Cambodia Bound!

Elder Rucker has finally left the MTC and is now in the field. He had a long flight from Salt Lake to LA to Hong Kong to finally Phnom Penh, over 18 hours flying! He is very excited but loved his time in the MTC. More pictures from his last days in Provo:

Old friends meet again!

 Elder Rucker (Cambodia), Elder Liljenquist (Argentina), Elder Combs (Brazil), and Elder Quinn (Ukraine)

 Cambodia T-shirts

Loving being a missionary!

Elder Rucker with Elder Quinn and Elder Dubious (Las Vegas) and Elder Combs

Soon, Ryan says, his emails will get interesting and worth while to put up on the blog. We will post his address as soon as we know it, every missionary loves letters!

More pictures from Elder Rucker!

Here are some new (and some goofy) pictures of Elder Rucker in the MTC. He's doing great and working hard!

"The common MTC 'pointing to your mission' picture"

"Yum, Vanessa's cupcakes!"

"Fun games after hard studying. I love this game!"

"The soccer team!"

"My district"

"I spend a lot of my time learning the language. TRC was really awesome again, we taught Isaac, who was a really great guy and a talker, he basically talked for the whole 40 minutes...His Khmae was really good. I understood basically everything he was saying. So I was feeling pretty cool after that like I had a handle on the language. Then at dinner that night we ran into the 2 Elders that just came in from Cambodia going to San Bernadino California English speaking mission. They asked us 1 question and I have no idea what they said, their accent and their speed was just unbelieveable. Excited to get to Cambodia though to start learning."

He also said:

"It was funny yesterday because Elder Gibson said to Elder Edmunds khnom nung sl>b pria you, what he meant to say was khnom nung sl>p you. He said "I'm going to spoon you" instead of saying "I'm going to kill you for stealing my pen." Haha, stuff like that hapens all the time, we have our fun and silly games and what not but we focus when it's focus time, everyone here is so dedicated, motivated, and focused its awesome. I love all of you and I know this church is true and I know that christ lives. Love always, Elder Rucker"

Remember to jot down something and send it to Elder Rucker, he LOVES letters! He is such an amazing missionary!

The Longest Alphabet Known to Man

Ready for your khmae lesson?

To those who don't know, Elder Rucker is learning Khmae (KA-my), the language spoken in Cambodia. He has 11 weeks to learn how to speak, read, and write in Khmae and the Romanized Khmae before he is sent off to the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh (Nom Pen). Here is a letter from him explaining the language and showing what he is learning while in the MTC (It is a little small to read but you can see the symbols).

There are 33 consanents (green), 32 sub-consanents (red), 25 vowels (blue), and 14 independent vowels (black). With 104 letters, I think it definately is the longest alphabet known to man.

Khmae romanization is the representation of the language using the Roman alphabet.

Ryan says it is really hard to learn, but he is studying hard. Ryan says, "I love learning more Khmae though, during this past week I was finally able to read the Book of Mormon (mostly correct) but I have no idea what I was reading, haha." His district practices together a lot out of class in the dorms so he is progressing.

At the end of all his letters, Ryan writes a sentence or two in Khmae bearing his testimony. He says, Khnom duy thaa preah yezsuu krin kuu cia preah ?>ys>ykruah robah yaan: I know that Christ is our Savior.

Remember to write Ryan, and if you ask, you could get a letter back from him in Khmae!

Elder Rucker sent pictures!

Pictures from Ryan at the MTC! He is doing great, loving his district, and working hard to learn the Khmae language.

The Kennedy's dropping him off at the MTC!

Ryan's words: "Ahhh yeahhh."

Companion Elder Gibson

Khmae language study

Translating

His fun class

Temple walk

Part of his district (11 young men and 1 young woman in his district total)

Nametag

Elder Rucker LOVES letters! Send him one on dearelder.com or write a letter to the address above!

"I know that this is the true church, the church of Jesus Christ. I know that through faith, repentance, and enduring to the end we can return to live with God through the Atonement. Jesus Christ took on the pains of billions of God's children, he understands everything we are going through and loves us so much. I know we can receive eternal life and live with our families for eternity. I know Jesus loves me and he loves you.

I'd like to challenge you to simply give a brief moment every morning to give a small thought about the Savior, even for a couple of seconds, and I know you will feel the blessings that I have felt, I promise that you will feel the blessings of remembering your Savior every morning, whose grace, mercy, and love allow us to return to our Father in Heaven. I love you so very much family and I think of you always, my krom kruassa (family) is always in my prayers. Love, Elder Rucker"

Reporting to the MTC on Wednesday, June 22, 2011