Mission Conference Boloo

This Pday is filled with the hype of the next two days which should be great.  All of the Elders are in from the countryside (not that many people because the mission is down to like fifty missionaries) and Elder Wilson (a member of our area presidency) comes in tonight.  Mission conference is pretty much like general conference, but on a more one on one setting and it’s all day. My sponsor was also completely willing to give me Wednesday off so I won’t have to miss any of it! Plus Pday basketball when the whole mission is in town always amps up the gameplay.  Tried to get a soccer game together today, but that didn’t work out. 

Pretty much all of the American Elders left in Mongolia are teachers at schools so even though we all went back to school this week it was fun to all go back together as a team kind of.  Jonon has been great this week with my new teaching technique .  .  .  wing it.  My new class freaked out when they found out that I know Mongolian. Seeing all the other students was almost like seeing friends again and we just chatted about the summer for a while.  Plus three of the hours a week are just me, my sponsor, and his wife eating food and trying to learn/teach English.  What basically happens is my sponsor goes on for an hour about some really cool Mongolain  history or culture story (the first three words are in English and then he switches to Mongolian haha) and then the last 5 minutes he asks a few questions and we finish.  Can’t complain there.  The only downside is the deficit of study time. All the classes start so early we get no time in the morning to study.  We get out so late that there’s no reason to go back to the apartment. 

Thursday was fun as we went straight from English to digging a 10 foot bathroom hole.  We went with the other Elders in our district and it was a blast.  The Elders quorum president from their ward was there and he was laughing and talking the whole time.  We talked about pretty much everything for the 4 hours we dug.  On the way home I convinced my companion that the Air Force never lands its planes and only refuels by people throwing them fuel from the ground and a guy with a big glove leaning out the window and catching it (funnier in Mongolian bakhuu).

This week we added quite a number of people to the potential investigator list including a man who came to church with his wife seeking a way out of alcoholism.  I talked with him before the investigator class started and then he basically dominated the discussion during class which was taught by a fantastic RM who served in Washington DC.  They stayed all three hours and came back for some sort of fireside that we weren’t able to stay for.  Unfortunately we won’t be able to meet with them until after mission conference. 

This week we also met again with the brother of member tsetsegmaa (Elder Wilson’s convert).  She’s great because she talks as if she’s always angry.  It seemed like we were in and out of there before we knew it as she basically ran the meeting.  The family had run out of the pamphlets we had given them and could have taught the lessons themselves.  And at the end, tsetsegmaa who sells fruits at the zaakh sent us home with 10 bananas and apples. 

The next day at church the oldest son came and told us (as if it was nothing) that he had walked an hour and a half to get to church.  The mom and the dad unfortunately had work.  This is a constant problem in Mongolia because the concept of a weekend really doesn’t exist and  because there is no Christian background the Sabbath is of no consequence and always a problem for members and investigators alike.

I got to end this, but have a great week
Pray always,
Elder Neuberger