The Work is Slowly Moving Forward

Well another week has gone by. The work is progressing, ever so slowly, but it is progressing. Sometimes in missionary work we have to have "spiritual eyes', aka look at the long term perspective. Because sometimes the day to day work feels like you are going no where but in reality you are moving forward. So right now things are going slowly. But don't worry I am still happy and loving things, just things are slow. The biggest ray of light is one of our new investigators. He is a boss. He didn't come to church yesterday, and I am not sure why, but he is still awesome. We met him Thursday and pretty much the whole time he just talked about his faith. He has some things to work on, but we are confident that he will progress. There was a big get together with all his neighbors and they were all telling him to drink and he said, "nope". And he said it killed the mood cause he is the leader of all his friends. He says he prays everyday. He also talked about before that he was hiding and avoiding us and really didn't want to learn, but we persisted. And he was like, "Don't you ever get tired, doing this all day?"  And pretty much just praising us for all the work we do every single day, and all our effort. We meet him at night and once he saw us in the morning proselyting and realized that this is an all day, every day thing. And it was nice to be appreciated, and to see someone truly change their life and repent. It is amazing knowing that if he would have continued on the path he was on he would have had a hard life, and minimal if any happiness between him and his wife. And it was so amazingly awesome just taking our message and our teaching for what it really is. Precious and valuable! Wednesday we had a hard morning. Two investigators right after each other went really bad, and they didn't believe that there was a God and super hard hearted.  One of them prayed and didn't feel anything (cause he has a rock hard heart of unbelief).  So that was hard, but Thursday night we met our good investigator and it just made everything else worth it. We go around giving out free diamonds and most people refuse to take it, or take it and throw it away, it is so awesome to see those who treat it like a diamond. But he isn't married and living with someone, and he said maybe in march or feb they will have enough, so I won't see him get baptized but I don't even care, just knowing that he has changed his life and has faith in God is enough. 

We have another investigator. He was a contact and he said that when he prays he feels happy inside and that his problems are somehow solved. His parents are dead and really wants to see them again. We taught him the pos. And he committed to be baptized on November 23rd. I hope it turns out. So right now he is the closest guy to baptism. 

We have another investigator whose wife has been a member for a year, and has been trying to quit smoking and drinking for about a year, and says he is finally ready to quit, so we are teaching him. He is a little frustrating. But hopefully he can progress.  He came to church yesterday so that is good. 

There are now two old Cambodians ladies who love Elder Asay and me. They were cutting wood and we went and helped them for fifteen minutes, and now they love us. :) They said we can come back and teach them but we will probably give to the sisters cause we can't teach girls. 

Wednesday night there was a devotional we were able to go to. And Elder Snow, the head of church history, and Elder Wong, the first person ever to speak in his native language spoke. It was great. Afterwards he gathered the missionaries together and gave us a pump up talk. They talked about John six, and Jesus said, "Will you also leave me?"  Peter answered, "whom else would we go? " And it is true. Right now I am doing exactly what God wants me to do. "What else compares to this? What else would I do for these two years, that could possible be better than this." 

We are contacting a lot, giving a lot of blessings, and getting about 20 lessons a week. We are teaching a lot of new people, and dropping a lot of new people. 

Edward with Elder Klhot.

Edward's district

Mr. Snake, would you like to hear more?

Trash Mountain area

Many of these homes belong to members of the ward.

The name of Edward's area is called Stung Meanchey which means "River Has Success".

On the way to the Killing Field Museum.

Killing Field Museum

New Companion

"Right now I am surrounded by probably 25 kids playing video games haha. Our bikes broke down and we had to email at another place while our bikes get fixed--a little annoying.  

Well last Friday Elder Khlot ended his mission, and I picked up my trainee. His name is Spencer Asay. He is from Mapleton Utah, so not too far away from our neck of the woods. He graduated from Maple Mountain High School in May 2014. He is tall, a little taller than me. This is the first time I have been shorter than my comp. He played football, outside line backer like me. He is super cool, He already knows the language quite well. I am pretty impressed. I already can tell he is a hard worker, and smart, and humble too, willing to take advice from me. So I am super pumped for these next two transfers. I was really nervous at first, but I am getting more confident, and things are improving! 

Conference was great! I loved it. Can't wait till next time (if you know what I mean... :) ) The church is powerful, awesome and so true! 

We had a investigator whose faith really grew this week. He was doing well before the holiday but when the holiday hit we lost contact with him, and he stopped answering his phone so we worried that he lost interest. But I met with him once again before Elder Khlot left and we read some of Alma 32 with him about what true faith is, and it was a great lesson. Then the next lesson he felt that his prayer was answered, and he was asking us, "So when are you coming back to teach me?" And he was saying that he was going to go to church next week. (yesterday he couldn't go because he had a big project at work.) So that is great. We picked up another potential investigator. On Saturday we taught him the POS, and when we talked about the Atonement, and then baptism, I could see the spirit touch his heart and he got really interested! It was super cool seeing him go from little interest, to really wanting to get baptized. He has never heard of the concept of baptism before but he accepted a date for it. We are planning them both for Nov. 9th. So we are hoping they will continue progressing! "

Edward did not tell us who these people are, but they must be members of his district.

It's nice to see dry land!

Baptism, Waiting Out the Holiday in the Rain

Well, another great week. It was kind of slow because Tues-Thurs was the big holiday so everyone was gone. But still great. Wednesday was zone conference and it was really good. Pres moon talked a lot about faith and other things. He talked about how we are serving the King, the Most High. The King who has power over everything. It was a very cool thought that I am the minister and servant of the most powerful being of the universe! Pretty great.

Elder Khlot and I taught for 15 minutes on how to effectively work with members. It was good. Tomorrow we meet with the president and all the other zone leaders again for October even though it is still September. And the AP's want me to teach how to use time wisely in the context of street contacting.

Yesterday we had a baptism! He has been learning with the elders for about six months or more. But he is now a member of the restored gospel! It was a good service and he was definitely ready for it. 

So we still have a lot of new investigators in the beginning stage and didn't really have a chance to meet them again because of the holiday. But this week we are hoping to meet with them. One of our good investigators wants to stop learning because he has a new job and said he doesn't have enough money to get married to get baptized, but I think he will come around. His job requires him to work out of town for a full month, so hopefully when he comes back he will want to meet again. 

More rain, that is always fun :) 

This Sunday is transfer calls, and it is going to be big. I don't know what is going to happen, but most likely I will train, because there are 30 new missionaries. So we will have a lot of trainers. Last monday we taught the first lesson to the guy I talked about last time, and it was pretty good, but he was very hesitant and didn't seem too excited to keep learning, but we will see what happens.

We recieved some new investigators who are relatives to members, and they all came to church on Sunday, so that was great. Referral investigators are usually so much better--the support system is very important. 

On Saturday, we planned all these lessons and I thought they would all happen. The one guy who was our back-up plan we didn't even plan for because we thought there was no way we could meet met us. We ended up teaching him. It is funny how that happens and he has potential. We taught the plan of salvation, but he believes in reincarnation and the idea of a perfect ressurrection was very new to him, but we just told him he had to pray to know. He agreed to do that. We'll see.

Well not too many stories this week, but it was good. But the Lord is hastening is work, and I feel that Cambodia is about to explode! 

Picking up some fried rice and noodles on the way home for the day.

Yes, more rain.

A partial selfie with some chickens going to market.

Chillin' in the rain. Where's Noah?

Waiting for Noah with Elder Khlot.

Phnom Penh South Zone.

Pchum Ben & Khmer New-Year, But We Continue to March Along...18 Month Mark

So now Phnom Penh is pretty quite, and it will just get more quiet. Everyone went to there homeland for Pchum Ben. That and the Khmer New-Year are the two big holidays and everybody's goes to their homeland to drink, so there you go. I am not sure why everyone have roots in the provinces away from Phnom Penh. The amount of people whose ancestors are actually from Phnom Penh is small. I've asked some people but nobody really gives any good answers, and google is a no-no for me; so, oh well.

This week we taught some more new investigators, some of them seem pretty promising, but now pretty much all our investigators our gone and won't be back until the end of the week, so I hope that we can start meeting with them again, but only time will tell. We are expecting a baptism this Sunday. He has been taught by missionaries for a long time but has never quite felt fully prepared, and it was hard for him to quit drinking. But now he has quit and finally feels ready and wants to get baptized. So that is great. He has a cousin near him that got baptized in June and his aunt is a strong member in Utah so he has a good support system. We are trying to get the rest of his family and his cousins family to learn. So that is great! 

Yesterday was good and bad. We has lesson after lesson fall through, and all the people were contacted showed zero interest. But we kept going and going, and at about 7:45 p.m., right before we were about to go home, we contacted this guy who is super awesome. There was a light in his eye, and he was smart and knows how to think for himself.  He said we could come back and meet him again tonight (mon) at 7. Many of our return appointments are very skeptical, but his I really think will go well. He is one of those people that the spirit will easily touch. 

Last week we started teaching a full family, their interest is very small, but hopefully the spirit will touch their hearts. So right now we have a lot of investigators in the beginning stages, and we have 3 actually progressing or showing signs of progressing. One is someone we contacted a few weeks ago and he is really cool. He really wants to see God, but hasn't and just feels at peace when we pray. We keep telling him that that is his answer! He is busy, but he said he still wants to go to church and get baptized. He is still testing things out, but he's good. :) 

Yesterday we tried to teach these people who were drinking, so we tried to set a time with them again when they weren't drinking and they said, "we drink everyday and we never miss a day." We tried to get them to realize drinking is not good and life has so much more to offer! But they are perfectly okay with drinking and living the way they are until they die. I don't understand how some people are so satisfied with a lowly life. They have no ambition. I wanted to stand up and shout "Arise from the dust! and stop being lame." But sadly people have agency and there is nothing we can do. Just gotta find those righteous, or at least those our desire for a better life. 

But ya that is about it for today, I went on another exchange and friday, it was good, I got some cool pics of his area. 

Our zone got 7 baptisms this week so that was great. 

Phnom Penh

Cooking area & my mudding shoes.

Elder Sok

Downtown Phnom Penh

Phnom Pehn Market Place

Phnom Pen skyline

Teaching & More Rain

This week was pretty good. We are finding and teaching a little bit more each week. 
At the beginning of last transfer we were getting about 2 investigator lessons per week, 
and last week we got 10. So things are going a lot better. We had 7 tell us they would
 go to church on sunday, but only 3 showed up, but that is still pretty good. 

One of our investigators is doing well, but he isn't married so that is a big obstacle, 
and an expensive obstacle. Another is ready he just doesn't feel he has enough desire 
but he finally decided on the 28th, and I am pretty sure that is a solid date. We were 
hoping for three for sept but we will probably only get him, but we are doing good. 
Another investigator couple weren't able to come,  but we are still working on them. 
We brought some good member help last time and I think it helped. They still really 
aren't praying or reading, but I am not giving up. 

So this week we started meeting with a previous investigator again. He is cool and I 
always feel the spirit in his lessons.  I feel like he is an honest seeker of truth. His only 
problem that is dad is a fortune teller and I it seems that he never guesses wrong. So a 
little bit of the only one God problem but he is definitaly developing faith.  Yesterday he 
wasn't able to go to church because he is selling his moto, but I think next week he'll 
make it. Another is good, super busy but he is very honest in heart, and I know that he 
has felt the spirit. (he is the guy that had the dream) We met him again this week. 

So on Thursday it poured buckets!  It was one of the biggest storms ever. And yes mom 
it does flood very often, the drainage systems here are pretty garbage so some streets 
flood only after a little rain. The road in front of our house is super garbage--it is almost 
always flooded. It's flooded even on days it doesn't rain, because it just takes forever to 
drain. But it is cool biking through a flooded street. And yes it is now rainy season.

We went to a recent convert's house and he wasn't there, so we were just chillin there 
waiting for him and we started talking to his neighbor who is about 18ish (while it was 
raining). Sometimes I start speaking English to students because they like practicing 
English and it is a good ice breaker. And eventually I invited him to learn again, he said 
yes and we scheduled on Saturday on 2. We go back and he wasn't there, so that was 
sad. Then we went back to the recent convert's house, and again he wasn't there so we 
started contacting  his other neighbor. She wasn't really interested and while she was 
telling us that she was too busy to learn blah blah blah, out good friend (the recent convert)

came out smiling and beckoned us, like "come on". I immediately said goodbye 

to the uninterested lady and went and taught him. Maybe this doesn't seem super cool, 

but for someone to actually come and beckon us to learn is a awesome thing. And then 

after the lesson about Joseph Smith, he was like, "Well I want to be answered in a 

dream". We explained that is doesn't always work like that and taught him more about the Holy Ghost and he said, "Well, then I want you to come back every week and teach me." We are excited to to that. He took Lesson 1 really well.