ELECTIONS!

This week was very interesting, to say the least! Here are a few things worth mentioning:

• My companion and I helped a girl in our ward fill out her mission papers as she prepares to leave. It was humbling to see how pure of a desire she has to serve and to help people. She comes from a single parent family and her mother is not a member. She is paying for her mission by herself and trying to figure out how to fill out mission papers in English when she knows Khmer. It really gave me so much gratitude for my family and the support system that I have back home. I don't know why I got so lucky, but living here has given me so much gratitude for home.

• We taught some new people this week that another missionary found contacting on the road. They moved from their province and before believed in Christ, but now don't have a church to go to. We taught them the lesson of the Restoration and had a very cool experience. My companion asked them "If a 14-year-old boy told you that he met God and Jesus Christ would you believe him?" Mostly everyone just answers no which is a good leeway to talk about the evidence we can receive from the Book of Mormon, however, this guy just said yes I would believe him. After my comp rephrased and asked the question again he simply said, "Yes, I would believe him because I know that God still lives." I got so pumped up when I heard that. It makes sense! Revelation and guidance didn't stop after the apostles were killed, GOD STILL LOVES US AND STILL REACHES OUT TO US. Just like he did 200 years ago to the young boy, Joseph Smith. It was pretty cool to see the faith of the man that we taught and his strong believe of a living and loving God.

• Elections were the cause of some huge parades and loud cars blaring warnings. Things got pretty intense, but nothing ended up happening and the voting remained the same. So things are still just the same old here and nothing that we need to worry about.

The craziest thing of the week was the fact that my companion and I made the trip back to his house on Saturday (this was also due to the Elections) and chilled there until we could finally get a ride back to the city this morning (Monday). It was a very fun and crazy adventure! On the car ride down we packed in 21 people to this regular sized van and packed being the emphasized word. Crying babies, no leg room and loud Khmer music! Gotta love it baby! It was super fun to see his family and to spend time and get to know them. They have a duck farm and I was able to help pick up the hundreds of eggs that they had in the morning. We also went fishing at a small pond by his house, but we didn't catch anything sadly. While there I was able to eat chicken liver, chicken foot, and some dog! Also took a few showers with a bucket. It was fun to live like a Khmer for a few days and come to love these people and their lifestyle even more! We also had a lot of downtime which I was able to read a lot in the book, Jesus the Christ. I have come to realize on this mission how much I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. He willingly gave life for our salvation, but he was humble enough to give all of the glory to the Father. I love the scripture in 3rd Nephi 12: 48 "Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect."

Although we will never be perfect like Jesus Christ that is our ultimate goal! I know that He lives and because of His Atoning Sacrifice, we can all live again as well. 

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Other than that things are good here! Trying to keep the work of the Lord progressing while still learning and growing individually. 

Love you all back home! Hope things are going well!/

/Elder Gochnour