Well in the span off
the last week it’s gone from just warm enough to play basketball last P-day to
"my companion will lose an ear on the way to the bus stop if we don’t get him a
hat today." Everything starts to go in slow motion as the weather gets
colder. People don’t walk as fast; the traffic increases and the bus
drivers start to drive with some sort of caution of the ever present black ice.
Even the internet and power suffer as the cold causes frequent power
outages. And then I think of the poor
Elders in Brazil who would trade every sweat stained shirt they own for a
day under 90 and then I’m extremely grateful to be in Mongolia!
Last week began with
a great P-day where by shear happenstance all the missionaries ended up at the central
building at the same time, plus the weather was over 32 degrees causing some
impromptu white shirt and tie basketball. You would think the lack of
basketball clothing would bring down the intensity level just a bit but I still
managed to somehow lose a pocket and rip my pants. That evening we met with Erdenebat
and our new member Nacantogtox which were both great and with
me literally in charge of all the small talk it brought me closer to
each of them. Erdenebat who has now gone over two weeks without a cigarette
and is preparing to get baptized on the 23rd.
Tuesday morning after
study we headed over to the church to get all of the Skype accounts prepared
for the days district meeting. We also had a baptismal interview for one
of the sisters’ investigators in Khovd. I was really hoping that we would
get the Skype up and running and do the interview over Skype, but after 45
minutes we ended up calling it quits on internet failures and reverted to just
using the phone. Which I felt would lose some of the personalness of the
interview process also phone quality is such here that a lot of times Mongolians
can’t understand what they are saying to each other on the phone. I was a
bit nervous as I had her say the opening prayer and began the interview, but it
became increasingly evident after the first couple of questions that this lady
was golden. An investigator of over 3 years, her frequent trips to the
countryside had sidetracked her plans to get baptized on several occasions.
As I closed the interview I felt impressed to ask what the word testimony
meant to her. Her response was not a definition out of a dictionary or
something the sisters had told her, but a series of three experiences that had
strengthened her testimony and brought her closer to the Savior. I could
feel her excitement and love for the gospel and the Savior through
the phone. It was a blessing to be a part of her baptismal interview.
The rest of the week
went by really quick as Wednesday we taught lots of English and had meetings with
our SWAT member and our new member Bayarbold. Thursday we had to get to
the Bayanzurkh to fill out some baptismal forms and take back baptismal clothes
and such. Do to the centimeter of snow that had fallen the traffic was
crazy.
(I’m trying to write
this letter and keep my mini-mission, non-Elder companion off YouTube .
. . I’m losing haha).
Anyway Friday I had a
split with Elder Quinton before leadership training at the Bayanzurkh.
My sponsor was super excited to talk to a real live Las Vegas citizen. He
asked some great questions and I sat back and listened for most of the lesson.
Later at the meeting President gave some amazing advice and more than
anything the man knows how to lift people up. (BTW being with your mission
president is awesome!)
This weekend was
stake conference which was amazing. The first two sessions on Saturday were at
the Bayanzurkh building and the final session was at a huge auditorium in the
middle of the city that held over 500 hundred with a large balcony. It
was pretty much the Mongolian version of the Fox theatre in St. Louis.
Our new members were in attendance and before I had the chance to sit
next to them, members of the ward did. That is all except for Bayarbold
who walked in, shook my hand and was then followed by 5 of his friends who he
had brought to see the conference . .
. awesome!
The conference
was great and the choir was fantastic. President spoke on the importance of
spiritual preparedness. He likened it unto selling cork. While it
would be tough to sell 45 kg of cork to us right now, the value of the
cork would greatly increase if we found ourselves drowning in the ocean.
The point being that the cork can’t be bought in the ocean, only on the
shore. And all though things like food storage and spiritual preparedness
may seem unnecessary in times of plenty, if we haven’t invested early we won’t
have them later.
Have a great week!
Elder Neuberger
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