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

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

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.