Manaix aa

Sain uu? How's everyones week been? I'm a week behind on emailing so I'm going to be filling in a lot! First off a big shout out to Skyler. I had just a few minutes to read about last week and you've been in my prayers! The Lord is really looking out for our family and I was grateful for that knowledge this week. Don't pull anything too crazy from now until July ya? I need you off of bedrest by the time I get home bud!

Dad, happy birthday on Tuesday! I miss having the joint birthday parties! Can you believe you've hit 45 and I'm turning 21???? It feels like just yesterday that we were doing the 40/16 birthday celebration.... crazy. But I can't tell you how grateful I am for you,your example. Last Conference we heard a lot about our responsibility as priesthood holders and I was grateful to have seen those principles in action in our home! Have a great day! Let me know next week how the big day turns out!

This has been a really really fast paced week. I love these opportunities to share the Gospel! With the end of the month coming up Elder Tugsbaatar and I have been working to conducting companionship exchanges with all the district leaders in our zone before zone leaders council this Thursday. This last Wednesday we were up in Baganuur, then tonight we're going on exchanges with the sign language Elders in the city. These have been great experiences, I love working with these Elders! But I'll get on that in a minute....

Monday we had a big cool off in the city. Elder Tugsbaatar and I met up with Elders Wilson and Sugar, Nyambayar and Myagmardorj, rented a court out and played some basketball. My companion is completely addicted to basketball! And though he's smaller and older he plays incredibly well! Elder Tugsbaatar, Elder Sugar, and Elder Myagmardorj played against Elder Nyambayar, Elder Wilson, and I for a good 2 hours. Then we had a couple of problems come up before I taught English and that took up the rest of the day. Tuesday after having a great district meeting Elder Tugsbaatar and I hopped on the bus and headed to Baganuur. It's a good 2 hours out of UB and so I took this time to take apart the new April Liahona. The bus was loaded but I was able to have some of the best experiences receiving personal revelation that I've had on my mission! The whole two hours I was filling in the margins of my Liahona as fast as I could write it all down. I was studying a speech that Elder Bednar gave at BYU in 2001, I'll share a section of it with you:

May I suggest that the Book of Mormon is our handbook of instructions as we travel the pathway from bad to good to better and to have our hearts changed. If you have your scriptures with you this morning, please turn with me to Mosiah 3:19. In this verse King Benjamin teaches about the journey of mortality and about the role of the Atonement in successfully navigating that journey: "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the HolySpirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord" (emphasis added).

I want to stop at this point and draw our attention to two specific phrases. First, consider "and putteth off the natural man." Let me suggest to you that President McKay was fundamentally talking about putting off the natural man when he said, "The purpose of the gospel is . . . to make bad men good." Now I do not believe the word bad in this statement by President McKay connotes only wicked, awful, horrible, or inherently evil. Rather, I think he was suggesting that the journey from bad to good is the process of putting off the natural man or the natural woman in each of us. In mortality we all are tempted by the flesh. The very elements out of which our bodies were created are by nature fallen and ever subject to the pull of sin, corruption, and death. And we can increase our capacity to overcome the desires of the flesh and temptations, as described in this verse,"through the atonement of Christ." When we make mistakes--as we transgress and sin--we are able to overcome such weakness through the redeeming and cleansing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. As we frequently sing in preparation to partake of the emblems of the sacrament, "His precious blood he freely spilt; His life he freely gave, A sinless sacrifice for guilt, A dying world to save" ("How Great the Wisdom and the Love," Hymns, 1985, no. 195).

Now, please notice the next line in Mosiah 3:19: "and becometh a saint." May I suggest this phrase describes the continuation and second phase of life's journey as outlined by President McKay. "The purpose of the gospel is . . . to make bad men good"--or, in other words, put off the natural man--"and good men better"--or, in other words, become more like a saint. Brothers and sisters, I believe this second part of the journey--this process of going from good to better--is a topic about which we do not study or teach frequently enough nor understand adequately.

If I were to emphasize one overarching point this morning, it would be this: I suspect that you and I are much more familiar with the nature of the redeeming power of the Atonement than we are with the enabling power of the Atonement. It is one thing to know that Jesus Christ came to earth to die for us. That is fundamental and foundational to the doctrine of Christ. But we also need to appreciate that the Lord desires, through His Atonement and by the power of the Holy Ghost, to live in us--not only to direct us but also to empower us. I think most of us know that when we do things wrong, when we need help to overcome the effects of sin in our lives, the Savior has paid the price and made it possible for us to be made clean through His redeeming power. Most of us clearly understand that the Atonement is for sinners. I am not so sure, however, that we know and understand that the Atonement is also for saints--for good men and women who are obedient and worthy and conscientious and who are striving to become better and serve more faithfully. I frankly do not think many of us "get it" concerning this enabling and strengthening aspect of the Atonement, and I wonder if we mistakenly believe we must make the journey from good to better and become a saint all by ourselves through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline, and with our obviously limited capacities.

Brothers and sisters, the gospel of the Savior is not simply about avoiding bad in our lives; it also is essentially about doing and becoming good. And the Atonement provides help for us to overcome and avoid bad and to do and become good. There is help from the Savior for the entire journey of life--from bad to good to better and to change our very nature."

And another.... mai:

"As you and I come to understand and employ the enabling power of the Atonement in our personal lives, we will pray and seek for strength to change our circumstances rather than praying for our circumstances to be changed. We will become agents who "act" rather than objects that are "acted upon" (2 Nephi 2:14)."

The speech is entitled, "In the Strength of the Lord." by David A.Bednar. I encourage you to look it up later and study it. When I was reading this talk I then remembered that I would be viewing these devotionals live in a few months!

We arrived at about 7 and visited a potential pre-missionary with the Baganuur Elders. I would be working the next day with the district leader, Elder Amartuvshin, and my companion worked with Elder Anar, a temporary missionary who's now waiting to receive his call. Elder Amartuvshin is one of those Elders that I can see a lot of myself in, a hungry young missionary and it was a huge boost to work with him! He had a lot of questions about his new responsibilities as a district leader and so when we weren't teaching lessons we were usually going over his responsibilities. Needless to say it was a fast day. Then to make it even better, Baganuur Elders have bikes! I know that sounds weird, but I've never been able to bike around on my mission and so Tuesday was a blast! It always amazes me that even out in the countryside of Mongolia there are tons of people that have connections or past experiences with the Church. While we were biking around we helped a 10 year old boy get water back to his ger from the well (the cart he was using to lug the water barrels around broke), and so we put the jugs on our bikes and headed to his house. When we got there we started talking with his uncle who had been in Salt Lake City 10 years ago and he asked us about temples and some other things about the Church that had impressed him, but he had never found out more about. They were a really great family and I'm keeping in touch with the Elders in Baganuur and we'll see what comes of it! We met back up with our companions around 5 and then Elder Tugsbaatar and I caught a taxi back to the city.

Most of the rest of this week has been working with Sister Unenbat and Brother Amaraa. Sister Unenbat has a baptism interview tonight and is scheduled to be baptized this Friday. I can't think of a better way to spend my birthday! She is planning on being baptized as well as the 2 brothers, Bumbayar and Batbayar that Elder Quinton and I began teaching in Selbe. I'm really excited for this Friday!! Brother Amaraa is still struggling to keep the word of wisdom and so his baptism is still a little ways away. The cool thing is, I first contacted Brother Amaraa when he was working in Khailaast last June (when I was serving with Elder Verdusco). He had been coming to church for a few months and then one day moved. He came back from the countryside this last week and he commented that he remembered seeing me at the Khailaast church building before. He's been struggling lately with going to church and stuff and meeting with him again helped him remember the Spirit he first felt when he was going to Church and he's been doing considerably better this last week. These are just a couple small examples of the many ways we've seen the Lord preparing people to receive His gospel!

The last of the 3 pictures I included this week should have a few familiar faces. This last Friday Brother Purev and Sister Nyamsuren's youngest son, Enerel, was baptized! Now that he's been baptized they have set the goal to be at the temple in one year! Elder Neuberger and I were originally meeting with Enerel, but because of all of his training (he's a professional acrobat???) he wasn't able to be baptized with the rest of his family. It's great to see the gospel influence now working in the lives of those around them!

 

For Mothers Day. Let's plan for Sunday evening Tehuu? We've got a lot to catch up on! I'm still not sure where this last year went.... it hit me this week really hard. Where'd my "20th" year go?? Definitely don't feel old enough to be coming on 21 or to be near the end of my mission... so that's something I'm still in the "denial stage" on. I love you guys, I am grateful for the Savior and His atoning sacrifice in my life. This Gospel is the way to receive faith unto change in this life and salvation in the life to come!

Elder Ryan Jolley