Sunday, February 19, 2017

Update 35: Pizza is the Perfect Valentines

So this past week was Valentines day and I decided to ask pizza to be my Valentine for the day. After our weekly missionary meeting in the morning we ordered pizza. Worked out perfectly because it's always buy one get one free Tuesday with free delivery from Dominoes. Also had a church activity that night and got to eat more pizza. If you had to pick a food substance to be your Valentine, what would it be? 

​It's Elder Lee! He's from the same Augusta, GA stake as me! (What I love most about this picture is how white my feet are, haha!)


​With my super cool investigators at the Valentines activity. The far left was brave enough to try out the dancing that the senior couples were teaching. The other not so much. I'm so glad I have the opportunity to help them learn of the love that God has for them. 


​Member and investigator. 

​Played basketball this morning. Had about 18 elders? 4 teams of 4 with some subs. Our team had no subs. We lost first game. Won second game. Replayed the first team and creamed em! Haven't played some ball in so long. Fun time. 

​Mummified frog with a side of ants. Anybody want some? 


​Helping make food. We had to activities this week. For this one they are making kebabs to grill. Way good. Chicken, pork, carrots, green bell peppers, and onions. 

​I found Dory! (Savannah!) But I got there too late... Hope Marlin and Nemo made out better than Dory did. 


​Paper work! 


​New planner. Mosiah 20:11 and Romans 13:12


My pizza valentine with the dancing senior couples in the background. 


​The other activity, valentines one, and I helped chop up some meet for the stir-fry's 



Romans 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness , and let us put on the armor of light.
God can protect us with His armor of light better than anything this earth can provide. Learn His word, follow His path, and you will come off conquering! 
With love,
Elder Taylor 












Saturday, February 18, 2017

Update 34: Transfers Bring Surprises

So like I said before (I think) I'm staying in TukThlaa with Elder Try, but turns out we're not the only ones in TukThlaa. They're splitting my area. There will now be 4 elders in my ward and no sisters. That was a surprise. So this week has been deciding how to split the area and then putting it into action. The two new elders to the area are Elder Cunningham and Elder Nelson. Cunningham is from my group and Nelson is the group below me. 

​The mission leaders love us! 

​Spent an hour or so at the doctors this morning for my companion. Been at the doctors so much the past few months.


​After a long hard day of biking, Elder Cunningham and I had dinner at a burger place we found. Super good.


​Me after 4+ hours of straight biking. 

​So the main road on our map that makes the far border of our area turned out to not be a very main road. Pretty view though. Desert on one side and ponds on the other, with a row of trees to remind me of South Boundary in the middle. 


​A ditch we crossed and recrossed after we hit a dead end.


​Where's Waldo? 


​Our "main road" disappearing around the bend of a lake. 


​Some cows staring me down. Empty building behind them that look like it could have been a school before. Looks like a great spot for paintball.... 


​Thought this was pretty funny. Literally translates to "Forbidden steal trash here" don't take their stuff


Well see what a new week brings. Hope it brings greatness for all of yall!
- Elder Taylor







Friday, February 17, 2017

Cambodia

I just saw this video and thought of Chet...hoping Brenden and I might be able to travel to Cambodia to pick up Chet summer 2018!!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7WwMUKwfpU&sns=fb

Monday, February 6, 2017

Mission Log 33: Baptism, Big Bugs, and Bawn-t-haw =បន្ត

So Bawn-t-haw means to continue. Had transfer calls and Elder Tree and I get to do one more together! It's his last one, so in mission lingo I'll be killing him aka sending him home. 

​Here is the man himself with his pig lungs he just bought this morning. 



Questions: 
have you had any spiritual promptings that guided your efforts that you would like to share?
 One cool experience I had this week was when we were teaching an investigator who seemed to have dropped us (didn't want to learn any more) after he failed his baptismal interview. We were teaching prayer, scripture study, and God, and when I bore my testimony and taught the words flowed out of my mouth like never before. It's the closest experience I've ever had to saying the Holy Ghost testified through me and I wasn't saying it.

​Got my hair cut this morning. Quite the experience for $1.50. He spent forever fine tweaking it. Even trimmed my nose hairs. Kind of surprised me when he went for it. Sprayed my hair with gel stuff and blow dried it. Took some pictures with his phone too. I think he's an apprentice and he probably doesn't get many chances to cut white people's hair. He told me not to wear my helmet because it would mess my hair up, so I got a picture with him before we left. Thought it was funny he stood on his tip toes and I slouched so we were close to the same height. 


This drink was made 2 days after I started my mission and will expire within a couple days of me finishing my mission. 


​Came downstairs this morning all blurry eyed and found this. One way to wake you up.


​All natural mangoes I picked from the tree in my courtyard. They are sour right now, but I'll let them sit awhile and they'll soften up. Although they love to eat them sour with spicy salt and sugar here. 


​We had a baptism! He was married 3 months ago and his wife is a member. Really cool guy. He sells stuff, is a business man, and gave me some hex keys for free to use on my bike. 


​When your companion doesn't make the red light. 


​We have a road of eternal construction in our area, and it's a real bummer because we use it every day. Traffic gets way bad. Luckily bikes are small and fit in small areas. 


​Yes I'm white, and yes foreigners do love their bread. Although we do occasionally eat rice.


​We played do you love your neighbor in english class. They didn't know what was going on half the time, but way fun. 


​So people write their numbers on their houses here so you can get a hold of them if you ever need to. 

Did an exchange with Elder Wayne (younger group than me) and I lost my name tag biking to meet up with him because the extra bag I had strapped on my front popped it out of my pocket. So for the day I was Elder Wayne and he was also Elder Wayne (just written in Khmae)


​Found the place for engineers! 



​I ate french toast and yogurt with chop sticks. I would say my skill with chopsticks has much improved since before my mission. Although the typical utensil use is a fork and a spoon here. (they don't use knives) 


​Does putting Vitamin E in dish soap do anything? 


Romans 13: 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

May you all invite a little more light, and a little more joy into your lives this week! 

Love,
Elder Taylor










Saturday, February 4, 2017

Week 32: I learned how to make some Khmae food!

Questions:
Do you feel any more at home in Cambodia? It seems like you're adjusting well and learning lots of new things. It's already been six months or so, and I know you're an easy going guy, but moving to a whole new country must be stressful.
I've got a daily routine and life feels normal now. Every now and then you'll encounter a new thing that will throw you for a loop, but honestly coming back to America will be weird for the first bit. 

What are some of the things you still feel like you need to work on? 
Language. And learning how to make Khame food. 

Plus, how are your teachings going? Are you getting lots of converts and such?
We're having pretty good success. Have people to teach most of the time and we had one baptism since I've been here. 

Sooooo, what's the biggest difference between Cambodia and America? 
Traffic, food, ethnicity. Motos everywhere. And people ride bikes. And traffic is crazy, no one follows the traffic laws really.    Food is different. And they sell it different. The markets and seeing food carts all over the streets. And people just sell things out of their home.     Ethnicity. I always do a double take when I see a white person I don't know. I just feel like everyone should be Asian. 

​Some youth


​Companionship fun


​I made a pineapple stir fry today! (Cha Muhnoah) 


​One of the sisters investigators caught a photo of me photobombing but it looks like I'm eating this kid.... 



​Me with the artist that made a fine portrait of me


​We had a huge meeting with all the missionaries in the city for a world wide training update and Elder Lasswell told me to take a picture of him for my blog. Good to see him again. 


​So many missionaries... 


​Just biking down the street and 3 moto pizza delivery guys go by. Think, huh someone is buying a lot of pizza for a Chinese New Years party. Then they keep coming, and coming. 13 went by. I was baffled by who would buy that much pizza, and then a truck came by with a sign in the bed. It was an advertisement parade. 


​A different sisters investigator invited us to drink this juice together on Chinese New Years. Took a sip and thought it was really thick. Looked at the bottle, concentrate. 

​Did some service, took out a tree stump.


​Found some fun graffiti 


​Lunch time! 


​This bent over lady is showing the dog who's boss by twisting his ear when he kept barking at us. We were there doing service for her too. Cutting off some tree branches. 


​I found some weeping angels... 




Hope you all had a great Chinese New Years! (if you even realized, I probably wouldn't have but all of our investigators were busy partying)
Love,
- Elder Taylor