of really golden ones aside to share with those people in need. I truly do have a testimony that the prophet's words are the words of God! Anyway that's about all for last last week other than Sunday we visited a ton of inactive members with a bunch of other members, which was super nice as well. Oh, also transfers happened and I'm no longer training but I am District Leader which idk how I feel about that yet because I'm still young in the mission haha.

Okay so this last week I did a better job at time management and journaled most days so I'll try to go day by day.

Wednesday

Was pretty hard for me, and I actually know why! I slept on and off through my personal study which wasn't a good idea because I was just "off" the rest of the day. And I was wanting hugs from my family because I miss them super a lot. Yeah just a hard day. But I committed myself to do better the next day and. . .

Thursday

I woke up, had a good personal study, worked out and was all ready for the day-it was awesome! We talked to this guy who had a ton of questions that we all answered but idk if he accepted all of them haha. But anyway the day was going great. Then Elder Phal (my companion) crashed and that threw a wrench in our plans. He got a pretty good scrape on his knee and so we went home and basically he took the rest of the day to rest. I just have been feeling a bit down cause I haven't had a super hard or taxing day in a while.

Friday

Mornings are usually always awesome and start off really good. We also had an amazing lesson with a bong whose house burnt down. He has so much faith and is so incredibly amazing, but he lives in a different area. So, we need to pass him off to other Elders, unfortunately. Super sad about that. But then we had a bunch of lessons fall through and then Elder Phal wanted to come back to the house to use the bathroom but took forever. I will say though, it gave me time to write more emails to people I've been thinking about recently so that's a plus for sure. Anyway, English class used to be one of my favorite times of the week but now people just don't listen and it gets me frustrated, haha.

Saturday 1/25/25

So today we started earlier and went to the church at 8:00 to make a bunch of calls and meet a guy but he never showed up so that was a bummer. Anyway we did get bong Piseth ready to be baptized by having him have a baptismal interview! Super amazing and awesome. That night I also did three baptismal interviews which was definitely an amazing experience. They all spoke English but we still did 90% of it in Khmer so that was hard, but an amazing experience as well. They were all the sisters' teaching friends and all of them were super strong regarding their testimony in Jesus Christ. So amazing! Then later that night I was able to play some volleyball with an inactive member and some of the youth so that was super fun and awesome as well.

Sunday

I was super tired that morning cause I woke up just super hot, but we went to a stake choir and that was super fun and I love singing! Anyways they gave out some sandwich things and soy milk stuff and I think I got food poisoning from it because man, that night was rough. I went to sleep at 10:00 then . .

Yesterday/early this morning 1/26-1/27

I woke up around 12:00am and my stomach was like a balloon. Literally guys, my stomach was so BIG and I had major heart burn. But for the next four hours or more I just rotated from sitting on the toilet to kneeling at the toilet to going to the couch to sleep for 3 minutes and then go back to the bathroom. And in the least gross way possible I want to tell you I lost around 12 pounds. I am just super frustrated because I really wanted to say that I made it through my whole mission without throwing up. And now I can't! Super mad. Also, I was so confident that I could make it because as far as I could remember I hadn't thrown up for like the past 8-ish years. But good old Cambodia did me in 4.5 months in country. Super lame😏. Anyway so much water weight was lost and I was so beat the next day. Luckily it's p-day and I was able to take a 3 hour nap.

Anyway I love all of you guys and I'm thankful for all the relationships I have with each and every one of you!

Until next time!

-Elder Acton