November 7, 2006 (MTC)

Sister Johnson and her companion, Sister Balli

Tuesday – (or Sunday, as I like to call it because it is Preparation Day, a day of rest—no classes, a devotional in the evening) is pretty much my favorite day of the week. We go to the temple that day. It’s such a blessing to be able to go, plus you feel all rebellious getting to cross the street and escape from Spirit Prison. Okay, maybe rebellious isn’t the right word since we’re running away to the temple, but my heart does seem to beat faster every time I walk out the front entrance. I’m so glad to be able to go now because the closest temple to Mongolia is in Seoul, Korea.

I had an amazing experience this past week. We were teaching the plan of salvation, and we hadn’t had a lot of time to prepare our lesson because of some other stuff that has been going on. I was about to start on our last point when I noticed we had only taken up 25 of the allotted 40 minutes. If we ended early we would have to make real conversation with the Mongolians that we were teaching -- a skill that is still laughably far away for me. Anyway, as I was trying come up with something to say, the thought entered my mind that I should talk about Grandma Johnson [who died several years ago]. I don’t even remember if it made sense with what I was already talking about. I only got out two sentences in broken Mongolian (something like “My grandma died. I know I will see her again.”) before I started crying. Then the Mongolian we were teaching started crying, too, and then we all started laughing because, hey, crying is funny. When you teach in the MTC, you pretend you’re really teaching in Mongolia, and the volunteers pretend they’re real Mongolian investigators, and it’s just this weird situation where you’re both pretending you don’t all know what’s really going on. We started laughing because the pretenses were temporarily down, and we were all just members of the same church who knew and were grateful for our Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness.

The Mongolian we were teaching, Choka, comes every week. She was the 29th Mongolian to be baptized. She served a mission in Russia, came to the U.S. to go to school, and married an American. She taught Mongolian at the MTC for a while, and she does a lot of translating for General Conference and Relief Society broadcasts. She is actually best friends with my companion’s older sister so she treats the two of us like family. She never goes to her assigned room and instead heads straight for wherever Sister Balli and I are teaching every week. She brings us treats and stuff for Sister Balli from her family. During our lessons she peeks her digital camera out of her purse to take pictures of us and smiles sheepishly when we catch her doing it (not so hard to do when she forgets to turn off the flash). She’s my Mongolian aunt.

There are three sister missionaries from Mongolia at the MTC right now; Sister Yura, Sister Gontoya, and Sister Tsatral. We meet with them once a week to practice Mongolian and help them practice English. They are all so amazing and really funny. None of them have been members for more than 3 years, and they were all the first in their family to join. Sister Gontoya told us her conversion story. She was jogging one morning and happened to be passing a chapel as members were arriving for sacrament meeting. She said her heart told her to go in to the meeting, and she did. That is what amazes me. These people are so ready for the gospel. She didn’t question the feeling in her heart, she just obeyed.

One of the counselors in our Branch Presidency just got released. He and his wife were so awesome and so supportive. I was really sad to see them go. I was talking to his wife on their last Sunday, and she mentioned that they lived in Mapleton. I asked if she knew Tom & Michelle Bankhead, my old BYU singles ward bishop, and she said not only did they know them, they’re next door neighbors and share a swimming pool in their backyards (Yes, Esther & Ryan, that swimming pool)! What a small world!

Remember D&C 82:10. “I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.” It’s up to us how many blessings we receive. You know what you’re supposed to do, so do it!

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