And now.....HELLO PEOPLE!
THANK YOU so much to everyone that wished me a happy birthday! I am so grateful for all of the amazingly thoughtful people I have in my life and I feel so blessed. This week was an interesting one, to say the least, so here are the good parts:
- After getting ditched by some of our investigators we decided to go visit a family of members because some of their children have gone less active. After visiting for a little and sharing a spiritual thought, the father of the household who is our First Counselor in the Bishopric whipped out his guitar and started playing Country Roads by John Denver! It was fantastic. He knew all the sounds of the words, but he doesn't know any English so he was just saying sounds that weren't really words which were pretty funny, but also just amazing. We ended up just belting a little John Denver on a Thursday in the middle of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
- Zone Conference! The last time that we get to hear from President and Sister Christensen in the mission. I won't go into too much detail, but they talked a lot about what it means to be a successful missionary. We have accountability to the Lord on how hard we work for these two years. Pretty crazy to think about. It was pretty powerful to hear them and a few other missionaries that are going home bear their testimonies. I really felt the unity of people doing their best to share the joy of the gospel in that small meeting room. I am so grateful for the influence of President and Sister Christensen in my life.
- We got dropped by a few of our investigators. Another one of them got a job on Sunday and two high school girls said that their fathers didn't want them to learn about Christianity. You win some, you lose some. But we also found some great people and an awesome family of four that is pretty exciting so things are looking up. They came to our ward party and had a great time.
- We also had a baptism for a girl named Heang! It was a pretty awesome experience. When we first met her she was actually atheist and did not believe that we have a living God who loves us. Little by little as we continued to meet with her and as she continued to try to accept the gospel in her life she was changed. She felt the love of her Supreme Creator and was changed by it. She is awesome and it was pretty amazing to see her baptized on Sunday!!! I know how much light the gospel can bring into our lives by living it. I am not gonna lie before my mission I don't know if I knew this, but now... I KNOW. The love of Jesus Christ really can change people
For my birthday we ate well! I went to a place called Jars of Clay and got some Lasagna (which just isn't a thing here) and some cake and ice cream. Nothing compared to the cake and ice cream back home, but still pretty tasty! We spent most of the day teaching lessons and then went to the church to teach a lesson AND some of the members came and surprised me with a cake. It was so nice of them to think of me and they even gave me some gifts. It was really fun to celebrate with them! At night we tried to make some s'mores, but our jerry-rigged fire was just absolutely not working. We ended up cooking our marshmallows over a burning sock from one of the elders in our house! Welcome to Cambodia! It was a good birthday haha!
To end I would like to share something pretty cool I learned in personal study. I was reading in Mormon in the truest book on earth (Book of Mormon) and I stumbled across some thought-provoking verses.
25 And it came to pass that we did contend with an army of thirty thousand against an army of fifty thousand. And it came to pass that we did stand before them with such firmness that they did flee from before us.
26 And it came to pass that when they had fled we did pursue them with our armies, and did meet them again, and did beat them; nevertheless the strength of the Lord was not with us; yea, we were left to ourselves, that the Spirit of the Lord did not abide in us; therefore we had become weak like unto our brethren.
The Nephites were able to beat the Lamanites and hold them off in this certain battle. They were able to come off conqueror even though they were the underdog. However, we come to learn that they were able to have success WITHOUT the strength of the Lord. Although they won, they were still weak like their brethren because the Spirit of the Lord did not dwell in their unholy temples. We learn a valuable lesson. I think that God is waiting and willing to bless us with strength and His Holy Spirit. However, often we don't do the things necessary in order for him to bestow that blessing upon us. That doesn't mean that if we don't have the spirit then we won't be successful. I know plenty of people that are way more successful than I will ever be without the spirit in the Lord and lots of people that live much harder lives than I do, even though the Spirit abides in them. The Nephites still won the battle, but think about how much better their lives, and their future could have been if they had the Spirit to be with them. The Holy Ghost makes life better! Do what you must in order to have it in your life.
That is all for now. I love this gospel and my Savior
Elder Gochnour
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