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
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
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
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