Moving Forward In Cambodia

Well lots of news from home today!!!!  I like it. 

Dad did you meet my favorite Tow Truck guy From Escalante...  The one who likes to charge 400 dollars to jump start your car?
Thanks for getting back to me on the Mutual activities and the PEC.  Um, I’m not allowed to search other websites nor do I really have the time to... so for the mutual activities maybe I’ll just give the websites to my branch president and have him do it or you could copy and paste some ideas for me and email it to me next week..   And for PEC, my branch president and I read the handbook frequently to help train everyone and figure out how things are supposed to be run and for PEC its very vague.  So we have been doing it for two weeks now and we don’t really know what kind of content we are supposed to talk about.. In the handbook it just says discuss the needs of the priesthood... And that’s about it..  So I was looking for like examples of things done things talked about.. any suggestions are welcome…

Its super hard because we don’t have a ward of 400 people like we do in America.. We only have 25 real active people who have been members for a few years and don’t know what to do at all because they have never had a responsibility in their whole lives!!!  So ill see what I can do..    Right now the Branch President Is 27 years Old with an Elders Quorum President who has been a member for a little over a year and doesn’t know how to do anything. His clerk is a 20 year old boy and his Young Men’s President is 18.. No councilors, no high priests, No seasoned priesthood holders at all.  In the entire room I’m the most seasoned Priesthood holder!  And Missionaries aren’t even supposed to be in that meeting but President needs me.. HA

Way to go Jared on the W's !!!  I remember when I was growing!!! Mom would buy me cheap soccer cleats that were ugly because I would just grow out of them every season!! I also remember all the aches and pains! In the ankles and in my heels!  In the knees as well.. I mostly kept quiet and didn’t bring it up because I wanted to play!  I figured if I’m going to go to practice and go to the games I would rather play than sit!!! So I played through the pain!!!  It does go away I promise!  So my advice it to do your best to just play through the pain and don’t let any time get away from you!!  The longer you’re not playing, the more practice is getting away from you! So do your best to push and when the game is over that is when you can sit down and rest your legs.. Be the One Little Buddy!! Ya can’t do it sitting down..  

OK did I ever give you the results of the huge transfer we had last week?  All companionships in the mission were changed except for three..  That is a big transfer!!  I now have another Native Companion, Elder Khan!  We got to serve together in my first area for a bit so we already know each other and he already knows a ton of English so there is no problems there we speak Khmer and English 50/50 and its sweet.. He is my Co Zone leader but he came up from JR companion so I am having to train him a lot!!!  I now have 20 people in my zone and have some brand new missionaries and first time trainers.  I’m the only person in my Zone that has ever trained before, so there is a lot of training and instructing to be done. Lots of companion exchanges and teaching!!  There is a lot on my plate at the moment.. Like I mentioned before, I play a super important role in my own area as well as in the Zone!!  When I had my interview with President he said, I need you to be my eyes if you see a need tell me and I will call together the District Presidency and all the Branch presidents and give you the floor to address any problems if you need to..   I thought.. Wow I have a lot of power!!!   It was almost scary.. After that he talked about how I now have a Co Zone Leader and he gave me Marriage counseling for like 20 minutes on how you have to share the leadership with your spouse.  It was weird!!

OK so one story...  I have been teaching a Man, I think I have told you about before.. His name is Sovann.  For the last 4 months, three times a week, I have been telling this man that he needs to find a way to go home from church on Sunday.  Because he asks us to take him home on our bikes or he asks members for money to get a ride..  And it’s going to be a problem if it goes on any longer..  He promises every week that he will do it, but sure enough every Sunday he comes unprepared..  This man was in an accident in 2001 and left him blind with no sense of smell and is unable to use his right arm and right leg. And he has a huge Dent in his forehead...  A big dent.... Like you could pour a 16 oz. soda into it and not spill a drop..  And he walks a Mile to church by himself every Sunday morning!  Some days he will remember things really well and others he literally has 3 second memory..   I’ll tell him... OK I want you to remember the number 5 in your mind.  Ill count to three and then ask him, ok what number did I ask you to remember, and he will say the wrong number or I don’t remember.  Some things you can say key words and he will remember!! for example.. I have read the story of Ammon with him before and reminded him like ten times.. so now when I say OK,  Who is Ammon and what did he do. He won’t remember a thing...  But then I say ..Sheep.. And it clicks in his head..  then he can say, oh Ammon prophet servant to the king protects the sheep from bandits cuts off the arms converts the king and his people through his service..  He is super interesting and every time I go teach him I am humbled.. 

When I go to his house I think.. Why am I here, he isn’t going to remember anything anyway.. But then when we go inside his house and see his humble living and we go up to his room which is like a cave.. He doesn’t have any use to his family so they keep him upstairs most the time in the dark and he just sits on his bed all day!!  When he had his accident his wife took the kids and left him so all he has is his brothers and sisters but they ignore him..  So when we go to visit him I think of the help he could have received if he were in America.  I just listen to him talk and watch him and it puts a hole in my heart to know that there really are people like this in the world.  Injured with no help..  Left alone..  crippled with no hope of recovery.. nobody to come and visit them and give them a reason to keep going..  No education.... No money.. Nowhere to start.. no outlook, no direction, no nothing!  Just sit there day after day after day until one day they are gone and only one or two people would even know..  That does not sound like the Plan of Happiness to me!  It’s a Miracle of the Gospel  for this man!  He now has purpose.. He has Identity. Instead of feeling thrown away and avoided, he now feels loved by his father in heaven. He now has people who knows that he exists!!  Members of the church who go and visit him with us.. Friends who help him find the bathroom at church. His other Brothers and Sisters in the gospel who have that same knowledge that they are Sons And Daughter of God and that this life is TOUGH and UNFAIR! And all we can do is lift another to get through it.. I’m grateful that I have had the opportunity to teach and Baptize this man and be a part of his Conversion.  It has taught me a lot about life and given me another building block in my testimony of the Plan of Salvation.. It truly is the Plan of Happiness!!!

I’m running out of time again..  I’ve got lots of errands to run and I have to ride my bike and not a tuk tuk..  Since I have a Khmer Comp he cannot afford to split the cost of a ride into the city with me so we are going to ride the bikes!! 

Things are going great! So even with all the things to do there is still smiles and Laughter..  The other day I was thinking about what we can do to get people in the branch to actually DO SOMETHING to fulfill their calling!! And revelation struck one night as I was laying down going to bed..  The next day I talked about it with My branch President and in this Last PEC meeting he tried it out and I think it’s going to work!!  My idea was to apply the missionary reporting system into the branch.  So instead of saying Elders quorum president organize home teaching and next month nothing happens.  We are going to say.. Elders Quorum find two people today that came to first hour but didn’t stay all three hours and then tell me who they are after church..  So instead of telling the Aux. Leaders to do things on their own and having nothing get done.. we are going to constantly give them mini tasks and follow up closely to make sure it gets done!!!!  That way we will see actual progress!!!!!   I’m super impressed that President actually took my idea (that came from the Lord in an answer to a prayer) and tried it out!!  I love my branch President!

I’ll keep you updated on my account!!  I’m planning on getting the things all the missionaries get before they go home soon,  because I don’t know where my last area will be.  If it is out in the middle of nowhere, then I’ll be in trouble because I can’t come to the city and get anything.. So I thought I would do it while I’m here..  Things like a custom painting of me and anything else I want done by a member from my first area..  A suit or two.. I still have not done that!!!  And a few other things.. so yeah, I’m spending my personal funds on food so I might need extra for these next few months while I make some bigger purchases and send this box home to you. But then when I go to my last area it should dip back down.... As far as boxes go.. do you plan on sending me anything in the near future.. if you do ask me first before you send anything..

That is all!!!  Thanks family!!!

Love Elder Anderson!!! 

Hospitalized

Hey followers! I'm so sorry my blog work on Ryan's blog has lacked. I've been in the middle of a move and tying up things with 2 jobs. Here's our latest update on Ryan.. We are currently on vacation in Europe and we just received an email that Elder Anderson has been hospitalized. He's been in the hospital with viral and bacterial pneumonia for a few days and is expected to be released in a few days. After that the mission pres. Plans to keep him in the mission home to avoid further sickness. please keep our missionaries in your prayers! We'll update you when we know more.

So late on letters!!

To all those who follow elder Anderson's blog I am SO SORRY for falling more than a month behind! Here are the last 2 letters and I'll update his mailing address as well ASAP!! Alright!!! We’re in a big rush to get to the city today so I have to type Fast! Luckily there isn’t too much that went on this week! I am hoping to get some mail today in the mailbox at the mission home because the mail has been kinda dry for a while!!  Hint, hint everyone!!   I had a lot of exchanges this week, so I wasn’t in the regular groove of missionary work.. It was a lot of getting to know other elders in my district and getting to know the people we talk about over the phone.  And I had a good discussion with my zone leader about a cool zone meeting they had a few days ago..  It was about service, but President Smedly had a last second revelation and changed the whole thing into a discussion about baptism!  A few days ago, in the morning, we felt like we should go visit this inactive guy so we went there are he was home!  So, we went inside and was waiting for him to sit down so we could talk, but right then our branch president comes in.... surprise.. after him comes in the district president.. Surprise times 2 after him comes in President and Sister Smedly! Surprise times 5!  Ha, so we had a good chat with him about coming to church.... Do you think he came to church....  NOPE!  He did not..   I had to do 5 baptismal interviews this weekend and I have another one this week! I think that is my favorite part about being a District leader is that I get to Interview all these people for baptism!  I get to see the final product of weeks of teaching! It’s a super cool experience..   The other night Elder Blocker and I had a new experience that pushed us out of our comfort zones a little bit.  We had an investigator call and cancel our lesson and tell us he doesn’t want to learn anymore, so we were just doing some good ole contacting and we came up to a pathway and a girl on a bike turned down the path right before us and she stops us and says, there is nothing down here, turn around.  But I said, are there people down there to talk to.. and she said ya.. so I said, all we want to do is talk to people..  SO she says ok... follow me..  So we go down this pathway and its dark.. night time and we turn around these bushes right into the front of a house with probably 25 people in it..  We were trapped.. They ALL saw us already so we couldn’t just leave and we were like in the house already pretty much because that patch leads right up into the home..  So I said.. Alright Elder you ready for this....  NOPE! OK, I put on my best Khmer and we went in there handing out pamphlets, answering questions, inviting people to church, telling them we are not French we are American! They test our knowledge of the language and we invited them all to learn.. It’s just one huge family all living together.  When we left, we felt exhausted! Well I did, because I did most of the talking, but oh well! We are going to go back tonight to follow up with them to see if anything stuck!! It was weird and something I have never done before in my life!!    We had a nice Sunday yesterday and I got to spend a lot of time with our branch president.. He is a super cool guy!  He helped us get to know people that are inactive and such for most of the day..   Well like I said before not a whole lot happened this week so I don’t have many stories to tell or spiritual experiences.. My studies right now are focused on the Preach My Gospel and on the Bible..  I’ve read the Book of Mormon twice the Doctrine and covenants and Matthew, Mark, Luke and john..  I thought I would just finally tackle the Bible.. I just finished Leviticus this morning.. And as far as the Preach My Gospel study goes.... I’m just trying to get deeper into the teaching skills and how to help people feel and recognize the spirit and how to help people overcome addictions or habits! Like Buddhism and drinking!!  I’m having to deal with a lot of that!!  In the never-ending battle to better ourselves everyday it feels like we will never reach an end!  The search always continues! I’m glad to hear that there was some party going on at the house! Everyone doing well?    Thanks for sending yet another package!! That’s exciting to hear!! I know this email is kinda lame, but I think I will have more time next week!  I didn't get time this week to gather my thoughts on paper before I got to the computer!   So I’m sorry!!  Love you all   Elder Anderson..   Last weeks letter....... So for this week there are more and more experiences!  The stories just do not end. The things I see, the people I meet, the stories they tell, and the things that they do! It’s an interesting life as a missionary in Cambodia, you never know what is going to happen to you that day.  So far being a district leader in the city is way more busy than in Siem Reap! I thought I didn’t have a lot of time there, but here in Pochentong I REALLY have NO spare time!  At the end of the day I am making phone calls and making sure people are safe, giving reports, writing in records up until 9:15.. At that time I am way too tired to try to squeeze in anything else, so I just say my prayer and go to bed.  But it’s also kinda fun being a District leader over such a big group because I get to Exchange with all of them and go to their areas! I went on one last Friday and had a good time. I got to meet 5 people I get to interview for baptism. I am going to a different area next Tuesday as well.. I have also asked a few other missionaries to teach some of the district meetings so some of that load is taken off.    On Wednesday, we had a zone conference in which they asked me to translate.  So from 8 am until 2 pm I was behind a microphone translating the meeting as everyone else got to take notes and read along and participate.  I didn’t get so much out of the instruction, but I had a good time testing my language skills and I did pretty ok.. about 84 percent I would say..   A year ago I would not have believed you if you told me I would be able to translate an entire zone conference..    This area is fun to learn about as you spend time here.. I’ll tell you some of the things I have been dealing with or learning this last week..  In this area, Sunday is drunk day! In the ‘white handbook’ it says Sundays are the best day to get out and find those awesome families!  Sundays here are the days where the husbands get drunk and the wives get hit or forgotten about and the kids are just left unattended... well that is everyday.. But from what I’ve seen so far that seems to be the case.. The day off for most people, so let’s eat drink and be merry because there is no hope for tomorrow.   A Recent convert that I have been working with is very old! And his wife recently died.  He is just so confused and can’t keep anything straight..  He goes the a Seventh-day Adventist church and claims it’s all the same.. All Churches of Christ are the same.. So we have to teach him again and remind him about the church of god and the church of the Devil and then he remembers for about a week and then goes back to the other church again because he has forgotten.  He hasn’t come to our church for a month because he said he gets constipated on Sunday mornings.  One day when I mentioned Joseph Smith he said oh ya Joseph! I remember that guy..  I said, oh ya who was he? He replies.. He is the guy who parted the red sea and walked to America with the Egyptians! I literally said the words "what the junk" out loud as soon as he said that and my companion and I just put our heads down and laughed...     Another person I meet with frequently is a man named Sovann. He was in a motto accident 12 years ago leaving him with a huge dent in his forehead. He is blind and cannot use the whole right side of his body very well..     He is an investigator still because he is still attending the Seventh-day Adventist church and he is all mixed up with Buddhism!  Like when he prays he says.. Lord I have put a can of soda and a donut onto my shrine please take it up to heaven and give it to Jesus..  Can you believe that? That’s what this whole country does!! They buy stuff and put it on a shrine.. then they stick a gross smelling burnt stick into it and pray to their ancestors saying please receive my offering!!! After a few days it’s just thrown away..  So my investigator is all mixed up with Buddha and Jesus and he is trying to give Coca Cola and donuts to Jesus Christ!  The other day when we went to his house we had to climb a little stick latter to get to his room on the second floor of his house and when we get to the top, he says hold on a second, so we say ok and we just stand there watching him.. He goes over to a shelf and grabs a bucket and walks back over to us and puts the bucket on the ground. Then without saying anything he proceeds to drop his pants and he attempts to pee into the bucket.  Yet another moment where I found myself asking the questions... Where the heck am I and what am I doing!  Is this really happening right now? You have got to be kidding me....  After that happened, we had to explain to him as well that all other churches are the church of the Devil and that he needs to stop going to the other churches! SO at the end of the lesson he said, Ya! all other churches are of the devil except for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! Then I asked him, so this Saturday when that Seventh Day Adventist church meets are you going to go?  He says, Yupp I have to go worship Jesus..  COME ON MAN!!! I get so frustrated.. We are working on him!!     In this area there are a lot of other people who have started their own Christian church so when you try to explain where the church is they will say, Oh ya, I know it already it’s that Korean place.   NO, NO, it’s not that one....  Oh ya its that Seventh-day Adventist place... NO NO, it’s not that one...  Oh, it’s that Jesus Christ charity place where they give out rice every Sunday if you go to church..  NO NO, it’s not that place either... And by that time they have totally lost interest in coming to the true church because there are so many other false ones..  its hard to deal with!!     I got to go visit a hospital the other day...  And let me just tell you... You do not want to visit any hospital in Cambodia!!!  No matter how great of care they claim to have..  We had a member get rear-ended on his motto by a guy driving a car... the car just took off and didn’t stop to do anything.  When we visited him, he said when he first got to the hospital he didn’t have a lot of money, so they put him into a room that still had old blood all over the bed from the last guy that was there. He just sat up in a chair all night long because he didn’t want  to sleep on the bed.  Until the next day when the branch president came and saw where they put him and so he paid them more money and got him into a better room.  The room consisted of a bed with one IV hooked up to him and that’s it... No monitoring equipment nothing.. he has his elbow all messed up and they had to put a screw in it and cast it for it to heal and once a week they have to take the cast off and adjust the screw..   It was creepy!!     Last thing of the week which is kinda just a funny story.  I have a new investigator.  He is like 25 probably and we contacted him and he said we could come back to his house which is one of those tiny rental rooms for 20 dollars I mentioned in my letter last week.  When we first met him, we went in and his wife is this 25 year old girl and the poor thing looked like she had been in tears.  I could see a huge pile of empty beer cans in the corner. So I asked if she was ok and if it was ok for us to be there, she didn’t speak but he said she is mad at me because I haven’t stopped drinking.  So I said right there... ok, we will come back another day but when we come I don’t want to see any beer here. And if I ask your wife, she will tell me that you haven’t bought anymore.. And he said ok! The next time we go back there was no cans and when I asked his wife she didn’t say anything but the look on her face said that he hadn’t bought any.  So we continued.. As we asked questions to get to know them I asked him what his wife’s name was and he looked over a her and said "Hey wife, I forgot what your name, what was it again?" Strike two buddy!!  Oh man.. my next question was, how long have you been married..  2 years!  So we talked a lot about the family, of course, and I tried my best to get his wife involved to try to make her feel the spirit because you can tell she is looking for something better!    Well that’s the updates from Pochentong city here in Cambodia this week.  As far as the work goes, its slow and I am quickly losing my patience with in-actives. Everyone reading this letter DONT GO INACTIVE PLEASE!!! (and if you’re not a member please go to lds.org and fill out the information to have elders come to your house. I promise it will change your life!) I hope I see some letters in the mail this week I am looking forward to hearing from people in the real world!  By the way..I went into a bookstore the other day looking for a book in Khmer and I was overwhelmed with the world!!!!  I wanted to pick up everything and read it all!!!  Missionaries stay out of bookstores!!! Trust me!                                                                             Love you/Thank you,   Elder Ryan D. Anderson  

Iphone 4's and self reflection

Well, January is already coming to an end!
I guess this was the perfect winter for me to be gone! It sounds like things are still not a winter wonderland!  That’s a bummer. Here in Cambodia the "winter” season is almost over and its quickly turning into the HOT season where the water is all gone and everything just burns!  I’m excited to suffer through my first Hot season. Right now the temperature is climbing steadily and I haven’t run into any flooding in weeks.  I haven’t had to bring any rain coats or plastic bags with me in a while for rain protection either.. Just lots of water.

Ok, so now for my week--
We did a lot of inactivity work with the senior (missionary) couple this weekend. Elder Christian and I had an exchange that went wrong!  And Sunday we had some interesting visitors.  So, this week Elder Christian and I planned an exchange where we would focus our efforts on using the Book of Mormon. So, we spent all our study time planning lessons and planning…  Then, in the middle of the day, the other elders call us and say the senior couples are here and we don’t have anything for them to do with us, so we left them at the church for you to go pickup.  Great, there goes our exchange. It turned out to be pretty good anyway, but we had to completely change the plans and we didn’t get the training/learning opportunity we wanted.

However, on Saturday, we went with the senior couple to go visit a man and his family who have actually been to the temple! That’s pretty rare! Right now he is less active and has no calling. That’s a problem. We drove in a car for a half hour. Think if we did that on the bike! We had a lesson planned to share with them but the senior couple wanted to share some thoughts with them first. I had to translate. We talked a lot about the Covenant of the Priesthood and his covenants he has made and we encouraged him to be active again. He did come to church the next day. 

Saturday night we had a meeting with the Elder’s Quorum President to talk about home teaching and visiting teaching - which has not yet been established in Cambodia. Nobody has ever been around long enough to get these people to start it and stick with it. But here we are determined to do two things in Siem Reap and have Siem Reap be an example to the rest of the Country. We want to start Home teaching and using the Branch mission leader and branch missionaries to their full potential.
There are a lot of false assumptions right now about these callings and as many times as we nudge them in the direction to study about these callings, they never do. And we don’t have the authority to straight up tell them what to do.  It frustrates me.  Anyway, we had a special meeting arranged this Sunday to have all the men and young men meet together and we had a big meeting about the responsibility of home teaching and how this calling is given to every man who has the priesthood and it is a calling that you are never released from! That along with being a father. Those are the two callings you can’t ever be released from. The home teaching program was first mentioned in the D & C when revelation was given to Joseph smith in 1830!!!  This apparently is important to the Lord.  Sunday at church the crazy drunk woman who makes us call her mom actually came to church sober!!  This week she had a "wedding" at her house for her daughter and she wanted us to join in on the drinking and Buddhist festivities.  We politely showed them our nametag and said we respectfully decline.  But she came to church!! After sacrament meeting we saw her leaving and we asked her what she thought. She says she felt at peace and has felt the most real love she has ever felt in a long long time. Who knows what will happen from there. 

Dad about the Referral I got last week I haven’t been able to contact them yet because the directions she gave me were crazy! So tomorrow she is going to direct us there.  I don’t know how anyone finds anyone in this country!!  I bet like 80% of the country doesn’t have an address.  I also looked up that statistic again in my Cambodia book I told you about over Skype and it actually says that 50% of the population in Cambodia is 16 years old and under!!  and that 80% plus of the country is still agricultural.  That was really random but I wanted to tell you.. And it’s so true.. I don’t know if I have said this in any past letters but when I sit at church and I look over all the faces of the members I think to myself it looks like a center for women and their children who have no fathers! for every 5 kids there is 1 woman and a half of a father.. Generally not all the time but that is kinda how it is..

Ummmm, as far as attaching photos and stuff, I know I’m horrible, but I’m trying to get organized here and I only have like 2 hours a week to think about this stuff. I’ve got a system now, thanks to the memory (hard drive) from dad and I think I’m all set now. I don’t even remember what I last sent you on a flash card.?  By the way I loved the photos you sent me on the flash card of the house!  I can’t believe you painted over that red wall!!! I would have died!  But it looks nice!! That’s a much smaller countertop in there.  I’m glad to hear your actual furniture is coming soon!  I hope Jared will get his crew of men to help you move it all just like I used to do. 

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you! At church we had two families come to church that were from Utah and California.. They are currently living in Singapore for business I guess, but it was super weird to see two big Mormon families again!!  And you know what else I noticed..

They had a few girls and a bunch of boys… the girls all made friends with the youth here, even though they can’t speak the same language. But the boys, on the other hand, had their noses stuck to iphone 4's the entire time!!  playing games and checking status updates all through church and for a few hours afterward when the members and the families mingled and we translated for them.. The boys all sat together not saying a word to each other or anyone else...  To be honest, I saw myself! I had flashbacks of when my parents would tell me to put the electronics away and I didn’t see it hurting anyone so I ignored it. But now I felt like I was on the other end.  I looked at these young men and my heart just broke.. I think there are a lot of parents who feel that way a lot now a days!  I know mine have.. It made me think for the rest of the day.. What have I missed because of some stupid electronic?! I don’t even know because I wasn’t paying attention.. I can think of dozens of experiences in school and in church, just like these young men, experiences at family parties where I should have been mingling with those I love getting to know them better but I didn’t... Who knows if I will get the chance to do that again.. ?  It was a serious cause for reflection!! I love and hate when this happens to me here in Cambodia when I have experiences like this. I like it because I learn and my vision is broadened. But I hate it because it brings me pain. It’s painful to know that there have been so many opportunities and experiences I’ll never get back now because I chose to pick playing a silly game on an iphone or texting my friends, pointless conversations, when there was real experiences with a much longer lasting effect happening all around me.

That is my soap box and message for you all this week!  Again, as we make choices every day I encourage you to think and ask yourself, what’s the worth of this activity vs. something else I could be doing that has a much greater lasting effect on my life and the lives of others.  I would give you examples but I think you all know what I’m talking about!  Love you all,
                                                            Elder Anderson!!!

BONUS LETTER!

Hey group,

I was just sitting at my computer and another letter came through from Ryan, so the one I just sent was all from two weeks ago, here is this week’s letter.

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OK, sorry about the mishap last week! I’ll try to send those photos still if I have time today!  I got dear Elders from Grandma V and Natalie! Thanks so much! I have not heard from Dr Hansen yet, but I think he is here already according to grandma. 

During the week I feel like I have so much to share and I even take notes to help me remember, when I sit down at the computer but my mind still goes blank!  This week was a different one here for me in Cambodia.  I’ll start with the beginning. Monday, after Pday, all of our appointments fell through, so we had 100 percent effort that day and nothing to show for it. We were supposed to have a specialized training on Wed., but last second it was moved to Tuesday instead, so we had to cancel a few things and move stuff around. I personally feel the training was a letdown. They had a few good points about planning and not getting prideful, but most of it was about contacting. I don’t like contacting at all and I struggle everyday to open my mouth and do it, so I was just bored and irritated almost. 

Anyway. President actually pulled me aside and said, Elder I need you to do me a favor.  I am giving you the permission to make a phone call tonight. In my mind I was thinking, oh no, who in my family died! What’s going on!  But then he said, I feel like you should be the first to know that Elder Clark is going home for good this time and I’d like you to call him. You are his best friend out here and I think it would be good.  My heart sank! I thought to myself why? He was doing so good?! (When Ryan’s group left from the MTC) he went home for surgery for 6 months then came back (to Cambodia)for 4 months, what happened?  After a super stressful night, filled with riding my bike like a mad person all over Angkor wat and siem reap, I got a chance to call him. He is doing fine and he said he had some doctor tell him he isn’t fit for service and President Smedly took his advice and they pulled the plug on him.  Right now he is probably home looking online for where to go to school.. My heart goes out to him. I admire his diligence. 

Anyway- Thursday, Friday and Saturday were HARD days.. Not much success at all! I’m tired of people who say they will be home and we make appointments to go meet them and when we go.. .not there..  in consequence I had a record low across the board this week!! Super tough to swallow!  However, we had a few miracles happen this week that made up for it a little bit. We got to visit a few inactive people and invited them to come to church.. They didn’t come, but at least we actually got to have a lesson with them and we made good impressions.. with members there!! Which is super good. 

This week at church we had over 200 people in attendance! There was a big tour bus of members that came. A group of guys from Australia that came and the senior couple from Vietnam came.. So they helped us out a lot with attendance.. they also participated in lessons as well as we translated!  Sunday is very much judgment day for the week. It’s how you can tell how your week was. 

News from home this week was exciting! Luke (Wilson)is home.. And ya know what.. I think I’m with Jared in the fact that its hitting me that I could be home right now. My group that I came with the first time (first MTC group) has three Sundays left until they go home.. It’s going to be a mental barrier to get over that one and continue doing the work.. Sometimes I get thoughts like maybe I’ll get sick and they will have to send me home with my group anyways and that was God’s plan all along?  But I really have no idea. God knows I don’t..  I just keep pluggin along one lesson at a time, one day at a time, January is already gone. I’m already half way through my stay in Siem Reap (predicted).  And time goes on with or without us!! 

Ya know I have a lot on my mind but it’s all just junk about people here and problems that we have to deal with and I think if I told you all it would just be super boring!!  It reminds me of when I first came to the country and all the other Elders would talk about were investigators and people they met and boring stuff! I was thinking.. is this all they talk about?  But I soon learned after a while it is ALL you have to talk about.. There is no new movie or party people went to.. No new cars coming out, video game technology thing.. In this life soon all you have to talk about is your investigators and the work.. 

I don’t know if all the little details about people here are interesting to you or if you want to hear about them. We are also told to be careful about what we say about people in our email home and to not disclose too much info. Tell me your input.. Make a list or something of what you want me to tell you about.. That would help me get things organized..

Sorry this week is kinda lame but I am behind in staying organized right now and I need to use this pday time to get some desk work done!

Family don’t worry I am well! Still not sick! There is a thing going around the mission right now, where Elders are getting parasitic amoeba's! Hospital with IV's, ha ha, I haven’t even gotten a tummy ache in months…  No worries. Jared I’m proud of you for doing awesome with you talk bud!  I wish I could have been there to hear you. Maybe when I come home I’ll ask them for you to speak with me.. What do you think? You’re a man after my own heart as well, choosing to talk about families.. That’s what I would have done.
Elder Anderson

Think as BIG as you can!

January 5th 2011 Letter

Happy New Year! 

For my new year I got up at 11:55 and watched the clock change years at midnight, then tried to go back to sleep, but the neighbors were setting of huge fireworks right in front of our house outside so it sounded like the civil war in my bedroom with cannons and gunfire until about 1! 

It has been confirmed that this Thursday I will take a bus to the city for leadership training until Saturday… So I will be able to get my Christmas boxes and any other mail that anyone has sent in the last month and a half!  I’m pretty excited about that.  It will make 2 more 6-7 hour bus rides, worth it.  Sounds like your Christmas was awesome this year!!!  I have one question I want to ask..  If Jman got a new iPod what happened to my 80gig that I gave him? And the stereo to go with it? Is it dead?! I say that in all sarcasm by the way.  I will have to say that after our Skype call last week there was so many things I wanted to tell you about but just totally forgot!!! I’ve come to find out that if I do not write something down I will not remember it!! There is so much going on in the brain that it just doesn’t want to remember little details like that.  So I’m learning to organize my brain outside of my head on paper and whiteboards!  It’s really helping!  I was really glad to get the chance to just see all of you! 

Ok, so story time!! From Thursday until today there has been no water in the house! We have drinking water, but no water to shower or do our dishes or do laundry! So we have been using our backup water supply aka a few 5 gallon jugs filled with dirty water, sparingly.  We wash our faces and armpits at night and brush our teeth in the morning and all of us are out of clean clothes.  We came home from doing service on Saturday in the middle of the day and we had to hurry and shower and change to get to our next appointments and we had a prayer that there would be water! We were all muddy from moving a lot of mud and dirt at a members house.. NO WATER. Splash the pits splash the face and lets go..  We called the landlord again and even called someone in the mission home to get more pulling power on the emergency.. But still no results.. Anyway.. that is part one of the story. Part two is, while we were on  the phone with the senior couple that serves in the mission home telling them we had no water. They tell us, you know from one Elder to another, I think I should tell you that President is Visiting Siem Reap right now with his family.... AHHH  We knew he was going to come to church with who knew how many people.. Sure enough, the next day he comes with his son and his wife and their daughter. Also, another family showed up that didn’t know Khmer so we had a ton of people to translate for..  Luck for me a return Elder was able to translate and I thought I had gotten away with not having to because I am terrible at translating!!! It’s like playing the piano with both hands! I can do one or the other but not at the same time.. I haven’t practiced enough to be able to listen in Khmer and speak in English at the same time.. Anyway.. I had forgotten that president and sister Smedly were sitting up on the stand and I made the mistake of making eye contact because President waved his hand at me then pointed to the chair between the two of them.. CRAPPPP!!!!!!! Was my initial thoughts.... My next thoughts... What if they get up to bear their testimonies? I’ll have to translate for them out to all the members. My heart pounding I walked to the stand and sat and translated the best I could the whole meeting and I think God blessed me because neither president or his wife got up to say anything! I dodged that bullet. 

Part three of the story.. Last night Elder Phan and I had a Lesson with the most recent convert in Siem Reap. Her name is Sii Don she has two kids, one girl 11 yrs. and a boy that we call “Elder heh heh”  because all he does is laughs. President and his whole family went with us! We walked in the night sky down a long path through rice patties which are now hay fields because it’s a different season now. We arrive at her house and she is thrilled as can be!  In our lesson we talked about the repentance of alma the younger and his repentance and how his father, along with loved ones, fasted and prayed to wake him from the stupor the Angel left him in. Then, we taught about the law of the fast again with her. In this whole lesson I was trying to teach, listen, comprehend, translate for the 5 people that didn’t understand a thing and not lose the groove of teaching between my companion and I. The spirit was there strong! This woman is amazing..  She said she wants to fast because she wants all of her family that she has not seen in a long time to receive the gospel as well as her husband. She said fasting is no problem because her family sometimes doesn’t have food for a few days anyway and she was in great spirits!  Her faith and testimony is a good example for all of us I think. A simple woman who lives in a house the size of my bathroom at home with two kids and a drunk husband. She works all day to make sure there is food for tomorrow.  Sometimes even after a full day’s work they come up short and have nothing to eat. She has no TV, no phones, no toilets, or running water, no air conditioning or carpet, has never had a single luxury her entire life; but now she says she has everything because she has GOD!  She has explained that there were many times she wanted to just go to sleep and never wake up because there was nothing to live for. But now I see a woman who is always smiling and is always thanking her heavenly father for what she does have and has a renewed sense of worth in her life. That is the hope and love our Heavenly Father provides for us.

Switching gears now. Dad I love what you said about the Christmas season and, well, any season in general.  How you spend so much time and effort preparing and executing events in your life, but then after its over it feels like it was just a glimpse of time. I feel the same way as you do and I’m sure Millions of others do as well. As a missionary you think ALOT about time. As I have thought about time over the last month I thought about this crazy thing that happens in life. School, Parties, Work, Events like weddings and birthdays, a MISSION! Leading up to them feels like this huge tremendous thing! Preparation, study, losing sleep at night, dealing with people, money, stress, tears, TIME. But then as soon as it’s over. With every passing day after, all of it is a glimpse of time, a few photographs, maybe words written in a journal, material items that get old, break, and are thrown away, forgotten.  Then, what is it all for is the question? Why do we spend our precious time sitting in a classroom, sitting at a desk, putting things together like celebrations and parties, being away from our families for a few years in a far away place?  The question that many people ask and not enough people have the answer to, in my opinion.  For some, their answer is, so I can eat tomorrow. Others is, so they can pay the bills. And what I think is that the answer all depends on the perspective.  Many people here in Cambodia only see today and tomorrow. Money today, food tomorrow, repeat. Some people see larger. Save and go to school now to be better off later.. For Latter Day saints its "This time is the time for men to prepare to meet God." That is about as big of a perspective as you can get. We have the knowledge of our Heavenly Father’s plan for each of us. Therefore giving us a much larger perspective on this life we live in today. So we know that the reason why we spend our short time in this life is to prepare ourselves. By filling our lives with things that may only last a day, week, year or 50 years it all helps us prepare to have something that lasts an eternity. A gift that only God can give, Eternal life with our families.  I challenge everyone this year to Endure! Not only Endure but Enjoy.  Lift up your hearts, be of good cheer, when the days get rough think as big as you can and try to remember why we are even here.  I love you all and I hope this year we will all be able to prepare ourselves by filling our lives with things that will help us achieve eternity.

                               Elder Anderson

January 10th 2011 Letter

Hello family! I had a super great week!

I got mail from just about everyone I think! And I got three packages! Two from home and one From Aunt Becky and the family! Question, is Nichelle really engaged?  I Loved the packages and I have to say I feel really spoiled! Dad, I’m assuming your gift was preparing for the future?  My first thoughts when I saw the memory [external hard drive] you sent me was… well, that’s a little overkill isn’t it?  Ha, I don’t know, but it’s perfect!! and will be very useful!  Mother! the dictionary [electronic pocket translator, Cambodian to English/English to Cambodian] was super unexpected! It has already come in handy multiple times! Especially with the Khmer companion.. I LOVE it!  Is that what you had to wait for in the mail?  Natalie the music player is perfect also!!! Its super easy to use and has a micro sd slot.. However, since you put all the stuff on the device itself and not an external memory, I can’t do anything with it.. Its stuck there.. but I can put things on a memory card and use it just fine anyway! Thank you so much!  Dad, I used my birthday money and some extra I have been setting aside and I got on the boat with the family..  There are elders in the mission who have Itouches and they are wonderful as well.. turns out that LDS.org has a ton of Apps that are super useful… pretty much every book you as a missionary would need, you can get.  So… I have been doing research since I got here and finally made my decision.  And I saved about 500 dollars as well! I got a 64 gig fully legit iPod touch and he threw in a pair of Dr. Dre beat headphones for 10 more dollars. Those are like 360$ in the states.  A brand new 64 gig touch as you know is expensive! But I got my whole deal for 300.. That’s my birthday/Christmas gift to myself and kind of a confession too, since I used more money than you gave me to spend for my birthday but IT WAS SUCH A GOOD DEAL!  Love you!

I’m glad to hear that everyone enjoyed my last email as well... I was just sitting in the internet cafe and the thoughts kept coming... That doesn’t happen to me very often.. like today for example, I’m not sure what to say! umm… Elder Kuhn my MTC companion that has been up here in Siem Reap with me got called on Saturday and he's going into the office!!! That was close! It was almost me! I dodged that bullet! It’s crazy to think that my group is already being looked at for AP and Office Elder positions! The mission is going to change after this next transfer because my first group is going home!!  All 6 of them and right now, 4 of them are zone leaders and 2 are district leaders! The groups between them and me are really small so they are likely to skip a lot and go right to our group of 11 people...  Elder Phan and I are together for another transfer for sure, so no updates there

Last week was super fun.  Elder Christian and I rode a bus to the city for leadership training and on the way we saw a dog get ran over by a truck at very high speed!  We were car sick after that! Leadership training was fantastic!!  The new year has a ton of new goals! The mission President has set perfect goals for the mission this year to help missionaries fulfill their purpose and to fix the problem of converts walking in the front door and straight out the back.  The vision is to prepare for Stakes!  There are goals for retention and reactivation.  The office elders have come up with a new system to count the recent converts attendance so it will be easier to communicate to the branch on who needs to be visited and who needs callings, etc. 

Right now, as the District leader, I really want to start making a REAL difference in Siem Reap.  I want to go over what we can do to actually get the ball rolling. In the meetings they talked a lot about how it is super easy to play missionary all by yourself. It’s easier to make calls and not have to rely on people as much. Not to have to communicate with the branch members or leaders. It’s much easier that way. But they have challenged us all to start using the branch even more than we have been.  Really try to train leaders, train members. Get people to help you by serving them and strengthening them. Invite the spirit into their home.  We have also talked a lot about where the credit belongs as far as conversion.  The spirit!  Part of the new goals are to help the missionaries get out of the way and to let the spirit work!  A lot of missionaries get headstrong and try to do everything!  But they want us to make a great effort to give most of the load of full conversion to the branch members and the spirit!  I have a lot of ideas so far that I want to make happen! Which means I am going to have to get out of my box even more and be more assertive in working with members and leaders.  It’s going to be something really hard for me to do, but I know that all of my time here will be for nothing if I don’t do it!  And I don’t want to leave here with the thought that I could have done more. That would be terrible!  

Sorry I haven’t sent any photos home in a while! I have really been waiting to get this memory thing from dad, and then its super hit and miss with computers! One day you’ll get a good one the next its crap and you can’t do anything!! So have some patience, I’m trying to get some things organized!

Funny story… The other night I had a dream that I was home at Christmas time and I was talking to you, mom. You were talking to me in our kitchen and I was home from my mission. You said we are going to go see the scrooge play tonight so go find a girlfriend to take with you, it starts at 1 AM.  I said I am, why?!  And you said because tomorrow morning we have to get you back on a plane for Cambodia silly!  You only get one day to be home then you’re going back!  And I was freaking out saying, what are you talking about I’m done already, I’m home, this can’t be happening...   Then I woke up in my hot, sweaty room and I said to myself… Oh yeah... It is happening..    Funny little random detail...

I have nothing really special to report this week. I spent it all on a bus and in a chair!!  I hope you all continue to be fantastic and I’ll talk to you next week....

Elder Anderson.

PSS I can’t believe you sent me top ramen noodles!  I’m swimming up to my neck in noodles here! Everyone laughed at me when I opened the box... But I still love them!  They are good meals! Now I know lots of ways to make them extra good!