Cruz was asked to talk about his time he spent in Cambodia. I was coming back from Chicago, so I missed it, but several people told me he did a good job!
I had the opportunity to go to Cambodia with HEFY for 3 weeks this summer. I flew to Los Angeles and then boarded a plane for a 17 hour flight to Singapore. My group was able to explore the Singapore airport for a bit before we boarded our flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia. The first few days in Cambodia we explored some of the local sites such as the Ankor Wat Temple and other temples in that area. We also went to the night market. I was getting to know the people in my group as I went on this adventure not knowing anyone before the trip started. Then we drove to Battanbong were we started working on the school for the kids. My group was primarily responsible for plastering the walls. My favorite part of the work day was when we got to spend time teaching the kids English. During the evenings we would often do activities with the local ward members. Such as volleyball, soccer, and trying strange food. The craziest thing I ate while I was there was Duck Embryo. I had a chance to go on missionary splits with 2 elders. When we were on our way to someone’s house a lady saw us walking and had to stop us to give us food even though they don’t have much there. All of the members that we stopped at wanted to give us water or food. Cambodia is extremely poor and this was a huge sacrifice for most of the people there. For those of you who know nothing of Cambodia they were advancing quickly and would easily be on par with Singapore today but had a corrupt leader that took control in the 1960’s and would kill off anyone he thought was smart or old and eventually started killing people at random. Upwards of 3 million people died during this time. Instead of dwelling on it, they moved past it and all the people there are so Christ like. The members there are so strong, loving, and kind and they are not afraid to show it. If you think it is hard being Mormon in Utah only 1% of Cambodia is Christian. One Saturday we went to the killing caves which are exactly like they sound, during the war they would take people there and torture them. Right next to the killing caves they had a massive budda statue and he was holding up the sign for forgiveness. This is something that I am not good at and would like to get better at so to see the Cambodian people forgive someone for something like this was incredible. Even though there was a 14 hour time difference and the jet lag was terrible, I am so grateful I had this amazing opportunity. I made some really good friends with kids in my group and I loved the interaction with the Cambodian school kids. I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for allowing me these opportunities. In the name of Jesus Christ – Amen.
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