Oldie.
Yeah, it's Tuesday, and we just had a mission conference with Elder Nelson yesterday. There is lots of stuff that can't really be fully explained. Let’s say he opened his talk with, "I feel there are many of you here today who have come fasting and praying to find an answer to something from me. So, ask." I had a strong desire to ask myself but had the very strong prompting that everything I wanted to know would be said, but there was someone else here who needed to have a prophet speak directly to them. And in retrospect I understand it well. On the cool easy to understand side of things, "write in you journals about the church in Mongolia now when you are working with branches here and the way you think the church is already established in Mongolia, and then show them to your grandchildren when there are stakeS, missionS, and a temple in this country. Yeah.
Train rides are cool.
Bumped into the lead pastor of the deaf church in Darkhan, and since she and her husband have connections with everyone in town they are saying that we are these horribly scary people that brain wash and beat people up. All of our investigators heard it, but one guy was pretty funny about it, he heard about how we were horrible people abusers as we were setting up a service project to install a light bulb based door bell at his apartment. Ha-ha funny, oh yeah, and as usual the pastor told us there was no difference between her and us on any doctrinal level, in a moment of unusual bluntness for me I told her the difference was that God chose the church’s Prophet and he in turn chose the rest, but she chose herself and that’s where her authority ends. She wants to meet later.
APs didn't take my camera to get fixed, going to try to get it done on my own. Going camera-gui over Tsagaan Sar would suck.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
P-day is Wednesday this week
The Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission is hosting a visiting General Authority Monday and Tuesday so preparation day (p-day) is postponed until Wednesday. Which means email and laundry are both postponed.
Maybe 2 extra days worth of laundry won't be too bad during the winter months!
Maybe 2 extra days worth of laundry won't be too bad during the winter months!
Monday, February 9, 2009
More Stuff Happens
That was Elder Hadfield with a dead fox on his head.
This week, stuff happened. I can finally say most things in sign language. But other than that work was pretty rocky this week, got burned a lot. We only have 1 witness in both branches that will go, and the one day he had time to go with us, we got burned all day long, and it’s pretty funny in retrospect. One lady was in her house, but her phone broke so we couldn't send text, so we banged on the door to no avail and then just had to leave. Life's funny like that. Meeting with inactive members and stuff, they're doing pretty good, but then both of them caught nasty colds Saturday from going on the branch outing and couldn’t come to church Sunday, also funny. But our investigator attendance increased from 1 to 2, so maybe next week it will nautilus up to 4. What’s the name of that guy who made the formula for that again?
Yeah, there are many people who will be mad if you don't come here. And me saying I did it all on my own would be an outright lie, and a very arrogant one at that. Part of me was waiting for someone else to tell you as well. And as usual, President Smartt is right. Picking up is one thing, and then there was my zone leader who's mom got his phone number from one of the couples and called him once a week his whole last half transfer but luckily he was the super elder that spent like 3 minutes of his whole mission trunky, and that was the last day of Tsagaan Sar and he went off the next day, and it was still only 3 minutes.
An Apostle is coming next week, My companion is a little miffed that we go into the city Monday and then get sent back out the morning the day of the fire side. The last time an Apostle came here was before most of the missionaries became members, so they're all really excited, me too, honestly.
But yeah, I'm forgetting how to talk with my mouth; sometimes the senior couples don’t understand me at all. Elder Olpin thought I had been doing sign language my whole mission and that was part of the language I had been called to, which is rather funny to me considering my hands are kind of retarded from onset of carpal tunnel from computers, boxing, and drawing all the time. . . but whatever.
I learned to skate and not die, triumph.
This week, stuff happened. I can finally say most things in sign language. But other than that work was pretty rocky this week, got burned a lot. We only have 1 witness in both branches that will go, and the one day he had time to go with us, we got burned all day long, and it’s pretty funny in retrospect. One lady was in her house, but her phone broke so we couldn't send text, so we banged on the door to no avail and then just had to leave. Life's funny like that. Meeting with inactive members and stuff, they're doing pretty good, but then both of them caught nasty colds Saturday from going on the branch outing and couldn’t come to church Sunday, also funny. But our investigator attendance increased from 1 to 2, so maybe next week it will nautilus up to 4. What’s the name of that guy who made the formula for that again?
Yeah, there are many people who will be mad if you don't come here. And me saying I did it all on my own would be an outright lie, and a very arrogant one at that. Part of me was waiting for someone else to tell you as well. And as usual, President Smartt is right. Picking up is one thing, and then there was my zone leader who's mom got his phone number from one of the couples and called him once a week his whole last half transfer but luckily he was the super elder that spent like 3 minutes of his whole mission trunky, and that was the last day of Tsagaan Sar and he went off the next day, and it was still only 3 minutes.
An Apostle is coming next week, My companion is a little miffed that we go into the city Monday and then get sent back out the morning the day of the fire side. The last time an Apostle came here was before most of the missionaries became members, so they're all really excited, me too, honestly.
But yeah, I'm forgetting how to talk with my mouth; sometimes the senior couples don’t understand me at all. Elder Olpin thought I had been doing sign language my whole mission and that was part of the language I had been called to, which is rather funny to me considering my hands are kind of retarded from onset of carpal tunnel from computers, boxing, and drawing all the time. . . but whatever.
I learned to skate and not die, triumph.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Stuff and stuff . . .
Q: Are you training deaf kids as in ESL students or is your new companion deaf (or some other meaning)?
A: My companion, the guy I'm with all the time, is deaf, as in he can't hear anything and doesn't make word noises with his mouth.
Q: Have to admit that I chuckled when I read that you had slept through your stop - how many were with you? Did you mean Selenge the city or Selenge the aimag?
A: There were three of us, and the actual city name is Sukhbaatar I think.
So anyways, wandered around and found people all week, got 9 investigators this week, so that's pretty good. My companion has this beautiful thought that everything on his mission is going to be perfect from the very start still, so a lot of the hard parts are a shock to him, but he takes the bumps pretty well.
As far as language goes, it’s getting pretty good, I've gone from comprehending nothing to understanding my companion when he that he thought one of the zone leaders looked like Pippen riding on one of the Ents from The Lord of the Rings.
Had an interview with President Andersen, which was cool. Translated my companion’s interview, that was hard. President told my companion I was one of the most different/unique elders in the mission, which was funny.
Uh, and then stuff and stuff. . . .
Anyways my camera is still busted so here’s something random.
A: My companion, the guy I'm with all the time, is deaf, as in he can't hear anything and doesn't make word noises with his mouth.
Q: Have to admit that I chuckled when I read that you had slept through your stop - how many were with you? Did you mean Selenge the city or Selenge the aimag?
A: There were three of us, and the actual city name is Sukhbaatar I think.
So anyways, wandered around and found people all week, got 9 investigators this week, so that's pretty good. My companion has this beautiful thought that everything on his mission is going to be perfect from the very start still, so a lot of the hard parts are a shock to him, but he takes the bumps pretty well.
As far as language goes, it’s getting pretty good, I've gone from comprehending nothing to understanding my companion when he that he thought one of the zone leaders looked like Pippen riding on one of the Ents from The Lord of the Rings.
Had an interview with President Andersen, which was cool. Translated my companion’s interview, that was hard. President told my companion I was one of the most different/unique elders in the mission, which was funny.
Uh, and then stuff and stuff. . . .
Anyways my camera is still busted so here’s something random.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Starting from Zero Point Nothing
I'm in Darhan now.
I'm training deaf kids. YEAH. I love shock, because it is a close friend of denial, which means nothing amazing has happened at all. Anyways, came here by train, that was kinda cool,
. . . other than the attendants didn't wake us up and we went all the way up to Selenge, which is next to Russia, and had to come back. Other that, we've just been running around up here.
[Mom thinks Selenge (the city) is about as far from Russia has Darhan but Suhbaatar is MUCH closer and on the Transmongolian Railway. However, Mom has since learned that the aimag (province) of Selenge surrounds the Darhan-Uul aimag which was carved out of the Selenge aimag in 1994. So one would end up in Selenge (the province) on the way to Russia from Darhan.]
We're opening a sign language branch up here so that means we are starting from a total membership of ZERO POINT NOTHING. Well not nothing, just the disorganized void, and from these referrals we will organize a branch for them. That they ay go to church there on it [Mom has no idea how to fix this sentence].
Got the pants, I’m wearing them now.
Or am I?
I'm training deaf kids. YEAH. I love shock, because it is a close friend of denial, which means nothing amazing has happened at all. Anyways, came here by train, that was kinda cool,
. . . other than the attendants didn't wake us up and we went all the way up to Selenge, which is next to Russia, and had to come back. Other that, we've just been running around up here.
[Mom thinks Selenge (the city) is about as far from Russia has Darhan but Suhbaatar is MUCH closer and on the Transmongolian Railway. However, Mom has since learned that the aimag (province) of Selenge surrounds the Darhan-Uul aimag which was carved out of the Selenge aimag in 1994. So one would end up in Selenge (the province) on the way to Russia from Darhan.]
We're opening a sign language branch up here so that means we are starting from a total membership of ZERO POINT NOTHING. Well not nothing, just the disorganized void, and from these referrals we will organize a branch for them. That they ay go to church there on it [Mom has no idea how to fix this sentence].
Got the pants, I’m wearing them now.
Or am I?
Monday, January 19, 2009
Mom Says Grab a Tissue
Yes, that is Sister Garrett [See last photo in Hugs and Flying Dragon Kicks. Sister Garrett's sister happens to be the chorister in Elder Byrd's home ward]. The Clarks [who have family in the Jay branch which we attend when visiting the G-parents], she, and I are the only peeps representing the true south right now.
Oh yeah, The APs said I have to tell you that I will die July 2, that is my group is scheduled to fly home then. The irony would be that I would probably get set apart to normal on Independence Day. Bah. Bah upon it.
So anyways, this week was exiting in an everything exploded kind of way. But a lot of it involved disciplinary interviews so I guess a lot of it gets left at that. Speaking of divorce, went running around keeping one of my closest homies from doing such this week. Elder Andersen and I went running around playing peace maker, and after getting both sides to talk without the other knowing, we found out that they both wanted the exact same thing but had gotten so mad and stuck on dumb little things that she (he) thought he (she) hated her (him); and they both have a fiery side that would make anyone in our family proud.
As far as Sarah goes, yeah, she's totally still my baga degüü [small sibling]. I've been meaning to call but I need to ask the mission president since it’s been so long between calls.
I have been working at church a lot lately. It's kind of cool because I’ve had many unexpected teaching moments. I related a story that touched one guy so much that he used it in his sacrament talk and it touched even more people. It was about an almost dead puppy I found and nursed back to health (on the coldest day of last winter). We couldn't get in any houses and then there was this little dude stuck on the road. I put him in my jacket and drug him around with me all day, warmed him up and I fed him a little. That night we had a family home evening at a church member’s house. We went in and put the little dude by the fire, and the family said they would take care of him. It is important to note that this was a very popular breed of dog, and a male, which is hard to find for free. We left thinking the puppy would be alright, but when we came back the next day it was cast out dead on the trash pile. At first we thought it had died at night, but the family said the idea of having to take care of it before it could take care of itself sounded too annoying so they chucked it. There's a lot more to it but that’s the gist of it.
In his talk, added that we do that to people, even new members.
Sometimes I think many things I do don't matter and then I find out a month (or months) later that it impacted someone. For Example this Wednesday Ochiroo, the local administrator of the Light Center Orphanage, became an investigator after six freaking months of working our booties off there. I was talking to him about when he first started coming to church, and he said that a little over a year ago he came to see if he could get some aid from Deseret Charities, which he did, but he never came to church. He popped in when he needed stuff, but never came on Sunday. Then seven months later Naisbitt and I go out there every day for a week and work like slaves for a meal. The job would have taken him at least two months to finish alone. He said because of that he has been coming to church ever since, and then us coming out and working to build a small building out of nothing but rough hewn stone and gravity (in -25 weather) touched him even more. But that’s . . . whatever, these little orphan farts are the cutest things in the world. While we're working on the walls, the branch missionaries had mostly given up on working, so we just hammer it out much slower on our own. The little orphan monkeys notice this and start fumbling around with rocks the size of their torsos and dragged/pushed/heaved/etc them over toward us. They are such little studs. We told Ochiroo to start bringing them all over to primary.
I was looking at my work right now. In a billion investigators and referrals way, it's kinda . . . whatever. But we have these five families we’re focusing on, that’s the most of my whole mission. That’s sweet.
Transfer calls are next Sunday. I really *REALLY* don’t want to go, but I'll serve were I’m needed.
Oh yeah, The APs said I have to tell you that I will die July 2, that is my group is scheduled to fly home then. The irony would be that I would probably get set apart to normal on Independence Day. Bah. Bah upon it.
So anyways, this week was exiting in an everything exploded kind of way. But a lot of it involved disciplinary interviews so I guess a lot of it gets left at that. Speaking of divorce, went running around keeping one of my closest homies from doing such this week. Elder Andersen and I went running around playing peace maker, and after getting both sides to talk without the other knowing, we found out that they both wanted the exact same thing but had gotten so mad and stuck on dumb little things that she (he) thought he (she) hated her (him); and they both have a fiery side that would make anyone in our family proud.
As far as Sarah goes, yeah, she's totally still my baga degüü [small sibling]. I've been meaning to call but I need to ask the mission president since it’s been so long between calls.
I have been working at church a lot lately. It's kind of cool because I’ve had many unexpected teaching moments. I related a story that touched one guy so much that he used it in his sacrament talk and it touched even more people. It was about an almost dead puppy I found and nursed back to health (on the coldest day of last winter). We couldn't get in any houses and then there was this little dude stuck on the road. I put him in my jacket and drug him around with me all day, warmed him up and I fed him a little. That night we had a family home evening at a church member’s house. We went in and put the little dude by the fire, and the family said they would take care of him. It is important to note that this was a very popular breed of dog, and a male, which is hard to find for free. We left thinking the puppy would be alright, but when we came back the next day it was cast out dead on the trash pile. At first we thought it had died at night, but the family said the idea of having to take care of it before it could take care of itself sounded too annoying so they chucked it. There's a lot more to it but that’s the gist of it.
In his talk, added that we do that to people, even new members.
Sometimes I think many things I do don't matter and then I find out a month (or months) later that it impacted someone. For Example this Wednesday Ochiroo, the local administrator of the Light Center Orphanage, became an investigator after six freaking months of working our booties off there. I was talking to him about when he first started coming to church, and he said that a little over a year ago he came to see if he could get some aid from Deseret Charities, which he did, but he never came to church. He popped in when he needed stuff, but never came on Sunday. Then seven months later Naisbitt and I go out there every day for a week and work like slaves for a meal. The job would have taken him at least two months to finish alone. He said because of that he has been coming to church ever since, and then us coming out and working to build a small building out of nothing but rough hewn stone and gravity (in -25 weather) touched him even more. But that’s . . . whatever, these little orphan farts are the cutest things in the world. While we're working on the walls, the branch missionaries had mostly given up on working, so we just hammer it out much slower on our own. The little orphan monkeys notice this and start fumbling around with rocks the size of their torsos and dragged/pushed/heaved/etc them over toward us. They are such little studs. We told Ochiroo to start bringing them all over to primary.
I was looking at my work right now. In a billion investigators and referrals way, it's kinda . . . whatever. But we have these five families we’re focusing on, that’s the most of my whole mission. That’s sweet.
Transfer calls are next Sunday. I really *REALLY* don’t want to go, but I'll serve were I’m needed.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Baptisms, Buuz and Bunnies (oh my)
Uh, this week . . . I baptized the Elder Quorum President’s 2 little farts. That was pretty cool. They are 12 so they had to go through all the lesson stuff with the sisters and an interview with me, and I guess they decided the novelty of a giant foreigner was pretty cool (the dad did however give them both the gift of the Holy Ghost. The little kid got all confused in the font and forgot his own name (well, it’s more like I let the other elders do the font and they only turned on the cold water... and its -26 outside) but it was cool, only had to dunk him 3 times.
We played ice/snow soccer. I destroyed my old companion in slide tackles and body checks. He got a little cocky cause he could take out the teachers and priests, so I gave him a foot planted stone wall, which he tried to take out but sent him airborne. It was saikhan.
My camera broke, going to send it to the city to get fixed.
We spent most of the week getting coal for people and keeping members from dying.
The elders got a knife pulled on them, but the very small drunk man went for our branch missionary named Tank, who just grabbed his arm and took the knife out of his hand.
The branch lost a grandma and we had to go look for her, found her in the hospital and got her full of food and finally back home. She thanked us my making these buuz out of this paste that not even the hardened Ganbold could figure out what it was.
The truck from the city comes Wednesday, should get packages then.
My new member had her birthday Sunday. We went over with the branch missionaries and ate buuz, not the weird pasty things.
Out of nowhere one of my sisters got transferred to Darkhan to help the Relief Society President. We had just had transfers so it was kind weird to get another transfer call a few weeks later.
Just trying to rock out in my own little way, never know how things pan out, so I’ve just decided to try to make everyone around me a little better than when I got here.
Speaking of making something better, my 2nd councilor is trying to figure out a way to kill bunnies to get more food into his diet. How do I make traps or ghetto rig wrist slingshots?
We played ice/snow soccer. I destroyed my old companion in slide tackles and body checks. He got a little cocky cause he could take out the teachers and priests, so I gave him a foot planted stone wall, which he tried to take out but sent him airborne. It was saikhan.
My camera broke, going to send it to the city to get fixed.
We spent most of the week getting coal for people and keeping members from dying.
The elders got a knife pulled on them, but the very small drunk man went for our branch missionary named Tank, who just grabbed his arm and took the knife out of his hand.
The branch lost a grandma and we had to go look for her, found her in the hospital and got her full of food and finally back home. She thanked us my making these buuz out of this paste that not even the hardened Ganbold could figure out what it was.
The truck from the city comes Wednesday, should get packages then.
My new member had her birthday Sunday. We went over with the branch missionaries and ate buuz, not the weird pasty things.
Out of nowhere one of my sisters got transferred to Darkhan to help the Relief Society President. We had just had transfers so it was kind weird to get another transfer call a few weeks later.
Just trying to rock out in my own little way, never know how things pan out, so I’ve just decided to try to make everyone around me a little better than when I got here.
Speaking of making something better, my 2nd councilor is trying to figure out a way to kill bunnies to get more food into his diet. How do I make traps or ghetto rig wrist slingshots?
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