Dear Everyone,
Here’s what’s happened this week in Cambodia: ( you can send this out to the ward newsletter if you like) Well, this last Monday we went to visit two investigators who live about an hour away or so. Elder Stagg, the senior missionary, usually takes us because he has a car and the bike ride takes forever. This appointment is at a member’s home, however they aren’t active because the father got in an accident and they lost their motto (their ride to church). So when Elder Horton and I get there and the father called us over and started to talk to us, but once he started talking to us, Elder Stagg, who knows no cambodian, called me over to help translate. So I went over to help with that. The father of the house is offended because of the way the Church runs its welfare system in Cambodia, so he complained to Elder Horton about that for the next hour or so, while I had to take care of the lesson. The lesson started out great, it was me and Elder Stagg, and about 10 other people, most of which were members. Then out of no where a guy from the road sees us teaching this lesson, instantly knows we are Christians because we’re white, we are wearing nice clothes and we are talking to these very poor people. So he comes over, or should I say stumbles over? He was quite possibly the most drunk guy I’ve ever met. He was wearing cross country short shorts and a long-sleeved flannel button up shirt, with an Indiana Jones Fedora-type hat. And by the time he got to the table we were gathered around, I could tell he was angry. This guy came right between Elder Stagg and I and started yelling and shouting the most crazy Cambodian phrases I think can possibly be uttered. I still don’t know the language that great, but man, when you take a young missionary like me, and throw at me a drunk cambodian guy who can’t tell left from right, and ask me to understand what he’s saying... yeah it’s a lot of trouble, especially since he looks like he wants to kill someone. I listened as hard as I could I really did, he got more and more angry the more he realized I couldn’t understand him. But eventually I understood what he was talking about. He had his older sister just pass away, who happened to be Christian, and he wanted to know why I was spreading the message of a loving God when God didn’t care about his sister. Eventually one of the bigger guys of the group grabbed him and took him away. But it was one of the scariest experiences I’ve had here. Even though I didn’t get the chance to answer him directly, I took the opportunity to explain why supposedly bad things happen to us in this life, a lesson on the Atonement. It was easily one of the best lessons I’ve taught. I felt the words come so much easier than usual on that occasion. I felt the spirit and the Lord help me during that hour.
Another interesting experience I had here was with a family we have been teaching. Elder Horton and I biked to this guy’s home after Church. His name is Veet. We were hoping his wife would be there, but she was busy washing clothes. And just for some background information: this guy sells ice cream for a living. He has a bike and a cooler that he has tied to the back of it, using elastics and a small rack. He is terribly terribly terribly poor. Well anyways, we got there and he took us in as usual. We then started our lesson and then about halfway through our lesson that he had been in a bike accident four days earlier and that his bike was no longer usable. He had sold half of his bike ( I mean he literally cut his bike in half and sold it to a recycling organization) and has sold all of his chickens in order to feed his wife and child. He then pointed to a small pile of chopped wood and pointed out that he had been chopping wood the past few days in order to just get by until we came. He said he was so happy to see us, and knew that if anyone in the world would help him, we would. It was one of the most heart wrenching moments of my life. This man had no where else to turn, his family had only a few days of rice left before they would have nothing else. I had such a hard time following our mission rules which are to absolutely never give any money away. We explained the rules and why we have them, but it was so hard to see his sad expression when he realized that he had sold his bike in expectation of us being able to help out. I mean all I had to do was to pull out 20 bucks and all of his issues would be over, he could get a new bike and go out and sell everyday and he would make it. But it was not so, we have both been praying for this man, sometimes life is tough. We both testified that if he did his best, and trusted in the Lord that he would be ok. I haven’t met him since, I’ll let you know how that goes.
But I do have some happier stories too. Tuen is very close to baptism and so is Maly, who has now finished the Book of Mormon, read all of the pamphlets and has started it again. She has done all of that in just a few weeks. She’s also getting baptized in the next few weeks, most likely the 8th of Novemeber. (End of General Letter)
To Mom:
Hey one thing I think you might find this interesting. The most popular brand name over here isn’t Nike, Reebok, American Eagle, Dolce,etc. It’s Playboy, except no one here knows that it’s a pornography company. Everyone here wears it like it’s the coolest fashion in the world. Pornography isn’t as big of a problem here as in America, but Satan sure is preparing the way for it to come out widespread.
Well anyways, that’s all I’ve got for this week. I’m so happy though to be serving among these people. Thank you so much for all you do and for your support. I love you and I love the Lord. Have a wonderful birthday!
Elder Ormsby
Friday, October 31, 2008
Oct 22nd, 2008
Dear Everyone,
Just for your information here's what's going on in the mission:
One of my investigators (Tuen) when he prays, names himself in the prayer and introduces himself. It's really funny. Something that I've learned that it is so important to get married in the temple and to do it right. I have an investigator who is ready for baptism, but because she didn't get married, she is struggling and has to postpone her baptism until the government recognizes her marriage. She is suffering over it too, she's been waiting like 2 months and can't get baptized because she didn't do it right. I have another way awesome investigator named Maly. She, after committing her to read the Book of Mormon, read the whole thing and prayed about it in 3 days. She said that in answer to her prayer that she had a dream and it was of Joseph Smith in the Grove and she could see the light descending on him and then it would end. She said she had that same dream three times that night. She says that it was an absolute answer to her prayer, I think so too.
One other thing that I've really really noticed her is the absolute necessity for hometeachers. I think that so many of the members in the church stay active because of active hometeachers. It's really incredible how many people are inactive here because they don't have people visiting them. They feel unloved, unappreciated, unnoticed, etc. And we are having to take the bulk of the less-active work here because there are no hometeachers to do the job. Right now my companion and I are working with the Branch President to start up hometeaching now. Many here, if visited will come to church the next week.
Oh well now I'm just trailing off. Well I'd like to tell you that I'm loving it over here and that my testimony of this gospel is growing as I learn to serve my Heavenly Father with all my heart. I'm trying to be better each day and trying to give my all. I get the feeling that I'm forgetting something important this week. Oh well, I hope you have a wonderful week!
Love, Elder Ormsby
Just for your information here's what's going on in the mission:
One of my investigators (Tuen) when he prays, names himself in the prayer and introduces himself. It's really funny. Something that I've learned that it is so important to get married in the temple and to do it right. I have an investigator who is ready for baptism, but because she didn't get married, she is struggling and has to postpone her baptism until the government recognizes her marriage. She is suffering over it too, she's been waiting like 2 months and can't get baptized because she didn't do it right. I have another way awesome investigator named Maly. She, after committing her to read the Book of Mormon, read the whole thing and prayed about it in 3 days. She said that in answer to her prayer that she had a dream and it was of Joseph Smith in the Grove and she could see the light descending on him and then it would end. She said she had that same dream three times that night. She says that it was an absolute answer to her prayer, I think so too.
One other thing that I've really really noticed her is the absolute necessity for hometeachers. I think that so many of the members in the church stay active because of active hometeachers. It's really incredible how many people are inactive here because they don't have people visiting them. They feel unloved, unappreciated, unnoticed, etc. And we are having to take the bulk of the less-active work here because there are no hometeachers to do the job. Right now my companion and I are working with the Branch President to start up hometeaching now. Many here, if visited will come to church the next week.
Oh well now I'm just trailing off. Well I'd like to tell you that I'm loving it over here and that my testimony of this gospel is growing as I learn to serve my Heavenly Father with all my heart. I'm trying to be better each day and trying to give my all. I get the feeling that I'm forgetting something important this week. Oh well, I hope you have a wonderful week!
Love, Elder Ormsby
Sept 24th, 2008
Well hello again,
This has been another miraculous week in Cambodge (cambodia). First, I have a funny story to tell. The other week we were teaching one of our better investigators, Tuen, the lesson on the restoration and the Holy Ghost. We encouraged him to read and to pray about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. We then brought up the idea, well what if Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet? Tuen had a startled look on his face, "but he is a prophet." We responded that we knew he was, but what if he lied. "But he didn't lie, the Book of Mormon is true." He didn't quite understand, we had to calm him down and explain to him that even though it was true, he needed to gain a witness for himself. He still had some difficulties recuperating afterwards. :) I was afraid I was only going to have difficulties to write about this week. We had a lot of investigators ditch us and not be able to meet us. We had to ride a couple of 25 mile bike rides out here, which also wasn't terribly fun, especially when the investigator doesn't show up to those appointments, but we had a miracle a few days ago. The Branch President asked us to do him a personal favor and to visit a family who was preparing for the temple. We agreed, and after a few days of putting it off, we decided to go visit them. We found out they had two amazing refferals for us. They're names are Maly and Sipaeng. They are the most interested investigators I think I've ever seen. Maly is about 25 years old and runs a hair palor, if you can call it that. But she is the guardian of 14 year old Sipaeng. The reason being is that Sipaeng's very wealthy parents were murdered. It was one of the saddest stories I think I've ever heard. She lost all of her wealth and her 4 brothers and sisters are now living with all different relatives. I however, was able to bear my testimony, that no matter what happens, through this gospel, we can have our families again. And all our losses will be made up, if we will but faithfully follow Jesus Christ. They have now been to church twice and have prayed, and they are progressing very quickly. I'm teaching them again tonight so I'll let you know how that goes.
The other day, we were talking to some of the branch missionaries parents (all the branch missionaries here are under 27 years old), and the mother told us, that during the Khmer Rouge her mother, father, and 3 brothers and sister were all executed because they were half-Indian. She explained that she watched as the military officers hit each of them hard on the back of the neck and then buried them. We were able to testify to her that even though these horrible things had happened, that she could have her family again, once again emphasizing the atonement. She opened up a little bit more to the gospel after that discussion, but she's still not quite ready. These experiences are awful, but how lucky and blessed we are for an All-knowing, and All-Loving Father in Heaven, Who sent His Only Begotten Son to ransom us all, and to bring us peace and comfort in this life. I can testify that no matter what the problem, pain, heartache, or trial may be, that Our Savior, Our Redeemer, Our Advocate, and Most Personal Friend can understand and can give relief. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Elder Ormsby
This has been another miraculous week in Cambodge (cambodia). First, I have a funny story to tell. The other week we were teaching one of our better investigators, Tuen, the lesson on the restoration and the Holy Ghost. We encouraged him to read and to pray about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. We then brought up the idea, well what if Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet? Tuen had a startled look on his face, "but he is a prophet." We responded that we knew he was, but what if he lied. "But he didn't lie, the Book of Mormon is true." He didn't quite understand, we had to calm him down and explain to him that even though it was true, he needed to gain a witness for himself. He still had some difficulties recuperating afterwards. :) I was afraid I was only going to have difficulties to write about this week. We had a lot of investigators ditch us and not be able to meet us. We had to ride a couple of 25 mile bike rides out here, which also wasn't terribly fun, especially when the investigator doesn't show up to those appointments, but we had a miracle a few days ago. The Branch President asked us to do him a personal favor and to visit a family who was preparing for the temple. We agreed, and after a few days of putting it off, we decided to go visit them. We found out they had two amazing refferals for us. They're names are Maly and Sipaeng. They are the most interested investigators I think I've ever seen. Maly is about 25 years old and runs a hair palor, if you can call it that. But she is the guardian of 14 year old Sipaeng. The reason being is that Sipaeng's very wealthy parents were murdered. It was one of the saddest stories I think I've ever heard. She lost all of her wealth and her 4 brothers and sisters are now living with all different relatives. I however, was able to bear my testimony, that no matter what happens, through this gospel, we can have our families again. And all our losses will be made up, if we will but faithfully follow Jesus Christ. They have now been to church twice and have prayed, and they are progressing very quickly. I'm teaching them again tonight so I'll let you know how that goes.
The other day, we were talking to some of the branch missionaries parents (all the branch missionaries here are under 27 years old), and the mother told us, that during the Khmer Rouge her mother, father, and 3 brothers and sister were all executed because they were half-Indian. She explained that she watched as the military officers hit each of them hard on the back of the neck and then buried them. We were able to testify to her that even though these horrible things had happened, that she could have her family again, once again emphasizing the atonement. She opened up a little bit more to the gospel after that discussion, but she's still not quite ready. These experiences are awful, but how lucky and blessed we are for an All-knowing, and All-Loving Father in Heaven, Who sent His Only Begotten Son to ransom us all, and to bring us peace and comfort in this life. I can testify that no matter what the problem, pain, heartache, or trial may be, that Our Savior, Our Redeemer, Our Advocate, and Most Personal Friend can understand and can give relief. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Elder Ormsby
Sept 17th, 2008
Hello everyone,
I'm sorry I haven't exactly written one of these for a while, but let's see how this one goes. First off, I'm doing great right now. I'm in good health, the work is pressing onward, and I'm doing my best to help in that work. I'm with Elder Horton, from Mesa, Arizona, he's a pretty cool guy, we are getting a lot done together. We have a slightly different schedule here. We get up at 5:30 AM and are inside by 8:30 at the latest. we are currently teaching a lot of people. Most of our work is teaching new investigators. Most aren't terribly interested, but we are having success with those who are feeling the sprirt of the restoration and the gospel.
Now to some more detailed things. Currently we are working with a man named Tuen, he's a way nice guy and he's very bright. He reads his scriptures like crazy. He has a baptismal date for October 4th, which is actually October 3rd where you guys are. :) At the moment my companion and I are working as translators in Operation Smile. It's so fun. I love it, people are coming from as far as 7 hours away to receive medical treatment and get cleft pallets and lips fixed by plastic surgeons and oral surgeons. I have to do a lot of translating for them and since there is only the two of us to go around, we are in constant demand in all parts of the hospital. I've seen some pretty awesome and bloody surgeries, it's all awesome. They are helping so many people that have such horrible deformities. I love it though.
It's been raining here almost non stop for like 5 days and it shows no time for stopping either. Well anyways, I love you all. This church is true, and the Book of Mormon will change your life if you let it! Have a wonderful week!
-Elder Ormsby
I'm sorry I haven't exactly written one of these for a while, but let's see how this one goes. First off, I'm doing great right now. I'm in good health, the work is pressing onward, and I'm doing my best to help in that work. I'm with Elder Horton, from Mesa, Arizona, he's a pretty cool guy, we are getting a lot done together. We have a slightly different schedule here. We get up at 5:30 AM and are inside by 8:30 at the latest. we are currently teaching a lot of people. Most of our work is teaching new investigators. Most aren't terribly interested, but we are having success with those who are feeling the sprirt of the restoration and the gospel.
Now to some more detailed things. Currently we are working with a man named Tuen, he's a way nice guy and he's very bright. He reads his scriptures like crazy. He has a baptismal date for October 4th, which is actually October 3rd where you guys are. :) At the moment my companion and I are working as translators in Operation Smile. It's so fun. I love it, people are coming from as far as 7 hours away to receive medical treatment and get cleft pallets and lips fixed by plastic surgeons and oral surgeons. I have to do a lot of translating for them and since there is only the two of us to go around, we are in constant demand in all parts of the hospital. I've seen some pretty awesome and bloody surgeries, it's all awesome. They are helping so many people that have such horrible deformities. I love it though.
It's been raining here almost non stop for like 5 days and it shows no time for stopping either. Well anyways, I love you all. This church is true, and the Book of Mormon will change your life if you let it! Have a wonderful week!
-Elder Ormsby
Sept 9th, 2008
Dear Everyone,
I decided to just talk about some of our investigators. Right now we are teaching a guy named Tuen, Sophiap and two girls named Mann and Muat. I’ll talk about Tuen first. Tuen is like 36 years old or so and he’s a very interesting guy. We found him, or shall I say, he found us after a disappointing visit with a different, dropped, investigator. I was with Elder Douglas at the time and we were riding our bikes down a small path by his house when he called us over and asked us to teach him about God. He was a very strange guy and both Elder Douglas and I thought it would go no where, because the first thing the guy started asking was how many missionaries there were in our church and how many hours a day we go teaching and how much do we get paid. I don’t think he believed us when we told him we didn’t get paid, because he started asking if he could become a missionary too. So Elder Douglas and I taught him a few more times and he’d ask the same type of questions, so we figured he wasn’t really interested. So, when Elder Horton became my companion we didn’t visit him too often. However we started teaching him to pray. And then when we came back the next time he said that he prayed and that he felt something and then he described how he felt the spirit. He then asked us if our church had some holy book or scripture. Naturally, we gave him a book of mormon. The next time we came back he said he had read 2 hours every night for the past 5 days. (Our area is too big to visit everyday). He has now progressed to the point where he is going to get baptized on October 4th. He’s really great now. Sophiap, is very much like a standard Cambodian guy. He is very very kind, but learns very very very slow. He started taking the lessons because he was coming to our English class everyday and he has some member friends. It’s very interesting because some concepts of God being our Father and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden are so totally foreign to him that we have to take an hour or so to explain and teach pretty simple concepts. God creating the earth took a while as well, most people can accept that as pretty straight forward. However, we have been having him pray and he follows all of the commitments… at first I don’t think he even understood why we were asking him to do all these things like reading a Book and praying to someone you can’t see and then sitting silently and paying attention to how he feels, but he received a witness as well, that this is true. He also committed to baptism, on October 10th. Mann and Muat are two sewing girls, well actually they are about 26 and 28 years old, but they are living at home, unmarried, not too uncommon for Cambodians. They sew all day everyday, and if they don’t sew, they are out in the family’s rice fields. However, they have been taught by like 4 sets of missionaries over like 8 months or so. And now their parents have finally agreed to let them be baptized and go to church. It took a lot of courage for Mann and Muat to ask their parents. In their culture, parents and grandparents hold places of terribly high honor, it is very very very improper to do or ask contrary to the will of the elderly. It was very frightening for them even to ask permission. But they are getting baptized this Sunday. So that’s way exciting! I may have the opportunity to baptize them, which would be way cool! Have a wonderful week and have a great time.
Love, Elder Ormsby
I decided to just talk about some of our investigators. Right now we are teaching a guy named Tuen, Sophiap and two girls named Mann and Muat. I’ll talk about Tuen first. Tuen is like 36 years old or so and he’s a very interesting guy. We found him, or shall I say, he found us after a disappointing visit with a different, dropped, investigator. I was with Elder Douglas at the time and we were riding our bikes down a small path by his house when he called us over and asked us to teach him about God. He was a very strange guy and both Elder Douglas and I thought it would go no where, because the first thing the guy started asking was how many missionaries there were in our church and how many hours a day we go teaching and how much do we get paid. I don’t think he believed us when we told him we didn’t get paid, because he started asking if he could become a missionary too. So Elder Douglas and I taught him a few more times and he’d ask the same type of questions, so we figured he wasn’t really interested. So, when Elder Horton became my companion we didn’t visit him too often. However we started teaching him to pray. And then when we came back the next time he said that he prayed and that he felt something and then he described how he felt the spirit. He then asked us if our church had some holy book or scripture. Naturally, we gave him a book of mormon. The next time we came back he said he had read 2 hours every night for the past 5 days. (Our area is too big to visit everyday). He has now progressed to the point where he is going to get baptized on October 4th. He’s really great now. Sophiap, is very much like a standard Cambodian guy. He is very very kind, but learns very very very slow. He started taking the lessons because he was coming to our English class everyday and he has some member friends. It’s very interesting because some concepts of God being our Father and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden are so totally foreign to him that we have to take an hour or so to explain and teach pretty simple concepts. God creating the earth took a while as well, most people can accept that as pretty straight forward. However, we have been having him pray and he follows all of the commitments… at first I don’t think he even understood why we were asking him to do all these things like reading a Book and praying to someone you can’t see and then sitting silently and paying attention to how he feels, but he received a witness as well, that this is true. He also committed to baptism, on October 10th. Mann and Muat are two sewing girls, well actually they are about 26 and 28 years old, but they are living at home, unmarried, not too uncommon for Cambodians. They sew all day everyday, and if they don’t sew, they are out in the family’s rice fields. However, they have been taught by like 4 sets of missionaries over like 8 months or so. And now their parents have finally agreed to let them be baptized and go to church. It took a lot of courage for Mann and Muat to ask their parents. In their culture, parents and grandparents hold places of terribly high honor, it is very very very improper to do or ask contrary to the will of the elderly. It was very frightening for them even to ask permission. But they are getting baptized this Sunday. So that’s way exciting! I may have the opportunity to baptize them, which would be way cool! Have a wonderful week and have a great time.
Love, Elder Ormsby
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Aug 20th, 2008
Hello Everyone,
Ok, well for this week we have had some great successes. The Lord has truly been with us. Monday we had appointments from 11:00 to 1:00, and it takes about an hour bike ride there and back, however my bike decided to take a break, literally. So we stopped by a bike fixer person (they are all over Cambodia) and he fixed by bike for the next hour. So we missed our first appointment, which was a major bummer. But that’s not the point. The point is after we got back from our huge long ride and such, we had some miracles come our way. We had 5 appointments planned after that and all but one fell through, however we found, or rather they found us, 9 new investigators, including three families. It was amazing it was like we would pass a house on our way to an appointment and some guy would run out and invite us in and ask us questions about Christianity. We were sharing a family proclamation with a family and sharing about how we knew God was real, even though we had never seen him. She then asked if we knew of anyone who had seen God. Which anyone who knows anything about missionary work knows that there is almost no better a question for us to introduce to her the restoration and the Joseph Smith story? By the end of the day, we had 4 houses on the same road, in a row, invite us back to learn more. It was incredible. And what’s even better is that we have a baptism this Sunday, so all in all things are going awesome up here!
Well anyways, that’s all I’ve really got for this email. So, I hope to hear from you soon, and have a fantastic week!
Love, Elder Ormsby
Ok, well for this week we have had some great successes. The Lord has truly been with us. Monday we had appointments from 11:00 to 1:00, and it takes about an hour bike ride there and back, however my bike decided to take a break, literally. So we stopped by a bike fixer person (they are all over Cambodia) and he fixed by bike for the next hour. So we missed our first appointment, which was a major bummer. But that’s not the point. The point is after we got back from our huge long ride and such, we had some miracles come our way. We had 5 appointments planned after that and all but one fell through, however we found, or rather they found us, 9 new investigators, including three families. It was amazing it was like we would pass a house on our way to an appointment and some guy would run out and invite us in and ask us questions about Christianity. We were sharing a family proclamation with a family and sharing about how we knew God was real, even though we had never seen him. She then asked if we knew of anyone who had seen God. Which anyone who knows anything about missionary work knows that there is almost no better a question for us to introduce to her the restoration and the Joseph Smith story? By the end of the day, we had 4 houses on the same road, in a row, invite us back to learn more. It was incredible. And what’s even better is that we have a baptism this Sunday, so all in all things are going awesome up here!
Well anyways, that’s all I’ve really got for this email. So, I hope to hear from you soon, and have a fantastic week!
Love, Elder Ormsby
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Aug 13th, 2008
Hello Hello Hello,
Well here's another week to share with you. The weather here has been quite strange, we almost drowned yesterday because of how much it was raining, but anyways. . . I have the scariest/funniest experience of my mission to tell you about. Okay, in Battambang, we have a fairly large river running directly through the middle of the city. And this river floods every year, so much so infact that the roads that run parallel to it, have begun falling into the river, very slowly. The road I ride everyday, small pieces of the edge have been falling because the dirt beneath is eroding away, but anyways. Because of this if you would like to kill yourself (sarcasm, just in case you were wondering), you could very easily drive off like a 12 foot drop on your bike or car onto the banks of the river. Well anyways, my new companion Elder Horton. . . he's a little. . . Magoo (for those of you who know who Mr. Magoo is), and what I mean by that is . . . we were riding back from an appointment at it was about 7:00 at night and it was pretty dark. We were riding on this river road. And people, in order to help those who don't know that there is a ten foot drop off from the pavement on this road, have nicely placed car tires every 10 feet or so, all along the road. Elder Horton thought it would be a good idea to try and go on the otherside of one of these warning tires. Needless to say by the time he decided to do this, (seeing as I how i was right next to him, which by the way is the perfect position to see this whole ordeal take place) he hit the ledge with his front tire, and then did a "wheelie" I guess you could call it, except he went too far back and he fell backwards down this ten foot drop! I was absolutely scared out of my mind. I thought he honestly was dead, or a broken back or something. But he turned out alright, he had a few cuts and scrapes, but his backback took the brute hit when he landed directly on a tree trunk (by the way at the bottom of these are all the trees that have fallen over from the earth beneath them eroding away. So that was my awesome story for today. Isnapped some great pictures, for which people were so mad at me for doing, but Elder Horton requested them, so everyone eventually calmed down.
Well as far as the work is going out here, Elder Horton and I are looking to whip this area into shape. We have some awesome investigators and we have recently found some really great news ones that we are excited about. We have one sister who's just about ready for baptism and a young couple who are also both preparing for baptism. I love teaching them. We recently went over saturday morning to help them build their new house. It's made entirely of bamboo and scraps of other various types of wood. It took forever just to put up half a wall, it was really funny, three dumb americans trying to build a house in cambodia, everyone had a fun time letting us know that we knew nothing about construction. hehe.
Well anyways, have a fabulous time whereever you are and take luck.
-Elder Ormsby
Well here's another week to share with you. The weather here has been quite strange, we almost drowned yesterday because of how much it was raining, but anyways. . . I have the scariest/funniest experience of my mission to tell you about. Okay, in Battambang, we have a fairly large river running directly through the middle of the city. And this river floods every year, so much so infact that the roads that run parallel to it, have begun falling into the river, very slowly. The road I ride everyday, small pieces of the edge have been falling because the dirt beneath is eroding away, but anyways. Because of this if you would like to kill yourself (sarcasm, just in case you were wondering), you could very easily drive off like a 12 foot drop on your bike or car onto the banks of the river. Well anyways, my new companion Elder Horton. . . he's a little. . . Magoo (for those of you who know who Mr. Magoo is), and what I mean by that is . . . we were riding back from an appointment at it was about 7:00 at night and it was pretty dark. We were riding on this river road. And people, in order to help those who don't know that there is a ten foot drop off from the pavement on this road, have nicely placed car tires every 10 feet or so, all along the road. Elder Horton thought it would be a good idea to try and go on the otherside of one of these warning tires. Needless to say by the time he decided to do this, (seeing as I how i was right next to him, which by the way is the perfect position to see this whole ordeal take place) he hit the ledge with his front tire, and then did a "wheelie" I guess you could call it, except he went too far back and he fell backwards down this ten foot drop! I was absolutely scared out of my mind. I thought he honestly was dead, or a broken back or something. But he turned out alright, he had a few cuts and scrapes, but his backback took the brute hit when he landed directly on a tree trunk (by the way at the bottom of these are all the trees that have fallen over from the earth beneath them eroding away. So that was my awesome story for today. Isnapped some great pictures, for which people were so mad at me for doing, but Elder Horton requested them, so everyone eventually calmed down.
Well as far as the work is going out here, Elder Horton and I are looking to whip this area into shape. We have some awesome investigators and we have recently found some really great news ones that we are excited about. We have one sister who's just about ready for baptism and a young couple who are also both preparing for baptism. I love teaching them. We recently went over saturday morning to help them build their new house. It's made entirely of bamboo and scraps of other various types of wood. It took forever just to put up half a wall, it was really funny, three dumb americans trying to build a house in cambodia, everyone had a fun time letting us know that we knew nothing about construction. hehe.
Well anyways, have a fabulous time whereever you are and take luck.
-Elder Ormsby
Aug 6th, 2008
Hello Hello,
Hey everybody, It's great to be back here after another wonderful week! Well first off, I don't have much to report on, but here's what I can remember from this week. First off, I was pretty sick at the beginning of the week, so President Winegar brought me down to Phnom Penh and got me to some doctors who got me on an IV and had me cured from my "Giardia" in about 12 hours or so. It felt so good to be well again. I was back up here in battambang in no time flat.
We have had a great time teaching our investigators up here. We just recently had two investigators talk to their parents, who thus far haven't been thrilled with us teaching their mid-twenty year old daughters, however, they agreed to let them get baptized. They are going to be baptized the first week of next month! We are so excited. It will however be sad to lose my companion. Elder Douglas is ending his mission on saturday, so I'll be getting a new companion very quick! I can't believe I'm already on my 3rd companion.
Sorry, I can't think of much else at the moment. But I absolutely love it here! I am having a great time here and I love the people. The Lord is blessing us tremendously. We have the most important message of all. Our message is simple: God is our Heavenly Father and He loves you and me. He has a plan for us to return to live with Him with our families. He sent His Son to provide us the way to return. We have a living Prophet, through whom the Lord teaches us. Once the people start catching the glimpse of this message, they light up and something turns on. They see that there is a purpose to life. There's no happier feeling in this world than seeing someone discover they have a Heavenly Home and a Heavenly Father.
Love, Elder Ormsby
Hey everybody, It's great to be back here after another wonderful week! Well first off, I don't have much to report on, but here's what I can remember from this week. First off, I was pretty sick at the beginning of the week, so President Winegar brought me down to Phnom Penh and got me to some doctors who got me on an IV and had me cured from my "Giardia" in about 12 hours or so. It felt so good to be well again. I was back up here in battambang in no time flat.
We have had a great time teaching our investigators up here. We just recently had two investigators talk to their parents, who thus far haven't been thrilled with us teaching their mid-twenty year old daughters, however, they agreed to let them get baptized. They are going to be baptized the first week of next month! We are so excited. It will however be sad to lose my companion. Elder Douglas is ending his mission on saturday, so I'll be getting a new companion very quick! I can't believe I'm already on my 3rd companion.
Sorry, I can't think of much else at the moment. But I absolutely love it here! I am having a great time here and I love the people. The Lord is blessing us tremendously. We have the most important message of all. Our message is simple: God is our Heavenly Father and He loves you and me. He has a plan for us to return to live with Him with our families. He sent His Son to provide us the way to return. We have a living Prophet, through whom the Lord teaches us. Once the people start catching the glimpse of this message, they light up and something turns on. They see that there is a purpose to life. There's no happier feeling in this world than seeing someone discover they have a Heavenly Home and a Heavenly Father.
Love, Elder Ormsby
July 30th, 2008
Well, I'm a little sick of writing the same format of emails. So this week I'm going to try to make it more interesting.
This is an offical Interview with Elder Ormsby:
(I) = Interviewer
E.O. = Elder Ormsby
(I) Thanks for taking some of your Prep day to sit and answer some of the questions and concerns of those of us in the outside world.
E.O. Oh, it's really not a problem. I rather enjoy this.
(I) Well, here's the first question:
Q1: So how did this week go for you and your companion?
E.O. Well, we had a pretty interesting week. My companion and I were pretty scared with the big elections and such. We thought war might break out, considering everyone hates the prime minister here, but he won by a 70% margin. Everything has been very peaceful, so that's great news for us. We were stuck inside for 3 days, just to be safe, but everything is great here.
(I) That's great that everything played out peacefully. But the border conflict with thailand could make things interesting. I think things could get scary up there. Does that concern you?
E.O. No, not too much. But to understand what's really going on, you first have to understand some of the history behind what's going on. Cambodian people can't stand that Thai people. The Cambodians and Thais have been fighting over all the ancient ruins in Cambodia for centuries now. The Thai people claim that their ancestors built angkor wat and the other ancient ruins in northern cambodia. The only thing is. . . if the Thais decided to try and take those ruins, the Cambodians would really have no way of stopping them. Thailand is so far more advanced and more populated that cambodia is. So we'll see how it pans out.
Q3: How's the work coming along in Battambang?
E.O. Everything is going great! We are having more and more people coming to church and the people are just wonderful here. We have a group of stalwart branch missionaries who are always helping us out with proselyting. We have a great family preparing for baptism now. I think they are getting baptized in 3 weeks. We'll see though.
Q4: What else has gone on this week?
E.O. Well to be honest, not much else. I mean... I got a package from my Grandma, which was great! Thanks so much! But as far as the rest of my week, it's been slower because of the elections and such.
(I) That's too bad, sources say that you've been sick the last little while, is that true?
E.O. There's truth to it. I'll be fine though.
(I) Are you sure?
E.O. Next question please, I'm running out of time. You know places to go, things to do.
Q5: What would you like to say to your family and friends?
E.O. I'd like to tell them that I love them very much, and I appreciate all they do in supporting me and that I miss them very much. But I'm having a great time here and all is well here. I know this to be the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love this work and can't wait to hear from you all!
(I) Wait, wait, one more question please...
E.O. I'm sorry, I'm not taking anymore questions today.
This is an offical Interview with Elder Ormsby:
(I) = Interviewer
E.O. = Elder Ormsby
(I) Thanks for taking some of your Prep day to sit and answer some of the questions and concerns of those of us in the outside world.
E.O. Oh, it's really not a problem. I rather enjoy this.
(I) Well, here's the first question:
Q1: So how did this week go for you and your companion?
E.O. Well, we had a pretty interesting week. My companion and I were pretty scared with the big elections and such. We thought war might break out, considering everyone hates the prime minister here, but he won by a 70% margin. Everything has been very peaceful, so that's great news for us. We were stuck inside for 3 days, just to be safe, but everything is great here.
(I) That's great that everything played out peacefully. But the border conflict with thailand could make things interesting. I think things could get scary up there. Does that concern you?
E.O. No, not too much. But to understand what's really going on, you first have to understand some of the history behind what's going on. Cambodian people can't stand that Thai people. The Cambodians and Thais have been fighting over all the ancient ruins in Cambodia for centuries now. The Thai people claim that their ancestors built angkor wat and the other ancient ruins in northern cambodia. The only thing is. . . if the Thais decided to try and take those ruins, the Cambodians would really have no way of stopping them. Thailand is so far more advanced and more populated that cambodia is. So we'll see how it pans out.
Q3: How's the work coming along in Battambang?
E.O. Everything is going great! We are having more and more people coming to church and the people are just wonderful here. We have a group of stalwart branch missionaries who are always helping us out with proselyting. We have a great family preparing for baptism now. I think they are getting baptized in 3 weeks. We'll see though.
Q4: What else has gone on this week?
E.O. Well to be honest, not much else. I mean... I got a package from my Grandma, which was great! Thanks so much! But as far as the rest of my week, it's been slower because of the elections and such.
(I) That's too bad, sources say that you've been sick the last little while, is that true?
E.O. There's truth to it. I'll be fine though.
(I) Are you sure?
E.O. Next question please, I'm running out of time. You know places to go, things to do.
Q5: What would you like to say to your family and friends?
E.O. I'd like to tell them that I love them very much, and I appreciate all they do in supporting me and that I miss them very much. But I'm having a great time here and all is well here. I know this to be the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love this work and can't wait to hear from you all!
(I) Wait, wait, one more question please...
E.O. I'm sorry, I'm not taking anymore questions today.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Daniel's 3rd Epistle July 15th, 2008
Greetings from Cambodia,
Well, another week has gone by, and I’ve now been in the country for about a month. It's kinda scary. I feel like I just got here. But anyways, I'd like to relate some of the experiences I've had this week. Well unfortunately the food here as caught up to me, I'm developing my "iron stomach" as the missionaries here put it. They tell me most of them spend the first few months here sick, but then they all get well and can eat anything. I only threw up a couple of times. But I'm getting over it pretty quick.
Well, for my first story: We had our air conditioner broke, which here is quite the problem, so we called to get it fixed. We had to move a lot of furniture and such in our bedroom and. . . .(get ready for this mom) there was a giant spider/tarantula on our wall. This thing was like the size of my hand. . .oh my gosh it was so big. I absolutely hate spiders more than anything else, but I think my parents would have easily fallen over to see such a big spider in a house. We tried to smash it with a sandal, but it fell off the wall and ran, very fast I might add, under one of the beds. So we spent the next 15 minutes trying to kill this huge spider. . . my companion eventually killed it and removed it, while I. . . went into another room. :) Oh, one thing this culture is still working on is asking for special orders at restaurants, for example: In Phnom Penh, they have a KFC, which is so cool. One of the elders went in and asked for a chicken sandwich, but asked them to leave the tomatoes out. They responded with: 'sorry, the sandwich is made with tomatoes.' I laughed like crazy when I heard that, because it's very much like that in this culture. Oh like a few days ago, we were calling to rent a car for traveling to Phnom Penh, and my companion asked if we could get two cars to drive the group of people, so it wouldn't be so packed in the car. The Cambodian car rental service replied back: 'okay, maybe you call back later.'
Oh, good news. . . my bike had to be fixed (long list of troubles) and it's all better. For 1/2 a day my companion and I had to ride on the same bike. . . very interesting. Speaking of which, most people here drive around little "vespa"type motorcycles, if you can call them that. But they usually have anywhere from 3-5 people on these tiny little things that just wiz in and out of the thousands of other bicycles that share the streets. It's really funny to watch.
Well, we are now having great times here, we are teaching a lot of families, some of which are struggling to make ends meet, but they have such strong faith. We went and visited a new investigator we found, when another appointment fell through, her name is Sovahn, she's so cool. She said that she had been to other christian churches and didn't understand why there were so many churches and quit going to them because she was so confused and such. We just recently got in contact with her husband who was very much into the idea that "i'll believe what I can see."(fairly common here). But after teaching him for a while about the restoration and faith and prayer, he was anxious to meet with us again. They are such a sweet family.
I am so grateful to be here, we are doing great and the work is moving along. We are just trying to pick up the pace a little bit more, trying to do a little more each day. I love you all, sorry I didn't have any miraculous stories, but I guess such is life... for now :) I can't wait to hear from you again. Love you always.
Elder Ormsby
Well, another week has gone by, and I’ve now been in the country for about a month. It's kinda scary. I feel like I just got here. But anyways, I'd like to relate some of the experiences I've had this week. Well unfortunately the food here as caught up to me, I'm developing my "iron stomach" as the missionaries here put it. They tell me most of them spend the first few months here sick, but then they all get well and can eat anything. I only threw up a couple of times. But I'm getting over it pretty quick.
Well, for my first story: We had our air conditioner broke, which here is quite the problem, so we called to get it fixed. We had to move a lot of furniture and such in our bedroom and. . . .(get ready for this mom) there was a giant spider/tarantula on our wall. This thing was like the size of my hand. . .oh my gosh it was so big. I absolutely hate spiders more than anything else, but I think my parents would have easily fallen over to see such a big spider in a house. We tried to smash it with a sandal, but it fell off the wall and ran, very fast I might add, under one of the beds. So we spent the next 15 minutes trying to kill this huge spider. . . my companion eventually killed it and removed it, while I. . . went into another room. :) Oh, one thing this culture is still working on is asking for special orders at restaurants, for example: In Phnom Penh, they have a KFC, which is so cool. One of the elders went in and asked for a chicken sandwich, but asked them to leave the tomatoes out. They responded with: 'sorry, the sandwich is made with tomatoes.' I laughed like crazy when I heard that, because it's very much like that in this culture. Oh like a few days ago, we were calling to rent a car for traveling to Phnom Penh, and my companion asked if we could get two cars to drive the group of people, so it wouldn't be so packed in the car. The Cambodian car rental service replied back: 'okay, maybe you call back later.'
Oh, good news. . . my bike had to be fixed (long list of troubles) and it's all better. For 1/2 a day my companion and I had to ride on the same bike. . . very interesting. Speaking of which, most people here drive around little "vespa"type motorcycles, if you can call them that. But they usually have anywhere from 3-5 people on these tiny little things that just wiz in and out of the thousands of other bicycles that share the streets. It's really funny to watch.
Well, we are now having great times here, we are teaching a lot of families, some of which are struggling to make ends meet, but they have such strong faith. We went and visited a new investigator we found, when another appointment fell through, her name is Sovahn, she's so cool. She said that she had been to other christian churches and didn't understand why there were so many churches and quit going to them because she was so confused and such. We just recently got in contact with her husband who was very much into the idea that "i'll believe what I can see."(fairly common here). But after teaching him for a while about the restoration and faith and prayer, he was anxious to meet with us again. They are such a sweet family.
I am so grateful to be here, we are doing great and the work is moving along. We are just trying to pick up the pace a little bit more, trying to do a little more each day. I love you all, sorry I didn't have any miraculous stories, but I guess such is life... for now :) I can't wait to hear from you again. Love you always.
Elder Ormsby
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Cambodia!! 2nd E-mail
Dear Family,
Well this last week as been very fast-paced and fun. We just had our first baptism in our companionship. Their names are Vun and Sokha, they are terribly terribly poor, but they have faith that blows me away. They have four little kids, all younger than 8 years old, and they live in a swamp. .
. I guess that's what you'd calll it. But it was really great to see them take those first steps towards heaven.
Oh, bytheway, it rains here like you've never seen. It's absolutely incredible. We were sitting in a small restraunt and it started raining. .
. I honestly got scared, it was as if someone had taken a bucket of water over the city of Battambang and had just dumped it over us. It was scary how hard it rained. It rains here pretty much every day and it's kinda funny, because the other day we were riding our bikes to visit one of our investigators (a few miles) and it was raining the whole way, just then I realized. . . . it's raining like there's no tommorrow, yet I don't feel any different from when it's not raining. (just to give you an idea of how wet it is here). I've been through some of the most beautiful jungles here. I love it! Oh, but the way, there's a huge river that runs through the city of Battambang, and right now it's like 9 feet deep or so, and I noticed that the roads and city is elevated about 20 feet or so from the river, and the banks of the river were actually pretty close to empty, my companion tells me that every rainy season the river rises about 20 feet or so. It's pretty crazy.
Oh my goodness the other night we went and taught our great investigator named Sahrahn, it was pretty dark out and we taught him a lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ, we were sitting on a platform that is about 4 sq feet in area (by the way we always teach sitting on the floor or a platform, indian style) and we had the three of us sitting together with a candle in the middle as our light. It was raining it was muddy outside, and the background noise to our teaching were the frogs in the grass behind us.
It's so cool to be in this environment. He committed to be baptized, he said that after he read the scriptures and went to church, he wanted to live his life according to the church. It's so great to see the complete change of spirit come over him. I love it, I still don't understand a lot of what they say, but I am understanding more and more each day.
Can I just say, honestly, when I got here. . .I understood that the people were poor here. I'd been taught in school or wherever that their were people in India and other 3rd world countries that didn't have what we have in America, but honestly. . . I had no idea. No clue. I've seen somethings here that would make you want to cry. Some of the most humble of circumstances imaginable. But most people are happy here anyways.
My companion and I are getting along great! I really enjoy being his companion. His name is Elder Douglas and he's from Georgia, he's way cool, he's a student at Harvard, so he's quite smart. He's very kind and spiritual as well, so we get along great.
Oh, one other thing. . . . if any of you have seen the Princess Bride. . .
if you remember the part where there's a giant rat (R.O.U.S) well we've got some big ones here in Cambodia. They actually rival the size of a normal cat. When you see them. . .they don't run, they're too fat. . . they "bound" they just go "abounding" along. It's really sick, but funny. The people here eat them, but my companion tells me they are out of season right now so the street vendors don't sell them as much right now. Well I've lost
5 pounds in 10 days here. . . riding the bikes everywhere is quite the workout, especially since we ride through alot of water and mud. But it's all good and fun.
Well, I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm loving it here and Cambodia is truly a great place to be, and I can think of nothing more important for me to be doing than preaching the gospel.
Well, I'm afraid that's all I can think of at the moment. But, I know that this gospel is true, and that Joseph Smith saw our God and His Son, Jesus Christ. I'm here because I know that to be true.
I hope to hear from you soon! I love you all!
Love, Elder Ormsby
Well this last week as been very fast-paced and fun. We just had our first baptism in our companionship. Their names are Vun and Sokha, they are terribly terribly poor, but they have faith that blows me away. They have four little kids, all younger than 8 years old, and they live in a swamp. .
. I guess that's what you'd calll it. But it was really great to see them take those first steps towards heaven.
Oh, bytheway, it rains here like you've never seen. It's absolutely incredible. We were sitting in a small restraunt and it started raining. .
. I honestly got scared, it was as if someone had taken a bucket of water over the city of Battambang and had just dumped it over us. It was scary how hard it rained. It rains here pretty much every day and it's kinda funny, because the other day we were riding our bikes to visit one of our investigators (a few miles) and it was raining the whole way, just then I realized. . . . it's raining like there's no tommorrow, yet I don't feel any different from when it's not raining. (just to give you an idea of how wet it is here). I've been through some of the most beautiful jungles here. I love it! Oh, but the way, there's a huge river that runs through the city of Battambang, and right now it's like 9 feet deep or so, and I noticed that the roads and city is elevated about 20 feet or so from the river, and the banks of the river were actually pretty close to empty, my companion tells me that every rainy season the river rises about 20 feet or so. It's pretty crazy.
Oh my goodness the other night we went and taught our great investigator named Sahrahn, it was pretty dark out and we taught him a lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ, we were sitting on a platform that is about 4 sq feet in area (by the way we always teach sitting on the floor or a platform, indian style) and we had the three of us sitting together with a candle in the middle as our light. It was raining it was muddy outside, and the background noise to our teaching were the frogs in the grass behind us.
It's so cool to be in this environment. He committed to be baptized, he said that after he read the scriptures and went to church, he wanted to live his life according to the church. It's so great to see the complete change of spirit come over him. I love it, I still don't understand a lot of what they say, but I am understanding more and more each day.
Can I just say, honestly, when I got here. . .I understood that the people were poor here. I'd been taught in school or wherever that their were people in India and other 3rd world countries that didn't have what we have in America, but honestly. . . I had no idea. No clue. I've seen somethings here that would make you want to cry. Some of the most humble of circumstances imaginable. But most people are happy here anyways.
My companion and I are getting along great! I really enjoy being his companion. His name is Elder Douglas and he's from Georgia, he's way cool, he's a student at Harvard, so he's quite smart. He's very kind and spiritual as well, so we get along great.
Oh, one other thing. . . . if any of you have seen the Princess Bride. . .
if you remember the part where there's a giant rat (R.O.U.S) well we've got some big ones here in Cambodia. They actually rival the size of a normal cat. When you see them. . .they don't run, they're too fat. . . they "bound" they just go "abounding" along. It's really sick, but funny. The people here eat them, but my companion tells me they are out of season right now so the street vendors don't sell them as much right now. Well I've lost
5 pounds in 10 days here. . . riding the bikes everywhere is quite the workout, especially since we ride through alot of water and mud. But it's all good and fun.
Well, I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm loving it here and Cambodia is truly a great place to be, and I can think of nothing more important for me to be doing than preaching the gospel.
Well, I'm afraid that's all I can think of at the moment. But, I know that this gospel is true, and that Joseph Smith saw our God and His Son, Jesus Christ. I'm here because I know that to be true.
I hope to hear from you soon! I love you all!
Love, Elder Ormsby
Thursday, June 26, 2008
6-25-08
Hey Dad, Family, and whoever else reads-
Well here is my first real email from Cambodia. And the first thing I have to say about that is.. . . it's so blasted hot I think I'm gonna die!!! oh my goodness the humidity combined with the unbelievable scorching hot temperatures is deadly. Well my first area is the city of Battambang, it's Cambodia's third largest city, which isn't saying much but yeah. Virtually everyone here drivesa little moto scooter kinda like vespas. They are all over the place here. I wish the missionaries were allowed to have some because we ride our bikes anywhere from 14-20 miles a day and it's pretty crazy. When we are teaching, both of us look like we just walked through a water-fall. The people here are so so so so so poor. It makes you wanna cry when you see the way they live. I've seen some of the most poor circumstances I think you can possibly imagine. It's actually really tough. The Mission is physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually draining. My first day of proselyting was one of the most difficult experiences I've had in my life. We teach a lot of investigators and inactive members of the church. It's pretty difficult in Cambodia with the Buddhist culture, which is basically a belief of complacency and everything is ok if you don't kill, or steal, and etc. People here have very poor education and they need things to be explained very very simply. Teaching lessons is quite the experience too, we usually teach the people in their homes and we sit indian style" around on a surface made of bamboo, my feet are killing me but i'm starting to develop calicuses. I've almost come to accept that I will never feel comfortable as far as "ac" and "Being wet" goes. But all is well in Cambodia, I still don't quite have the language but it's coming along. I have a great companion, who has been a great source of help and strength. His name is Elder Douglas, and he's from Georgia. He actually finishes up his mission in 5 weeks and his parents are coming to pick him up, so I think that it shouldn't be a problem for Mom and Dad to come when I'm finished. Oh one really scary thing that Mom probably won't like is that there are bugs everywhere. Because it's so tropical and humid and wet, bugs flourish here. We have geckos and ants in every building, yes, even our house. The geckos just kinda chill on the walls and every once in a while make a "cricket" like sound. It's actually pretty funny. All the kids and people in Cambodia are so nice. Alot of the time when we are riding around, we'll have a group of people yell, "HELLO" because everyone here wants to learn english and things it's hilarious that the american missionaries can speak Cambodian. Speaking of which, twice a week for an hour, we teach an english class for anyone who would like to come to the church. We are teaching the advanced class today and it's very very fun. During sacrament meeting, wow! it's absolutely crazy! I've meet more crazy people in Cambodia in the short space of a week than I ever have in my entire life. Our Branch President always says crazy statements that don't make sense in either english or cambodian and none one quite understands what he's saying. Oh I have a pretty hilarious story to tell you. On my second day here, my trainer prep'd me for the lessons we'd be teaching. He told me that we were going to teach an investigator by the name of "Phiap" and that was reading his scriptures, coming to church every week, and praying everyday, but that he was having some trouble with alcohol. Well anyways, we biked i think like 5 miles to this guys home and we sit down and we start teaching him. And we start teaching about the word of wisdom and Phiap starts saying that he wants to get baptized but really feels like he can't stop drinking... so we start teaching that if he tries and prays and goes to church he'd be helped, and when we tried to commit him to stop drinking altogether, he said, "okay, I'll stop drinking if you guys join me for one last drink." And then he pulled out three glass beer bottles from his little cooler and he opened them and set them in front of us. And he said again, "have one last drink with me and I'll stop and be baptized." and I'm like I'm sorry we can't it's against the word of wisdom and i've promised to never drink that. And my companion is saying the same thing. And this goes on for another 3 or 4 minutes until my companion says, "okay, you promise that you will never drink again if we do?" and Phiap says, "Yes yes, I promise I promise." And my companion totally starting drinking it! I am like. . . what are you doing!!! and he just looked and me and said, "Hey, it'll help him get baptized, he needs to get baptized, don't you wanna help him?" I'm like, yeah I wanna help him but what the heck are you doing? and I'm thinking in my head, "oh my gosh, I have to call President, my companion's going home, what am I going to do?" And all this while, Phiap is saying to me, why won't you drink with me? If you don't drink with me you don't love me. And i'm like Phiap, I can't drink it. And finally he said, "okay, just take a very very small drink and it'll be enough for me." And I'm like, I can't Phiap! I'm sorry. and He kept on saying stuff like "Oh you don't love me, you don't wanna help me, I want to get baptized but you won't help me, etc." and finally he says, "ok, just take your finger and dip it in the beer and that will be enough" and I'm getting really frustrated here, because his whole family is getting in on this saying that I'm not helping their dad and going off about how much they wish their dad to stop drinking. However, I remained strong and kept my cool. And after like 20 mins of this my companion looks at me and takes a cup and poors out the bottle and it's just sprite! I was sooooooo mad!!!!!! I was about to kill him!!!! Everyone was laughing uproariously, it was quite the scene. Anyways that's my funny story for this email, one which I will not soon forget. So anyways, All is well and sorry the beginning of this email seemed like a downer, but everything is great here, and the Lord truly blesses and watches over his missionaries. I've felt so much comfort and peace as I've been adjusting to this very very very very different environment and way of life. All the missionaries tell me that the first 3 weeks are pretty tough, but that after that it's all great and very fast paced. My companion tells me everyday that he can't believe he's going home. he keeps telling me that he was in my place yesterday. Well I'd like to leave you with this testimony:
God lives, and He loves His children, every single one of them. And He is very mindful of the "war-torn" people of Cambodia, and He is pouring out His spirit among them and is setting at hand the way for peace, joy, and comfort in their lives. I know I am a part of that great reaching out to offer His love. I'm enjoying my time here in Cambodia and can't wait to hear from you again!
Love, Elder Ormsby
Well here is my first real email from Cambodia. And the first thing I have to say about that is.. . . it's so blasted hot I think I'm gonna die!!! oh my goodness the humidity combined with the unbelievable scorching hot temperatures is deadly. Well my first area is the city of Battambang, it's Cambodia's third largest city, which isn't saying much but yeah. Virtually everyone here drivesa little moto scooter kinda like vespas. They are all over the place here. I wish the missionaries were allowed to have some because we ride our bikes anywhere from 14-20 miles a day and it's pretty crazy. When we are teaching, both of us look like we just walked through a water-fall. The people here are so so so so so poor. It makes you wanna cry when you see the way they live. I've seen some of the most poor circumstances I think you can possibly imagine. It's actually really tough. The Mission is physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually draining. My first day of proselyting was one of the most difficult experiences I've had in my life. We teach a lot of investigators and inactive members of the church. It's pretty difficult in Cambodia with the Buddhist culture, which is basically a belief of complacency and everything is ok if you don't kill, or steal, and etc. People here have very poor education and they need things to be explained very very simply. Teaching lessons is quite the experience too, we usually teach the people in their homes and we sit indian style" around on a surface made of bamboo, my feet are killing me but i'm starting to develop calicuses. I've almost come to accept that I will never feel comfortable as far as "ac" and "Being wet" goes. But all is well in Cambodia, I still don't quite have the language but it's coming along. I have a great companion, who has been a great source of help and strength. His name is Elder Douglas, and he's from Georgia. He actually finishes up his mission in 5 weeks and his parents are coming to pick him up, so I think that it shouldn't be a problem for Mom and Dad to come when I'm finished. Oh one really scary thing that Mom probably won't like is that there are bugs everywhere. Because it's so tropical and humid and wet, bugs flourish here. We have geckos and ants in every building, yes, even our house. The geckos just kinda chill on the walls and every once in a while make a "cricket" like sound. It's actually pretty funny. All the kids and people in Cambodia are so nice. Alot of the time when we are riding around, we'll have a group of people yell, "HELLO" because everyone here wants to learn english and things it's hilarious that the american missionaries can speak Cambodian. Speaking of which, twice a week for an hour, we teach an english class for anyone who would like to come to the church. We are teaching the advanced class today and it's very very fun. During sacrament meeting, wow! it's absolutely crazy! I've meet more crazy people in Cambodia in the short space of a week than I ever have in my entire life. Our Branch President always says crazy statements that don't make sense in either english or cambodian and none one quite understands what he's saying. Oh I have a pretty hilarious story to tell you. On my second day here, my trainer prep'd me for the lessons we'd be teaching. He told me that we were going to teach an investigator by the name of "Phiap" and that was reading his scriptures, coming to church every week, and praying everyday, but that he was having some trouble with alcohol. Well anyways, we biked i think like 5 miles to this guys home and we sit down and we start teaching him. And we start teaching about the word of wisdom and Phiap starts saying that he wants to get baptized but really feels like he can't stop drinking... so we start teaching that if he tries and prays and goes to church he'd be helped, and when we tried to commit him to stop drinking altogether, he said, "okay, I'll stop drinking if you guys join me for one last drink." And then he pulled out three glass beer bottles from his little cooler and he opened them and set them in front of us. And he said again, "have one last drink with me and I'll stop and be baptized." and I'm like I'm sorry we can't it's against the word of wisdom and i've promised to never drink that. And my companion is saying the same thing. And this goes on for another 3 or 4 minutes until my companion says, "okay, you promise that you will never drink again if we do?" and Phiap says, "Yes yes, I promise I promise." And my companion totally starting drinking it! I am like. . . what are you doing!!! and he just looked and me and said, "Hey, it'll help him get baptized, he needs to get baptized, don't you wanna help him?" I'm like, yeah I wanna help him but what the heck are you doing? and I'm thinking in my head, "oh my gosh, I have to call President, my companion's going home, what am I going to do?" And all this while, Phiap is saying to me, why won't you drink with me? If you don't drink with me you don't love me. And i'm like Phiap, I can't drink it. And finally he said, "okay, just take a very very small drink and it'll be enough for me." And I'm like, I can't Phiap! I'm sorry. and He kept on saying stuff like "Oh you don't love me, you don't wanna help me, I want to get baptized but you won't help me, etc." and finally he says, "ok, just take your finger and dip it in the beer and that will be enough" and I'm getting really frustrated here, because his whole family is getting in on this saying that I'm not helping their dad and going off about how much they wish their dad to stop drinking. However, I remained strong and kept my cool. And after like 20 mins of this my companion looks at me and takes a cup and poors out the bottle and it's just sprite! I was sooooooo mad!!!!!! I was about to kill him!!!! Everyone was laughing uproariously, it was quite the scene. Anyways that's my funny story for this email, one which I will not soon forget. So anyways, All is well and sorry the beginning of this email seemed like a downer, but everything is great here, and the Lord truly blesses and watches over his missionaries. I've felt so much comfort and peace as I've been adjusting to this very very very very different environment and way of life. All the missionaries tell me that the first 3 weeks are pretty tough, but that after that it's all great and very fast paced. My companion tells me everyday that he can't believe he's going home. he keeps telling me that he was in my place yesterday. Well I'd like to leave you with this testimony:
God lives, and He loves His children, every single one of them. And He is very mindful of the "war-torn" people of Cambodia, and He is pouring out His spirit among them and is setting at hand the way for peace, joy, and comfort in their lives. I know I am a part of that great reaching out to offer His love. I'm enjoying my time here in Cambodia and can't wait to hear from you again!
Love, Elder Ormsby
June 18, 2008 Cambodia!!
Hello Everyone!
Well I've made it. I'm sending you this email from the mission home in Phnom Penh. We just had lunch and it's so hot here. I'm not joking we are always wet here and will be wet for the next two years. But I am absolutely loving it here. Our mission president is a great guy and I'm so excited to start working. I'm not exactly sure what we are doing for the rest of today, but it sounds like tomorrow we are going to start working right off the bat so that will be the beginning of my proselyting. Anyways, My P-day is on Wednesday, so I guess the earliest you can expect emails and such will be on Tuesday night Utah time. Sorry can't talk more but I'll talk to you later!
-Elder Ormsby
Best way to write is www.dearelder.com and use the free pouch system. Its fairly quick and reliable. Elder Ormsby, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Well I've made it. I'm sending you this email from the mission home in Phnom Penh. We just had lunch and it's so hot here. I'm not joking we are always wet here and will be wet for the next two years. But I am absolutely loving it here. Our mission president is a great guy and I'm so excited to start working. I'm not exactly sure what we are doing for the rest of today, but it sounds like tomorrow we are going to start working right off the bat so that will be the beginning of my proselyting. Anyways, My P-day is on Wednesday, so I guess the earliest you can expect emails and such will be on Tuesday night Utah time. Sorry can't talk more but I'll talk to you later!
-Elder Ormsby
Best way to write is www.dearelder.com and use the free pouch system. Its fairly quick and reliable. Elder Ormsby, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Danny's ninth e-mail
Well everyone, this is officially my last email during my stay at the MTC, not because I don't like to send emails, but because I'm heading out to Cambodia. I'm pretty much going to die. We spend about 16 and 1/2 hours in the air over the pacific. . . . it's like driving from Utah to California and half way back non stop, and there's no stopping for gas or a break. Well. . . .I'm not exactly sure what to write. But I did hear some information. I'll arrive in Cambodia on thursday their time and will spend the day with the mission president and then spend the night there, before getting my new companion and getting to work! I'm so excited!!!! So the next 40 hours or so of my life will be spent at the airport or on a plane.. . .the perfect way to start the proselyting. But anyways, have a great day, and I'll let you know what Cambodia is like as soon as I get there. :) -Love, Elder Ormsby
Danny's eighth e-mail
Hello Everyone!
Well this is officially the beginning of my last week at the MTC and I now have my flight plans for Cambodia. Here's the deal:
Detla air Lines: flight 1133 I leave 9:23 PM 17th June I Arrive at LAX 10:34 PM Then I leave from LAX 1:30 AM 18th of June (EVA airways flight:15) and Fly to . . . . Taipe Taiwan and Arrive 6:20 AM on June 19th then I wait another 3 hours and fly to Phnom Penh at 9:10 AM (EVA 265) and Arrive 11:35 AM June 19th in Cambodia! Hurray. . . . I'm pretty much going on the plane ride across the world. . . Lindberg's got nothing on me. . . ok well he may have gone a little further but he was the pilot so it doesn't count. I am so excited and can't wait to actually get out and get my new comp/trainer in the field. The first thing we do is eat dinner and get my bike. Then it's off to the races. It's so strange to think I've been her over 2 months. .. . I'll finish this email in a little bit.
Hey. . . sorry about the abrupt end to the first half of my email. I just had to go and get my depature haircut. So. . . what's new with me? I don't think anything. I'm still working on the language and ever trying to be ready for the Cambodian People. We'll see how that turns out next week. Oh by the way, if anyone would desire to write me. . . I would strongly suggest using the "DEAR ELDER" website and write using that method. Because my mission uses the pouch system. The address is : Elder Ormsby
Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City UT 84130-0150
USA
That's the best way to get a hold of me. Well let me see if i can write something interesting for a change. Oh, well one of the goals my Zone had was to be friend the person sitting next to us on the plane and to share a pass-a-long card with them or briefly see if they are interested in our message. However, my companion and I will have 3 different flights and one of them is like. . . . 15 hours long. the longest of the others is one flight and 3 1/2 hours long. So I'm a little scared about that, but once I start just talking to them . . . I'm sure it it'll be fine. I guess I'll have plenty of time to study. Well the soaking fingers in the vinegar continues, but they are almost completely healed. Oh. . . and the cambodian people will most likely refer to me as Elde Awhms Bei. . .which literally means Elder "Uncle Cabbage" which i think is a pretty sweet name. Not really fiercesome or anything but cool all the same. Well I'd just like to end by telling you I'm still having the time of my life and can't wait to share this message with the world. The Gospel is true and Christ is our Savior. I love you all and wish to hear from you soon!
-Elder Ormsby
Well this is officially the beginning of my last week at the MTC and I now have my flight plans for Cambodia. Here's the deal:
Detla air Lines: flight 1133 I leave 9:23 PM 17th June I Arrive at LAX 10:34 PM Then I leave from LAX 1:30 AM 18th of June (EVA airways flight:15) and Fly to . . . . Taipe Taiwan and Arrive 6:20 AM on June 19th then I wait another 3 hours and fly to Phnom Penh at 9:10 AM (EVA 265) and Arrive 11:35 AM June 19th in Cambodia! Hurray. . . . I'm pretty much going on the plane ride across the world. . . Lindberg's got nothing on me. . . ok well he may have gone a little further but he was the pilot so it doesn't count. I am so excited and can't wait to actually get out and get my new comp/trainer in the field. The first thing we do is eat dinner and get my bike. Then it's off to the races. It's so strange to think I've been her over 2 months. .. . I'll finish this email in a little bit.
Hey. . . sorry about the abrupt end to the first half of my email. I just had to go and get my depature haircut. So. . . what's new with me? I don't think anything. I'm still working on the language and ever trying to be ready for the Cambodian People. We'll see how that turns out next week. Oh by the way, if anyone would desire to write me. . . I would strongly suggest using the "DEAR ELDER" website and write using that method. Because my mission uses the pouch system. The address is : Elder Ormsby
Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City UT 84130-0150
USA
That's the best way to get a hold of me. Well let me see if i can write something interesting for a change. Oh, well one of the goals my Zone had was to be friend the person sitting next to us on the plane and to share a pass-a-long card with them or briefly see if they are interested in our message. However, my companion and I will have 3 different flights and one of them is like. . . . 15 hours long. the longest of the others is one flight and 3 1/2 hours long. So I'm a little scared about that, but once I start just talking to them . . . I'm sure it it'll be fine. I guess I'll have plenty of time to study. Well the soaking fingers in the vinegar continues, but they are almost completely healed. Oh. . . and the cambodian people will most likely refer to me as Elde Awhms Bei. . .which literally means Elder "Uncle Cabbage" which i think is a pretty sweet name. Not really fiercesome or anything but cool all the same. Well I'd just like to end by telling you I'm still having the time of my life and can't wait to share this message with the world. The Gospel is true and Christ is our Savior. I love you all and wish to hear from you soon!
-Elder Ormsby
Danny's seventh e-mail
Hello everyone out amongst Babylon. It's great to hear from you as always and I appreciate your thoughts and prayers. This has once again been a very fast week and I only have one more week before I leave for Cambodia. It's really very very very exciting. My teachers has told us that his flight though was around 30 hours or so. Wow, I think I might die on that plane. 30 hours is an eternity on a plane and I don't know what I'm going to do. Well it's official now, I no longer am speaking english. I still can't read very fast but it's coming. As far as my fingers are going they are finally finally finally beginning to heal. And for good. Last week I went and saw the dermatologist again and he had me soak my fingers in vinegar 3 times a day for a week. I'm not going to lie, every time I did it. . . .I felt like I was purposefully setting my fingers on fire. It hurt so bad. I was tough though, and to everyone else, it seemed as if I had drifted into paradise. (while soaking them).
Something worth mentioning is that Sister Dibb. (President Monson's daughter) came and spoke to all the missionaries. She was wonderful, her whole talk was about her experiences with her father. Remarkably President Monson's family sounds strangely simliar to my own family. He had a large family and they had family gatherings and he brought his dates to the family activities to I guess get their opinions and such. He's very much like Randy Turner from what she said.
Well. . . I'm just sitting here. . . waiting for my clothes to dry for the second time. I'm very happy and am so blessed to be able to come and serve the Lord. I truly have felt His influence so much stronger than I've ever felt before. He's carried me a long way, over compensating my efforts tenfold upon tenfold. I love this work (and believe me, it's work.) One thing we were able to watch was Elder Holland's talk on my Missionary Work is so hard and why living the gospel is hard. He said the reason is because "Salvation is not a cheap experience. It never was and it never has been and it never will be. Our salvation required the best blood. If you ever wonder sometimes in life (missionary work) about why things are hard, or if there isn't an easier way, don't forget that you aren't the first to ask that same question. Christ, God Himself, fell on His Face and asked that same question, 'if this cup can pass from me, let it pass." I can tell you this. I absolutely believe that. I know this is the truth and the reason why life is hard is because Salvation isn't cheap, it required the ultimate sacrifice, and if we have to take a step or two towards calvary, spend a minute or two in Gethsemane, be grateful. Because the price has been paid.
Well I guess that's my inspirational thought for the week.
I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!
-Elder Ormsby
Something worth mentioning is that Sister Dibb. (President Monson's daughter) came and spoke to all the missionaries. She was wonderful, her whole talk was about her experiences with her father. Remarkably President Monson's family sounds strangely simliar to my own family. He had a large family and they had family gatherings and he brought his dates to the family activities to I guess get their opinions and such. He's very much like Randy Turner from what she said.
Well. . . I'm just sitting here. . . waiting for my clothes to dry for the second time. I'm very happy and am so blessed to be able to come and serve the Lord. I truly have felt His influence so much stronger than I've ever felt before. He's carried me a long way, over compensating my efforts tenfold upon tenfold. I love this work (and believe me, it's work.) One thing we were able to watch was Elder Holland's talk on my Missionary Work is so hard and why living the gospel is hard. He said the reason is because "Salvation is not a cheap experience. It never was and it never has been and it never will be. Our salvation required the best blood. If you ever wonder sometimes in life (missionary work) about why things are hard, or if there isn't an easier way, don't forget that you aren't the first to ask that same question. Christ, God Himself, fell on His Face and asked that same question, 'if this cup can pass from me, let it pass." I can tell you this. I absolutely believe that. I know this is the truth and the reason why life is hard is because Salvation isn't cheap, it required the ultimate sacrifice, and if we have to take a step or two towards calvary, spend a minute or two in Gethsemane, be grateful. Because the price has been paid.
Well I guess that's my inspirational thought for the week.
I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!
-Elder Ormsby
Danny's sixth e-mail
Hello to everyone and family,
Well I'm sure you're probably getting really bored of this, but this was yet another great week at the MTC. We had President Monson, Elder Holland, and Elder Eyring come and speak to us. . . . ok, well not really but it could happen. Well, our group of four Cambodian Elders are moving on to solely speaking Cambodian 24 hours/5 days a week. It's getting pretty intense, I get my flight plans to Cambodia in about 9 days or so . . . I'm so excited! I'm still working hard on trying to read the Cambodian script. . . . and memorizing as much of their vocabulary as I can. It's pretty tought though, their language is . . . difficult, but I have no doubts that I will be able to be fluent when I'm needed. Ok, does anyone know what is going on with the weather here? The Missionaries are not informed on any weather information and so we walk outside and it can be eighty degrees one day and then the next it can be freezing and raining. Just a funny thing. Well I'm now making another trip to the dermatologist to take a look at my infected fingers. . . I know it's pretty nasty. They constantly weep and bleed. It's funny. . .I've been to 3 different doctors and they've all tried different things and none of them really work. But this time. . .I think the doctors pulling out the big guns. . . Hopefully some needles and a scaple or two. In my study of the scriptures I've been trying to study more than ever about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I've come to see now that all miracles in our lives are brought about through the Atonement of Christ. I've also seen from those I speak to on the Phone at the Referal center, feel like God doesn't love them, because so many bad things have happened to them. It's so wonderful to know the truth and be able to explain that yes, everyone has difficult things in their life, but the Atonement is there. Often people feel like Christ's Atonement isn't helping them and that they are alone. However, in order to feel of its healing and comforting power we must obey His commandments and have faith.
I'm so happy to be here. And I love being a missionary. I love you all and hope to hear from you soon! This Church is true. By Reading and applying the teachings of the Book of Mormon a man will get nearer to God than by any other book.
Love, Elder Ormsby
Well I'm sure you're probably getting really bored of this, but this was yet another great week at the MTC. We had President Monson, Elder Holland, and Elder Eyring come and speak to us. . . . ok, well not really but it could happen. Well, our group of four Cambodian Elders are moving on to solely speaking Cambodian 24 hours/5 days a week. It's getting pretty intense, I get my flight plans to Cambodia in about 9 days or so . . . I'm so excited! I'm still working hard on trying to read the Cambodian script. . . . and memorizing as much of their vocabulary as I can. It's pretty tought though, their language is . . . difficult, but I have no doubts that I will be able to be fluent when I'm needed. Ok, does anyone know what is going on with the weather here? The Missionaries are not informed on any weather information and so we walk outside and it can be eighty degrees one day and then the next it can be freezing and raining. Just a funny thing. Well I'm now making another trip to the dermatologist to take a look at my infected fingers. . . I know it's pretty nasty. They constantly weep and bleed. It's funny. . .I've been to 3 different doctors and they've all tried different things and none of them really work. But this time. . .I think the doctors pulling out the big guns. . . Hopefully some needles and a scaple or two. In my study of the scriptures I've been trying to study more than ever about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I've come to see now that all miracles in our lives are brought about through the Atonement of Christ. I've also seen from those I speak to on the Phone at the Referal center, feel like God doesn't love them, because so many bad things have happened to them. It's so wonderful to know the truth and be able to explain that yes, everyone has difficult things in their life, but the Atonement is there. Often people feel like Christ's Atonement isn't helping them and that they are alone. However, in order to feel of its healing and comforting power we must obey His commandments and have faith.
I'm so happy to be here. And I love being a missionary. I love you all and hope to hear from you soon! This Church is true. By Reading and applying the teachings of the Book of Mormon a man will get nearer to God than by any other book.
Love, Elder Ormsby
Danny's fifth e-mail
Hey Everyone,
It's great to here from you as always at the MTC. This week seems like it's only been a few days long. It's flown by. We have been working so hard to learn this language. Our class is steadily progressing in the language and we love it. Let's see . . . what happened this week? Oh, well I learned almost a hundred new words in cambodian over 5 days and it was pretty intense. It's different than English, considering that english has handfuls of verbs and a ton of nouns, where as Cambodian is the exact opposite. So few nouns and a whole lot of verbs. In one of my dictionaries, there are nearly 20 different words for carry. To carry a child on one's hip, shoulder, arms,etc. So it's nuts. Oh and everyone cambodia refers to each other as family. If I were to walk up to an elderly man in cambodia, I would say, Hello Grandpa. After the greeting they will then tell you there name. But it's the same for an elderly woman: Grandma. It's really funny. I also learned of another painful part of the culture that I'm going to have to adjust to. If i walk up to a man sitting in a chair in front of his home, I have to walk up and squat (both feet exactly together and squatting as low as I can with my knees touching together with my arms over my knees) and i'm supposed to just sit there like that until either he gets up or we finish talk/teaching and leave. I can't do that know and I'm in the MTC, so i've been working a lot on my stretching. It's pretty tough, but that's the way it goes. I've probably already told you some of that, but I can't remember what i've said, time and events get so mixed up with all ther other things i've done here. Well, I officially have only 4 weeks left in the MTC. I only get to send 3 more emails from here, and then it's off to Cambodia. I can hardly wait, but I do love it here. The only depressing thing is when the english Elders come and go in 3 weeks. And as of now, i've seen 10 English groups come in and leave our Zone, it's funny because most complain about how long they have to be here and such. It's really funny But Anyways, I can tell you only this: I love it here, the Church is True, Christ lives, President Monson is His Prophet, Joseph Smith is the Prophet of the Restoration, and I am about to go to the front lines in the Greatest Work the World has ever known. I love you all and hope to hear from you soon! God Bless.
Love, Elder Ormsby
It's great to here from you as always at the MTC. This week seems like it's only been a few days long. It's flown by. We have been working so hard to learn this language. Our class is steadily progressing in the language and we love it. Let's see . . . what happened this week? Oh, well I learned almost a hundred new words in cambodian over 5 days and it was pretty intense. It's different than English, considering that english has handfuls of verbs and a ton of nouns, where as Cambodian is the exact opposite. So few nouns and a whole lot of verbs. In one of my dictionaries, there are nearly 20 different words for carry. To carry a child on one's hip, shoulder, arms,etc. So it's nuts. Oh and everyone cambodia refers to each other as family. If I were to walk up to an elderly man in cambodia, I would say, Hello Grandpa. After the greeting they will then tell you there name. But it's the same for an elderly woman: Grandma. It's really funny. I also learned of another painful part of the culture that I'm going to have to adjust to. If i walk up to a man sitting in a chair in front of his home, I have to walk up and squat (both feet exactly together and squatting as low as I can with my knees touching together with my arms over my knees) and i'm supposed to just sit there like that until either he gets up or we finish talk/teaching and leave. I can't do that know and I'm in the MTC, so i've been working a lot on my stretching. It's pretty tough, but that's the way it goes. I've probably already told you some of that, but I can't remember what i've said, time and events get so mixed up with all ther other things i've done here. Well, I officially have only 4 weeks left in the MTC. I only get to send 3 more emails from here, and then it's off to Cambodia. I can hardly wait, but I do love it here. The only depressing thing is when the english Elders come and go in 3 weeks. And as of now, i've seen 10 English groups come in and leave our Zone, it's funny because most complain about how long they have to be here and such. It's really funny But Anyways, I can tell you only this: I love it here, the Church is True, Christ lives, President Monson is His Prophet, Joseph Smith is the Prophet of the Restoration, and I am about to go to the front lines in the Greatest Work the World has ever known. I love you all and hope to hear from you soon! God Bless.
Love, Elder Ormsby
Danny's fourth e-mail
Hey Everyone,
Sorry I didn't get on earlier, but the MTC has received a huge flow of new English elders ever since school got out and now it's pretty tough to get your time in on your email. But I'm here and all is well. I've developed some pictures and will be sending them off tommorrow morning.
Well. . . what are some highlights from my week? Well as usual I have been working night and day to try and learn the language. I finally am starting to feel comfortable reading. . . .well sort of. I can read an average sized verse in 3-4 minutes. A huge improvement from the 45 minutes it took to read verses 16 and 17 of JSH. But the Lord I see now more than ever that all things denote that there is a God and that His blessings and love are manifested in everything the missionaries do. That is our purupose to bring souls to Christ as kindly and boldy as we can. I am absolutely loving it here. One thing that's absolutely incredible that happened was President Monson visited campus and I and a few others got to shake his hand and talk with him for about twenty minutes. Ok, maybe that didn't really happen, but it's a fun thought. But it doesn't matter, I don't have to meet him to know he's a prophet.
Oh, this week in the Teaching Resource Center, we had to speak with a real cambodian for an hour and no english was allowed, it was pretty intense, my companion and I were able to do every task including the lesson and more. I felt so much aide from the Lord.
Well I think i've had every meal here at least twice and it's. . . .pretty good. We'll see what happens 5 weeks from now, wow! It's going by so fast, I've only got five weeks left and then it's off to Cambodia! Oh, one interesting thing I learned about Cambodia, is that the government there has made it illegal to knock on people's doors, don't ask me why, it's just the way it is. So my teacher, Brother Wright, told us that you just. . .walk in or yell until someone comes out of the house. One interesting I learned is that people there are very very very affectionate with each other. Well at least the men are with the men, and the women with the women. PDA is absolutely non-existent. Our teacher said one time in Church he was sitting next to a man who played around with his ear the whole meeting.. . .
I guess my whole idea of personal space and cultural hardwiring is about to change.
As for the rumors that the Cambodian people eat bugs. . . . They do. They eat crickets and spiders and such. They deep fry them. My teacher says they are pretty good, but the spiders are . . . . not very good.
Considering they are tarantulas, harry and legs attached. I don't think i'll bring myself to do that more than once, just for a picture or so. :) That'll be a nice kodak moment. Goodness gracious, every day is so fast paced that I frequently get what happens during the day mixed with different days and times. Every minute of every day is scheduled very very specifically. Oh well I ran into President Acthinson from the Stake presidency. . . that was nice.
Well I love you all and can't wait to hear from you again! The Church is true, the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was his Prophet, and Christ lives!
Love, Elder Daniel Ormsby
Sorry I didn't get on earlier, but the MTC has received a huge flow of new English elders ever since school got out and now it's pretty tough to get your time in on your email. But I'm here and all is well. I've developed some pictures and will be sending them off tommorrow morning.
Well. . . what are some highlights from my week? Well as usual I have been working night and day to try and learn the language. I finally am starting to feel comfortable reading. . . .well sort of. I can read an average sized verse in 3-4 minutes. A huge improvement from the 45 minutes it took to read verses 16 and 17 of JSH. But the Lord I see now more than ever that all things denote that there is a God and that His blessings and love are manifested in everything the missionaries do. That is our purupose to bring souls to Christ as kindly and boldy as we can. I am absolutely loving it here. One thing that's absolutely incredible that happened was President Monson visited campus and I and a few others got to shake his hand and talk with him for about twenty minutes. Ok, maybe that didn't really happen, but it's a fun thought. But it doesn't matter, I don't have to meet him to know he's a prophet.
Oh, this week in the Teaching Resource Center, we had to speak with a real cambodian for an hour and no english was allowed, it was pretty intense, my companion and I were able to do every task including the lesson and more. I felt so much aide from the Lord.
Well I think i've had every meal here at least twice and it's. . . .pretty good. We'll see what happens 5 weeks from now, wow! It's going by so fast, I've only got five weeks left and then it's off to Cambodia! Oh, one interesting thing I learned about Cambodia, is that the government there has made it illegal to knock on people's doors, don't ask me why, it's just the way it is. So my teacher, Brother Wright, told us that you just. . .walk in or yell until someone comes out of the house. One interesting I learned is that people there are very very very affectionate with each other. Well at least the men are with the men, and the women with the women. PDA is absolutely non-existent. Our teacher said one time in Church he was sitting next to a man who played around with his ear the whole meeting.. . .
I guess my whole idea of personal space and cultural hardwiring is about to change.
As for the rumors that the Cambodian people eat bugs. . . . They do. They eat crickets and spiders and such. They deep fry them. My teacher says they are pretty good, but the spiders are . . . . not very good.
Considering they are tarantulas, harry and legs attached. I don't think i'll bring myself to do that more than once, just for a picture or so. :) That'll be a nice kodak moment. Goodness gracious, every day is so fast paced that I frequently get what happens during the day mixed with different days and times. Every minute of every day is scheduled very very specifically. Oh well I ran into President Acthinson from the Stake presidency. . . that was nice.
Well I love you all and can't wait to hear from you again! The Church is true, the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was his Prophet, and Christ lives!
Love, Elder Daniel Ormsby
Danny's third e-mail
Hey Everyone,
It's great to have another p-day and I can't believe it's already been another week. It's pretty crazy. Well it's been business as usual, studying, studying, and more studying. We have been working really hard to learn this language and it's coming along. I've had some great experiences though. My companion and I have been tyring to read the script cambodian book of mormon, and we read a verse and a 1/4 of a column in about 40 minutes, which was both really exciting and pretty darn humbling. A few weeks ago we could barely read script in the slightest, and now we are beginning to make some very real progress on reading. we read at about a 2nd or 3rd grade level. . . ok well maybe 1st grade. But we are learnign more and more everyday. One of the sad things about last night was. . . . (anticipation?) . . . . we had our third english group of Elders leave last night. It's a little depressing, and tommorrow, we get another batch to send off. It's actually relatively funny. We get to see the same look on their faces on the first day, the same confusion and you really can feel for them. But within four or five days, you've got the MTC pretty well down. It's kinda funny. . . . the other day when my companion and I were coming to our room, we walked past the bathroom and we heard a screeching yell from the bathroom, as if some sorta mouse was chasing a bunch of girls around an enclosed room. Turns out all the showers simultaneously decided to spurt out its hottest water, to the utter surprise of everyone using them. Well the TRC was great this week! The TRC is where we have volunteers come in and let us teach them, and we had some cambodians come in and we had the opportunity to talk with them in cambodian, needless to say they spoke a mile a minute, but I could actually understand much of what they said. It was great to see how much we've progressed. Well as far as my fingers go, they are almost completely healed, even though they still bleed every time I play basketball. It's kinda funny, but i'm not exactly sure what you guys would be interested in, because everything here is so routine, not that I don't love it, I do, however it doesn't make great for writing material. I am so excited to finally get to the field, even though I still have another 5 weeks or so. The weeks here fly by so fast. This week seemed only a few days long, I guess it's because I am so busy all the time. Well I guess that's all the exciting news from your Cambodian Missionary, but I'd love to hear back from you as always, I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
-Elder Ormsby
It's great to have another p-day and I can't believe it's already been another week. It's pretty crazy. Well it's been business as usual, studying, studying, and more studying. We have been working really hard to learn this language and it's coming along. I've had some great experiences though. My companion and I have been tyring to read the script cambodian book of mormon, and we read a verse and a 1/4 of a column in about 40 minutes, which was both really exciting and pretty darn humbling. A few weeks ago we could barely read script in the slightest, and now we are beginning to make some very real progress on reading. we read at about a 2nd or 3rd grade level. . . ok well maybe 1st grade. But we are learnign more and more everyday. One of the sad things about last night was. . . . (anticipation?) . . . . we had our third english group of Elders leave last night. It's a little depressing, and tommorrow, we get another batch to send off. It's actually relatively funny. We get to see the same look on their faces on the first day, the same confusion and you really can feel for them. But within four or five days, you've got the MTC pretty well down. It's kinda funny. . . . the other day when my companion and I were coming to our room, we walked past the bathroom and we heard a screeching yell from the bathroom, as if some sorta mouse was chasing a bunch of girls around an enclosed room. Turns out all the showers simultaneously decided to spurt out its hottest water, to the utter surprise of everyone using them. Well the TRC was great this week! The TRC is where we have volunteers come in and let us teach them, and we had some cambodians come in and we had the opportunity to talk with them in cambodian, needless to say they spoke a mile a minute, but I could actually understand much of what they said. It was great to see how much we've progressed. Well as far as my fingers go, they are almost completely healed, even though they still bleed every time I play basketball. It's kinda funny, but i'm not exactly sure what you guys would be interested in, because everything here is so routine, not that I don't love it, I do, however it doesn't make great for writing material. I am so excited to finally get to the field, even though I still have another 5 weeks or so. The weeks here fly by so fast. This week seemed only a few days long, I guess it's because I am so busy all the time. Well I guess that's all the exciting news from your Cambodian Missionary, but I'd love to hear back from you as always, I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
-Elder Ormsby
Danny's Second e-mail
Hello Everyone,
I'm doing great here at the mtc and i've had quite the two weeks! (Sorry for missiong last weeks email.) I'm not sure what to update you on, but our Cambodian district has now officially gone to script cambodian. Isn't this amazing, I've only been here 4 weeks and now I can speak, read, and write in cambodian? Granted, I don't speak it, or read it. . . or write it very well, but I can do it.
I was shocked to hear what happened to Debi, well acutally I wasn't exactly sure what happened for a little while. I got a letter from Dad and it said something like, "oh and I'm sure you've heard about Debi by now, and now that she'll be just fine. I've seen her and it looks like she'll pull through." (ok, maybe I exaggerated about the "I've seen her part") but when I read it, I was like, "What! What's going on, unfortunately I hadn't heard anything, so I thought Debi was near death or something for 3 or so days. But I was deeply sadden and concerned when I learned of her accident. I can totally relate to what Bonnie. . . I mean Sister Blackburn (mission rules) said about all of these things happening in our family. If you guys could just sit in the living room and do nothing for the next two years, so nothing happens to you and you're all there when I get back, it would be great.
Well anyways, we had a great devotional by Elder Lund, who wrote Work and the Glory, Kingdom and Crown, fire and covenant, etc. He spoke about the book of Mormon from a writer's perspective. He's a wonderful speaker and was great to hear some of the wonderful insights into the Book of Mormon.
Well, not much has changed, other than I've been sick the last 5 or so days. Not bad, just the flu. Oh and the two finger infections now... but they are taking care of me here, I've been to see the dermatologist twice as of today, and the Mtc has a whole staff of doctors to help as well. I went in to see the doctor about my fingers and flu like symptoms, and I had my prescription in about 30 mins. So it was great and i'm feeling much better. My fingers aren't feeling quite as good as I am (the ring fingers on both hands are in grown), but today the dermatologist should take care of it.
Well enough about that, I've pretty much gotten used to getting up at 6:15 every morning and being in-bed with the lights out at 10:30. It's actually quite invigorating (hopefully my parents don't remind me of that when I get home, it's not like i'm going to bed that early when I get home. :) ). I really do feel like I get plently of sleep, definitely plently of food and I even have two beds and closets to myself. It's really neat, my companion and I got a room made for 4 people and we will be the only ones staying in the room for the duration of my stay here. Another nice thing is that I get to play basketball everyday for 50 mins. So good exercise. Well I love you all and am anxious to hear from you. I just want to you to know that I know what I am doing is absolutely the best thing I could be doing. There is no better feeling than serving the Lord, and I have felt His love for me, more in my life than at anyother time! I know Jesus is the Christ and the Savior of the World. I know the Book of Mormon is the Word of God, and that a man will get closer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other book. I Love you all and miss you so much! Have a wonderful week!
-Elder Daniel Ormsby
I'm doing great here at the mtc and i've had quite the two weeks! (Sorry for missiong last weeks email.) I'm not sure what to update you on, but our Cambodian district has now officially gone to script cambodian. Isn't this amazing, I've only been here 4 weeks and now I can speak, read, and write in cambodian? Granted, I don't speak it, or read it. . . or write it very well, but I can do it.
I was shocked to hear what happened to Debi, well acutally I wasn't exactly sure what happened for a little while. I got a letter from Dad and it said something like, "oh and I'm sure you've heard about Debi by now, and now that she'll be just fine. I've seen her and it looks like she'll pull through." (ok, maybe I exaggerated about the "I've seen her part") but when I read it, I was like, "What! What's going on, unfortunately I hadn't heard anything, so I thought Debi was near death or something for 3 or so days. But I was deeply sadden and concerned when I learned of her accident. I can totally relate to what Bonnie. . . I mean Sister Blackburn (mission rules) said about all of these things happening in our family. If you guys could just sit in the living room and do nothing for the next two years, so nothing happens to you and you're all there when I get back, it would be great.
Well anyways, we had a great devotional by Elder Lund, who wrote Work and the Glory, Kingdom and Crown, fire and covenant, etc. He spoke about the book of Mormon from a writer's perspective. He's a wonderful speaker and was great to hear some of the wonderful insights into the Book of Mormon.
Well, not much has changed, other than I've been sick the last 5 or so days. Not bad, just the flu. Oh and the two finger infections now... but they are taking care of me here, I've been to see the dermatologist twice as of today, and the Mtc has a whole staff of doctors to help as well. I went in to see the doctor about my fingers and flu like symptoms, and I had my prescription in about 30 mins. So it was great and i'm feeling much better. My fingers aren't feeling quite as good as I am (the ring fingers on both hands are in grown), but today the dermatologist should take care of it.
Well enough about that, I've pretty much gotten used to getting up at 6:15 every morning and being in-bed with the lights out at 10:30. It's actually quite invigorating (hopefully my parents don't remind me of that when I get home, it's not like i'm going to bed that early when I get home. :) ). I really do feel like I get plently of sleep, definitely plently of food and I even have two beds and closets to myself. It's really neat, my companion and I got a room made for 4 people and we will be the only ones staying in the room for the duration of my stay here. Another nice thing is that I get to play basketball everyday for 50 mins. So good exercise. Well I love you all and am anxious to hear from you. I just want to you to know that I know what I am doing is absolutely the best thing I could be doing. There is no better feeling than serving the Lord, and I have felt His love for me, more in my life than at anyother time! I know Jesus is the Christ and the Savior of the World. I know the Book of Mormon is the Word of God, and that a man will get closer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other book. I Love you all and miss you so much! Have a wonderful week!
-Elder Daniel Ormsby
Monday, March 24, 2008
Ryan is like your fake brother who steals your jeans.
To those who have read the previous:
Well, I have something to write about for a change. So hopefully I'll be able to convey what I have to say in postively wonderful way. (wow, three rhymes!) Ok, so first I'll talk about friday night. So friday night Ashley, Alyssa, and I went to tp scott's car. However, somewhere along the way we decided to saran wrap the car, and lipstick the windows. So we made a short stop at walmart and then weasled the address of scott's girlfriend's house from scott. First scott said something to the effect of turn right at this stop light and then turn at your first right after that and then your first left after that and a few more lefts and rights and then take the second star to the right and straight on til morning. (never neverland!) So I was like. . . okay just give us the address. Turns out that addresses are completely meaningless when they say 453 north 5930 west, especially when none of the streets are numbered. So to make a long story short, we ended up on Ridge Dr. and then I said I remembered where we could find main street. But both Ashley and Alyssa we stop and knock on someone's door to ask for directions. I tried to stop them, but being a gentleman, I yielded to their wills. So they chose a house with all of its lights out (10:30 at night so everyone's in bed) and they wake up this poor lady. The lady said something to effect of, uh. . . . you're on ridge dr you stupid people go to main street. So once again, I was right, but it didn't seem to matter. So we finally found some round about scott mentioned and headed further west, like we were supposed to . Once we go close to where we were supposed to be, both Ashley and Alyssa said that Scott told us to drive through the cemetery, I said that he probably meant go around or pass it. But they both freaked out when they made me drive through it, on a road that wasn't meant to be driven on! So finally we found the house and yada yada yada. However Alyssa and ashley both struggled to undo the saran wrap and I did what I could to fix the saran wrap job but it was pretty much ruined. Well that's the end of my story.
On Saturday I went to Tucanos with Katie, Alyssa, and Jodi. Katie and Alyssa both ate a herd of cattle, while Jodi and I ate a nice refreashing, savorful meal. It was great fun! haha
On Sunday, well I gave a talk and partied with my family and friends. Thanks for coming all of you that came, and to those who didn't, you probably didn't miss too much haha. :)
So to those who have read the previous: Good Morning, Afternoon, or Goodnight.
Well, I have something to write about for a change. So hopefully I'll be able to convey what I have to say in postively wonderful way. (wow, three rhymes!) Ok, so first I'll talk about friday night. So friday night Ashley, Alyssa, and I went to tp scott's car. However, somewhere along the way we decided to saran wrap the car, and lipstick the windows. So we made a short stop at walmart and then weasled the address of scott's girlfriend's house from scott. First scott said something to the effect of turn right at this stop light and then turn at your first right after that and then your first left after that and a few more lefts and rights and then take the second star to the right and straight on til morning. (never neverland!) So I was like. . . okay just give us the address. Turns out that addresses are completely meaningless when they say 453 north 5930 west, especially when none of the streets are numbered. So to make a long story short, we ended up on Ridge Dr. and then I said I remembered where we could find main street. But both Ashley and Alyssa we stop and knock on someone's door to ask for directions. I tried to stop them, but being a gentleman, I yielded to their wills. So they chose a house with all of its lights out (10:30 at night so everyone's in bed) and they wake up this poor lady. The lady said something to effect of, uh. . . . you're on ridge dr you stupid people go to main street. So once again, I was right, but it didn't seem to matter. So we finally found some round about scott mentioned and headed further west, like we were supposed to . Once we go close to where we were supposed to be, both Ashley and Alyssa said that Scott told us to drive through the cemetery, I said that he probably meant go around or pass it. But they both freaked out when they made me drive through it, on a road that wasn't meant to be driven on! So finally we found the house and yada yada yada. However Alyssa and ashley both struggled to undo the saran wrap and I did what I could to fix the saran wrap job but it was pretty much ruined. Well that's the end of my story.
On Saturday I went to Tucanos with Katie, Alyssa, and Jodi. Katie and Alyssa both ate a herd of cattle, while Jodi and I ate a nice refreashing, savorful meal. It was great fun! haha
On Sunday, well I gave a talk and partied with my family and friends. Thanks for coming all of you that came, and to those who didn't, you probably didn't miss too much haha. :)
So to those who have read the previous: Good Morning, Afternoon, or Goodnight.
Monday, March 17, 2008
I'm not superstitious, but I am a little stitious.
To those who have read the previous, and to those who haven't (namely Kylie):
Can I just start this post by saying that I'm so happpy! (so much in fact happpy needed an extra 'p') Well, tommorrow is my last official day working at the super duper wal*mart and can I just say how much I won't miss it! haha. So here's what's happened lately in the life of me. I received a letter from the Mission President in Cambodia and he asked me to reread the Book of Mormon before I get to the MTC which means I'm having to read about 25 pages a day, which is pretty draining, but in an incredible way! I mean I love every minute of it, but when you read so much it's like filling your mind with so much good it's simply exhausting. I think it's one of the best things in my life right now. Well. . . . I've been trying to put my talk together and it's pretty tough. I mean I'm not exactly sure what to say, so hopefully the spirit will make up for most of it. Oh by the way, My farewell is at 9:00 am at the Canal drive building off of 400 north in lindon and i'd love to see you all there!
Oh my gosh! I've been sitting down writing this and such for the past little while and I didn't really notice all that much, but my entire right leg fell asleep so I pretty much fell over from my leg being all tingly. Oh man, and it's been almost 4 minutes and it's still asleep i was limping all over the upstairs! It's pretty nuts, my entire leg felt like your arm does after you hit your funny bone really hard!
Wow, and oh my goodness I've almost finished reading for about the 7th time the Peacegiver, and if you haven't read that book. . . . it's just . . . . a sad day. But good news, you can still read it! I'd say that the Peacegiver is up there on my top 5 favorite books (excluding scripture). So I would highly highly highly recommend it. In fact, I'm going to do what the commercials do, I'll include a real life story!
Ben Hoglund even read it after I gave it to him. At first he was skeptical about how good it was, and he loved it, so if you can't take my word for it, take Ben's. And if you can't take Ben's word for it, take Diego's word for it. And if you have no idea who Diego is, that's ok. Diego happens to be a fictional character who fits in this advertisment quite well. Oh well, let me know how you guys are! Have a wonderful day!
To those who have read the following: Good morning, afternoon, or night, and Good luck!
Can I just start this post by saying that I'm so happpy! (so much in fact happpy needed an extra 'p') Well, tommorrow is my last official day working at the super duper wal*mart and can I just say how much I won't miss it! haha. So here's what's happened lately in the life of me. I received a letter from the Mission President in Cambodia and he asked me to reread the Book of Mormon before I get to the MTC which means I'm having to read about 25 pages a day, which is pretty draining, but in an incredible way! I mean I love every minute of it, but when you read so much it's like filling your mind with so much good it's simply exhausting. I think it's one of the best things in my life right now. Well. . . . I've been trying to put my talk together and it's pretty tough. I mean I'm not exactly sure what to say, so hopefully the spirit will make up for most of it. Oh by the way, My farewell is at 9:00 am at the Canal drive building off of 400 north in lindon and i'd love to see you all there!
Oh my gosh! I've been sitting down writing this and such for the past little while and I didn't really notice all that much, but my entire right leg fell asleep so I pretty much fell over from my leg being all tingly. Oh man, and it's been almost 4 minutes and it's still asleep i was limping all over the upstairs! It's pretty nuts, my entire leg felt like your arm does after you hit your funny bone really hard!
Wow, and oh my goodness I've almost finished reading for about the 7th time the Peacegiver, and if you haven't read that book. . . . it's just . . . . a sad day. But good news, you can still read it! I'd say that the Peacegiver is up there on my top 5 favorite books (excluding scripture). So I would highly highly highly recommend it. In fact, I'm going to do what the commercials do, I'll include a real life story!
Ben Hoglund even read it after I gave it to him. At first he was skeptical about how good it was, and he loved it, so if you can't take my word for it, take Ben's. And if you can't take Ben's word for it, take Diego's word for it. And if you have no idea who Diego is, that's ok. Diego happens to be a fictional character who fits in this advertisment quite well. Oh well, let me know how you guys are! Have a wonderful day!
To those who have read the following: Good morning, afternoon, or night, and Good luck!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Jai Guru Deva, Om
To those who have read the previous,
Man, don't you love that song? Across the universe is an awesome song! If you haven't heard Across the Universe sung by Rufus Wainwright, buy the song :) Gosh, I love the Beatles. Since I feel my Beatles vibe coming on, I'm gonna give you guys my list of favorite Beatle songs:
1. Eleanor Rigby
2. Across the Universe
3. Let it Be
4. Hey Jude
5. Here Comes the Sun
6. Come Together
7. Hard Day's Night
Those are just a few of my favorites!
Well, I'll just give you a brief run down of my past day or so. I went on a date with Ash, Wes, Scott, Amanda (his girlfriend), and Tiffany. And can I just tell you, she did everything she could to make that date either awkward or embarrassing. I was like. . . man, what's going on!? (maybe ash could enlighten me, hint hint) Well the worst part was when she poured water down the front of my pants so it looked like I wet myself. Wow, what a night ;) It's ok, cause Nothing's gonna change my world! Jai Guru Deva, Om
To those who have read the following: Good Morning, Afternoon, or Night, and Good luck!
Man, don't you love that song? Across the universe is an awesome song! If you haven't heard Across the Universe sung by Rufus Wainwright, buy the song :) Gosh, I love the Beatles. Since I feel my Beatles vibe coming on, I'm gonna give you guys my list of favorite Beatle songs:
1. Eleanor Rigby
2. Across the Universe
3. Let it Be
4. Hey Jude
5. Here Comes the Sun
6. Come Together
7. Hard Day's Night
Those are just a few of my favorites!
Well, I'll just give you a brief run down of my past day or so. I went on a date with Ash, Wes, Scott, Amanda (his girlfriend), and Tiffany. And can I just tell you, she did everything she could to make that date either awkward or embarrassing. I was like. . . man, what's going on!? (maybe ash could enlighten me, hint hint) Well the worst part was when she poured water down the front of my pants so it looked like I wet myself. Wow, what a night ;) It's ok, cause Nothing's gonna change my world! Jai Guru Deva, Om
To those who have read the following: Good Morning, Afternoon, or Night, and Good luck!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Dan in Real Life
Well once again I"m blogging to those who have read the previous entries:
So here I am, me and my lappy. I've been thinking. . . specifically about what I should write, and honestly, I can think of absolutely nothing. So this blog will be about absolutely nothing. So I just watched the show Dan in Real Life, as you can probably guess from the title. It's one of my favorites! The movie makes you feel horrible throughout the story and then at the end it makes you so happy. I love it.
You know what, I really love playing apples to apples, catch phrase, and pit. Especially the way we played pit at Nate's house! Oh my gosh, I remember all the people there, tackling each other, trying desperately not to be the last person to grab the infamous bottom thumb, haha!
Oh and another thing, who do you guys think the greatest super hero is? I believe that it's either Batman or Superman. I'd say superman because he's got the ideal super powers and he's pretty awesome that way. On the other hand, Batman on the other hand reall isn't a super hero, he doesn't have super powers. But he kicks butt with his utility belt and has much more colorful villians. So let me know what you guys think!
Good morning, afternoon, or night, and good luck!
So here I am, me and my lappy. I've been thinking. . . specifically about what I should write, and honestly, I can think of absolutely nothing. So this blog will be about absolutely nothing. So I just watched the show Dan in Real Life, as you can probably guess from the title. It's one of my favorites! The movie makes you feel horrible throughout the story and then at the end it makes you so happy. I love it.
You know what, I really love playing apples to apples, catch phrase, and pit. Especially the way we played pit at Nate's house! Oh my gosh, I remember all the people there, tackling each other, trying desperately not to be the last person to grab the infamous bottom thumb, haha!
Oh and another thing, who do you guys think the greatest super hero is? I believe that it's either Batman or Superman. I'd say superman because he's got the ideal super powers and he's pretty awesome that way. On the other hand, Batman on the other hand reall isn't a super hero, he doesn't have super powers. But he kicks butt with his utility belt and has much more colorful villians. So let me know what you guys think!
Good morning, afternoon, or night, and good luck!
Sunday, March 9, 2008
You burned your foot on your Foreman Grill?
To those who have previously read my posts:
So now I have officially checked out of life. I can't stand to think I still have to wait another 3 weeks before I actually leave. But I'd still like to hang out, and my last official day of working at the most incredible Wal*Mart in the world, is March 18. So if anyone would like to hang out after the 18th I'd be totally up for it!
So, here's what's happened this last week. I pretty much worked everyday of the week. But I got to hang out with Ash, Wes, and Scott Saturday night. That was pretty fun, however I almost died because Scott is a crazy driver! I've never been so scared in a car before. Scott spent the whole time looking for people to street race, and unfortunately he found a custom car that had a couple of hispanic guys who were wearing scary clothes. Sadly, Scott's car's windows are only tinted in the back, so these guys had an absolute perfect view of muah! I thought they were going to shoot me or something. So . . . at the time I was either going to be shot or killed in a horrible twisted burning wreckage!
Oh and my newest edition to my blog: Joke of the Day!!!!
So here's my joke of the day, actually a guy in my ward said it to me and I didn't find it that funny but we'll see what you think. He said, "Remind me to give you my favorite cookbook before you leave, '40 ways to wok your dog!'"
So to all those who have read this, Good Morning, Afternoon, or Night and good luck!
P.S. My email for my blog is danormsby16@gmail.com
So now I have officially checked out of life. I can't stand to think I still have to wait another 3 weeks before I actually leave. But I'd still like to hang out, and my last official day of working at the most incredible Wal*Mart in the world, is March 18. So if anyone would like to hang out after the 18th I'd be totally up for it!
So, here's what's happened this last week. I pretty much worked everyday of the week. But I got to hang out with Ash, Wes, and Scott Saturday night. That was pretty fun, however I almost died because Scott is a crazy driver! I've never been so scared in a car before. Scott spent the whole time looking for people to street race, and unfortunately he found a custom car that had a couple of hispanic guys who were wearing scary clothes. Sadly, Scott's car's windows are only tinted in the back, so these guys had an absolute perfect view of muah! I thought they were going to shoot me or something. So . . . at the time I was either going to be shot or killed in a horrible twisted burning wreckage!
Oh and my newest edition to my blog: Joke of the Day!!!!
So here's my joke of the day, actually a guy in my ward said it to me and I didn't find it that funny but we'll see what you think. He said, "Remind me to give you my favorite cookbook before you leave, '40 ways to wok your dog!'"
So to all those who have read this, Good Morning, Afternoon, or Night and good luck!
P.S. My email for my blog is danormsby16@gmail.com
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
We Speak English, We Delivery.
Hello my fellow blogger friends! Can I just tell you all, that I love you all so much! I have just bee thinking about leaving on my mission, and it hasn't really hit me that i'm going to be gone for so long. I am really going to miss it here. I also found out some really cool things about Cambodia. I met another missionary that went there two years ago. He told me that I can go to any little clothing peddler and he could make me a good tie for 75 cents! Crazy huh? It's getting more and more exciting, especially because I've been writing Nate. Every time I learn something new or hear from missionaries, I get so excited I just want to leave right then!
Oh something else awesome happened this week, I got to go to the Provo Temple with Ben and man it was awesome! I absolutely love going to the temple. I can't even tell you guys. I'd love to do Baptisms sometime before I leave. I guess this blog has become a replacement for a close friend. I mean because I'm not around you guys that much anymore, it gets difficult because I don't have someone to talk to, haha.
Well I think i'm starting to get better at this blogging thing. So to all my readers out there, Good (Morning, Afternoon, Night) and Good Luck.
Oh something else awesome happened this week, I got to go to the Provo Temple with Ben and man it was awesome! I absolutely love going to the temple. I can't even tell you guys. I'd love to do Baptisms sometime before I leave. I guess this blog has become a replacement for a close friend. I mean because I'm not around you guys that much anymore, it gets difficult because I don't have someone to talk to, haha.
Well I think i'm starting to get better at this blogging thing. So to all my readers out there, Good (Morning, Afternoon, Night) and Good Luck.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
To those who have read the previous:
Well, what can I say? For lack of a better word, I'm "shocked," people read my blog. Well anyways, today I met a guy who was the first MTC missionary to Cambodia, and I found out some very interesting things about cambodian people.
First off, they don't ever touch each other's shoulders or heads. Instead of putting their arm around you or shaking your hand to show their friendship, they'll hold your hand. However the women are excluded from this practice, so if I'm teaching a family the lessons, and they feel the spirit, the father just might grab and hold my hand during the lesson. (freaky uh?)
Oh and another thing, whenever they point at something, or give directions, they point with their lips, like they would a kiss. haha, that's hilarious I think.
Oh and if you didn't know, my farewell is on the 23rd of March at 9:00 at the Canal Drive building in Lindon. And I have the awesome topic of "How Christ Frees us Through the Atonement." So hopefully you can make it, because it'll be . . . . hopefully uplifiting :)
So to all you who read the previous, Good (morning, afternoon, night), and Good luck!
-Danny
Oh and if all of you would be so kind, please let me read your blogs (it makes me feel included :) ).
First off, they don't ever touch each other's shoulders or heads. Instead of putting their arm around you or shaking your hand to show their friendship, they'll hold your hand. However the women are excluded from this practice, so if I'm teaching a family the lessons, and they feel the spirit, the father just might grab and hold my hand during the lesson. (freaky uh?)
Oh and another thing, whenever they point at something, or give directions, they point with their lips, like they would a kiss. haha, that's hilarious I think.
Oh and if you didn't know, my farewell is on the 23rd of March at 9:00 at the Canal Drive building in Lindon. And I have the awesome topic of "How Christ Frees us Through the Atonement." So hopefully you can make it, because it'll be . . . . hopefully uplifiting :)
So to all you who read the previous, Good (morning, afternoon, night), and Good luck!
-Danny
Oh and if all of you would be so kind, please let me read your blogs (it makes me feel included :) ).
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Why did I do this?
I have absolutely no idea why I have written this blog. It's not like I expect anyone to read it. But I suppose I could write a few things that might . . . I don't know pass the time. Well at this point I've been studying and working my life away just waiting to leave on my mission, it's really too bad because at this point it feels like I've already left for my mission, yet I'm stuck at home til April 2nd. Sorry if this sounds like I'm rambling, it probably just sounds that way because I am! haha. Not that I'm even writing to anyone.
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