Apr 7, 2014 A Shady Business Deal

We're teaching this guy named Joo. He works at a nice little coffee shop type place that gets a lot of foreigners. He actually lives upstairs and runs the place after everyone else has gone home. The other day we were at his place a little later than normal and the owner came back and gave him her dog to watch for the night. He told us a little bit about the dog. It's a purebred something or other (names of dogs in Khmer are a little beyond my vocabulary) and was bought as a baby for $400. :O In Cambodia... He says they take it on vacations and to restaurants and grooming places all the time. Then he said, "I don't know whether I love or hate this dog. On one hand, she's so nice and calm and playful but on the other, sometimes I feel like I'm worth less than her. They take her shopping and hug her and love her and give her gifts but all they do to me is make fun of me." Rich people can be jerks. Or just self centered. Doesn't help that it's so cheap to hire servants here...

We passed a girl on the way to church. She was wearing a really moderate dress and kind of looked like one of the Khmer sister missionaries. Elder Duffy said to me, "Hey, maybe she's going to church!" I told him that I doubted it and that there were many thousands of Cambodians on the street at that time and an extremely small percentage of them are heading to our church building right now. That was that, until 5 minutes later when we were greeting people at the door and who should walk in but the very girl we had just passed on the way here! She had learned some with the Sister missionaries and yesterday was her first time at church.

Also, we were talking to this guy trying to find information on an old member when suddenly we saw a really sketchy money exchange. Drugs or gangs or something. Anyway, this guy pulled up on his moto, stepped off, took a large wad of neatly rubber banded cash out of his pocket, dropped it into a cement bucket that was hanging from some construction thing on the third or fourth floor, got back on his moto and was gone. At the exact instant he dropped the money the bucket was pulled up to an ancient looking grandma at the top. She gave us a toothy grin and disappeared. We just looked at each other and blinked.

James 1:17 reads "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."  Look for gifts from God! They are all around us! So often we take for granted great blessings of divine origin. Don't do it! Recognize that God blesses you and everyone! Love y'all :)

Elder Vore

Mar 30, 2014 Locked In!

Roommates can be loads of fun. Sometimes they can be a real pain too. Last Thursday Elder Duffy and I were in the middle of our 3 hour weekly planning session as we watched our Vietnamese speaking counterparts, Elder Barker and Elder Vu, head out early, presumably to go catch an appointment. About 30 minutes later our work was done, we made lunch, ate and put our shoes on. After a quick prayer we opened the door and stopped. The outside padlock was locked. Oops. I called Elder Vu and learned that those two had set off on a journey to look for Vietnamese people around the area where they were planning on making an English class north of the city. Very north. They were over a 45 minute bike ride away. Darn...

We told them we would call them back and then started looking for a way out of our house. A couple of problems with that. People around here are very worried about thieves so all of our windows have bars on them. Very pretty, flowery bars but not bars that we were going to get out of. We don't have a car so the only thing we use the garage for is drying laundry and no one knows where the key is. Back door leads to our own personal concrete block with more bars on the windows. After more looking around I found a window facing our front fence that I could get my arm out of. If someone was on the other side (we could have called a member who lived nearby) and I could throw the keys under the tree but over the barbed wire fence then they could use our keys to get into our house.  After judging it for a minute or two we decided to go for it and called someone to come help us, but just as they answered who should show up but our landlord! I just dropped him the keys and he let us out. I actually wish it had ended a little more adventurously. 

Really wanted to share about one of the sisters in my district here. Her name is Sister Chuong and she is from Sen Sok, a very poor very undeveloped area north of the city that is mostly full of displaced persons that have been given very cheap land by the government to placate them (that's hearsay but it sounds about right). She's three years older than me but no one would ever guess it because she is about five feet tall and has a voice like she had a freak helium accident that she never recovered from. That sounded a little negative but it's not. Sister Chuong is the nicest person ever and is always the first person to jump up and help when something needs to be done. My trainer was trained in Sen Sok several years ago and had mentioned that she always helped the Elders and showed them people who needed help and helped teach and was generally awesome. Sisters get escorts after dark, so we were taking them home after a meeting at the church and I asked her what her church calling was before the mission. She answered matter-of-factly, "Oh, I was the Young Women's President, and the institute teacher and the 1st Counselor in the Relief Society Presidency". No further commentary necessary.

Elder and Sister Johnson, a senior missionary couple who have been serving here are headed home this month. In her farewell address, Sister Johnson shared from a story that I know from this video on lds.org

https://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages#the-will-of-god

Like Hugh Brown in the story, most all of us have our times where we want to argue with our maker. Isaiah wrote "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? (Isaiah 45:9) We are the clay in our Maker's hands. We are so small in comparison and yet there are those that say to him, "What are you even making out of me?" Much better then, when we swallow our pride and tell our loving Father, "But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. (Isaiah 64:8)"

Have a great week. Love y'all!

Elder Vore

Mar 24, 2014 Sunday Morning Rain is Falling

 A few days ago I had a very interesting breakfast. Not so much what we were eating or even what we were talking about. All three of us at the table were bilingual: one spoke English and Vietnamese, the other spoke Vietnamese and Khmer and I speak Khmer and English. Not a problem right? I can speak with either of them, but the moment we started having a discussion about the upcoming District Conference things got a little hard. If you want to say something you have to say it to one of them or the other because we don't have any languages in common. For example, if I asked who would be speaking at the Sunday session in English then only one would understand. Then he would translate into Viet because the other guy's Khmer wasn't super good anyway. Everyone should speak a couple of languages or we should all learn one. And that one should not be English. It was a funny little conversation that was a little hard to follow sometimes because we had to continually be repeating things and backtracking and such. Funny though. Just a funny little situation really.

From approximately November to March the monsoon winds in Southeast Asia switch direction and it completely stops raining in Cambodia. We probably get about as much rain as y'all do in Odessa. Ok, that might be a little bit of an exaggeration but it gets cool and sunny and it's great. Then in late January early February it starts getting hot again. March isn't blistering but it's pretty warm. Warm enough that when it started raining for the first time in months this last Sunday we were relieved. The heat will continue to build for another month and a half or so before the rain really starts drowning the heat out, but hey, that means that mango season is coming into full swing!!

We went looking for a lost member the other day. His name was Vichet and his house is in a really messy and rundown area near an old hospital.  The map to his house was pretty good except that it got really vague as we got close. Houses around that area don't really have house numbers and things like that so all we got was "it's near the end of the little alleyway on the right". So in we go with a 10 year old black and white picture and a name just asking people if they know this guy and no one does. After asking pretty much everyone in sight about this guy we were getting a little discouraged. However, we recently set a goal to be super thorough in our searching for old members so we somewhat halfheartedly were continuing to finish out the alleyway.

We showed the paper to one guy and he was looking through it disinterestedly and asked, "Is there a phone number?" Of course I had already called the phone number (it wasn't in the system) but I pointed it out to him anyway. He looked at it for a second and then his forehead furrowed. He started mouthing the numbers and then looked across the alley to a door covered in rust and spray paint. He pointed to phone number on the door and said, "Oh nevermind, I thought it was this one but I was wrong." The phone number painted on the old door was one digit off from our phone number on the sheet. So, I called it and almost immediately our lost member answered and told us he had moved and gave us directions to his new house. That was a bit of a miracle.

Sorry guys, my computer is being weird. I'm outta here.

Love, Elder Vore

Mar 17, 2014 Scarier Than the FBI

So, imagine that you went to answer the door at your house and you were met by two overdressed young men with a beat up piece of paper and a black and white picture. "Do you know this guy?" one of them says. You look closely but it's not very clear. "No, I don't think so," you reply, "Why? Is he in trouble or something?" "No nothing like that," the other one replies, "Actually, do you know the people that you bought this home from?" You think back to 2006 when you moved in. "Kind of? His name was Sam maybe?" He looks at his paper. "Steve actually. Steve Johnson. This guy is his son." Well, at this point you're a little confused and not very interested in getting mixed into whatever this is. You thank them, apologize and begin to close the door. "Wait!" Says one of the young men. "Is there anyone on the block who knows this family better and could tell us where they are maybe?" "I'm not really sure," you say, "Sorry, my cookies are burning." and the door closes.

That's pretty much how things go with us trying to help old members. People get really excited to be new members, Christians, part of the congregation and they do lots of great things and they are changing their lives and then boom. They move. They're now far away from their old branch, don't know the new one or anyone in the new branch and feel uncomfortable. It doesn't help that all of it is so new already. That's where we come in. Me and Elder Duffy wander all over the place with our 15 year old baptismal record and a first name, trying to pick up information, find and re-teach the lost sheep. It makes things hard though when our records are incomplete, old, don't have maps, are copies of previously existing records or are written in horrible handwriting. Sure can be an adventure though!

When I first got to Cambodia here nearly a year ago, I had the awesome privilege of teaching Chhuo, a recent convert in Tuk Thla, my first area. Chhuo is super excited about the gospel and would go out with us to teach and help members all the time. He served in several leadership positions in his branch and decided that he wanted to go on a mission as well. He saved up money for months, filled out all the required paperwork and then started the interview process. Unfortunately, Chhuo has a high blood pressure problem and, according to policy, his application was not sent. Undeterred, Chhuo used some of his saved money to go get a hospital procedure of some sort, that would supposedly help his health. After the procedure, he again filled out the required paperwork but was denied a visa due to his health. --Side note, Chhuo's health is fine. He bikes and runs and plays sports and everything. I actually don't even know why they made a big deal about it all.-- Chhuo decided to appeal to the Mission President. He suggested a 3 week trial period. If he could deal with the rigors of being a 24/7 full-time missionary then they would send his application. Chhuo spent 3 weeks in the Stung Mian Chey area and is now back! His application has been sent to Salt Lake and we are waiting with great anticipation to see where he will be sent. There's nothing cooler than people that really get it!

Transfers were this last Friday. Elder Duffy and I stayed the same but the Viet missionaries in our house got shuffled. Enter Elder Vu. Elder Vu has pretty much the coolest conversion story of all time. In 2003 there was a woman renting a room in their house. She was a staunch Christian in Vietnam, pretty unusual. Elder Vu's family went with her to her revivalist type worship meetings every Sunday. One day, she decided to go to Cambodia to look for religious truth (Elder Vu said that was probably the most ridiculous part of the story) and toured through several churches in the Phnom Penh area. She settled on our church and brought books and other materials back to Vietnam with her. The Vu family was interested in the material and they asked for missionaries to be sent. They were told that missionaries were not allowed in Vietnam. So now what? They jumped the border and went to Cambodia to learn with missionaries for 3 weeks. After learning, they asked to be baptized. The Mission President suggested that they wait until Vietnam opened, and they did. 3 years later, missionaries were allowed into Vietnam and Elder Vu's family was finally able to be baptized. His older sister was actually the very first person to be baptized in Vietnam.

Several weeks ago I shared a verse of scripture that summarizes God's eternal goals. " For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39). After sharing this at a recent lesson, a new member asked us a very important question, "Why doesn't God just make us follow him? Wouldn't that be easier?"

God, in his eternal wisdom has given us agency to choose right or wrong in this earthly life. A Book of Mormon prophet named Lehi summed it up as such, "Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself" (2Nephi 2:27).

Though God has the power to force us to choose the right, and with it life and liberty, He has our better interests in mind. God wants us to grow and progress by choosing for ourselves to follow him. Lehi continues, "...I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life"(2 Nephi 2:28). Choose now! Choose Christ! Choose Eternal Life!
 Love,  Elder Vore

Mar 10, 2014 "Pregnant? Nope, I'm Just Fat"

 I remember many months talking about how blunt Khmers are about things that we really skate around. Examples include salaries, physical attributes, facts that everyone knows but no one will bring up and other such things.

Yeah, well the other day we found a less-active member, let's call her "Martha", who was baptized back in 2007 from a "CBR" record that had her address and a picture. It took about an hour and a half to find her house (Addresses aren't the most reliable way to find people around here) because all of the roads connecting to the main road 271 were also numbered 271, but eventually we found our way to her house where she met us at the door. After talking to Martha for a few minutes we set an appointment and left. As we headed out Elder Duffy commented, "I know I'm not the only one who noticed that she has gained a lot of weight since that picture 7 years ago." It was certainly true. She was considerably heavier than before. We went to meet her later that week with a member, "Jane" for support. Sometime during the conversation, Martha mentioned that she had been unable to have children since her marriage in 2010 and that it was a little worrying. Then the conversation went a little something like this:

Jane: You haven't been able to have children? You mean you're not pregnant right now?

Martha: No, why?

Jane: Well, you kind of look you're pregnant.

Martha: No, I'm not pregnant, I'm just fat. I've gained so much weight since my marriage.

Yeah, I was seriously questioning my choice of Jane to come with us and help "support" Martha, but it went well. I've heard some people are really rough on the sister missionaries and call them fat, especially the foreigners. I guess they just learn to take it in stride as it's not a bad thing in Cambodia.

Another funny language error story. We were teaching a new member the other day and I mentioned President Monson and the fact that his wife died last year. Because President Monson is a older man and a person very much worthy of respect, I was using words that match that status. Well, one respectful word for wife is pireyia and that is the word that was supposed to come out of my mouth. The word that came out of my mouth instead was pireyea(with a glottal stop), which might not mean anything at all, but  yeak means giant or ogre so it kind of sounded like I called President Monson's late wife a giant/ogre thing... Yeah. Actually wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Also, I hate it when people ask me for homework help. First, it's in another dang language! Even if it's calculus I still have to read and understand the problem and I just don't have the time or the vocab for the that! It's a huge pain in the butt. Second, when I learned another language and spent all my time studying the scriptures and teaching manuals and church magazines, I forgot everything else. I seriously can't do any math at all. I almost feel bad. Like I faked out my teachers so I could get a diploma and college credits and stuff and then proved I didn't actually learn any of it by promptly forgetting everything.

Saw a super cool video the other day that was produced by the church that shares a message about loving the little things. You should really watch it. Very artistically done. I was kind of entranced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUc6o1I_8Dk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Yeah, anyway. I was preparing a lesson this morning about enduring to the end, or continuing in the faith. There is in Matthew 5:48, a very well known statement by the Savior that reveals His eternal plan for us. He said "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." That's a very telling verse. Christ here is commanding us to be perfect, like God? Do you know anyone that is fulfilling that commandment?

Well, in the lesson that I prepared this morning I talked about how we could fulfill that. We become perfect in the long run by our simple every day efforts and good deeds. God probably doesn't expect perfection now, but He does expect progression and that can be our gift to Him. Every day, showing our love for him by doing the simple things the right way. Love y'all  Elder Vore

Mar 8, 2014 Odessan Experiences life in Cambodia

Odessa American

Odessan experiences life in Cambodia                  

Local church member takes mission trip overseas  

           

  

Courtesy Photo

Adam Vore 2

Adam Vore assisted the restoration of the Killing Fields Monument in Phnom Penh, building homes for the local communities. Vore began the process of medical exams, paperwork and interviews for the mission trip last year.

Adam Vore, seen in Cambodia

Adam Vore, 20, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Vore is expected to return from his missionary work in
Jan 2015.

Courtesy Photo

Adam Vore 3

Adam Vore, seen in Cambodia in a picture posted in January on his blog, said  he was called to serve others and that he was inspired to become a missionary because of the scripture he has studied throughout his life.

On The Net

• elderadamvore.blogspot.com

Odessan experiences life in Cambodia By Jared Wilson jwilson@oaoa.com Odessa American               

Few get the chance to experience what life is like in other countries and for one missionary from Odessa, it has become a dream come true. Adam Vore, 20, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Odessa, Texas started the process of preparing for the trip last year and is now living the experience he dreamed of. According to Adams father, Chris Vore, the process is quite extensive and includes health examinations, a lot of paperwork and interviews. After the process is completed the leaders within the church decide where help is needed and missionaries are sent out.

Even though Adam would soon be traveling across the globe his mother, Angelique Vore, knew it was a dream come true for her son as said a mission trip has been something he has wanted to take part in from a very young age.

“When we first found out that he was going to Cambodia it was really exciting,” Angelique Vore said. “Of course there was some nervousness but I would say we were more excited because Adam has always had plans to go on a mission trip even when he was little.

Adam said he was called to serve others and that he was inspired to become a missionary because of the scripture he has studied throughout his life.  “The decision to help others is based on the scriptures, Christ taught "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Mark 12:31) and we show that love by serving our fellow men,” Adam Vore said. “I believe it's clear that Christ wants us to spread the good word, and he certainly wants us to help others. Every missionary receives a personal call to serve, I was called to Cambodia. “

The mission trip for Adam began in January 2013 to Cambodia with the goal of teaching the local communities about the word of God and assisting the community in any way he could. However the experience has also taken some time to get used to and few things are similar to the United States.
“It's all different you know? It's like a whole different world,” Adam said about his experience so far. “Culture, food, language, ethnicity, clothing, religion, even things like transportation and sleeping schedules are different. “Basically everything (is different) except Coke, that's like the only constant.”

During his travels Adam has taken on a lot of different responsibilities, however, his main goal has remained consistent. “I really just want to help people; there is nothing more satisfying than really helping other people,” he said.

Chris Vore said his son Adam has been incredibly busy since he arrived in Cambodia with various projects including assisting the restoration of the Killing Fields Monument in Phnom Penh, building homes for the local communities and he has also been helping the people in their rice harvest, all while attempting to reach them through the word of God.

Despite being busy Chris Vore said he is confident the experience will be life changing for his son as he would know from personal experience and it will make Adam better in many facets of his life.

“I actually took a mission trip to France when I was younger and there is not one other experience in my life that has helped me grow as much as that did,” Chris Vore said. “It made me better at a lot of things when I returned and I am confident that Adam will come back and be a better student, a better member of the community and a better at so many things because of the growth he will experience during his time in Cambodia.”

In his journey, Adam has also had the experience of teaching things that some in the United States know very well however; his students have never heard before, being the Old Testament.

“He mentioned the other day that the course of study in Sunday school is the Old Testament,” Chris Vore said about the recent letters and messages he has received. “He said that about three fourths of the congregation didn’t even know what that was.”

Adam is expected to return from his mission trip in January of 2015 and has said that he is excited to return to school, see his family, and begin the next stage of his life.

One way Adam's family and friends have been able to keep up with him is through the use of a blog in which his mother Angelique, takes his letters and posts them for everyone to remain connected with her son along his journey through Cambodia.

“It is really a wonderful feeling to know he is over there helping others,” Angelique Vore said. “With the blog it give us a chance to see things through his eyes.”

If you would like to keep up with Adam and hear about his experience in Cambodia visit his blog at elderadamvore.blogspot.com.

Mar 2, 2014 The Cliff

Member spotlight for the week! Vanny! Vanny is 30 years old and happily married. He and his wife, Dara, run an internet gaming cafe out of their house. Vanny met missionaries last June or so and after a period of intense prayer and difficulty he wholeheartedly converted to Christianity. He immediately wanted to be a part of missionary teaching efforts and spends a great deal of his free time hanging out with us as we visit those we are teaching. He was just called as the second counselor in our branch presidency and is just doing so much great work with the members. In branch council the other day he told me he was sad that he couldn't serve a mission as a young man but it wasn't a big deal because he only has to wait 10 more years before he can be eligible to go on a mission with his wife! Funny guy. I love him to death.

We wandered into a home goods store the other day. Like a place that sells kitchen supplies and tables/chairs and general home improvement stuff? Anyway, we were talking to someone inside and I got distracted by the non-stick frying pans. They were glorious, and so expensive. 1st world prices in Cambodia are killer. Elder Duffy saw the funny side of it and remarked, "You know you're an adult when you walk into a store, skip the candy and go straight to the frying pans." We didn't buy any of them but I went on a companion exchange in another house where they had one and it was so amazing. I just dump buckets of oil into all of my dishes and it sticks less. Super healthy too I'm sure.

I remember people making remarks about gas station bathrooms back in the day. You know, nobody wants to make a roadside stop because it's just bound to be dirty and smelly or just generally gross right? Well I went to the bathroom at a relatively nice establishment the other day and the state of the bathroom made me think about that. The floor was covered in mud and was just dirty. There was a dead mouse stinking in the corner with ants all over it, and the toilet seat wasn't attached to the actual toilet. I just think it's funny how quickly you get used to things like that. I wonder if I will go back to the states and take for granted all the things like that. One thing immediately comes to mind: hot showers. While I was in Baku I didn't have a hot shower, just a bucket. Trying to stay thankful is hard sometimes. Much easier just to take what you get.

Living with Vietnamese speaking Elders is fun. I want to learn some simple things just for the times I run into people who speak Viet better than Khmer. Word of the week: chica. I thought it was funny because it sounds a lot like the Spanish word. It's the word they use for sister missionary.

We had a really cool lesson the other day about obedience in which we used the following comparison that I heard years ago and I've totally forgotten who first made the comparison. 'There were once three men who applied for a truck driving position. They were the only three that advanced to the interview portion of the application process. During the interview the point was brought up that the driver would be required to drive over mountains and through very difficult terrain. The first man bragged "I'm so good at driving that I can drive on sheer cliffs with my wheels just 2 inches from the edge and never fall off." During the second man's interview, he told the interviewer "I'm such a precise driver that I can drive where the wheels on my car will be half on the road and half dangling in the air and I still won't fall off." During the third man's interview he told the interviewer that when he drove near dangerous cliffs he stayed as far away as possible from the edge. So who gets the job?

The third man does of course! Why? Well, while his peers talked about how close they could get to the edge of this cliff without falling off, he tried to stay as far away from potentially dangerous places as possible. This can relate to us in our lives as we strive to keep our Heavenly Father's commandments. We can choose to follow the commandments as exactly as possible so we avoid potentially dangerous areas or we can skate the line. In skating the line we endanger our lives, whether literally or spiritually. For example, imagine there is a married man in an office with a pretty secretary who likes to flirt. Though he may not be committing adultery in flirting with her, he's skating the line. He's in a dangerous place. When the temptation comes, he's more likely to fall because of how close to the edge he is. It's much safer for us when we stay far away from the edge and out of danger. There is safety in keeping the commandments of the Lord. Love y'all!  Elder Vore