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.
and some of the same pictures with a few more: https://drive.google.
Soo yeah, been busy. Life is good. Hope all is well with 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
