July 20, 2007 - New Mission President; Daily Routine

No pictures this week cuz…yeah. My camera is retarded.

I didn’t have time to say anything about President Anderson last week because I got caught up in reporting about Naadam, so now here’s the dealy: He’s awesome. He served his mission in Hong Kong, and he liked it so much that he came back to live there a few years later with his family and has been there for the past 28 years. He speaks Chinese fluently, which probably won’t help much here in Mongolia. He knew all about the Chinese Branch in San Jose and in my home stake and asked me if I knew the Breglios--he was the first president of the Chinese branch in DC. He has two sons who are married and a daughter who is here with them for a few months before going back home for school. She did a special musical number with bells for Zone Conference.

President Anderson was the Asia Area President before being called to Mongolia. He came to Mongolia last summer and absolutely fell in love with the place, so he was really excited to get his call as mission president. Also, when he was here last summer, he made the recommendation that Mongolia no longer be considered a “hardship” mission, which means that the mission presidents would serve for 3 years instead of 2. The brethren accepted his recommendation and then called him to be the first 3-year mission president. Hee.

When he was in Utah for a few weeks for new mission president training and such he decided go to a Jazz game. While he was there he ran into Elder M. Russell Ballard. When Elder Ballard heard he was going to Mongolia he told him he was really lucky. Then he said, “Oh, and you don’t have to worry about baptisms. Concentrate on the members.” Yeah, so things are changing a little bit around here, but we’re all really excited. I think President Anderson will be really good for Mongolia.

Yes, I did get a new companion. Sister Delgermurun is her name. She’s really sweet. She’s from Selenge, the province just north of the Center Province.

As for the day to day in Enkhtaivan Branch, the first few hours are like any other mission: wake up at 6:30, do some stretches and exercise, shower, iron, scrub the dust off my shoes from the day before, eat some brekkers (usually eggs, jeem-and-jam jam and bread, or oatmeal), then three hours of study (personal, companion, language). Then, its time to eat again! With Sister Otgontuya we made food at home every single day. I’m pretty easy to please and can go either way. When Mongolians make food its usually just rice with hyam and pickles and stuff. What is hyam, you ask? It’s…meat, probably. It’s just some kind of sausage bologna type stuff made of all kinds of animals, from pig to cow to sheep to horse and back again.

My English teaching schedule is pretty simple in this branch: I teach from 5 to 6:30 every day, Mondays and Wednesdays at a language training center, and Tuesdays and Thursdays at a small mining equipment company.

When we’re not teaching English, we’re usually walking around checking contacts and inactive members. Sister Otgontuya and I were white-washed into this branch, and it's always hard trying to build up a pool of investigators from scratch. It's kind of frustrating having only 2 progressing investigators and spending the rest of your day walking around and around, knocking on doors and having no one answer or if they do answer the address is usually wrong.

We’re also having problems with a lot of inactive, new members. Just the sound of that phrase, “inactive, new members” kinda makes your skin crawl, doesn’t it?

Some of the members here in Mongolia make me feel so humble and small in my faith and works. They believe so strongly. They change their lives, embrace the gospel, and become fantastic servants in the church. I realize every investigator can’t be like that, so I’m trying to really appreciate the good ones when they come.

Missionary work is hard. Did you know that? You probably did. Yesterday we probably walked about 8 miles from one end of our area to the next and back again, checking contacts, trying to meet with inactive members, delivering a letter from BYU Hawaii to the UB District first counselor (because missionaries are also mailmen here in Mongolia), all with no measurable success. But, it was a good day.

I know this church is true. I received another witness of the Book of Mormon and Joseph from the Holy Ghost as I was bearing my testimony this past week. It really is true. Keep up the good work on your end and I’ll try to keep up on mine.

Congrats to Bretty McBretterson on the engagement, and thanks to E. Lizabeth for keeping me informed!