This is just an email

But it is so much more.

I love writing these emails. Thank you for reading them. It really makes me happy to share my mission. It’s like you are out here with me. I love it.

                                              I got to see my MTC teacher again!
                                      It was a beautifully awkward reunion. I loved it.

We had a great week this week. We are trying to move away from teaching so many members and instead teach investigators. That means we need to find them first! This week we found a few. Mostly crazies but we did find one that is super good. His name is Odom. Hopefully everything will work out with him.

I find that keeping a good balance between teaching crazy people and normal people is essential to having a balanced mission. It's like the food pyramid. You gotta teach mostly good investigators, some less-actives, some recent converts, some members, and just a couple of crazies to top it all off.  It keeps things spicy. This week we taught a guy who repeated everything I said because he wanted to remember everything so that he can become a missionary and get rich. I explained that everyone in our church is a  volunteer. I don't think he gets it yet. One day.

                      Cambodia is conservative in some ways and not so much in others

                                                  We teach English class


It is a way awesome program that was created entirely by our missionaries. It is super professional and really good for the people who come. In this new area we are in downtown so we get a lot of really smart students. This week I taught a class of 30 students that speak almost fluent English. It was way awesome. I did a "Rhyme Time" segment with them and some of them knew words that I didn't even know!

Our branch here is super legit. We have some people that have been members for a really long time. By a long time I mean like 18 years max. But it’s really cool to see that even though we are in a country that is relatively new to the gospel we can still have a solid, legit branch. The best part is that the Khmaes even take it further and make everything even more legit by adding food to all the meetings! Get on our level America.

                                             I love reading over old records



I have really been blessed on my mission so far. The language, my companions, our areas.  All of it has just worked out so well and worked out in a way that makes me feel really good about my contribution to the work. I've prayed every day for the 5 months that I've been on my mission to become a better tool in the Lords hands. The Lord is sharpening me every day. Shaving off little pieces of pride. I am still very rough but I know if I keep trusting in Him I will one day become what  He wants me to become. I'm so thankful for this opportunity to serve and to change.

                                                              My river

                                                          My flowers

Love,

Elder Osborne

You can't write Khmae in Enlgish

I wanted to make the title of this email the name of my new area but I realized how much English sucks. You can’t make the same sounds using the English alphabet. It just can’t happen. Trying to sound out the name of my area it would be Jom Gaa mon. Lol. It looks so dumb. I don't even know. Khmae is way weird.

Friends 4 eva:

It was hard to leave Stung Mean Chey. I love that place with all my heart. Leaving was like a bad break up. The relationships I made there were so strong. The gospel brings people together so tightly. But now it’s on to the new new. New experiences, new challenges, new friends.

View from my new apartment: 

My new area is way cool. Its really big. We have both sides of the Bassac River which feeds into the Mekong River about a mile north of our area. Cambodia is so cool. We cross over the river about 4 times a day on this really big bridge. 

My new companion, Elder Olson, is the champion of the bridge:

Elder Olson is straight out of Orem, Utah. He likes to party. He also likes computers and robots. He is a Pokemon master. I'm super excited to be serving with him. We're going to do work together. We don't have very many investigators right now but we will very soon. Elder Brewer was the champion at contacting and he taught me all the tricks of how to find new investigators.

Olson: 

I've learned a lot about sacrifice on my mission. My farewell talk was on sacrifice. If I could go back and do it again it would be completely different. A couple of nights ago Elder Olson took me to go see some members. They are an old Chinese couple that moved to Cambodia a long time ago. They live out in the middle of nowhere where there is no electricity. They live in a tiny shack and they both collect trash for a living. Their situation is the most humble I've seen so far. To share a verse about prayer we had to light a candle. They didn't know what day it was so when we told them it was Saturday they were excited to still have to opportunity to go to church the next day. Even though it is an hour-long bike ride and time they could be using to make a little more money, they came to church. They know the importance of sacrifice.

I don’t know why this picture reminds me of Morgan Freeman... 

I love Cambodia.

Love,

Elder Osborne

30 Club

We decided we needed some swaggy passport photos. Just for fun:

This week Elder Brewer and I had 33 opportunities to sit down and teach people about the gospel. 33 lessons in one week. For any of you who don't know, that is a lot. I was able to practice teaching, speaking khmae, asking questions, and listening and understanding a solid 33 times this week. What a blessing. We also found 10 new investigators so we doubled President Moon's promise of 5 a week.

A couple of those lessons were to Puu Sarit and Ming SreiToic again. They are still doing so well. Sarit called me 30 minutes before church and told us that he couldn't come to church because he didn't have anything to ride. We were way sad but we said a prayer for them. Miracles do happen. They walked in 10 minutes after church started. They decided to take a mottodope again. I know their sacrifice will pay off. Heavenly Father is blessing them and will continue to bless them.

I decided to buy lemon/salt flavored toothpaste:

   Definitely one of the weirder things I've ever put in my mouth. 2/10 would not recommend.

There are tons of waffle carts rolling around our area all the time. Whenever we ride past I get a whiff of the sweet cinnamon sugar goodness and die because we aren't allowed to eat from carts like that. This week we found a lady that sells them in the market! So finally I got to see if the forbidden fruit really lived up to all the hype. It did.

We got transfer calls last night. I'm leaving to go to an area called Jimgamon. I'll be working with Elder Olson. I'm way stoked! We are going to do some great work. I love moving around so it will be a fun time for sure. I'm way sad to be leaving this area though. I'm definitely not ready to leave all my homies that I've made here. Our recent converts are the best and our ward is growing so fast. I'll be back here one day though. When they build a temple in Stung Mean Chey I'll come back and move in and be a temple worker for sure.

My homies:

This is how to be cool in Asia: 

Shpeel: This week we got some pass out cards pictures of resurrected Christ in America. We taught a bunch of people all about his resurrection and how He will come again one day and there will be peace for 1000 years. The spirit that filled the room every time we talked about his resurrection was so strong. My testimony of this was confirmed multiple times. I know that we will all be resurrected because of Christ. I know that He will come again. I know that we need to prepare now for that day. I hope when that day comes I will be ready and be able to meet Him with confidence.

I love Cambodia.

10/10 would recommend.

I love all of you.

Love, Elder Osborne

Praying for Rain

By David C. Moon  (our mission president)

Parched soil, cracked, hardened by unrelenting daily heat

Swirling clouds of dust fill my soul, choking the light

Tender shoots springing from my heart wither, collapsed, gasping

Clasped hands, bowed head, the priest on bended knee

Gives voice to my soul, pierced through with many sorrows

To thee i witness my heart, imprinted with His name

My mind, to always remember Him

My life, bound by covenant to keep thy law

Please, Father, send rain.

I thirst.

Then came there forth both blood and water.

This is my blood which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground.

Great drops falling down, slowly at first

Splattering in the dust, softening the thirsty soil

The drizzle turns to downpour

Soaking, soothing, healing, filling my soul

How can a small plastic cup hold such a flood?

Drenched in Spirit, poured out from heaven, my cup runneth over

Living Water refreshes, renews, as I recommit

Tender shoots springing up unto everlasting life.

I'm in Cambodia

l-i-f-e-g-o-e-s-o-n

Another good week!

Elder Brewer and I are getting settled in probably just to get torn apart in a couple weeks again. We had a bunch of lessons this week. A bunch of opportunities for spiritual growth. We also had zone conference and it was way awesome! Life is good as always.

I'll start off with some sad news first. Om Ai is leaving. He's going back to his province until next March. I'm super sad about it but hopefully I'll be able to see him again someday. I'm sure he'll get baptized when he comes back with his divorce paperwork. He did bring his whole family to church one last time before he left though so that was kinda heartwarming. 

We actually had a bunch of investigators at church this week. Sunday is the day where all your efforts for the week either pay off or burn up in flames. This week we managed to invite others to use their agency to come to church effectively. The big story for the week was that Puu Sarit and Ming SreiToic made it to church.

This is their family:

And this is their baby:

They are the parents of our recent convert Srei Niet. We started teaching them a long time ago but then he lost his job and had to sell his motto and now they dont have a way to get to church anymore. Well we have been working with them and have been very straight forward and promised them lots of blessings. This week they made a huge sacrifice which was totally unexpected. They spent a whole $2.50 to get a motto dope to and from the church. That is a LOT of money for them but they came and stayed the whole time. Then we went over later that evening to their house and they were both reading the Book of Mormon! It's so awesome to be able to see people change. I know that the atonement can change lives. Missions are the coolest. Highly recommend 10/10.

President Moon has a promise for all his missionaries that every week in every single are there are at least 5 people that will accept the gospel. It is our job to find them. This week we got 5 new investigators! We found 5 new people that are very promising and accepted to learn more about the gospel. Its so cool to see President Moon's promise come true.

My daredevil companion:

Speaking of President Moon, this week we had zone conference. That means we get to spend 5 hours with a bunch of other missionaries, get training from President and Sister Moon, and get free food and real life American chocolate chip cookies from an oven. It was great. President Moon gave us all his book that he wrote and a poem that he wrote like 2 weeks ago. He's the coolest. Also the scariest though. We were doing a practice with another companionship, teaching them in Khmer, and President came over and listened to Elder Brewer and I teach for 5 minutes. That was kinda terrifying but I think I got all of my words out okay.

President Moon taught about the importance of the sacrament ordinance. It is the only ordinance we do more than once for ourselves. It should be the most sacred part of our week. We should have a spiritual experience every week just like we did when we got baptized or went to the temple. Sister Moon taught a lot about work. The most important part of missionary work is work. I'm really trying to work hard to get the most out of these 2 years as possible.

If you want a little insight on what my life is like you can check out this series about a missionary in Cambodia: http://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/two-brothers-two-1/two-brothers-two-teaching-the-gospel-in-cambodia

Spiritual Shpeel: If you want something or someone to change, change yourself first and let others see your example. I have learned how much more effective an example is than words. I have learned that if I want my companionship to change and do something better, I just start doing it. I wanted to start getting our investigators more involved by asking better questions. So every day I thought of a question to ask our investigators during personal study. Then I would write it down and ask during the lesson. Pretty soon every time we planned a lesson my companion and I would think of a good question to ask. I didnt have to sit down and make my companion listen to a conference talk about asking questions, I just started doing it

If you want something to change, just do it and people will follow. 

I've been so blessed to have awesome companions to show me the way.

Life is good.

Tol is the coolest:

I love you all.

Keep me in your prayers, they really help.

Love, 

Elder Osborne