Januray 8th!
Letter 1 0f 2 on this post
Well this week started out as a regular week and then it got crazy!
I'm kinda going to Dedicate my Email today to my favorite person in all of Cambodia. This week we did the usual things; I did a few exchanges and helped the other elders out with some problems that they have been having. I’ve been helping the sisters be more assertive in finding new investigators. And I did a hand full more interviews for Baptism.
Now I want to talk about this person. Her name is Davy but we call her Ming because she is older than us, that is her title, and it’s what we are supposed to call her. She has been a member for about 8 months now and is amazing. She is a single mother of 5 kids and works in a clothes factory! Background history is that she and her husband were doing so great, he was just getting out of school and into work so that he could pay off loans and then one night they had a fight and they both were angry. The next morning her husband never woke up… He was gone. She has other parts of her life that she still won’t let go and I have been working so hard with her to learn about forgiving yourself.
Because even if they (the person you’ve hurt)forgive you and the Lord has forgiven you, you cannot progress farther in this life until you have forgiven yourself.
I have had many lessons with her where she has cried and cried and felt the spirit. She is a little over 40 years old, but is probably 5 foot 2 inches and 80-90 pounds. Anyway, she is in a bunch of debt because her husband died and left her to pay the bills. Only one of her children have felt the spirit and have been baptized.. All she desires is for her whole family to go to the Temple and to be sealed together! She is Rare! There is so much about her that she just gets that I’ve spent months trying to get other people to see.. And she has a 4th grade Education which is like 2nd grade in America. Just a heart of Gold and she loves to have us teach her anything! Scriptures, Teaching skills, How to share the gospel. She is a wonderful woman.
This is the part where I tell you about how my week got crazy. On Saturday night we were riding our bikes around 6 o’clock to meet some usual investigators and Davy was our usual Member/help/friendshipper person. We were on the North side of the road waiting for traffic to go by so we could cross. So we waited until all traffic was clear and then we started to cross, she started across first and just as she started across a man on a motorcycle turned out of a little place where you can buy sodas or something to eat and he opened up the throttle and zoomed down the road because he saw my companion and I and he wanted to get down the road before we crossed. He didn't, however, see Davy. I watched as he slammed into her bike with his motto and she went flying, the man on the Motto went flying, and there was an infant on the Motto that went flying! Here we go, this is where it begins. Before I can get across the street, there is a flock of people over Davy and they are smacking her face and yanking on her arms and pounding on her chest and she is in and out of consciousness. She was saying sorry over and over again because she could probably hear the kid screaming and crying and a ton of idiot Cambodians freaking out and yelling things that are not helpful in an emergency. So I pushed the people away from her and I got down to do my thing.
First thought was, ok there is no Ambulance. There is no AED. There is no CPR equipment if a need them. Ok, moving forward, get my first set of vitals. I couldn’t feel any pulse in her arm at all, but it is because she is a tiny lady! Her chest was barely rising and falling way slower than normal. I was squeezing her hand and trying to get her to respond to me, but she wouldn’t. Her chest stopped moving and she still wouldn’t squeeze my hand or respond I was praying like crazy and was about to move onto the next thing if she wouldn’t come around. I was saying MING MING!!! If you can hear me say Elder and squeeze my hand, say Elder, Ming! I thought she was dead. Her head was tilted back and her mouth was opened a little and I thought, she had left me. Until finally she peeped Elder.... Elder Son (She calls me Elder Son) Elder Son! I replied, Ming I am right here! She then says, Elder I "forgive myself", thank you for helping me. And she goes quiet again. I thought she had died again for the second time, but I continued to say MING MING can you please open your eyes for me so I can know your alive.. And she peeps her eyes open. I try to ask her questions on if she is hurting anywhere so I can be careful about moving her if she has broken anything! She is a frail woman and she got hit hard!
She hasn’t replied yet and some lady comes and yanks on her arm and gets her into a sitting position. I told the lady to go away and let me handle it because she wasn’t helping at all! I closed my eyes and tried to find the prompting I needed to know what to do among the noise of lots of other people and suddenly I found myself picking her up and physically walking with her in my arms down the road away from the people. People were yelling, “throw her on my Motorcycle I’ll take her to a hospital”! Number one, I’m not throwing her anywhere, she is in and out of Consciousness, and I have no idea what kind of injuries she has. So I said no. They said, “well you get on (the motto) then and lets go.” That would take me away from my companion and I’m not allowed to ride on Mottos. So I said no. I walked a few blocks and to my left was, luckily enough, a "Hospital". They call it a hospital but you’ll find out in a minute what kind of a "hospital" this was. We left all of our bikes at the scene and we just made a break for this Hospital.
When we got to the front gate I handed Davy over to Elder Schleede to hold while I tried to talk to people, to find a Doctor, and somewhere to put her! We go to the front desk and I find 2 kids watching cartoons… and I said, hello, where are the people who help us find a room to help this woman. They reply, “I don’t know?” I said, she could be badly hurt so you better find somebody real quick! So they ran off and I found my own room and we put her on a Gurney. I laid her out flat and she was still half in half out, but improving a little. I told her not to move and to lay flat and still, we then rolled her around the campus of this "hospital" for what felt like forever until we found some adults!! They weren’t wearing any type of uniform or ID or anything to let me know who they were and they just said, oh she is hurt let’s put her in here. So, they throw her in a room with two other people on a bed made of wooden slats no bedding or anything and he didn’t do it gently at all.. At this point she was aware of herself enough to start saying that her lower back and butt was hurting. Again I thought the worst. I felt impressed to call my Branch President, because I knew as soon as I went back to the street there would be Police ( Corrupt fat guys ) waiting. So my Branch President was actually on that same road nearby already on his Motto going home, so he would come by and help me work it out with the police. I left Davy in the charge of a guy who said he was a nurse, but he didn’t seem like it at all to me. And when I left the room I saw him moving her hips and rolling her over and I about died knowing what could possibly happen if she does have a broken hip or vertebra! I ran back out to the street to meet President and see if my bike was stolen or not. Luckily a nice lady who sells sodas at the end of our street grabbed them and was watching them for us so nobody would take them. And sure enough while I was waiting for my President to show up the police man. with Alcohol breath, was trying to get me to pay a bribe to get Davy's bike from him because he said he has to take the Bike and the Motto to the station so that they can use them to review the case in the morning. He was laughing and making jokes about how I knew Cambodian and I could hear people whispering about how Christians are stupid and that we don’t do anything right from the group of people standing around.
Finally President arrived and we could run back to Davy, after he (Police guy) said we could go. When we got back to her, she had not received any care. She was by herself still just rolling back and forth on the table saying her butt hurts, her lower back hurts. I was about ready to tear that place apart! Get me a doctor, get me an X-ray of this woman, somebody come stabilize her! She wasn’t able to tell them who was responsible for her and how she was going to pay, so they hadn’t given her any care! Right then a guy comes in and ignores me and in this tone that I am very familiar with, he said Lady we need you to get someone over here that can be responsible for you.. That tone was Drunk man tone of voice. She then points to me and says, Elder. He turns to me and tries to speak English but I tell him to just speak Cambodian! He has alcohol and smoke breath... He says, can you be the one to be responsible for her and I said, no I can’t but I will call someone who can. I called this lady who shares a rental room with her and Davy’s son and I told them she has been in an accident and that we will be there in a minute to pick them up. Please gather some pillows and something to make her more comfortable. I said, I’m going to go get her party right now, I’ll be back and her condition better have improved by the time I get back.
So we ran back out front and down the street. We got our bikes and sped over to her house, picked them up (her friend and son) with their things and went back to the hospital. Now she wasn’t rolling around, she was only on one side and they had started an IV ( a hydrating solution ) nothing special and had given her a little pain killer. Still no doctor has seen her and she has had no tests. At this point we were already late going home, so I grabbed her hand again and I looked her in the eyes and waited for the confirmation in my heart that it was ok to leave her and I felt like we could go, so I said, Ming Tell me your ok. She said Elder Ï have forgiven myself, sorry it took so long "I’m sorry we couldn’t go to teach the people tonight, I’m sorry. I’m afraid I have lost my bike.” I told her, Ming, I was afraid we lost you! I said we would come back to visit tomorrow and that we had to go. Elder Schleede and I walked home, both kinda quiet, getting really tired because the adrenaline was wearing off.. and I had a very sleepless night. I was having feelings that I have never before had in my entire life. Levels of anger and hate I’ve never yet felt. A level of fear and emptiness, helpless I have never yet felt. I felt so trained (EMT Training) and yet helpless because of my circumstances. I felt a level of uselessness I have never yet felt. But at the same time, there were feelings of good, like Elder Schleede and I handled the situation the best that we possibly could and that we definitely saw miracle after miracle the more we thought about it.
The next morning, right before church started, I got a call and it was her (Davy) she sounded like she was totally rested and back to herself, still in the hospital though. She just said, tell my investigators she is sorry she can’t be there for their Baptism! We were having 4 baptisms that day and Davy had been the one that worked so hard to help them progress and feel comfortable at church. After church and after the Baptism, of course, Cambodians being the little rumor/story tellers they are spread what happened, so almost every was talking about how the Elders carried Davy in their arms into the hospital and saved her life... Etc.. Everyone didn’t have the right story. So anyway, they all wanted to visit her, so we rounded up whomever wanted to go, and we led them to her room in the hospital which now had like 6 patients all wheeled into the same room. Only the old Buddhist monk, who had a high temperature, got his own room. I wanted to punch him! I hate Buddhism! But she was sitting up on her bed now, making conversation with other ladies in the room, when a bunch of members flooded in and gave her love. We sat outside until everyone left and then we went in and sat down and she said, “Elder How did I get to the Hospital last night. Someone said you carried me all the way here.” We told her it was true that we carried her there and we made all the arrangements for her to be taken care of. I showed her some pictures on my camera of the baptism that we had and I told her she was there in spirit and that they understood she couldn’t be there. She cried tears of joy for them and proceeded to tell us about how a miracle happened with the case about her accident. The wife of the man who hit her on the bike didn’t want to make a huge deal out of it or fuss with the Police, so she just gave her (Davy) 50 bucks (which is a ton for a Cambodian) and said, we are sorry accidents happen. Well, Davy’s hospital bill was 45 dollars and it will take about 5 dollars to fix her wrecked bike..
Last night she called us and said, come over quick, it was about 6:30 and we had just gotten ditched by a lady who we scheduled to meet, but when we got there she said I’m not going to join your cult, go away before my husband gets upset! So, we were available to go see how she was doing at home. We get there and she had just gotten back from getting a shot. She said, hurry and read me a story from the scriptures, I’m getting tired. So, Elder Schleede and I start reading in alma 46 about the title of liberty and after one verse she was out.. When we tried to leave she woke up and said wait! Blessing first. So, she went inside and laid on her bed/table and put a blanket over herself and then looked over at us and said, I’m ready. My companion and I then kneeled at the end of her bed and blessed her to have a fast and 100 percent recovery and that she will have strengthened faith due to her experience. In the Name of Jesus Christ Amen.. And she was asleep.
We left her home and her son came out and said thanks for helping out his mom in their time of need. Elder Schleede and I went home last night relieved and strengthened - The Lord can and will perform Miracles in our lives. The Lord does protect those who serve him. The Lord does bless those who obey the commandments and try their best to do his work. A woman, who meant nothing to a lot of people on the night of Jan. 5th 2013, meant everything to her Father in Heaven who protected her and blessed her greatly.
I love you all family and I hope it isn’t too cold for you for the next while. Try not to let the January gloom get you down.
Elder Anderson
NEWS – Ryan gave us his release date and flight info. He will leave the mission on April 12th and arrive home to SLC on Saturday, April 13. His Mission Report will be on Sunday, April 21st. We would love for any and all of you to join us at his mission report. Our Sacrament meeting starts at 11 AM in the chapel in the River Bottom below our house. You are all invited to a luncheon at our home following the meeting. Please pass this on to your families and any who you think may want to join us…
Hello Family!!
After a very anxiety filled night, I finally know the fate of my life for the rest of my mission! When President called me the first thing he says is, Elder Anderson I have a new Assignment for you.. I said, ok... And he said how is your Vietnamese? My heart sank and I thought, OH NO!! The last weeks of my missions I'll be working Viet speaking! Why me! So I replied and said, President, it’s terrible.. I don’t know any.. He said, good because I’m not sending you to Vietnam.... I’m just pulling your leg! I about died! He said, I do have an assignment for you though... He called me to continue being the District Leader and to Train yet again.. This makes number 4! So, I will be spending the remainder of
my days in Kampong Cham Training a New Missionary and Being a District Leader - YAY! What like to do..
This last week was really fun! All the way up until Sunday. The most important day of the week and for some reason it always seems to fall apart when it comes to church!!! I’ll get to that later.. Let’s start from the top! I had to get my bike fixed and this guy with no legs was the only guy I could find who wanted to fix it! So he said come back in 2 hours! Yikes! We had to go into the City to get a part to fix it and our area is a half hour bike ride away.. So we didn’t have time to go to our area and come back so we just stayed there and ran errands that we needed to do instead. So bottom line I got my day wasted because of my bike!
On Saturday I arranged a service project for a member in my area who is very poor!!! Where she lives is very rocky! And so she has been digging and moving rocks little by little all by herself forever so that she can build a washroom and bathroom because right now she doesn't have anything. So I called in the Zone and a few members to come and help and we moved tons of rocks and dug a ton of dirt trying to clear a place where she could build a proper bathroom! We were there for 4 hours! 1 hour we moved off a ton of surface rocks and then the next three hours we dug and dug and dug and cleared away more and more dirt trying to dig down.. 3 hours 3 scorpions 2 demon spiders and dozens of lizards later, we hadn’t moved a single rock! They were huge!! And all we had was re bar and pick ax's. Everyone feeling tired and defeated we called it good and went to our night appointments.
So back to the Sunday topic.. I have been discouraged lately because of something my Branch President said to a member and then she told me. He was asking her why our branch isn't progressing like it used to. Branch attendance has kinda fallen and he feels like the morale of the members has died a little bit. He told her it was the Missionaries fault and that they weren't doing anything to help the branch and that we aren't very good Missionaries. So, this Lady who I am very close with, out of concern she tells me and I was upset.. Right there I grabbed my marker and wrote on her whiteboard and I drew it out to her exactly as its explained in chapter 13 of preach my gospel.. I asked her, right now who are the ones that come to church every Sunday? She says, it’s the new members and the missionaries investigators that come. There are no members older than a few years that attend at all. I then showed her how all the people that the Missionaries are responsible for ARE coming to church. They are the only ones that come. And it’s the Presidents job to work with his Aux.
Leaders to keep everyone else going. I then gave her Numbers.. right now on records of KC3 there are 480 people but only 100 go to church! The 100 that go are the ones that the Missionaries are responsible for and all the ones that don't come the branch is responsible for.. So I asked her.. If you feel like our branch isn't progressing then who's fault does it look like to you!? She quickly changed her mind and said the Branches fault! I told her there is no visiting teaching, there is no home teaching, there is no branch council, there is no PEC, there is no Branch Missionary Leader there is no Branch Missionaries, The Young men’s and women’s Presidents are 17 years old!!
WHOSE FAULT IS IT THAT THE MEMBERS DONT STAY ACTIVE, BRANCH PRESIDENT!!!!!!! DON'T GO POINTING FINGERS AT YOUR MISSIONARIES!! WE GET OVER 20 RECENT CONVERT LESSONS A WEEK AND WORK OUR TAILS OFF TO MEET MEMBERS AND TRAIN THEM BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT!!!!
I almost feel bad about baptizing people sometimes because I know they are not going to have help from the branch and anyone who just barely got Baptized is not strong enough in testimony to last longer than a few years before they are just another lost member. When we talk about this with the members, they say, Elder they don't care just go find new people.. It’s just wrong.. I don’t have the right to make those decisions, so I do as it says in the Preach My Gospel, if they meet the qualifications for baptism then I baptize them at what we call the peak of their conversion, and pray they receive help! Just problems, problems that can only be fixed one tiny bit at a time so only time will tell.
So that is my stress for the week. I’m having to dig deep down inside to find the motivation to keep going after that low blow! I’m just trying to ignore it and move on. Even though it shouldn't be ignored.
I could go on and on about what happens in church but I think I’ll spare you for today.
Love you all excited to hear from you next week!!!!
