Elder Adam Vore: Jul 13, 2014 Cups of Cockroaches

Another super fun week here punctuated by transfer calls on Sunday night! I've been here in Tuk La'ak for 6 months or so, so it wasn't too surprising when President called me last night and said I would be transferring. I was a little surprised by my new assignment because once again I will be moving to the branch bordering us to the north, Tuol Kork! It's an interesting thing because there is an entire country open here with 30 something branches and buildings and different provinces and such and all that, but President has felt that I needed to be here at the North Stake Center. I'm actually kind of stoked. I'll still be able to see all the people that I've been teaching and I'll still be working on the activities and projects that we've been pushing for the last few months. My new companion is Elder Martinson. I know him really well because we went to the MTC together and I';m really excited to be with him! We are going to get a lot of work done.

No weird experiences from me today but Elder McGavin, an Elder in my district, told me this story the other day and I wanted to pass it on. He got out of bed and felt pretty thirsty so he went down to get some water. He picked up a cup, filled it up and started drinking without looking into his cup. He was pretty shocked when a cockroach hit him in the face! :D Even here in the city and in really (ok, relatively) nice houses the bug problem never ends. Makes for good stories I guess.

I am actually really short on time today but I want to tell y'all about something we've been doing here in our stake youth program. Weekly organized activities for our youth here weren't happening for a variety of reasons so my companion and I decided to make some! We asked for permission from the youth leaders and have been running a weekly activity, "Mutual" for a little over three months now. Now the youth leaders are in on the activities and on most weeks will lead the entire thing! On Saturday, the youth leaders were in charge of a gospel lesson and other things and the Elders set up some relay races. We led 30 screaming teenagers through obstacle courses, games of charades, dizzy bat races etc. for an hour or so and had tons of fun. Best part about it? We had 5 young men go from our branch and all 5 went to church the next day!

I thought about that a little bit as I wrote the last paragraph there. I was thinking about how lots of the young people I teach think about the gospel of Christ. I know that many of them think about church as something that needs to be endured and that isn't fun. Just a brief thought about that. When we follow the gospel of Christ and live by his teachings it will bring us joy. Sometimes doing the right thing isn't necessarily "fun", but it's always worth it and it will always bring us happiness and joy. Sorry things are a little rushed here. Love you guys!