July 22, 2009
Hello everyone!
This has been a super busy week to say the least so we got a lot done. A group of missionaries headed to America this past Monday to go into the MTC and start their missions! I'm so excited for them. Three out of the four who are going have been my Branch Missionaries! It is sweet to see two sisters and an Elder who came out to help us all the time finally starting their own missions. One of them, Elder Vey is serving in Sacramento. He helped us a lot here in second branch and helped the branch so much. The other two are Sister Chhuoen going to Everett, WA and Sister Ang, serving in Temple Square. I'm so excited for them! It will be something they'll never forget. We've been helping them prepare for this for the past 5 months and who knows how long before I got here. They're all going to do great. I have to find some way to keep speaking Khmer when I come home. I don't like English anymore.lol
So we have several investigators who are doing great right now. One guy, Votana was just baptized on Sunday after learning for about seven months. He had problems he had to resolve, but his faith was so incredible. He was one of the best members in the branch and he wasn't even a member. About a year ago he killed someone in a fight and came to hide out here in the city. It was an accident, and he wasn't the one who actually killed the kid thank goodness. It turned out to be an argument that turned into a fight and Votana's group of friends killed one of the kids. When he got interviewed for baptism the first time, the interviewer said "He has completely repented spiritually and has incredible faith. He just has to take care of any legal penalties that may exist. Well, everything is taken care of and he is so awesome! He has some great leadership qualities and the members love him. We're so happy for him. We had another investigator named Komleng who was baptized this past Thursday as well. She was so excited. She's going to be a great member as well.
We have three more investigators with baptismal dates right now. One of them is a man who's three children have already been baptized but he wasn't ready. At this point he has read the Book of Mormon, most of D&C, Preach my gospel, and studies the priesthood books daily. He is such a stud and he finally has a baptismal date. He is so cool, It is a lot of fun to teach him. Another person with a baptismal date is a man named Het Hon. He is absolutely amazing. We just found this out the other day, but four other companionships before us have tried to teach him and he wasn't interested at all. Now he is incredible. We are so lucky that he was prepared to receive the gospel while we were here because it is a treat to teach him.
We're teaching two people right now who are the branch 1st counselor's younger brother and sister. They've been inactive for five years, but have become active again. They want us to teach them the lessons again because they don't remember. This sister we're teaching is so cool! She reads every day and takes notes, and every time we teach her she has all these cool doctrinal questions. I can name the old testament prophets in order now thanks to her asking that question lol.
So Cambodia is gearing up for pioneer day! It is huge here, the members absolutely love it. Every branch is having a huge party, I guarantee it. So that should be pretty exciting. A lot of recent converts are giving talks on pioneers on Sunday and they're all panicking. So we'll be spending some of our time this week helping them lol.
A couple funny things from this week -
Here, most toilets are in the ground, and you squat to go to the bathroom, like if you were camping. A lot of places have real toilets though, but poor people who have never used one before are scared of them, and squat up on the toilet seat. There were muddy footprints on the toilet seat at church the other day, it was hilarious!
Oh by the way, I ate a big plate of fried crickets the other day! It was so good. They taste like unseasoned fried potatoes.
Even without watching the news and seeing all the things that are going on in the world, it is easy to see the signs of the times unfolding. I've been studying in the Old Testament lately and so many of the prophesies are being fulfilled during our time. And the world sure isn't getting any more righteous. I'm so grateful for our leaders in the church and for the scriptures. We know exactly what to do so that we don't fall into these traps. In the words of the late Michael Jackson, "Youuuuu are nooot aloooooone". Our Father in Heaven will always be there for us if we call to him. Something we tell people here is "If you don't pray, how are you going to tell God that you need his help?". We're so blessed to have these simple truths. I know this gospel is true and it is such a privilege to be sharing this gospel with the Khmer people every day. They sure make it interesting lol.
Well, that's it for today. I hope everyone has a good week!
Love,
Elder Donnelson
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
FINALLY! Update from Cambodia!
I know I haven't updated Taylor's blog since the end of April - many changes since then but it's impossible to post every email since that time. So to catch you up, Taylor served in Ta Khmau until his transfer June 17th. He is now serving in the 2nd Branch in northern Phnom Penh and is companion to Elder Jason Howell. Here are a couple of his most recent emails from his new area:
July 8, 2009
Hello devoted readers!
This week was super hectic and super wet, to say the least. The hot/wet season is going strong now. In fact, I can hear rain on the roof as we speak. I hope it stops before we leave!
So to start off, I'll tell about one lesson we had last Thursday that was great. There is a family who are all learning, the brother and sister learning with us, the rest of the family learning with the Vietnamese Elders. Well we were pretty sure the two we were teaching would have a problem with law of chastity and word of wisdom, so we were expecting the worst. We started the lesson and before we knew it, they were accepting them as commandments of God and agreed to resolve any issues they had and to stop drinking alcohol and tea. It was incredible! Their Vietnamese cousin lives with them (she was just baptized in the Viet branch this Sunday) and I'm pretty sure she is being a really good example to them. It was a great experience and it was obvious the Spirit was working on them. We have another investigator named Hon but I can't remember if I told you about him yet. I'll tell some more about him. He is the dad of a sister missionary and is the only member of the family not baptized. Well, we've been teaching him and although he is really quiet and does not talk much, he's a star. He is such a stud! We recently gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to start reading it and he is now almost to Mosiah. We were blown away when he told us! He reads with his wife to, which is really weird for Cambodia. There isn't a whole lot of stuff like that going on in Cambodia, as in a husband wanting to do something constructive with his wife just to grow closer. He is doing amazing and progressing like crazy.
We have so many investigators in this branch that we don't even have time to teach most weeks. It is a huge blessing to have so many investigators but you sure feel bad when you can't visit all of them. We get a lot of referrals here to, which is so great. The members really care.
So we were at Pizza Company the other day (the only place we do finding) and the person sitting in the booth behind us was very curious, and giving all the signs saying we should talk to him. Our waitress would talk to him, he'd tell her to come ask us a question, she would and then go back and tell him. After a bit we got up and sat by him and started getting to know him so we could try to teach him a finding lesson and see if he was interested. It didn't take long to figure out that he knew a lot about the church because he knew 'Mormon' and 'LDS'which no one here knows. Wouldn't you know it, he's one of the higher-ups in the Ministry of Cults and Religions. Obviously he wasn't interested in learning, but he said he was very impressed with how respectful we were and our grip on the language. So, we were able to set a good example for the church that will maybe help open a door to that man learning the gospel one day.
Well, the language is coming along really well, which is a huge blessing but at the same time something I have to be careful of. President Winegar gave us some advice that I try to keep in my mind all day. "Praise is Poison". Well, for a missionary it is at least. People praise me because of my ability (more like inability) to speak the language but the problem is not knowing if they're being honest or not. It is also very easy to become prideful in such situations, so I am trying to constantly be aware of how little of the language I actually know lol. I am very grateful for the gift of tongues though. It is truly such a blessing in my ability to teach. If we cannot speak the language how will we teach?
That's about all I have to share for today. We are SUPER busy all the time and are teaching lessons like crazy. Elder Howell baptized two of our investigators this past Sunday and they are both AWESOME. They already want to be sister missionaries. Ok, really now thats all. Until next week, Love you all!
Elder Donnelson
July 8, 2009
Hello devoted readers!
This week was super hectic and super wet, to say the least. The hot/wet season is going strong now. In fact, I can hear rain on the roof as we speak. I hope it stops before we leave!
So to start off, I'll tell about one lesson we had last Thursday that was great. There is a family who are all learning, the brother and sister learning with us, the rest of the family learning with the Vietnamese Elders. Well we were pretty sure the two we were teaching would have a problem with law of chastity and word of wisdom, so we were expecting the worst. We started the lesson and before we knew it, they were accepting them as commandments of God and agreed to resolve any issues they had and to stop drinking alcohol and tea. It was incredible! Their Vietnamese cousin lives with them (she was just baptized in the Viet branch this Sunday) and I'm pretty sure she is being a really good example to them. It was a great experience and it was obvious the Spirit was working on them. We have another investigator named Hon but I can't remember if I told you about him yet. I'll tell some more about him. He is the dad of a sister missionary and is the only member of the family not baptized. Well, we've been teaching him and although he is really quiet and does not talk much, he's a star. He is such a stud! We recently gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to start reading it and he is now almost to Mosiah. We were blown away when he told us! He reads with his wife to, which is really weird for Cambodia. There isn't a whole lot of stuff like that going on in Cambodia, as in a husband wanting to do something constructive with his wife just to grow closer. He is doing amazing and progressing like crazy.
We have so many investigators in this branch that we don't even have time to teach most weeks. It is a huge blessing to have so many investigators but you sure feel bad when you can't visit all of them. We get a lot of referrals here to, which is so great. The members really care.
So we were at Pizza Company the other day (the only place we do finding) and the person sitting in the booth behind us was very curious, and giving all the signs saying we should talk to him. Our waitress would talk to him, he'd tell her to come ask us a question, she would and then go back and tell him. After a bit we got up and sat by him and started getting to know him so we could try to teach him a finding lesson and see if he was interested. It didn't take long to figure out that he knew a lot about the church because he knew 'Mormon' and 'LDS'which no one here knows. Wouldn't you know it, he's one of the higher-ups in the Ministry of Cults and Religions. Obviously he wasn't interested in learning, but he said he was very impressed with how respectful we were and our grip on the language. So, we were able to set a good example for the church that will maybe help open a door to that man learning the gospel one day.
Well, the language is coming along really well, which is a huge blessing but at the same time something I have to be careful of. President Winegar gave us some advice that I try to keep in my mind all day. "Praise is Poison". Well, for a missionary it is at least. People praise me because of my ability (more like inability) to speak the language but the problem is not knowing if they're being honest or not. It is also very easy to become prideful in such situations, so I am trying to constantly be aware of how little of the language I actually know lol. I am very grateful for the gift of tongues though. It is truly such a blessing in my ability to teach. If we cannot speak the language how will we teach?
That's about all I have to share for today. We are SUPER busy all the time and are teaching lessons like crazy. Elder Howell baptized two of our investigators this past Sunday and they are both AWESOME. They already want to be sister missionaries. Ok, really now thats all. Until next week, Love you all!
Elder Donnelson
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