I like the smell of durian

We did a lot of contacting this week. We found a new family yesterday that wants to learn! It was a good week. I just want to share some pics and thoughts today. Nothing real big. Love you.

We rap. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ib1smldjb1iziyy/150716_002.MP3?dl=0

                                                              This is David.

                                        This is scaffolding for painting the church building.

                            These people are making loud noises and begging for money.

                                                             This is dangerous.

                                           This is all being pulled by one moto.

                                                       This is my English class.

 This is Elder Olson beating me at chess.

                                                This is right next to my house.

                                 This is a 3 year old with a make over playing angry birds.

Everything is literal. I used to think religion was all symbolic and mostly arbitrary. I am starting to realize that its all literal. What the heck. Somebody could have told me. Gosh. 

Elder Olson and I say the pledge of allegiance every morning because I hung up my American Flag tie. God bless America.

We are teaching an old man named Sunly. He is really cool. He came to church this week and made some friends with the elders quorum. Hes going to be a great asset to our branch.

Spiritual thought: Prayer keeps blowing my mind. Every time I learn about prayer it just keeps getting cooler and cooler. Prayer is LITERALLY a two way communication with God. How cool is that?! Its real. I know its real. Heavenly Father answers our prayers.

From True to the Faith: At least every morning and every night, find a place that is free from distractions. Kneel in humility and commune with your Heavenly Father. Although sometimes you may need to pray silently, make an extra effort at times to pray vocally (see D&C 19:28;20:51).
Remember that prayer is two-way communication. As you close your prayers, take time to pause and listen. At times, Heavenly Father will counsel, guide, or comfort you while you are on your knees.

I love prayer.

I love Cambodia.

Love,

Elder Osborne

1/20th of a decade

I love Cambodians.
I love midgets.
Why not both?

This week I got to be a hero. A lady was walking across a busy intersection right in front of us. We were stopped at a red light. As she was walking she dropped about 5 dollars which is a ton for Cambodia. Everyone at the light told her she dropped the money but she was in too big of a hurry to notice. So I hopped off my bike, ran out into the intersection, grabbed the money, sprinted over to her and handed her the money. I felt really cool. That's all.

We have an investigator named Baña. He is great. He had a really awesome experience with prayer this week where his dog was miraculously healed. It's super cool. Listen: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8yqvf7865x91u0w/150716_006.MP3?dl=0

I smiled at a dog this week. I have become so accustomed to smiling at anyone and everyone, especially when I make eye contact, so as I was riding down a quiet street I made eye contact with a dog and before I knew it  - I was smiling. What the heck. It wasn't even a cute dog or anything. Just a normal dumb dog. Man….

                                               Elder Somepikay attacks!

They say that when you become a missionary people will recognize you as a representative of the Savior. My crazy investigator wrote me a handwritten letter and addressed it to "Elder Osborne, Witness of Heavenly Father Jesus Christ". He told me all about his family problems and drug addictions and asked me what he should do. It's really cool to be a missionary.

Reverse Spiritual Thought: I've been thinking a lot about humility lately. I feel like there are a lot of ideas out there about what it means to be humble. Who is your favorite example of humility in the scriptures or in your life right now and why?

I love Cambodia.
Love,
Elder Osborne

P.S. Elder Olson and I rap

Sabay taam sok

           This picture is the result of many prayers.A demonstration of the bridge boost. It’s real.

Elder Olson is my companion. He is a champion in many ways. He eats tomatoes. Just straight up tomatoes. He has lost 40 pounds so far on his mission and counting. He likes children. He is the one and only. I believe in him.

We have an investigator. His name is David. He's Khmae but he speaks good English because he's studying to be an English teacher. He says he is 25, which in American years could mean anything from 20 to 30 as time moves differently here. He is super nice and loves the missionaries. He is on the grind. Meaning he is all about that career and money game. And he’s been killin’ it lately. He talks to us about his job and new interviews all the time. It’s weird because we're missionaries and we know nothing about any of that. We're not on that grind. We're on the Lords grind. And it’s way nicer. I'm happy to be here.

David is good though. He came to church and hopefully is starting to get it a little bit more.

                                                               Glamour shot.

Sometimes my Khmae fails me. One night we were riding around trying to find a member’s house and contacting on the way. We stopped to ask a lady if she knew our member. She didn't know of course but she really wanted to talk to us. She was talking about church and children and her house and her husband’s house. I didn't really understand. She kept saying the word "Jual". I didn’t know that word. Then she asked us if we wanted to go see her other house around the corner so we said yes. She showed us in and around her house (her husband was there, don’t worry) and kept saying the word "jual". I thought it was weird but we were talking about Jesus and stuff so we kept going for it. We do weird stuff all the time, nothing new. And then she started throwing out numbers. And then it hit me. Her house was totally clean. No furniture, no nothing. She wanted us to make her house our church. "Jual" means to rent, as confirmed by my dictionary later that night. Freak. I love Cambodia.

Cute.

Some people are nice here. I went to an old guy on the side of the road to get my bike tire pumped up. Usually they charge 300 for it but the guy just told me to get out of there and wouldn’t take my money. He oiled my chain too. In retrospect, he might have just been racist. Naw, he was probably just a nice guy.

In zone meetings every month someone gets chosen to lead the zone in stretches. Last month it was my turn. I made everyone do some arm stretches and then made them put their hands up by their armpits and raise their arms up and down. Then I led in squatting a little and sticking out my neck back and forth. Eventually I had the whole zone doing the chicken dance in front of President Moon. Fools.

This month I got chosen again and I subtly led them in a yoga version of the Macarena. When will they learn...

Spiritual thought: Prayer is everything. Missionary work is so dependent on prayer. I have learned that this is especially true in contacting. When I pray as I ride my bike around I always have more courage to talk to people, and often we are led to people who want to learn. This week we found a family that wants to learn because of prayer. Prayer is way cool.

I love Cambodia.

Love,

Elder Osborne

Deuon

                                                          Surprise Baptism!                     

 On Saturday Elder Brewer called me and asked me if I could come to Stung Mean Chey because my investigator there (Deuon) wanted me to baptize him! Usually its not allowed but since we have a brand new mission president I called him up and got permission no problem. Lucky me. It was way fun to go back and say hi to some of the members and people I taught. I miss that place.

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting last week. In Khmae. I talked about love and read a couple scriptures. Then I subtly switched the focus over to loving everyone by sharing the gospel and then talked about how we all need to share the gospel and give the missionaries referrals. I'll do anything for a good referral!

                                                 The mission home has the stash.

I think I'm getting pretty smooth in Khmae. This week we were out contacting and talked to some guys hanging out on the street. I asked them what they do for work and they said they were carpenters. And then I was like "Have you ever heard of a carpenter named Jesus?" and then went on to get his phone number and stuff. Its super fun to talk to people now.

                                                                      Hi. 

Sometimes I feel like what I'm doing is way above my pay-grade. This week we have been trying to help one of our investigators quit smoking. He is pretty reluctant to stop because hes been smoking for 20 years. That's longer than I've been alive. Holy cow. And I, a kid who can barely speak the language and has been in the country for just 3 months, am supposed to help him gain a strong enough testimony to want to quit smoking and then help him through the process!? I'm not sure how its all going to work out but I know that I have the Lord on my side. Pray for me.

Sometimes the road needs an umbrella to keep from getting wet

Cambodia is hilarious. One new phenomenon that I have seen since coming to this area is what I like to call the "bridge boost". Sometimes there is a moto that has a massive trailer. Sometimes carrying 20 pigs, sometimes fruits and vegetables, sometimes rubber nipples stacked 15 feet high. And usually this is no problem when they are just riding along a busy city street. But when they need to cross a steep bridge it becomes problem. So the drivers enlist help. To get more horsepower they call 2 of their buddies to drive their own little motos right next to him and give him a boost. The buddies stick one of their legs out and press it to the back of the trailer and for at least 200 meters before the bridge they build speed, honking the whole time for people to get out of the way. Most of the time with all 3 of them they just barely get over the hump of the bridge and they all take a deep breath. 

I love Cambdia.

Spiritual Thought: I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have distinct and separate physical bodies. I know this because of a true prophet of God. I am thankful for a living prophet.

Love,

Elder Osborne