Elder Gochnour in Cambodia: CHOOSE HAPPY

Everyone who speaks Khmer at the MTC

Another awesome week in the MTC!

Although hardly anything has changed from last week, here are a few big things that happened this week:

1. We made it past halfway in the MTC. Only four more weeks left, WOOT WOOT!

2. We hit the one-month mark in the mission- It has flown by already!

3. We finally got a second teacher that starts on Thursday (hopefully) so we won't have to learn so much on our own

4. After probably 6 hours of study I read the first two pages of Preach My Gospel in Khmer (just imagine how fast I could read the Book of Mormon!!!)

Funny stuff that happened: our district has picked up playing what are the odds which has resulted in a shower from Elder Shumway in the janitors closet, Elder Enloe eating a raw banana peel, and me eating a whole meal without utensils. Funny times!! (The MTC really wears on you after a couple of weeks if you can't tell LOL)

I am sitting here unable to remember anything that has happened this week soooo I don't have much else to say. Elder Jones (Welsh) always goes to choir with me. For those of you who don't know, I am tone deaf and unable to sing. During choir on Sunday, he said to me, "You have actually gotten a lot better at singing." I was so happy to hear that, but a little saddened at the next comment: "You went from being terrible to just being bad." I guess any form of progress is good progress though!

Because Cambodian is a nine-week language in the MTC we change our District Leader halfway through the mission. I was lucky enough to be called as District Leader. I honestly have no idea why because everyone in my district is way more spiritual and dedicated than me, but it's probably because I need it more than them to kick me more into missionary shape haha! The only responsibilities I have are an extra meeting and getting the mail so lot's of power coming my way!!

I would like to end with some spiritual stuff for the week. It is hard to not want to talk forever about spiritual stuff because that's all we talk about haha but I will try to keep it short. First, last Tuesday Elder Kearon gave a talk with a posh British accent. The two things that stood out the most from his talk was the power of prayer and the ability we have to CHOOSE to be happy and to CHOOSE to be the best missionaries that we can be. He first touched on prayer by saying something similar to, get up every morning and pouring out our soul to our Heavenly Father. He talked about the importance of remembering who we are praying to and trying to align our will with the will of God, because only then will we be able to understand the answers that we receive from our prayers. I was reminded of the importance of prayer while reading in 3rd Nephi. The Savior says in 3rd Nephi 13: 5-13 that we must not be repetitive and that we must align our will with the Lord. It is an awesome set of scriptures.

It seems like one of the most overarching themes of the mission is agency. You choose how your day, your mission, and your life ends up all because of your attitude. He encouraged us to choose to have that fire inside of you, devoting every passionate minute to the lord. I know that I want to strive to have that fire inside of me as a missionary. I felt so pumped up from his talk and couldn't help but yell, "It's a great day to be a missionary!!" It reminded me of when Coach Burt would yell "It's a great day to be a Titan!" Today is a great day to be whatever you are.

That's all I got for this week. Read and pray about the Book of Mormon, serve with all energy of heart, and love those around you. Shout out to the Utes and the Titans for another couple of big W's this week. Keep rolling!! I love you all and am so grateful for the support.

ជាមួយការស្រលាញ់,

Elder Gochnour