May Emails

May 6, 2012:

So this week was waay better than last week. Its kind of funny how one week can be totally awesome and one week can totally suck. Also funny how the one that is awesome, is the one you are the most physically and mentally drained.

Sunday was Molyvorn's baptism. It was so nice. Always such a spiritual experience when you baptize somebody. This week we performed a ton of service. 1 picture is this guy who is a recent convert who was movie tons of dirt into his house, like 2 truck loads, and lay cement down so his floor will be higher for the flood season. Overall we made a goal, more diligence. Work harder, and be more consistent. Especially, in seeking referrals. We made plans what we were gonna do, who we were gonna meet, what we were gonna teach them, we started praying to get referrals to help them share the gospel etc. We got our prayers answered the next day. We started that on Wed, and by the end of sunday, had 5 contacted referrals, and i can see 3 of them already looking super good to getting baptized. Its just so amazing how willing the Lord is to bless us. Anytime we receive a blessing it is by obedience to that law upon which the blessing is predicated upon. I am such a believer. And now my testimony is strengthened because of it. We set goals, made plans, prayed, and put it into action, and we were blessed. It all happened because at the end of last week, i wasn't satisfied with my work, and this week, whether the results were different or not, i was determined to finish the week knowing i did was required of me to do, and i feel so happy about the week. I'm just glad the Lord decided to bless me. The witness comes after the trial of our faith.

The district hangs out all the time, we do sleepovers some times, like before p-day, we hang out all p-day, we have really great unity... Also we go play basketball in the mornings tuesday thurs sat. so thats good exercise, and out house has a bench press that an elder bought and left, so i do that and do the p90x ab workout that i remember. Its pretty good, i'm trying to eat healthy and workout and its paying off. Mornings i eat a big bowl of oatmeal, a bunch of fruit, papaya or pineapple bananas or dragonfruit, every night an apple, and also a pb & j for breakfast, trying to make it my biggest me, i eat brown rice and a vegetable stir fry for lunch and not too much for dinner, usually just a snack. trying to get in shape, come home looking good and not fat like a lot of Elders here :-p*

I know that the Lord is at the head of this work, he is guiding me and leading me to his children. I know that this is the most important work to be done on the Earth today. I know families can live together forever, and i'm so grateful that my family is so awesome and not a bunch of potato heads ;-)

Love, Elder Rucker

May 13, 2012

Hellooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...
So transfer calls happened once again. Elder Sprinkle/Khan will be the same, with Sprinkle as District Leader. Elder Chan (my companion for any who forgot) will be leaving, going to Siam Riep. I will be staying and my new companion is going to be Elder Jongsma (not sure on spelling yet). He just got dont being trained so this will be his 3^rd transfer in the country. So he doesn't know khmer yet. Kind of bummed, was hoping to get a khmer companion for once, but that's okay hopefully Elder Jongsma is cool. 

This last week the rain started to come in and man is it coming in strong. Its pretty crazy. On wednesday, it started to rain and literally within 2 minutes it was coming in sooooo hard.

Everything
floods, and its insane. One of the pictures is me with their sewer canal thing, and its overflowing, so nasty because thats their SEWER. Another picture is a little wooden bed in some super nasty black water. Yep that poor area that sits on the sewer lake, it flooded, so now they are literally living in sewer water, so nasty. Another picture of the lady is one of our investigators, she's possibly the poorest person in that village, her name is Samat. Another picture is a guy holding a monkey, he went to the provinces, bought a monkey for $50, and brought it back. It was such a cool monkey, it clung to the guy. He would start walking away and it would quickly climb him and cling/hang from the back of his shirt, it was so funny. Super though because all the neighbor kids and parents would abuse it, smack its head or step on its tail. So dumb. The final picture is me/chan with Lookyiay Ret. She is the super old grandma that is a recent convert. She moved back to Kampong Cham, because it was getting too hard for her in the city. The people by the place where she sold fried bananas chased her away. Luckily though she will still be right next to the church. She is super cool, she has no family, all her kids cousins and husband died during Pol Pot.

Duck Egg...yummy!

 
This week was a really great week, numbers wise. We had 6 investigators at church, the most i have ever had at church, i can see all of them getting baptized. 1 in particular, Malai. She is a new investigator. We start teaching her and then all of a sudden she brings her little sister to start learning (Malai is about 28 btw). Everytime we go there she goes around trying to round up all her neighbors to learn. Last time we taught the apostasy restoration book of mormon. After we finish a neighbor shows up, and then Malai starts teaching her friend telling he everything. It was cool because it made it stick in her head, since she was trying to remember everything, she did really good.

 

Its so nice to see investigators progressing. It was funny getting a Dear Elder from Syd saying that Nate in the new Ward Mission Leader. We just got a new one and i wish i had nate for my WML. We just had a meeting with our BML trying to tell him what his job is, what he expects, what we expect, what the lord expects, and then we made a plan how we are going to really start using the BMs to help this branch progress. Turn them into actual missionaries rather than "member presents". Going to make them responsible for specific investigators/members so they get more excited about their progression. So that way when they don't see someone show up to
church, they will start thinking about what they can to do help and why didn't they come etc. Basically its just going to be awesome. Super excited, it will bring attendance up, progressing investigators, baptism, spiritual experiences at church, etc. It will help everyone, including the missionaries and BMs themselves.
 
Love, Elder Rucker

May 20, 2012:



So it was another great week in Cambodia. Everything is going pretty normal here. We had
another great week with 5 investigators at church. 1 of them was a new one we picked up this week. Last friday Elder Chan left, and Elder Jongsma came. It was also weird to see my trainer go, Elder Nicosia, I remember when he had about a whole year left when i was with him, and i thought it would be forever until he was gone, well look, now he's gone. The new companion is good, i miss Chan a lot though, its been really hard with him gone.
 

Elder Oaks came into town this last weekend. Sunday night, he spoke at the district center to anyone who felt inclined to join. The count was taken, about 1200 people showed. It looked like a lot more though. This morning all the missionaries were able to listen to him speak for about 40 minutes, as he taught us.
 
Sorry about no pictures, after the meeting i had to get my bike fixed, and they said it would be about 1 hour, so we decided to just email to save time on our pday, so thats why i don't have my cord or camera to send pictures. Just means even more for next week.

 
One of the great miracles this last week took place on Sunday when Elder Oaks was speaking. The specialness of the miracle is that Elder Oaks was talking about record keeping, and it made me think about baptismal records. Recently we have been putting a lot of time and work into redoing our baptismal records, and i've been wondering what we can do about the "lost sheep", the people who have picked up and left to a place with no church, or we don't know where they went, or we dont have a number, etc. Well anyways after Elder Oaks was done speaking people start standing up to leave and i look in front of me, about 15 rows, and i see a man standing, and all i could see was his back, and sometimes, maybe half of his face. But for some reason I felt like i knew his face, so i decided to go ask him what branch he is from. So i do it, and he tells me, 1st branch (my branch) i ask him if he went to church this morning and he said no he has been inactive for a while. At that moment i could see his CBR come to my mind, I could see his picture perfectly, and I knew exactly who he was. I got his phone number, asked him where he lives, and told him i'd give him a call to set up a meeting if that was okay. He said it would be okay. Just a great miracle and blessing, that diligent record keeping, and the spirit, can lead us to find God's children when we least expect it.
 
I know that this is the Lord's church, this is his work, and this is His kingdom on the Earth that we are building. I know that our Savior died for us, and through his Atonement we can become true saints, and be fit to receive the blessings of a Celestial Glory.

Love, Elder Rucker

April emails

April 2^nd:

So another good week in ol' Cambodia. The craziest thing, transfer calls came in last night. I swear i remember last transfer calls like they were yesterday. I remember sitting in the computer cafe writing you guys telling you I'm headed to 1st branch. Elder Chan and I are the same nothing changing. Elder Pearson is leaving :-(. He's going to Kampong Thom which is pretty cool though. Elder Khan is staying in the house in 9th branch and we are getting Elder Sprinkle coming in to replace Elder Pearson as district leader in 9th branch with Elder Khan. If that name sounds familiar its because it is. Elder Sprinkle was with me in Kian Svay for my 1st transfer here. I have sent you a picture of him already. Its super funny because now i'm going to be in a house with him again. So funny. Such a small world, and an even smaller mission.

So we found out some other news too. Going to be an apostle coming to Cambodia in May with possibly 2 other 70's and because i'm in the city i'll get to meet him. Pretty excited about that. Speaking of Apostles, General Conference isn't until this next week. We see it a week later, for English and all the Khmers too. We watch it recorded. I get to watch it all in English with all the other missionaries and english members here. Super excited because if i had to watch it in khmer, oh man that would suck.

This week nothing super awesome happened. Actually kind of sad. One of those weeks where your investigators start dropping like flies. Its okay though this week i know we are going to find a ton more. Molyvorn is still doing great. She's going to get baptized on April 29th as planned. We had 1 other investigator show up to church. His name is Nam. He has 7 kids and lived in the nastiest place ever. Everytime we teach him there are rats just running everyone. Its crazy. He foot got hit with a moto (different guy) so its super swollen and messed up. He's super poor and he promised to come to church, and he came, it was sooo awesome.

Another investigator, 53 year old Samat. Lady who lives in the same neighborhood, super nasty. Its off of a lake thats black (because its phnom penhs sewer water). Tuesday we taught her, and it was awesome she was super happy to see us, her mood has totally changed as we've taught her. She is so much more joyfull and what not. Its fun to meet her now. Before we would have to beg her to pray, and she would just sit there angry, grumpy, and no smile ever. Now she's is the opposite. Especially after we washed her dishes for her. Thursday we visit her, and we cant find her. We go looking around and find her laying on top of a wooden bed thing. Her head is completely shaved, she looks like she is dying, like literally at the moment dying. She's sees us and tries to sit up "teacher sit down, teacher sit down". after about 3 minutes she is able to force herself into a sitting position. I slowly sit down next to her, totally freaked out, and she passes out instantly onto me. So i finally get her to just lay down. I say today is probably not a good day to learn so we will just sit here and visit with her for a little bit. But no, she insisted we teach, she made us. So we taught her, visited her, and left. We asked her son and other what happened. She's so sick because 1, all you got to do is look at that neighborhood and then you will be asking how are these people not sick, and 2 because she is literally starving to death. Too sad, to say the least lets just say i was very humbled after that experience. I literally can't describe it

April 9^th: 

Everything is going great in Cambodia. Conference was awesome. My favorite talk had to be the one for Forgiveness by Elder Uchtdorf. That talk was super good. Conference is always so good. 10 hours in a suit though is a ton. Impossible to pay attention every talk. Excited for the Liahona conference addition though.

Nothing really too great went on this week. This Friday-Sunday is Khmer new years and its so flippin ridiculous, everyone is already gone, and will be gone until mondayish. Its soooo annoying. Dont have anybody to meet with and its impossible to find new investigators because everyone we contact is just in the city for the holiday. Friday Saturday are days off for us. Friday we have a cleaning/cbr day, and saturday we have a Sports day and more CBR time. Pretty excited for that, it will be really fun.

As for this week with investigators nothing really too great went on, it was hard to meet with most of them. Did have 1 good experience this week that I'd like to share though. We were planning to teach a LA, Sokhly. The original commitment was to get her to pray everynight with here 2 little daughter, who are around 14. As the lesson went we taught about prayer and i felt impressed to ask her if she prayers for her food. She told me she doesn't. So i commited her to start doing that everyday with her family. She then went on with tons of excuses as to why she can't do that, at the core being, she's afraid her neighbors will see. We went on to teach her and told her its okay if they come over to eat, have them pray with you, and if they don't want to, just have them sit there and hang out. I promised her that if she would, whether her neighbors would join our church or not, they would respect her. 2 days later, we were told by her that 2 people from her work are interested in working. Its funny how teaching with the spirit works, you don't say anything you aren't prepared to necessarily say, and you don't teach anything that you've really never taught before, but for some reason everything you say is what they need the most.

April 16^th:

So anyways, this week was pretty slow, almost nothing cool happened. Tuesday and Wednsday was super slow, i got really sick with a cold, and only went out for scheduled appointments, which were few. Thursday was slow too. Friday was a specialized training/cleaning/CBR day. Saturday was a sports/CBR day. And sunday was normal, super slow though. SO slow in fact normaly we have around 120 people at our church, this sunday, there were 28. Yep thats right, 2-8. I think if you added all the cbr's we have, all the members, you would maybe have 400. Super sad, super slow. Absolutely everyone was gone for Khmer New Year. It was like Christmas Morning in America, all weekend, still to today.

Either way i'm very excited to get going full speed again, even though it always sounds fun, it is way easier/more fun to just serve super hard, be super busy, and go in the door at night super tired.

Training was really good though. They talked about repentance, and bringing our investigators to repentance, etc. The weird thing is the Smedley's told us that this was the last time they would do a specialized training with us. The next one will be the new mission president. Almost here. June 30th they show up. Lots of cool things coming up. Apostle coming in may, mothers day in may, and the new mission president in June.

Last Tuesday, after district meeting we were able to go to some little girls birthday party. It was so fun and so cute. Literally we ate white rice, and grilled pork/beef. Thats it. It was so funny. Plus there was a cake too. The whole party was very humble and small but the 6 year old girl was soooo excited. Plus they had birthday hats too. I had a purple princess one. I wish i had the picture to send you. That was very fun though.

About 2 weeks ago there was a girl who's about 18 years old. She knows pretty good English, in fact i was talking to her in English and she was talking to me in English. We were talking about Khmer culture and the culture of the church. She went on to say how she wishes the Khmer families were different. She said she has never heard her father say "I love you". She knows her father loves her, because when she graduated 12th grade (which is a huge deal here) she saw her father cry, But she just wishes she could hear him say "i love you" about 1 week ago... her father died. And now, its too late.

I'm so grateful for my family, and for 2 parents that love me, and say they love me. I love you all so much.

I know that this is the work of the Lord, He loves me, He is guiding me, and he is helping me do the work i need to do. I know this church is true, and when we are obedient to his commandments we prosper in the land.

Love, Elder Rucker

Birthday and Wedding

Things are going great over here in Good Ol' Cambodia. My birthday was totally awesome. It was really funny though because i woke up and ironed my shirt, showered, worked out, made oatmeal, and its almost 7 o'clock, time to start studies. And I pull out my planner to look at people to think about while i study, I notice i didn't write the date. So i look up the date and just like Sweet, Its my Birthday! So i opened McKenzie present she sent for my birthday and then put it on (tie). Super cool tie by the way. So then just doing the day, about 6 pm now. I get a phone call from the AP's. They ask is this elder rucker?...yes.....your yo-yo is here (everyone knew mom was sending a yo-yo)........SWEEEET, thanks so much for calling... So then after that i called Elder Pearson who is in 9th branch which has the mission home in it. I call him and ask him if there is anyway he can drop by the mission home and pick up my birthday package that would be awesome, he said he was busy but he'd try. That night, he comes home, and brings my package.... YAAAA!!! so awesome. So yes mom i dont think it could have been better timing. It arrived, and was delivered, on my birthday. I told Elder Pearson how happy you'd be to hear he brought the package to me. And it was an awesome package mom, i hung up the birthday decorations instantly, and started playing with the yo-yo instantly. It was one of those few moments where you had super high expectation for what you were getting, and yet they were still surpassed. It looks soooo cool, and is so fun.

So as for whats going on in the branch. Our area doubled. We took a bunch from 11th branch. We got a new branch president who lives in the area we gained. There is a whole bunch of people there who were inactive and what not because before it took them so long to get to church. it took the branch president 30 minutes by car. and now he says he could almost walk. So lets just say our normal attendance which was 60's grew. In cambodia its normal to get around 60's. We have 135 members at church. And there was a ton of priesthood too, it was awesome. So i'm having a great time with the branch. Everyone is so excited, especially the branch president. He just radiates enthusiasm. He is super smart too, he knows like perfect english and runs the service center here. He's awesome. All the members in the branch were so excited on Sunday. The president said there are even more going to come next week. We are like borderline overflowing :-p. 3rd hour was good i was invited to teach, so yeah taught some Melchizedek priesthood holders for 3rd hour, got asked to teach after we had sang the opening song too. They were just, teach about being a father and what not i don't know, teach what you want to. So i taught them about all the things cambodia lacks, like spending time with your family, telling your wife you love her, being a good example, do what you want your kids to do, use your priesthood and give them blessings of peace and comfort and what not. Was a fun Sunday. The best part is one day Elder Chan and I are leaving the church and a 14 year old gear named bopha started riding after us yelling "can i help you!?". The youth always help, they are always hanging out at the church and stuff and always say, yeah i can help whenever just ask me. It's so much fun to have their help which is awesome, and to hang out with them.

Investigators. We lost Kang with the changes. Really sad too because this is not the time for change. 2 days after his baptism last week he started drinking again and has been every night. now he has to sober up for 2 or 3 weeks, get reinterviewed, then he can get the Holy Ghost. And now he has to deal with having a new branch and missionaries. I don't know if totally understood the importance of this all because even after telling him staight up you sinned, you can't get the holy ghost, he still asked us at church after we had

given the holy ghost to some other kids, am i getting the holy ghost too? I feel so sad for him. His wife, a recent convert, is so sad and having to go through so much, their family is super sick right now, and yet they still have such great faith its amazing.

As for investigators now we really don't have anything. And its kinda sad too because sometimes you start to question if you are being a good missionary, doing what you are supposed to, etc. We've already been ditched on like 5 return appointments with contacts, visiting tons of members and committing them to share the gospel, just not working out. Keep on truckin' though. Working super hard though, this was possibly the fastest week in my entire mission. So fast that my own birthday snuck up on me.

  
Another week down in 'ol Cambodia. This week was pretty good. Elder Pearson got super sick with a fever, he was all the way up to 39.7 Degrees. He has been wick since like Friday or Thursday and just went to the hospital this morning. The rule is if you are sick for 10 days you go home. That is probably my biggest fear, getting super sick and having to go home, that would be the worst ever.

This week for proselyting was pretty good. So much has happened i don't even know where to begin. We now have our first investigator with a baptismal date. April 29th, and its Molyvon. She's like 20 or something, but she's super smart and she's already asking super good questions. Usually its takes them a year to figure out, "wait, how is Mary the Mother and God the Father?". I still dont really know how to answer that one to them :-p. We found another 9 new investigators this week. Now we have like 8 progressing investigators, 1 baptismal date, and like 7 new/other. They just dont stop coming. Its so much more different than Kian Svay its crazy. Now what we are working on is taking what we have, and turning it into investigators who are on the path to baptismal dates. Getting them praying regularly and correctly, getting them reading everyday, and all the things they need to be doing to be converted. So i'm sure this next week we are going to drop a lot as we start sending our investigators through the furnace.

Probably the most exciting thing we did this week though was we went to a wedding. Yep thats right, a wedding, in the church!! which is super rare, people never marry in the church, they always do the normal khmer thing. It was everyones first time going to a wedding in the church. But then it made sense because it was a phillipino guy from Canada who came to marry a khmer girl who is a member. The guy didn't know khmer, and she doesn't know english, i dont know how it worked but it did. Well anyways since we needed both languages i got to help marry them, the branch president in khmer and me in English, haha it was so awesome. I have officially married 2 people. It was super fun just because its something you don't normally do. So thats what all the pictures are from.


One picture is me next to an old lady, her name is Lookyiay (grandma) Rate. She is so awesome, suprisingly, she's a recent convert. About 7 or 8 months old in the church. She lives all by herself. Her entire family, husband, 6 kids, grandkids, died during Pol Pot, she's the only one left. She sells food Monday through Saturday outside of a school. Barely makes enough, barely lives. We just started helping her push her cart to her house which is about 1 minute for us, and 1 hour for her. She goes a couple steps, stops a rests, a little more, sits down again, on and on til she is home. She has so much faith, she comes to church every sunday and pays tithing. We started helping her and me and Elder Chan started saving money to buy anything she has leftover when we show up, which is super stale overcooked corn (they love it here though but the corn is nasty) and some white bread, condensed milk, and milo (which is like ovaltine powder but different name). So if any of you out there think your life is hard, or its hard to endure, fly to Cambodia and meet this lady.

So that's about it for me, just working my heart out here and trying to stay healthy.

I love you all and i know this church is true. I know this is the work of the Lord.

Love, Elder Rucker

Pictures!

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