Saw some crazy stuff and had some cool experiences Week #50 6/26/16

 Well this was a pretty good week, saw some crazy stuff and had some cool experiences. We had transfer calls and Elder Medley and I are doing one more transfer together which means I am probably training next transfer which will be a blast. Last week i talked about this family that we contacted and this week we met with them at their house. Man they are poor. Their kids dont live with them, they are living at the construction site where they work. It was humbling. We rode our bikes through these houses and had like 50 people staring at us. Super tough area. But we found their house and had a great lesson with them. Some other people seemed interested too. It was cool to see. We will meet them again tomorrow. Im really excited.

The coolest part about this mission is the opportunity we have to introduce who Jesus Christ is to people. we usually start our first lesson with them by explaining who God and Jesus Christ are and then teach them how to pray. As lessons progress on i see someone who at the beginning just prays to an idea, but over time they start praying to their REAL Father in Heaven. Its so awesome.

This week was good. As we were riding our bikes under the bridge i saw this dude dragging a rope across the road over his shoulder. Like 15 feet later there was a dead dog. He was just dragging it to his house for dinner.  no one cared. It was totally normal.  Also we had this lady almost kiss my comp as we were teaching a less active member. Funny stuff. Cambodia is treating me well. Everything is going well. I love the people here.

Love you dudes

Elder Smith

This is my main man Khon (cone)--he used to have 7 cats but has eaten a couple of them

Rainy season has begun!

could there be anything better than my favorite candy bar turned into cereal?? 

This area is a tough one, but that's not stopping us! Week #49 6/19/16

This week was better than last week, thats for sure. It was filled with laughing, contacting and finding some new investigators.  The work here is still pretty tough, its hard keeping the faith when its a whole month of people saying no, buuut we work hard to help people, not to help ourselves. 

First things first, so in our are there is a little place, and it is called the Ghost Village. It could be the sketchiest place in the entire world. There are tons of super small houses, so much poverty and graves. Graves everywhere. There are graves where they just put the body on the ground and put a couple feet of dirt on it and leave it. Its way sketchy, but a less active member lives there, so we went to see her. The sisters didnt know her so we brought them a long so they could know where her hut was. As we got there there was this drunk dude, he came up to my comp and me and was pretty aggressive. He totally went for my comp and elder medley had to jump away. He then went for me, i couldnt leave becuase the sisters were right behind me so i had to  shove this dude and let the sisters go past while this crazy drunk dude was trying to get me. it was crazy, but we laughed pretty hard about it after it was done. You never know what you're going to do in cambodia, thats what makes it fun. 

So this area is a tough one. BUT, thats not stopping elder Medley and me. We picked up 3 new investigators this week. The first dude is Davith, hes a super old investigator that hasn't been taught for awhile but now wants to get baptized, i saw him at english class and he wants to learn agian. he's way cool, knows like perfect english. We got along really fast. Im pumped. This other guy eaung was a refferal. He really wants to learn too. And the last guy is the one i am way stoked for. We havent taught him yet but hes seems golden. We were contacting towards the end of our area next to all of these construction sites and i saw this man walking, i dont really like contacting by these places, because they are filled with drugs and alcohol. These guys live in the buildings until they finish building them, but after we passed him i just felt like we needed to talk to him. So we did a 180 and started talking to him. Turns out he has a family and he just got there, and he believes in Jesus. It was aweosme, as soon as we starting talking about the restoration he got chills all over his body. He invited us to teach him on tuesday. If all goes well, we could have a family to teach. Im so pumped. Please pray that the lesson will go well. Im so stoked. 

Our Branch Missionary president is a 70 year old man. He's hilarous. I think he's the member that i have become the closest too. He gives 0 cares about anything excpet the gospel. He's way hardcore. Elder Medly and I had a meeting with him and we made him cry becuase of how hard he was laughing. He told me he loved me. #oldmanlove He's just awesome, for fathers day he came into sunday school and someone gave him a piece of candy and he gave like a 20 minute toast to his Dad, he was toasting to a jolly rancher. it was funny. Im loving the members and this area. we got a good week set up, i know your prayers are helping. thanks so much. love you guys

elder smith

eating dinner on the run

This is what you have to do when your tire explodes- bike shop

went on an echange with the vietnamese elders

I didn't see this but an elder in the mission did--lots of good analogies with this one

Built a member's house this week! Week #48 June 13, 2016

Good week.

To start this off We had a way good/tough lesson with bong rhith yesterday. We gave him the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity lesson. I was pretty nervous, because he talked about some problems he has. We started explaining about how essential prophets are to Gods church and if we dont have them, then we cant have His church. And that through Prophets we recieve commandments and scripture. As we explained what we need to do and what we cant do you could see that he was a little uncomfortable. He had lots of questions which was good, but as we talked for a while, he has to make some big changes if he wants to get baptized. He lives with his girlfriend and has some other issues, so right now bong rhit could use some prayers. Hes such a cool dude. In khmer you say "That brother has a good heart" The spirit is always willing but the flesh is weak. hopefully he will make the right decision. We committed him to Pray and ask if these Commandments came from men or God. So we will see what happens in a couple days.

We were contacting along the road one day and we came across this one dude named Pu ta. He's super friendly and pretty interested. We will have to see how it turns out.

This week we got to go help a member build his house. It was so cool. It was just this guy some members and his brothers helping build his house. How cool would if be if Americans did that. So we almost finished all of the cement stilts that are like 15 feet tall. It was super cool. I think eventualy i will come back here and buy some land and make my own house here. It would be way cool.

MIssionary work is not easy, its fulfilling and so much fun, but man some days its just hard ha. But it feels good at the same time. Cambodia is my new home. I love this place. I hope one day all of you will be able to visit the asian promise land. its the best.

love you dudes

elder smith

Map to an inactive house that a previous elder made-let the adventure begin!

Doing some service in Phnom Penh

#homies

Experienced a miracle this week! Week #47 June 5, 2016

Well I experienced a pretty cool miracle this week. The other day Elder Medley and I ditched our bikes and decided to contact on the road by foot. Just trying different styles. While we were walking we heard this car zoom past us and my arm got nailed. It felt like my arm got like ripped out of my body. I looked over and the cars side window totally broke off. The car stopped and then just sped away, but what was crazy was I literally felt like no pain. Literally none. I feel like I should of gotten like a bruise of something. Nothing. The lord truly does protect his missionaries. Thanks for the prayers homies.

This area is kinda tough. There has only been one baptism in the past year. Idk why but missionary work is just tough here. We''re trying our best, but man there are just some days man. Like cmon.. Just learn with me dude, it will help i promise ha. Its all good. Cambodians will never cease to surprise me. you get to talk to some of the wierdest people ever.

Our area has some really tough places though. Tons of poverty. Its hard to stay way happy and pumped when you walk through places like this. There is the one house that we visited the other night where a less active lives and it kinda just broke my heart a little. Just tons of drugs, alcohol and babies crying. Its tough. We got it so good. I just love these people so much.

I kinda wish i was cambodian sometimes. Life is just simpler here. they just dont let things bother them. They are the chillest. Like the other day at church the men organized a service thing at some members house. So i was like hey, what time? He just gave me this look and was like in the morning!? I was like yeah, but what time? He then just looked at everyone like how someone does when they are about to roast someone and was just like just in the morning. Come whenever you want dude. Come at 7 come at 10 who cares. ha everyone started laughing. im trying to become more chill, so i can become a cambodian.

love you guys. thanks for all the prayers, you are the best

peace out

Elder Smith

Our salon where we get our hair cuts

totally got lost trying to find a member

My new comp-he's the best

And his pants ripped

Banana delivery man