We Have Moved

We moved houses this week! The new house is huge, in the middle of the city, very clean, and all 3 companionships in KC get to live together, which means, yes, my dearly beloved elder Ros and I are in the same house. The house we left had a pile of maybe 300 pounds of just garbage in it, which consisted of old missionaries' stuff, Liahonas, Ensigns, DVDs, out of date English class fliers, and just random papers. So it's nice to live in a house without so much clutter and so many spider webs. 

Aside from moving the house, we have had sort of a "move of house" with investigators, because the ones we were regularly teaching 2 times a week to prepare for baptism have all gotten baptized, so now we are focusing more attention on our new investigators 1. Ming Da 2. Bong Da (with his girlfriend and mom) 3. bong nuon. All of them are very progressive and are always eager to follow through with our commitments. So our typical plans that we had are getting changed a lot as we focus on these new people.

The biggest challenge for investigators is taking upon them the name of Christ. There is so much persecution from everyone, that it's hard for people to take the step to learn with us, because they are too embarrassed that their neighbors will find out. However, it's great to see what happens when the gospel literally awakens people. The active members in this country are some very happy people. Their whole life they have been persecuted, but the people that persecute them run out of things to say. The active members in Cambodia are warriors in a very real way. It's exciting to see the potential of this country in decades to come, considering there have only been 20 years for this country to progress in the Gospel. And most of the active members have only known the gospel for about 10 years. 

There are about 10 people in each ward who have gone to the temple. The rule here (since you have to fly to the temple in Hong Kong--and airplanes are just a myth to most Cambodians) is that members have to save up the equivalent of 3 months' wages; then the church will help with the rest. So the members that have been to the temple are really great--and especially the returned missionaries. They are super good members.

When you have Elder Slavens as a companion, you can't help but love him. His energy is contagious, and he loves talking to people. Contacting with him is super fun, because when we get totally rejected, before I would have taken it personally, but Elder Slavens I think is the best at taking jabs, because he will just laugh it off and go contact someone else. A

few nights ago, Elder Slavens and I had taught all our lessons for the day, contacted a bunch of people, but still had an hour left. Previously, I would have begged to just go home, but I promised myself and Elder Slavens that if we wouldn't go home until 8 for the rest of the transfer, then we would get 100 baptisms (lol) by the end of the transfer. Gotta get them baptisms.

THE WORK IS FUN. Actually, contacting is the worst part of the mission for me, but I think that's because the work in Cambodia is so fun. 

LOVE

Elder Hall

There are more new pictures and videos from Elder Slavens blog on the "Other Pics" page.