Come, Come Ye Saints

Hello family, friends and anyone else who is crazy enough to still be reading this,

This week was actually pretty wild. Before I start with my week though, I just got done reading all of the other missionaries around the worlds emails, and I had a few thoughts. 

• First this is an amazing and glorious work and I am so grateful to be apart of it.

• Secondly at times it probably feels like I have portrayed my mission as a happy, perfect experience full of only sunshine. I would like to say that every week there is some rain, and that sometimes things might not be as ideal as we all make them seem haha. But I think the reason I always end up talking about the good parts is because this is a gospel of hope. In life I think the world tries to get down on us, and make it seem like we are just another someone trying to make it, but on the mission I think you really feel the power that you have as sons and daughters of God to change lives. Anyway, just know that although the mission isn't perfect, it is the most rewarding thing.

Anyway, my emails have been kinda long so I will try to keep it shorter:

We have some great stuff going in our area right now! If I took time to type out every miracle that I have seen this week you guys would be reading an encyclopedia. 

Here are some fun stories that will be enough to give you a taste of life here in the Kingdom

• We are currently teaching a GOLDEN investigator and her family. It has been really cool because my companion and I just met her walking on the road about four weeks ago. At first she said that her husband had no interest, so we had to give her over to the sisters. Well long story short the sisters have been taken out of our area, and it has been a miracle to have the chance to teach her again! She went to church with her husband and two kids and they loved it. I can't say all the amazing things that have happened, but I think the coolest thing was that when she recounted the experience of first meeting us that day on the red dirt road, she said the following, "I have met with many other missionaries and always invite them to sit down and talk with me. But when I talk to them, I don't feel any warmth. When I first met you guys I didn't know what it was but I just felt warmth inside of me. It wasn't anything strong, but it was just enough to notice it." That is the spirit if you ask me. Anyway they are on track for baptism and please keep them in your prayers. 

• This week there was a lady in our ward who we asked to help us take one of our investigators to church. She has a disabled leg and so she sometimes is scared driving her tuk-tuk on roads that don't have a lot of people because she doesn't want to be killed (these are her words not mine). However she told us that she would do it anyway because she has faith in God and she will die for Him! I told her that reminded me of the hymn Come, Come, Ye Saints (go give it a read) and then she proceeded to sing the whole entire first verse over the phone!!!! Not even joking. We were totally down so we started joining in and singing! At the end of the first verse we belted the words "All is Well! All is Well!" Thinking that it would be over. She then proceeded to sing the whole second verse hahahahaha. At the end of the call she ended the whole phone call in the name of Jesus Christ. Sorry mom, but that was the best phone call I have had on my mission. I love this country, these people and their courageous faith. 

• Last P-Day we ate pig head for lunch. It definitely did not taste good, but it was a good experience. I ate every part of the head and I will say that the meat around the cheek bone was the tastiest. The tongue and the ear tied for last place. 

We were supposed to have a baptism this week, but our investigator does not have a marriage certificate, but should be getting it this week!

Anyway lots more stories, but not enough time.

So many spiritual thoughts to share, but for this week I just want to take it back to the basics, the 

gospel through the Book of Mormon in Alma 41:

5 The one raised to happiness according to his desires of happiness, or good according to his desires of good; and the other to evil according to his desires of evil; for as he has desired to do evil all the day long even so shall he have his reward of evil when the night cometh.

6 And so it is on the other hand. If he hath repented of his sins, and desired righteousness until the end of his days, even so he shall be rewarded unto righteousness. 

7 These are they that are redeemed of the Lord; yea, these are they that are taken out, that are delivered from that endless night of darkness; and thus they stand or fall; for behold, they are their own judges, whether to do good or do evil.

 I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and the knowledge that it gives us about His plan and His Atonement and I am so grateful for the chance that God has given us to CHOOSE where we want to end up. If we desire to go to Heaven we can! We just have to desire then DO! 

Please read chapter 41 in Alma in the Book of Mormon and keep in mind your own desires in life! What are you willing to sacrifice to follow Him? Is your desire for the here and now, more dominating than your desire for salvation in the future?

I love you all!

Elder Gochnour

hello

Okay so I was HORRIBLE at timing out my emails I hope to get the hang of this call and write change so with the little time I have here are some things from my week. 

Transfer calls came and I will be staying in Siem Reap and my new companion will be Elder Richardson from Mesa, AZ! We have a few mutual friends and he loves basketball so I think that we will get along very well! I am excited for the work that we have ahead of us. Expect Miracles.

We had a baptism this week for my guy, Sothearea! He is a legend and we picked him up as a new investigator the first week I got here and have been teaching him ever since. He was, as they call in the profession, prepared! No matter what we taught him, it seemed to just click with him and make perfect sense. He had no problems and just kept doing all the little things to follow God (stay tuned, more to come). 

After Sothearea's baptism he bore testimony of his gratitude for God.  How before he found God he felt lost, and hopeless. He is a very studious guy (19 years old) and very smart, and he said that all his knowledge didn't give him any purpose or answers. Until he found the Gospel! Now he is full of hope. He is the most smiley dude ever. Because of people like him, everything we do as missionaries is all made worth it. 

The other part of this story comes from the person who baptized him which is this guy named Channy! He is one of my best friends here. When we first came, he was doing okay, coming to church when he was asked, but not making any extra effort. We made a big effort to involve him and get him pumped up about going on a mission and it has been amazing to see the change that has occurred in his life. He is so bold and so happy to be a Christian (even if that means that sometimes he won't be accepted or gets made fun of in his own country). He always gets so excited to help us teach and share the good word. We had him baptize our guy Sothearea and it was amazing and quite the experience. He had never baptized anyone so the first time he finished saying the prayer he grabbed the back of Sothearea's shirt and literally just SLAMMED him in the water. I am talking full on WWE body slam. There literally was a splash zone from the slightly brown water in the font, that got on me. He had to baptism him a few more times with us asking him to, "please do it a little bit softer" and not take him from the "ropes with full force." You gotta love Cambodia.

I am out of time, but I want to end with something that I realized this week while reading a General Conference talk. It is the importance of doing the little things, and especially, the primary answers! Here is what I mean: in primary everyone knows that when you don't know what the teacher said, or you forgot what the question was, or you just flat out weren't listening, you could always resort to saying something along the lines of: PRAY, READ YOUR SCRIPTURES, BE NICE, FOLLOW JESUS, GO TO CHURCH, and you would pretty much always be right. I realized that the primary kids are RIGHT! Even though all the primary answers and the little things seem so redundant I know that if we ACTUALLY DO all those things like; Being kind, reading the scriptures, going to church, praying, and doing all those things with a sincere heart then everything will work out! Everything. 

We don't have to complicate the gospel. We just have to follow God and do the little things that He commands us and he will bless us abundantly! Thanks be to God for the primary children of the world, and may we ever try to do our best to live by their words of wisdom. After all everyone knows, “By Small and Simple Things Are Great Things Brought to Pass”

(Alma 37:6-7) 

I love you all!

Elder Gochnour

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

Physically dirty, spiritually clean!

Hey people!

Things are going awesome. This week we had to split the area and pick up our companions from the bus station and send our other companion off to Phnom Penh. I will miss Elder Baird and Elder Miller, we had some fun times. I finally had the chance to do some regular missionary work in a regular companionship and just give it our all. It felt great to be back with no distractions and just being able to focus on the work. Like I said, my new companion is Elder Moore and he is a champion! He is going to play football at BYU after his mission and he went to Lehi High School, so we have a lot to talk about. We get along great and have been hitting the streets hard. 

Here are some things that have been happening:

• We did service for a family and moved dirt for 2 hours straight! Just like every other service project in Cambodia haha. They really need some tractors in this country.

• When Elder Moore and I got back to regular work on Friday we had no new investigators for the week and hardly any potentials and then God just prepared the way. We walked into some guy that had learned before and he said that he has been having some hard times out here, with a few young kids and no job to provide for them. What better way to help them than by teaching him how to pray! It is amazing to see the miracles while sitting on the front row. Grab your popcorn. 

• We had a birthday party for an Elder and ate some good cake! It was green and purple.

The highlight of all was the baptism of Somnang! He is the young kid that I talked about last week! 

It was nothing short of an adventure getting him baptized, to say the least. We show up to church on Sunday and realize that the church has no water. Not for drinking, not for flushing toilets, and definitely not for filling up a baptismal font. So this is Cambodia, right? So why not just bring the hose through the window of the church and fill the font? Yeah, so that is what happened. If I am being honest, it wasn't the clearest or cleanest baptism water or [any water for that matter] that I have ever seen, but it did the job. That was only half of the battle. 

The other half started when they got into the water. The grandfather had practiced saying the baptismal prayer probably 20 plus times with us before. He had it down. But the lights came on and the cameras came out and he choked haha. He could not say it correctly and on top of that, he is pretty much deaf. So we are trying to yell him the baptismal prayer, but he still can't hear it. Somnang is just in the water shivering because he is so cold from the hose water, and everyone is just dying laughing. He takes a break and puts in his hearing aids and STILL could not get it down. Our last resort was me hanging over the banister holding the white handbook in front of his face while he read from it! Legendary hahah. A day that I will never forget. They went in wearing white and left wearing brown. The most important thing is that he is baptized! After the baptism, Somnang spoke about how he has been washed and cleaned from his sins! Amazing! He might not be physically clean after the yellow water, but he was clean spiritually. 

Lastly,  I would like to share one scripture that really stuck out to me this week in my personal study.

From Ether 12:41 And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. Amen.

All God asks us to do is to seek after Him and we will find! If you feel lost or far from Him, all you have to do is do your best to find Him and He will find you. 

Please also read in Acts 17:27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

I love you all!

Elder Gochnour

The Fresh Fade ?

This week was a great one like always! To start off we got our transfer calls: I will be staying in Siem Riep and my new companion will be Elder Moore from Lehi UT. I am excited to go to work! 

They will be splitting our area which is kinda interesting because the work is a little bit slow right now, but hopefully, we can get it going, and on the bright side we won't have to bike so far now! Only just kinda far. I will be sad to leave the legendary trio, but like they say all good things must come to an end (except eternal happiness because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ). Well anywayyy I will still be zone leader with Elder Baird my former comp and it should be a good transfer! Also, my other former comp Elder Tuft got called as Assistant shout out to the legend!

We got to go to Angkor Wat today which was an amazing experience. Everyone should go there at least once in their life. It is truly a symbol of a nation here, and I am so grateful to serve is this beautiful and unique country. The best in the world.

Missionary work is the best work. We should be having a baptism this upcoming week for a 10-year-old who has gone to church his whole life, but his parents let him live with his grandparents and they didn't baptize him when he was 8. Sadly, a common thing here, but I love connecting with the little kids and seeing how pure their hearts are, even if they don't fully understand the significance of all the doctrine. He knows that God loves him and that he has a prophet who leads and guides this church! What more could you need? We have some other really cool investigators that we have been working with, but we have struggled to find time to meet with them and get them to church. We are doing our best, but kinda just the story of life as a missionary! We have a lot of potentials so hopefully, things start speeding up and our investigators get going!

This week we went on exchanges with the Assistants which meant a 6-hour bus down and back, so that kinda wrecked our week. However, on that bus, I had the chance to read in the book, Jesus the Christ! What an amazing book. I am almost finished and I read a lot about the conviction, trial, and Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Some pretty sad stuff. In reading, I became more aware of the injustice that Jesus Christ faced in his life here on earth. I think that we all feel like life is not fair. “Why can't we be cool and popular like them? Why can't I be smarter, funnier, kinder? Why did this hard/bad thing happen to such a good person? Why did God place me in such an unfair circumstance?”  I think that we have all asked ourselves one of those questions before. I know I have. I see it here every day in Cambodia. These amazing Christlike people who face challenges financially and physically that we can't even imagine. Hardships that don't even compare. Why? As of recently, I have thought a lot about the justice and mercy of God. The age-old question all rings in our heads, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" 

This week I found an answer of my own. Take a second to look at Jesus Christ. The kindest of us all. The most humble. Our perfect older brother. He never mistreated or misused another person. He never spoke an ill word. And yet He, the greatest of all, was forced to face betrayal. He who never sinned was condemned on false charges. He who forgave, served and helped, with pure love, was forced to suffer on the cross. Is that fair? Is God an unjust God? No. We will have trials, that is part of this life. But it will never be something we can't handle or that he will leave us alone to handle on our own. This world isn't fair, but that doesn't mean that God isn't perfectly just. He will exalt us and bless us more than we can ever imagine. We must endure with grace and humility. Christ was asked to suffer and He did it willingly. Can't we follow His perfect example and do the same? I invite you all if you have ever felt that your life is unfair, to take a few steps to Calvary and bear His cross. Yes, this life isn't fair, but because of Him, everything will be made right. Every hardship we can push through in this life and everything that felt unfair or unequal will just be a greater blessing bestowed on us in the life to come. I am grateful for Jesus Christ and His perfect example to me. May we all try to be a little bit more like Him this week, and forever. 

Funny story to end this week: Because we went to Angkor this week we wanted to get haircuts so we could look fresh. There is this Elder named Elder Nhiev, who is an absolute legend from Jacksonville Florida. He went to public school in Florida so I thought that of course, he knew how to give me a fresh fade! Welllll..... let's just say that he didn't. I ended up with a pretty comical haircut on the back of my head, but it is all for the experience! Sorry, mom! (he ended up trying to save it with safety scissors....) (I will not be including pictures of the aftermath) 

Until next weeks adventures,

Elder Gochnour