This week both of the zones in Phnom Penh had zone conference. This means that Elder Lambert and I have a lot of translation duties. And helping President with technology duties. And helping the assistants with power point duties. Its kinda fun because I like computers but its also kinda hard because translating is exhausting.
Before hand we translated like 5 different documents President and his wife needed and then during the 6 hour meeting we live translate into a microphone the whole time. All of the Khmae missionaries have little headsets they put on and listen to my soothing voice. I'm sure they get annoyed after 6 hours of us fumbling to translate crazy made up words like "digrity (dignity + grit)" and "ubiquitous (no idea)." thats a joke
For conference President focused on the account of Moroni appearing to Joseph Smith in 1823. Moroni visited Joseph 4 times and repeatedly taught him about 2 things. First the Book of Mormon and second the prophet Elijah.
First President referenced President Benson a lot from back in the day when he emphasized reading and studying the Book of Mormon. This is a really cool quote we reviewed from President Benson:
“Much of the Christian world today rejects the divinity of the Savior. They question His miraculous birth, His perfect life, and the reality of His glorious resurrection. The Book of Mormon teaches in plain and unmistakable terms about the truth of all of those. It also provides the most complete explanation of the doctrine of the Atonement. Truly, this divinely inspired book is a keystone in bearing witness to the world that Jesus is the Christ”
I learned a lot about the spirit of Elijah. Have you ever had a feeling that families are important? Well then you have felt the spirit of Elijah. It is simply "a manifestation of the Holy Ghost bearing witness of the divine nature of the family." I learned that I need to emphasize families and family history more in my missionary work. Spencer W. Kimball said "I hope to see us dissolve the artificial boundary line we so often place between missionary work and temple and genealogical work, because it is the same great redemptive work!"
I'm super thankful to be a missionary and be learning so much.
This week we have taught 2 lessons so far. #officelife
We taught our Palestinian recent convert named Basset. It was super cool because he only reads the Book of Mormon in Arabic. So we taught him a little bit in English and then had him read some verses in Arabic. And then taught him some more. And then read some more. The Book of Mormon teaches a lot better than we do, and it speaks Arabic better than we do.
We also taught a Nigerian investigator named Patrick about the sacrament and the Sabbath day. He is pretty cool but he is hard to understand and he really wants some handouts from us. But thats alright, when he understands the gospel the Atonement will be the only handout he wants!
Thanks for reading.
Love,
Elder Osborne
We had a mission party for Khmae New Year: https://www.dropbox.com/
We live in downtown Phnom Penh: https://www.dropbox.com/
I found this in a package my mom sent: https://www.dropbox.com/
My MTC companion is returning to the mission after a 10 month hiatus so I printed a bunch of pics to prepare: https://www.dropbox.