Vietnam, AP and Loving it!

The Office Elders

Xin Chao Gia dinh. 

Things as an AP are definately, well, to say the lest, busy. Its really rewarding though and i'm learning so much. Its crazy to think when i showed up there were at 33 companionships and now there are like 53. It has grown so much. The mission is finally starting to get older too. It's weird to think i'm the second oldest group right now and my companion is in the oldest group. So yeah this is my first p-day in the office, and its not really a p-day since we will basically be doing stuff to try and get Christmas going for monday and tuesday.

So vietnam. To summarize, its awesome. Its so amazing. The members there are super smart. 15 and 17 year old fluent in English. 18 year olds tearing up the piano (better than me may i add) after learning for 3 years on the internet. Its crazy. The food there is super good. Everything there is pretty cheap, especially food. And they make more money there too. There are actual supermarkets they use, and there are a lot more cars. The Elders apartments are definately way nicer too. It's weird to see 

The most amazing thing is the missionary work there. If you see some pictures with me not wearing a tag, its not because i forgot it, we aren't allowed to wear our tag outside of the church. They can't contact people there, and they can't do anything outside the church. The only way they can tell people is if people ask questions. Its scary though because of the Government and Police. There are stories of spies, etc, trying to lure the elders or sisters so they can arrest them. Overall it was really weird going around in country with communist flags hanging up left and right. What really hit me is when i was on an exchange with Elder Nam in Ho Chi Minh. We were riding a bus (about 30 minutes) to get outside of the city to meet with a recent convert of theirs. He told me the history of Vietnam to the dedicatory prayer, to the Church & C.I.A. setting up helicoptors to get church members out of the country right before the fall of Saigon. (His mom was one of those who was taken out). Before that people were getting baptized by the dozens. You can just tell the country is so ready for the gospel. The government has not yet opened it for us but things are going good because within my time here they have let foreigners in to proselyte. Before it was only natives. My companion and Elder Tai were the first two foreigners to go in. You still have to be of Vietnameese descent in order to go in though.

Going to Vietnam, it was awesome. I got to see so many great things and meet such amazing people. All in all though it was mind boggling to think, as i was walking a dirt road in Vietnam, to actually think i am going about preaching the gospel in Vietnam. "no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing". This truly is the stone cut out of the mountain that will fill the whole earth. Someday the blessings declared in the dedicatory prayer of Vietnam will be blessed, and those people will be able to partake of all the blessings of the gospel. Please keep praying for Vietnam, that it will opened to more missionary opportunities. 

Me in front of the cathedral in Ho Chi Minh

Burger King in Vietnam

Baskin Robins in Vietnam!

Hey Everyone! 

This week was pretty good. President Moon left with his kids for Siem Riep so it left a lot of free time for us this week in order to do our AP thing. Elder Kim and I getting along great. I love being his companion, hopefully we will be friends for a long time. Everything in the house is doing well. This week was overall really great to spend some time on our area, to have zone leader counsel, and to go on some exchanges which was really fun.
On monday, we prepared for zone leader counsel and caught up on things for that and were able to go out and meet a less active family. The  husband of the family is a returned missionary who actually served his mission here in liked 95. He was here when Pol Pot was taken out. He has some cool stories. Unfortanately we were unable to meet with him because he doesn't come down to see the Elders. He is very well off though.
Tuesday was Zone Leader Training and it was nice to learn from president, to be able to teach, and to listen about the different areas of the zone leaders and how the missionaries are doing.
Wednesday i went on an exchange with elder Jorgensen in Pochengtong. It was so fun to be with him again. It was just like old times. Usually when you go on an exchange there is kind of that awkward feeling in teaching because you have never taught with eachother before and you usually didn't have a lot of time to prepare, but me and him felt the same thing, we taught in unity and it was like we had never left eachother even though its been a year.
Thursday was another normal day where we had time to do weekly planing and meet with some more investigators.

Friday was also another super fun day because i was able to go on an exhange in Tuol Tom Pong. All the members remembered me and i was able to meet a ton of them at the church too. It was so cool to see and hear how most of my recent converts there were doing so well and going to strongly. The crazy thing is one of my recent converts Rotonak, and his sister Rotana were so talkative. We originally find them because we found there parents who were inactives, and the father had the Melchizedek priesthood. So we found him, activated the parents, and taught the kids. Then, they like us, but would never talk. Now they are so talkative and confident. AND Rotanak used to have a really bad stutter. It's totally gone now. They are attending church and seminary every week.

Overall things are going very well and its great to have an opportunity to go out and have some time proselyting. I was able to spend some time seeing how missionaries are doing in their areas, to see what thy are working on and help them get a new focus and learn principles from Preach My Gospel. I really feel i have a hang on the AP thing now and i'm starting to know what i'm doing.
I'm really excited for next week because next week is our trip to the Provinces. I'll spend a day in Battambang, Siem Riep, Kampong Thom, and Kampong Cham. So i'll definately have a lot more to talk about for next week.
That's about it for me. I know this work is the work of God. I know we are all called of God. I am so grateful for the tools he has given us in these latter days. The scriptures, and more recently, Preach My Gospel. I don't know what you missionaries did without it.

Love always, Elder Rucker

Assistant to the President

One of my favorite families. He is the 2nd counselor, far left is his wife, and the one next to me is my investigator Dane, who is a friend of that family. We found her because we reactivated her older sister and she started learning. At first, she didn't want to learn and hated us. Now, she was super sad to see me leaving and is planning on become a member and becoming a missionary in 1 year. She set the goal herself, i didn't even mention that yet.

Well. It was Saturday at like 6, president gave me a call. Elder Sem has been sick for a while so i thought that he was calling about that and got the wrong number. He asked if i had a minute. Then he asked me if i would accept the call to be his assistant. I totally forget that transfer were even here. So i have been called to be the new AP for president Moon. I go in today at 3. The actually exchange happens on Friday but i'm getting called in early. Elder Sem is going to whitewash 9th branch with a khmer companion. Elder Garlick will be district leader. And elder An will be with my old companion, Elder Jongsma. Super crazy.

Me and a bunch of the youth at Kah Ko. They all went in order to go a big party we scheduled down there and to say goodbye to me.

It will be super sad to leave this area. It was so hard not to cry. This was the first area where people were calling me and saying goodbye and saying how much they would miss me. People actually cried, it was so nice. I really did feel loved in this area. I am glad to say i can leave this area with no regrets. I did was I was supposed to do and now I am moving on to something new. 


I just want you all to know i know this church is true. And that God has a plan for all of us.

Love always, Elder Rucker

Service in Baku

Things went really well this week. This transfer as a whole has gone super super fast. Next week i will be telling you about transfer calls already. The thing is i don't think anything will be changing so don't expect too much. 

So Tuesday as you know was cleaning and CBR day, nothing too cool. Wednesday was sports day. That was really fun. Most of the time me and Elder Jorgensen just yo-yo'd. The real highlight of the even is that every single one of us ate a crazy burger. Haha. That was so fun. Elder Sem Elder Garlick and Me ate the whole thing. Elder An ate about 1/4 of it. Got home, and threw up. haha he still doesn't know how to eat greasy fatty American food.

Thursday was the best day of the week. We all rode out to a place called Baku. There are a lot of members there. They say its 27 kilos away i say its only 19 or 20. But anyways its quite a bike ride out there. Anyways, its just way out there. But we went in order to help them harvest rice. It was so fun. There was a group of like 15 of us that ride out there. Lets just say the members got their butts kicked from the bike ride, but the Elders were good. It was really fun harvesting the rice, but let me say it was really hard. Everyone got super tired after about an 1 hour. Me and Elder An dominated. Me and him did the equivalent as the rest of them all together.

Friday and Saturday were pretty normal nothing different or abnormal. just meeting with our investigators.

Sunday was the day where all the successes were had. 5 inactives at Church. Our guy Rido from Kah ko came and Srey Lot came too. The big success was we had a former member of the branch presidency, who has been inactive for years came back, as well as another man who was big in the church come back as well. Their families haven't come back yet but they've expressed their desires to bring their families back too. We also got another lady back who has been inactive too. All for like 5+years. The branch was so excited too. Everyone got up and bore their testimonies about how grateful and happy they are to see all those people come back and how they know when we follow the commandments of God we are blessed. It was a great day at church. Everybody was very welcoming and it was a great experience for everyone, active and inactive. 

I know this church is true. I know that when we obey God's commandments we are blessed. Almost every inactive will say they were happier when they first joined the join. Then most admit that they aren't happy anymore because they are inactive. That is the truth of the Gospel, the biggest it gives us. It just makes us happy. You would think the happiest day of the week would be Wednesday of Playing sports with friends and playing with a yo yo and eating a crazy burger. But Friday Saturday and Sunday were by far way happier and way more satisfying.

Love always, Elder Rucker

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.

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