Jan 4, 2015 Are Those Fireworks? No, They're Just Welding

We were at the church a little after dark on New Year's Eve and saw some sparks falling from the air. Elder Christensen pointed and said, "Hey, are those fireworks?" We all looked and waited for more sparks. It was just someone welding something at the top of a tall building. Funny moment for us. They do celebrate New Years here but they also have Chinese New year and Khmer New Year so the "Universal New Year" gets a little under celebrated. Oddly enough, lots of people view it as a Christian holiday. Like, Khmer and Chinese New Years are Buddhist holidays celebrated in Buddhist countries whereas our New Year is the week after Christmas on the first day of a calendar based on when Jesus Christ lived. So Happy Christian New Year! :D

I have a new companion now! Elder Ngov was born in Washington, but his parents are both from Cambodia and fled the country during the Pol Pot Regime. They were a part of events that would have happened at the same time and place as the movie 'The Killing Fields'. Elder Ngov's family speaks a lot of Khmer at home so hear could already understand everything that was going on when he got here and could also make himself understood. It'll be fun to be with him for my last transfer here in Batdambong.

There's a new Elder in my house named Elder Cook who got a football, and a little nerf basketball hoop set in a Christmas package from his parents. He pulled out the football and tried to pump it up but it wouldn't inflate. Sad... Later he was looking at the nerf basketball and realized that it had been torn open and resewn. He checked the football for similar signs and sure enough, it appears that someone in the post system thought something valuable was being sent to Elder Cook inside his Christmas presents. Poor guy. And now we can't play football!

We taught a lesson the other day where we took an idea from Elder Bednar and kind of molded it to a Khmer audience. There is a Khmer side dish called chruak that is made of pickled vegetables and peppers and ginger and stuff like that that they serve to flavor lots of foods. In order for it to become pickled however, it needs several days or even weeks of soaking in brine. A quick dip or incomplete submersion won't do. 

The point of the lesson is that the gospel is the same as pickles and brine. We must be completely immersed in the gospel of Christ for it to change us completely. Those that are only willing to follow some of God's commandments all of the time or even all of God's commandments some of the time will not receive all of the benefits of the gospel.

Well, the lady that we taught this too really liked what we were talking about- food. She went on and on about food. She talked about her favorite recipes and how exactly you should make chruak. She kind of missed the point of our lesson and we had to go back and summarize the main points without mentioning the comparison to food. It was hilarious! I think she kind of got it by the end...

Moral of the story? Look for deeper meaning and embrace the gospel completely! Love y'all,

Elder Vore

Christmas Group Photo  December 2014
I'm now the oldest in the mission