Hey Guys!

I can't believe we're already through the first of January! It blows my mind. Thank you for the pictures and the great emails this week, I had all different perspectives and I love getting the different sides of each story! I'm glad that letter got there so quick- SUCCESS! It's not much, but I hope you like it Mom. An early Happy Birthday from me and I hope you have a great day! Let me know in next weeks email.

This week I haven't gotten another transfer call, but if I send you another letter later on today don't be surprised! haha It's been fun getting online the last 2 weeks with the surprise email. I'm back in Sansar again and so the adjustment was really quick, having been there for the first 6 weeks of my mission. Last Friday an investigator was baptized that I began teaching with Elder Amgalan and I had the opportunity to baptize! A very cool experience and next week my Part Member family will become a Member family! We also found them about 3 months ago and they've been meeting with the missionaries since I left. Lots of cool experiences like that coming back. I'm in the same apartment as I started out in (I sent pictures of it a while back), definitely not as cool as the palace we lived at in Chingeltei, but I've grown to love the ole place! My companion is Elder Amarbaysgalan, he left on his mission last August, and I love working with him! He's a huge NBA junkie and we just had an awesome basketball session at a school in our area with the other Elders in the city (about 30 came). We've been doing that every Monday for the last while. I'm getting used to Mongolian rules- they play rough, but it's a party!

On Wednesday the Shropes came and I got the earmuffs, letters, and iPod. Thanks to you guys for getting that all set up! The earmuffs have been great the last couple days - the wind has picked up a lot and I was getting yelled at by the senior missionary sisters every time I ran into them! After the first of February it's supposed to start warming up from there... this winter has been a lot warmer than what I heard it would be and I still feel like the cold is on it's way. Speaking of February, Tsagaan Sar is coming! Mongolian Christmas and Thanksgiving combined. I don't remember if I explain "White Month" to you guys before or not, but it's February 3-5, so it's coming up quick. Mongolians celebrate Tsagaan Sar by going around to all their friends and family's homes eating bohdz (meat dumplings) for 3 straight days! So right now everyone's busy making preparations. Usually families make anywhere from 500-1000 bohdz to be able to eat during Tsagaan Sar. Plus you only wear deels and the traditional Mongolian clothes so I'm excited for that (some big American missionary left his deel here when he left so another score for me from the mission office!). I ordered a legit Mongolian fox hat from a Church member who makes them to wear - it's gonna be sweet!

We had a really cool teaching opportunity on Sunday that I'd like to share with you. After Church got out on Sunday I noticed a man looking at the Articles of Faith plaque that is posted on the wall of the Bayanzurkh building and went up and introduced myself and asked him how Church was. He said he'd never been to our meeting before, enjoyed it, but now was trying to find out more about our Church's beliefs. I offered to help him! My companion and I shared about the Restoration as we taught the first lesson. Ganzorig has been attending another Christian church in town and had a lot of questions about our beliefs concerning the Godhead and Christ's Atonement. Great questions! I used to be worried about how I would answer an investigators questions, but now I am more excited when I hear them because it shows the investigator is really thinking about what we are sharing with them and it makes great teaching opportunities from the scriptures. He believed that repentance signified that we didn't accept Christ's Atonement by saying it was our responsibility to obtain forgiveness. I shared with him Alma 34:8-12 and was able to bear testimony of the "matchless gift" of Christ's atoneing sacrifice. How grateful I am for the scriptures, for the power of the Holy Ghost, and for a Savior who has the perfect plan for us!
I love you guys, Happy Birthday Mom! You all are in my prayers and I'm so grateful for the blessings I see coming from the Lord constantly, see ya next week!

Elder Jolley