Сайн байцгаана уу!
How are you all this week? The past two weeks have been sooo eventful and busy (hence why I wasn't able to write an email last pday). First off, my companion is an STL (a leader for the Sisters in our mission). This means we have to do a lot of exchanges - an exchange is when you switch companions with another companionship of sisters. For some reason, the STLs decided to try and knock out two exchanges in the past week and I got to be companions with the other STL's companion, Sister Narangerel. She is so awesome! Fun fact about Sister Narangerel is that we are literally sisters in the mission family because Sister Burgess trained her after she trained me so Sister Burgess is both of our mom. Those exchanges were super fun. Then we found out we had Zone Conference last week as well, so our companions had to prepare a training to give all the other missionaries. Which meant we did a third exchange while our comps planned. Then after Zone Conference, our companions found out they had to go to the Darkhan Zone conference in the countryside since there are no STLs out there, meaning Sister Narangerel and I had to do a 2 day exchange while they were gone. So after the past week and a half, I'm a little worn out from exchanges haha. It made the work in both our areas hard but on the bright side, I got to visit the area I was trained in again and work there. I got to see some of my old investigators (members now 😊) and old friends again and it was so amazing and a great experience. My Mongolian has improved a lot too since training which was so cool to see. And Sister Narangerel is a rock star. She and I had so much fun.
The second fun thing that happened was Zone Conference! This Zone Conference was really interesting and very needed. We focused on learning about obedience, diligence, and humility. The ZLs gave a great training on how to "find people" in Mongolia. The main message was to find ways to serve people, which is something I want to get better at. As a missionary, it is your job to give everything to help others, but Mongolia is a big place and we are always running around to get to our next appointment. So they emphasized the importance of slowing down and looking around for people to help and serve. President encouraged us to plan effectively so that we aren't always running from one appointment to the next. Slowing down and taking time to look for people on the streets who need help can help us find more people to share the Light of Christ with. It was honestly my favorite Zone conference training so far and I learned a lot from it. I need to shift my perspective a little bit so I've been working on that.
We had other trainings on finding joy in diligence, obedience, and some other stuff our mission has been struggling with lately. All the trainings were great and I think they will really help us improve as missionaries and as a mission. I am thankful for my Mission President and his wife, who were so in tune with the Spirit and taught us exactly what we needed to hear.
Since we had Zone Conference last Tuesday, our pday got moved to Thursday last week. I didn't do much last pday because we were on an exchange in Unur at that time, so I didn't have anything to do really haha. I did get to talk to my family for a long time and take my first nap in a long time though haha.
This week, I had many great experiences meeting with members and investigators. First off, we had one investigator who is younger so she needed her parents' permission to be baptized. Her parents were very against the church at first so they said no. We were so sad and we kept meeting with Nominjin and sharing messages of hope with her. We kept encouraging her to fast and pray and we fasted and prayed with her. Then, during one lesson, I was inspired to promise her that if she prayed that night for help and then talked with her parents, believing that she would receive help from Heavenly Father to soften her parents hearts, they would let her be baptized. And guess what happened?? They said it was okay! It was an amazing miracle! So she will be baptized this Saturday whoop whoop! Our ward has been so supportive of her too and they are so excited to welcome her in.
Last Sunday, we visited 3 families in the ward and it was one of my most favorite days on the mission so far! All the families made us amazing food from korean seafood, to alfredo, to fruit salad, to mash potatoes, to rice and bbq chicken. They wanted to make special American food for me which was so sweet of them. One of the families has 4 daughters who were all around my siblings ages. They each took turns playing the piano pieces they were working on for us while we ate dinner and it reminded me so much of my siblings who would always take turns playing the piano for our guests. Their parents both spoke great English and talked about their missions in America. Also the father in that family is the uncle of my first Mongolian investigators from training. He thanked me for teaching his niece and nephew and that was a cool connection I got to experience. I know that Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness not only blessed us individually, but it blesses all families as well. I got to see that first hand and it was so cool. I love the Church and all that it does to bless and make our lives full of joy with our families.
English classes are going well still. Our class got up to 50 students this week which was insane. I love all the students here. My favorite thing in the whole world is seeing a student who started out very shy and who has been coming to classes for a while finally start to feel more confident in the language. Yesterday, there was one student in particular who never talks or participates and I was never sure if she was understanding anything. Then yesterday, she took the lead in an activity we were doing in groups and presented her group's plan to the whole class. I could see the panick in her face when she spoke but once she was finished, I saw the look of pride and satisfaction in her eyes and my heart melted with happiness. Those are the moments I enjoy most on the mission. I feel so lucky to be here in Mongolia spreading the gospel and teaching English. This is the coolest experience anyone could be given.
This week, our mission language goal was to intently listen to everyone around us so that we could increase our understanding in Mongolian as a mission. So I consentrated really hard to listen to everyone we passed by during our travels and you would not believe how many people would start speaking Russian as we walked by. I think it's so funny that people assume I'm Russian because why would an American be in Mongolia haha. Listening also helped me find more people who were interested in learning English because I could hear them talking to their friends about wanting to learn. It was pretty cool and definitely helped my language a lot.
I just wanted to end by sharing an amazing scripture I came across in my personal study this week. I was studying Moroni 7 and I invite all of you to read this chapter this week. Some of the verses stood out to me specifically were:
33 And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.
40 And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?
41 And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.
46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—
47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
This week I was studying a lot on how to become a better missionary and disciple of Christ. We are often told to develop faith, hope, and charity but I never realized that these three were taught about together in the Book of Mormon. In order to recieve the blessings of joy and happiness in this life, we must develop faith, hope, and charity. Through them, our life becomes easier because we are more able to ignore the set backs, the burdens, and the discouragement we face. Through faith, hope, and charity, we are not weighed down by resentment towards others or ourselves or our situations. We are able to move through life more optimistically, which will help us find the strength to serve as the Savior did. I know that Christ is my Savior. He loves you. He overcame for all of you. Because of that, you can overcome all as well. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! Please let me know how you're doing. I'm praying for all of you!
Love,
Sister Potter 🤍
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