Every day we would go out in the hot dusty Cambodian morning and talk to to people on the side of the road and offer to teach them in their homes. Most of the time they said no. Some of the time they said not a chance. A very few said yes but then after we failed to give them money or rice during our first visit they wouldn't welcome us back for a second time. Day in, day out I did the same thing for 5 months and when it was my time to leave the area I felt like I had done little to successfully help the Cambodian people there. As I wrapped up some loose ends around the area all I left for the incoming missionaries in terms of work to do was a few forgettable people to teach who didn't have much promise.
One of those people was an old man named Om Srun who lived on the far border of our area. I had contacted him one of those hot mornings and he was nice enough to let us come back and meet him at his guard station where he worked once a week. After meeting him every week for a few months he still didn't know how to pray, still couldn't remember the word prophet, and still carried a pack of cigarettes in his shirt pocket everywhere he went. When I got on the bus to transfer to Battambang I didn't have much hope for my former area, and especially not for Om Srun.
One of those people was an old man named Om Srun who lived on the far border of our area. I had contacted him one of those hot mornings and he was nice enough to let us come back and meet him at his guard station where he worked once a week. After meeting him every week for a few months he still didn't know how to pray, still couldn't remember the word prophet, and still carried a pack of cigarettes in his shirt pocket everywhere he went. When I got on the bus to transfer to Battambang I didn't have much hope for my former area, and especially not for Om Srun.
Fast forward through a year. I went to Battambang, loved it. Served in the office, loved it. And then I get transferred to my current area Kean Svay which is close to my old rough area. A few weeks ago Elder Slavens, who is in the area next to me, told me that he had an investigator who needed to be interviewed for baptism. He told me he was an older guy who had been learning with the Elders for a long time. He started learning in my old area but then was given to Elder Slavens because he was on the border of the area. So I go to interview him after church last week and I realize that I have taught this man before! Its Om Srun. And he knows how to pray now. He has been learning ever since I talked to him that one morning. He has been attending church every week for a few months. He is ready and excited for baptism.
This week he was baptized. https://www.dropbox.
I thought that my efforts for those 5 months were in vain. I thought that I should have been somewhere else doing something worthwhile. But now I know that I was there for a reason. And I am so happy that I could help at least one person.
D&C 18:15 "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!"
No effort to do good is ever wasted.
Love,
Elder Osborne