June 2, 2013 Eating Ants week 18

I can't believe how quickly time passes. I've already been in the country for nearly a month and a half and everything is just a blur. One of the first questions people always have is what ridiculous foods I've eaten and I finally have a decent answer for you. Ants. Apparently some people eat ants here. I've known people eat bugs and stuff but I always imagined them as bigger and fried and me watching other people eat them. Really there's no reason I was surprised at the ants but I was surprised anyway.  In any case, they tasted kind of like stuffing, except maybe a little more sour. Honestly, they weren't too bad. I don't know if I would be lining up to eat them again but maybe that's just because I don't like stuffing very much. Or maybe it's because swallowing is kind of hard when I know that I'm swallowing ants (I don't even know what the other bugs in there were, but it was mostly ants, and whoever told me that the wings get stuck in your teeth was lying). Or maybe it was the irrational fear I had that they would start biting me when I put them in my mouth. Pretty weird. On an unrelated note I was feeling pretty sick the next day...

Someone should google a list of the world's shortest countries and send it to me, because I swear Cambodia has to be somewhere near the top. Or the bottom I suppose. Everybody here is shorter than me! I thought the picture from our baptism yesterday would illustrate this pretty well. I have literally seen only two people who are taller than me since arriving. Imagine how tall you would have to be in America to wander around a big city for a month and a half doing your best to talk to everyone you see and meet only two people who are taller than you. I hear stories from other missions about missionaries being stopped, robbed or beat up but I just can't see that happening to us around here.

Random side note about drunk people. They're about the easiest people in the world for us to get along with. They greet us, we talk to them, they realize we can speak their language and they immediately think it's the coolest thing. I mean, Cambodians as a rule are blown away when my companion opens his mouth and begins to speak but for drunk people the effect triples. They just start laughing or just put a big grin on their faces. Also, drunk people are easier for me to understand because they only use really simple words.

At a conference we had last week, they talked about doing things halfway and what that can mean for us. It's very interesting, some things can be done halfway and you will get benefit out of it. For example, if you eat half of an apple or drink half of a glass of water you will get some nourishment out of it. If you take half of the cough syrup you should take it will probably help you feel better. Other things just can't be done halfway. Half of a surgery will just do you no good at all. In fact, it'll probably hurt you.

 Often our relationship with our Heavenly Father is the same way. If we obey Him and follow him half of the week and then turn around and do everything that He asks us not to do for the rest of the week, it's not going to help you at all. In fact, it'll probably hurt you. It got me to thinking about obedience and how we receive help and blessing from God. We are required to follow him with our whole hearts, and to stand as his witnesses at all times and in all things and in all places. Anything less than this is pointless and in vain. In addition, we can always do more. There's something I heard in the MTC a lot that I really like. They say obedience brings blessings but exact obedience brings miracles. Have a great week guys!   -Elder Vore