Zone Conference

So I was preparing to leave a house this last week when the dad walked in and asked who in the world was wearing the summer shoes. My companion immediately threw me under the bus.  I conceited that it was a bit cold outside.  "A bit cold! It’s negative 30 Celsius outside!"
What? Really?! Not sure when it got so cold, but I may have to switch to the winter coat at some-point this week.  Although I’ve been studying the art of layering this past few weeks and the findings are in the positive. If you go undershirt, white shirt, sweater, suit jacket, Omnitech rain-jacket you can take -30 Celsius no sweat (emphasis on the no sweat) haha

Happy Holiday season to everyone back home. Its amazing how fast the holiday season moves along. 

With Elder O and Chingis Khan

This was a wonderful week highlighted by Zone conference which is always accompanied by an interview with the President.  My interview was actually the day before and a testament to how much the President knows about what is going on to every Elder in the mission at all times.  We talked for about twenty minutes (interesting sidebar: President Clark goes home on the 1st of July, two weeks before my release date, kind of sad). If you've been on a mission you know that there is no person more kind, understanding, uplifting, or supportive than your mission president during your mission.  It proved to again be the case.

This last few weeks with my mini missionary has been such a blessing for my language. Since he has no real background in gospel teaching, I teach the bulk of the lessons and answer all the questions.  A fun little confidence boost that maybe I am learning Mongolian.

Zone conference was awesome including a 10 meeting teaching demo that I wasn’t aware I was a part of until it happened.  A bit nerve racking, but Elder Quinton and I were able to make it through fine with a little help from Moroni 7:20with an “investigator” who was too busy.  The theme of the entire meeting was seeing ourselves the way the Lord sees us.  During all the breakout practice sessions Sister Clark went around with a camera and filmed us and then would show them afterwards.  Fantastic idea!

I loved a comment the President shared: There are a number of kinds and other people mentioned in scripture that are given but one verse to sum up their entire live or reign.  (Editor’s note: Ironically Travis makes the comment about his improving Mongolian because this letter had at least three sentences that were so twisted in English that there must have been some Mongolian sentence structure affecting his writing.  The preceding sentence is an example.  We think that we straightened out the others while correcting his other typos.) President Clark gave a few examples.  He then challenged us, if there were just one verse written about your entire life...what would it say?

Conference went amazing with four companionships viewing via Google plus and a handful of awesome stories form President and Sister Clark.

Jonon English Class

Next week we are looking forward to the baptism of Badral who has now been coming to church and meeting with us for over two months.  His wife and daughter have been members for awhile and he has finally caught the fire and is excited for his own baptism.  We taught in his house a few weeks ago and their goal to get to the temple in a year was evidenced by the 20+ pictures of temples filling their wall.  The coolest part was that right in the center of all of them was the St. Louis temple. Pretty awesome!

Our new member Bayarbold blessed the sacrament this week (very nervous baisan). It was a very “icing on the cake” amazing moment.  Also, I’m happy to report that all three of our new members have now received callings!  The ward has made a huge movement for home teaching (usually a goose egg in Mongolia) and they even included Badral who’s not quite a member! What a great ward!

This morning as my companion decided to take a nap for study I was allotted a little extra time for personal study.  I planned on reading one of the stories that my family had sent me from the Christmas stories we read every year .  .  .  I ended up reading all of them. haha
Above all it made me extremely grateful for my family and this wonderful celebration of our Savior’s birth. A standout quote from one of my favorite stories is as follows:
"To love people, to be indispensable somewhere, that is the purpose of life. That is the secret of happiness."

Christmas is indeed a time for giving and as we reach out and love and give to those around us we find ourselves surrounded by those who love us in return.
Do something good for someone else.
Make yourself indispensable!

Have a wonderful week,

Elder Neuberger

Organized Chaos

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

eniig unshaj chadwal nadruu zakhia bicherei

Good Morning!

Ping-pong has now become the weekly P-day tradition much like basketball is when it’s above freezing. Thanks to the hours of jungle pong we played a few summers ago, I've still got enough skill to be undefeated against my companion and get the best of some others. The official rankings haven’t come out yet but I’ve got to be close to the top ten for white people in Mongolia. Lol

Last Monday we met with erdenebat as he preps for his baptismal interview this Saturday. And then at 8:00 we stopped by navchaa's house who we hadn’t seen in a week and who wasn’t answering her phone or texts.  I was a little bit on edge, but when we got there she was happy to see us and told us that she had lost her phone so she hadn’t been able to contact us...relief. (She also got her first calling in her young womens presidency this Sunday)

Streetside barbecue

Tuesday was our second attempt at Skype district meeting.  We managed to get both countryside branches  working for about 30 minutes before their internet went out.  They called us on the phone at that point to finish the meeting.  It was somewhat like a press conference with me holding a phone and talking to a computer and to the other 5 people in the room.  On top of that the Elders in Murun were at the senior couple’s house who also participated with their translator translating everything that was going on.  Miraculously we got through everything just in time to run to English class at four. Because Wednesday was chiggis khans (Gengis Khan) birthday (sidenote nobody actually knows when his real birthday is so they decided to guess and picked a random date) we didn’t have class on Wednesday, but my sponsor had me come in on Tuesday. That evening we had dinner with a great member family who has the cutest three kids, one of which looks like a little Spanish boy.  If you try hard enough you can get him to say "como estas?"...fantastic!

Wednesday night we met with one of our investigators who lived in khaan-uul during the elections.  It was way further than my companion or I expected, but we made it in time to teach a lesson and eat some bainshtai shul.  Unfortunately we had to postpone his baptismal date a few weeks as his friends convinced him to go out drinking.  His wife was irritated and angry at her husband, but you could tell it was all out of love. 

Friday was our last meeting with Erdenebayar before his baptismal interview on Saturday. We reviewed all the questions and made sure he was ready to go on all fronts. Even though he’s not the fastest learner and we've had to review some things multiple times he has a heart of gold and a great testimony.

Three weeks ago we got a referral from the sisters of an investigator who had moved in from khovd.  We have tried for days to get a hold of her but her phone wasn't connecting so on Friday we just went straight to her house.  Her husband answered the fence, and let us in. In typical Mongolian fashion before we could introduce ourselves we were eating some budaatai khurag.  And then before we could say anything else they were ready to start the lesson.  We had been expecting to meet with two people and there ended up being almost 8 in the ger and 5 of them sat and listened including the neighbor and the husband.  It was just fantastic to be teaching a family and as we left the ger my companion and I were jumping up and down. 

I always look forward to meeting with bayarbold.  And this meeting was no less awesome. He’s just great to talk to.  I can’t remember what about, but we were laughing as we left and we all learned the word for shoehorn in italian “calsascarpe”...long story.

Skipping first to Sunday, church was great with an RM singing a beautiful rendition of, “How Great Thou Art” in sacrament meeting.  Then after the block of meetings there was a ward choir rehearsal for a special musical number on the 1st of December.  Erdenebat and bayarbold stayed and sang so we did also.  It was great trying to write down and then memorize the words to “Dearer My God to Thee”,  but everyone really bought into the idea so it was very successful.

And back to Saturday where we had English at the church (teaching the upper language English class is the greatest thing ever!) and then met with Miiga who I’m sure I’ve mentioned before.  She’s the one who asked awesome questions last time and again this time.  She herself brought up the important difference of feelings and knowledge.  As missionaries we  can give people through the lessons all the knowledge they can handle about doctrines and principles of the gospel, but it’s not until they pray to know for themselves that they can receive true light and knowledge from heaven through feeling the Spirit.  At the end of the lesson she asked "If no unclean thing can live with God then God must have some way of determining what is clean and unclean right?”  As we started to introduce the commandments she wanted to continue and learn them all right then and there.  It was something I’d never experienced as a missionary, but we ended up explaining that all things must be learned line upon line.  In closing we asked her to read the Book of Mormon and ask if it is true.  She responded with something like "I have no reason to doubt it, why do I need to ask?"  I assured her as I would anyone that through asking Heavenly Father in prayer she would be able to gain a sure witness of its truthfulness.  

Great week!

Hope yours was as well

Elder Neuberger

PS I feel terrible for missing Kevin Kramer’s and Kyle’s  and Nana's birthdays last week!

Hope they were great!   

Interviews, Vegas, and Felllowship

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