Elder Adam Vore: Apr 14, 2014 Happy Khmer New Year!!!

WHOO! It's the biggest party of the year here in Cambodia! Pretty much the party is everywhere but here. Everyone in Cambodia goes off to the province of their birth and has a party! But it means that here in Phnom Penh nobody is out on the streets. It's a little eerie actually. I'm used to trafffic and stuff and now it's all of a sudden down to pretty much nothing. It's actually a really hard time for us because we want to stay productive and doing things but essentially NO ONE IS HERE.

Today the Vietnamese speaking Elders and we are going to be doing an interesting companionship exchange so that we can help them find people who speak Vietnamese. It's a little hard for them because they don't really speak Khmer well. And we will do necessary paperwork and deep clean the house so we don't end up just wandering around looking for things to do.

One thing that did happen this week was General Conference! WHOO! Before my mission I never appreciated fully the opportunity we have twice a year to have this spiritual feast! I especially loved Elder Holland's talk "The Cost--and Blessings--of Discipleship". He talked about the world today where a devoted religious life is increasingly ridiculed. He said,

' It is as the Lord Himself lamented to the prophet Isaiah:

“[These] children … will not hear the law of the Lord:

“[They] say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

“Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.”^{(Isaiah 30:9-11)}

Sadly enough, my young friends, it is a characteristic of our age that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much, comfortable gods, smooth gods who not only don’t rock the boat but don’t even row it, gods who pat us on the head, make us giggle, then tell us to run along and pick marigolds.

Talk about man creating God in his own image! Sometimes—and this seems the greatest irony of all—these folks invoke the name of Jesus as one who was this kind of “comfortable” God. Really? He who said not only should we not break commandments, but we should not even think about breaking them. And if we do think about breaking them, we have already broken them in our heart. Does that sound like “comfortable” doctrine, easy on the ear and popular down at the village love-in?'

Boy, he is fiery. Isn't it so true though? Students of the New Testament, can we really tell ourselves that God will accept us as who we are and use that excuse to not proactively "Come, [and] follow [the Savior]?" I really thought his talk was insightful.

I don't have much to write this week. Thanks for the package family! It was super great and I especially loved all the things that were not food. The little frying pan literally left me laughing so hard I had to sit down. Love you guys!

-Elder Vore