A Baptism & A Week In Pictures

View over Ta Khmau from the building where Edward teaches a weekly English class.

The recently baptized member with her younger brother.

Baptism

A farmer's home outside of the city.

A leader in the branch.

A leader in the branch.

Doing service at the Killing Fields Museum.

President and Sister Moon and two of their daughters at the mission Christmas program.

The main street in Ta Khmau.

This was taken from outside the front door of Edward's apartment. Six missionaries live here.

A residential street in Ta Khmau.

On a boat in search of an investigators home.

A typical street Edward visits while proselyting.

Christmas Day Skype

Screen shot of our Skype episode.

Because of Christmas coming in the middle of the week Edward did not email, but we talked with him on Skype that evening. It was great to hear his voice and see him. He is doing fantastic and is expecting a baptism soon. He is feeling very comfortable with the language. In fact it seems odd to him that there was a time that all those Khmer squiggly marks had no meaning.  He is eating well and is healthy. We could not be more pleased with his service in Cambodia.

Branch Christmas Party (Sorry No Photos)

Well another week has gone by in good ol' Cambodia. This was a pretty good week, ups and downs like always but good. Sat was the branch Christmas celebration we were at the church all day cause E. Brittain was helping everyone with their Christmas skits, because he is amazing at the piano. The Christmas party was fun, a lot of people came. Two less actives we have been working with came, didn't come to church yesterday, but I was still happy to see them come to the party. Around 7:00 there was a dance.  At the beginning there was this really scary rap music playing, and I was hating it, finally I asked the branch pres, "do you like this?" he said, "honestly no, do you?" I said, "not at all".  Then without saying anything else the branch president went to the dj's and told them to play less scary music. I felt it was the Emperors New Clothes, nobody liked it, but nobody wanted to say anything. 

Investigator update: 

 A new investigator is amazing! He said he has wanted to join for a long time, but he has never had the courage to ask anybody, but he finally did. We taught him and he accepted baptism. He said that a new life has come into his life and that he used to get mad really easy and now he doesn't. He is seriously the perfect investigator. Every time we teach him a principle he says, "what do I need to do to apply this in my life."After we taught him the Atonement he said, "how can I show my appreciation for this." It is incredible. 

Another investigator is also incredible, she is getting baptized next week. So we hand out a lot of pamphlets with our number on them about the restoration, and her little brother got a hold of one, and told her about it. And she became interested and called us! And just to let you know, that seriously never happens, when they actually call us. And she said she prayed really hard to know if God was really there, and then two days later we showed up. Pretty cool.

Another young man and young woman 25, 27 didn't come to church this week :( But they came to the Christmas party and brought five of their friends! 

Another, 24, is new after about 6 weeks of trying to meet, we finally met him, taught him the first lesson, and committed him to baptism, he accepted! It was an awesome lesson. He was super interested in the Joseph Smith part, because he told us he wondered why there were so many Christian churches. But he didn't come to church :( but next week hopefully. 

Love you all so much! Merry Christmas!

Love, Edward

"Winter" in Cambodia

Well first off, Merry Christmas! I can't believe it is snowing in Utah, that is sooo crazy!  Last night biking home after our last appointment it was one my coldest moments in Cambodia, and it felt like a cool late August early September evening probably around 65 degrees or so, and all the natives were freezing, it felt nice. The weather the last couple of weeks has been really nice, still hot, but not blasting hot. 

This week has been great. Elder Brittain and I just get along great. And this week we taught at two new English classes. The first one is professional and we teach for an hour and at the end can give about a 10 minute spiritual thought. We told about Joseph Smith and asked if anyone wanted a Book of Mormon, and 6 people raised their hand, we were about to get some of their info but the teacher said we couldn't. So next time we will just write our number on the board and and tell people to call it. But we have another English class we went to, it is actually a cool story. So we were escorting a member home after helping us in a lesson, and afterwards we stopped to contact this lady before heading home, but while I was contacting her, another guy who was a former investigator came and talked to E. Brittain, and said he wants us to teach at his English class at his house and we could share "the news from the Gods". So the next day we did, and about 7 of them really were interested. We went again, and the number went down to about 4 interested. But that is still great. And we taught two of them yesterday and they accepted baptism and  came to church for all three hours, so I think they are the only ones really interested, but that is still great. Two new investigators. 

Public Transportation

Family Home Evening

Elder Brittain, on the way to an investigator's house.

Baptism, Thanksgiving, Too Hot for Christmas

"Yesterday we had two baptisms!  Testimony after the baptism was good. He said that his sins are now washed away, and that he knows he is supposed to follow the commandments for the rest of his life."

"Thanksgiving in Cambodia was fun! Every Thursday morning we do weekly planning, so we just did that then went to eat at the senior couples. They had ham sandwiches, jello and coleslaw, it was very yummy. We all shared what we were grateful for that we didn't realize we had gratitude for, but since coming on the mission we do. And I shared my awesome family! Obvious I was grateful before I just didn't realize how much I love you all so much!"

"Afterwards we just went out proselyting again, it honestly felt like a normal day. That night we shared the First Vision with a bunch of slightly drunk dudes who offered us beer. We denied but they kept offering then I said, actually we teach people not to drink beer, so then they gave us 7Up instead. But after we shared a little about Jesus and Joseph Smith they said we could come back a later day and share more, but not sure; they were a little drunk."
"What is going on? My mind is so confused! Why is it so hot in Dec? For me it still feels like July!  And actually Dec is like the coolest month, haha." 

Thanksgiving Day, 2013