School and weather

We start school tomorrow--the college where I teach English.  We had a little opening ceremony today.  When I walked into the room, the students started cheering. I'm not sure how genuine it was, but it was funny.  This semester will go right up until I am going home.

Now that it's getting cooler in Mongolia, I joke with the students that I am going to escape to America in December because it will be so cold here. It's strange how the year is just long enough that every summer, no matter how short, is just long enough for you to forget what it's like to be cold....

We met a kid one day walking near our apartments who spoke perfect English. It turns out he learned English in three years when he lived in America at about the age of 8. It was fun to meet his family, all of whom speak English to some degree. We were happy to introduce them to the first lesson about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Not much else to report here.  I know the next few months will go fast, and I'm working hard to focus on using my time as a missionary well. 

Here's a little poem I wrote while flying from Choibalsan to Ulaanbaatar in August:

NO CLOUD CAN SHROUD THE STRATOSPHERE

The sun retreats, the sky grows dim as clouds grow thicker overhead.

The hope of sunshine growing thin, we wait for raindrops to be shed.

Though heaven's metamorphosis from light to dark spells no sure doom,

we know that as the clouds persist, they cast on earth a certain gloom.

The sun who bears the light of day casts cheer on every human soul.

To see this beacon fade away can dull this joy and take its toll.

The cheer we knew a day before can even fade from memory,

And in the rain we may implore to have the day brought back to be.

But don't forget, the sun's not gone; it lies untouched beyond the mist!

The land the sun smiles down upon will see the light clouds can't resist.

Of course, this comes as no surprise to us who've seen our every day

That when the sun sets, it will rise e'en though the clouds push it away.

Today the clouds bedeck the sky, but I'm aboard an aeroplane!

And at the altitude we fly, we see the sun without restrain.

Quite rightly are the heavens named; up here whenever it's not night,

E'en where the earth by storm is framed, the sun shows forth its mighty light!

I see the clouds which, dark below, are crowned on top a snowy white!

This landscape spans, for all I know, from coast to coast all glowing bright!

That's not to say the land's not dark; that's not to say the sky's not dim.

But I wish only to remark that we must all remember Him

Who sees each day from past the clouds and we cannot peer in return:

Despite the veil that thickly shrouds above, as ever His Glory burns.

Though clouds may come, and sure they will, the rain is not a cause for doubt.

When darkness looms, remember still That Light above has not gone out.

Random Posts from UB

My companion and I have been working hard, and we have been blessed to meet new people and find some inactive members we didn't know lived in the area. It often happens that we are working toward one goal, but we are given a different good result from the Lord. He knows who He wants us to teach.

1 Nephi 15:14 says that the Gospel will be restored so that people can "come to the knowledge of their Redeemer and the very points of his doctrine, that they may know how to come until him and be saved." That's an important thing we teach, the very points of his doctrine, that all people may know HOW to be saved. Many good people do many good things, but only from Christ's revealed doctrine can we learn exactly HOW to be saved--which we can't determine or figure out ourselves because only Christ has the power to redeem us.  Many things about our lives come down to personal revelation, but the Gospel teaches us specifically those doctrines, covenants, ordinances and commandments that we need in order to be saved.

Also, I noted that in 1 Nephi 16:18, Nephi says "I broke my bow" which is an active sentence, but he says "My brothers bows lost their spring," which is a passive sentence. He accepts responsibility for the malfunction of his own bow but does not blame his brothers for what they  may or may not have done to their own bows. It is a good example.  We need to accept responsibility for our own mistakes and avoid blaming others.

I was reading in Matthew 12:13.  In this passage, the Savior commands a man with a withered hand to stretch his hand forth. When he does so, he is healed. I thought this was a good example of how the Lord gives us commandments to bless us. Oftentimes, the Lord would lay hands on someone or command them to be healed, but in this and other cases He commanded the person to do something in order to be healed.  While showing his power to bless, He also demonstrates the importance of obedience.

Well, I have my official release date now: December 18.  That's the same day I headed to the MTC two years ago.  I look forward to being home, but I still have four months to do my best to serve here.

Farewell Choibalsan

I am back in Ulaanbaatar, back to Enktaivan Ward, where I served for six months last year! It was a little strange being back in my old ward, but it's great to see how people are doing. We are now 4 Elders in one apartment here.  Since we are all  North Americans, we ate at Pizza Hut last week (it's not far from our apartment)!

I did enjoy my time in Choibalsan and all the people we worked with there.  I have a couple of photos from my birthday excursion.

Mongolian horses on the Steppes. It's so remote and beautiful here.

The home we visited on my birthday.
The solar panel gives them electricity, so they can get Chinese TV. 

Last week, I thought of the spirit of contention that sometimes comes into many lives.... Sometimes we try to cast out contention with contention, but from Christ's teaching we can see how that is impossible.  Contention will never cast out the spirit of contention; only humility, love, charity, and the Spirit of Christ can do that. 

A Birthday Adventure

I turned 21 on Monday, which was a P-day.  I had thought to go out for lunch, maybe buy a little something as a birthday present, write emails to my family, and so on.  But by coincidence, our mission doctor and his wife were visiting Choibalsan for the weekend to provide some training.  They asked to be taken Monday to some memorable or interesting site. So we arranged to go with a member to visit her relative (also a Church member) who lives about 120 km away from Choibalsan out in the countryside. We hired two taxis and assumed it would be a 2-hour drive each way.  We were thankful the doctor offered to pay for the taxis, since we poor missionaries could never afford to do so.

So, 120 km on a paved road would take a little over an hour and so we felt our allowance of two hours on the dirt roads of Mongolia would be more than enough.  But that's if the road is in good condition.  But it rained a lot on Sunday, and that meant the roads were not in good condition. Our trip was ... five hours each way.  We just didn't know that when we set out.

About two hours into the drive, our little taxi got stuck in the mud.  The other taxi avoided it but came back to help.  We Elders and the driver all took off our shoes and socks and got out into the mire surrounding the car and tried to get it out. We kept trying to lift the car out, push it out, pull it out.  The other taxi even went to a nearby (and since we were in the countryside, that means not nearby) home and got a "rope."  We tried to tow the car out and that didn't work either. Thankfully, a nice family stopped their car when they saw us and offered to help.  With their help and by picking up the stuck car's back end and manually turning it to line up with the non-stuck car, we finally towed it out of the mud.

Then we drove in this little no-longer-white car until we got to ... the river!

At the river, we stopped to wash the car.  We Elders, still with no shoes, got out and waded around in the shallow river (no deeper than two feet).  The other taxi was stopping for the driver to do some maintenance. Eventually, we let the cars go over the river with minimal passengers and we missionaries walked across the river. We then got back into the car with relatively clean feet and donned our shoes and socks again.

This brought us to Sergelen County Center, a teeny town with a single K-8 school.  Anyone who wants a higher education has to go to Choibalsan.  At this point, the mission doctor and his wife were worried they would miss their flight back to Ulaanbaatar, so they left us and went back in the smaller of the two taxis. We continued on, convinced that the countryside dwelling we were going to was about 30 minutes away. It was more like 2-3 hours away!  At least on the way, we were able to take some great photos of the Mongolian countryside, which is greener than green and void of humanity. It was pretty cool.  We also stopped by a rock that contained an impression in the shape of a boot that is said to be Chinggis Khaan's footprint.

Finally we got to the place we were going, a single ger with a singe shed in the middle of the Mongolian steppe, green as far as the eye can see.  The weather was perfect. We met a member that lives way out there (fairly isolated, eh?) and ate some goat liver.

At this point, it was getting to be 6:00 pm and we were realizing how far out we were. Still, we were convinced that we would be back by 8:00 or so.  We rode through the seemingly endless Mongolian countryside and finally got back to Sergelen.  Then we crossed the river again and made another endless ride back until we finally reached Choibalsan at about 10:00 p.m. The ride back had been uneventful--just frustrating because we realized how far away we had been.

But it was a 21st birthday never to be forgotten!

Naadam and Wrestling

Our newest member in Choibalsan, her husband, me, my companion

Visiting with friends and missionaries in Choibalsan

Although Naadam, the national holiday, meant a day off of work for most people, we were still able to get a lot of work done.  Next week, the second Naadam will bring things to a halt as everyone celebrates, but we should still be fine.

One thing funny did happen in relation to Naadam this week.  We were meeting with one of our newer investigator couples, and they were watching the national Naadam wrestling match on TV. They said we could start teaching when the match was over.  But Mongolian wrestling only ends when one man gets the other on the ground.  They stand there grappling each other, starting and stopping and so on, and it can go on forever.  I knew it probably wouldn't last too much longer, but it was getting late and I wanted to be able to show a video about the Restoration for our lesson. So I said a silent prayer that the match would end soon. No sooner had I done so than I looked up and saw one wrestler toss the other to the ground. I don't know whether the Lord ended a national competition to answer my prayer or whether He timed my prayer to work out to my benefit, but either way I'm sure He answered it; and we had a great lesson.  Our investigators are really learning well and coming to Church and trying to change.  The husband is even trying to get a new job so he won't have to work on Sunday!  The Lord knows all things, and He will help this man in the best way, no matter what that ends up being.

This is my last week as a 20-year-old.  In Mongolia, I've been 21 all year, but I'll stick with my American way of counting.  Next week, it'll be 21 for sure. Or 22 if you want to be accurate in Mongolia.

Holidays

We had a baptism on Friday, July 4th!  It was the wife of one of our members here in Choibalsan.  I was able to perform the baptism.  This new sister was very happy to be baptized, but she was too shy to bear her testimony at the service.  That's ok, of course.  The Sunday, however, that she received the Gift of the Holy Ghost was also Fast Sunday. I was fasting for her that she would become a strong member of the Church.  Somewhat to my surprise, she got up and shared her testimony in front of the entire Branch. It was pretty good!  I was glad to see many members expressing their appreciation to her after the meeting. They knew she was shy.

Afterward, I was thinking about it.  I realized that after her baptism, she hadn't the courage; but after receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, she had been able to stand as a witness of Christ in front of a large congregation. I can't say it was a direct cause, but it was an interesting comparison. Either way, bearing testimony strengthens our faith.

This week is Naadam, the national holiday to celebrate Independence.  The biggest celebrations are in the capital, of course, but there will be a couple of different ones here in Choibalsan. We are allowed to watch festivities because we otherwise have a really hard time making appointments during the holiday, but we will always be mindful of an opportunity to fellowship investigators and members.

The other American serving in Choibalsan and I celebrated the 4th of July by going to a nice restaurant in town and ordering steak.  It felt like a holiday, since we would otherwise not spend $9 for just one meal!

Choibalsan is Great

We have had a lot of rain in Choibalsan the last couple of weeks.  Roads aren't all paved and drainage is, well, lacking, so roads become rivers pretty quickly.  One day, we got to an intersection in the Ger Khoroolol (yurt district) and it was water from side to side with no place to pass.  We waited and then flagged down a huge flatbed truck and asked for passage across.  He let us climb in to the truck bed and we rode that way across the pond.  It was pretty good.  Even when the rain lets up, the roads are full of little streams and lots of mud.

We had an appointment on a Saturday with an investigator preparing for baptism, but we couldn't contact them on the phone and the road to their house was horrendously flooded.  So we took the chance, hopped across some dirt mounts and concretes slabs and, sure enough, they were home.  It was a blessing.  We will be having a baptism on the 4th of July!

Missionary work can easily become frustrating, since much of our day depends on whether people keep their appointments with us.  But we have to trust in the Lord.  For example, that Saturday our schedule was tumbling apart about noon, but I didn't let it bother me and I went happily, trusting that the Lord would provide for what really mattered.  And He did. Though some appointments fell through, He brought us another person to teach and also let us get through that flooded street to meet with our investigator.

A focus on the Lord's blessings past and promised--and trust in Him--has helped me to be very happy lately, regardless of circumstances.  During times that could have been boring or tedious or frustrating, I have been just happy, going about the muddy streets with a smile because I know the Lord loves me and that I'm glad to be doing His work.

Teaching on the Army Base is great fun.  The students are motivated and respectful.  For the first couple of weeks, they would stand at attention whenever I called on them.  And they applauded me at the end of a class.  Now that they have realized I don't expect that level of discipline, they aren't standing at attention anymore.  But they still work ten times harder than some of my past students.  I will be sad to leave this teaching job at the end of the summer.  All of my students are soldiers or officers.  They know almost no English except a few memorized words, so they are definitely a beginning class that wants to learn.  The sergeant major gives us a ride home after I teach.  I could get used to that!

I am learning a lot as a counselor in the branch presidency.  I have conducted sacrament meeting a few times.

I take notes when I read the Book of Mormon.  I was reviewing notes from the Book of Ether recently.  Near the end of the first chapter, the Brother of Jared prayed that their language would not be confounded; the Lord blessed him as he asked.  But then when the Lord said He would scatter the nations, Jared and his brother did not pray that they not be scattered; they asked only to know where they would go.  Jared said faithfully, "who knoweth but that He will lead us to a land of Promise?" (v. 38).  They had faith that what the Lord willed, though different than what they had, could be better.  They trusted Him and wanted to be faithful. If we look at how Jared and his brother prayed, we can see patterns of trust, faithfulness and humility.  They never asked to go to a land of promise; they trusted that the Lord's will would be the best for them and asked only for that, deciding to be faithful as well.   It's a good pattern for us today.