Not Yet

ᠠᠰᠳᠹᠳᠰᠹᠳ ᠰᠳᠹ ᠰᠳᠹᠹᠡᠰᠣ?

So  .   .   .   Thursday came and went without travel plans.  We've talked with the travel office and we've been delayed a week......probably.  However, all of our visas have been paid for by Mongolian sponsors (the companies we will be teaching English for).  So the question isn't if but when.  We know the visas are coming and that it won’t be more than an extra 1 to 2 weeks.  Still it was pretty rough to see 2 districts get their travel plans on Thursday and 2 other districts leave on Monday. 

The districts in the hallway where we have our classroom are mostly the same as the ones in our branch.  Seeing as we spend about 9 hours of the day on the same floor and have the same exact schedules (class, gym, meals, personal time)  we've gotten to know them extremely well.  On Sunday night our district, the Malagasies (who left Monday), the French (who left Monday) and the two Malaysian districts (who leave next Monday) all crammed into a room and song all three verses of "God be with you till we meet again."  What an amazing experience.  It’s amazing to see the Church carried to so many countries on the earth.

This week we taught a great lesson in the TRC (that’s where volunteers come in and we teach in Mongolian).  We all switched companions this week and Elder Quinton and I got to teach together.  We taught 40 minutes on developing a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  Elder Quinton brought in a small white board and we taught using Alma 32.  We built on the analogy of a seed and shared scriptures to coincide with all the elements that are needed for a plant to grow.  30 minutes went by like they were 10.  Our Mongolian has improved so much even in these last couple of weeks.  Although most of my vocabulary lies in gospel vocab, which may be a slight problem for the first few days in Mongolia. 

We started to SYL (Speak Your Language) in full swing this week with the implementation of an SYL rock.  If you speak English you have to carry the rock around until someone else speaks English.  It’s a really heavy rock.  There was a lot of flipping through dictionaries this week and even more silence lol.  As long as we just try to have fun with it, it’s not that bad. 

I ran into a senior couple this week who served in Mongolia for three years.  They were so excited to see us headed there.  We talked for about ten minutes straight about how we are going to absolutely love it.  And we all know we will when we finally get there.

We got new nametags this week with our names in the Cyrillic alphabet which has led to increased attention in the hallways and the lunchroom lol.  I’ve literally had 3 people come up to me and want a picture of my nametag which mostly makes me laugh.

LET'S GO CARDINALS.  I can't beleive they pulled off the upset in Philly vs Halliday!!!  Thanks to John for all the updates this far.

We finally have persuaded out teachers to spill the beans on some of their Mongolian stories.  Last night we spent the last 45 minutes asking as many question as we could to Brother Stephenson who got back last summer.  We also have talked a lot to the sister who is from Mongolia and headed to Korea.  She said and I quote, "The first week in Mongolia you will hate the food and probably throw up every day, and then after that you will love the food"  .   .   .   all right.  Bring it on!  Our teacher described his first day as stepping onto another planet.  Can’t wait!

Needless to say it’s been way harder to stay focused since our visas have been delayed, but we all police each other to stay on task.  Either way I think the saying from the slopes is just as true here and will be in Mongolia:  “There are no bad days serving the Lord.”  A speaker in the devotional this week put it this way: "It won’t be a perfect experience, just a perfect learning experience"  True That! Double True!!!  Every day here is a learning experience

It’s amazing how many things I have learned about the gospel just being surrounded by so many wonderful leaders and peers.  I know that we need to soak it in as much as we can now because once we get to Mongolia it becomes up to us to provide the spirit.  It’s a little rough that we won’t be leaving this Monday, but we can all admit that more time with our teacher can only be a good thing.

I found this quote in a Ensign this week..."He came to wipe away our tears, not to ensure that we would never weep."  Life tests everyone.  As we face difficulties in our lives we need to pass our backpack to the Lord.  He wants to take it; He has taken it, but we need to give it to him first.  When sore troubles came upon you did you think to pray?  2 Nephi 2

Have a great week!

Elder Neuberger