It's my monthaversary. Holy cow. What is life? Time flies when you're sweaty. And preaching the gospel.
Action shot:
I'm beginning to understand cat-calls this week. I'll just say that Cambodian girls like 19 year old white guys....
I want to try to explain my favorite part of Cambodia so far. It's all my favorite. But Cambodian nights are unlike anything else. When the sun goes down the whole country cools off and instead of blistering heat and sweat in the sun it's cool and the humidity is inviting like a warm blanket. The factories turn down for the day and the traffic builds and slows down. The roads are slow and predictable which makes for the best speed traffic weaving for me and my companion. All of the lady factory workers walk 2-by-2, hand-in-hand with their best friend to the market to pick up food for the last meal of the day. We get to our appointment and teach a lesson to a golden investigator or a family who really wants to come to church but can't get off work. the spirit is super strong and everyone in the meeting has a renewed desire to live a Christ-like life. we come out of the lesson on a spiritual high and set out on the journey to get fried rice and head home. as we ride back through the city and turn onto the dirt road to home a dozen 2 year olds scream "HELLO!" at us with huge smiles on their faces. we wave and say hello back. we pass a member family playing cards on their porch and say hello as we ride by. our fried rice guy knows our order as we pull up and within 3 minutes we are home safe and sound to finish off the day with a few games of UNO.
Cambodia is the best.
"Do not ride your bike at night, in heavy traffic, or in bad weather" - Missionary Handbook Pg. 47
I gave a blessing in Cambodian this week. It was super cool. The priesthood works the same in every language. I gave it to Om Ai. This is his house.
If you are still with me after 3 months of emails and got this far into my email, please send me a picture of a classy black man holding a mug and making strong eye contact with the camera.
This week Elder Allred and I went on the exchange of the century. I've been here for 1 month and he's been here for 4. So that means we both have no idea what we're doing and can barely speak Cambodian at all. It was an adventure to say the least. We actually did some work too! we taught 5 lessons and neither one of us fell off our bikes. A miracle for sure.
A little flooding :
Srei Niet is one of our awesome investigators. She is 17 and she has been learning with us for the past couple of months. She is so motivated and has already read to the middle of Helaman in the Book of Mormon. Which is insane for a Cambodian because most of them can't read and the Cambodian language uses so many words which makes it much longer than the English Book of Mormon. She has such a strong desire to learn but she hasn't been able to come to church for the past little while because her dad had to sell his moto and her bike because they are too poor. a couple of times she actually walked half an hour to church. We taught her about fasting last month and decided we would all fast together for her to have a way to get to church. It took a couple of weeks but a miracle did happen. The bishop had some extra money and found a way to buy her a used bike for cheap. so on Saturday we took it over to her and she was so stoked!! she came to church an hour early the next day even though it was raining. She's getting baptized in 2 weeks along with Om Ai and one other girl. We're having a lot of success!
It rained right before English class:
Buddha angel baby.
I love my life.
Shpeel: The gospel of Christ is really simple. Faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Faith leads to action, including repentance. Baptism opens the gate for life on the straight and narrow and is a pre-req for the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost helps you and guides you for the rest of your life as you strive to endure to the end and repent daily.
This church is built on Christ. Christ's gospel isn't something we learn once and then forget. It is the way we can become better every day. This church is organized for the purpose of facilitating the gospel and helping people live it more fully.
I didn't understand this before. My life has been blessed so much in the past 3 months while I've been on this mission. And it is because I'm starting to understand and live the gospel of Christ. I'm still not very good at it and some days I lose track of what's important but through Jesus Christ I know that I can improve each day.
I love you all.
Love, Elder Osborne