The car wash went super well! Not only did we get to serve the people of KC and get some good contacts, but it was funner [editor's note: I did not change this to "more fun," because Wyatt insists "funner" should be a word :)] than any contacting I've ever done before. I, and all of my fellow missionaries, miscalculated the power of the cambodian sun, though. We all ended up having our missionary tans fiercely burnt to a shade of lobster red. I haven't been able to move my ankle since then, because I think I have the worst sunburn I've ever gotten in my life. But that's all good, because everyone grows random plants in front of their house, including our landlord. One of those random plants happened to be aloe vera, so we got a couple strands (leaves/tentacles/tails...for real, what do you call those?).
Other than that, we had a new investigator on Sunday morning, and he turned out to be super solid. He really wants us to come back every Sunday, and his older sister has learned in our church before and has a book of mormon. He accepted what we taught him, but I don't think we got to his heart yet. I think next time we teach, we need to have everyone around him listening, too. Yesterday, it was pretty chaotic.
Me: We prayed for you to find people to teach. Did it work?
Wyatt: Well, that guy from Sunday has some pretty crazy potential, so I suppose it did work. And also we got super good contacts at the car wash, so thank you very much!
Wyatt's district. (Wyatt has the yellow towel on his head.)
The Whataburger pictures were a little bit of a low blow. Just kidding. It was nice to see those on our table considering your life long boycott of Whataburger is finally over. [For Wyatt's 1-year mark we brought home Whataburger for dinner and sent him a pic. Don't hate me for disliking Whataburger for so long. I had a bad experience at a Whataburger in West Fort Worth about 15 years ago. It took me a long time to get over it.]
Traditional burning of a white shirt
to mark a year on the mission.
WOW. I cannot believe I have made it a whole year without a hug from you. Thank you for being such a good mother, mother.
Tell Isaac that he is a baller, and if he has scored 5 goals on JVB, then that's 4 more than I ever scored, and he hasn't even started his real season.
Things in KC are looking down a bit, because anticipation
for our new building is causing lots of disruptions to Satan's kingdom, so he's
doing a lot to fight back. Right now the police are going extra hard catching
people with no license plates, mirrors, and helmets (half our members), so they
don't come to church. On top of that, a lot of other churches are offering our members money
to leave our church and join theirs.
sweet house decoration
The car wash is this coming Saturday, and when Elder Tatton
walked up to the Provincial Hall (hoping to at least tell a couple people), the
guy gave us visitor passes and led us into the Press Room. We talked to a
lady who said she would send it to EVERY WORKER in the Provincial Hall,
because they all have their like mailbox things. So that was cool. Our regular
street advertising is also going well, and people are honestly confused at the
generosity of such an event. So hopefully that confusion turns into interest in
our church.
dinner at a member's house
We got one new investigator that is fairly
promising. She is the wife of a less active returned missionary (who hasn't been to
church in forever). When we asked them to go to church the following day, he
said he would go back. So we were thinking that meant them both. But actually
he just came back. By himself. Haha, whatever. Next week we'll get him to remember
to take his wife.
It is so easy to convince people that I have the coolest mom
out of them all when I can read emails like this to them. Every one is so
jealous that I have the coolest parents.
[He's referring to this: "Costa Rica was so fun! We just got back last night. Dad and I surfed Mon, Wed, and Fri. Sun we went to church and drove up a rainy volcano. Tuesday, we went ziplining on another volcano. Thursday, we visited a small town where we bought some pottery, then Dad paid for
me to get a massage. Dad and I are getting better at surfing, especially Dad. I got fairly
consistent and my last wave was the best of my life. Right after that, a strong wave flipped the
surfboard into my face and rang my bell. It split and bruised my lip and injured my nose (I’ll
send a pic). But it was totally worth it!!! Every time I see the scar, I will remember that last
wave I rode all the way in." Haha!]
Me: We tried a new fruit in Costa Rica—tamarind. It tastes like a cross between apple and pineapple. Do they have it in Cambodia?
Wyatt: Yes! They have tamarind here except Elder Slavens and I
spent four hours de-shelling boiling hot tamarind and I couldn't feel my fingers
or smell anything besides tamarind for a few days, so after that I didn't really
like it. I don't know if its just a different type of tamarind here, but they
grow everywhere, and they are always sour. The candies they have here and the
drinks that are tamarind flavor are good; I just don't prefer the fruit. Side
story about tamarind: in Khmae they say "ampil" and my companion was
getting made fun of a couple nights ago since he can't get down the difference
between salt and tamarind. Salt is "ambil" and then if you say
"7" quickly it sounds the same too. It's a difficult concept.
So
the car wash idea is this: People in this country that are rich are obsessed
with their wealth. (side note: there is no middle class in Cambodia) So they
wash their cars and motos once a month, or if they have time, twice. So
anyways, marketing to them that we are American and have been washing cars
since we were little, they can come and enjoy 2 apparent benefits: 1.
Americans, to whom they for some reason feel inferior, will do slave work
for them (entertaining); 2. It's a free car wash (efficient); but little do they
know that the biggest benefit of coming to this car wash is yet unfurled, and
that is contact with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While we are washing their
cars (maybe 20 minutes each) we will have prime time to contact them. So they
will sit in a shaded area with ice cold water while some elders and sisters (who
don't feel like washing cars) will talk to them and introduce them to the gospel,
hopefully resulting in close to a million baptisms. Haha! Just kidding. If we
could walk away with 0 return appointments but at least greater appreciation
for our church and maybe some slightly stronger interests, I would be happy.
Good seeds planted. For less than a $100. We are planning for it to last
all day, and get some youth involved in helping wash the cars, kind of a nice
activity that are so few and far between. We printed out 1000 fliers to hand out to all
the rich people, and this Thursday Elder Tatton and I are going to take them to
the Provincial Hall to get them out to rich people. Our landlord is also in
the National Assembly, so he could be a good asset. We actually went up to a
guard of a government building that had a bunch of cars parked inside and we
told him "ONLY give these fliers to people with cars; if they have a moto,
do NOT give it to them." He was super excited, because we told him we would
wash his moto even though it wasn't a car if he did this for us. As soon as
we walk away, we hear him yell to somebody, "Hey! Check this out; free moto
wash!" and he hands 4 or 5 fliers to a guy on a moto...haha. Then as we
kept walking we saw a few more motos with our fliers. So I guess I should have
been more clear?
Me: Do you get asked to give Priesthood blessings very often?
Wyatt: Oh man, I get asked to give blessings 3 or 4 times a week.
The rule to make a stake is you need 150 active Melchizedek priesthood holders,
and the reason KC is still a district is because my branch of 120+ active
people has maybe 10 or 20 Melchizedek priesthood holders. So the elders are
always getting called for blessings.
Elder Hall and Elder Hall
Transfer calls were last night! I get to stay 1 more
transfer in KC1 with my boi Elder Tatton! It's gonna be good. Actually, pretty
much everyone in the mission stayed the same, which means next transfer
something crzy is gonna go down. But we will worry about that when I need to
worry about that.
P-day activity
English class is a bit difficult. It's more of a
service project than investigator tool. In Phnom Penh it works
miracles; in KC it's a little different. This week, though, I'm having everyone
bring a friend to English class as their homework. Being English class leader
seemed like a tiny bit of responsibility at first, but it's been fun trying to
do my best to make it big, and I've seen some results! It's fun. Definitely less
stressful than a real leadership position, which I'm sure I'll have at some
point, but good.
