Training Again and More Pictures

So transfers calls are in. To be honest I totally forgot that they were even coming. We didn't have President Moon's number saved in our phone for some reason. While i was busy taking numbers he tried to call me like 3 times and because i didn't recognize the number i thought it was some weirdo khmer person trying to call me so i ignored it thinking i'd call it back when i was done. Well i finally answered it and it was President Moon. haha. A lot less weird or intimidating to talk to President now then before after i've been AP and talked to him every day. But yes he has officially asked me to be a trainer. I'm really excited to have the opportunity to train again.

Another cool thing is that Elder Stanley's new companion is going to be Elder Meyers. How cool is that. My old trainee, in the same house as my new trainee. And next transfer Elder Meyers will for sure train because 10+ more people are coming. So i will be in the same house as my grandchild :-p. So funny.

This week was a lot of fun. My companion and I personalities are really different but for some reason we mesh really well together. He is one of the most fun companions ever. We have had a lot of fun just going around and meeting members. 2 funny stories. 

1. We had a family home evening on Monday. It was so funny to watch those people play hot potato for the very first time. They were going crazy. That's my favorite game to play with them. You start the little speaker playing that i bought and have them start tossing this foam ball around. You stop it, then that person gets baby powdered or drawn on or a piece of tape on the face. They start screaming and yelling and loving it. They are honestly the most easty people to entertain in the whole world just because they are so bored all the time. Then it's time for soda. A cooler with a huge block of ice in it. You dump in the soda. Then everyone uses their cups to scoop it out. So unsanitary. haha.

2. We biked all the way to our far area on saturday and because there aren't any places to get food we packed a lunch. Leftover spaghetti. We started eating it at some recent converts house after they invited us to eat lunch with them. We didn't finish it all so she took all the leftover sphagetti and ate it. She is so crazy.

I realized this last sunday one my my favorite lessons to teach, is simply sharing stories from the life of jesus christ. It's just hard to remember that they've never heard them. They don't know where Jesus was born. They don't know Mary rode a donkey to Bethlehem. They don't know the story of jesus healing the lepers, casting out the sinners from the temple, etc. I love sharing the stories. I was teaching the 2nd hour in church and just starting going on all the pictures in the picture book and explaining them. After 40  minutes i stopped and asked if they understand, if they'd like to read scriptures, or if i was talking too much. I realized they were all glued to the pictures and the lady said no it's so entertaining (addicting is the word she used) and told me to keep going and not stop. I love Jesus Christ. I love his example. I love how awesome of a God he is. He is perfect. He can do anything that he wants. He will never offend anyone, do something wrong, or let us down. He is so amazing. I'm so proud to be able to represent him and introduce people to him. I love being a missionary.

Love, Elder Rucker

We bought tons of sugar and put in the koolaid mix and turned our entire 5 gallon jug into koolaid. Haha

Miracles

This week was overall a pretty good week. Things got a little crazy but it overall turned out pretty good. This was the very first week, during my whole time here in Battambang that I have not had a baptism. However, there has still yet to be a week where there are no baptisms. We will have one this Saturday which is pretty cool though.

So Monday was a fun p-day. We all went shopping, i finally got a suit made (currently underway) and we went to swensen's and all got earthquakes (the biggest thing you can get there, $10, and its 8 scoops of ice cream) it was crazy. Elder Nelson ate 2. The next morning he woke up with a 103 degree fever. Turns out he got an ameba. So he went instantly to the hospital while i went to the zone leader conference by myself. Then they sent me back on the bus back to battambang by myself. 7 hours. I was never going to do anything wrong, it's just that i had that thought. Holy crap, i'm by myself, i could literally do anything i want and nobody would ever know. Í'm glad i made it safe with no problems. I met some funny people though.

Then i served here with Elder Stanley and Hem until Friday (Elder Nelson came back). So frustrating not having a companion. You can't do anything. So i had to try and set up members to go with me to proselyte which was a little challenging  It was fun though but i'm definately grateful that Elder Nelson got better so fast and was able to come back.

So on Saturday we biked out to our super far area to meet with the members for the first time in a while because of the sickness. We get all the way out there and it turns out everyone was headed to the church to attend the celebration of the birthday of the Relief Society. So we got to ride the tractor back to the church. So a little explanation about the tractor. It's this tractor that a member owns really far away. Nobody can go to church out there (transportation) so there was a member found who knew how to drive that tractor (it has no brakes) so they started getting it to drive all the members to church. Now there are almost 40 people who ride that tractor to church now. I can't really tell the story that well over email, but it's just a total miracle that they can all make it to church. The driver was inactive. The tractor is from the family that just baptized, etc.

So another great week in Battambang. I cannot believe that tomorrow is Elder Nelson's last day of proselyting. After then, i will officially be the oldest missionary in the Phnom Penh Cambodia mission. President came down this last weekend to train the leadership up here and to do some interviews. It was nice of him to come.

This week was absolutely amazing. I felt like i participated in a miracle. Every area had baptisms of Sunday. There were 11 baptisms! It was such a miracle. I think the picture that I'm sending home is the coolest picture ever, especially since there was a handicapped person getting baptized too. 4 of the past 5 weeks we have had baptisms, it's absolutely crazy. However, now we are almost left with nothing so we are going to have to do some finding. The good thing is we have tons of recent converts to work with. I think if we do it right, we can get those recent converts to get their neighbors or family members involved with the lessons to get them to prepare for baptism. I have already made a list of a bunch of people i think could start learning. So i don't plan on contacting random areas or spending too much time trying to get people to learn. Rather we will work hard to get the recent converts to fulfill their responsibility as a missionary to share it with their relatives and members to keep the work going here. We have so much work to do here it's crazy.

 I'm having so much fun on my mission and I am so excited for the work i have to do. I love you all so much!

Elder Rucker