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.

Baptism Weekend

"So this week we had 3 more baptisms. They were all from this huge awesome family in the branch. A son in law, a grandchild, and a daughter. It was a super awesome experience being able to participate in teaching them and getting to know them really well. They are all pretty great. So many adorable little kids too. One of the sons is about to go on a mission to Canada and just waiting for his visa.  The baptism was great. I'll send some pics." 

Baptism & Pictures

First off last Saturday and Sunday we had a baptism. Just one but that is okay. Getting ready for the service was kinda chaotic cause there was also another baptism from another branch so we didn't really know who was in charge of it till the last second so of course the missionaries get to do. And five min before we started we realized the piano had no cord, so we had to run home and get it, for the service. But once it got started it went really well. Our investigator had a great experience and is doing well. Turns out his girlfriend in Phnom Penh is already a member. Cool. After his baptismal interview the zone leader said that he answered the questions better than anyone he had ever interviewed. So that was cool. He was honestly a super awesome investigator, I mean he did learn with the sisters 7 years ago. 

The other person that was supposed to get baptized wanted to postpone a week, cause his sister in law and her daughter from siem riap also want to get baptized too. So this weekend we have 3 more baptisms planned. In our branch one of the biggest families has a son-in-law who is one of those ready to be baptized. And another is the  last child who hasn't yet been baptized, and her daughter. She is super adorable. We teach them a lot, and those lessons are super fun, cause there are a bunch of kids all over the place, and they are all adorable. 

Yesterday was a great day at church, we had 7 investigators come! Highest ever. Another man came who wants to change his life, so far he is doing well, and he is gaining a testimony. Another man came who we have been working with forever, and he finally came! Whoot whoot! He is the guy that got the answer that the Book of Mormon is true, but he hasn't been able to come to church, but then he came. 

So great day at church. And other investigators are starting to do better as well. We had one who is a school teacher. Before she believed in three different religions. Hinduism, Buddism and some sort of Chinese ancestry religion. But yesterday we taught her about serviing just one master and just one God. And just really understood it, and she even admitted that prayer and the Book of Mormon have blessed her life, she still wasn't ready to accept a baptismal date but she said that she would pray and read about it. 

Hiking last week was super fun. There is this cave, that has nature water dripping off the rocks that is clean and I drank some :). Members also fed me some snake. Hmmm slimey yet satisfying. Thailand is finally sick of the 400,000 or so illegal Cambodian immigrants and now is sending them back by the truckload, literally. All the time I see trucks full of Cambodians, coming back from Thailand. 

It is raining a lot more, which is fun. This past week I reached my 15th month mark. 

A local member picking a coconut for the missionaries.

Sister missionaries and senior couple in a Tuk Tuk.

Phnom Somphov (Boat Mountain)

Yup, I can't read Chinese.

Dragon Fruit tree, yum! 

A view from Phnom Somphov

Pirate themed English class

Elder Jensen, Sister Davies, Sister Fife with Edward. All four started their missions in Kampong Cham, Cambodia. Elder Jensen is now home.

A home-made snake skin drum.

An identical picture was taken a few months ago during the dry season. All the trees were then brown and without leaves.

Two new converts at their baptism. 

The alley way behind their apartment.