We get up each morning around 6:30 and go for a run. "Running for Jesus", as some locals would say. We then have about an hour to get cleaned up and make breakfast. I usually eat cereal and a banana, but sometimes I make eggs. Next is study time. We do personal study, companion study and language study. After all of that it's time to make a quick lunch and head out by 1:00.
We hop on our bikes and ride 15-20 minutes into Cambodia Town. We visit with people or go tracting. This takes most of the day.
If someone is feeding us dinner, we go to eat at 5:00. If not, we ride back to our apartment and make some dinner. After taking about an hour for dinner we go and teach.
I'd say right now about 60-70% of our lessons are in Cambodian, and the rest of the people we contact on the streets. There are plenty of people to teach, and we usually teach a lot of Cambodians every day. I have met some Laotian and Thai people as well.
We lock our bikes up pretty well, and have things taped up to look pretty ragged. Biking is fun, but pretty tiring. When we have a member with us we can take the car, so that's even more motivation to get members to come to our lessons!
Our ward is named the Park Ward. It's pretty interesting. There are a lot of really strong members, but pretty much everyone in the ward is a convert. So, it does have some struggles. Our missionary work involves bringing a lot of people back. About ten years ago there were tons of baptisms, but over time a lot of people left of were never super converted, so they stopped going to church. There are still some Cambodians coming form Cambodia. They are really humble and willing to listen, but the older Cambodians are committed to Buddhism.
Speaking Cambodian is really hard. We get to speak a lot, but it will probably take me until next summer before I am fluent. It's only been three months, and two years seems like a long time, but everyone says is goes pretty quick.
That's a day in the life of this Long Beach- Cambodian Missionary. Take Care.
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