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| From left: Azza (who came to church and served in my home mission), her husband (who was AP over all of Mongolia), me (nerd), Elder Saguinsin (a Filipino), Buya (the one we've been meeting with. I translated for him at church twice before. His brother-in-law who couldn't make it is a throat singer in the Mongolian National Throat Singing Choir), Tamira (who is probably the funniest person you'll ever meet), and Buye and Tamira's niece (I forget her name, but she's a contortionist and fly at Korean) |
Shiver and Shake
Hard Work but Light Hearted
Stop the Problem
How?
Pack the Cow
The Proof is revision
Mongolia
Hiya
all. This week's Discover Poem is a shoutout to some of the coolest
people I've met out on my mission and also Gaby Galván who just got
called to the Mongolia mission. It has a specific city, which I forgot,
but the whole country is her mission, so it's chill.
Anywho,
this week was also very missionary-y. So many things to do in so many
places, and besides English class, I don't think we met anyone at the
church, which gave us an interesting variety of settings for some of the
most spiritual discussions of my life.
The first
one was really close to the church with a very nice potential
investigator. I may have mentioned (probably not, I never tell you
anything in these tbh) but we found a Philippine shop by the church
doing service a few weeks back, and let me tell you, every time we go I
feel like a greenie again. I'm sitting down with someone holding a book
that I'm told is the Book of Mormon, it's blue and has our classic font
and everything, but I couldn't definitively tell you that that's what it
is. Meanwhile my companion is testifying in a language I don't
understand, and I'm just relying on pure guesswork to know if the
conversation is about the true meaning of repentance or last night's
football game.
But yeah, we had a lesson there with a guy
named Alvin. He's a nice man, and Elder Saguinsin taught him very well. I
didn't understand anything, but from the translation, and the spirit I
felt, I knew that it was a good lesson. He can't meet for a bit because
of work, so he's not an investigator yet, but he totally will be. Let's
pray Elder Saguinsin isn't transferred this time around.
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| We were on a little loft. It was sweet |
Then
a couple days later, just a little further from the church we were
sitting in a (pictured) library cafe in the Maze Market with our recent convert. Every time we talk to him, I get a small sense of how much he
loves this gospel, and how much he gives up. We ended up discussing
everything from his concerns about temple marriage, to some very
legitimate questions about repentance. It was a very long talk actually,
but feeling his spirit in that time is something I never want to
forget.
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| From left: Elder McKinnon, Elder Hipps, Elder Newton, Elder Bond and Jasmine. She's 5 and better at English than the man in Advanced Class who has studied English for 30 years. She's great. Elder Hipps taught her like Primary. She now knows she's a daughter of God. |
Finally on Saturday,
I had an exchange with Elder Hipps, our zone leader. Because we had a free morning, we decided to
visit our member who just had eye surgery. (Also a couple Sundays ago I
blessed consecrated oil in Korean for him. I just remembered.) Anywho,
he's doing great, and he had a referral (is that the right word in
English?) for us. The guy was a little drunk, like the fumes were giving me a
headache, but he was so nice, and he listened really well to the
message we had prepared. He also bought us ice cream and saw us to the
door of the convenience store. And the greatest miracle is he liked us
so much he stopped drinking for that afternoon and Sunday morning so he could go to church sober. He was the first investigator to sacrament meeting I've seen in a while out here.
And
finally we go back to where we began with the Less Active Mongolians.
(Well, one isn't less active, she made it to church and I translated
for her. It was fun. Also it's so hard to translate church classes. No
one has their comments thought through and it's a grammatical and
logical mess.) We met them in McDonald's, as we have for the last
transfer and a half (sorry Mom), and we ended up on the second floor
alone, which was sweet. I'd love to go deep, but time is failing me, so
I'll try to be brief.
Basically we talked about the gospel of
Jesus Christ, and ended up with a big testimony meeting of how the
church has blessed us, our families, and all of us to meet in Korea.
They all had such deep thoughts, and the one who couldn't speak English
well bore his testimony in Mongolian with his wife translating, until
Tamira had to take over because the wife was crying. It was sweet. Also
the 17-year-old girl (who is fly at Korean) had the purest testimony of
eternal families. And yeah, I love Mongolia now. It was weird saying
goodbye to Tamira and Buya. They're so good, and they'll be great
members of their home ward in Mongolia. I think Buya is second
counselor in the bishopric actually. … And yeah, that's the memes.
There are some pics, but until you see those,
Best Wishes,
Elder Newton
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