Cain Baitsgaan yy?
Thank you for the great email! It's nice to hear how things are going for you all, keep that up please! Hmm.... my first week in Mongolia.... Incredible!! I love change so my brain is having a sensory overload right now! I emailed you on the Thursday that I arrived; and the rest of that day was registration/arrival stuff until about 8, we were pretty hashed and so a shower and sleep was beautiful! We met up with Elder Wilson and his new companion (Axthagch Eatgeth (I'll try and make the Mongolian words as easy to pronounce as possible, but English characters don't do it justice))- it felt like I hadn't seen him in years!
On Friday we went to Tsighsen (a Russian Monument built on a hill above UB) with the AP's and President Mecham and read the dedication prayer (given by Neal A. Maxwell at that same spot). This was to be our first day of actual missionary work and so we started it off right! You'll have to look up the prayer and read it for yourselves ya? After we were assigned our trainers!! My new companion is Axlagch Amagthan! He's been serving here for a little over a year and it's been great following his example- he has a real dedication to the rules and works hard ( I was worried about the dreaded slacker trainer) and so I've loved seeing his zeal for the work! Right now his stomach is having some issues that the Church doctor can't figure out and he's having some pains but still truckin... again what a stud. Keep him in your prayers, I hope we can find a solution tomorrow. After that it was back to my new apartment to unpack a bit. Hmm... my apartment... I'll have to take pictures because that will describe it better. Mom, you would have a heart attack! But it's good living compared to a lot of people here and so I'm very grateful for that. I'm settled in now, but as you now know I'm missing a pillow and a few other things which I'm hoping to pick up today.
I've been adjusting a lot faster that I thought and that's really helped me be productive this first few days- the Lord's been blessing me a ton! I haven't felt any jet lag, Elder Wilson was uber sick about 4 days after arriving and I have felt great! I'm so wiped out that when I get back home sleeps super easy! Going from the MTC cafeteria to Mongolia has probably been the biggest change. Since my companion isn't feeling well our eating schedules been super off. And in Mongolia, there's no difference in foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For breakfast, meat, potatoes, rice, bread, grease. Repeat for the other two meals. I had a daydream today about eating peaches.... no joke! I love all of that food of course, but that 24/7 is cain bish, so I'm really trying to make sure I have variety in my diet and so far it's been going pretty good.
I haven't met with my sponser yet, but I'll be teaching for some organization called the Instruction Federation. The hours vary according to the sponsor. For Example: Elder Huff will be teaching for about 6 hours a week, Elder Reeve for 1, and Elder Wilson and I will be teaching for 14 hours a week. We knew it wouldn't be the full 40, but it was still nice to hear some details on that. Our sponsors give us a couple of weeks to adjust before we begin teaching so I probably won't begin for another two weeks or so. Hopefully I will meet with them this week and learn some details on who and what I am supposed to teach. Elder Reeve and Wilson have met with their sponsors and now are starting to build their "curriculum" ( haa... oh man), so I hope to have that chance too.
Language wise, hmm that's a tough one. It's so refreshing now to hear and speak English! I can teach, I can have simple conversation and I'm finding out that I know a lot more than I thought which is great! But I'm finding out that it's all about comprehension and context. Some people's accents are so different to me that my brain can't register what they're saying! So I smile and laugh like I know what's going on and hang on! And if I know what we're talking about I can guess what I don't know, but otherwise I'm totally lost! But I'm learning fast and the "immersion" in the language is great. BRAYD, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Odds are I won't be able to email ya before your actual birthday, but I love ya, and hope you have a great day. 18!! It blows my mind.... in your next email I wanna hear how it was aight?
I've got to wrap it up, I'm a slow emailer so my companion is just pacing behind me! But I wanted to share a few things in closing. First off, about the scripture study challenge. Our Area Presidency visited Sunday and re-stressed what I've already been thinking a lot about, the power that comes from scripture study! Elder Pratt discussed with the branch about the challenges of having a ton of kids at different stages, and trying to nail down a individual and family reading time. Sounds familiar no? It may be waking up earlier, it may be always not leaving the house for the night until it's read, but it's amazing the power that comes from that study, not to mention the blessings that follow! That's partly why I asked you all during the call to read and set a goal, without that we cannot see our improvement and show the Lord our efforts. I think that's the main reason that we set goals as missionaries, in this we are blessed by God- and without a doubt why, can see the blessing!
I've gotta go, and there's a hundred more things I could write about, so I hope to be able to write more next time. I love you all and can't wait to hear from you again!
Elder Jolley
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