Staying in Ta Khmau

We got three new investigators this week, so that is great. I am not sure how interested they really are, but we will find out. Right now we only have 2 firm, solid investigators. One is a 50ish year old man, the rest of his family are members, who are kind of inactive and he has started to learn. He is super awesome, but it is hard to get him to church. The other is an 11 year old girl in a family who are already members. If the family are members the kid can get baptized at 8 without learning with the missionaries. But if they wait until later, then they have to be taught my the full-time missionaries. One investigator who is really interested, but isn't sure she wants to give up Buddhism. I like teaching her. I really feel she will get baptized, she is truly interested and willing to learn, and asked a lot of questions. And I really feel like she will pray and get a testimony, but who knows. But when we taught her the restoration, I had a, "I love being a missionary" moment. It was an awesome lesson. Really being a missionary is awesome. 

Along the banks of the Mekong River.

No changes, Fish eyes, and Fishing.

So transfer calls were yesterday and.... everything is the same; no changes.  

This week was good. We started teaching a former investigator and she is really interested. And we had 100 people at church yesterday which is great! So the branch is doing well. It feels like I just got to Ta Khmau but, it has already been six weeks. Nuts. Crazy. 

Cool things that happened. Last week the mission president came and had breakfast and studies with the district, they brought pancakes and yummy eggs :). It was fun. I ate fish for the first time since forever last week. It wasn't terrible. I ate a fish eyeball, that was nasty, the texture was all slimy, the taste was fine, but I almost gagged cause I was thinking about it too much. Elder Decker was sick last Saturday so I took a nap, first nap in the country! And sunday I cooked, some fried noodles. It was scrumptious.  Your son is learning how to make food. (And more that just pb&j.) :)

Yay for Christine and Lyndon, that is soo awesome, love the name. Very excited for their new baby. General conference is coming up soon so that will be fun, but we watch it about 4 or 3 weeks after it comes out.  

Life is good. I wake up, stretch. Eat, study, go preach, come back eat, go out preach some more, come home. Plan, write in my journal and repeat. It is great, it finally feels natural, not like this is a weird lifestyle, no it just feels like life. O ya baby. 

Well love you all so much, it was great to hear from you! Love you sooo much! 

One of our investigator grows bananas. yum!

Rainy season at the Mekong River in Ta Khmau.

From a porch of an investigators. Awsome tie!

On Tuk Tuk. 

Caught no fish, perhaps Edward is a better fisher of men.

Baptism, Political Protests, Missionary Transportation, & Soccer

Yesterday we had a baptism, Moy Li. It was a good ceremoney I was asked to give a talk 5 min before it happened, so I gave a short talk about the Holy Ghost and Baptism. It went well, it was short but I felt the spirit.  

So, there is a riot in Phnom Penh today, It is supposed to be a peaceful protest, but it is big, and you never know what might break out. And we are not allowed to go into the city today, we can only stay in TaKhmau, which I am happy about, usually P days we are always in a rush to do things and it isn't relaxing at all. But today will be relaxing, so I am happy about that. 

In Cambodia there are a lot of less actives. They all received a testimony and were baptised but the less actives are not truly converted. That used to worry me a lot. But I was reading in Alma 32 about the seed of faith, and I thought, the seed of the gospel is always good and perfect. And if it is planted and nourished with care it will grow and produce blessings. But so many people plant the seed and are baptised but just stop nourishing it, until it is dead. This is no fault to the pureness and goodness of the seed or gospel, but the fault is just the lack of nourishment. 

Things with me are going well. And they will just continue getting better. Love you all so much. The gospel it true. The Holy Ghost truly is the comforter! I have felt it. This is the church of the living Jesus Christ! I know it! Love you all so much.

Moy Li and Elder Decker

Missionary Transportation. 

Friends from church.

Teaching Less-Active Members

"Overall we are doing good. The work is slower here than KC. We only have two investigators. One of them will probably be baptized next week. So that is exciting. Most of the work we are doing is teaching Recent Converts and Less Actives. So the work is slow but good."

"On Saturday we went to a place called Kah Koo, (Cow island) and we were biking, then suddenly it was just a wall of hard rain just hit us. It was nuts! It didn't start off small then get bigger like normal. It just started so hard, I got soaked in 5 seconds, no joke."

"Well I want to bare my testimony on a couple things: 

First off, God answers prayers! There has been so many times when I am going through a rough patch and I just pray as hard as I can and I feel so much better. He hears and answers prayers. 

Second, the Book of Mormon is so awesome! Every morning I receive so much strength from it. It really is just the best ever. 

Well, things are great! Love you all so much! Have an awesome birthday Hannah! 

Love, Edward"  

Along a bike path near Ta Khmau

The view out of the apartment window. Edward studies next to this window. He claims it's the best view in the mission.

A member makes cool Cambodian ties, I have bought a few. I have defininitely adjusted to the humidy, maybe too much, I always feel so cold during studies cause of the A/C. But don't worry I still love A/C. It is only really bad when we are teaching and there is no fan or A/C. That is when sweat just drips down my face (really no joke) but the heat isn't too terrible.

With Elder Sin, a great chef. Edward was sad to see him be transferred out of the apartment.

Settling In At Ta Khmau

We have 3 investigators in Ta Khmau. All are doing well. Our branch has a lot of less active members, so most of our work is strengthening the members. But we are also trying to find new investigators.

Last week the branch president told me I was giving a talk from the stand during sacrament meeting. But by the time it was my turn the time was up so I just bore my testimony and talked  a little about the sacrament. That was fun.

I really like our branch president he is super nice. My name in Cambodian is spoken like Plow-Tow. And in Cambodian Plow means street or way. And Tow means nothing but trow means correct. So everyone calls me Plow-Trow which means the right way. So I really like that obviously.

Living near the Phnom Penh is cool. I am on the outskirts so not really in the city, but last p-day we went to the city and rode our bikes around and it was really fun riding in Phnom Penh. We saw a lot of cool things, it was fun. My bike is super small, curse my long skinny legs!! But today we are going to get a taller seat so that will help.

The streets are a lot busier. Sometimes we park our bikes at the church and walk places. There are no cross walks, and when I cross the road I feel like Mulan's grandma when she has the cricket and crosses the street.

At an ancient temple site near Kampong Cham.

The Kampong Cham missionary district.

Baptism Day & Tranfered Next Week

"This week was pretty good! Two of our new investigators agreed to baptism, but we had to drop one because he is getting his masters and has no time. Sunday was pretty good. Two of our investigators were baptized. They are great! They are two great guys. The sisters in our ward had three other baptisms.  67 people attended which is huge for baptisms! Usually only about 20 attend. So that was great. 

So last night was transfer calls! I am going to Phnom Penh! Actually a little outside of Phnom Penh, about 30 min bike ride, called Ta Khmau (I think that is what it is called)." 

New Investigators & District Conference

This week was good, we got five new investigators! One was a son of an investigator who is already learning, and four others were from street contacting. The four are very interested in the gospel, and they want to learn more. They aren't sure if they want to join, but they are giving it a shot. So let's hope the Spirit touches their hearts and they believe what we say.  One of the lessons to the new investigators we had an awesome member present with us and he helped the investigator better understand what we were saying.

Sunday and Saturday were district conference. President and Sister Moon came, along with an Area Seventy, Elder Juan, (pronounced ron) It was pretty good. Last year there were 250 in attendance this year 350, so that is great. The church is growing, and that isn't even counting 30 people that live a ways out that usually come to church and wanted to come but the van that usually picks them up for some reason or another didn't come. After the meetings Elder Juan talked to all the recent converts and focused a lot on callings, because only 9 out of the 80 new converts had callings. 

Son of the branch president.

The tops of Phnom Pros & Pros Srei off in the distance.

It's not easy taking a self-portrait while walking on a berm between two rice fields.

It's not easy to take a self-portrait while riding down a country road!