October 17, 2006 (MTC)

They “raised the bar” of missionary work years ago, but it seems they are continuing to raise it even now. Missionaries learning a foreign language usually have four weeks before they teach a lesson in their mission language. We taught our first lesson in English this past Thursday and afterwards Sister Infanger informed us that we would be teaching in Mongolian next week. When she said that, we all just stared and whimpered. At that point we had learned the alphabet, maybe 200 basic vocabulary words (chair, desk, missionary), and basic greetings (hello, how are you? What’s your name?) Now we were expected to learn a whole lesson? It seemed impossible, but Sister Infanger and our other teachers have told us we will be blessed for doing it.
These past couple days in class have left my head literally spinning. We have basically gone through the entire text of what we want to teach, getting the translation one sentence at a time from the teachers. It is amazing how much the human mind can take in when you really push it to the limits. Actually I’m sure it’s impossible to learn all that we’re supposed to learn in one week, but our Heavenly Father loves doing impossible things. This Thursday night, against all probability, we’re going to teach a 40-minute lesson on the nature of God, eternal families, prophets, apostasies, dispensations, Christ & His Atonement, Joseph Smith & the Restoration, the Book of Mormon, the Holy Ghost, and prayer – all in Mongolian. Miracles are happening here at the MTC.
I never understood why people said the MTC was so hard. I thought it would be like school, but now I see it’s much more difficult. I’m in class all day long learning Mongolian, which is gradually getting better. It’s exciting to be learning a language, but we just had a group of sisters in our branch leave for the mission field, and I realize that I’m going to see 4 groups of stateside missionaries come and go while I’m here. It is a little depressing.
The only things that keep me going are gospel study time and culture time. Everyone gives a sigh of relief when our teachers tell us to take out Preach My Gospel. Learning about the gospel is like recess. It has literally become sweet to me, unlike the food here, which is quite good but I’m already catching on to the rotation of meals. French toast sticks? Must be Thursday.
We usually have culture time with Sister Marta. She either has something prepared or she lets us ask whatever we want the whole time. Mongolia is so COOL! The other day we learned the proper way to sit if there aren’t any chairs, which is apparently a good possibility. Basically the bottoms of your feet are the most offensive thing to a Mongolian so you have to sit in a way that they aren’t showing. It’s harder than it sounds if you’re trying to sit cross-legged. Luckily, women don’t ever sit cross-legged so I don’t have to worry about that. Women either kneel or sit with their legs tucked to the side.
We also learned about the Mongolian flag and what all the symbols mean, which was hilarious because half of them mean “strength and firmness and we will not be conquered and actually we’re going to take over the world.” Mongolians are a very humble people, but the spirit of Чингс Хан (Ghengis Khan) is still very much alive.
We are starting to get along really well as a district. The elders are all great guys, but they are guys. We’ve had a couple of discussions about inappropriate bodily functions, though, and now class time is much more enjoyable. The elders are COMPLETELY obsessed with our male Mongolian teacher, Badumjar. They call the day before he teaches “Badumjar Eve,” and they all wear their best ties on the days he comes in. Sister Infanger got wind of how obsessed they were and informed them that outside of the MTC he doesn’t actually wear Mongolian battle armor, and in fact she’s only ever seen him in a baseball cap and hooded sweatshirts. This calmed them down for a little bit, until they decided the baseball cap was the source of his superpowers.
So, my companion gets at least two letters a day, and sometimes gets three or four letters at a time. One time when our District Leader was handing out mail, Elder Allred asked me if I felt bad seeing how much mail she gets. I informed him that it didn’t bother me and that I didn’t base my self-esteem on how many letters I got. This is true, but seriously folks, let’s step it up a little here. I gotta beat Sister Balli one of these days!
I am so grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary. It strengthens my testimony so much to see the gospel working in such a real way. Those who are obedient are blessed in their ability to teach. Companionships that love each other teach better. Those who invite the companionship of the Spirit teach better. It’s all about the work, and it is a great challenge to work each day on becoming exactly obedient and wholly faithful.
In closing, I’d like to introduce you to my absolute favorite Mongolian word (so far). I’ll write down it out phonetically for those of you who don’t read Cyrillic: tuh-lthuv-lthuh-guh. If you get it right, it’ll sound hilarious. The best part is, it means “plan” as in “plan of salvation” so I get to say it a lot.
God lives. He is our Heavenly Father. He loves us. I love the gospel, and I love you all.
ЖОНСОН ЭТЧ