The Hanukkah (Exchange) Miracle

The Miracle Exchange that was only supposed to last one day lasted 6!

With Elder Hatton

Last week I grew a lot. We managed to teach a couple of lessons in the beginning of the week, which I am very grateful for. Tuesday night we come to the city for a training that night and then stayed to teach English the next morning. After that Elder Sexton (Zone Leader) and I did studies and then we did an exchange, He and Elder Hatton (Assistant to the President)
went back to Naliakh, Elder Monkhbold (The other Assistant) and Ramos (The other Zone Leader) went together back to Celbe and I went with Elder Buyanbadrakh (Elder Ramos' Companion) to work in Sukhbaatar. Working with Elder Buyanbadrakh was a great experience that really helped my Mongolian!

with Elder Buyanbadrakh

On Friday Elder Sexton and Munkhbold went to Choilbalsan (750km east of UB), which came surprisingly, turning two days in the city into 6. I was with Elder Hatton, for 4 days! He really showed me how to embrace the culture and how to love the people more. We worked on learning this mongolian song (minii ardiin cetgel tsagaan), people loved to hear that. Also I learned some great old sayings which older people really enjoy (fancy woman spring and fall, and women are like the spring sky). Its a well known fact that Mongolians love to see your pictures. He showed me to then ask to see their pictures, of course they love that too! And it really shows them that you care about them too! We got back to Naliakh last night, this week is going to be a really great week for work in Naliakh!

English is going great! I teach 6 classes of 8-12 yr olds. I'm getting Elder Lamb more pumped up about teaching grapeseed, and we are instituting better rules and being more prepared! With those two things the discipline in the class is going better and its a better time for us and the students. Little do they know it but they're learning more too!

With Elder Lamb after English Class

Things are great. Its a really neat experience to get to be a Zone leader's companion. I certainly didn't expect to have the opportunity to learn from so many amazing missionaries by going on a lot of exchanges! I also realized that the expectations of a good missionary for him as a mission leader also apply to me too as his companion.

Today I read about the gathering of Israel in the last days in 3rd Nephi and then D&C 4 I am really excited to find people, I have the faith to find the people who are ready to hear the gospel and that want to change their lives. I really do believe and know that I have been called to this work. That the field is white and is ready to harvest the Lord will do His work, so I am going to work even more diligently to be a good instrument for Him to use!


PS to answer a question about my mission. Because of our Schedules with English, we can take p-day when we can, usually Monday or Tuesday.
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Ахлагч Jonathan Wilding

Sketchy p-day hike (1)

Sketchy p-day hike (2)

Sketchy p-day hike (3)

Spring is in the air And I love doing dishes!

Once again I'm on a super sketchy computer, Windows 7 this time... sort of its a fake copy and has tons of viruses, it infected my flash drive, luckily it did that and I didn't put my memory card in and corrupt all my pictures. Also luckily it didn't corrupt the files just buried them. ugghhhh I can fix it but I need a safe computer... hahaha good luck finding one of those. Anyway that means no pictures from last week. sigh....

Its starting to feel and smell like spring and that has really improved my mood, as well as doing a lot more work! As President Benson Says be busy, be happy! We started running for exercise and its super great because it is just so beautiful!

I started English this week, I teach Children ages 8-12 there are 6 different classes and we teach MWF. I just observed this week I will actually teach tomorrow. The program that the school has for us to teach is called grapeSEED its actually a lot like Dad's waterford videos and stuff. There are songs and books and videos to use and theyre super catchy. The kids are really rowdy and they've lost all respect for my teaching companions, Elder Sexton and Elder Lamb. I hope that I can bring a lot more energy to class so that they will actually learn and want to listen! :) 

Last night we were like American missionaries and got fed twice! We had dinner at our new member Mashbat's ger, then after that we got a call from the primary president and went to give her young son a blessing, and they fed us too! Haha, food's not everything it was really great to meet with members and get to know the people of the branch more. 

Its not enough to try to resist evil and temptation or empty your life of sin. That will only cut the tops of the weeds of sin in your life. Only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ can you pull out the roots of sin, the desire for sin. Then can you begin to fill it with love and faith. Fill it with scripture study and prayer and other righteous, worthy activities.

Ахлагч Jonathan Wilding

great times in the field

 

This week was absolutely crazy, we taught a whopping 0 lessons in Naliakh. And its not for a lack of effort. Last Sunday night I went on a split with Elder Rodriguez because both of our companions are English teaching companions and on Monday mornings they teach together. Anyway we planned on doing studies that morning, when he got a call from his English boss asking him to come sub for a teacher like right away. We abandoned our studies and went to teach his English class! We did go to KFC and it was way better than America except that they didn't have the mac and cheese. After that I got back together with Elder Sexton and we had to finish our studies in the city. We also had to stay in the city because we had zone conference early the next morning and wouldn't have time to get there in the morning from Naliakh. 

Tuesday, Zone Conference went later than expected and we got back home and had to do our personal study and after that there wasn't enough time to go to any appointments.

Wednesday we were back in the city for English and I was back with Elder Rodriguez. Later that night I had an English Training as well and we stayed in the city because Elder Sexton had a leadership meeting the next morning.

Thursday, Elder Sexton and I split and I went with Elder Tansianco and we did our studies together. We actually got to go back home that night. Our appointments actually fell through however and so we made our Big plan for the next week.

Friday morning we did studies at home and made 8 loaves of bread for a potluck on Sunday. Then went to the city for another English training. We stayed in the city again in order to go to General conference the next day 

Saturday we had general conference in the city, stayed overnight again for G Conf on Sunday. 

8 loaves of bread

bread with lemon curd

Lemon curd from MaryKate's recipe

Sunday night was the same split with Elder Rodriguez.

Anyway I love Mongolia and I love teaching people when I can! I've gotten really close with a lot of missionaries through all of these splits however which is really cool about our mission. There aren't many missionaries and we get around to meet a lot of people on different splits.

General Conference was awesome! We do indeed have a living prophet on this earth today!

Ахлагч Jonathan Wilding

Someone still runs windows XP !!!

This week is crazy! 

We managed to teach 13 lessons this week with English teaching and training as well as being in the city almost every day!

Last week my wonderful sister Mary Kate sent a lemon curd recipe and we made it... and it was delicious! That and homemade bread was to die for! 

There aren't any pictures this week because I have to use a super old computer that still runs windows XP.

Our 9 year old investigator bore her testimony this sunday during fast and testimony meeting. She leaned over to me and told me to go up first then she would, probably thinking that I wouldn't do it because of my "becoming" Mongolian. Haha! little did she know that I was already planning to share my testimony, anyway, she got up and shared her beautiful testimony of Christ and his restored Gospel, Her baptism is set for the end of the month. 

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to true lasting happiness in this life. You can know that that is true and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is Christ's restored Church by reading the Book of mormon. If you read it with a sincere hear and real intent then you will know that it is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. 

I love you all and good luck!

Ахлагч Jonathan Wilding