ALL YOU CAN EAT!

This week was an absolute grind, but a good one!! 

Elder Cunningham had to go down to the city again, but this time with the other zone leader because they had exchanges with the AP's. Keeping the streak running. Every week down to the city. Things were good though! I went on another exchange with Elder Everett and it was a fun time. It was kinda distressing though because even though we were supposed to be working in both of our areas, we spent almost the whole time in his. I had a little bit of, "a what the heck am I doing here?" moment, but you just gotta keep plugging along! I have the same desire as Alma to declare repentance with the sound of a trump like in Alma 29:1-4, but most of the time it doesn't work out that way.  We had some success at the end of the week so that was a blessing. 

On the exchange, we were biking from deep in my area, all the way to the opposite side of his area. I was caught in my thoughts and we were just hauling on this busy road. This moto couldn't see the main road because there was a semi truck parked on a corner and he just tried to shoot the gap and turn left onto the main road. Of course, he just shot out right in front of me and I literally had no time to react so I just T-boned him. I went full Olympics and did a front flip over the handlebars, but somehow I literally had one scratch on my body. The Lord really does protect his servants. I just told the guy it was all good and we shook hands and went on our way. It was a pretty funny experience just to help me laugh at myself for a little bit. My bike kinda got wrecked, but all good! Also, Elder Cunningham and I made a basketball hoop out of a garbage can and a plastic bag, and we play ball every night. 

As far as the work goes, things are good! Lee Meng is on track to be baptized this Saturday. The golden ticket is BACK (haha an earlier guy we found)! We visited him again and is going to start learning with us! We have lots of hope for him. We also found a new baller named Newt and he came to church even though we had only met him once. Things are looking up! 

The best thing that I heard this week was a quote from Elder Everett while I was on an exchange with him. He said that his grandpa always told him, 

"Life is like a buffet. If you leave hungry, 

that is your fault!" 

How true is that! Often times we go throughout life just trying to hold on, thinking that things will get better in the future. Sometimes I wish that I could be back home watching March Madness, but that is just me selling myself short. Whatever phase of life or situation we are in we must make the most of it. We must indulge ourselves in the joys and the people that surround us. We must feast upon the tender mercies that the Lord gives us in our lives, every single day. We must savor the hard times and make the most of them. We must swallow our pride and try to live humbly. If we do all of those things then we can taste the fruits of our labors and live happily. Life truly is a buffet. We have the choice to enjoy all the experiences, whether they be difficult or easy, sour or sweet, and make the most of them. 

Don't leave hungry!!!!

I could go on and on with the puns but I think you get the point. Life is like a buffet. I am trying every day to make sure I go home full!

We had interviews this week with President and it was pretty amazing. He helped answer my questions and lit the fire under me to keep working hard and doing my best.

Love,

Elder Gochnour

P.S. BLUE DEVILS TILL I DIE! GO LOYOLA CHICAGO! 

P.P.S  my favorite kid in KC we call hug kid. We went and visited him and his family and he will always give us hugs if he sees us. Unfortunately, when we visited him he was naked. It definitely didn't stop him from giving us hugs and sitting on our laps haha. What a baller!

MADDNESS BABY!

 Anyone that has the ability or means, please enjoy March Madness for me. Virginia getting knocked off for the first one seed of all time? Crazy. Duke balling, too easy! SO much fun! I miss it so much. 

Anyway, shout out to Lucyann G for the big Bday this week! One year older and wiser too!

This week was pretty interesting haha. We just get wrecked every day in our area, but we are trying our hardest and that is all we can do! We planned to have an exchange on Tuesday, but the other Elders forgot so then our plans were all messed up and didn't have anything to do except just contact. 

The leader of the government made a visit to the island this week so there was like tons of police and everything was decked out in Cambodian flags, and it was way fun. They made the city look nice and they showed their Khmer pride. We also had to go back down to the city again this week (to Phnom Penh). My comps Visa is gonna expire soon and it is crunch time, so we had to make another emergency trip and spent a day and a half out of our area which makes it hard to keep the progress going. The bus rides were brutal haha because there was no AC and I was just SWEATING bullets, but everything worked out. That makes it every week this transfer that one of us has gone to the city.... Also yesterday, my comp was sick so we couldn't go out except for sacrament, but it was nice to just have some time to relax!

The best part of the whole week was Cantuu's baptism! So exciting. He is by far the most prepared person I have taught. The baptism went perfectly smooth, which isn't a very common thing here in the Kingdom of Cambodia. A pretty amazing experience. He bore his testimony about the gratitude that he has in his life for finding this gospel. It truly has changed his life. He encouraged all of the members to continue to have gratitude for the gospel and trust in the Lord. Pretty cool to hear your investigator encouraging you to be better. Saturday night was a REAL good night. After, they gave us tons of food, and there was a party for a guy going to the states for his mission. IT WAS LIT

I am happy and healthy. I love my mission. There are hard parts, but the joy that you can feel is so unique. It isn't the joy you get when you when a sports game or do well on a test. It is more peaceful. It touches your heart more. That joy is the reason I get up every morning, and the reason I love this work. 

Quick spiritual though. In Alma 19, after King Lamoni, his wife and his servants are all converted they all pass out. The first thing that happens after he wakes up is trying to share this glorious gospel.

 31 And he, immediately, seeing the contention among his people, went forth and began to rebuke them, and to teach them the words which he had heard from the mouth of Ammon; and as many as heard his words believed, and were converted unto the Lord.

32 But there were many among them who would not hear his words; therefore they went their way.

Notice how it said that everyone who heard him believed. Those that did not believe did not even hear what he testified to them. I think there is an important lesson in this. Before we believe this gospel and in the Savior, we must first hear about Him or learn about Him. We must read his words. How often do we question our beliefs without even hearing (or reading) the good word first? 

IN ORDER TO BELIEVE YOU MUST HEAR FIRST. 

Everyone that did take the effort to listen to the King and hear what he was saying was converted. Because it is true! I invite you all to hear the words of Christ in your life, by going to church and reading the scriptures.

Church is true 

Madness is real

Elder Gochnour

PICKLES

Hello!

First things first, shout out to Lucy and Eli for getting engaged! YAY! Now you only have to wait a year and a half until I get home to actually get married (yeah right). Shout out to the big bro Ralph for having a birthday! Just an old dad man haha! Also, shout out to Chase Thatcher for his birthday.

Anyway, this week was a grind haha! This area is very hard. We go out every day and just try to find, find, find, and most of the time things just don't end up that way. We had a lot of hope for three or four people that we contacted, but when we set an appointment to meet with them, none of them showed. The most important thing is just trying to stay positive, though. As soon as you get negative things just spiral downward. You have less of a desire to work, causing you to have less success, causing things to just get worse and worse, so we are trying our best to stay humble and do the work of the Lord.  The thing that gives me hope is the two investigators that we are working with. They are the best. Every time we meet with them it just gives me a renewed desire to work a little harder to just maybe find one more person that is prepared like them. Pu Lee Meng said that he wanted to go to Salt Lake as soon as we taught him about temples. He started doing the math figuring out how much money it would be to fly, eat, stay in a hotel and everything else. I offered the house for him to stay (sorry mom and dad)! Long story short, they are both so ready and so prepared from the Lord.  Cantuu should be getting baptized this week! YAY!

I went on an exchange with Elder Everett, a guy in my group that is from Arizona. He is a pretty shy guy so it was a lot of talking in Khmer and it just straight up wore me out. I got home at night and just tanked! It was super cool though because he taught me some magic tricks and we even used them contact. Call me Houdini! OOPS! (Dukedini) 

We had zone conference on Saturday with our 10 person zone, hahaha. There used to be districts bigger than our zone... But it was pretty awesome to have a more personal connection with President and Sister Christensen. We focused a lot on the Book of Mormon, and it was really powerful. 

I was asked to give a talk on how I know the Book of Mormon is true. I used sort of a comical analogy, but also a very true one in my life. I got it from reading Lorenzo Snow's Teachings of the President's book. The analogy goes as follows: When you make a pickle you must first start with a cucumber and place it in a barrel of vinegar. When you first place it in the vinegar does it instantly turn into a pickle? No. Wait twelve hours and is the cucumber fully changed? No. The vinegar has hardly had an effect on the skin of the cucumber. But, if you wait an adequate amount of time and let the vinegar soak all the way through, through patience, you will finally have your desired pickle. That is how my testimony of the Book of Mormon has been in my life. I have been saturated by the Word of God, from the Book of Mormon my whole life. I have constantly learned from the stories in the book and tried my best to live the doctrines taught. My testimony didn't just form the first time I read the Book of Mormon, but through constant study, prayer and living according to its teachings were I able to be fulling effected by the truth and power of the Book of Mormon. It wasn't instant, but like the pickle, if we are patient to abide by its precepts and let the truth and the power soak all the way into the core, then we can come to know the truth of the Book. Please read it and find out for yourself. 

And keep in mind what the Savior tells us in D&C 6:23-"

 22 Verily, verily, I say unto you, if you desire a further witness, cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things.

23 Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?

Listen to your thoughts and feelings as you read and trust in God! I am grateful for this mission. For the hot, sweaty days, where I come home and feel discouraged because it is at these times that I am humble enough to be strengthened and taught by the Lord. Those times are the times when I must rely on the Lord to feel his love to motivate me to try a little harder tomorrow! I love this church and the Book of Mormon! I love the grind too! I will talk to you next week!

Elder Gochnour

The Golden Ticket

HEY HEY HEY PEOPLE!

Another great week out here in the big KC baby! On Thursday for Weekly Planning we organized our whiteboard with all the information on our area and gave every single person an NBA player counterpart. It was way funny haha. Our two best investigators are Kawhi and Lebron haha and then our PI investigators are young ballers, the members are Hall of Famers, and the Less Actives are the biggest busts haha (Greg Oden). It definitely helped spice up our week from the long days with lots of contacting. On a basketball note, Elder Cunningham and I also came up with every starting five we could think of. Meaning, the starting five best white guys of all time, most overrated starting five, most athletic, over 7 foot, oriental, under 6 foot, thug starting five and everything in between. My favorite was the scriptural character starting five. Goliath was definitely the starting center. 

We also did missionary work this week too! (much more important) It is pretty cool because our two main investigators are some of the strongest members of our branch and they haven't even been baptized yet. They are rock solid. One of them (Leemeng) (Lebron) gave the other one a tie and they both wear white shirts and ties to church. It is pretty cool to see how big of a positive impact they are having on the branch. Speaking of, we had a miracle with Pu Lee Meng this week. We had a tough lesson on tithing, but he eventually agreed to follow the law of tithing. The next morning he saw a guy outside his house begging for money, and he is very kind so he gave them twice as much money as he asked for (50 cents instead of 25). That same day he found two ($1.25) bills on the ground and therefore he gave away fifty cents but got two dollars and fifty cents in return. Exactly like the law of tithing. God works in mysterious ways.

This week we were just trying to get something going and we were literally going down every single back road that we could possibly see just to try to meet some new people. Right as we were about to lose all hope and just toss in the towel, a high school kid on a moto rode passed us into his house. Immediately after Elder Cunningham said "He is the Golden Ticket," and my first thought was of the Office episode where Michael has the Golden Ticket idea hahah, but after that we went and talked to him and he was a boss! He lives in a house with five other kids that are all around 20 years of age. Although they did not seem to be extremely interested in learning about Christ they showed some interest and they were very kind. We went back the next day and Tiara (the golden ticket) played some Khmer songs on the guitar and he is probably the best singer I have ever heard. He was SO GOOD! We didn't have much time to teach a lesson, but we have a lot of hope for those guys so I will keep you posted!

This week I read the scripture in D&C 58: 16 that reads, "Behold his mission is given unto him, and it shall not be given again." And it kinda lit the fire under me again! I gotta get going because in a year and a half this whole mission thing is over and it is on to the rest of my life, so I better make the most of the time that I have here! 

My spiritual thought for this week is for everyone to go listen to or read the talk called "Oh Lord Keep My Rudder True" by Elder Jeffery R. Holland. Please read it or listen to it. Are you loyal to the cause? Are you loyal to your beliefs? How do you show your loyalty? Loyalty is one quality that is really underrated. Imagine a perfectly loyal world. We must first know where we stand, what we believe in and the standards we hold, and after we figure that out it all comes down to loyalty. Are you your brother's brother? Anyway just listen to it because it is straight FLAMES!

Joy in the journey, hope in the hardship and peace in the peril. That is what Jesus Christ can offer all of us. I know he lives. Read the Book of Mormon and you will too.

// Elder Gochnour

P.S. I went to Auntie Anne's and bought a Shaq jersey when we went down to the city on Wednesday to fix Elder Cunningham's Visa, again. Long story short it was a good week!

P.P.S Shout out to the Titans and the Blue Devils! Undefeated season baby! That's what I like to hear! TTTE