Hey Everyone-

It was great to see the house! It looks really nice and it's great
knowing that you all are a bit more settled in now. I'm getting
settled in to life in Selbe and things are starting to come together
with investigators as we find those who are ready to come to Christ.
The dynamics of our mission is so different here in methods, but I
know that with some faith and creativity the results are the same!
Elder Quinton teaches English right now Monday through Thursday and
Saturday from 4-6 p.m. and then I teach Monday,Tuesday, and Thursday
from 6:30-8:30 p.m., and so were teaching quite a bit. But this week
Elder Quinton doesn't teach so we're going to take advantage of that!
And now that things are thawing out it's only up from here- we're now
on the warming trend until spring! My last winter in Mongolia....
bittersweet. We had a lot going on this last week, I'll fill ya in:

Monday we taught English from 4 on and so we busted out all the chores
and then played some ping pong over at the Church. When I went to buy
fabric for the deel I picked up 2 paddles and a bunch of ping pong
balls for 5 bucks (I love prices in Mongolia), and so we've been
playing a lot on Preparation Day lately, trying to get good enough to
fight off the Mongolians that we play with (most Mongolians are great
at ping pong!) I just use my "wing span" and it helps me get a bit of
an advantage. I also got Elder Quinton to get a deel and a fox hat, so
we're going all out for Tsagaan Sar! People in UB don't wear deels as
much as those who live in the khuduu and so we're going to be the
foreigners fighting to keep the culture alive. Tsagaan Sar this year
starts February 22nd with Bituun (Tsagaan Sar's eve) and then goes
until the 25th... then we're set for transfers on the 26th. This
transfer has been really slow to me! Work has been great and we're
plenty busy, but I'm still adjusting to life out of the mission office.
Time flew by so quick the last 6 months! I love reading Elder
Mickelson's emails, it sounds exactly like what Elder Tuvshinbayar and
I were doing, the layout's almost the same.

Tuesday after district meeting we had a lesson, taught English, and
then went on companionship exchanges with the Bayanzurkh district
leader (a.k.a. Elder Verdusco!). So we split up at about 8:30 and I
went with him to Bayanzurkh. They're living in my old apartment (where
I lived with Elder Zolbayar in Sansar) and worked together all of
Wednesday. Trainer and trainee back together again. But now Elder
Verdusco is a district leader and I loved watching and observing him
in his work. He works out in the ger districts and so I liked being
out of the city center and meeting in gers again. He's really grown
and is a Christ-like, humble, powerful missionary. I've got a lot to
learn from him and we set some great goals at the end of the exchange
that I hope will help him in his work and in his district. Elder
Quinton, though a new missionary, has a lot of confidence and really
takes the reins with work in Selbe whenever I'm gone and he and Elder
Bataa had a great day.

Thursday was zone council. This time it was great to see zone council
from the "other side." I had never been to zone council before not being
an assistant so I've always been used to the planning and presenting
side of things, and so having that perspective and attending zone
council now was really great! Elder Huff and Elder Myagmardorj, Elder
Zolboo (Erdenet ZL), Elder Tuvshinbayar (Darkhan ZL), Elder Wilson
(Songino ZL), and I met in the President's office from 10 to 3. All
incredible Elders! All of them I've been able to watch grow and serve
in the last year and a half. We did a lot of preparation for the
upcoming all-mission conference. Elder C. Scott Grows is attending and so
it's been "re-vamped" a bit. So I left that day really re-focused on
the needs of the zone, ready to work! Then Friday we had no English at
all so we were out all day, got a lot of lessons in and soaked up the - temps
while we've still got them.

Saturday President Clark invited Elder Wilson and I to be apart of the
East District Branch Mission Leader training. We taught and
demonstrated the missionary coordination meeting and how we can work
better together as full time missionaries and members. That was from
12 to 3 p.m. in the mission presidents home. I loved being apart of
the training, Elder Wilson and I worked with the assistants on that
and it was put together quick but went great! We are trying to
establish some habits that will help the branches and missionaries
work better together and so we were able to draw from a lot of
experience between the 4 of us! Then on Saturday, our emee Tserendulam
got out of the hospital and we were able to meet with here again!
She's been in the hospital (which usually in Mongolia isn't terribly
serious- if you get sick you go straight to the hospital), but read
from the Book of Mormon and prayed while she was there! I've never met
with an emee (grandma) investigator that has understood as great as
she does it's incredible! Then on Sunday I filled in for an RM and
taught the investigator class, attended the ward missionary meeting,
worked with some of the ward leaders, met with a member family for
dinner and that was the day!

Our times up, we've got to go get the washing machine repaired. I love you guys!

Elder Jolley