Clint mission week #56 letter # ? 1/11/99
All other letters will be considered as from the second year so we will start our weeks over.
Word from Phnom Penh! How are things there on that side of the world? What is the snow report?
Things are going good let me tell you about it. We have been doing a lot of finding, let me tell you about it. Finding is always an adventure. Finding here has got to be unique. There is no such thing as a door slam. Everyone wants to talk with us. Typically what happens is we ride down the road looking for men. We have to look for families, and can not intro females unless they ask us about the church. We ride down the dirt roads looking into the yards and houses looking.. . . ( There is a family let’s stop Elder) Many times we pull up and there first reaction is they are usually scared. Then they send their son or daughter who knows a bit of English to come forward and figure out what we want. After they figure out we speak Khmae they usually invite us to sit down. We then talk with them and they ask who we are and we find out if they live there, if they have ever studied, if they work on Sunday etc. You could sit and talk for quite a while and they are happy. The difference is the commitment to study. They really protest or say something. A Buddhist would say “I’m too busy, I don’t have the time”. These are the most common answers. It is funny the way people react. Some are genuinely interested, others won’t answer when asked a question. Some will not look us squarely in the eyes. They flinch away from light and truth. Others want us to be their English speaking friend, but won’t make the commitment to study the gospel. It is awesome the families and people we have met this past week as we “open our mouths”. One trick I like is, many times I will see a family up on the 2nd story and call up to them and convince them to come down or yell at them from down below. Also this week we saw a neat family sitting on the driveway/entry of a house and stopped and they answered back in Vietnamese. They had a friend across the street that knew Khmae and Viet so we talked to the family through the guy to see if our Elders could come and teach them about Jesus Christ. They were busy, but we tried. I also talked to a family on a moto as I rode my bike alongside them down the road. ( 3 people were on a moto) It turns out they were headed to attend their catholic church. “ Have you ever heard of the Book of Mormon? . . . . Another Witness?. . . We can give you a copy.” The wife says, “Let’s stop for a second.” We stopped there on the side of the road and he drew us a map to their house and we scheduled a mtg for Wed. ( Name Meng)
Elder Badger approached a guy ou in front of his house, he gets real excited and he tells us he believes in Christ but doesn’t have a church to go to. His brother and others are in the house also and interested. (Name = Sokuen)
This week we need to follow-up with this people and filter out our finding pool, determined by who keeps their commitments.
Probably the biggest success of the week was we were able to get Sovin, who hasn’t been to church in 3 months to come. Wow it was great to see him there. However the Branch 1st counselor then announces the program and they ask Sovin to speak. I am sitting right next to him and I help him prepare a quick talk on Mosiah 2:17. He prayed at the pulpit to close but did a goo job. I was so worried to get him back and then lose him cause of this. He took it well. We went and played volleyball with him today all 6 Elders from 210 for p-day it was fun.
One scary experience was on Sunday after church. We went to Kloch Saat’s house, he is father of Phet. Uncle of Snaa. His boy and nephew were not at church. We had seen him the day before. He had come from the providence’s. He had spent about 1’2 a month helping to harvest his rice field. He said that he felt sick. Then when we saw him on Sunday he was in bad pain. He talked about high blood pressure, pain in the upper body and shoulder /arm pain. He said sorry and just ran in and laid down, almost crying in pain. I had him diagnosed for a heart attack. There is no ambulance in Cambodia unless you have money. They sent for the doctor. I walked into the house and ask if we could give him a blessing? I had talked with him about it the day before. He asked. Elder Badger anointed. I sealed and pleaded to Heavenly Father for him, I also reminded him to strengthen his family as a father, through prayer, scriptures, and church. After that there wasn’t much more we could do. I was really worried about him. We saw him today and he came right out and shook our hands and said he was good to go. Wow!
Clint wants to know with all of our wet suits, why we are not out skiing on Quail Lake every a.m.?
I was quite proud of Elder Badger this past week. He has been somewhat timid to speak to people but really got out on the streets talking to everyone a couple of times. We took “doors” or “turns”
and sometimes it turns into somewhat of a street meeting a time as people gather . We stand side by side and teach halfs. These opportunities have given him new confidence.
Thanks for everything. It is hard to believe that it has been a year. I am so old!
Love your Son, Brother and Missionary,
Elder Rogers