All Khmer District!

Hello family. This week was super great. I found out who my new companion is. Its David Archuleta! No i'm just kidding. But in my own personal opinion I got an even better companion. His name is Elder An. Yep, I'm training a Khmer. I'm so excited. I got 1 of the 2 Khmers who came in. There were like 10+ american elders that came too. I'm so excited to have my first khmer companion. I'm the last one in my group to have one. He is super cool. He is from Phnom Penh, from Bochengtong. He is a convert of about 1 year and 5 months! He is super cool. He has 4 sisters and no brothers (total opposites). His sisters and parents are all nonmembers. His parents did not want him to serve and didn't even want him to serve a mission. They didn't want him to go at all. His dad is actually very high up in the Buddhist community. He's called an Achah. Basically a teacher. So he has no family support at all. (so if anyone wants to feel free to send him an email so he can actually get a letter from someone feel free i already asked and he said he would like it if somebody emailed himVeasna.an@myldsmail.net ).

Elder An is, i can tell aleady, going to be one of my favorite companions. I don't even feel like I'm training him. His teaching skills are already so good. He just got back from the MTC, and you can tell he really took in the lessons that he got there. He developed great study habits and is very diligent. He is super positive and really excited about the work and inviting people unto Christ. Its so easy to be with him he is kind, easy going, and just wants to teach people about the gospel. He's really excited about getting new investigators and baptisms so he is very courageous and open to talk to people. He takes critisism super well and is wanting and willing to improve. I hope some great things can happen in this area over these next 2 transfers. He has increased my desire to serve already, and strengthened my testimony. I hope that i can give him the skills he needs and the strong testimony he needs as his trainer too.

yes that is a massive python, it could eat people no question.

Overall things here this week, there isn't much else  to talk about. The week was very good, and we saw some great miracles. Especially in a family who is so poor, that committed to saving 500 rial a day, so they can afford to pay the moto to take them to church every other week. In the end we didn't get any investigators at church, but we definately can't overlook the little miracles and successes. A potentional Melchezidek priesthood holder (inactive) came to church and we were able to get another inactive back for the first time in years. We were also able to get all of our recent converts at church too.

Sometimes you just work so hard and the results really don't show. If you think about it too hard, you realize there is so much to do, and it is overwhelming. Sometimes i wonder how we are ever going to get the church in this country going on their own. Then I think about how far its come, and imagine where it can go, a temple in the country, with family after family going in to be sealed for time and all eternity. Then it's all worth it, no matter I know that this is his work, and it will be done at some time or another, we cannot lose. I know this church is true, and it is the stone cut out of the mountain that will fill the whole earth. I'm so grateful i have the time, the health, the opportunity to serve a mission for the Lord.

Love, Elder Rucker

Baptism and another Transfer in Ta Khmao

Why hello family. How is everyone? For me things are going really well. Transfer calls just came in last night. Elder Barney is going to siem riep and elder Sem is staying. Elder Garlick is coming to be his new companion, which i'm super excited for because he is absolutely hilarious. As for me and Elder Meyers. Elder Meyers is leaving for Stoeung Mean Chey (thats where the book kind of takes place, he will be near trash mountain). I am staying in Ta Khmao as District Leader. Sister vom is leaving for Kampong Cham and Sister Chin will be training. As for my new companion, I don't know yet because I will be training again. President Moon told me I did a great job and said he felt really inspired to have me train again. So hey, who knows what will happen. I'm just glad to know that it won't nearly be as hard as last time, because i know the area and we already have investigators and less actives to go see. I'm very excited. Not surprised though, i had a feeling I was going to train again. I hope he is Khmer.

This week was very successful, we set new records for everything, from lessons taught, to investigators at church, to new investigators. We have been very blessed this week. One lady in particular stands out. We contacted her, and she gave me a fake name, but we got a return appointment. We show up and she's not there, but her son is there and he told us she just barely left. He gave us her real name and her phone number. We called her and she was really rude and said i'm busy right now leave me a lone basically. 2 days later she called us, and was super nice, and said sorry we weren't able to meet and asked when we could meet again. We met her, commited her to go to church. She went to church with her 2 kids. 30 minutes into Sacrament meeting she left (note i didn't even know she was there, she went and sat behind Elder Meyeres). I called her that night, turns out she had to take her kids home, but came back and loved it, and she asked us when we could meet again. That's just 1 of the many miracles we were able to see this week. I'm hoping with this new Elder we could get 4-6  more baptisms.

Kim got baptized! it was super great. And it is the first real baptism this place has had since the beginning of MARCH. I'm hoping this is the first of many. I'm so excited for him, he is so great. He is going to do so well.

Its a picture of me making the Rice cake thing. Its not even hard to do at all. Very fun. They were so awesome. They knew that i would come kind of late, so they made a bunch already and started cooking them, so when i showed up they had about 5 or 6 left to do so i could learn, and then we threw those in. So when we were done making them the other ones were done cooking so we could eat them. Super awesome.

That's a picture of all of us at the house in Kah Ko. The reason they are holding up a pink a green pig thing is because that's what i brought them. I was able to commit two of the girls to start saving money for their mission, if i would buy them a piggy bank (my idea). They are only like .50. The guy charged me $1 each, but i gave it to him anyways because i felt bad for him, he just sells random junk off of his bike all day everyday. So yeah it was a very fun day.

Well that's about it for me. I hope you all have a great week. Thanks for all the prayers, I can really feel. I love you all.

Elder Rucker 

Baptisms, Batman, and Baby Rats

Howdy. Everything in Ta Khmau for us is going great. The most fun thing about it is that we are starting to get investigators. We are now almost up to 10 solid investigators vs. about 4 at the beginning of the week. It's funny how when I went into 1st branch i was in the same situation. No recent converts no investigators. Then when i came here, the same thing. Now as i've been here its almost the same outcome as 1st branch. A little bit into the 2nd transfer all the investigators start flowing in. All of them have been referalls. Either from us working with in-actives or us working with members. We have definately gotten our Less Active program going and now are starting to go full throttle on investigators. This week we are going to start hitting the pavement contacting and finding more. The thing that we are really looking for is a family. That's the only thing we are missing. If we could just find 1 progressing family this area would go from good to awesome, so this week the will definitely be our focus.

The pictures are pretty interesting today. 1 is from the baptism we had this last Sunday. 2 kids out in Kah Ko. Kids of former inactives. I also went to Dream Land. Its the amusement park in cambodia. Its absolutely terrible. Their coolest rides are a small ferris wheel and the swinging viking ship ride. But it was fun to go. I didn't go to ride the rides, i actually went on an exchange to 5th branch.  But anyways we went to go visit a recent convert family who run a little restaurant stand thing there. It was so fun, they gave us ice cream, soda, weird potato things, and did i mention, i got to meet batman :-) . 

The picture of me holding the weird cup thing, well that's a funny story. As we were teaching Elder Khan saw a huge rat thing run up into the roofing of the stand. The rat was massive. That's where they keep their food and stuff so the guy climbed up there to get it out.

Just going to close up by telling you about 1 really prepared investigator. Kim. He is about 18 years old. This week he started learning with us. He is already on chapter 10 of the book of mormon. He is praying every day. He ended the baptismal service. Last Friday he literally asked us "yeah Elders i have a question, when can i do the baptism thing". He is so prepared. He is scheduled to be baptized November 4th.

I truly know that the Lord is out there preparing these people. This is the work of the Lord. The most important thing for us to do as members, is missionary work. There is nothing else more important for us to do, whether we are 8 or 80. "Therefore, all ye that have a desire to serve God, ye are called to the work". That means you mom and dad! I'm just kidding :-p.

Love always, Elder Rucker

Ancestors and Family History Work

Hello my wonderful family. Where do i begin today. This week was a great week. To be honest the week was fairly normal. It came time for Thursday's weekly planning session, and the planning session ended with not much new. Nothing really changed from the week before, and i just felt a little bit frustrated, and i though why is nothing happening, i feel like we are staying busy and doing great work but nothing is really happening". Then literally that day we pick up 3 new investigators, and 2 new inactive families. Friday and Saturday were the same stories. All the change in the world happened. We had a total of 5 in-actives commit to going to church and 1 committed and went to the women's conference. When Sunday came none of the came, which is alright. We just started meeting them this week, you can't really be too disappointed they don't have the faith enough yet to go to church, but at least they had the faith enough this week to commit to start learning with us again.

Another ray of sunshine on the week was the amazing package i received from Mom. It was such a great package, so many good snacks, and it had everything that i asked for, the pictures, the medicine, it was great. The picture of holly is now taped above my desk upstairs :-) . The pictures of the family were the greatest. I'm especially happy you threw in pictures of Grandma and Grandpa. They have really helped with what we are working on this week. Elder Meyers and I have really found success in teaching about temples and family history work. These are a people that are very devout to remembering and honouring ancestors. The only problem is, they don't know how to do it. Many people by joining Jesus, you throw away your ancestors. As Elder Meyers and I have gone around teaching about temples, and the work there is to do for the dead, we have found countless numbers of members who have never even known that our church believes in saving the dead. We have found so many more interested in doing the work for the dead. Now whether or not they will do it that's a different story. But at least they are being made aware of the blessings they can receive. It's been great to show Grandma and Grandpa Rucker, and talk about the work we did for them, and Grandma and Grandpa Huffman, and the work we are going to do for them.

I know this church is true. I know the temple is the house of the Lord. "Men and Women grow stronger through temple service". I know as attend the temple regularly, we will be endowed with power from above. The Lord loves us, and he has a vicarious work for us to do. He needs us. I know Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of god, who has recieved all the keys of the priesthood. I know the priesthood keys were restored to Joseph Smith. This is the work of the Lord, this is his church on the earth, and this is the only way for mankind to receive salvation, and enduring happiness. 

Love always, Elder Rucker

A painting from a member who made it in 2 days.

'

Another transfer in Ta Khmau

Me holding a random looking critter that's fried. I hope this doesn't disgust you too much and you will still love me, but that is a rat :-p. Don't worry, i've already sworn off to rat and dog for any future occurrence, just had to do it once.

Everything is going pretty great here in Ta Khmau. Had another sick week, this week it was Elder Meyers. Then i got sick again! I don't know what it is about Ta Khmau. I've barely gotten sick my whole mission but then I come here and i'm sick all the time. Luckily this one was a cold that came hard but lasted not even 24 hours. It was super nice.

Transfer calls were last night. The crazy thing I don't know if i even mentioned that last week because it snuck up so fast on me. Everything is absolutely the same. A very very small transfer this time around. So i will still be in Ta Khmau with Elder Meyers and the whole rest of the district is the same as well.

Rido came to church again yesterday! He came all 3 hours of church like he said he would. So far he has said he will do something and he has done it. This time he said next week he is going to bring his wife and kids with him next Sunday (they aren't members), which will be super exciting. I love that village out in Kah Ko. They all have so much faith. Probably the poorest people ever, but they spent money to go 11 kilometers to church. One man, who is in his fifties, rides to and from church every week. Take that dad :-) .

The things I've learned this week are enormous. So much so i can't share them. But i just want to share my testimony that I know this church is true. This week i've learned a lot about parenting ironically. I love my family so much. I'm so grateful to be in a family of all active members, who are sealed together. I'm grateful from this church, eternal families, and my parents. I love you all so much, i hope you have a good week.


Love, Elder Rucker

Successful Week and "Sacred Meat"

So this week was absolutely awesome. I just want you to know that things went great. Me and Elder Meyers are working well together and things are just going great. Wednesday Elder Khan and Elder Wright (the zone leaders) came down for exchanges. 1 went to 1st branch and Khan came with us to 2nd branch. It was super fun. Elder Khan is the Khmer elder who was in the house with me while i was in Tuoltompong. I was with him there for 6 months so it was fun to have him come. This was a former area of his too so he was able to show us to some members houses which was awesome. Then the great thing was Thursday morning, I had some people who were willing to eat "sacred meat" with me. That's what they call it, then in English they tell you "meat dog" but what they are trying to say is Dog Meat. Yes, i finally did it. I figured I had to do it at least once, and my entire mission I was told that TaKhmau was the best place to do it. Let me tell you what, and I'm going to be 100% honest here now. It was the best meat I have ever had in this country, by far. It was super good. I don't know how much I will be doing it in the future because it's kind of sad they have to kill little dogs to do it, but to be honest there's so many its probably good to control the population a little bit. Either way I'm mostly scared to eat it often because of my health, it's just kind of sketchy. 

On Friday I was able to go on an exchange with Elder Barney. I went into his area which was nice. It's kind of weird to be at that point in your mission where you, and i'm trying not to sound proudful here, know more that the other person. Just little lessons and skills that i've acquired through more time and experience. It was really nice to spend time with him to be able to teach him, and to be honest I was able to learn a lot from him as well. 

Our successes this week were through the roof. We felt so blessed and guided this week. Elder Meyers and are doing pretty good together, we just seem to have the same goal in mind for this area and what we want to see done. We are just working so hard to get the families activated, to have more families in the church and all the blessings that flow from that, as well as referrals from these part member and inactive members. That's where the real success and growth is going to happen.

Last week I talked about a man Rido. He said he was going to come, well, he did. It's so awesome to see him back to activation. He's started to get really close again with the members in his neighborhood. They are so supportive and happy to have him back which is great. And you can just see how penitent he is, and the weight of sin and guilt being lifted off his soul. You just see it in his countenance. He's changing. Another less active that came back this week was a grandma, who's name is boy. Yes as in boy and girl. It's funny. Anyways we were able to find her, commit her to come back, and she came back. 5+ other inactive were able to be found, and commited to either meeting again, or coming to church. We are seeing some great things. We were able to see it in our numbers for lessons.

My time in Ta Khmau has been 15, 10, 8, 14 lessons. This week were got 24. And the results can definately be seen in church attendance. We shot up from 68 to 115. We can definately hit our goal of 120. If we keep doing what we are doing I believe we can regularly be hitting 110+ near 120. Super amazing.

We also saw success with having all of our recent converts and investigators with a baptismal date at church too.


Overall there is nothing to special to talk about, other than just kind of boast about our success. But I am reminded of a scipture, and i paraphrase, I am only boasting in my God. I have really learned it doesn't matter what my abilities are. If the area is prepared, its prepared. The Lord is the one who works with these people and prepares them to recieve us. I feel so blessed that the Lord has given us these success. My only hope is this branch will keep progressing, and he will keep preparing this people to recieve the message of the Restoration. I know this church is true, and the Lord is truly out there working with these people, preparing them by the Holy Spirit. If we are obedient and diligent, we truly will see miracles happen.

Love, Elder Rucker

Heart in tune

Hey family.

Everything in Ta Khmau is going great right now. This last week was, if you could describe it in one word, Guided. Things are really working out for us. We have been working really hard going CBR hunting, contacting, and finding/meeting with the leaders of the branch. So far a success.

Elder Meyers and I are getting along great. I'm really happy to have him as my kid. I've really been working hard to make sure that he is comfortable with providing his opinion and his own ideas. To provide a small story I had read the presidents letter, which talked about yielding to your companion. That day we were out CBR hunting. We came across a CBR of a 17 year old girl and 11 year old boy who are inactives near the church. We asked the branch and they said they are always in Phnom Penh learning and you can't meet them. So we decided to go anyways. We show up and only and older lady is there who said she was their grandma visiting from a province and said they went to school, and then said they went to the doctor because they were sick. Anyways she was of no help so we decided to go to the next house. While there Elder Meyers asked to stop, and then said "I think we should go back" , at first i didn't want to, but then i thought about it a little, and i realized it doesn't matter what we do because its getting dark and the next CBRs are hard to find so either way doesn't matter, so I thought this would be a good time to show that i respect his opinion and trust him, so we prayed, and then began riding back to the same house. The whole time I was praying that they would be there and this would work out, that I didn't need it as a sign, but that it would really raise our spirits up after a hard and not too successful day. We show up to the house and guess what, the whole family is there. The kids and the parents. The little boy came to church yesterday and the girl committed to start learning with us once a week.

On Sunday we had an investigator come to church, and oddly, his name is Lookpu Jew. Sorry there is just no other way to romanize the spelling of his name :-p . Anyways he's over 50 years old, he grows banana trees, lives in a little hut by himself, nad just had eye surgery. He has stopped smoking and drinking, and really wants to get baptized. He is the most amazing little man ever (by little i mean he's shorter than you mom). He is on track to being baptized in 2 weeks.

A lot of times I question and think about what it means to be a success, more specifically what it means to be a successful missionary. To me a success is someone who has unyielding faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Some who shows his faith by repenting daily (working towards righteous goals) and is obedient, somebody who can feel the spirit in their lives, guiding and supporting them. This entire week was filled miracles, day after day, where we showed our faith through our diligent, obedient, and righteous efforts in bringing God's children unto Christ. We prayed and had the faith that even though we don't know what we are doing, the Lord would provide a way. And I can say without a doubt, this week was guided by the spirit. Numerous people were placed in our paths, and every single day was filled with miracles. The Lord felt so kind as to bless us with a little success. I'm so grateful for his mercy on the weak.

I know that this church is True. God, our Father, lovingly gave his only begotten son to die for us. I know that God is a God of miracles. Everyday i wondered why my mission wasn't filled with amazing stories and awesome conversion stories of people finding the church and getting baptized in a week. I felt like I was going to go home empty. I've learned that the problem wasn't with God, or what i was doing. The problem was with my eyes. I couldn't see the little miracles happening every moment of every day. Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God? The little whispering of peace and hope, is the greatest witness we can receive from God. A small voice that confirms our righteous desires and actions. There is no greater witness we can receive from God. All we have to do is get our heart in tune, to hear it.

Love, Elder Rucker