Baptism and Transfer

Chandi's Baptism

So this week was super good. First of all i would just like you all to know that Chandy is officially baptized and confirmed! I got to perform my very first baptism and it was awesome. It was such a nice service and just everything was really good and well done. This was was a very good week. Elder Jorgensen and I were so blessed this week. We got over twice as many lessons this week as we have gotten any other week this transfer! This was such a fast week. We got 6 new investigators this week! Now we have 10 investigators, we had 11 but chandy got baptized now we have 10. So awesome. We have 5 investigators at church this week. The best part is chandy knew the new investigators that came to church, he's actually their old teacher, and they live next to eachother. So we are excited to get chandy to work helping up teach some lessons.
So for this week it was obviously really good as i've already told you, can't believe how fast this transfer went, next week i'll be telling where i'm going if i move which i probably will. Friday i went on an exchange with Elder Ballard which was fun, can't believe he is almost done with his mission. I've been in this house with him for my whole mission in the country, almost 6 months it will be. He is a good guy and i'll miss him a lot, he taught me a lot.

This last week a little boy Rotonack (he's in the picture i sent a while ago with me standing with a kid on my shoulders, he's the kid on my shoulders) anyways he loves me and he bought a statue thing for me. Its a weird statue but its just so awesome because its from him. He was a job 5hours a day 6 days a week. He get 1.25$ a day for working and that statue thing probably cost him 3 or 4$. It was so nice. So i think i'm gonna buy him a book of mormon stories book because he wants a jesus book, and give him a ctr ring that McKenzie's parents sent me. Print him out some pictures too, they go crazy for pictures here. If you just pull out your camera and start taking pictures they will just start bust up laughing when you show them the picture its hilarious, they will never stop saying "1 more just 1 more" "ok now me, just me". Its too fun.

So I got transferred. I am now going to be serving in branch 1 in Phnom Penh. Was kind of disappointed i didn't get to go out to the provinces but that’s alright. Technically I am emailing from my future area right now. I'm replacing Elder Baird who is going home Friday. I'll be taking his companion Elder Chan. Who isn't khmae, he is from america but he is chinese or something. So yep, somebody younger than me, that's right i'm going to be senior companion. The other scary thing is about 5 weeks ago i hear him pray in khmae for zone conference and it wasn't that great. So i will have nobody to lean on anymore for translations, its gonna be crazy. Also another fun part, the house i'm staying in has another companionship its going to be Elder Khan, who is a khmae, and Elder Pearson! Elder Pearson is in my group from the MTC and we were super good buddies and we always studied together. As far as i know he is my District leader too, woo! But he is going to for sure leave next transfer because this is his 5th transfer he is going to serve there. So i'm super excited about that. Also, they have a bench press so excited to use the bar to start doing the 300 workout to get in shape, but not go too crazy because i don't want to be one of those elders that gets hurt from lifting weights. So i'm really excited to serve in branch 1, as far as i've heard the members are great, the work is going really well, and if the members like you they love to give referralls, so i'm very excited to get things going there. I will be meeting in the stake building too, i've sent a picture of it too. It is sooo nice, its nicer than all the american buildings i've been to its awesome.

This last week was really fast though, this whole transfer was, it just keeps moving faster and faster. It was a hard week though, we had 0 investigators at church. Luckily though the area is doing better than when i showed up though, i guess thats all you can really hope for, leaving it better than when you show up.

The real star of the week is Chandy. He had a really great experience that i want to share with you guys. Last week Elder Jorgensen and I felt inspired to share the Family Proclamation with our recent converts and some investigators, and we had a specific referrall in mind for each of them. We shared it with them, and asked them to do the same with their sister, or child, or wife, etc. We did the same thing to Chandy. We also taught him about eternal marriages and in order to get married in the temple and obtain the highest degree of glory he needs his wife to learn about the gospel. We also gave him a triple combination book of mormon too, a brand new one that was realy nice to replace his copy of the book of mormon so he could have D&C and the pearl of great price (thats important to the story). So the next time we come he told us this story. "I was thinking about what you guys said to me, and i knew i had to share this with my wife, but i was really scared and i thought she wouldn't like it. I thought there is no way she is going to like it. So i prayed to God, to help me have to opportunity and courage in order to share this with my wife. I went to work, and i couldn't stop thinking about it, so i prayed again, and i decided when i got home i was going to share it with her that night. When i came home that night she was sitting on the bed reading my new book of mormon. She told me, i like this book, its a good book, its pretty, i want this book. I told her that this book was the new one the elders gave me but they told me to give you my old one (the just the book of mormon copy). She said no i want this book this one is pretty. So now she reads it every night, and i have to steal the book away from her when she is sleeping so i can read D&C". So that is Chandy's story. His wife is going to start learning now. He said she reads it every night and asks him about things she doesn't understand, for example, resurrection.

That was my week. I know that God really does answer our prayers, just like He answered Chandy's prayer. I know that if we pray for the strength and courage to stand up for what we believe in, the Lord with bless us in our efforts with sharing the Gospel. I remind you all to please read, or re-read, President Monson's challenge for this year. The ABC's. Attitude, believe, courage. Believe in yourselves, believe in the power of this gospel, believe that there is someone out there looking for it, and believe that the Lord will help you share it. Have courage in your abilities, have courage in the Lord. Have courage that no matte what stands in your way you can do. I know that this church is true. I know that this is the restored gospel. When Joseph Smith went into the grove and and prayed, he was attacked by Satan. Satan attempted to shut his mouth. Let us follow Elder Hollands advice and not shut our mouths for him. I love you all so very much thanks for the letters, emails, prayers, and love.

Love, Elder Rucker

Goals and Personal Revelation

We finally got new nametags ALL in khmae!

Hello family!

I had a good week, tough, but good. Something really fun this week was last thursday, Elder Jorgensen and I had just finished meeting with a contact of ours for the first time, didn't work out by the way, and we were biking wondering what in the world we were going to do. Then we saw Om Rodtha, a recent convert about 56 yrs old, trying to shovel a 1 ton pile of dirt around to level it and get it ready for concrete. So Elder Jorgensen and I pulled over and did the whole thing for her, about 1 hour later we finally got it finished and i have about 5 blisters on my hand. I just dont understand why they just can't get a shovel :-p.

Investigators are doing better, Miing Pov didn't come because she was in kampong thom, but Chandy did which was awesome. We went Wed to teach him and he was just super sad, he had a huge problem with his family, and he just felt bad. He knew that he should have gone to Church on Sunday. He said how he was so impressed that we weren't mad, but just kept coming back to meet him. So we had some huge progress with Chandy, he came to church yesterday, and he said how he wants to wait to get baptized for a little bit while he prepares himself. So happy for him, it was all him too, it's so amazing to see how well he responds to the influence of the spirit and how much he strives and wants to do good. 

Last Friday was specialized training though which was super fun, we got our new goal card, which is a card that says all the things the mission president expects us to do, like plan meals, contact more, eat healthy, wash hands, teach shorter lessons, etc, it says a bunch of things. But mostly it says the goal for baptisms. Last year was 900, this year is 600, which is more realistic and totally doable. Which means i should get 7 or 8 baptisms to do my part. Also, he added, 250 people saved. So president wants us to re-active 250 members. I'm totally glad he changed the goal up like that because he always wanted us to focus on both but the goal really pushed for baptisms even though a lot of our time goes towards re-activating. But anyways the theme for the meeting was "Diligence". The president noticed there was no really big push towards the goal in december like there was in 2010. So he wants us to be more diligent and push that extra 10%. Hoe to the end of the row is what he says. Anyways, his main focus is finding, contacting especially. He told us that its ok if you get scared to contact "you'll get over it". haha he's funny. So it was a really good motivational meeting.

This last week was tough again for investigators. Lessons went absolutely amazing. I basically taught all the lessons because elder Jorgensen was translating for the new senior couple that went with us. Honestly i have never felt the spirit so strong when teaching before. I felt the words given to me. I didn't say anything new or beyond my vocabulary or ability, i just felt like i said what i needed to say, my thoughts were very clear and i barely even had to think about what i was going to say, it was amazing. But nobody came to church. I was so suprised, i just don't get it. This is one sunday that i have honestly felt like they were for sure going to come. I do know though at least, that i couldn't have done anything more, can't beat agency sometimes.

This past week i have really been thinking a lot about personal revelation. I can honestly say this last week i really feel like i've been getting some serious personal revelation. The funny part is, nothing new is happening, the only difference is i realize its personal revelation. I realized my best source for personal revelation is just writing. So now i started reading preach my gospel again, and i read a passage or a good thought, and i just write in the notes part on the side of the page, to where i'm filling up the notes on every page. Some of it is just summarized and dumb, but it leads me to thinking more, because it gets the dumb stuff out of my mind and i have new ideas start coming in, so 2 days for a total of 30 minutes, and im 3 pages in, and 1 of those pages was only a 1/2. After having started that is when i started teaching with the spirit. Personal revelation is so important, and it just brings the spirit into your life stronger. Its not so much different ideas or miraculous events, as much as its you can feel God with you, studying with you, walking with you, and teaching with you.

It's my testimony i leave with you as a representative of Jesus Christ that i know this church is true. God desires to open the windows of heaven and pour out his spirit upon us, we need to gain the desire to recieve it. I know personal revelation is a gift a God, it is the way he guides us, and touches our lives, i promise you that as you strive to recognize God in your live, the promptings of the holy spirit in you every day doings, you will be filled up with the Love of God. In the name of the Savior Jesus Christ Amen.

I love you all, Elder Rucker

This picture is a members kid crying, its so funny because he was barely crying that loud because he had been crying for 30 minutes after getting ash in his eye so he was all out of breath, but his face didn't change at all, made me want to send it with a caption "for only a quarter a day, you too can support a cambodian child...... buy cookies and treats and the local vendor..... because as soon as they get money thats what they blow it on..... little treats and candies from thailand.. but man when you give them one it makes them really happy.... thank you"

A Bold New Year in Cambodia

Happy New Years!! Another new year, craaaazy. Finally started my full year in the mission field. This transfer is going by super quick, transfer calls are in a week. I'm absolutely loving my time with Elder Jorgensen. I haven't talked about him too much but that's not because I don't like him. He's actually the best. Super funny and super fun Elder, great worker too. It's fun being with someone young because he will only leave like 2 months before me so I'll be able to see him like my whole mission. Super excited for this new year, I have some big goals. I want to make a lot happen. As for this past week it was another old week in Cambodia. Once again, its super hot.

We had a huge gap of time because 2 appointments got ditched and Tuesday's are a little empty anyways. So we decided to go walking through this littler village of kids. We had a really good contact with this lady. She asked questions like "what does your church give" or "if I join Jesus am I still allowed to go worship at the Watt". So by good contact I meant normal :-P. The funny part was like 20 kids ages 2-10 started surrounding us while we were contacting. We asked for the lady's name before we left so we could find her again. She said "I don't have a name, everyone calls me aunot or mom" so basically like 'I don't want you to find me.' As we were walking away though the kids pulled us aside and told us her name, haha it was super funny. So we started playing with the kids. Kicking a Saye around, which is almost ike a hackeysack style toy, it's hard to explain but you kick it and hit it with your hands to keep it in the air we took pictures, which they love to do, take pictures then look at it, and Elder Jorgensen did some yo-yo tricks for them, I'm learning btw so I can do that for them. The kids are just so bored here that anything entertains them, they loved it and it was super fun. It gets al the parents arund to see how friendly we are, and it's a good foundation for the kids to show that Jesus is nice and friendly, when we were leaving they were all saying how they want to join Jesus now. Just getting the people to love you, it's too much fun.

Elder Aan and I during exchanges. It's nice, now that I can
somewhat understand what they're saying and I can say
more of what I'm thinking, I can talk with Elder Aan more
normally. He is such an aweosme guy. You will never meet
a single other person like him. We went around, biking a lot,
and it never gets him down. I always learn a lot with him.

Investigators for this week. Miing Puo came to church, Score. She came to church and loved it; she was talking to everyone and is starting to feel more comfortable at the church. That's the only thing keeping he from progressing. She does everything except for that. We went and taught her and her kids and it was fun as usual. Hopefully she keeps on going.

This last week was harder, only beacuse since Elder Jorgensen got here we have had quiet a bit of success. But this last week was kind of a refin'ers fire week. Lost some of the investigators we found togethr and the good ones are rising to the top and the bad ones are sinking. Just working hard, trying not to lose any investigators.

Chandii asleep when we showed up to teach him haha, he was
so embarassed when he woke up

For some reason this week, lesson after lesson fell through. None of our investigators came to church. And I realized I'm sick of taking "I'm too busy" for an answer, or being too embarrassed to tell them about what we believe in. I was sick of not getting phone numbers and having them not tell me their name. So I got bold. Not rude, but bold. Ended up getting like 8 phone numbers yesterday. Each of them knowing we teach about Jesus and me asking if we could come again and teach and they said yes. Even if all but 1 fall through that would be super awesome. There was one lady who was super cold when I showed up, and I just bore testimony after testimony. Eveuntally she asked if she was having to throw away her Buddha religion. I told her she doesn't have to, all we want to do si teach, but I promise that if you learn about our church, about Jesus Christ, you will know that this is true and you will want to believe in Jesus rather than Buddha. I ended getting her phone number and her agreeing for us coming back and teaching. Whether it works out or not it doesn't matter, just tired of being too embarrassed to be bold.

me holding a wild bird that I caught off the tree

I feel like Elder Holland. This work is TOO important to keep messing around or being shy or whatever. One thing I've really realized I need to help these people understand is the Restoration, because they just don't get it, honestly sometimes I think I don't get it. THIS IS THE ONLY TRUE CHURCH ON THE ENTIRE PLANET. It doesn't matter what other churches give, who has the nicest members, who has the most fun activities, which church does this or that because in the end, they all lack one thing, the Truth. Without having ordinances performed by the priesthood authority of God, it's just not possible to gain eternal life, to live with your family forever, to be happy for eternity in the presence of our Father in Heaven. And this is the only true churc that has that authority from God. Either Joseph Smith saw God and JEsus Christ or he didn't Either the Book of Mormon is the word of God or it isn't. This isn't just a self help program to make you feel happier; it's bigger than that, it's salvation. Then all in all if you gain that testimony, that sure knowledge that this is hte true church of God, Jesus and God appeared to Joseph Smith and restored this church, that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, if you get that sure knowledge that all that happened and is true, then it should give you the desire to follow it. To follow the prophet, follow the commandsments, do what you are supposed to, and most importantly, to share it with others, because it is just too important to not. And that's what I'm trying to learn personally, but mostly trying to help them to learn, for them to gain that firm testimony in the Restoration.

Making this nasty fish paste they love. I don't know why they
love it, it's disgusting.

I love you all so very much. I know that this is the one and only true church today. I know this is the work of the Lord. Jesus is at the head and is directing it. I know this is where I'm suposed to be, and what I'm supposed to be doing.

Jesus plaque thing nailed to a tree. I
thought it was so cool when I saw it.
It says, "Jesus' blood washes sins."

Love always, Elder Rucker

The Lord will prepare the People

HEY FAMILY! It's that time of the week again. This week went by really fast. I don't even know why but it did. It doesn't feel like December here at all. It has gotten kind of cool here though. Mornings are almost borderline cold. The funny part is it's only like the low 70's probably but I want to go get a sweatshirt because it's cold. It just made me think of how tough it's going to be when I go back to college and go through a Utah winter again. For Christmas we get to go to the Branch 5 conference building and watch the conference Christmas special thing. On Christmas we open up our Christmas present packages. Anyone who doesn't get one the Smedley's put something together so everybody has something to open up. Besides that everything is all normal in Cambodia. It hasn't been raining really the rain is basically done, it looks like. Sometimes tons of lcouds come in but doesn't end up raining at all.

Here they take "ice cream sandwich" a little too seriously, haha.

This past week has been really good. I've learned so much I feel like this past week. I'm finally starting to be able to understand what they are saying and it is making it so much easier and so much more fun. Every now and then you have a lookpuu come up to you and start talking to you. Usualy when they have a little bit too much to drink. By a little bit I mean tons. And they get super talkative. For some reason this past week it happened twice. The first one we talked to was super funny. We were talking to him and then all of a sudden under his breath he asked what did we do to get such white skin. The second one asked us if we were French or Japanese. Elder Jorgensen told him we were Japanese, and lookpuu is like what? No way?! I don't believe you! So funny sometimes. But it's fun now to at least be able to understand what they are saying to me. It also makes me feel more connected to my investigators and what not. Now I feel I can teach more according to his needs.

This last week we met a Lookyiay. A grandma basically and her husband. We met them because they were the parents of these possibly investigators we have sent us to their house so we could teach them there since we were super busy but they never showed up beacuse they have a whole bunch of people at their restaurant. But we talked to them and basically were talking about how the lookyiay is curious as to why there are so many churches. So we are planning to meet with them today. It's just crazy how the Lord wil always be guiding you to people. Being in the country really shows me how the people have th be prepared by the Lord, they have to be ready. You can say whatever you want, you can have the room full of the spirit, where the spirit is just so strong, but if they don't have an open heart, if they aren't ready, it won't change them at all. And when you see them let that spirit in and start to change, they almost become all new people. Something I learned this week as I was geting down on myself as to why we weren't getting any investigators. Another funny story I just thought of. Teaching a new possible investigator Pheak. We taught him about God and how to pray. He's about 18 years old. We explained prayer and he understood it pretty well. We asked him if he'd pray and before he even said yes he bowed his head and started praying. Haha it was so funny, he just went for it.

So thanks again for all the emails and all the love, it makes weeks so much more fun when you open the mailbox to a dearelder, your email inbox is full, or show up at the mission home a see a package with your name on it. Glad to hear you are all having fun too.

So what's going to go on for me this week. Friday we are doing a little Christmas party, with a talent show, white elephant gift exchange, a slideshow, and on Saturday is zone conference, and all the missionaries from everywhere are coming down for it. Going to be so fun. We will also watch the general conference Christmas program thing too.

This last week was super good. We have a new family, don’t know how they are going to do so far or where their motives are but they still want to learn with us so can’t really ask for much more than that. They have 3 kids but 2 of them are mute. They say they can understand but can’t talk, but I think it’s something mental for sure. Either way they are super cute and awesome kids. They are quiet and just sit there and listen. When we show up it’s a non-stop waving fest too. Also, miing puo and chandii both came to church! Only 2 weeks until Chandii's baptism. He's super awesome. This last week he told 2 stories. 1, how he originally started learning with us so he could learn some English, but know he wants to learn the gospel. Like before he would read when he had time. But now he makes time to read because it’s so important. He hasn't turned on the TV in weeks because he uses that time to read the book of Mormon. Then for yesterday when we were teaching enduring to the end, he just went off on how we have to keep doing what we need to do, like go to church read and pray, or we will go away from God and to stay close and have the Holy Ghost we need to follow the commandments. That’s what he is the most excited about, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Every time he tells us it’s like he can feel it on the outside of him, but once he gets baptized it will be in him to help him learn faster and follow the commandments.



That is me, Elder Nico, and chandii. So now you can put a picture to his face. This last week he came to church so he is still on track to be baptized on the 1st. Miing puo did not go so she will have to be postponed. But today we teach Sabbath day holy in lesson 4 so hopefully she will get back on track, keep them in your prayers.

Another cool thing that happened was yesterday we were stopping place after place to find this water bottle, and the 3rd place we almost didn't stop but we thought what the heck why not. 1st, they had the water bottle, 2nd an older man who lives there is just like "hey... I want to join your church, can I join your church?". We told him he can but needs to learn some before he can be a member. He told us "ok well I’m not that free because I work a lot and I’m only here sometimes, but my wife is here all the time, she never goes anywhere, so teach her". It was super funny. It’s really cool when God blesses you and helps you find the right people.

Well that’s about it for this week. I love you all so much, keep up the good work. I know that this church is true and it this is the work of the Lord. It's the most important responsibility we all have as members, missionary work. It’s why we were born in these days.

Love always, Elder Rucker

Transfers and Investigators

So awesome news for this week. Neak Miin puo is a lady we are teaching. She learned before with the elders and learned all the lessons for months but never went to church. That is the only thing keeping her from progressing. She is super poor and works at one of the factories here, they make 2$ a day btw an if they don’t go to work one day even if they are sick or hurt or something they get their pay cut 10$ super corrupt, but anyways she came to church this last sunay with her little boy, it was so awesome. She is so nice and prays everyday and reads. She gets everything pretty well, an what’s super awesome is as soon as she doesn’t understand something, she asks right away, doesn’t wait, but wants to understand. She told us about a dream she had before we started teaching her again about how she didn’t see a god or anything but she saw the Elders.


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lookpuu lii's house sawing this wood in half for him,

super fun I've never sawed anything like that, where it's

two people pulling back and forth, nor have I ever

sawed with a homemade saw

We did the apostasy and resotration part of Lesson 1 for Chaandi. When we finished he told us, now I understand, we had them read the 1st vision in the pamphlet, and he said he read it before in the Liahona and didn't understand what they were talking about, and he said now he gets it. We even were able to establish dispensations with him. It was super awesome. He got it all. When we were done we committed him to pray about what we taught him, whether or not it's true, specifically whether or not it's true, specifically whether or not Joseph Smith is a prophet or not. He said yes, then he said I already bleive he saw God and Jesus, and I think in order to know I'll have to pray more than once and I'll have to keep reading, studying, and learning. He is such an awesome investigator. We told he's totally right and how we even still pray to know to strengthen our faith every day.


So transfer calls came in last night. I will be staying in Kian Svay. Elder Nico is leaving though. He's headed to serve in the city to be with Elder Stokes who was in my group from the MTC. Elder Ballard and Elder ann are staying. I am getting a new companion. He is coming from Batnambong, which is way north a little to the east of Siem Riep. The crazy part is, he is only 1 group ahead of me! I don't know anything about him other than he is a red head. It's gonna be crazy to have two rookies together like that. Usually doesn't happen because both would be too young to know Khmae well, so its gonna be fun. I guess I'm just gonna have to learn real fast :-p. So I'm excited to have Elder Jorgensen come, but sad to see Elder Nico go, he was definitely one of those really good companions that you don't forget. I make fun of him because now he's gonna go to the city and not be biking a million miles a day and get fat. Besides that nothing too big, other than December starts tomorrow! CRAZY! So excited for Christmas.


Anways, new companion, Elder Jorgensen. He is super awesome. He is from Idaho and has 1 younger sister who is like 2. Funniest thing is he is super good with the yo-yo. This last week was a little tougher, 1st time I've had a companion switch while in the country. Went through the new companion blues a little bit just because everything is new and you no longer are best friends with your companion blues a little bit just because everything is new and you no longer are best friends with your companions and all that fun stuff. But so far it's gotten really good though. Our contacting is better than ever, which is ironic because we are like the youngest companionship in the mission. It's actually better, because now that I know I don't have anyone to really translate or talk its forcing me to do a lot more. I'm learning a ton with the language and with missionary work.


It's wedding season here in Cambodia and there are weddings everywhere. Weddings here are super expensive, just as expensive as American weddings, like at least 5k usually 10k dollars. Granted most of that is buying the wife, 2k for poor 3k for average and 5k if you are rich. That's what you pay. But how weddings work is they set up tables and this cover thing and they all eat rice all day, for as many days as how rich you are. Live bands and Buddhist ceremonies. They all erect these little megaphone speaker towers that blast music throughout the neighborhood they are in. It's so loud sometimes you can't even talk to your companion walking by one of them.


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Me and Elder Nico with neak miing puo's 2 kids: Hang and Bannaa.

They are so funny. They are classic little boys. They will like

fart on each other and cough in each other's faces, they always

Go biking together and everything. They aso funny. You probably

wouldn't notice but what bannaa is doing is showing the bottom

of his foot to the camera which is super rude. Like the rudest thing

you can do. When his mom found out she yelled at him ""why did

you do that!". so funny.

The most fun thing is teaching progressing investigators. This alst week was good and bad. It was super good because Chaandii has a baptismal date now! January 1st. He came to church last Sunday and he brought his Dad! He was telling us how much he love sand wants to share the gospel. He wants to be a missionary and don't have the heart to tell him he can't because he has a baby. But he also said he wants his little baby to be a missionaryand someday, which is SUPER awesome because he is already planning on converting everybody in his family. I love teaching progressing investigator and watching them grow as they learn and apply the Gospel in their lives. Recently I've really realized the power of this gospel in helping the lives of people. You can literally see them become better off money wise as well. They aren't rich and still have problems, it's just their lives are 100% better in so many ways.

Elder Nico and I in front of the house waiting at a member's

house for her to come back so we can go teach an

investigator. Her house is so small it's crazy

Another really fun thing to do here is contacting. It is not like America, which is good and bad. More often than not they will always invite you to sit down with them and hang out, they will pull you up a little plastic chair or you will sit on one of their bamboo table/bed things. It's against their culture to not. They reason why it's bad beacuse it's different is because they usually think you are there to give them money or rice or something. And when you mention Jesus Christ some of them get real awkward and shut up, sometimes just walk around somewhere so you can't talk to them. But honestly, they are the friendliest and nicest people in the entire world and they are so easy to love. Even the super Buddhist ones that get awkward will still try to give you water or something.


 Everything is going good here and I'm feeling more and more like a missionary every day. I know that this is hte Lord's work, it is the stone cut out of the mountain. Nothing can stop it. One way or another everyone will know Christ. Every tongue will confess that Jesus is the Christ. I know that Jesus is the Christ our King and our Redeemer.

I love you all family keep up the good work.

Love, Elder Rucker



A huge group of people from a family home evening with
a lady and her friends and family who just got baptized.
Everyone in that picture is a member or an investigator.
 It was the most fun night ever. We explained to them what
Christmas was and about hte birth of Jesus and how he
was born and all that Then we took pictures, played a game
 where if you lose you get white powder rubbed on your face,
 and ate a bunch of fruit and a little Khmae dessert
 fruit thing. It wasn't that good.








New Haircut and New Investigators

Hello again!

So big news in the Cambodia world. It’s officially been announced so I guess I can tell it now. President Smedley has received revelation that by June 24th Cambodia could not only have a stake, but could have 2 stakes! This last Sunday was district conference and president Smedley announced that to all the members present. It’s so insane to me that this country could go from 0 to 2 in less than a year, almost half a year. So crazy.

I just read the Liahona story in my Khmae book of Mormon. I just want you to know how they described heed and diligence was this: taam seckdei camnua nung seckdei pyiayiam robah puak kee. camnua means belief, and pyiayiam means to try, and seckdei makes it a noun. So it means it was according to their belief and whether they would try. So something interesting for you guys. So next time you teach that lesson feel free to go ahead and through that in there. We need to have a belief, and we need to act on that belief.

As for this week funny stories are:
1st- Lookpuu Lii, who is the person asleep in this picture I think, tried to give me a kiss during the lesson the other day. He is so weird but he is so funny.
2nd- As you can tell from the pig picture I got a haircut. Elder Nico shaved my head. First time I’ve buzzed my hair forever, this country is so much colder now. But anyways the funny part is everything here loved it. This older lady we teach, who is a recent convert, said it was cool. It was so funny to hear it. It would be like hearing a 70 year old lady saying awesome haircut instead of nice haircut. I don’t know it was just funny. Lookpuu Lii liked it too because he said I looked like a monk.

Spiritual Story.
Chaandii, a guy we contacted who hadn't even learned a lesson yet, came to district conference on Sunday. He is the same guy who told us he couldn’t stop thinking about his conversation with us. When we met with him to teach him his first lesson he told us at first when he showed up it was super weird and he was nervous. But as he went in and listened, he didn’t really understand what they were talking about but he just felt really happy, like his body was super light. From there it went to him basically asking us where am I from, who am I, and where am I going. Which is soooooo rare to have a Cambodian with questions like that. We taught the whole 2nd lesson with him and he understood it all and it just makes sense to him. Oh did I mention he waited from 10-12 for us and just read a member's (sokhnaa the one who got baptized recently, they are cousins) copy of the Liahona. And he said I really like this magazine if I read this will I understand better? It so unbelievable how prepared he is for the gospel it’s so awesome.
ps. water festival starts today so no proselyting until Friday night at like 5, it technically got cancelled because lots of people died last year but I guess the people are doing it on their own or something. All I know is the whole country basically goes to Phnom Penh so it’s too dangerous for us to proselyte

Why hello again. So the water festival is officially over now. It was sooo fun. Last Thursday was cleaning the house day and CBR work. Friday was sports day. We biked all the way to northwest Phnom Penh to meet with all the Elders and play basketball and hang out. It was so fun to talk to all my MTC Elders and talk to them about what's going on in their areas. Sunday was really cool because Sokhnaa received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Monday was zone conference. We went to 5th branch in the city and were taught/instructed from 8-2 with a 1 hour lunch break of course. It was awesome. Catered food, with ice cream and cake! But seriously the conference was really good. It was mostly good because they really broke down tithing for us, what we need to have a stake, what we need to do, and how we need to do it. So it was super good to just give us that focus to get what really needs to be done. They also did a little follow the rules session because it's gonna take so much focus to finally get Cambodia the stake it needs. It would just be so cool if this country had a patriarch. I just wish these people could experience a stake just so they would know how awesome it is.

So to exzplain the pictures, one is a picture of just some member's kids, one is me in front of our church. Yes that is our church out here in kian svaay, it's actually a pretty nice building, it's a rented church so its super weird, but it's nice. Plans are already undder way to get a church out here and once ther eis one its going to explode out here. The third picture is me and Elder Nico in Lookpuu Lii's tree house eating some grapefruit that he gave us for digging some dirt for him. He is so funny he was so excited that day becasue he just bought these 2 new orange trees to plant. I told him my dad grows oranges and then he just starts going off on like what kind of oranges, are they good, are the like Cambodia oranges, I dont even knoww hat he was saying, he talks fast and has a weird accent so it's super hard to understand.I think he is starting to like us though because he prayed for us to be rich when we grow up, have beautiful wives, smart kids, and an airplane so that we could visit him. Which is better than his usual prayer like, I know these elders taught me to forgive today but I'm sorry god I just can't do it I get too angry, amen.

So cool spiritual story this week, chaandii. The super awesome investigator we have. We taught him about Jesus's life, and he went off asking if it’s true that he was born in a manger, the three wise men, all that stuff. He asked us if that was true. He said he saw it in a movie a couple years ago. That was so insane that he knew all of that. I bet most of the members don’t even know about that part of Jesus life yet. He's just so smart and everything just makes sense to him, and he has such a desire to learn, he just has a good spirit about him that is just so rare out here in Cambodia. I can just feel it in him. He has a good heart. In fact when we told him we wouldn’t be able to come Monday because we are going to the city for Elder training he asked if he could come. Also when we told him we will be back on Friday at 11:00 he said he will start waiting at 7am. We told him we can’t leave earlier than 10:30 but he still is gonna wait "just in case". Haha he is so awesome.


 Not much this week because of all the festivities so that's all I got. I jsut want you all to know I know that this is the true church of Christ, and the only thing you have to do to know that too is to open the Book of Mormon and read it. It's amazing to see the sacrifices the people go through to be members and I know the only reason they do it is becaue they know it's true. Jesus is the Christ and our Savior. I love you all, Elder Rucker

First Baptism and New Clothes

So this last week was pretty fun. Friday and Saturday were dreadful because we had no electricity for that whole time, it was sooooo hot and I got eaten alive by mosquitoes because we had to open all the windows. But besides that all good. We got the new Elder in the house, Elder Aan. He is so funny. He is soooo Khmae. The Khmaes have this weird idea in their head if you eat bread you become weak, and you get strong and big from rice. And whenever they talk to us they ask us if all we eat in France is bread. 2 things wrong with that, they think we are from France but try to talk to us in English, and they think all we do is eat bread. Its kinda funny. So when I say Elder Aan is Khmae, when we ask him if he wants some bread he says "no I don’t like bread". But he is honestly the funniest kid ever. He is smaller than you mom. He is a little over 100 pounds and like 5'2'' ish. He is so cool.

Sokhnaa got baptized on Sunday. It’s so crazy to finally have had my first baptism. He is such an amazing guy. He understands so much. He had been learning from the Elders for 1 year! Yeah they have to learn for a long time otherwise if you baptize then you get inactive members like Lookpuu Lii, who was baptized after 2 months and thinks the branch president is jesus. But no Sokhnaa is super awesome, and he is so excited, and he told us he wants to help us. So now all we got to do is get him off on a mission.


I got my new Khmae clothes last Wednesday and they are soooo nice. They fit me sooo good. The shirts I have already aren't too much hotter, they are just super big, but they are fine, but the pants, the Khmae pants are soooo much cooler and like half the weight its insane Tailored they are like 8 or 9$ each. I'll attach a picture of me. It’s with just some random Khmae that I asked if he wanted to take a picture with me. Hahaha he was super shy and embarrassed because he thought his clothes were too dirty. It was super funny.

This last week we got a call out of nowhere from some random person. It was a 19 girl who got the pamphlet that we handed to her dad and she wants to learn. That’s saying a lot because phone calls here are suuper expensive, she spent like 1$ to talk to us. So we visited her house and her sister mom and dad all want to learn, and while we were teaching her like 20 people around her house, all her neighbors, came to talk to us. We got attacked with question, it went from wow you know Khmae really well, you speak so well, to wow you are so pretty, to look at my daughter she is pretty white do you want to take a Khmae wife, to will you teach me English, then we brought it full circle by turning it into a, no sorry we only come to the house to teach about Jesus, do you want to learn? It was crazy though they were all super nice and I have such a good feeling about that village back there. I feel like it’s just ready to explode. I'm hoping we will have a lot of success back there.

So last Thursday I went on an exchange with Elder Ann, the Khmae elder. That was possibly the hardest day of my entire life. And not in the way you would think either. I didn't get dehydrated or tired, in fact when we got home Elder Ann instantly laid on his bed and passed out, clothes on and all. Haha the entire day I was asking him if he was tired yet. But it was super hard because he is SO quiet. I literally had to talk to everybody and say everything! It was so amazing though, I felt so blessed because my ability to talk and understand was so great. If that wasn't gift of tongues I don't know what is.

So there are 2 investigators that I want to talk about today. Both came from contacting and they are new. First you already know a little bit I think, not sure I forget. Anyways, her name is ceentaa, she is 19 years old and called us after finding our phone number on a pamphlet we gave to her Father. She is super excited to learn, we only stopped by her house once, last Friday, asked if she wanted to learn, and she said yes, we did the intro to teaching where we kinda just got to know each other, set up a return appointment and left. She went to church that Sunday! Which is super rare for khmae's. And she walked! She absolutely loved it. She said the last Jesus church she went to all laughed at her for coming so far and were rude and unfriendly because she was new. She went to church and said everyone was suuuper nice to her, and somebody even drove her home on their moto. She is super excited to learn and so committed already.

The next is Chaandii. We contacted him one time, and found out he is Sokhnaa's cousin. He didn't have a phone number so we told him we'd ask Sokhnaa where is house was and we'd go find him one day. He didn't seem that interested. Well right after that the road flooded and the only way you could get to his house was by boat which is against the rules for us because its they super sketchy makeshift boats that I don't even understand why they float. So anyways after 2 weeks it all went away. and we went to talk to him. He told us he was super bored when he was talking with us. But he told us he couldn't stop thinking about it for days. And he started finding and noticing people who were doing the Jesus thing and saw how much better their lives were and he said he knows he has to join. So he asked us how to join and we told him he can always come but to be a member you have to learn and be baptized, so he is super excited and ready. it’s just such a testimony builder about how the lord really is out there preparing people for you. It's so nice to talk to somebody like him after talking to countless of hardened Buddhists who ask for medicine or money, we tell them know, and they tell us our church doesn't help anyone and isn't a real Jesus church.

So anyways, I love you so much family. I know this church is true. I know that this is the church of Jesus Christ, his only true church. I know it was restored and that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. I testify with all my heart that we have the restored gospel on the earth again, and once again we have the saving ordinances that allow us to return to our Father in Heaven. I love you all, and keep smiling.

Love, Elder Rucker

Elder Nicosa, Ryan's companion is burning
his pants to commenorate his year and a half
on a mission.