Dear Everyone,
Another fantastically
busy week with more exciting possibilities at every turn. The week
started Tuesday with the Sisters needing another baptismal interview over
Skype before district meeting. Unfortunately, one of the candidates had been
drinking tea the day before completely on accident. It was a tough spot
to be in, but I asked for a moment to say a prayer and then call the Sisters
back. I was nervous, desperately wanting to make the correct decision according to
the Lord’s will. I prayed for five minutes, but was unsure. Then I
changed my prayer. I brought my own idea, what I thought was correct and
asked the Lord for His assurance. There was
no overwhelming feeling, but I felt calm as I called the Sisters and
asked them to push the baptism back a week.
After that it was off
to district meeting where the President was going to be. Because he was
coming we ended up holding it in his office. Let me paint the
picture of chaos. There’s the ten of us in the office...the AP's, the zone
leaders, the Unur Elders and the President and his wife. Elder Titensor,
one of the AP's, is translating for the President. Then over Skype we have the
Elders in Murun along with the senior couple who is serving up there.
They are getting translation from a member as well. Then
the Sisters join in over the phone. Needless to say it was a bit nerve-racking,
but it all worked out alright. From there we rushed to English
teaching with my sponsor till seven or so and after our dinner appointment got
canceled I ended up taking my companion out to dinner because after all it was
his birthday.
Wednesday morning we
were at the Bayanzurkh building to
fix up English schedules. Because Elder Stranski is only teaching
two hours a week right now, he’s going to take my Wednesdays at Jonon which is
awesome and will free up a lot of time for real missionary work for
me. We then spent most of the day getting doctor forms filled out on my
companion’s missionary application, plus dentist and other hospital what
not.
Thursday was Thanksgiving,
right? Just kidding. We had a dinner appointment with a family
who's children all served missions, so I figured they might have known it was Thanksgiving,
but it was just a happy coincidence. Being unable to leave awesome family
traditions at home, I wrote out the Mongolian alphabet on seven pieces of
paper and brought them along. The “ABC Thankful” game was a hit. (My
family will understand what I’m talking about.)
Friday was a testament
to how amazing the members of Songino are. For the baptism that started at 6:30
people were showing up by six o’clock. After
the service went off without a hitch one of the sweet sisters
had prepared refreshments for afterward. The support and love
from the members here is amazing. Erdenebat was fantastic and even
brought some family members with him to the baptism. A few late comers
asked who had preformed the baptism because Erdenebat is
a rather large guy. And when I told them it was me, nobody
would believe me. Hey, they don’t
make morning workout part of the missionary routine for nothing.
We were all going to get a little dinner afterwards but the place had no
buuz or khuushuur so we called it a night.
Our new members are
still amazing as always. The one in high school is going to seminary and
everyone is participating in ward choir. By the way, the per capita
participation in choir is ridiculous here. I’m pretty sure it was the
whole ward. There’s going to be nobody in the audience for
the performance lol.
Saturday was filled
with baptismal interviews. Four over Skype for the Sisters and one
fabulous 45 minute conversation about the Gospel with one of Elder Stranski’s
investigators. I know to those back home it’s just common that Elders go
out and learn a language. But considering a year ago right now I could
barley say my name in Mongolian, it never ceases to amaze me that I’ve been
blessed with enough language (my language is not fantastic by any means) to do
what has been required of me. And so it is. If we open our mouth
the Lord will fill it.
Love you all!
Enjoy the holiday season,
Elder Neuberger
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