Five Per Month, That's All We Ask. Pictures of Rain.

Well another good week! This week was actually pretty solid, we are finding 
some good investigators, and I am excited to see them start to improve. Last zone
training a big focus was that God is preparing at least five people in each persons 
area per month, and so we need to find the five. And I feel like we have found at least 
five that are being prepared. Two we found a few weeks back we taught lesson one 
but then they got busy (they kinda have an on-call job), but they said in September 
come back. So now it is September so we will follow up on them this week. So remember 
the Dan Jones story, well we followed up with him. We started teaching him and then 
his uncle came, and after we taught the first lesson he said he had a dream. He saw Jesus 
and he handed him a white robe. This is the first he has ever had a dream like that, and 
then three days later we contacted him. So that is way awesome--we meet him again 
tomorrow and I am excited for that. Last night an investigator we have had for a while 
started progressing again. He said he loved what he learned at church and that he wants 
to be ready for baptism by the 14th. The reason he hasn't already been baptized is 
because he said he wasn't really excited or desired to be baptized and wasn't determined 
the serve Christ "to the end." But last night he said he would really try to pray and 
read the scriptures to be ready by the 14th, and he said it himself so I think he will be 
ready. Another guy, is doing really well. It's just that he and his wife aren't married, 
they did a little buddhist ceremony to be married but they haven't done it according 
to the law. It's so expensive to do. But as soon as that happens he can get baptized. 
He is pretty solid. We met another guy, who seemed so prepared, we taught him the 
first lesson, and he was asking the right questions, he was answering our questions 
really well, and I could tell he understood the gravity of our message. We also meet 
him again Tuesday or Wednesday.

The members at trash mountain are doing alright. The active members are doing better 
and the less actives are doing a little better too. The senior couple holds an addiction 
recovery class at trash mountain at one of the organizations, and two really hard core 
less actives came to that. So that is a good start! 

By the way I really like the senior couple here, I have noticed a thread I like all the 
senior couples, I think it must be that all old people who sacrifice to serve must be 
awesome. :)

Yesterday was ward conference, and we had 132 in attendance.  That was super good. O 
ya best thing! So a young couple we have been teaching for about three weeks came to 
church!!! Ya ya ya! I was super happy. I don't understand them, every time we go teach 
them they don't seem interested at all, and the first few times when we called to schedule 
them I didn't think they would say yes, but every times they say yes and it surprises me, 
but the lessons are getting better. And they came to church! So that is awesome.

Love,

Elder Plothow

Moving a house at Trash Mountain.

Rain, Rain and More Rain!

On the way with the senior couple to visit an member really far away.

Outside of Edward's apartment.

Dan Jones & Moving a House

We have two progressing investigators, but this past week we were more successful 
contacting and we have three new investigators and four or five solid potential 
investigators, so that is good. Last night right before going up we were contacting, 
and we went to a little area and I started to talk to a guy and then a group of 10 or 12 
people gathered around. And I was really just focusing on one guy but then I started 
talking to all of them. But it was cool, I held up the Book of Mormon and was preaching 
about it, I felt like Dan Jones. We got a return appointment from it, so that was great.

There is a member from trash mountain who are in the hospital with a serious illness. 
We visited him in the hospital. They were starving in the hospital, and they didn't have 
any food.  But the seniors missionary couple and the bishop brought them some food.

The trash mountain area is doing a little bit better, but we are still trying to strengthen the
members that live there. One of the member's needed to move his house, so we went there 
with a group of partially drunk guys and some priesthood holders from the ward and 
picked up the house and moved it to a slightly different location. (see photos) 

So news about transfer calls, my companion and I stay the same and I will be sending 
him home in six weeks. So my streak continues! Every companion for two transfers. 
And I wouldn't be surprised if I train after this because there is a huge group of new 
missionaries coming in next transfer. 

Moving this house.

RC Work

Hello everybody! (that is what all the little kids say to me as I ride by, I am not sure why, I think they learn it in school or something).  This week I saw a really tall white guy riding his bike in the middle of a Cambodian community away from touristy stuff, and I thought to myself, "wow he looks way out of place." A little bit later I thought again, "Wow, that is what everyone thinks of me! haha" 

Anyways another good week in SMC, time is flying so fast.  This Sunday is transfer calls! I feel like I just got into SMC but it has been over four weeks already. But it has got to the point were I know most of the members and I know where we are going....most of the time. This is the smallest area in the mission but I feel it is harder to remember all the roads, because a. everything looks the same, b. the roads have no order to it.  It really is like a maze. But I am getting it down, if Elder Khlot leaves I would be able to handle things, but I don't think he will. He only has one transfer left, and he has been in SMC 3 transfers already, and 4 transfers isn't too umcommon, so I bet he'll stay. But I hope he stays, he is super mellow, and that is nice. And if he stays my every comp for 2 transfer streak continues! 

So a really big group just ended their mission, (they ended 2 weeks early so they could get ready for school). And so now there is only two American groups above him, one that is just one transfer above my group, and we were with each other in the MTC and so pretty much we are the same group. And one above them, and in that group there is a total of one elder. And there Elder Khlot's group that has a total of 2 people. So besides the group only one transfer above me, there are only 4 or 5 missionaries older than me. That seems amazing to me!

 

So most of the work we are doing is recent convert (RC) strengthening.  A while back there was a huge boom of missionary work in this area. So most of what we do is RC stuff. And there are all types of RC's we have, some awesome, some struggling, and some totally lost everything. So it is a fun adventure. Investigator wise we only have 2 progressing. They are both doing well, we are hoping one. We hope one gets baptized in two weeks, and the other in about 3 or 4 weeks. He is a boss, he is doing really well.  The first time he came to church was 3 weeks ago for his baby blessing, and ever since he has been coming. He is doing really well. The couple we found last week just got busy (his job is an on call basis, so somtimes he is super busy and sometimes is is free all the time) but he is still cool, and he said we could come back in September.

We are spending a lot of time contacting, and we are not really getting good results. But we continue trying. :) In Battambong I feel like people were easier to get return appointments but I don't know. 

Just know that I am very happy and I love my mission.

Love,

Elder Plothow

Week 2 in Stung Meanchey

Wow! time is going by really fast with Elder Khlot in Stung Meanchey. I've been here for about two weeks now and it has flown by. It is already August. The work is going well. It blows my mind that it has been 3 years since I was in OHS football camp, holy cow. 

Yesterday we were suppossed to have a baptism but it did not happen. Hopefully he will be baptized soon. Yesterday we did have a confirmation. In here the baptisms are on Sunday after church and the confirmation a week later. 

This ward has a ton of recent converts, and many of them are less-active. :( But there are still a lot of recent converts who are faithful and great. So we are doing a lot of recent convert work. We have about 4 or 5 that have been baptized pretty recently  But this week we did get a few new investigators, so hopefully they will progress. 

Cool story, last night about 7:30 p.m. we didn't have anything to do, so we were biking around and contacting and this guy calls out to us. At first I thought it was just a drunk or a punk kid, but we stopped and talked to him and the first thing he asked was, "How much does it cost for you to teach me about Jesus Christ?"  We told him nothing, for free!!!!! Then he said, "right now I work in the daytime on Sunday, but I am willing to change my schedule to go to church." Holy cow, that has never happened to me where someone was so willing to learn and to sacrifice. We are meeting him at 7 tonight, and I have high hopes. 

 

For food we eat out almost everyday. There is this one place with unlimited rice and you order a meal for only 1.63$ And it is pretty yummy. My new craving is chocolate milk, last week I bought some. It was like the necter of heaven. This week I am going to buy a ton! 

Oh, on a down note while I was emailing last week my bike got stolen.... But thankfully the mission policy is that when a bike gets stolen you only have to pay $10 and the rest is paid by the mission. And I got a nice new bike so it is all good. :) (I have never locked my bike before, but now I do.) 

I love being a missionary. I decided I just love missionary work, getting less-actives to church, finding people, teaching people is just awesome and I love it. I am part of the great and marvelous work. Being a missinoary is awesome!

Love,

Edward

Battambang District

Trash mountain area

The main road into Stung Meanchey

Branch Presidency in Battambang

Member family in Battambang

Elder & Sister Zemp, senior couple in Battambang

First Week In Stung Meanchey.

Well the new area. Battambong was big and beautiful, this area is kinda the opposite. It is the smallest area in the mission. And it is known for "trash mountain" There is a huge dump not too far from where some member of our ward live.  I am meeting a lot of new people and it is great. I am now serving in a ward so that is fun. I finally got used to saying branches, presidents, and district, now I am to go back to bishops, wards, and stakes. But it is great. I just introduce myself has Plo, cause in my last area they couldn't get Plothow down, and Plow means road in Cambodian, so I just call myself Elder Plow and they all remember so that is fun.  

The new comp is awesome!!!!! He is a hard worker, but super chill, and he is so kind. so so kind. He just has a genuinely good heart. He is awesome. You should go on mormon.org he has an account and look him up. Vichhary Khlot. He is Khmer, so cool. 

Stung Meanchey is in Phnom Penh, I am about a 20 min bike ride from the mission home. And I can ride across my area in about five min, so super small. ,Yesterday I was going through my CBR book (a book with pics of all the members and there adresses etc.) And I saw Steven Fischer, he must have served in this area before. 

Edward's neighborhood at dusk.

Transfer to Stung Meanchey!

Last night came transfer calls:

I am going to Stung Meanchey 3! I am going to be serving with Elder Khlot who is a native elder, and we will be zone leaders over the Phnom Penh South Zone. It is one of the two newly organized stakes known as Phnom Penh South Stake. I am going to be serving in a ward! Crazy. I have heard that Elder Khlot is a really nice, chill missionary. I personally don't know him that well, but everything I hear about him is great. Elder Garrow said (before we knew about transfer calls) that E. Khlot was one of his favorite companion, and he has had some cool comps. Everyone loves E. Khlot he is just super nice. He only has two transfers left, and he has been in Stung Meanchey for 2 transfers already, so probably I will be with him when he ends, cause pres rarely sends people to a new area their last transfer of their mission. So hopefully my streak will continue and I will get him for two! yay! I will probably go down on Thursday. So that is exciting. So I have 6 transfers left, and I am not sure what is going to happen, but next transfer I am happy. I am sad to leave this area. We have done some good work here and I have enjoyed working with Elder Brewer.

This week was good. We had 5 investigators at church so that was good. Some of the old recent converts are struggling getting to church :( noooo! but Hopefully they will come back.  This week we got a lot of new investigators, we dropped a lot last week, and we got a lot of new ones this week. In Cambodia the people are nice, so getting new investigators isn't difficult (especially when they like talking to Americans), but helping them awaking the desire to follow Christ is the hard part. But it is all a great adventure, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

A wonderful branch member.

Meat market

Tiny banana

Record Setting Church Attendance

Well another week in Battambang. Overall things are going very well. The branch yesterday had 140 members attend. That is a record! About 3 weeks ago for zone conference we made branch attendance goals for July. The highest this year was 118, but that was back in Jan. Since I've been here that highest was about 108. And we set a goal for 150 which was super high, but we were all excited to do it. Last week was 120 which was great, and this week was 140! Super awesome. We still have three more weeks to get 150. Yesterday I bore my testimony and I told all the members about the goal and that we only needed 10 more to get the goal, and encouraged them to keep coming. Because we have a lot of once a monthers. (thumbs down) So overall the branch is doing great. The new branch president is a boss.

I love the Fourth of July, I arranged an early morning pancake breakfast. It was super fun. We listened to American songs and to Marthin Luther King Jr.'s famous speech. It was fun. For lunch we had pizza and ice cream. And at night I was going to burn some trash on our upstairs patio but I was too tired after a long day (phew), but overall it was fun.

Fourth of July Ice Cream Party (Before)

(After)

Repair work on Elder Brewer's bike.

Edward's Study Area--Post-It Note Heaven! 

At the barber shop waiting for a hair cut.

With a member of the branch.