Update 76-79: Well This Transfer is Just Flying By

Hello, readers of my updates; sorry it has been so long since I sent one of these! Time seems to escape me here on the other side of the world.

First off: Merry Christmas! I can hardly believe it's that time of year again. It did manage to get into the 60s here a few times this week and by the way all the locals were dressed you would have expected a blizzard to come through at any moment. They'd look at you in your short sleeves and be in disbelief of the fact that you weren't freezing. I will admit though, I did get much colder than I would have before the mission.   

As far as investigators go, Vivian, Deepak, and Bernadette are still doing great. We also picked up a new investigator Ryan and his less active wife. 

Vivian and Deepak are very steadily progressing. We've finished teaching all of the commandments and they've committed to follow them. They have a baptismal date for the 6th of January. Vivian was able to attend the baptism of one of the member's daughter, Merin, and she is very excited for her baptism. 

Story about Vivian: We headed down to the CKM church building for a series of events. We were going to get there at 10, help clean the church with our branch for half an hour, teach Deepak at 10:30 and then teach Vivian at 11. It didn’t work out this way. Deepak couldn’t meet. Got to the church and helped sweep, carry tables, set up tables, and set up chairs. (for the branch Christmas party) Mckelluh was also there and she said she could help us teach Vivian after we were done cleaning. (Her and Vivian were working on cleaning the girls bathroom and wiping down glass doors. Vivian showed up to do church cleaning in her normal getup of high heels and a fancy short sleeved dress and a felt pink jacket) Cleaning took until about 11:45, longer than expected. We had planned to teach Vivian some commandment, either the 10 commandments or the Word of Wisdom based on time constraints. What ended up happening was Mckelluh and her talked for an hour in Mandarin and talked about Vivian’s life, finding the church, and a review of the restoration. It was really good for her, but we didn’t really understand any of it. I caught a couple phrases every now and again; makes me wish I remembered more of the Mandarin I learned before. Vivian is so good though. She was telling us (Mckelluh translated) how people have told her not to go to the Mormon church and people try to get her to go to other churches. She said she came here first though and now she’s not going to leave. We also gave her a paperback copy of the BOM in Mandarin simplified that we just got and she was very happy. She had us sign in the front of the book so that she could always remember her elders. 

Story about Deepak: We went to the church at 11 to meet Deepak. Waiting there for him and I get a call from an unknown number. I think they’re speaking Khmer and then they hang up. Then they call again and ask if I speak English. I said yes, thinking this was a weird Khmer person. Then I realized it was Deepak. He told us that he was at the hospital and that he was sorry that he couldn’t make it, but that he wanted to meet later in the afternoon at 2:30. Went back to the house. Had lunch. Some brief office work. Went back to teach Deepak and he did indeed show up. Had a sniffly nose of sorts and said he didn’t sleep at all the night before, but he still wanted to come and meet with us! We had a good review/emphasis lesson about priesthood, prophets, apostles, obedience, prayer, scripture study, baptism and confirmation, and obeying the law of the land. Still on track for baptism the 6^th of Jan!

Bernadette is still working at a slow, steady pace. Reading the scriptures, coming to church, and praying to know the truth. 

Ryan: We hurried back to the church to teach our potential investigator Ryan and his less-active member wife, Anet. (7pm at night) They were very open and honest about their situation. Both formerly married and separated from their spouses they are now living together here in Cambodia. Anet’s family is active back in the Philippines and she has a son there who aspires to be an elder one day and serve a mission. She refers to herself as the black sheep of the family, but I feel that she still believes in the church and would come back fairly easily. Ryan is Roman Catholic and very open to learn about what we believe and see what the church is all about. Had a great first lesson with HTBT (how to begin teaching = get to know you/set expectations), God is our loving heavenly father, families, and prayer. They said they will come to church on Sunday again and start praying regularly again. I think they are going to be great investigators. Now we have a member wife and inv husband, and a member boyfriend and inv girlfriend, all from the Philippines.

The work is busy; the work is great. Hope y'all are staying warm! 

*Enjoy some pictures below*

- Elder Taylor

Letters will be joyously received at: 

Elder Taylor

Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission 

House 2B, st. 222 off Norodom

P.O. Box 165

Phnom Penh Cambodia

Cambodia's Independence Monument. Just down the street from the mission home

Money! (That's his name) He is the son of Pu Dee from PreyChhor. 

Ran into him at the service center. Almost a year since I last saw him. Miss those members.

My make shift camera *tripod*

This is Ivan, our old investigator that stopped learning with us, 

but is still friends with some members and came to our Christmas party.

 Osada, the eternal investigator. He's stopped learning with us 

but still comes to church and our gospel principles class every week

Another throw back to training. Elder Lasswell and I with Pharemy (aka Sister Neat) 

She was in KC when we both started our mission waiting for her visa, 

left for her mission in Oregon, and is now back. Before her English was ok, 

now she sounds great; amazing to see the pre-mission and post-mission. 

Christmas in the apartment

Left over decorations from a Khmer Christmas party

Picking up packages in the van because there were too many to fit on Virak's moto

Picking up packages in the van because there were too many to fit on Virak's moto

Lunch with elders at Aeon mall

The stairs up to the apartment of the sisters' investigator in my district that I interviewed for baptism a while back

Update 74+75: 5 Golden Transfers

And the big news from this session of transfer calls is that I, Elder Taylor, will indeed be staying 5, you heard that right, 5 transfers in the office. As far as the Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission goes that is a new record for as far back as anyone can remember. My companion will also be staying the same. First time I'll have done 3 transfers with the same companion (also a pretty uncommon occurrence). 

As far as happenings in the office Deepak is progressing and has accepted a baptismal date to work towards! Vivian was feeling a bit under the weather this past week, but should be back up to snuff soon. Bernadette was also sick this past week. Moses is still coming to church every week, but is too busy to meet and learn. Interesting fellow. We also have two new investigators named Bibin and Bholu. They are from India and don't speak very much English. Lucky for us, we have members from Pakistan who can help translate for us. They were both referrals from the TTP elders recent convert Hap (who I actually did his interview for baptism a couple transfers ago; so many interesting connections when you stay in an area for this long). We also have a long list of potential investigators, but they have just been too busy to meet or are out of country for awhile. 

Other events: We had stake conference this past Sunday at a different building than where we normally hold our service. Had some miscommunication and a few of our investigators went to the normal place and time and missed out on the conference. Elder Nelson and I did end up translating for the international members by speaking into a small microphone up front that broadcast to headphones in the room. Rather nerve racking, but everyone says we did a good job and had a couple fun laughs. One sister who was speaking used an abstract story analogy and switching between points of view and people she was talking about and using words I had no idea what they meant. That was the point I was most lost in, but the others were all pretty straight forward. 

The sisters from my MTC group are going home this week. So odd to have people leave, makes me realize how old in the mission I'm getting. 

Last week I did an exchange with Elder Cox because I'm a district leader and he is my zone leader. It was fun to be able to go proselyting again with an old companion and see how much they've grown. I learned several words from him as well; quite the turn of events from when I was teaching him words in his 3rd transfer. It was good to get out of the office and go proselyting again. We had a memorable experience when we decided to go contacting.We didn't have much time left for the exchange and were trying to get to a good area. After biking for awhile, we parked out bikes and locked them up, said a prayer, and went looking. Just 30ft up the side street from where we locked our bikes we had a long contract with a middle aged man at a side shop/apartment building. After that we were out of time and had to bike back, but Elder Cox has a new potential investigator now. 

The work is busy; life rolls on. 

Love y'all!

- Elder Taylor

Letters will be joyously received at: 

Elder Taylor

Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission 

House 2B, st. 222 off Norodom

P.O. Box 165

Phnom Penh Cambodia 

PB202587: We played ultimate! First ever in the mission. 

Everyone had a blast and we're planning on doing it again. 

2375770_...: James: a recent convert and soccer player from Liberia and 

Vivian: our investigator from China 

DSCF7078: We went and ate at our potential investigators' Brazilian restaurant 

and the food was grilled to perfection! 

DSCF7049: Exchange with Elder Cox

DSCF7053: Thanksgiving dessert at the Thurstons (a senior couple) with the zone. 

The house also ate dinner at the Johnson's (a family in the international ward) house.

DSCF7047: Elder Nelson, Elder Vogel, and I donated blood also this past week. 

It was a very long complicated wait, but we did it! 

And because of that a member was able to get medical aid. 

A time to give back, and remember what you're thankful for.

Update 73: White or Yellow?

Hello everyone! Deepak has been too busy with Khmer Independence Day holiday (so many fireworks and busy roads) and his restaurant business to meet the past week. Hopefully we will meet him soon! We did get to meet with Vivian though and she is still doing fantastic. Still hard to communicate sometimes because she loves to talk, but we get there, eventually. (Our last lesson went about an hour and twenty minutes) Bernadette is also doing well. Steady progression; she comes to church every week and this week she accepted to live the word of wisdom! It is amazing to be a missionary and see the change in peoples' lives as the light of Chirst enters them. Share a spiritual thought with someone today and lift them up! 

Love y'all! 

- Elder Taylor

Who do you think has the better ride? This snazy yellow speester, or the trusty white mission van in the background? 

Letters will be joyously received at: 

Elder Taylor

Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission 

House 2B, st. 222 off Norodom

P.O. Box 165

Phnom Penh Cambodia 

Update 71 + 72: Photo Update

Hey y'all, life is still busy here. Deepak is progressing well, as well as Vivian. Other investigators are less willing to accept our teachings or have other struggles. Osada refused to meet with us anymore after a misunderstanding. Although he came to church for second hour last Sunday. We texted him that we were glad to see him at church and he replied that he is still study on his own via the wifi. We do have a good potential we haven't met yet! Stay tuned.  

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx_9Xq7Xa9EXUXFiMDdfbVNMMTA

Many photos from this transfer so far. Enjoy! 

Love y'all! 

- Elder Taylor

Letters will be joyously received at: 

Elder Taylor

Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission 

House 2B, st. 222 off Norodom

P.O. Box 165

Phnom Penh Cambodia 

Update 70: New Transfer and New Curve Balls

Here are my digital journal updates for what happened during transfers: 

16 Oct 2017 Mon Week 70

Crazy planning meeting for transfers. Nelson and I will be busy. Stayed at the mission home until almost 8:30 making plans and prepping what we discussed in the meeting. Made Mac and Cheese for dinner; a box per person. On point!

17 Oct 2017 Tue 

A day full of crazy preparations. Elder Bullough had his exit interview so we got to entertain Elder Wayne for awhile. It was fun to chat with him again.    Sister Scott got a call from the service center telling her that the new sister from Vietnam had landed at the airport when we weren’t expecting her until Thursday night. After some running around there was another update that she was coming in tomorrow, not today. But that still places her right in the middle of transfers. Another bump in the plan to work around.    In the evening, KC people showed up first. Elder Cox, Woolf, and two sisters. Nelson and I still had a ton of things to do, so Woolf stayed with Nelson in the office as he prepped plans and I ran errands with Cox. We picked up the map I ordered for the BB 2 elders, picked up nametags, and bought bus tickets for tomorrow. It was nice to chat with Elder Cox; we started talking about some cool study ideas and then got cut off by the bus station and never got to finish the discussion.  :P  Maybe later; he’s my zone leader so I think I’ll get to exchange with him this transfer. While we were at the bus station the rest of the missionaries arrived from the provinces and they all came up to me while I’m trying to order tickets and asked if we were going to take them to the mission home. I still only had the Ford Escape, not the mission van. Most everyone took a tuk-tuk, but I squeezed 4 elders and their stuff into the car and we made it back to the mission home.  We had all the elders and all but 2 of the sisters come in from the provinces. Both the mission home and our house was packed with elders and then the sisters were crammed into the nearest sister houses. 

18 Oct 2017 Wed

Transfers. Crazy. Breakfast? Forget it, a snack will be lucky. Arranged to have people bike bikes over to the bus station again around 8 and then we drove some of them back and some went in tuk-tuks since we still have the small car. Had to change three of the tickets we bought yesterday. There was so much chaos, noise, people, everything in the mission home and we were had to help everyone.       Got pulled over and had to pay a $2.50 fine while taking some missionaries to the bus station. It’s frustratingly funny too, because I was driving slow and careful as possible because I wasn’t in a rush to get to the bus station. Stopped at a red light, started to go and a police man pulled me over on the other side of the intersection, just stepped in front of my car. Then the other cop just said my driving wasn’t good, wouldn’t tell me what I did wrong. He asked for my license. I gave it to him. He checked it and gave it back. Then asked me how much I thought my fine should be. I told him 50 cents and he said at least 2.50. I opened my wallet to see what I had and I have the Khmer bill that equals 2.50; he saw it and again said to give him 2.50. At this point no one was standing in front of me and I could have gunned it out of there, but I’d already talked to them and they’d probably recognize other missionaries. So I just paid it. A $2.50 ticket in America is nothing, it’s just frustrating here because it was right before lunch and I’m pretty sure they just needed some lunch money. I had two sisters in the back, Sister Pratt and Sok. Sister Sok, the native, said that it was annoying too and she was sorry. If I had been driving speedy like I normally have to to get people to the bus station, then I probably wouldn’t have got the ticket. Oh well.     After we got all the bus stuff done we had to figure out what to do with all the trainers waiting for their trainees. We ended up letting them borrow some of the trainee’s bikes because we didn’t have enough.     The Jones and Colvins made it back and we swapped cars. Back to the mission van.   Osada was at the church for an appointment that we’d forgotten about and we were too busy to go teach him. Felt so bad.       Met Schiefer’s family and Mendenhall’s family in the evening when they came to attend the dying missionaries’ testimony meeting.  All nice people, just made for an interesting gathering. Sister Christensen had us go help eat some of the left-over dinner, there was a lot of food left, while they had their meeting. I finished making some anti-death cards to give to them. (people hand out death cards when they die, but since they’re dying they won’t be here when I do, so I made them one now) I put them in their bags and they can find them later. Some of the trainers staying at the mission home showed up back to sleep. Meeting finished and we all said goodbyes. Lackey was there, training, and we got a picture with Schiefer (he trained both of us). Got a picture with Bullough and Schiefer too. I’m going to miss those elders. 

19 Oct 2017 Thu 

Most all the trainers played b-ball in the morning and I actually made several awesome shots. I checked in the ball once, backed up a bit and drained it. Another time I made a hook shot over my defender and it swished in. Made a couple other various threes and rebounds. It’s fun because Nelson was doing good as well and no one really expects us to do anything. Elder Ashcroft is still a baller and can drive through anything to get his layup. I also think that half of the passes he had were interceptions our team threw; quick guy with an eye for the ball.    After that more morning preparation. We had to run all the trainee’s bikes who were going to the provinces to the bus station. I broke a rear reflector when I was trying to place a strategic kick to make a bike fit in the van. We had to go to Giant store anyways to pick up Sister Benson’s bike and I bought a new one there to replace it. From the bus station we had to go straight to the airport to make it there on time. We got there after they had landed, but before they came out and President and the trainers all made it there just before all the trainees came out. Got the pictures, got the luggage, put the trainees in a tuk-tuk with their trainers and one other companionship of trainer/trainee, and loaded almost all of their luggage into the van. With 16 missionaries it was a lot of luggage and I was quite sweaty after lugging it all into the van. (There were supposed to be 17 missionaries, but one Elder had to wait a day due to travel issues.) Back to the mission home, unload all the luggage. Commence more craziness. The mission home smelled so bad. I guess it was because of their flight, but all the trainees had some serious BO. Several missionaries kept coming up to me and asking if we had some air freshener in the mission home, which we didn’t. Once the food arrived that helped to cover up the smell. We had loklak for everyone = rice, fried egg, fried beef, tomatoes, lettuce, and onion. I had to prep two new phones for the new areas opening up and still prep for people interviewing with president, and bus times, and on and on and on. Managed to get everything done by sending Nelson with Elder Christensen the younger to take people to the bus station (Elder Christensen is training the delayed trainee). After we got them all off we caught our breath a bit in the office and Elder Christensen helped us get some things done. 

20 Oct 2017 Fri

Went to pick up the delayed trainee about 9:30 via Tuktuk. Elder Scott had a last-minute errand and we couldn’t ride with them or else we would have been very late. The plan had been to drive up all together in their car and then ride back in a tuk-tuk with the luggage in the Scott’s car. Adjusted plan we rode there in a tuk-tuk, rode to his new house with his luggage and us and dropped off his luggage. Thankfully it was on the way back because he will be trained in TukThlaa. It was fun because Nelson, Christensen, and myself have all served there. Also, right as we got out of the tuk-tuk Bora Try pulled up on his moto. He delivers stuff for the church and happened to be there the same time. Nostalgic, being at my old house with my old companion. They’re moving out of house number 100 in the next few days though. Christensen is training Elder Jones who is from Wales, so he was fun to talk to. We ordered lunch to the mission home, had burgers. Elder Schiefer had left me an inheritance package and I had fun going through that while we were waiting for lunch to arrive. While I was in training he got a package from his trainer and explained that one day I would get one from him and today is the day since he’s done. It’s kind of mission culture. Maybe half or less of the people do it. Some training lines pass down a tie or something from trainer to trainee.     After we got Christensen and Jones on their way we had an hour or so to recuperate and then we had a lesson with Vivian at the church. She actually called us while we were riding to the airport and scheduled herself in, great investigator. She did show up late though and Tina never showed (she was supposed to be our member help) Thankfully Muoy was there and we talked with her some while we waited for Vivian to show up and then she helped us teach. Vivian actually brought two Khmer ladies and one of their kids along with her, well they drove a big truck. Vivian said she brought them to learn with her, but we had the CKM sisters talk with them (they don’t know English) and they weren’t interested at all. I think they just work for Vivian, something about cleaning ladies, but they know how to drive a car? Anywho, the lesson with Vivian went well. She just talks a lot and it is hard to answer her questions because she cuts us off and asks her questions 5 times in 3 different ways before we can get to the answer because we need to teach background information to have our answer make sense. Last time we’d printed off the lesson 1 pamphlet in Mandarin and we went straight into lesson 2 this time. So no review of lesson 1, but she said she read it and then we tried to answer all her questions about her dead husband and why she saw him in chains in a dream of hers and about the plan of salvation. Very mentally draining, but her desire is great. We had her say the prayer at the end and Muoy said it was very powerful and that she expressed thanks to God for helping her have the opportunity to learn with the missionaries and find the church. She’s told us before that she felt like God led her to Cambodia and she didn’t really have a desire or reason to come here, but came anyways. It’s frustrating to hear her speak Mandarin with Muoy and I pick out words every now and then, but it makes me want to learn Mandarin again. Frustrating that I’ve forgotten most everything I learned in school. So that was a long lesson and we left her with 3 chapters to read in Alma (7, 34, and 40) that talk more about the plan of salvation. It was funny because we tried to get her to read 3 verses or so out of a couple of those chapters and she would either start at the beginning of the chapter or just keep reading past what we asked her. She speed reads too, and just has this great desire to study scripture and understand about God’s word. Really good investigator.     Back to the office. Finish up stuff. 

Here is a link to our mission Facebook page with several photos: https://www.facebook.com/CambodiaPhnomPenhLDSMission/ 

and some of the same pictures with a few more: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4sAcsBO8F53NTRwaEtzVUplWlU

Soo yeah, been busy. Life is good. Hope all is well with y'all!

With love ដោយសេចក្តីស្រលាញ់

- Elder Taylor

Letters will be joyously received at: 

Elder Taylor

Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission 

House 2B, st. 222 off Norodom

P.O. Box 165

Phnom Penh Cambodia 

Update 69: 4th Transfer in the Office!

Transfer calls came out and I'm staying for one more with Elder Nelson in the office! 

As a result, much preparation has been underway for the 18 new missionaries arriving this week. In case you were wondering, that's a lot. A lot a lot. 

We did meet Vivian and Travis and both are wonderful. Vivian is eager to read the Book of Mormon and Travis has many great questions about how we are different from others. 

So, my apologies for a short email, but I hope it is better than none. 

Love, Y'all!

- Elder Taylor

The attached photos are from a birthday dinner we had at the Thurston's and dessert at the Curtis'. Also a photo of two of my investigators from TukThlaa that were baptized a while back. Love seeing them progress even after I've left! I've seen one of them in person, and he thanked me so much for bringing the gospel into his life. Being a missionary and seeing the light of Christ brought into peoples lives is a wonderful opportunity.   

Letters will be joyously received at: 

Elder Taylor

Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission 

House 2B, st. 222 off Norodom

P.O. Box 165

Phnom Penh Cambodia 

Week 68: "Update 60 something ish: Updates On My Missionary Life"

Hello, World! It has been a while since I really sat down and did a fleshed out weekly email. To all of those who actually read my weekly updates, sorry they haven’t been very informative. I’ll try to rectify some of the injustices with this update. (and this coming week I'll do a picture update email)

                As most of you probably know by now, I’m an office elder. What is an office elder? Well, my official title is Mission Secretary and my companion, also an office elder, is the Mission Clerk. He largely handles numbers, baptismal records, and bikes for the mission. My main job is to handle incoming/outgoing missionaries, manage the mission’s Facebook pages, come up with/film/and edit videos to put on said pages, handle all phone issues, create maps when needed, and order nametags for missionaries who need new ones. Both of us also have a smattering of other smaller jobs that only need to be done every once in a while. We also get saddled with random projects as they come up and need to be done. For example, this past transfer has been very busy with preparing for Pshum Bun and General Conference. As office elders, we planned, coordinated, and prepared for both of these events that took many hours to do. On top of our bottomless pit office jobs, we also proselyte; or rather, we teach about the gospel of Jesus Christ. When I first got to the office we had a good amount of people to teach, or investigators. During the transition of Elder Ashcroft and Elder Nelson most all of our investigators dropped us or weren’t really progressing. Since Elder Nelson has been here, we have started to have more investigators again. Which is great! But it makes my life that much busier. There is some general background; I’m on the computer a bunch, and when I get my day off I often don’t even get that much time off because I’m needed elsewhere to prepare for an impending meeting or event. So, when I really do get free time, I just want to go take a nap, read, or play a couple games with the other Elders in my house. (All of which I did this past Monday = preparation day = p day = my day off; well most of a day, from 4:30 – 7:30 are proselyting hours)

                Ok, down to the good stuff; teaching the good word of God. As of right now my teaching pool consists of: Deepak, Kena (she’s kinda sorta back!), Osada, Bernadette, Sheryl, the Pervaiz family of 5, and Moses. We also have several potentials that we are trying to meet with this week: Travis, Ron, friends of DeePak, Sylvester and his 2 friends, Vivian, and the Yarza family. We also still try to visit Ben and Roat, our recent converts that were baptized last transfer, and with the two Pakistani families that are also recent converts: Wajid and Ayeshu and the Ghil family. I could write a small novel trying to tell about all of my experiences with each of these remarkable people; instead I’ll have to try to limit myself to a respectable email length.   

                Deepak: Manages an Indian restaurant right across from one of our churches and has been meaning to come to our church for a long time, and finally did a couple weeks ago. He really wants to become a Christian but these past two weeks has been quite busy and not been able to make it to church or meet with us.

                Kena: I was her initial contact back when I served in Jum-Gow-Moon ចំការមន and we passed her on to the office elders since they teach the internationals. Then I was transferred into the office and taught her once and she went to America for a month or so. She continued learning there with the elders and came back ready to be baptized according to the elders that taught her in America. She got back, we had two or so lessons and she dropped us. Stopped coming, stopped learning. Then two Sundays ago one of the young women in our branch that she had been close friends with told us that Kena was thinking about coming back to church because she missed how she felt. Then she showed up to the Sunday morning session of conference and stayed for the branch luncheon. She’s back!

                Osada: Is an eccentric old Japanese man that has been learning and coming to church for at least one year, maybe three? He has also been learning Khmer on top of his English for a little while now. Teaching him can be a bit difficult at times, language wise, but we’re getting there.

                Bernadette: A wonderful woman from the Philippines who is here with her member boyfriend. We are making slow, but steady progress. We’ve been meeting her for as long as I’ve been in the office.

                Sheryl: I don’t know too much about her yet. We’ve met her once and she comes to church sporadically for even before I was in the office. Her husband, Ron, became interested in learning right before they went to France a few weeks ago. Will be following up on them.

                Pervaiz: A Christian refugee family from Pakistan. They are struggling to manage here in Cambodia, but their faith in Christ is strong. They are currently still looking for a house the is cheap enough for them to rent close to the church so that they can come to church on Sunday. As it is we’ve met with one of the sons the past couple times and the family has all been out looking for a new house (besides the oldest son who has a job).

                Moses: Is an eccentric Chinese man. His English is probably a little worse than Osada’s. He used to meet with us often when we had Drew here helping us teach. (he was an intern here from America that served a mission in Taiwan and speaks fluent Mandarin) Since he left he’s been too busy to meet, but still comes to church about half the time.

                Travis: A referral from the TukThlaa sisters. He teaches with a recent convert of the sisters from TukThlaa and she invited him to come to church. He came for all of church and is excited to meet with the missionaries to discuss the church more. We are set to meet him on Saturday right now.

                Sylvester: Is another Indian man who showed up to church unexpected but very welcomed. We haven’t had a chance to teach him yet, but we are excited to get to know him and his story better.

                Vivian: Is a Chinese woman who showed up to conference sessions on Sunday with 3 friends. She believes in Christ and has been looking for a place to worship and feel of the Spirit. She had been going to a Buddhist temple every morning, but was so happy to find our church and loved the way she felt while she watched general conference. It will be an exciting lesson when we get to teach her about God’s temples here on Earth.

                Yarzas: Are a less active family. I’ve met two of the children who have come a couple times. They have a younger sibling who turned 9 not too long ago and now needs to be taught the missionary lessons before they can be baptized. (Fun Fact: Their name is Aiken, which is also the name of my home town in South Carolina) We’ve been scheduled to meet them twice and once their house flooded and they refused help and the second time our car broke and their house flooded again. Then this past Sunday they were going to a party. One of these weeks we’ll get to meet with them!

                Ben and Roat: Are doing well. Roat is helping her family set up a business selling purses, makeup, and such while she is still around. She is a native who is married to an American, but her visa expired and she got kicked out of America with her kids and now they’re waiting for paperwork to be figured out. She has such a good heart and a sharp mind. Before, when she was in America, she would just send money and that wasn’t working. Now she has a hands-on chance to fix it.

                Wajid and Ayeshu: Were baptized the transfer before I got to the office. They are so kind and always insist on us eating food, even though they are struggling. (It’s really good food) Their visas have expired and they are at a loss for what to do and prayers could be used in their behalf. If they were to try to leave country at this point they have an almost $1000 fine.

                Ghils: Are another Pakistani family of recent converts. They have a crazy family story from the past 3 or 4 years. In the secret filming video in this link they talk to their oldest daughter http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35654804 . It’s been more crazy in Cambodia, but they have seen many blessings in their lives here. Finding housing, work, schooling, and methods to start a business and keep their visas from expiring. They are actually living on the same apartment level as Wajid and Ayeshu so we get to see them at the same times. It is hard to see how one family is overcoming many problems while the other is not seeming to have any progress.

                These people are a big focus in my life right now. It is an amazing, indescribable experience, being a missionary.

3 Nephi 5: 13 Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.

 Amen.

- Elder Taylor

Letters will be joyously received at: 

Elder Taylor

Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission 

House 2B, st. 222 off Norodom

P.O. Box 165

Phnom Penh Cambodia 

Week 67: More Birthday Photos! :)

Birthday dinner at the Thurstons apartment. 

- Elder Taylor

Letters will be joyously received at: 

Elder Taylor

Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission 

House 2B, st. 222 off Norodom

P.O. Box 165

Phnom Penh Cambodia 

Week 66: "The work rolls on"...and Happy Birthday to Elder Taylor!...no more teenager :)

So sorry I've been very busy these past couple weeks, both during the week and then on P-day too! I sit down to email and keep getting called out of my office to help with one problem or another. 

Biggest happenings: Pshum Bun and turning 20.

Pshum Bun: A very big holiday here in Cambodia where they go back to their hometowns to worship their ancestors. Makes Phnom Penh pretty empty as everyone leaves the city (great for traffic!). We were invited to go eat at one of the Pagoda's with a member and his non-member family. He knows a lot of English and described it as a Thanksgiving feast kind of thing. We had a couple head monks come up to us and welcome us; they had really good English and were surprised we knew Khmer.

Due to the fact so many people leave the city we also had a week of activities and zone conferences to keep the missionaries busy with productive things to do. I helped coordinate much of it as office elder and it kept me busy!

Birthday: I don't think I've ever had so many different groups of people sing to me on one birthday in my life. Had dinner with the Thurstons, a senior couple, and then the Curtis' insisted on me stopping by their apartment afterwards to eat more dessert with them! It was fun because when I had my last birthday in KC the Curtis' were also there. I had just arrived to country and they didn't know me too well yet and Sister Curtis had made Walnut chocolate chip cookies to celebrate. She is handing out the cookies to everyone one and I look at the cookie as I'm going to take a bite. See the nuts. Pause. Ask her if there are nuts in it. Upon the affirmative response I gave the cookies to my companion and she felt so bad. So this year we happened to be neighbors again and she made me a chocolate cake. Thank you as well to all the happy birthday wishes from state side. I'm a bit slow on the reply emails but I'll get to you all! 

On the missionary side of things we had a couple wonderful lessons with Bernadette and the Pervaiz family. The Pervaiz family lives far away from the church and need to find a new house close to the church so they can come. Keep them in your prayers to find a way to come to church! 

We also had 3 men from India show up at church and share their desire to convert from Sikh to Christian and want to know what the process is. We should be meeting with them soon as well to get to know them and their story a little bit better.

I love you all! The work rolls on. 

- Elder Taylor

Letters will be joyously received at: 

Elder Taylor

Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission 

House 2B, st. 222 off Norodom

P.O. Box 165

Phnom Penh Cambodia 

 

Week 65....missing in action

In response to my inquiring if Elder Taylor had written a weekly update...

"Not yet, p-day wasn't really p-day and didn't have a long email time. Might get one out before next Monday, might not. I'll try to send two next week

This week is one of the biggest Khmer holidays and there is another smaller one at the beginning of next week so earliest I will be getting mail on Tuesday, just so ya know.
Love you!"

To which I replied, "Oh! I had no idea...ok well...anticipation is half the fun right?  Love you!"

He's such a good sport. Happily, Grandma Mac had sent a birthday package to him earlier than I, so he had something fun to open on his birthday :)

Update 64: Can You Say Crazy?

Because I sure can after this past week. We had transfers, and I was sick, on the same days as transfers. 

Transfers = missionaries move the areas that they work in and I, as office elder, have a major role in orchestrating this all. 

My dear companion, Elder Ashcroft, left me for KC to be companions with another old dear companion of mine Elder Cox, and I was in charge with my new soon to be dear companion Elder Nelson to get everyone safely and soundly to their new area. 

Here is what I wrote in my journal for those days: 

4 Sept 2017 Mon Week 64

Didn’t really have plans for this p-day. Went grocery shopping. I bought a liter of chocolate milk as a splurge buy. We ended up emailing in the morning with the APs in the office. I drank the whole thing of chocolate milk and we had some brownies that I ate too. Went to lunch with the APs. We were going to go to Luigi’s, but turns out they’re closed on Monday. We remembered a place called Luna’s and we went to try it out. It has a very cool style to the restaurant, with both an inside and outside eating area. We ate outside and bought pizza. After that we went up to the house and started playing a round of Pokemon Monopoly. We had to stop before we finished because we had a meeting with President Christensen about MLC at 3, cutting our p-day off a bit early. Elder Otto was sick yesterday and residual sick today. Over the course of the day I’ve been feeling worse and worse too. Dizziness started in the meeting at 3 and I started getting a fever after that. I laid down on the couch from 5-7 and took some medicine. The Christensens had left to go to KC. Sister Benson and Chin were still at the mission home and acted as a kind of mother figure. Helped me get medicine and they had a snack in their bag they gave me to eat with the medicine. Sister Benson reminded me to put a cold towel on my head and go to bed early. Around 7 went back to the house. Laid in bed with the lights off for a half hour or so until Sears and Otto got home; then we finished our Monopoly game and I won. Then I went to bed. Through the night I was constantly shifting and I would wake up every time I rolled over. I decided to get out of bed at 3:30am. The jug on the water dispenser was out, so I had to go outside and I rolled a new one inside since I was feeling pretty light headed. Got it loaded and had some water to drink. Nibbled a little bit of bread. Once I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to vomit I took some more medicine. I grabbed my bath towel and folded it up so that I could use it as a pillow and drape it over the back of my head down onto my forehead/face. Then I soaked the part that would be on my face in cold water, laid down on the kitchen tile, had a bowl by me just in case, and napped on and off for the next 2 hours ish until everyone else got up too. I kept a prayer in my heart asking God to help me heal so that I could have strength to do transfers, because really this was the worst timing for being sick. I can’t just call in a sick day; the whole mission needs me to do my job. At its height, my measured temperature was 101 and dropped down to about 99. I successfully kept myself from throwing up and by the time everyone else was up I was feeling much better.  

5 Sept 2017 Tue

Once everyone else was up I finished a slice of bread that I’d started on at 3:30am and had some more water. Sat on the couch for an hour ish and sipped water. Took a cool shower, got dressed, and came down to the office. As of right now (8:01am) I don’t have a fever and hopefully it will stay that way. (It’s Friday now, been a couple very busy, exhausting days) In the morning we swung by Giant and dropped Elder Ashcroft’s bike off there to be serviced. Then we went and bought bus tickets. Elder Ashcroft got the tickets for people as normal and I went to figure out bikes and baggage. It’s a good thing I know a couple people there by now to work with me. They said they couldn’t fit all of our bikes on the bus with the missionaries. We had 4 going to BB, 3 to SR, and 3 to KC. He asked me if instead I could bring them all over today, well some were still coming in from the Khites. He said that I needed to bring them to the bus station tomorrow morning than so that they could load them onto buses and send them ahead of the missionaries. Also, for baggage he said he wanted to wait until everyone came tomorrow to pay for it since in the past we’ve paid for less than we’ve brought (missionaries travelling with large amounts of stuff. A bike costs $7.50 to send and an extra suit case costs $2.50). Basically, it’s going to make for one of the busiest transfers ever tomorrow. After tickets, we went and picked up Dilly Bars from Dairy Queen as a celebration treat for MLC. Had some time to eat lunch and then we were on our way up to North Stake center to pick up Elder Nelson. Traffic wasn’t bad at all and we showed up about 30 minutes early. Elder Nelson and Phouen showed up just a couple minutes after us. We waited a few more minutes for Elders TukThlaa to be there to take Elder Phouen.  After that we were back to the office. Elder Ashcroft trained Elder Nelson on some basic stuff he would do in his role as the new Mission Clerk. I called the Ghils and set up President’s dinner appointment. Set up President’s office for MLC. MLC started at 3. I took minutes until near the end Elder Nelson offered to take a turn taking notes because I guess I looked fairly rough. After MLC we all had dinner together on the upstairs patio. Lasagna, bread, fruit, veggies, and salad. A scrumptious dinner. Transfers are tomorrow, so we had an army of elders staying at our house tonight (around 11 extras?) Several from my MTC group, so we all had a blast seeing each other again.

6 Sept 2017 Wed

I woke up a few times, but not as bad as the previous night. I got up about 5:10 and showered. Elder Ashcroft and a group of people had gotten up at 5 and left to go play basketball for exercise. I would have liked to go, but I felt miserable still. Still taking drugs every 6 hours. That’s been the cycle: feel bad, take drugs, wait an hour… feel good, wait 4 hours… start to feel worse again, after 6 hours total take more drugs, repeat. Today was a very long day. We got ready and went down to eat meat rice with all the elders who stayed at our house. Then we were in the office. At this point Elder Ashcroft is not an office elder and I’m working through everything with Elder Nelson. It’s about 7:30 and transfers happen at 8. Training meeting starts at 8:30. The bus station asked me to have all 10 bikes to the bus station around 8. I can fit only about 3 bikes easily in my van, 6 if I take time to squish them. I’m thinking that I will have 7 people not in the training meeting ride 7 bikes to the bus station and put 3 in my van and then drive everyone back to the mission home. (Spoiler alert, it all works out, but there were a lot of distractions) The mission home is full of missionaries, I’m feeling like garbage and wouldn’t even be out of bed if I didn’t have to do transfers, and side tasks keep popping up as I’m trying to figure out the bikes. People need new phones, people need phone charges to borrow because they didn’t think to bring one with them when they came down for transfers, people need name tags, people come into my office just to talk and generally annoy me (JK they didn’t mean to annoy me, but it really is annoying), and on and on. Elder Nelson and I assemble a list of who all has a bike going to the provinces (khites), and then we have to figure out which bike is theirs so that we can get it to the bus station. Problem is a couple bikes/owners didn’t get to the mission home on time. Then we also had to figure out who was not in the leadership meeting and could help up ride bikes to the bus station. We made it there around 9. Put all the bikes in the loading spot. Waited in line. Talked to the bike guy and he printed out labels and asked me to put them on the correct bikes for which bike is going to which province. We’d forgotten to write that down so made a few quick calls to get that information. Labeled all the bikes (stapled a plastic sleeve with a receipt in it around the handle bars or brake cables). And we were on our way back to the mission home. (It sounds so much simpler when I type it, when it felt like pure chaos when I was living it) I give all of the helpers a big thank you and go back to solving small problems. The next big hurdle is planning how to get all of the missionaries to the bus station now. I could make 6 or 7 runs and ferry them all over, but that would take a long time and we’d have to start early, or, I could make 2 runs and use tuk-tuks. Long story short with go with option two. The first run was easy. Had extra room in the car, not too much baggage, and only used 1 tuk-tuk and fit the rest comfortably in the van. Dropped them off, gave them their tickets, back to the mission home. Round 2 there were a lot of bags. We made it work, but I could feel the van going slower from the amount of weight. Still only used 1 tuk-tuk, but it was squished in the car. We had Elder Woolf (the tallest person at transfers) sitting in the middle seat between the driver and shotgun. Then 5 more missionaries squeezed in the back. Got them to the bus station and unloaded. Everyone got there with plenty of time. The bus station didn’t have us pay more for baggage. I didn’t realize why at first but then it hit me that everyone gets one free suitcase. Only about half of our missionaries had luggage so it came down to about a bag a person. We were a little over, but they said not to worry about it. Back to the mission home. That was the main hurdle, but the day wasn’t over yet. I was putting a map together for president to get to the Pakistani’s house for his dinner appointment, when he called me and asked me to drive his daughter’s family there since they wouldn’t be back from the airport in time. So now we are going to dinner. We drive there and are having a good dinner. President has me call the APs to see if they can come down to where we are and we can switch out so they can go with President to pick up the 4 new missionaries from the airport. They say it’s too far to make it in time and now I’m roped into driving to the airport. (which I’m kind of excited for because I’ve wanted to go to the airport since I’ve been in the office; I’m just sick today and the enthusiasm isn’t quite there) President’s daughter and co go back to the mission home with Sister C and I drive President and Elder Nelson to the airport. We have a nice chat about Cambodian politics on the ride there. Have a 30 minute or so wait for the new missionaries. I drive all the elders back in the van and the sisters and President drive back with Elder Scott. Start walking up the stairs to our apartment at 9:29. Get to bed ASAP.

7 Sept 2017 Thur 

Woke up in the morning when the alarm went off and felt well enough that I didn’t have to take drugs to get me feeling well enough to do things. Went down to the office early. Training meeting started at 9. More craziness with bus tickets and bikes and blah blah blah. It all worked out in the end again. Random fun thing, Elder Nelson and I both weighed ourselves on the scale at the mission home and we both weighed 72.4 Kilos. Companionship unity! Haha. Went back to the apartment about 6ish and I went to sleep. 

Life is busy; Life is good. 

Wishing y'all the best! 

- Elder Taylor

Letters will be joyously received at: 

Elder Taylor

Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission 

House 2B, st. 222 off Norodom

P.O. Box 165

Phnom Penh Cambodia 

Loading the van to get to the bus station

On the way to the station

At the station waiting to leave on the bus

Picking up the new missionaries from the airport