HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Such a great missionary. Met him at the Mission Home

Okay so I don't have much time and I won't be very long, but I will try my best to sum up the week in a short email.

This week was AWESOME!!! I seriously love it so so much here. It is crazy, but at the same time, it is just life in the most real form. No regular day comforts, no drama, but just raw life. I love it. Sadly I don't have any crazy insane stories, but just some funny things that make life interesting here. I saw seven people crammed on a moto this week which is a new record! I saw two women breastfeeding and at least five naked children just dancing around haha (it makes it really hard to contact when there is a naked kid just jamming naked next to you). The rain caused the streets to flood so we put our shoes on the handlebars and just coasted through the water-filled streets. We were riding to this kinda ghetto neighborhood that lives along an old railroad and we rode over the railroad tracks on our bikes and my bike tire slipt out while I was turning so I did a tailslide on the rail of the train tracks and landed it. DOPE! but then my bike tire fell off because I didn't screw it on tight enough haha so that was funny. I got a virus on my camera and lost all my pictures, so awesome! Gotta love it baby.

I am getting much more used to the heat, but that being said  I still got heat rash all down my back haha. Also, I don't understand how I can prevent the sweat because literally, we ride in headwind on our bikes for thirty minutes, trying to bike as fast as we can, to get to the lesson on time and then we just start teaching right when we get there. How am I supposed to not sweat when I am biking like Alberto Contador in the Tour De France in the heat and then I go straight into teaching a lesson? Riddle me that! 

The work is really progressing here in Battambang and I feel so blessed to be a part of it. We have 8 investigators with baptismal dates, and I am hoping and praying that they all keep making their commitments and they can take a splash in the holy waters!! My two favorite people to teach are Om Sophal (That is how you would say it in English) and this guy named Dee. Om Sophal has a family who are all members and he finally accepted the invitation to learn with us. His wife HOOKS IT UP and gives us like 1,000,000 oranges haha and I just go to pound town on them, even though they aren't as good as America. The ceiling of their house is legit 5 feet tall haha so I banged my head a few times. Dee is a really strange guy, but he loves Jesus Christ and that is all that matters. We gave him a picture of Jesus Christ and the first thing he said was "I love this man!!!!" and then he kissed the picture and then he made his daughter (whose head he shaved by himself) kiss the picture too! I love seeing the work progress, and I just wish so badly that I knew more of the language so that I could better help them come to Christ. I want to help them, but I just can't express my thoughts, so I just do my best to bear my testimony. That is the hardest part. Being restricted from helping these people find this happiness in their lives. 

I don't know the language very well so my new goal is to smile at every single person I see and say hi to them. Sometimes the smile back, sometimes that laugh at me, sometimes they call me beautiful (because I am white), sometimes they say "I don't speak English", and sometimes they just give me a salty look, but at the end of the day the best thing we can do is try to spread the light of Christ and allow them to feel it in their lives. What better way than just being happy and friendly? I am so grateful for Christ and his example in my life. I am starting to understand who Jesus Christ really was better in my life. I want to really know in my heart who the savior of the world is. The one thing I learned in studying is that Christ really knew that he was THE Son of God. He let that knowledge affect every single action and every decision he made. We also know that we are children of a loving God. I invite you to think about what that means to you in your life? Do you take that knowledge for granted? People everywhere need to learn that knowledge and know what impact that has in their life. That is what I am doing my best to spread. The knowledge that we are all equal. It is so cool to tell that to Khmer because they think because we are white we are better than them. But we are all equal in God's eyes.

That's all from me!!! HAVE THE BEST HALLOWEEN EVER!! Sorry about the Titans, but just know that I bleed silver and green baby! I still have that Titan Pride. I am sad to hear about the Utes, but a Utah Man am I! Enjoy the little things in life. We went to the mission home and played basketball and ate American food and it was a real, real nice time. Okay sorry, I am rambling. I love you all and am so grateful for the support.

Yours Truly,

Elder Jacob Gochnour

here is were we teach

biking in the rain!

HERE are some questions that I asked Jake and his answers - 

• How are you doing - sleeping?  I fall asleep SO fast because I am so tired but then I don't sleep great through the night but it's okay. I don't get too tired until I get home at night and then I am just dead, but I wish I slept better at night. I think it is just because it isn't very comfortable. 

• What do you eat?  I eat pretty good food. We cook a lot. I eat top a ramen for dinner every night just the Cambodian kind and then i just eat rice and stir-fry for lunch everyday and for breakfast we go and get rice and pork. It is all pretty good but I get so hungry through the day. like so so hungry because I am trying to make my snacks last as long as possible

• Did you get a bike that works? My bike is good. I am still figuring it out and stuff but it works well. they didn't have the one I wanted in my size but it still works great and I am happy with it.

• How is the mission Home and your mission president and wife?  The mission home is actually super nice. I WISH I COULD LIVE THERE HAHA. I love both the mission president and his wife and they are really good examples to me. 

• Ok on the bathrooms??? The bathrooms aren't too bad I just mostly hold it till I get home and I just go to the bathroom at home

• Where do you email?   We email at these sketchy places and my camera card got a virus because I didn't lock my MEMORY CARD SO I LOST ALL MY DANG PICTURES AHHHHH UGHHH I AM SO MAD. But it is okay.

• What kind of house do you live in? I used to think that our house was super dirty but now I am starting to think it is nice.  It is just a traditional mission house and it is kinda dirty but it is really nice for Cambodia so I just need to be grateful. It is pretty big so often I feel lonely in it. 

KINGDOM OF WONDER

WE REALLY ARE OUT HERE! THE BODI BABY! These last six days have been crazy and I don't even know where to start. I am pretty sure that it is 11PM on Sunday night in Utah so I guess you will just get to see this tomorrow.

I decided to name my email "Kingdom of Wonder..." because I literally WONDER?? What the heck is going on at all hours of the day haha. Kingdom of Wondering: Where am I? What is everyone saying? What's so funny? Why is it so hot? And so many more questions just leave me in wonder.

Let me do my best to recap my last couple of days. We left the MTC on Tuesday and many hours later (Somewhere around 22) we were in Hong Kong. I don't know what the scheduling office has on me, but they literally put me in every middle sit on every flight, surrounded by two tall, big elders, so that was chill. It was quite hard to focus on reading "Our Heritage" while all the T.V.'s around me were playing every popular movie that has come out in the past six months... but I tried my best to not stare at there T.V. for very long haha. Anyway, when we got to Hong Kong we went and got some McD's which was MONEY! The only bad part about it was that they literally had two menu items for breakfast: Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup with an egg on top, and the big breakfast. It was yummy, but I should have gotten the soup... Anyway off to Cambodia we went, and as our plane descended the nerves hit me. I was just scared of the unknown. I was just being a wuss though and after a rushed couple of minutes I finally met my comp and found out what area I would be going to.

SO my companions name is Elder Herrera from Athens, Georgia. He is a really cool guy and an awesome missionary. He is Hispanic and he speaks Spanish, English, Khmer, and he is learning Vietnamese. Impressive. He is a great teacher and all the lessons we have taught have gone really well due to his teaching abilities haha so I am grateful to have a great trainer!

The area that I am in is Battambang 1 which is the city area of Battambang. So I am in a city, but not Phnom Penh which is nice because it is a little of both worlds. Little did I know that Battambang is an 8-hour bus ride from Phnom Penh. Because the 30 SOMETHING hours we had already just traveled wasn't enough, we had to add on another 8-hour bus ride. So after we interviewed with President and Sister Christensen (who are awesome) we made our way. The drive was really pretty and I enjoyed listening to the Khmer music videos that definitely kept me entertained.

And my adventure begins. I am not gonna get into all the specifics because I don't want to make this letter a novel, haha, but I will summarize it the best I can. IT IS SO HOT AND I LITERALLY SWEAT BUCKETS. I just sweat and sweat and sweat no matter where I am, but it is all part of the fun. We have been able to teach a good amount of lessons and the work is really progressing here. A lot of people have been shady about meeting with us so we have spent a lot of time contacting, but we actually have had a good amount of success and found three new investigators. The work is moving forward and I just do my best to say hi to everyone I see and bare my testimony when I can.

The weirdest things about Cambodia:

• The fact that they don't use toilet paper. I know that is common in other parts of the world, but sometimes I just need some toilet paper

• At random times of the day, the Monks just blare their chants over the loudest speakers in the whole entire world and they are so so scary haha you can hear them all around the city

• The Phsaa (Markets) are insane!!!! There are just carcasses of every animal you can imagine everywhere haha

• We will be literally talking to people in Khmer but because we are white they say "I don't understand English" and then we say "We are literally speaking Khmer right now" and they are like woah haha... so weird

• Some guy stopped us in the streets and said that he is Christian, and just started singing the most bizarre hymns I had ever heard in my entire life, but he finally let us go after ten minutes. 

It's crazy because it is the hottest, poorest, most unique place I have ever been in my life. I never know what people are saying to me and they laugh at me when I try to speak sometimes. I literally have gotten in two car crashes because there are no traffic laws. But at the end of the day, the weirdest thing is that I LOVE IT already. As strange as it sounds, it is already starting to feel like home to me. It is all somewhat strangely familiar.

Before I end I just want to say how much I took life back at home for granted. Air conditioning, clean water, toilet paper and so much more are just a second thought to us. But here, it is a battle just to have enough money for food. I really have realized how blessed I was growing up. Also, in Priesthood they were talking about the importance of going to the temple. They talked about how they should try to go to the Philippines temple or Hong Kong temple, and maybe even someday they could go to the Salt Lake City Temple. I just sat in that class and realized how lucky I was to live
10 minutes away from a place that people save up their whole lives to go to.  Please, everyone, go to the temple this week and appreciate the ability you have to do that!! WE ARE SO BLESSED!!

You gotta love the journey baby! Working hard out here. Trying to get people interested in our amazing message. Thanks for all the love and support.

Love,

Elder Gochnour

Letter from President Jim and Sister Char Christensen

They have Arrived

Dear Parents of our wonderful missionaries,

We just want you to know that your missionary has arrived safe and sound! We love these pictures taken right after they got off the plane and although they are jet-lagged  we are excited to get to know them and begin serving together.  We spent the afternoon interviewing them and they are a very impressive set of Elders and Sisters. They have gone to their new areas with their companions tonight and they will return to the mission home in 10 days when they are over their jet lag and we will spend a couple of days training together. Monday their first priority will be to write you and report all their adventures as they settle into their new areas.

Cambodia is a wonderful country and we feel the blessings of our Father in Heaven being poured out on these people as the church continues to grow here. In the next few months as your missionary’s language skills increase and he or she begins to personally know the people in their areas we are confident that their excitement and love for missionary work will only grow.  We already love your missionary, we were overwhelmed with their expressions of faith and excitement today and we promise you that we will love and treat each of them as one of our own.  Thank you  for trusting our Father in Heaven enough to send your child to this part of the world and know of our confidence that God watches over his missionaries here and blesses them every day.

May God bless you and your family as you continue this wonderful adventure,

Love,

President Jim and Sister Char Christensen

A long line of tuk tuk’s taking missionaries and their companions to the mission home!

9 weeks and 15 pounds later

Here we go....

Welp here we are. Nine weeks and 15 pounds heavier (rough guess) I am finally on my way to Cambodia!! I don't have much time to write at all so I will just keep it short this week. I have loved the MTC and learned and grown so much. Hopefully, my next week's letter will be much better after a crazy week in Cambodia. Most profound thing I heard this week: the Book of Mormon isn't just the keystone of our religion. It is so much more than that. It does make the church true, but that is such a small part of the true power it holds. I invite you to find that power in your own life. I will talk to you all next Monday!!

Love the journey baby!!!

Elder Gochnour

P.S. so tough about the Titans but I still bleed green and silver!

so grateful for our teachers

both of them have influenced me so much

1 MORE WEEK...

CAMBODIA -old and new

I know that nobody really want's to hear about another week in the MTC so I will try to keep it short haha. We got our flight plans which is sweet! We leave Tuesday night and after 35 hours of travel or so we arrive in Cambodia! We also got our script name tags, things are finally starting to get real! 

An interesting thing that happened this week: You know those Hmong peppers that I sent a picture of like two or three weeks ago? Yeah well turns out they sent some more to the Elders that just left and so we made one last memory with them by eating the peppers. Everyone ate one and it actually wasn't too bad. So two others and I decided to up the game by eating three peppers at once. I was literally spitting straight fire hahaha. It was so hot!!! My mouth kinda just turned numb and constantly stung. After three hours and a lot of milk, it wasn't too bad haha, but it was a fun memory! Me and Elder Bohman had a sleepover with the Elders that were leaving which was fun. My district also got the chance to host new missionaries coming into the MTC. It was actually pretty sad to see them leaving their families, but I know that they are making the best decision of their lives so it's all worth it! The language is tough but good. I have come to realize that no matter how much I learn here, I still won't know what is going on when I first get to Cambodia so I am just trying to do my best and be optimistic.

That's about all the noteworthy stuff that happened so I will just close with a short spiritual message. 

This week we talked a lot about the difference between the gift of the Holy Ghost for those who have been baptized and those who have not. Our discussion eventually progressed to the topic of spiritual gifts.  We read from Moroni chapter 10 and talked about the power of spiritual gifts. We each have spiritual gifts. Everyone in this world is unique, and amazing in their own way. We need to find out what gifts we have and additionally, what gifts we want. We need to be able to find out who WE are in order to help others find out who they are. I am so lucky for the chance that I have to pray to our Heavenly Father and have him help me to know what things I have been gifted with and humble myself enough to have him help me with gifts I need to work on and improve. What an amazing blessing we have! I have been pondering Moroni 10:32 - it talks about coming unto Christ and be perfected in him. Find out who you are in order to come unto Christ and be perfected in him, and then reach out to others to help them do the same.

Thanks for reading! My favorite quote of the week was from one of the Vietnamese teachers. He said something along the lines of "How lucky you are to be a missionary of the Lord. The Lord will get his work done, whether you are apart of it or not, but how lucky you are that the Lord allows you to be a part of this amazing work." I feel blessed that the Lord has trusted me to help the people of Cambodia! I can't wait to get out there! Thanks for all the support and I love you all!

Elder Gochnour

Me and Elder Bohman

The pepper eaters

Nick Liddle former Cambodian Missionary

the boys

Conference Weekend BABY!!

*Don't be confused by the picture UTAH MAN AM I* (Mary sent me this as a joke)

HEY EVERYONE!!

It is kinda weird to start writing this letter after reading a few of my friends emails about how they are in the middle of Mexico, Chile, Spain, Italy, and all other parts of the world having crazy experiences, and I am still just sitting here in Provo, UT, only 30 minutes away from home. But hey, I know that I will miss having all the amazing things we get here at the MTC when I start grinding in the Bodi, and I am just trying to enjoy my last few weeks of English for the next two years. You gotta love it BABY!

Wow, where to start? I guess I can say that I have gained another four pounds here in the MTC. Just pile it on I guess before I go to a two-year spin cycle class!! I am considering the Tour De France upon arriving home from Cambodia. JK. My humor has definitely fallen off the deep end after being in the MTC for an extended amount of time, but yes I did gain a few pounds which is good! 

Obviously, the main thing that I want to talk about in this week's email was conference. There was something striking that I didn't notice until after the talks, in a devotional review. Who remembers President Eyring's talk on Sunday Morning? He arranged his talk in a very amazing way. He first talked about how we must "DOUBT NOT, AND FEAR NOT" and this was one important theme that I found over the duration of conference. We need to put our trust in God and trust his plan for us. We must fear God more than we fear man. We need to have hope for the future because God has a divine design for us and only when we accept God's will by aligning our lives with what he wants for us will we find happiness. Some pretty powerful and divine stuff. Anyway, President Eyring goes on to talk about how we are doing awesome in the church. He shared many cool stories about the angels in yellow shirts, and the amazing help that the members of the gospel of Jesus Christ are providing around the world. The members of the Church of Jesus Christ are truly the hands of the Lord. However, what he says next is the most important part. He says that although what we are doing, and have done is awesome and helpful, it is not enough. He gave a very prophetic warning: "We know that in the last days the world will be in commotion. They (Future Generations) will face increasing opposition from the enemies of our soul." I thought it was quite shocking and eye-opening how true this is. Our world is falling into chaos. With the many natural disasters and the destruction being caused to the world. Almost to verify his warning that he made the shooting in Las Vegas happened the next day. Heartbreaking. My thoughts and prays go out to all of those people because of the tragedy that took place. One Elder in my District is from Las Vegas and knew a kid who passed away. I fear that things will only get worse, as President Eyring predicted. The Lord expects more from us and from the generations after us because the world will only continue to become more chaotic. What an amazing opportunity we have as members of the true church of Jesus Christ to be the light of the world as President Uchtdorf said. We must DOUBT NOT FEAR NOT, finding optimism, hope, and strength only through heeding to the words of the prophets, reading and living the truth's of the Book of Mormon and follow Jesus Christ. His talk was proof that the leaders of the Church are prophets of God. I know this is long and no one is probably reading anymore, but I want to close this thought with a scripture that is really powerful from the Book of Mormon. The last words of Ether's writing in the Book found in Chapter 15, verse 34 says, " Whether the Lord will that I be translated, or that I suffer the will of the Lord in the flesh, it mattereth not, if it so be that I am saved in the kingdom of God. Amen."

What a powerful statement. We sometimes feel like we suffer on this Earth, and there is suffering all around, but at the end of the day all suffering here is temporary. It mattereth not in terms of an eternal perspective. Our one goal should be salvation in the kingdom of God. Powerful.

My favorite talk was by Elder Callister. How powerfully he testified both logically and spiritually of the truth of the Book of Mormon. It was cool to watch every session of General Conference without distractions or sleeping (which had never done before) because I really noticed how connected this church is. Everything that was said was somehow related and all played a role in allowing us to understand that we must have faith, and follow the example of Jesus Christ in order to find happiness in this life.

Funny stuff that happened this week: The word កក (gawk I guess it is how it sounds phonetically) which is the start of my last name (Goch) means frozen, so my new nickname is Elder Ice hahaha OOPS! Also, the term to die is ស្លាប់ (Slab) so s/o to SLAB GANG (some friends from back home)! The only other funny thing was watching some Elders that were just passed out during general conference. You should have seen how hard some of them were straight snoozing!

Love you all! Read the Book of Mormon! Have a great week! And may the running Utes be victorious over Stanford!!

Elder Gochnour

P.S. We get our flight plans on Friday!! Kingdom of Wonder (Cambodia) here we come!!