This has been a tough area, but it's also been really fun 1/30/17 Week #81

hey hey

this week was pretty good. I contacted 2 guys at seperate times and they both invited us back so we got another 2 investigators. We have 6 investigators with a baptismal date, but this week was also chinese new year. the funniest thing about cambodia is that they will literally celebrate every single holiday its the funniest thing ever. even if they dont even know why, they just love to party. Totally my culture. but beacuse of the party everyone went to their home town so like no one came to church but oh well haha. 

We are meeting with vangnoo tomorrow and if he didnt drink he will get baptized but if he did then we will have to continue to work things out. 

Yeah we get transfer calls on Sunday, so this is my last week here. i have been here for a while haha. its been tough, but also really fun. It kinda makes me cry not going to lie, i kinda want to leave but ive learned a TON about who i am here. its been humbling. this branch was dying when i got here, and its still tough but i literally know every single member and just worked my hardest so its been fun to see what worked and what didnt. Its funny some people think im going to the city and some think Battambang and be zone leader there so who knows. Im honestly down to do anything. the city does sound a little nice not going to lie haha. 

love you momma

elder smith

 

4 inch spider on my arm and I let out a little yelp! 1/22/17 Week #80

hey fellas

Good week. But.. vangnoo  went to a big wedding with a bunch of his friends and he drank..;( BUT we had a really good powerful lesson about it and he's determined to stop. He explained that he doesnt even want to, but drinking is such a social thing in Cambodia for men that people will actually get very offended if you dont drink. So we pushed the baptism back 2 weeks. We are praying and trying to prepare him for baptism soon. 

The 11 year old kid we are teaching is doing good. He should get baptized the same day as vangnoo now so that should be cool. I contacted this dude a couple weeks ago and we finally got to meet him and he had a friend over. We taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and what He taught. They loved it and agreed to be baptized. Super cool! They have a ton of work to do in order to get ready (we literally were sitting on beer cans for our seats) but with Gods help it can be done. 

I did an echange with my main man Elder Bullough. Way funny dude. Hes like 6ft 4 so all the memebrs just call me Yeaak. Which means Ogre. Super funny. We were teaching one of his recent converts and and then i felt this little thing walking on my elbow. Turns out there was likea 4 inch spider just chilling on my flipping arm. I surprised myself and let a little yelp out and walked it across the room. It took me a while to get over it. The guy we were teaching just looked at me at was like "why are you even scared?" uhhh are you kidding me? He was just so unimpressed with me. Gotta love it. 

We taught his super old 85 year old man too and we just got to hear him try to convince his other 90 year old friend to come to church. Funniest conversation of my life. For some reason old people in Cambodia go a little crazy when they pass 80. It was one for the books. 

A less active we have been meeting with a lot lately finally showed up for church. His name is Saruan. Such a good dude. The spirit is working on him. And he told me that "the day of changing his heart is coming up." ha i just said why not now! And gave him a hug and told him i will be the first person to welcome him back. Nothing like some brotherly love. 

Another funny culture thing in Cambodia, is that when you get close with older men like 30 to 70 year old men, they will start to be really touchy. It means they like you. So since i have been here for a while the men are getting really touchy. Its the funniest thing ever. I had 3 grown men grab my butt this week. Now who can say that???? I can. 

 

From Charlotte:Dear elder sam, i love you so much. I am sorry i have not been able to write to you that much. I have been very busy. How is your companion? how are you? how is your life? Monday i am starting school i am so scared. I can't believe i am not in Thailand it feels so weird? I can't wait for you to come back! I love  you so much Charlotte.

Sam's Reply: Dear Charlotte. 

I know you are busy so it is ok. You got a lot to do every day. What makes you so busy? Is it your Mexican boyfriend or what?! Haha do you love playing in the snow?? My companion is awesome. its tons of fun. I will leave this area in two weeks so i want to try my very hardest these next couple weeks. How are your friends?? Love you dude!!

Elder Smith

Lots of investigators! 1/16/17Week #79

hey hey hey

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. You guys are the best! Last night we had a big BBQ at our house. It was a ton of fun. The two khmer elders that i love went big and decorated the deck and played some way sick Khmer music. It was a super fun night. I'll send pics of it next week. 

This week was good. I got to do some service in Prae Choo (my very first area) so that was a ton of fun seeing some of the members there. They made us food as well... they gave us dog. And chicken liver/head/feet. yeah yeah it was awesome. The dog was different, super chewy but hey it didn't taste bad. 

Funniest thing happened last week. We were teaching huah ,our recent convert, and we were sitting on this little table and we were really close to each other. He started to read this scripture that i had asked him to read and my face was probably a foot away and he just burped so hard and loud right in my face. My reaction wasn't the best to say the least. Cambodians don't really brush their teeth, so the smell was too much. I was laughing so hard. 

Vangnoo is getting interviewed this week for baptism so please pray for him! He bought me a sandwich for my birthday. What a guy. Hes doing really good. Hes been going to church every week consistently for over a month. So awesome!

We are teaching this 12 year old kid now. His name is Hiang. His mom joined and for some reason hated the church, his friends made fun of him because he believed in Jesus. But now he wants to learn so he should get baptized next month! Super stoked for that as well. 

We are teaching this man name Soka right now. Hes a professor at a college. Hes the smart one. We had a way cool lesson about Baptism and Obedience to God. The Spirit was super strong. We finally got him to commit to a date. Feb 28! He has to get work off on Sundays now so he will need to make some changes. Hopefully this guy can make the changes needed so he can be baptized!  

 

Right now i'm feeling good. Ive been thinking about how i can be a better missionary a lot lately. Im over a year and a half and i don't want to plateau. So i have just been thinking about what i can do better or what i should stop doing so i can be a better missionary.

Thanks for everything!!

Love you guys!

 

Ancient Temples! 1/9/17 Week #78

Hey guys! We just got back from going to some ancient temples so i have about 5 minutes to email! This week was way sick. We picked up another investigator. His name is Phiarit. Super cool. Yesterday we had 3 investigators at church. It was such a good sunday. On one of the rows it was elder mitchel, our investigator vangnoo, phiarit, me and then jomraun who just got baptized. Good stuff right there. Vangnoo is still killing it. He should be getting baptized on the 21. So stoked!!

Love you dudes!

Elder Smith

1/1/17 Week #77

ha mom you got me. I actually got a little excited for a second. I thought i was going to have another sibling, but you just took him/her away from me haha. Man i just stopped reading once i read that, took me a sec to read the rest of that haha. you are the worst. 

Man 2017 is going to be big. Super cool. Having lots of things in a year makes it a lot more fun. Thats so cool you guys got to meet so many cool people in that branch. I bet you guys learned a ton. The church in Cambodia is like that too. Every single person in the room is a convert. When i had a khmer comp i realized i was the only person born in the church. We are so blessed. The testimonies of people who find God are my favorite. Filled with so much gratitude. There is this word in khmer and it means to be grateful and being amazed at the same time. They use it a lot its super cool. 

This week was super good. We got to find a lost member, teach a progressing investigator, get a new investigator and see Gods power heal a little boy. Such a good week. I know your prayers and fasting help in so many ways. Thank you so much:)

Sound like the kids are doing awesome. I love hearing that. Brandon is literally going to be the best missionary ever. So pumped for him. All the kids are growing up. What the heck. Its kinda fun though. When we go on trips it will be a lot more fun that's for sure:)

Ha man 20. I literally hate it. This is my first birthday where i am not excited. Honestly for my p day if you could just get a TON of pics from my friends instagram and crop them, and some pics of the family that would be the best thing ever. I love pictures for some reason.

I loved hearing all about your adventure in Thailnd. You are the coolest mom ever. Always wanting your kids to have good experiences. I love it so much. Your the best. 

Elder Smith

Vnagoo is doing great! Trying to help the people here know that a Savior is born! 12/18/16 Week #76

ជំរាបសួរ!

HELLO

This week we killed it on the lessons. Our new investigator Vangnoo is doing so good. He's the guy who saw a vid on facebook and is in dentistry school right now. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This guy is one of my favorite people i have taught so far on my mission. Hes just so sincere. He's joined like every single religion, Buddhism, Hinduasm some wierd Chinese religion and other Christian churches and as we taught the plan of salvation he told us, "Elder, I just want to know which one is true. Thats it." It went quiet for a little and I got to testify about everything I know to be true. It was way cool. He then asked us why he cant be baptized tomorrow. We have a date for him on the 7th. So stoked. 

We are teaching another man named Soka. Hes a teacher here in Kampong Cham. Hes super busy but hes starting to have some real faith. We taught him the Gospel of Christ and he said he believes now. Its so cool to just show people and teach them that they have a Savior. Being here in Cambodia its such an amazing opportunity to help people understand what Christ did for them. Its the best. Buddha is good and all but he just doesn't have what it takes.

Had some soup this week that wasn't too good. I can handle food pretty well now, but that one was a fun one. I look at food now like its a challenge. Taste really does matter. Its like a pride thing i have with myself now. Can i have the will power of swallowing it or will my body not let me? Its a fun game!

This Sunday I had a really cool experience. I've been really thinking a ton about Repenting Daily this past week and have been praying for the Spirit. As i was sitting next to Vangnoo in sacrament and explaining what the sacrament was and seeing the humble Cambodians pray individually i felt the still small voice. It wasn't strong but it just stayed with me for the next hour. It was so neat. The Spirit told me that what I was doing was right. And it taught me the importance of preparing to renew convenants. It was a day i will cherish forever. 

Christmas is super weird here. No one here even knows what it is. I would say 80% of the memebers have no clue as well, so this week we will just be spreading the word that A Savior Is Born. Should be the coolest thing ever, 

Love you all

Elder Smith

Got a great investigator from the Mission's FB page! Got to eat at Jamraun's house Week #75 12/11/16

hey fellas

Great week. The office elders gave us a phone number of some dude who saw our missions face book page and was interested. So we called him met him at the river and showed him our new church. We had a quick lesson about what we do in our church and how prayer can help us. So a couple days later we met him again and had the sickest lesson. We taught him about the beautiful Restoration. It was one of my favorite lessons yet. He was just asking questions every 5 seconds. It was super cool. He understood it all and once we finished we had him read In Moroni 10 and after he read verse 5 he just looked up and said "Woah!" Ha it was the coolest. Hes way pumped and even skipped his college class the next day so he could come to class. We are way stoked. I got high hopes for this dude. 

Elder Mitchell and I did some good hard contacting this week and we found 2 guys who want to learn also. So we are going to meet with them this coming week. Super excited. I just love teaching people. The language is noproblem anymore. Things just come out now. Its so fun. Elder Mitchell and I have Gods Help and we're going to some damage hear. Way pumped. 

We went to jomruans house this week. He lives way far so we went on a tuk tuk. We got there and like 30 kids came. jomraun said we were the first white people to be there in ages. So these little jungle kids had only seen them on TV. We were movie stars. Jomruans parents were way excited to see us. We sat on their bamboo table,talked and ate some bananas. Then they brought some special food out. They made us straight cow hoof soup.I kid you not there was a cow toenail in my bowl. Nothing else just a hoof and some broth. It was.... not that good. But i had 3bowls and had a stomach ache for a couple days haha. 

Funny story so this wierd vietnamese man came to our church and said he is a member. He speaks way good khmer so we got talking. He sells balloons on his bike and wants to come back to church. He was a little wierd but we called him a couple days later and told him to meet us at the church. We met him and asked us if his house was close and said yes and then just started biking way fast. So we thought he must me showing us his house. This dude is like 60 years old and had like 30 balloons on his 100 year old bike. So it wasnt hard to not catch usp, but man this dude could go fast and he was riding his bikeon the wrong side of the road he was riding on flowers and grass i felt like i was on a video game. He kept looking back to see us and then he would just stare and start biking even faster haha i was laughing so hard. It was like Nitendo mario kart., We eventually got to his house, turns out hes crazy. We talkedto his neighbors they didnt want to learn. 

Great week. Love you dudes 

Elder Smith