Cambodia

Cambodia

Monkey Mountain

We went to a cool place. Monkeys are a lot scarier than I realized.

We also had a baptism!! Rithy and Dary are the coolest! https://www.dropbox.com/s/w9x42cumox8bpin/IMG_0826.JPG?dl=0

I feel like we just started teaching them! Because we did!!! These 2 were the easiest investigators of all time. Its like we didnt have to teach them at all. We just gave them the Book of Mormon and they taught themselves! It was awesome to see them progress so quickly as they read the Book of Mormon. This is how all investigators should work! The Book of Mormon will teach you all you need to know. Its just getting people to read it is the hard part. Dary said "At the beginning I was nervous and didnt know if I really wanted to be a Christian. But then I started ready this book and now I'm not scared at all. I'm ready." The Book of Mormon really is the foundation of our testimony of Christ. It contains the fullness of the gospel. If you just read it everything will make sense, I promise.

We have one family in our branch that used to be super solid. Now they are less active because they got into a bunch of debt and are super busy paying it all off. They sell sugar cane juice on the corner of one street in our area so every day we do our part and go buy some juice for 25 cents and sit with them for a couple minutes. Sometimes I wish I could do more.

This week I was listening to a question and answer session by Elder Bednar. He was at the MTC and was talking to a bunch of missionaries. He got a bunch of good questions and he had a bunch of even better answers. His answers were all really good but there was one thing that stood out to me even more than his actual answers. He was about to bare his testimony and he said "As a servant of the Lord and as an Apostle of Jesus Christ..." Right then I felt the spirit super strongly. The spirit testified to me that what he said was true. I learned for myself in that moment that Elder Bednar was a real apostle of Christ. It didnt come from his words or his answers or from any other source than God. I know that Elder Bednar was called of God to be an Apostle on the earth at this time.

After being effected by his testimony I have started to testify in the power and authority of my calling as well. I say something like "As a servant of God, I promise..." and then I testify to my investigators. Its been really cool and a couple times I have felt the spirit super strongly too. I know God has called me to this work. Even though I am super not perfect He still trusts me. 

I love my mission.

Love,
Elder Osborne

Batman

We are going to some bat caves today. I don't think we'll see the bats though because they come out at night. Its going to be cool though.

On our way to church yesterday we saw a less active that we have been working with. He was riding his moto and said hi to us as he rode next to us. He was dressed up in a white shirt and slacks! Super stoked! So we asked him if he was going to church right? NOPE. hes going to somebody's wedding. Dang it. lol. 

The lady giving the closing prayer at church got up and recited the Lord's prayer. Nice.

Why do we obey? What motivates us to be obedient and follow Heavenly Fathers commandments? 
A fear of punishment? To get rich? to get a hot wife? to look cool and be the AP? out of love for others? out of love for God?

Any obedience is better than disobedience. But I have learned that the motives behind our obedience is so important. Willing obedience is so much more effective that unwilling obedience.

As missionaries we have the opportunity to serve and obey everyday. We get up, study, ride our bikes, teach, and talk to people. All of this can either be done grudgingly or with love as our motive. If we simply do the work we are definitely doing a good thing. We are helping people change their lives. But if we do it with the wrong attitude an motives we can still be unhappy and not receive any growth because of our service.

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

We need to think about why we obey. As missionaries we need to think about why we serve. I think that when we desire to be obedient in order to better serve others and better serve God we are on the right track. I have been asking for charity in every single prayer for a couple months now and I know I am starting to change. 

Why do you obey?

Love,
Elder Osborne

My week in video form: https://youtu.be/_o3OYeXvGzg

This email is mostly unimportant

Hello!

We have been teaching a couple really good investigators. One of our recent converts told us that his little brother and mom wanted to learn with us so we have been teaching them for the past couple weeks. They are so prepared!! His mom Dari has always wanted to join a Christian church since she was a kid. She always saw the children praying and singing hymns and wanted to join but her parents were strict Buddhists. Now that he son has joined and she has a way to learn she is eating everything up like candy. She is in 2nd Nephi and has already finished reading the BoM stories picture book. She and her family have come to church the last 2 weeks. Its so refreshing to see somebody so excited about the gospel. She recognizes the worth of what she is learning and is so happy. She has already told her whole family about it and invited them all to learn too. Maybe some more will come of that. She and her youngest son are scheduled for baptism on the 30th. Please pray for Dari and Rithy.

My week in video form! https://youtu.be/oPH6LLs7O28

Love,
Elder Osborne

This next part is entirely unrelated and unimportant. Read as you wish. 

We have this one investigator who is quite friendly and fruity. He oft invites us to come back to his place at night. Most of the time we decline. But this week we taught him and it was weird and I just want to give you a picture of this setting real quick. 

He lives in a 15 by 15 foot room. There is a single queen-sized mattress on the floor covering most of the room. The main other corner of the room contains a big Buddhist shrine with golden statues and fake flowers and rotting bananas that have been used in a ritual. The walls are completely bare except for a bunch of dirt splotches, 2 weird framed portraits of his grandparents, and pink curtain lace draped across the middle of the room. https://www.dropbox.com/s/g4j9zirpxo353ph/IMG_0109.JPG?dl=0

We walk up to his place after scheduling him an hour before. He is sitting outside on a table in nothing but a towel. Okay, pretty normal for Cambodia. We say hey. Then we look to go in his room and see a random girl chilling on his bed. Well, thats a little awkward because we are planning to teach him the law of chastity today. Elder Asay looks at me uneasily. I know what hes thinking. I only say one word to him. "Yolo". So we sit down and the girl gets up and sits around with us just like its normal. I guess she will listen in too. So we start the lesson with a prayer. We start talking to him, asking if he has prayed and read the scriptures lately. He says yes. We start teaching about commandments and the law of chastity and then we are going thru the points thinking it is really awkward because this random girl is there. Then another teenage kid walks into the room and sits down. Doesn't say anything. We keep teaching. Then we see the girl and the kid make some weird hand signals to each other. Wait, its sign language. What the crap. They're both deaf! Why does our investigator have 2 deaf people staying at his house with him?? And this whole time we thought it was awkward telling this lesson when actually this girl couldnt hear anything we said. 

At the end of teaching the commandment we ask him if he has any questions or concerns with what we taught him. He said that lots of guys come to him and ask to be his boyfriend but he always just tells them no. Mhmm. We close everything up and as we are saying a closing prayer another person walks in the room. "Amen". We look up and see a rather large man bending to lay down on the bed right behind our investigator. Yep. Totally.

That was entirely unimportant but I just wanted to pull you into my life a little bit. Cambodia!

YOLO


I only saw 2 dead people on the bus ride to the city and none on the way back. Not too bad.

Hello everybody! 
Everyday as I ride my bike I am bound to hear a little kid yell all of these things at me at least once.
  • Hello!
  • Hello everybody!
  • Hello how aar yuu?
  • Hello whassyoo name?
  • Hellomynameis!? (they think its a question)
They try really hard. Its cute.

This week Ly and Alex got baptized!! They are going to be a great asset to our branch here in Battambang.

My Bishop sent me Captain Moroni socks. My mission president liked them.

My parents sent me a bike speedometer - odometer for Christmas. On average we ride about 15-25 miles every day. Not bad.

This week Elder Asay and taught zone training. It was fun. Usually we get some suggestions from the mission president that we need to talk about, but mostly the whole thing is up to us. We get to choose what to teach and how to do it. Its way cool.

One of the things we had to teach about this time was flirting. Apparently some people in our mission needed a reminder. So we had our Sister Training Leader teach that part and then at the end we showed this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFwUcEwD4l4
I'm pretty sure it was the best part of the whole meeting. Everyone liked it.

For our main portion of teaching we talked about an idea that we have been thinking about a lot lately. Its called Yolo. 

Usually when we go to visit less actives they will listen to us with their ears but not their hearts. A lot of the time they will give us excuses and tell us that it's impossible for them to go to church, when in reality they are just lazy or offended at someone or don't understand their covenants. Most missionaries, including a former incarnation of myself, usually just visit these people, listen to their complaining,and then share a lovey-dovey scripture with them and tell them they are doing okay. Which is incorrect 99% of the time. What these people really need is a kick in the butt, a wake up call, and some opposition to their excuses.

One time we met a lady who had been less active for a couple of months. She had a lot of excuses for why she didn't go, the main one being that her foot hurt. While I never doubted that her foot really hurt, I wasn't going to take that crap because she sells fruit at the market 10 minutes away every single day. So I just thought Yolo and then I told her that if she can get to the market then she can get to church. She kind of brushed it off but we continued to express the importance of coming to church with her. By the end of the lesson she had committed to come back and she has been at church the last 4 weeks in a row.

2017

I can't believe how fast this year has gone! Wow! Time flies!

I spent New Years Eve and day in Pursat on an exchange! It was super fun. New years eve we had PB+J sandwiches and played UNO on the sacrament table at the Pursat elders house/church. Kinda sacrilegious but not really. Kinda. 

New years day we went out into the realest area in Cambodia and talked to people. The church just opened in Pursat about a year ago so there aren't very many people to teach. There are about 20 members in total out there. Its the real deal. Here is a video of our adventures: https://youtu.be/oixsu3kB38s

I got my Christmas package this week. And I went crazy.
Yes. That is a oreo/twinkie milkshake.

This is Bo. He is like most investigators in Cambodia. He cuts hair. We went to his place to try to meet with him. We saw he wasn't cutting hair. So we asked him if we could meet with him. He said he was too busy. He was watching a youtube video of a cock fight. Yeah. Super busy. Bo is no longer an investigator. 

This week I have been choosing to believe. I read a talk from conference about choosing to believe.

 "Belief and testimony and faith are not passive principles. They do not just happen to us. Belief is something we choose—we hope for it, we work for it, and we sacrifice for it. We will not accidentally come to believe in the Savior and His Gospel any more than we will accidentally pray or pay tithing. We actively choose to believe, just like we choose to keep other commandments."

I have been thinking about parts of the gospel and plan of salvation that I still dont understand fully and then I pray and ask Heavenly Father to help me to believe. I have learned that there is no point in doubting in something that is in the scriptures or is said by an apostle. If I have a different opinion than them then I am definitely wrong. Not them. Choose to believe. This has added a lot of clarity into my life as I have practiced it. I know it will work for you too.

Our investigators Ly and Alex are getting baptized!!!! This Saturday we will have a pizza party/baptism for them! I am so stoked! Pray that everything will go smoothly.

Well, I'm about to get on a 7 hour bus ride right now. Gotta go.

Love you.

Love,
Elder Osborne
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