Quick Updates

This week was pretty fantastic! We've had absolutely beautiful weather, and we get to go to the field across the street for gym time, so that's fantastic! I don't have a lot of time, but here are the updates:

-I'm glad you go the Mongolian candy I sent...it is dried milk curds. The white ones are goat milk, and the yellow are horse milk. Yep, no lies!

-All us Mongolian missionaries and Sister Enkbaht from Mongolia performed a musical number in sacrament on Sunday. We sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" in Mongolian to a special arrangement a Sister in our branch created for us... it was so BEAUTIFUL!!! It's moments like these that help me to realize the gospel is just as true and powerful in every language :) I love Mongolian!

-Lessons with Choka, one of our investigators are going awesome! We have taught him almost everything at this point, and he is getting baptized next week! He has really developed a happiness and excitement for this Gospel. We didn't even have to invite him to church this week, he just said "See you at church sisters!" How cool is that?! He has also stopped drinking and is working on his relationship with his wife and 2 yr old son- they are separated. This gospel is truly changing his life for the better! I love teaching him!

-Some of our closest friends here at the MTC left this week for their missions, so that was difficult. It's sad to lose them, but it's so happy and exciting what they are leaving to do. It is really amazing to see friends all united in purpose in all areas of the world!

-I saw a few friends from wards at BYU this week at the MTC!!! It's so great to see them; it really feels like tender mercies from the Lord.

-The MTC president sat with us at lunch a few days ago, and we got to talk to him for a while. He is such an awesome man, and has so much to share with us. He gave us some great advice and it was fun to get to know him as well.

-It was our teacher’s birthday this week, so I made him a gift. I bought a mini Book of Mormon- he loves the mini ones- and our district marked our favorite scriptures in it for him, with a sweet message as well. It was so great to give back to someone who does so much to help each of us.

-Elder Hallstrom spoke to us on Tuesday. He is a president of the seventy. He told a lot of great stories and gave some great advice. One of my favorite things he said was that disobedience can become a barrier between a missionary and the spirit. That is why we have so many rules and strive for exact obedience.

-We got a new group of missionaries in our branch this week, so that was awesome. They are from all over the place; Tonga, Samoa, China, South Korea, Cambodia, Philippines, Sweden, and many other places too! They are so awesome and have so much to share with us.

-Sister Westover and I were made Sister Training Leaders, so we are now in charge of the sisters in our branch/zone. We currently have about 10, but we are supposed to get 20 more next week, so we will be busy. We help these sisters a lot during the first few days. We guide them, teach them, nurture them, and just make sure they are doing well. I am so excited to help these sisters and hopefully be a good example to them.

-I don't know if I ever shared this, but I just thought it was cool: the word for gospel in Mongolia actually translates to Good News. How fitting is that? The gospel truly is good news. It's the Lord's good news, and I get to share that with people for the next 18 months!

-We have a pretty awesome group of Mongolian missionaries here, and we have definitely gotten to know each other well. We have had some seriously funny moments and stories come out. Well this week, we found out that after high school, one of the elders in our group spent 3 months alone in the sierra nevadas. He only took a water bottle, a knife, a garbage bag, a watch, and some rope. How nuts is that?! 3 months alone and he seems to be okay, haha. He really is awesome, but we were just all amazed that somebody would do that and survive. He definitely had some good laughs over lunch about that, haha.