អរគុណច្រើនព្រះ

HELLO! 

First, I would like to start out by saying HAPPY THANKSGIVING week, everyone! I love you all and am so grateful for all of you. 

Now to what is really important (classic missionary line)..... this week was honestly one of the weirdest and most random weeks of my life. Not gonna lie, before this week I had a feeling that I knew what was going on and I knew how to be a good missionary and how to create success. Then this week happened and I don't even know what was happening half of the time, but it made for a lot of fun memories! The work is going really well. We had a WAY cool lesson with our investigator Ly and his son Yubin (where you been) and they should be getting baptized this week so yeah! I know that God is a God of tender mercies. In order to sum up this week here is a short list of some things that happened:

• We went to a wedding that started an hour and a half late.... how does that even happen? Welcome to Cambodia.  Then we went to their reception which was just a really loud concert with lots of people I didn't know. We left after five minutes

• Saw a dog chewing on a rat and then a chicken came and stole it from the dog and ran away & then we saw an army of red ants eat a worm alive. 

• I forgot that as a grown-up you have to pay electricity bills. We hadn't paid for three months so we just sat on the floor sweating with no electricity and watched the restoration video a few times in different languages until we resolved the problem and had them turn our power back on

• Went to go visit a member and of course asked the classic "is there anything we can do to help you guys?" Well, YES THERE WAS IN FACT,  he ended up just putting us to manual labor for 2 hours. Not to mention it was one in the afternoon and we were just in our proselyting clothes. Hot stuff! 

This is just the start of all of the CRAZY things that happened. Every day is an adventure in Cambodia! 

Anyway, I want to end with three short things that happened this week that built my testimony.

• I read in the Book of Mormon about Pahoran's response to Moroni's epistle and I really admire Pahoran so much. He doesn't care that he just got railed on for not doing anything wrong. He simply forgives, forgets and focuses on what is important. We can all do that better in our own lives. Please, everyone, go read that story. (Book Of Mormon -Alma 61)

• We picked up a new investigator who has had one of the hardest pasts I have ever heard. He lacks hope and purpose in this life and is lost. Because of that, we had some of the coolest lessons with him. One of my favorite things to ever happened on my mission was the first time we met with him. When I told him that "I know that God loves you Rit, that He knows your name and that He knows your situation. He is your Father and He loves you." The biggest smile, from ear to ear, flashed on his face. I felt so warm inside. I know that he felt the confirming witness of the Holy Ghost that God LIVES and LOVES him, and that gives him hope and a smile. That is what these two years are all about.

I don't have time for the last one so maybe sometime later!

Love you all! This week I am especially grateful for the love of our Father in Heaven, the ultimate sacrifice of our Savior and the precious gift of the Book of Mormon!

JOY IN THE JOURNEY!

Elder Gochnour

P.S. I am also grateful for the Utes and the Blue Devils! Go Duke, Jazz and may the Utes take the W in the Pac-12!