One Year in Cambotown

This week we partied hard. We celebrated the equinox with avocado shakes. We taught 31 lessons. We found some new investigators.

Monday: We rode the bamboo train!

                                       VIDEO -- https://youtu.be/Z2gZbHjbi6M

We had family home evening with our former Branch President. We played a game where everyone has to go around and say one fruit and you can’t repeat. The catch is that you can’t show your teeth at all!!!!!! wow. If you lose then you get smacked in the face by a handful of baby powder.

Tuesday: A member needed some help moving dirt to make a new room in his house. So all 10 of the missionaries in Battambang went to his house and helped shovel and carry dirt buckets for a few hours. And then they fed us mangoes and apples and deep fried breaded bananas.

Wednesday: We celebrated the equinox. Even though it wasn’t actually the equinox we just needed something to celebrate. So we taught some lessons and got avocado shakes and taught English class.

Thursday: We made a super good khmae dish call khaa. You take palm sugar and cook it until it’s all candied and then cook pork belly in it and then add water and let the water simmer down on low heat for 3 hours. We also put hard boiled eggs in it to cook in the flavor and then we added bok choi at the end. It was magical.

Friday: I went on exchange with my former companion Elder Olson!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a beautiful reunion. And it felt like an eternal reunion because it was a really long day!!!! So fun. I am very thankful for all of my companions and I'm thankful that I'm friends with all of them!!!

Saturday: We went to a place called Aek Phnom to contact. It is a 30 minute bike ride out. It was really cool. Some way old ruins.

Then we had some good lessons with our investigator. The lady on the left is Koy.

Sunday: We rode our bikes up to the church and our branch presidency was outside talking about how they had nobody to speak in Sacrament meeting. So me, another sister, and Sister Spencer (our senior couple) were assigned on the spot to talk about Christ on Easter. It went pretty alright. I shared about the fall of Adam and Eve and then the Atonement and especially the Resurrection. I said that I know I will be able to meet my grandpa one day and that everyone else will meet their ancestors again. I love Easter. A couple of our less active members showed up too!

Including Bong Ra!!!

Then we gave Alex a blessing because he’s been puking a bunch!!!

That was my week! Thanks so much! Love you!

Swaggy Old Dude:

Love,

Elder Osborne

Siem Reap

This week we did an exchange in Siem Reap with Elders Walker and Xiong. Holy cow. It's a different world up there. Definitely not Cambodia. It's about 10 years ahead of the rest of the country. I took a lot of pics. 

And a video!  https://youtu.be/oJuYahhpM3A

The night we got to Siem Reap there was a big concert going on right next to the Elders' house and it sucked out all of the electricity in the whole area. At 10 pm we called President and asked if we could get a hotel for the night. So at 10:30 we all put our PJ's on and rode bikes 15 minutes over to a little hostel owned by one of the members in SR. All 8 of us slept in one tiny room with 4 bunk beds. It was epic. Then we rode back to the house in the morning and we had an epic day. The day included renting a Giant bike, eating a $15 burger at Hard Rock Cafe, riding past Angkor Wat, and teaching some lessons.

Khmae dictionary - dope (verb). To dope someone is to give them a ride on the back of your bike/moto. It is very common for Cambodians and elders to dope each other if there is a lack of bikes. The person getting doped is usually the loser because it is very uncomfortable.

We taught a couple of good lessons while in Siem Reap but one of them was my favorite. We taught a guy named Meytrey. Coincidentally, he is the owner of the hostel we stayed at. We taught him about repentance and the Atonement because we are trying to get him back to church. At the beginning of the lesson Elder Walker asked a super good question. He asked "Do you think God loves you?" There was a moment of silence and then he said that he didn't know for sure. When he said this the Spirit rushed through me and I had a huge burst of love for this man. I felt that if he didn't know God loved him then at least I did and I needed to tell him. I waited for the right moment in the lesson and then expressed my testimony that as a representative of Jesus Christ I knew that He loved this man. I felt the Holy Ghost confirm my words and charity warmed in my heart. I'm so grateful to be here and be His representative to help people know that He loves them.

I REQUEST YOUR HELP! 

In English class every week we share a 30 minute spiritual thought after we are done teaching. Usually it's pretty hard to keep people interested, especially the members that come. We teach the spiritual thought in English and then have a translator stand up there with us. This last week I downloaded the new Easter video and showed it to the class. It was super good and most people payed attention. I request for you all to hook me up with some other good videos I could share. It would be best if they were super easy to understand and didn't have too much talking in them. If you could send me some links so I can download them next week that would be super useful!!! THANK YOU!

Can you see the resemblance?

Cute grand-kids of our investigator:

Mango season is ramping up!

Allred's Kitchen VIDEO: https://youtu.be/-cya9_chNTs

Love you!

Love,

Elder Osborne

Catch you on the flipity-flip

Hello.

We played a game at English class:

VIDEO:     https://youtu.be/2aNHChDKBk8

My comp is black now:

It's not what it looks like:

(it's herbal tea)

Things on my mind this week:

• Alma 42
• Our best investigator who just moved to Siem Reap
• Turning outwards. Not being selfish.
• How to teach lesson 1 without confusing people.
• The light of Christ
• Pokemon
• White rice. It is the devil.

My sister asked me a question and I went overboard so I don't have much time to write much else.

From Sally: Question of the week. How did you gain your testimony of a living Prophet? What is the prophet's role in the church and what does that mean for us? 

My answer: MY FAVORITE QUESTION!!! I know for a fact that we have a living Prophet on this earth. He has 2 inspired councilors. We also have 12 Apostles who know Christ personally. I have a distinct and separate testimony that each one of these men are called of God.

At the beginning of my mission I liked to read talks by the Apostles and stuff. They had some cool things to say. They are really smart and they know a lot about the scriptures. But sometimes I would read something they said and dismiss it because I thought it wasn't really correct and that they didn't actually know what life is really about. I remember reading one talk in particular and thinking it was a bunch of bologna. I was kind of frustrated at it and I told my comp. I said that I didn't like the talk at all and didn't believe what it said about a sensitive subject. My comp (who I will ever be grateful for) told me straight up that my thinking was stupid. That kinda stung. I was butt-hurt a little bit. But that night I couldn't get to sleep. I just kept thinking about what he said. After thinking about it for a while in bed my hurt feelings went away and I realized that he was right. I prayed to Heavenly Father to help me be more humble, to help me forgive my comp, and to help me to be more submissive to Christs Apostles.

Since then I have purposely downloaded every BYU devotional by every living apostle and listened to them all along with various conference talks. When I listen to them speak I can feel the authority in their voices. After I listen I pray and ask if they really are called to be Apostles and if what they said was really true. Then I listen. I have gotten personal confirmations of the Spirit for each of those 15 men. I know that each of them are men called of God to guide us in this day.

Now for the role of the Prophet. The Prophet is the mouthpiece for the Lord. He is the only man who speaks for the Lord in everything. The living Prophet is more vital to us than the scriptures. If I could have a living Prophet or all the standard works I would take the Prophet. The Prophet can lead us on any subject. The prophet is not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any subject or act on any matter at any time. He could speak on basketball or Japanese anime if he wanted. He wont, but if he did we would follow it. He can definitely speak on moral matters such as gay marriage or abortion. The Prophet will never lead us astray. He will not necessarily be popular to the world. I know that if we follow the Prophet we will be blessed. We need to conform our thinking to follow him and the Apostles. If we ever listen to something that the Prophet said and think it is wrong we need to humble ourselves and repent. I feel very strongly about this and I know it is true.

I love the Prophet and the Apostles. They are genius and successful men if you ask the world. But that pails in comparison to the fact that they are called of God to receive revelation to lead His church on the earth in this day.

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/ezra-taft-benson_fourteen-fundamentals-following-prophet/

Love,

Elder Osborne

It's Complicated

After a day in Cambodia you can write a page about it.

After a week you can write an essay.

After a month you can write an book.

After a year in Cambodia all you can say about it is "its complicated."

Yesterday President Christensen came up to Battambang to work out a hairy situation with some members. We had to translate. Basically there was a disagreement, it got physical, a lawsuit is happening. And thus we see, despite our perfect doctrine and perfect Leader (Christ), our members are still not perfect. Which is okay. We are working on it.

Last week we spent $15 on ice cream sandwiches:

This we had our big leadership meeting in the city again. It was super good this time. Its always good. But sometimes its actually not that good. This time it was more of a council meeting and we all got to ask questions and talk about our zones. Elder Allred and I made a zone vision and we got to share it with the Jedi council. Our vision for our missionaries in our zone is to become Zion-builders and better conduits for the spirit. We are going to focus on strengthening our branches to make them more like Zion and we are going to be obedient in order to have the spirit with us always. I heard a talk in the MTC by Elder Cook that said "missionaries are not the marketing department of the church, they are the branch and ward builders." I thought that was really cool and we will incorporate that into our zone this transfer.

Some weird elders at the Jedi council meeting:

Hitting the city:

This week my testimony of a living Prophet has been growing. The President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Prophet of God. His name is Thomas S. Monson. He will not lead us astray. If we follow his council we will prosper.

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/ezra-taft-benson_fourteen-fundamentals-following-prophet/

I know that this church is true even if its members are not perfect.

Love,

Elder Osborne