GOD IS THE GARDENER

What a week it was to say the least!

Some highlights of the week are as follows:

• We went on an exchange with the son of the Thailand mission president which was awesome! Jarom was his name and he was a way kind kid. It was cool to see that missionary work is still the same no matter where you are. We biked him around the dirt streets and actually taught some cool lessons!

• They were fixing a road while we were biking home (already a little bit late) and my tire went flat. I had to fill it up a few times just to make it home, but then on top of that my wheel wouldn't spin because it was so clogged up with mud haha. It just got stuck and wouldn't go back or forward. Pretty funny times. Made it home caked in mud

• We had zone conference and it was awesome! I love spending time with President and Sister Lewis. 

• We focused on EXPECTING MIRACLES! Our Heavenly Father is a God of miracles and we just have to ask and be faithful enough to see Him work His magic! Kinda cheesy, but if you expect miracles in your own life you will see the results. 

• And BTW I would love to hear of  a miracle you have seen in your own life if you have some free time. (jacob.gochnour@myldsmail.net)

We also had interviews with President and he shared something that really stuck with me. I asked why more people don't CARE! Why doesn't their personal salvation mean more to them? Why don't they want to have peace and happiness in this life? Why doesn't it matter to them? I just didn't understand. Although he didn't answer my question directly he just said something that really stuck out to me. He just said that you can't let it get to you. In our world today the adversary works SO HARD to try to beat us down and mix up the things that are most important, THE FAMILY! We just need to be optimistic and take on every day with a smile! 

I went on an exchange with Elder Phork (khmer) and he is the man. He recently had a family member pass away and he said the coolest thing, "honestly I don't know how I would have reacted if I wasn't on a mission. I probably would have been mad or something. But because I am on a mission I have peace and I know where he is going." We were able to teach about the plan of salvation to an investigator and the spirit was pumping! 

We were supposed to have a baptism this week, but our man had a meeting at his work he couldn't miss, and his two friends (who would have gone to church) went to the same meeting with him. Another investigator went to church, but before sacrament started he has something come up and had to leave, and our other investigator got bit by a dog with rabies haha. Those are just a few of the many that weren't able to go lol..... We have been working as hard as possible, but often times things don't work out the way we would like them too. 

 I was given the opportunity to read the talk called God is the Gardener, and it was just the medicine I needed! He tells the classic story about how the gardener had to cut down the current bush in order to show the true growth and fruits that the bush could bring forth. ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down, for loving me enough to hurt me.’ 

I love this work. Sometimes you get home and you are tired and you don't know exactly why everything that happened, happened, but I can say that God is the Gardener. Whatever undertakings may demand of you and of your attention, I tell you, young men and young women, you cannot make a better resolution today than this: “I am going to keep close to the Lord. I am going to understand Him better, and, understanding Him, I will understand myself and will try to put my life into harmony with His.” For I have come to know that every man and every woman has potential godhood dwelling in him, for God is in reality the Father of us all. 

That is all I have for this week! I love my mission and I love my Savior. This gospel is about becoming, and everyday we need to do a little better than yesterday! I love you all. 

Elder Gochnour

P.S. Everyday as we bike and walk the streets we see dogs fighting and it reminds me of how the world is. We are so blessed that we have a place of refuge from the world in our Heavenly Father's care. This is what one of the missionaries from my area wrote:

"Just know that every morning, everyday, every night is a warzone. All the dogs in the neighborhood just go at and are always fighting. A lot of times multiple dogs gang up on one dog or its one dog goes at it with another and every other dog in the area runs to get into the fight. We watch them fight from our balcony, sometimes they fight within our apartment gates or sometimes on our stairs. but just know that it is truly a doggy doggy world out here." 

HEY

We had a great call from Jake last night and so it meant that he had not time to write - here is the little he wrote! 

Sorry for not having the chance to send out an email this week. I love my mission and I know that the church is true. Go read the talk The Gospel and The Good Life. Joy in the JOURNEY!

Elder Gochnour

no TIME>>>

I titled this email "no TIME", because I have about 8 minutes to type my whole weekly email so yay! I guess I still need to work on the procrastination problem that was so prevalent before my mission. 

Another fantastic week of work and miracles! Our investigator names Sothiarea is doing awesome and should be getting baptized soon! He brought his two friends to church and now they are learning with us too! We have been working hard with the members and we have some potential member referrals so we have a lot of good things going! 

There are still times when it feels like nothing is going right and times when it feels like everything is going right haha, but for the most part I just love being a missionary.

A few short stories that happened this week:

• Elder Moore and I bought matching all gold Elephant ties so you know we had to break them out went Elder Meurs (a General Authority serving in the Asia Area Presidency) came to encourage members to serve missions. It was a great meeting and a have a testimony that the leaders of this church are called of God.

• We had a great lesson with a VERY SHY investigator. He is a really nice guy and says powerful prayers, but it is hard to get him to share his feelings. We really wanted to help him to come to church and to feel of the Holy Spirit there, and so we focused our whole lesson on helping him attend church. At the end of our lesson we committed him to come to church and he didn't respond. So we asked him again and there was still no response. We tried asking him in different ways and he just was kinda looking around awkwardly. I tried to just sit there and let him feel the spirit, but I am not exaggerating we were literally there for 30 MINUTES just waiting for him to say SOMETHING! It was crazy and at one point I just started breaking out laughing because it was SO uncomfortable. Literally 30 minutes. We eventually just said goodbye and left, and then returned a later day and kinda talked him through it.

I am out of time so here is a clip from another elder's weekly that I serve with about a service project we had. 

•  This week the Elders of Siem Reap were blessed to do our favorite service project in Cambodia, digging a ditch. The Branch President asked all the Elders to come help him dig this ditch because he is going to start breeding fish. Since it is service you know the Elders are gonna jump on that. The first thing about this service project, is that the Branch President just lives so far away, it's okay, no biggie, just an hour of biking, it's just fine.  I lost feeling in my butt 10 minutes into the ride. When we get there we start digging and this dirt, is the HARDEST dirt I've ever encountered in all of my years. This dirt, is just hard for absolutely no reason but it's okay, we've got 8 Elders plus a few members, no biggie. It's just dirt, we just gotta dig it up and move it. Lets just say, for the next 2 hours, we didn't get to dig a full ditch. They had already dug one ditch a day before and this ditch was about 6 feet deep. Our ditch we dug was about 2 feet deep. We just got absolutely rallied. Elders : 0 Ditch :1. We were all just crazy tired, and then we had to do the hour bike ride back home.  Elders : 0 Ditch : 2. we just got our butts kicked that day.

One other thing is I had the chance to finish the book Jesus the Christ. It was an amazing experience to read that book and my favorite chapter was called, A Long Night of Apostasy. In reading this chapter I came to understand one of the reasons that there needed to be an Apostasy, because Joseph, needed to usher in the dispensation of the fulness of times, through a miraculous restoration. I know that Joseph truly did see God the Father and Jesus Christ and that the Lord's true and restored church lives today. I am grateful to serve Him and declare that a prophet leads us and guides us today, and that God gives us prophets because He loves us. Anyway, PLEASE go read that chapter and you will thank me later.

I love you all!

Elder Gochnour

"You guys save everything!"

Howdy folks!

This week we had MLC in Phnom Penh and exchanges with the AP's so we didn't have much time in our area, but it is all good in the hood! 

Exchanges with the AP's was an absolute BLAST! The reason being: I teamed up with Elder Tuft again and it was just like we were back together 8 months ago. It is crazy how fast the time has flown, that feels like just yesterday. There were some miracles that happened while we were there: we found a random lady from Chbar Ampov (my old area) and her three daughters who want to learn and get baptized. Those things don't just happen. The fact that we were in a place that he had never been and I happened to be there (probably the only Elder the lady would have recognized) isn't just chance. The Lord prepares it, we just have to notice His hand in our lives. 

We have a new motto in our mission "Expect miracles" if we go out there everyday expecting miracles the Lord will deliver. No doubt in my mind. 

I don't think anyone really reads these emails anymore except probably my mom so I won't go into much detail. The city was super fun because we were in the heart of Phnom Penh. You go behind the buildings and it reminds me a little bit of what my boy Elder Smith feels like in Mexico. Don't worry though mom, I locked my bike and had the Lord protecting me. The highlight of the week was when we were in one of those musty alleys, and a white guy walks past us, while we are in the process of trying to contact a Khmer guy. He said something along the lines of "Do you guys focusing on saving the children or do you focus on saving the trees and that stuff?" Kinda an odd question, and not quite sure how to respond, I just simply said "No we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints!" Then came an answer that I wasn't expecting, but surprisingly made my whole week. He said, "Oh! You guys save EVERYTHING!!" I have never heard anything more true in my life! In this, the Lord's church, we do save everything! We offer salvation to all of the Sons and Daughters of God if they are willing to accept it. Long story short, it was great to be back with Elder Tuft, and I am so grateful for the Lord and His miracles, and this mission that He has given to me that changed my life. 

Back in our area we worked VERY HARD. I am talking leaving the house in the morning and not coming home or taking a second to rest until we get home at night. So hard that I get home and just fall asleep without even taking off my bag. Honestly, after all of our efforts, the immediate fruits have not yet shown, but I know they will. And if all else fails, at the end of the day I feel happy and there isn't anything better than that. This week I had a lot of cool spiritual experiences, so many to name them all. As a mission we have been memorizing the Living Christ and I almost finished this week. I have seen my testimony of HIM grow so much as I memorize the testimony of our prophets and apostles. If you have not had a chance to read it recently, I would invite you all to study through it again! I know that Jesus Christ lives, and that he is our source of joy and true happiness in this life.  His hand is present in our lives everyday, we sometimes just need to take time to step back and realize it. He truly is our Living Savior.

I also had the chance to finish the Book of Mormon again in my mission. I read a whole new paperback copy without any markings and I spent the whole time reading about how I can better learn how to love! I can testify with all of my heart that the Book of Mormon is true and that God loves us and teaches us through that sacred book.

I love you all

Elder Gochnour