Week 18: Church Open House and Dedication topped off by some boy fun

Way busy week. Had a very fun, long trip today so my email time is short. 

Not sure what order these photos are in so I'll just give a quick narrative here.:

We had a birthday dinner with our branch president early this week.    I had the brilliant idea to blend Oreos into my pancake batter to make Oreo pancakes.      Got another photo by some cool "I Love You" graffiti.     I ate crickets this week. Not bad.      Various open house and church dedication pictures. The new building is so wonderful. We had between 600-650 people show up. Way cool! We had to keep getting chairs and more people kept coming. It's a two story building and we made many trips up and down but it was worth it because so many people had the chance to learn more about our church and the message of Jesus Christ!     Today we took a trip to a waterfall. Was supposed to be a two hour ride in a tuk-tuk (moto pulling a carriage thing) but turned into more of a five hour ride each way. Way fun trip. Some roads were bad and we had to get out and walk at time. Spent about an hour driving through a rubber tree plantation. On the way back it was raining and we were walking outside the tuk tuk so it wouldn't get stuck and a truck let us ride in its bed out of the plantation and we got to sit on tarp covered tree sap rubber. Pretty comfy. Way way fun.  Sorry I don't have time to explain more. 

Love y'all!​

Elder Taylor

Week 17: Exchange, Confirmation, and Holiday

We had both of our investigators come from our far area, Preycho, into the city! Bong Jan and Sok San. This week I went on an exchange (switched companions for a day) with Elder Mather out to Preycho. I saw many small miracles that day as the Lord prepared me to do His work. One was that we were going to teach San and we only had 4 more times to teach him before he moves so it was really important that we teach him, and he didn't show up. We taught the members whose house we were going to teach him at and then left. As we left we backtracked so Elder Mather could take a picture of the church building, which is right across the street from the members house. Then biking away a second time I hear someone calling Elder and I think I'm just hearing it. (For some reason the Cambodian people say something that sounds remarkably similar to elder all the time and I'm always checking and no one is there) But I hear it again and I check just in case and it's San waving and riding a bike. So we got to teach him! He is very prepared and ready for baptism. He is going to be able to come back to Preycho or Kompongcham once a month to go to church so we'll baptize him on the first Sunday of November. ​

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For the end of the big holiday that's been going on they did boat races and laterns on the river. We asked a ton of people when the boat races were but somehow we still missed them. No one knew when they were. We were told they already happened, that they weren't happening, that they were tomorrow, yesterday. My companion likened it to a foreigner coming to America, asking when Christmas was a day or two before Christmas, and no one not knowing. ​

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Cool statue thing on the river front. It's the city's name: KompongCham

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A storm was rolling in. I like the contrast of light and dark.

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On Sunday Branch President (religious leader over the church in my area) invited us to his place for lunch. It was a long bike ride out up hill and I was dying, but it was way worth it. We brought food and they had kebabs there that were just about the best thing you've ever eaten. Really simple too. Pork, pineapple, green bell peppers, and a few had carrots. While you're roasting them slather some sauce on that is: butter, oyster sauce, and chicken powder. Drank tons of coke too. I never liked coke before my mission. Guess it's ok now. ​

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​Sometimes Cambodia is just beautiful.   and the computer won't let me move the cursor over to delete this S so it's just going to stay there... S

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Double rainbow. I think this might be the first one I've ever seen. ​

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Prepping for the new church building openhouse this upcoming week. Put banners up on every side of the fence. Right now three branches (groups of members) are metting in two rented buildings. Now we'll have our own building that we built! So cool that I'm here for it. ​

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This is Poo Dii (lookpoo means young uncle and you use it as a title for all middle aged men). He's the group leader out in Preycho. So in Cambodia they do this thing called Gawk-Shawl where they take a coin and rub it with some liquid over your skin to break up scar tissue or blood vessels or something underneath. He asked me if I wanted him to do it to my arm, kind of joking and I decided might as well add it to the list of things I've done in Cambodia. Had to have him do my other arm too, can't be lopsided. ​

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During my exchange with Elder Mather out in Preycho. Just Cambodia being pretty again​

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Traffic was crazy night of the lanterns down on the riverside. First time biking through heavy traffic. Got to a standstill so why not take a selfie? ​

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And they had fireworks! I got to see two nights of fireworks and it was a pretty good show.​

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Yesterday in church we finally got to confirm our investigator that we baptized about three weeks ago. (After you are baptized you are also confirmed a member of the church and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, but you have to do it during church so the members can all sustain the action) And with the big holiday going on this was the first day he made it. And I had the opportunity to confirm him. I can tell how much my language has improved since I got here. Also my companion complemented me on it. Always a good feeling to know that you've improved. I challenge everyone to pick one thing to improve on this week and follow through with it! Until next week. 

Elder Taylor

Week 16: Conference, Cake, and Crazy Cameras

Note: It's been a super busy week and a half with Kylie in the hospital. This post was from last week, October 9, 2016.

Filled up my old SD card and switched to a new one that decided to go haywire on me and I lost some pictures in the process. I'll do my best to share what happened this past week with what remains: 

Let the kids hold my camera at a house we were teaching at. This is one of the many, and one of the least blurry, photos that resulted. ​

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This is outside the window of our church building. The guard is reading the Book of Mormon and has started to learn more from some of the other elders! ​

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At hymn class but no one showed up because it was conference weekend. So the missionaries had some good unity building time while we waited to see if anyone would show. ​

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Watching conference all together at the senior couples house in English while our members watched in Khmae at the church building. Conference is every sixth months where our church leaders speak to us and teach what God would have us focus on at this time. It truly is a great blessing to have God's ever guiding hand in our lives as we learn from those he has called in these latter days. ​

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My companion washing some clothes as an act of service. The sweet lady was trying to tell him to stop the whole time but he is stubborn in his love and service to these people. ​

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We had zone training (a zone is a group of missionaries. My zone consists of two provinces) and all ordered pizza afterwards. Expensive, but so worth it. Sister Curtis also made delicious cake. ​

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One of our native sisters had been waiting on her passport to the US and finally got it. She is now in the Provo, MTC training center preparing to serve in Oregon. This is a letter she left for the missionaries here. ​

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Listening to conference this time around I really felt them teach the message of joy and coming unto Christ. We all fall short, but through His infinite atonement we all can repent of things big and small, become perfected through Christ and live with Him again. It is this message of joy that I strive to share every day here in Cambodia. May we all remember the Savior, Jesus Christ, just a little bit more this coming week and feel the joy he brings in our lives. 

Elder Taylor

Week 15: Snakes, Scissors, and Saatsom (clean)

Photo story line here we go: 

Got my hair cut today for the first time in Cambodia. Not sure how to say anything about style in Khmae and the guy asked if I wanted it normal, so I just went with that. Turned out pretty good. Definitely better than my trainers. He told his guy short on the sides  and a bit longer on top and ended up with a scary looking buzz cut. 

What's a better way to spend a fast Sunday afternoon than solving a puzzle from a thrift store and listening to talks? 

Sister Neat and Sister H-awe-m who both are leaving us. Sister H-awe-m is finishing her missionthis Wed and Sister Neat finally got her visa and is going to serve in Oregon! They are way fun and I'm going to miss having them around. 

Went to look around Watt Ankor (not ankor watt) This one is actually older than Ankor Watt but less well known. Super cool place though. 

On his year mark my trainer burned a shirt. Apparently it's a tradition among elders. 

Same day we had a movie party and dinner at the senior couples house because it's a huge holiday in Cambodia and no one is really home to teach. We watched "The Other Side of Heaven" Way cool to watch as a missionary. It's a movie about an elder who serves his mission in Tonga and all the miracles that happen there. 

But before we had the fun we had the cleaning. Since we couldn't teach it was declared a cleaning day. Which was actually way fun. Elder Lasswell and I were cleaning the upstairs workout/dry clothes room and found the sleeves of a shirt. We decided to wear them as sweat rags since there isn't any AC up there. While we may look rediculous we had a blast listening to music and cleaning.

Also I can now add snake to my weird foods I've eaten list.

Questions from the US of A:

Tell me about your investigators' progress! What lessons have you been teaching them and what insights have they gotten?  Our recently baptized member was not at church because of the holiday but will hopefully be confirmed this Sunday in church.  Sok San has some struggles with persecution but has been strengthened and wants to be baptized before he leaves to go teach in another city. Our recent converts Om Han and Poo Jan are still strong and great listeners and learners. We've been teaching all over the map, but key doctrine is always Christ and the restoration of His church in these latter days. 

 Have any of them surprised you with questions? Well Poo Jan asked me awhile back what the law of circumcision was when I was on my exchange with Elder Lasswell. I just told him not to worry about it for now and Elder Schiefer could explain it later. He never brought it up again though.  Sometimes understanding questions is still hard for me so I'll work on that. 

Keeping it real it Cambodia serving the Lord!

Love y'all! 

Elder Taylor