Happy Monday Family (too bad you guys don't have a Preparation Day, it makes Monday's a lot cooler). Elder Verdusco and I have had a great day! Cleaned the house and started our packing preparations for this Wednesday. We've really loved this apartment so almost sad to be leaving it. But transfers! I'm going back to Sansar, and Elder Verdusco will be staying in Khailaast. Elder Verdusco's new companion is one of the Elders in our district, Elder Mungunsukh (he's our zone leader) and will now be covering the whole Khailaast area (instead of 4 Elders and 2 Sisters we're gaining 2 more Sisters and losing 2 Elders). But he's really excited and I'm excited that he'll still be able to keep working with our investigators. This time in Sansar will be different from my last 2 transfers there because I'll be serving as President's Assistant with Elder Tuvshinbayar. But going to Sansar feels like coming home and I'm excited to return! I'll be taking Elder Wilson's place (between him and I, one of us has been in Sansar since we came in last September) and he and Elder Huff will be training the 2 new American missionaries coming on Wednesday, Elder Titensor and Woodward. So lot's of big changes happening!
I found out by being invited last minute to the mission's zone counsel last Tuesday. At the time I had no idea what I was doing, I was just told to sit in- we spent the afternoon in the Mission President's home discussing the new training plan for missionaries (which is starting this month, Brayden's going to be able to get this training in the field). Anyways, after a spiritual feast, discussing the needs and upcoming events of our mission, I found out that I would be coming to Sansar again. Also, Elder Carl B. Pratt has just been released from our Area Presidency and Elder Gerrit W. Gong has been called to fill in, he will be coming for a mission tour in September! So I've known most of the last week, but the transfer call didn't come until Saturday so Elder Verdusco was plotting and guessing throughout the week what was happening! He's excited for his new companion and it will be good for him to really dive into the language 24/7 being with a Mongolian companion. I'm very excited for Elder Verdusco, to not only have seen his progress in the last few months together but now to see him take off! Ever since Tuesday I've been grateful for the trust that the Lord and President Clark have put in me and I'm excited now to learn the ropes. My new companion is awesome! He started his mission a month before me and I've worked with him a little bit on companion exchanges, just a good, solid Elder. He and I will have the opportunity to work with President Clark, as well as our responsibility over the Sansar ward. So I'll have a lot to fill in next week as I get my feet wet! This next transfer will bring a lot of changes, but I'm so grateful for the time I have to be a servant of the Lord in this part of the field! I've taken the initiative to re-read Preach My Gospel cover to cover this week and it's strengthened my testimony in the power of this book! With the Book of Mormon there's no other book that we should know more in order to be a instrument in the hand of the Lord (shout out to Dad and Brayden- start reading in cover to cover with me and we'll share spiritual insights!). To close I'll share a scripture:
By faith aAbel offered unto God a more excellent bsacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
By faith aEnoch was btranslated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this ctestimony, that he pleased God.
But without afaith it is impossible to please him: for he that bcometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a crewarder of them that ddiligently eseek him.
Hebrews 11:4-6. We must have a knowledge that our path is pleasing before God in order to develop that faith of power! Joseph Smith once said that " a religion that doesn't require the sacrifice of all things never has the power necessary unto life and salvation"(paraphrasing, shuu dee). But it is through our own sacrifice that we gain a witness that we are on the Lord's path, and that confidence will bring increased faith in our lives and increased power to follow Him. So, choose something in your daily life that keeps you back from more fully feeling the Lord's love- and make that sacrifice and I promise that you will feel that your sacrifice is pleasing unto God by an increase of faith and His blessings!
Elder Ryan Jolley
P.S. The pictures that I sent need a little explaination. Remember that outhouse hole we started digging a while back? Well we finally finished it off this week, a good 3 meter dug out by the time we were done! The other is Brother Munkhbaatar and his daughter Enkhmunkh, a less active family Elder Verdusco and I have been working with these last few months.
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