Great Christmas

I Skyped with my family on Christmas morning (Mongolia time), and then we had a mission Christmas party.  The mission president had it catered; it was really good.  He also organized a little show that included a Nativity with children from the mission presidency.  It was fun.

We had a baptism on Friday, and it all worked out.  The family is really supportive and will help the couple make progress.

Since this is my one year mark on my mission, then this is the last time I'll spend Christmas without family.  I am very glad to be on a mission, and I've grown a good bit, I think, at being able to handle hardships and accomplish things.  I hope to continue to improve all next year.  I hope everyone else can have a great new year, too.  We just have to remember that the Lord knows what He is doing.

Screen Shot of Joshua on Skype, 24 December 2014 (US time).

One Year

Soon I mark my first Christmas away from home, not counting last year when I was practically home and was in the MTC on Christmas day.  It will be different, but I'm glad to be able to spend it in service.

As missionaries, we are called to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Gospel means "good news," as it is translated in Mongolian as well.  The Good News is that Christ Lived and Lives, and that through His Atonement and obedience to His Doctrine, we can all be saved.

In 1 John 4:10 we read, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins."  It has been said many times, but the greatest gift of Christmas is the Savior Jesus Christ who died and was resurrected for us.  Verse 11 reads, "Behold, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another."  If we remember God's love and great patience for us, then we must remember love and patience for those around us and all people.

The night before His Birth, the Lord spoke with Nephi to assure him "on the morrow come I into the world."  And that night, so to speak, He stepped down from His thrones above to be born in a humble and lowly manger.  He knew before that He had chosen a life of difficulty and trial and pain, but He did so because He loved us.  We missionaries have the privilege of testifying to everyone we meet that "Christ loves you," and this we know to be true.

When Christ told Nephi of His birth to comfort him, I wonder if He thought of the life He had chosen for Himself.  He, who was most perfect and sinless and full of good works, chose a life very poor in many of the blessings we often hope for.  Aside from the heavenly joy of being full of righteousness and charity, He led a life of opposition and trial that ended in betrayal.  How grateful then must we be that, imperfect as we are, He seeth fit to bestow on us so many bountiful blessings during our stay in Mortality, on top of the eternity of joy He promises to those who love Him.

I'm grateful for my great family and all the blessings the Lord has given me in my life!

Merry Christmas to all of you,
Elder Sims

In Choibalsan to train a district leader.

Q: What is running water? A: When two Elders run down the hill to fetch two pails of water.

So, one of our members asked us to get some water from the hutag ('hoe-tuck') for her; in the outlying neighborhoods you have to go get your water in a big container from a central well. If you live on a mountain, it's often far away. Now, it's not a big round hole in the ground, but a building with a pump and stuff. 

So, my trainee, Elder Norlund, and I carried the two big containers (about as big as a computer tower) to the bottom of the mountain and went to the well. We found out the well's pump was not working. We asked another guy at the well if there were any nearby ones and he said... no. We were about to give up, but then we asked some other guys and they said there was one at the next bus stop. SO we ran to the next bus stop! That was the easy part. It was nice and 'warm' running... anyway, we got water there, just one bus stop away. Then we had to carry it back... that was hard. At first we tried just carrying it on our chests, and leaking water frosted our coats in ice (just our coats, we were fine.) Up the mountain we took turns carrying the two containers. It was a fun activity for my companion's first day of work in the country! 

This week, I am actually not in Ulaanbaatar!  For a few days at least, I am in Choibalsan in the far east of Mongolia.  It is about 650km away from the capital.  I am training my former companion, who is now district leader here.  I am here with the other zone leader, and our companions are back in Ulaanbaatar.  I will return on the one-year anniversary of my mission!

How cold is it, you ask?  Well, we don't have smartphones, but you don't need one of those to know that it is cold.  We are told this has been a warm winter so far, where we have been above 0°F on many days, but those days are probably going away soon and for a few weeks at least.  It will then be around -40°F at times.  Pity my new companion.  He is from San Diego.  At least I am from Iowa, where subzero weather is not uncommon.  

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm afraid I did not have much of a turkey dinner this Thanksgiving. I ate Piroshki, chocolate crackers and chocolate wafers. As Thursday approached, I tried to think if there was any way I could procure for myself some manner of Thanksgiving dinner, even if it meant going to KFC and pretending chicken is turkey. But Thursday is a busy day for me, so it would have been hard. I realized, though, that I had much to be thankful for; the Lord blesses us with success and investigators and a good place to work. So I celebrated Thanksgiving by being grateful for all the Blessings the Lord has given me. 

I also celebrated by teaching my English classes how to use "I'm grateful" and "I'm thankful" and then had them share what they were grateful for.

I was grateful for an experience I had recently.  A few weeks ago, I bought a nice knit hat just to keep me warm. Ears get cold here in the frozen north. Well, last Tuesday I had said hat in my lap on the bus. The bus took a detour and skipped our stop, going one around it.  When we realized what had happened, we hurried off the bus so we could taxi home in time. Guess what didn't make it off the bus? My hat! The bus conductor later even saw us and said 'Hey you're the guys who lost your hat.' She didn't have it, of course, but I hoped some one found it who needed it and it's useful to them.

Well, the next day, after I lost my hat, I got a little packet in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa Sims.  They had just returned from visiting family in Norway.  The package said on the declaration, "chocolate" so I thought 'Great! some tasty Norwegian chocolate,' and put it in my bag to freeze at home. That night I thought I'd open it up and see what was inside. Along with one bar of chocolate there was a great Norwegian hat! I was so grateful. It was just 24 hours after I had lost my old hat. It is no great or impossible thing, but I was thankful for such a nice surprise, both to the Lord and to Grandma and Grandpa Sims. 

We had a great Fast Sunday, and ended our Fast at the Branch President's yurt on some meat and noodle soup. I tried to explain chocolate chip pancakes (what my family eats every Fast Sunday at home) just for fun, but I'm not sure if they quite got it. 

Khailaast Branch

I got transferred this week!  I'm still the zone leader but in a different zone, and I'm serving in a fairly different area consisting of one apartment building and then a whole lot of little houses on very windy roads on a lot of icy hills.  It's fun, until I fall down.  The ice never melts in winter, and so everything is always slippery.

My new companion is Elder Norlund.  He's new and from North America.  Only, he's not here yet.  His visa didn't come through and so he is serving in Maryland until he can get his visa.  So, I have a temporary companion named Elder Unubold.  He's not really a full-time missionary but a ward member who is called to be a temporary missionary when visas are delayed.  He's great, but I do hope Elder Norlund can get here soon so I can train him.

I'm technically not the Sign Language Elder anymore, but there are so many deaf investigators and members in my new area that I will continue to use sign language a lot.

I finally bought a nice new coat to go with the weather. It will help me stay warm.

I had a thought from the scriptures this week.  It is about Nephi and hope.  We recall Laman and Lemuel and their repeated wickedness; it seems every time that after they repent and humble themselves, they go back to rebellion again and usually fairly soon.  Nephi knew about them, and he also had seen in vision that his nation would be destroyed due to unbelief.  And yet, for example, in 1 Nephi 16:5, we read "And it came to pass that they did humble themselves before the Lord; insomuch that I had joy and great hopes of them, that they would walk in the paths of righteousness."  Laman and Lemuel were a source of hardship for Nephi.  When they repented, Nephi didn't say, 'oh, well, they will be back to normal in a month or two' but instead had great hopes that they would walk in the path of righteousness. He didn't assume that something bad would automatically happen, but had hopes that good would continue.  Hope is really key here.

Life doesn't give us a set amount of good and bad experiences.  Life isn't fair, but in the end we aren't judged by how many good or bad things happened to us but rather by how we chose to use our agency and follow God regardless of how much good or bad happened in our lives.  We should not try to guess whether great things or bad things will happen to us next; this turns our faith into superstition.  God blesses us because he loves us, and He gives us hard times because He loves us.  We cannot tell beforehand when or how they will come.  We have only to be grateful for the good times, be patient in the hard times, and follow God all the time.  As Paul said, "I know how to abound and I know how to lack.  I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need."  And when we want to wish away our hard times, then as Gandalf said, "So say all who live to see such times.  But that is not the choice we are given to make.  The choice we have is what to do with the times we are given."

If we serve the Lord at all times, we are using our agency well, no matter what is happening to us.

A Modest Goal

As it gets colder, I am buying new things to keep warm.  I haven't yet used the boots I brought from home, but the slippery ice will make wearing them a necessity soon.  This week, I bought a hat to keep my ears warm.  They are the first things to get cold as we walk up and down the Ger Horoolol (yurt district) to meet with investigators.  My goal is to get through the winter without frostbite.  I think I'll buy a warm coat this week.  We are generally below 0°C these days, and we'll soon be below zero Fahrenheit.

Our newest member is doing well.  She really desires to come to Church and learn.  We recently started teaching the husband of another deaf member; that is going well.  And our other investigator is progressing very well.  It is important for all investigators to read the Book of Mormon to gain a testimony of the Restored Gospel.  Most people here are Buddhist, and so it is a big change to learn about Christ.

An Area Seventy came to Mongolia this week to talk about Home Teaching.  It is very important for us to do our Home Teaching so we can help each other stay strong in the Gospel.  I hope we see improvement here now.

Only One Way

We have another progressing investigator, the father of one of our members.  He has been learning well and all, but he has hesitated about baptism.  He said he doesn't want to lie at baptism by going on afterward and breaking the commandments.  A lot of Mongolian traditions involve tea and alcohol, and so it is hard for new members to keep the Word of Wisdom.

We made a lesson plan to help this brother, to teach him about the purpose of our lives and the plan of salvation's results.  We wanted to talk about the three kingdoms of glory and how only in the Celestial Kingdom can we be with our families forever.  We planned to talk about how the only way to that kingdom is to start with baptism.  We planned to ask his daughter to bear her testimony about families, hoping he would feel the Spirit and develop the desire to be baptized.

We began teaching the lesson and, while we laid out the plan of salvation briefly, he said on his own that the only place he wanted to go was the Celestial Kingdom.  He said he understood now that he had to receive baptism to be with his family forever.  He told us that he really had understood the Plan of Salvation, and it seems to have changed him.  Then he told us that he wanted to stop doubting and set a baptismal date, and so we did!  I was so happy that the Holy Ghost reached out to touch his heart more than we could.  I had fasted for him that day, and I know the Lord answered our prayers.  I look forward to helping him prepare for baptism.

I remembered from this experience and others a talk that was given while I was at the MTC.  The speaker said that, like the brother of Jared, who saw the Lord's Hand touch stones one by one--stones  brought to the Lord by the brother of Jared--when we bring people unto Christ and He touches them one by one, we will see His Hand revealed.  I found that interesting at the time, but just now I have been having many of our investigators speak of the Spirit's influence when we don't even bring it up.  I see the Spirit's influence and I see the Lord's Hand revealed, one person at a time.