Not Much to Report

Hey everyone, sorry ahead of time as I don't have much to write about this week.

Top 3 Lows from the week:

-A week of no hot water

-Half of the people we teach are moving to the countryside... typical summer in mognolia

-as of this morning, no water at all :(

Top 3 mediums from the week:

-we own a water boiler- love Asia

-have officially mastered the perfect mix of boiling water and freezing water to equal show water

-have gotten pro level at showering from gallon and a half bottles

Top 5 highs from the week:

-Mongolia officially has 2 stakes now, and should be able to get a 3rd within the next couple years as only 3 more wards need to split to form another stake... meaning that as soon as that happens Mongolia is close to getting a temple!!!

-Blue skies and it's finally warming up here!!!! boo ya!!!! 

-Next week me and 3 other church sponsored English teachers will get to teach 3 two hour classes to about 30 immigration officers... it's going to be awesome!!! so excited

-This week is our last zone conference with Pres Benson as our mission president :( (high and low)

-This week Sis. Westover is coming to town again, and will stay with me!!! yay!

That's all! Love you all! I love this work even though it severely decreases during the Mongolian summertime... the struggle is real shuu dee!!! I know that this gospel is true and it blesses, changes, and helps anyone willing to listen to it and ask of it's truth for themselves. So listen and ask please!!! Love you!

Some of my kindergarten students graduated!

Such Joy

This week has been full of fun adventures! Last Monday my comp and I went to a fine arts museum here that was very cool! I love art and it was so awesome to go to a Mongolian art museum with things dating back anciently! Also, last Monday night, I had an amazing opportunity....

When I was in Erdenet, I was teaching an amazing family there. I had finished the father's lessons, taught most of them to the mom, baptized the daughter, and the son FINALLY had become interested and began meeting with us... well, about 1 month ago, they moved to UB!!! But, they had gotten passed to the wrong branch, and in turn, lost. So, I got their phone number, and called them up, set a time to meet, and Monday night, with one of the sisters from that area got to meet with them and teach them a lesson! I love this family so incredibly much and it touched my heart deeply to see that they are continuing to progress in this

gospel. This brief reunion with them brought such incredible happiness, and it made me think about after this life and how incredibly happy we will be to be reunited with our loved ones for all

eternity.... how amazing?!

On another note, this morning we went hiking with two other sisters to a mountain I hiked about 1 year ago. It was so cool to go back to! It was absolutely beautiful. From that mountain, you can see almost all of UB..... UB is huge!! There are so many people here waiting to hear the gospel... waiting for their lives to be changed.... waiting to understand their purpose and identity, and I can help them learn it. It made us all want to work even harder, and teach more, and be the kind of example that will bring these people unto Christ. 

Our work in this branch is continuing to grow! This Sunday  one of our investigators brought her sister to church, and one of our new members also brought hers!! So cool! These people are feeling the change of heart described in Alma 32 as they feel the spirit and begin to change. They feel that swelling and as such are bringing others too. That's what we must do! We must feel this importance and spirit as well and bring our loved ones unto it. DO MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK PLEASE! It is so incredibly important!!!!

I believe in God, Christ, and this gospel. I know it is true, and so I am here. I am giving up a year and a half to serve God here in Mongolia  You don't have to do this, but I would hope and pray that you would still be an example  reach out to others, and invite others to come unto Christ by coming to church or meeting with the missionaries. Don't be afraid! 

I met an investigator a an amusement park.

One of my fav little Mongolians

Titanic ... Mongolian style!

My new member & her brother.

Crazy Week

One of my English students &
Sister Westover

This week was an interesting week... very little time for actually visiting people as 3 full days were devoted to an English Symposium where 4 speakers came to Mongolia from all of the 3 BYU's and Sister Gong. As well as a visit from Elder Funk and his wife... as well as Stake Conference!!!! It was a crazy week... but on top of it all, I got a visit from Sister Westover!!! She came to the city for the English conference, and stayed at my place fro 3 days, which was awesome!!1 I really missed that girl :) It was awesome to be reunited now that we can actually speak Mongolian and as our missions are coming to a close... we realized that after this transfer ends, she only has 1 more transfer, and I only have 2 more.... what?! craziness!!! (although one of those transfers is 7 weeks, and the 2nd one is 9 weeks). We got to talk together, teach English together, study together, go shopping together a little, and we even got food poisoning together... what are MTC comps for haha:) 

Our MTC group back together for
the first time in Mongolia!

So, the English symposium was AMAZING! I gained so many new ideas for practice activities in class, as well as how to better teach and help my students speak, and how to better study Mongolian myself. it was awesome.

Random thought: I have such a cool companion- she loves rock music, her whole family is almost vegetarian, she loves harry potter and lord of the rings, she is the only member in her family, and shes just the quirkiest mini missionary ever... haha:)

The work in Mongolia is growing so much! In the last month, one ward was split in two, and at stake conference, they shared some new news ... next week, another ward will be split, one branch will become a ward, and the east district in Mongolia will become a stake! That means Mongolia only needs one more stake to get a temple!!!!! Ahh, we are all so excited! And in regards to my own work in Enhktaivan- we have so many people to meet with that we don't even have enough time to meet with them all and we continue to gain more and more and more!! We gained two more families this week! It's so incredibly exciting to see the work progressing so much in the country as well as just in our own ward... I LOVE MONGOLIA!!!! 

* Also we meet with a family who's parents are less active, and the daughter spoke in stake conference... and her opening joke was from me! She quoted something funny i said to her that week :) I am officially famous :)

Well, my thoughts are all over the place, and I need to finish soon, so thats all for this week! I haven't gotten any emails with conversion stories or experiences... please send me them :)

We had a freak snow storm this week!

Our solution to food poisoning.

More of my English students.

Faces of my mission - we are adorable!

Happy Mother's Day!

About 1 hour ago, I Skyped with my family and my brother on his mission. It was sad to say goodbye for the last time before finishing my mission, but kind of exciting too. I will be home in less than 6 months, which means I only have a little bit of time to make as big of a difference as I can here in Mongolia. Anyways, I was one lucky girl today to talk to my family. I love you mom, happy mother's day!

Locked out :(

As an update on the toe, bruised and slightly hurting but off the crutches and walkin around. God definitely blesses his servants. I've had a fun week full of crutches, getting locked out resulting in staying in the dorms of the mission home, transfers, catching a thief who stole my wallet, and all kinds of other craziness!!!!

(Additional info from mom: Sister Harker chased the thief! She followed him while calling the police and then ultimately he was caught & jailed. She got her wallet back and was only missing a small amount of money. Lesson #215: Never chase a thief, run the opposite direction!)

My new comp

On another note, TRANSFERS CAME! I am still in the city in the Einhtaivan ward, but I have a new comp. I am now with a mini missionary (she will serve for 6 weeks) named Giiguul from the Nalaihk branch (one of my first areas, and where my 1st mini missionary was from as well). She is 23, graduated, the only member in her family, and she is preparing for a mission. I am very lucky because she was a branch missionary and used to teach the lessons to the new members, so she already has experience! She got into this area at a great time as we have soooo much work and it just keeps growing! I am really excited to watch everything take off this transfer!

So, with the transfer came a miracle... I got moved to the apartment where I am officially registered on my visa, and when we got moved in there were tons of old area books for other areas. I felt this strong need to look through them and you would never guess what I found .. the area books from my FIRST AREA in Bayanzurkh!!!! After Sister Sneddon went home and I got transferred, we gave them to the elders, who never met with any of our people and then it looks like they left the books here. I had been asking the Bayanzurkh missionaries about these people for the last 10 months, and now I know what happened. I went through the book, wrote out explanations to clarify my poorly written Mongolian when I first got here, and got the books to that branches' missionaries who I'm praying will be able to meet with and continue changing the lives of those I first met as a newbie! 

Also, we have MANY investigators right now who are living with their boyfriends/girlfriends, and the struggle is so real! They all have strong testimonies of the truths we teach them, but they seem scared of trusting in God if they move out... anyways, but we seem to have had a breakthrough with one of them. We taught here about temples and eternal marriage, and she LOVED it. She kept saying how she knows she needs to go there and ASAP, well we talked about the way to get there is through baptism, and the way to get there is by marrying or moving out. She then shared that she had prayed about it and received an answer from God that she needs to break up and move out as her boyfriend does not support her church involvement and that she really needed to move out, get baptized. She said she needed to pray for the strength to do it, but she feels that this is what she needs to do. I just know that if she chooses to follow God's answer, she will be strengthened and blessed. I hope she does so soon!

This week is a big English symposium for 3 days and stake conference, so we will only be able to teach 11 lessons :( But, we are going to make the most of our time and next week, we can get back to the hard core visiting life. 

I just want to say that this gospel truly blesses and changes lives! I know it does as it has for me and for so many of those I've met and taught on my mission here. Even if they don't join the church, the knowledge that this gospel contains blesses EVERYONE. 

I have a request this week. I would really like to here your conversion stories or examples of times that the gospel has truly blessed you. Please email me your stories!!! The more the better! I love you all! Thanks for your support!

Anyone Can Change

This email is coming to you from our mission doctor's apartment. Why, you might ask? Well, I managed to drop a heavy glass bottle of water on my foot, resulting in a trip to the hospital for x-rays (no break luckily) and crutches, meds, and a boot for the next week... so yah, there's my excitement for you guys!

On another note, we had a baptism this week!!!! Ariunzaya, our golden investigator got baptized!!!! She is 15 years old and so incredibly prepared for this gospel. She lives with her aunt who is her legal guardian and her cousins; all of which are members. She has a very strong testimony of this gospel and faith in god, and was determined to move forward with her baptism despite the MANY fiery darts of Satan coming her way. She even fell on some stairs the day before her baptism, scraping up her face and knees pretty bad. But the trooper she is, she still showed up ready to make this important covenant with God with a smile on her face! I love her so much and it was so amazing to see her aunt and cousins come and support her. She even had two boy cousins come who we are teaching as well, and they were very touched by the spirit present there.

At that baptism, there were two other people baptized, not our investigators, but I would like to share their stories anyways. 

One, is a wrestler here in Mongolia. One of our AP's (president's assistants) is a wrestler here as well, and guess what... they competed against each other before his mission. However, our AP was a great example to him and our AP found him, began to teach him all the lessons, then passed him to the elders in our area... and on Friday, he was baptized by his wrestling buddy... our AP. 

The other is a woman around her 60's who was a shaminist priestess her entire life. When she was 5, she was chosen by a shaminist priest for her body to be used for spirits. So, they would invite spirits into her body, and later she became a shaminist priestess who would go up into the mountains and do it herself....sketchy stuff. Well, anyways a lifetime of this, but her children went to America, joined the church, and introduced her to it. She began coming to church, taking the lessons, believed this gospel, eventually with the encouragement of her missionaries and a priesthood blessing was able to renounce shaminism. She finally took the step of baptism this week, and she is so incredibly happy.

Now, what I thought was amazing from these 3 stories is how they came to know of the church. It wasn't from a website or from the missionaries, but all from family members or friends. Please remember how big of an influence you can have. If a shaminist preistest can renounce her life and follow her newfound truth, so can anyone else. Any family member or friend or person on the street. We are all children of God and all worthy of hearing the gospel then choosing for ourselves if we believe it. 

I love you all and I am very excited to skype for mother's day!!!