Sain baitgaana uu!!
This week was super fun! We visited so many members and had so many amazing lessons with our investigators! And the best part was that one of our investigators finally got baptized last Saturday! It was truly one of my favorite experiences on the mission by far! Our investigator has such strong testimony and was so eager to get baptized that she took notes at all of our lessons with her and studied the scriptures for hours before her interview. She even bought a skirt for her baptism! For context, most of the members in Mongolia don't wear "church attire" to church - they usually wear sweatpants and sweatshirts because it's easier. But she wanted to be like the missionaries and wear a skirt at her baptism which was so awesome! Also, Sister Munktsetseg and I made brownies, no-bake cookies, and kimbap for the baptism which was so fun. We thought we would have enough food since we made around 50 of each thing - all the food was devoured within 2 minutes haha. Thankfully I got to eat one brownie before everything else was eaten.
Also, 3 of our investigators came to the baptism and to sacrament the next day! That's 3 more investigators than usual that come to church events! I think the baptism inspired all of them to start taking the lessons more seriously. They all felt the Spirit at the baptism and ever since, they've all been asking us to teach them more often so we are becoming more busy with the work! It made me so happy to see all 3 of them at the baptism and sacrament. I know they are all starting to begin to see the joy that comes from the church and feel the Spirit more. I can't wait for all of them to be baptized soon!
This week, I also experienced my first blizard! It was a tiny blizard but fun nonetheless. We were with the Elders and we were trying to find a member's house when it started and then we got lost, so we wandered in the blizard for 30ish minutes with only our spring jackets on. We all thought our ears were going to fall off but then we were fine. That same day, I ended up eating 6 meals because we visited so many people. That night, I threw up again - so the lesson I learned this week is that it's okay to turn down food if you're going to make yourself sick.
English classes have been going well! At the beginning of the transfer, Elder Wooley and I were taking turns teaching English class so that the other companionship could visit with members on English nights. But then students started picking their favorite teacher and only going to their class, so now we teach everything together haha. It's been fun though and it's a little less stressful having another teacher there to help. We gained 3 new students this week that come regularly now. They are all around 10 years old and they have better English than most of our other students! They are so cute and they love to participate and talk in class, which helps so much as well! We've been coming up with some awesome games to play and the students' English is improving so much! It makes me so happy and proud of them!
We also had so many kids come to mutual, FHE, and church this week! I think the kids are now realizing that church is actually fun and you can make good friends with others, so they want to come to all the events now. This is so amazing because Darkhan has had a big problem for a while now with kids going inactive. But because they are coming more often now, they are becoming friends with our investigators, and now our investigators seem more invested in the Church. Also, our new Branch President has been really pushing more ward activities, so this week we will have our first branch Relief Society activity in over a year! Many of the women are planning on coming to it because our new Relief Society President made sure to give every woman a responsibility for the event. I am so excited to participate and see the branch become more unified and strengthened by these new opportunities and events. I truly know that the Church is not only there to help us strengthen our faith, but also to give us opportunities to fellowship and serve others. When we find joy in fellowshipping and serving our fellow members, we can create lasting and meaningful friendships with so many people. Our lives become so much happier that way as well.
This week, I was studying about how to improve the amount of personal revelation we can receive. I studied an amazing talk by Elder Cook called "The Blessings of Continuing Revelation to Prophets and Personal Revelation to Guide our Lives." He described many different ways that the Holy Ghost can speak to us but one way that really stood out to me was found in D&C 11:13:
13 Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy;
Sometimes we think that personal revelation must be some huge revelatory experience where we see a vision or hear a clear whisper telling us exactly what to do. But I believe that most of the time, the revelation we receive isn't very specific or clear. There have been many times during my mission where I have prayed for revelation for my investigators or for answers to my questions and haven't received a "pillar of light" answer. Many of those times, I had to think for myself and come up with a solution or answer. Looking back though, I know that in those moments the Holy Ghost was enlightening my mind to be able to come up with those answers or solutions. I would not have been able to make those decisions without his help. And as the scriptures teach, if it be good, then it comes from God.
Elder Cook also taught that in order to increase our capacity to receive personal revelation we must do 3 things: 1) Pray for spiritual guidance with patience and humility. 2) Prepare to receive inspiration by being obedient and in harmony with the Lord's will. 3) Worthily partake of the sacrament and continue to take Christ's name upon you. I know that doing these things will help you increase your spiritual capacity. These steps have helped me a lot throughout the mission and I can testify that they are true. Spiritual revelation is essential to our true conversion to Christ and we need it - we cannot become like Christ without it. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
Love,
Sister Potter
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