Xooi Sain uu?

A big shout out from UB! To make up for my lame emails the last couple of weeks I'm going to try and pack in as much of what happened this week in this email! I'll go day by day this email:

Monday- Elder Zolthbayar messed up his back playing basketball at the Bayanzurkh building (while running) and that cut short our Preparation Plans, it was all we could do to get food before heading home. So this weeks been tough for him in the moving around sense of things, but he's been good about keeping things as regular as possible! I put in a good plug for exercise and he's been doing stretches and back exercises so this won't happen again, now things are almost back to normal. So that night I took the house by storm and gave it a good cleaning. As of last Monday things have been either really warm or warm and really windy! It hasn't rained much, just windy and dusty.

Tuesday- We had district meeting and English two hours after and so the day flies by really quick. We met a man named Batjargal, a 45 or so year old man who lives in our area but has been attending the Khailaast ward for the last month or so and began meeting with him. He has a desire to increase his faith and loves the idea of commitments (can't ask for anything more!) and I look forward to continual meetings with him. In the 7 months since arriving in Mongolia almost 6 of them have been in Sansar and I'm really adapted to the "city life" (I may be getting soft), as well as the area and the ward! Also, on the 7th my work visa expired (not my main visa, just a work permit) and am in the process of getting that renewed. To be in Mongolia you must have a visa, work visa, and country residency visa, so to make things less simple! I talked with the mission office but haven't received any word on how that's going yet.

Wednesday- Almost the whole day was spent in Conferences and meetings with 2 of the Church History Department Historians! You should ask Uncle Jeff if he knows them, they deal with a lot of the stuff that he does (granite vault operations and such), a Brother Turley and Nielson. The missionaries had a special conference from 1-3 and then a Fireside for the stake from 6-8. President Clark, Elder Byambasuren, Huff, Tuvshinbayar, Elthbeg, and I sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" in the missionary conference and I also received the assignment to conduct the music. Failed as a conductor so I won't be volunteering for that anytime soon! But as long as your arms still moving your good right? Most importantly the musical number went well and that started the conference off on a high note for us. The missionary conference was an opportunity for missionaries to ask any questions they had regarding Church History, then the Fireside was a presentation on the early history of the Church. I ended up missing out on the Fireside to go on splits with Elder Huff to meet with an Indian family, in Mongolia, who speak English.... who would've thought! I love being with the "old" MTC district though and we've all grown tight in this last year or so.

Thursday- Not cleaning day! Ha ha, but we did have to teach English and so that with our weekly planning session took up most of the day. We did get the call that we would be doing transfers with our zone leaders on Saturday.

Friday- Our investigator, Unursaikhan, finished his last lesson, and we called and set up his baptismal interview! He was interviewed on Saturday and will be baptized this following Friday. Then at 9:00 we met up with the Zone Leaders, Elder Elthbeg and Elder Zolthbayar headed to Sansar and Elder Tuvshinbayar and I to Enkhtaivan, on the other side of the city.

Saturday- A great day! Elder Tuvshinbayar and I got up, played some 1 on 1 for exercise, had a great companionship study, and headed off to work! Elder Tuvshinbayar and I had a great day and I hope to have the opportunity to serve with him someday. I wrote this about our companionship exchange in my letter to President Clark:

"Way back in October, while on companion exchanges with Elder Cardinal (then my zone leader) and I met with a less active member who was struggling to quite smoking, Brother Battsengel. I ran in to him last Tuesday at the Bayanzurkh Building, but did not remember him right at first... but he remembered me and the visit Elder Cardinal and I had payed him. From our conversation I gathered that he had not been meeting with the missionaries for some time and he was going to the addiction recovery class... so as of yet no success with quitting smoking. After talking for a while he asked me to come and visit him the next time I was in Enkhtaivan (which I was sure would be a long time later), but I got his information and promised to meet with him. Receiving the call about our Saturday companion split, I had not yet registered this as an opportunity to meet with Brother Battsengel. Elder Tuvshinbayar and I started the day, and after finishing study, we headed out to work, but after two appointments fell through (including our back up plans), we took a few minutes on the street to re evaluate our plan. I had the thought to call Brother Battsengel, and we soon made arrangements to meet him. After meeting with him we had the chance to learn more about his life and current standings, certain trials had left this man reeling and wondering what to do to overcome. We discussed Mosiah 18:9, and he agreed to begin attending church and to continue meeting with Elder Tuvshinbayar and Elbeg. This Gospel brings a power to change and a hope that brings light into the darkest of circumstances! I was very grateful for the Lord in blessing us with this opportunity and I received a reconfirmation of this as I was studying from Romans 8 this morning."

Great Day! Sunday was rush hour x 3 with Church and finding investigators. In Mongolia new potential investigators come on their own to our Sacrament meeting each week, so we find lots of new investigators there. Love the work, love you guys! Thanks Dad, Mom, and Xuuxduud!

Elder Jolley