11.23.2015

Ok, the 4 million land mines are not what people make them seem to be. They're all in very remote places--no place that I would ever go. The Cambodian people hate the Vietnamese more than the Montagues hate the Capulets, so having a wall full of land mines in between the two countries prevents a lot of conflict I'm sure. And on top of that, there are land-mine-smelling rats now, so they can get rid of rats and land mines.

 Elder Elieson, Wyatt, Elder Slavens

Currently in Cambodia there are only missionaries in Siam Reap, Batambong, Kandal, Kampong Cham, Kampong Thom, and the city (so 6 of the 24 provinces are open). In a year or so, I think they plan on opening Kampong Chhnang. There are just way too many people and way too few missionaries. If they sent more missionaries here, there could be a lot of expansion that could be done. 

Elder Slavens and Wyatt

Our investigators are progressing sort of well. It's weird though, because we try so hard to get certain people to church. We are so sure they'll be there, but then they don't show up. However, we have two random street contacts show up to church. So our pool is expanding, but it's remaining shallow. The more we teach each of these people, I'm sure most of them will start progressing. Unfortunately, we weren't able to meet Da [security guard from the chicken place] ALL WEEK. I can't tell if he has been avoiding us, or if he's just been busy, but the last time we taught him was so promising. 

This week I had a cold for the last few days, and while I was recovering I thought about how when I go home, I know I'm going to feel out of place, and probably for the rest of my life I'm going to have dreams about Cambodia, so I better make these next short 14 months the best 14 months of my life. So that was a good realization and a wake up call to work harder. 

 French Tower

[Sofie asked if he likes to eat dog.] Dog is super good. It tastes like tender pork, but with a lot of fat. 

 Wyatt, Elder Elieson, Elder Slavens

We got to do some street preaching this week! It was super cool. In Taiwan there are rumors that when new missionaries arrive, instead of going out and contacting, they just stand in a busy place and start preaching the gospel. I didn't want to go that extreme though, because most people would just say I was crazy. But we were walking through this village way out in the boondocks, and we met a guy we had previously contacted before and asked him how he was doing and just made conversation. When we were about 2 or 3 minutes into the conversation, there were like 20 people gathered around to listen to two white people speak Khmae. Then we just turned the conversation to the gospel and Elder Slavens and I preached the whole lesson 1 to this crowd of people who were all intently listening. Particularly when we recited the first vision, I knew people were getting a little more interested in what we had to say. By the end we handed out pamphlets and asked people if we could go back but most of them just said they were busy. The guy we contacted before was definitely more interested, though. I think I should go back and teach him this week. It was a super cool experience since I've always wanted a Dan Jones gospel preaching experience, and that was pretty close. It was really cool. 

 Love,

Elder Hall