His Vineyard

HELLO PEOPLE!

I didn't have the chance to send out a weekly email last week but I just wanted to start by giving a special shout out to my special mom. She is the bomb! I am so grateful every day to have a mother that pushed me to be independent and follow God because that makes all of the difference out here. I love you Jeni B Gochnour. Thanks for everything. 

Other than that A LOT has happened since the last time I emailed all of you so I don't even know where to start. The good news is that we are doing awesome and this is truly the Lord's work.

The big thing that happened last week was Elder Homer came and visited. It was amazing to be in the presence of a general authority and learn from him and his wonderful spirit. I had the chance to be interviewed by him and I asked him a question, and I will never forget how he responded. At the end of the interview I asked him, "How do you define success, Elder Homer" His response was simple, but profound, "Success is becoming the person that God intended you to be." He didn't expound, he didn't clarify, just simply left it at that. Success is becoming the person that God sent you here to be. 

I think that simple phrase describes my mission so well. You try so hard to be successful by teaching repentance and baptizing converts. As a missionary that is what we are called to do. Numbers represent those converts and are important in how we measure the success we have had in accomplishing our purpose. But all in all, success is becoming who God intended us to be. Over my mission I have learned that every person, area, situation is different. Sometimes you work so hard and have not much success. Sometimes you work not as hard and it seems that everyone wants to learn. But that success is temporal and will change with a new transfer, a new area, a new companion. 

Permanent success is heeding to the promptings of the spirit and becoming and doing the things that God asks of us. We are sent here for a purpose and sometimes we let grades, money, numbers and everything define us, and cloud that purpose with mists of discontent and confusion. Please remember that God is the one light of truth and he had a purpose for sending both me and you here. Find out what he intends you to be and then do it!

Anyway sorry for the rant. I have no time to email and then I just spend it all ranting over some random topic haha. The work in our area is doing pretty well. We had a disappointment thing week when our investigator named Sokona was unable to get baptized. We planned for him to have the chance to receive an ordinance of salvation this past Sunday, but when we taught him the law of tithing this week he was simply unable to accept. I was heartbroken. The hard thing is that I actually feel for him. He is an older man who has a wife, kids and grandkids that he has to provide for. If only he could truly understand in his heart the blessings that we receive from following the commandments. It was disappointing, but from that  disappointment I also learned of the love that I have for him and these people. I think that if I didn't really care about him it would have been easy to forget about it and just move on to a new investigator, and forget about this loving old man. But that is not what God wants us to do - he sent us to LOVE one another.

In terms of our area we have a family that lives across the river and we have to take a ferry over every week to teach them. They were able to come to church and we had an awesome lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love teaching them because it means so much to them and I think they can understand why it means so much to us! Other investigators are doing good, just keep on keeping on!

A funny experience of the past week or two: We planned to have a ward clean up activity at the church in order to get the front of our building looking nice and clean! The members worked really hard and made some amazing food and then as soon as we were getting ready to start cleaning up, it started drizzling! Well the clean-up was not happening with grey clouds above, and a tiny bit of rain. They just decided to stay inside and eat the food, and postpone the cleaning till next time! We should have more clean up activities like that back home.

Sorry that wasn't even that funny I think my perception of funny has just changed over the past few years so forgive me if my jokes are horrible. 

Anyway the moral of the email is that the gospel can change lives and Jesus is the Christ. What a joy it is to be a laborer in His vineyard. May I end with a quote from Elder Holland, out of the Come Follow Me book, (which I love and it is inspired and you all better be doing it) 

"My beloved brothers and sisters, what happened in this story at 9:00 or noon or 3:00 is swept up in the grandeur of the universally generous payment at the end of the day. The formula of faith is to hold on, work on, see it through, and let the distress of earlier hours—real or imagined—fall away in the abundance of the final reward. Don’t dwell on old issues or grievances—not toward yourself nor your neighbor nor even, I might add, toward this true and living Church. The majesty of your life, of your neighbor’s life, and of the gospel of Jesus Christ will be made manifest at the last day, even if such majesty is not always recognized by everyone in the early going. So don’t hyperventilate about something that happened at 9:00 in the morning when the grace of God is trying to reward you at 6:00 in the evening—whatever your labor arrangements have been through the day."

I love you all! Keep on laboring in the vineyard and remember the reward waiting for us at the end.

Elder Gochnour

JACK AND THE BEANSTOCK

I would like to sincerely apologize for not writing a weekly letter for the past two weeks. Things just get really busy and I will see you all in about 3 or so months anyway so I will just talk to you then.

Jokes jokes! Well there is no possible way I can update you on everything that has happened for the past three weeks but here are some highlights of this week!

The first big news is..... we are getting SMARTPHONES! Who would have thought that the Kingdom of Cambodia of all places would now be on the internet! I guess it makes sense because some people can't even afford a house over their head, but yet somehow they have a smartphone so I guess we better hop on the bandwagon! We had a two-hour face time conference with the missionary department and the phones will roll out in June for our whole mission! The good news is we get to be the ones that test the phones so we will be getting smartphones this week! I guess that means catch me on Facebook lol.

Other than that I was able to go on an exchange with Elder Bailey and Elder Cope the last two weeks. I think one of the biggest lessons I have learned on my mission is how cool everyone actually is if you just get to know them! Literally, this world is just filled with cool amazing people and we can learn so much from them if we just take the time to get to know them.

The work here is going awesome! I love our branch so much. Over the past couple of years, it has been struggling, but the small band of members (especially the relief society) are some of the strongest I have ever seen in my life. I could write an individual email about how faithful every single one is, and they are so willing to serve and help. I love Cambodia. We set a goal to try to get 70 people to a sacrament meeting this transfer and we got 65 yesterday which was a miracle! 

The work is rolling forward! The title of this email is in reference to how we proselyte every day! Our area is just full of huge tall apartment buildings that are so run down. Picture walking down a hall in one of those haunted houses that have like a run down bus station room or like an insane asylum room and that is kinda what all of the buildings look like and we just climb endless amounts of stairs, but then rather than having creepy dressed up characters there are just God's children waiting for us! Fun stuff. Not sure I painted that picture very well?

To end I would just like to share something that we come across every day as a missionary in this country. Most people we talk to always give an excuse for not learning about Christ by saying "all religions are the same and they all teach us to do good deeds and to not sin"  

They believe that both Christianity and Buddhism just encourage us to do good deeds. However, what they don't understand is the fact that GOD lives and without following Jesus Christ we have no chance at salvation, or as the prophet said recently exaltation. How important is it to live with your loved ones again? How much does that mean to you? I wish it meant more to these people sometimes. But for me it means everything. I love my family and I love the chance, that because of Jesus Christ, WE CAN BE EXALTED! Sure all religions are good, but only one religion paves the path to heaven. 

President Nelson said it best, "They need to understand that while there is a place for them hereafter—with wonderful men and women who also chose not to make covenants with God—that is not the place where families will be reunited and be given the privilege to live and progress forever. That is not the kingdom where they will experience the fulness of joy—of never-ending progression and happiness.  Those consummate blessings can come only by living in an exalted celestial realm with God, our Eternal Father; His Son, Jesus Christ; and our wonderful, worthy, and qualified family members."

I love you all! Thanks for your love and support. Joy in the journey

Elder Gochnour