Moving Onward

This week was a really great week, and I had a great opportunity to go back to Kampong Cham and have a zone conference. My how things can change in one year! So many things have changed in Kampong Cham. It makes me wonder what will have changed when I go home. It was great to meet with a few members there, and visit them. What a blessing it was to have been able to serve there. The people are so wonderful and loving.
On Tuesday I had a chance to go on an exchange with Elder Mornh, and then Elder Grimnes needed our help, so he took us out to deliver a bike to a family that was 16 miles out. It was an absolutely beautiful ride. When we walked up to the house I was very humbled with the circumstances. No mode of transportation, and the father is in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down because of a few shots he was given by an untrained doctor. They have nothing, and they want to go to church so bad. He said that he still feels the Spirit in his life, but that he feels that there is something missing, and that is from not being able to go to church. I was grateful to the former missionary who came back and then left his bike here for this family. They will surely be able to use it, even if it means selling it for the money. There was a special spirit in the lesson as we taught, and I only hope that the Lord will pour out his blessings on that family so that they have enough food to eat. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to meet them.
Saturday we had some service in the morning and helped a Sister put in a fence! That was fun. Then we helped the Senior Couple translate for their class, and helped with mutual, which was a blast! We played a game called Mafia.
Sunday was a good day too. A lot of recent converts and less actives made it to church, which was great! That evening we had mission prep class, and it is turning out to be a lot of fun!
It is amazing how many people have dreams here. I think one of the reasons is that in this culture, dreams typically have a deep meaning. A recent convert's daughter had a dream that her mother stayed after church, and Christ was there with her, and she wouldn't go back home. She was wondering what that meant? In Cambodian culture, if someone you know is with god, you need to go to the wat and do a little praying thing to ask to keep their spirit here so they don't die. So I think that one reason could be that. Another is because they never dream about white people, and when they have a dream about Christ, it can very well be the answer to their prayers, or ours for them! Sometimes you need a good hard 'slap' to wake up.
Sister Rytting finishes her mission on September 21. I can't believe it. She has 4 proselyting weeks left. And that means that I will have been out on my mission for 18 months. That is ridiculous! I can't believe it! Time is just flying by so quickly.

Baptisms

Wow, what a week it has been! Elder Decker and I have been super busy this week teaching tons of lessons.  Elder Decker is feeling much better, just still really tired in the mornings when he wakes up. Once we get out, we’re running on all fours. Even though we only had 5 days to proselyte, Wednesday to Sunday, we were able to teach 32 lessons this week! Wow, what a busy schedule it was to do that. But things are going super good. There were 114 people at church, which is super great because this is just a small branch that has been growing immensely over the past 6 months to a year. We had 15 investigators at church too, which is super awesome, and such a blessing for them. And it is a miracle for us to see them learn, grow, and change.

This week I had the opportunity to perform a baptism! Yay, my first one! These are just the first of many baptisms to come; we are working with a lot of families, and I am excited to see them continue to learn and grow. 

This week we met a lot with a recent convert family. Well, we were at their house a lot. We sit down, and then our investigators start coming over and we teach them a lesson, and then the next one comes. And then another recent convert, and then another investigator. So many! We have 17 investigators that have a baptismal date, and many more that are on the way to getting one. And our recent converts are giving out referrals like crazy! We got 9 new investigators this week, all referrals from recent converts.

President Moon is amazing. I am so super excited to work with him and get to know him. We learned a lot, and he has a great vision for Cambodia.  I will surely miss President and Sister Smedley though. They were incredible. Two of the greatest people I have had the pleasure of serving my mission with.

Transferred

What a week it has been! Elder Decker and I arrived in Kampong Thom Friday afternoon, and then ate lunch at the Grimnes’ house. Their cook made some stir-fry dishes that were super good! We were able to go out and teach a few lessons on Friday night, and THIS AREA IS SUPER AWESOME!!! We also went on Saturday morning. There are a ton of investigators, and quite a few families in our area in Kampong Thom. Even though we were only able to teach a handful of lessons before Sunday, there were 11 investigators at church! So that is super awesome! Elder Decker still can’t go out a full day because he is very much out of strength, but he is regaining it quickly. Things are just going super great, and I am super excited to be in this branch. The members are good, and there were 109 people at church. There have been a fair amount of baptisms recently, and Elder Decker is pretty sure that there will be about 10 baptisms in the month of July. So we’re super excited about that.

Things are just getting off the ground, so I don’t have a whole lot this week.

Elder Decker is a great teacher, and he is doing great. He has been in Kampong Thom since the beginning of his mission; he started at the end of February, and he is doing really well. I am excited to work with him. We tried to take a picture this morning with my camera, but the batteries died, so I don’t have one this week. But I will next week. I hope to have a lot more pictures of the area too. It is really beautiful out there. Sorry that I don’t have much this week, things are a bit rushed. I’m in the city right now for Zone Leader Council, which happens the first week of every month.

Still Working Hard

Well, this week has been insane! So busy!  We had the opportunity to meet Elder Oaks! What a wonderful experience that was. We greeted him at the airport and got to shake his hand as well Elder Hallstrom and their wives. 

I loved Elder Oaks’ talk. He talked about having Holy Habits and Righteous Routines. He also did something that was wonderful. He kind of finished a thought, and then paused and said, “I am going to bring up something that might seem a little strange to you,” then continued, “but I feel impressed to share this with you. We are a record-keeping people.” My jaw dropped. The records here in Cambodia are very poor, and he went on about the importance of keeping records here. Super awesome. Elder Oaks also talked about enduring through hard trials and keeping your chins up through it all. 

Monday morning we picked up the General Authorities at the hotel, and took them to the church for the missionary meeting. There was a wonderful Spirit there as we got to hear the General Authorities and their wives speak and share their testimonies with us. Each missionary had the opportunity to shake the hands of the General Authorities and their wives, and that was wonderful to associate with them. At the end, I got to shake Elder Oaks’ hand, in a more formal setting, and he put his hands on my shoulders, and said, “Elder Kuhn, thanks for all you are doing, keep up the good work.” What a neat experience that was! I am so glad that I got the opportunity to be around him and his wonderful Spirit. He truly is an Apostle of the Lord.

I do have some pictures that I would like to share with you! This is a picture that I was able to get with the Apostle! Pretty sweet! And then when we had transfers on the 18^th, this time I was able to get a picture of the van all loaded up with 12 missionaries, 7 of which had luggage loaded up in the van. It was super crowded! We had to sit 4 people on the front bench, and it was hard to shift… ha ha! But it was really fun. It’s a good thing that we only had to drive a short distance to the bus stop, because if we had to drive 6 hours to Battambang crowded like that it would have been such a burden.