The interesting bits:
Mongolian fall has indeed begun,
school for the masses started on the first and there are a lot of people in
from the countryside, so the city is busier and the buses are fuller. It’s
straight up sweater weather. At nights I even need to wear a jacket! The coal
smell has just barely begun and you can definitely smell some in the morning
and night time. It's very familiar, it takes me back to my first month in
Mongolia.
My English teaching starts on the
15th and I have been moved out of teaching children. There are 6 Elders that
work for my sponsor Ikh Zasag at their various schools, and we are going to be
doing an English Lab this year at their international university Royal Academy.
Like any College lab class teachers are going to give assignments to do in the
Lab and we are going to help. I have gone from Elementary teacher to College
TA.
definition: huduu = countryside
In the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission
we are in the country to be English teachers. So our visas are actually
sponsored by teaching organizations, different schools around the city of UB.
Once upon a time missionaries were working at wherever the mission could get
them. As time progressed there has been a great effort made to be more
selective, weed out the bad sponsors and graft people into good ones. Ideally
everyone would be teaching at a high school or university. It takes a while for
these changes to be made because, barring exigent circumstances a missionary
stays with their sponsor for their entire mission. There are only a handful of
church visas for missionaries (they teach English at the church). These
missionaries are more often sent to the huduu. Regular missionaries with
regular sponsors have to stay within commuting distance during the school year,
but have the opportunity to go out to the huduu.
A more formal email:
This was a real pick up
in work this week, we hit 13 lessons with 8 MPs (Melchizedek Priesthood age
men) ! It was a real change from the average of 4-5 and peak of 7 during the
summer. The Unity of the trio is working out pretty well, we don't need a gerch
(witness) and can meet with all of the women. We also are teaching really well
cause we all follow the spirit in the lesson when one of us stops the one of
the others picks up with what the person needs. I would definitely say that the
language is a killer. Especially at church where it is just three hours of
listening, I feel like on those days I just can't even speak.
I'm starting to get to
know the area some more, as well as the people. By Thursday of this
week I think that I'll be pretty comfortable in the area, knowing where things
are and who people are.
There is a less active
in our ward that Elder Cowles has been working with for his whole time in
Songino, Batsaikhan and he has just made great progress recently. My first Sunday he
came for all of church and met with the bishop. He got a calling as a ward
missionary and this week he came for church with a white shirt and nice
slacks I can even see a change in his life over just two weeks, it’s truly a
miracle to witness the church change someone's life.
We've got a new
investigator from the Unur Sisters, Natsagdorch, and she is already super
committed we were able to meet with her twice this week, the first time she
talked our ears off, which is particularly painful in Mongolian (mostly because
it gives you a headache trying to process it all) but she has a great testimony
and is reading the Book of Mormon. She is super excited to get baptized on
10/8.
I am really looking
forward to English, I think that the Lab at Ikh Zasag will be really good, and
that it really is the future of the work here. I like that I'll get to be
working closer with students that will have more English experience than just
4th and 5th graders. I really have wanted to be able to connect with students
and people in general, this will be good for that I think and will really work
to suit our skills better as native speakers and missionaries. I think that it
will also progress the work more and that more potentials will come from it
than from the more classroom setting.
--
Ахлагч Jonathan
Wilding
 |
| And just for fun. |
Amazing Jonathan!! Love you cousin!!
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