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Sorry I haven't written in a few weeks. I ran out of storage so I couldn't receive or send any emails for a while but we should be all good now.
Honestly so much has happened the past couple weeks so I'll try to summarize it all quickly...first off, we started off this transfer with a trio and I was training a new missionary. Then fast forward a couple of weeks and our third companion got emergency transfered to a different area because a sister in that area had to go home for medical reasons. So then it became Sister Curtis and I tackling Jargalant. And then yesterday, President called again to tell us that Sister Beghetti from Sukhbaatar would be joining us in a new trio because her companion also had to go back to America for medical reasons. But this trio is pretty temporary...it'll probably only last a week max genee. But since Sister Beghetti is the only Sister in Sukhbaatar and we are in Jargalant we are now covering both areas for the time being. On top of that, we are teaching English at the academy again, and we also teach English at the church, so our schedule is jammed packed full of things to do all of a sudden. This is a stark contrast from last week, where we had no English to teach and nothing to do. Anyways, that's the quick overview of what's just recently happened but now I'll talk a little bit about specific miracles and New Years:
New Years was long but fun haha. We went to a member's house and partied with the elders and enkhtaivan missionaries. We also watched the "Best two years" and ate cake! It was super exciting! Definitely smaller than my last new years here haha.
We also went address hunting a lot and passed out English cards for many days. There were many points during the past couple weeks where people canceled on us. So as backup plans, we went out finding people and proselyting English class. And from those efforts, we went from 0 to 15 students in our church English classes. We also found 3 less active members and convinced one of them to actually come to church!
We also ended up finding 4 new people to teach which is great because we started off the transfer with 0. Our investigators are amazing! We found Enkhbayar through service he gave to us. We were driving with our church member to an LA member's house when her car tire popped. We pulled over and started trying to put the spare on when Enkhbayar came out of no where to help us. He changed the whole tire and the whole time, our member kept inviting him to church and eventually got his number. And from then on, we've been teaching him and helping him come to church!
Another one of our golden investigator's name is Dari. She is our age and studying English education at school. She was found through our English classes but also just genuinely wanted to come to church. So we taught her an impromptu lesson on Sunday when she showed up after sacrament and gave her a Book of Mormon. She loved talking about and reading it so hopefully she will be able to continue developing that testimony each day.
We also found another guy named Ganzorig. He was so fun to meet with because he just has the biggest, happiest personality there is. He told us that he believed in God and Jesus but wasn't sure what church to go to. He even researched on YouTube how to pray because he wanted to try it. When we met, he was excited to learn more about Jesus and come to church on Sunday. He is also in Sukhbaatar's area but since we are working in both areas now, we get to continue teaching him!
Finally, we found another sweet guy named Enkhbaatar, although we thought his name was Jargalant when we first met him. He looked and smelled like he had a hard life and I couldn't help feeling grateful for the opportunity to share the light of Christ with him. I know that the light of Christ can turn anyone's difficult life into one full of joy and peace. Unfortunately, he has a lot of needs to attend to so please continue to pray for him. Hopefully at some point, he will begin to believe the things we are teaching and see how they can help him in his life.
So it's been a wonderful couple of weeks and I've been loving working here in Jargalant. The members are still amazing and fun to meet with and we've been successful in meeting with nearly every single person that comes to church each week. It's also starting to get warmer so now I only have to wear one pair of socks instead of two haha.
One miracle happened after a tiring day. We had met with no one, tried to find houses, and tried to contact people all day. However, no one was answering and it was just defeating and disappointing. On our way home, we were waiting at a bus stop when someone approached us speaking English. Usually the people who approach us at bus stops are creepy drunk men, so I was on guard when we suddenly realized that the guy was an rm (return missionary) who had served in the Ogden Utah mission. He asked us if we were sisters and we said yes and then we started sharing mission stories. It was such a cool experience to talk to him and hear about his conversion, mission call opening, and service in America. He was so kind and when we had to get on the bus, he told us "Thank you and keep up the good work sisters!". I've never had someone tell me that in all my time spent here in Mongolia. It was really cool and touched me deeply and it was a deep contrast from all the angry glares and stares we get walking on the streets. I felt God's love and encouragement at that moment and it was so special.
Other fun things we did:
- Had a ward Christmas party and made and decorated brownies and cookies for it
- Translated a lesson for some Netherland missionaries who are teaching a Mongolian in the Netherlands
- Celebrated Sister Beghetti's birthday by making a surprise cake and Tacos
- Taught 4 English classes in one day (that was a tiring day)
- Had an Obedience zoom meeting with the whole mission
- The cute Sukhbaatar sisters surprised us by cleaning our house and delivering banana bread when we were away
- Did an exchange with Sister Egshiglen, who I knew personally before she became a missionary
- Passed out a total of 150 English cards
- Got prank called by a bunch of creepy drunk guys who wanted us to come over
- Made Japanese curry for the first time!
- Went ice skating with our elders for pday
Recently, I restarted the Book of Mormon again to go along with Come Follow Me. For Christmas, my parents got me a Book of Mormon study guide and my grandparents got me a General Conference 2023 annotation notebook so my personal studies have been amazing! I just wanted to share one scripture I came across this past week: 1 Nephi 9:5-6
5 Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not.
6 But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen.
These past couple weeks have been pretty emotionally challenging with planning life after the mission, training in trios, and jumping in between areas. I have never felt more useless, tired, and stressed. I don't know why Heavenly Father has been handing me so many challenges. However, I do know that He does it for a wise purpose. He knows what needs to happen in order to help me grow the most. That is why God gives people trials. President Wilcox taught that "God loves us as we are, but He also loves us too much to leave us this way." I belive this is true and I have seen it firsthand every day here. He is teaching and prepping me and He is doing that to all of you as well. Let God prevail by trusting Him and His process for growth. Your life will be more blessed that way. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
Love,
Sister Potter
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