Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s sixth email from the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission.
Daniel’s district with members
It sounds like the family is doing great. Great job on the talks, Sarah and Derek, you both have always been good at that kind of thing. It looks everyone is staying busy and happy. :) We are still here as English teachers for our Visas but we are able to talk to people openly about the church. My companion and I still ask about their family and things as we have found that is more effective in getting a referral
This week has been crazy busy. If I didn’t have the Lord’s help it would have been very hard to do. My English classes have increased to 10 hours a week. On Tuesday I teach for 4 hours. We have to run sometimes in order to be on time. I taught probably 6 different classes this week. At one school they have me teach many different levels of English. I don’t teach grammar, the government wants me to get the people speaking English. So depending on how well the class is at introducing themselves I then adjust my lesson accordingly. Most of my students are my around 16-18 years old right now. They are sometimes not very interested in speaking English. So I put a lot of energy in being very energetic and smiling. After awhile they are chatting away in English — it is great! :)
The Lord has truly increased my abilities in many areas. I do have one class where some 40 year olds come. The Mongolians have a great desire to learn things. I taught the 40 year olds, the “I like to eat, eat, eat, apples and bananas” song where you changed the vowels eat time you sing it. They loved it and we now sing it more and more. One of them taught it to his children.
Daniel with Mongolian cake
Missionary work moves forward here in Mongolia. My companion and I are both learning together. We both are fairly new missionaries. I love my companion’s desire to do the work. He is great. I went on an exchange with Elder Stevens (Zone Leader) Friday. I learned a lot from him. It was a good experience to see how to improve on our area. The Lord helped us both to have a wonderful experience. In one lesson we started after 10 minutes instead of just 5 minutes. We were watching the Joseph Smith movie and the distraction (from Satan) was 5 minutes early. The member’s friend was able to see Joseph pray without interruption. ;)
This week many of our less active members came to church. Xerlen is now doing great in his calling. Banzract came to church, which was a surprise to us but made us extremely happy. Many of the Mongolians live very far away from church and they take buses or taxis to get there. They all have great faith.
Our investigators are progressing. With teaching English, district meetings, our study time, church, and preparation day we get to have Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday as times to do as much missionary work as possible.
This Saturday the Lord prepared many people to be taught by the spirit. We were able to continue to have the Holy Ghost in our companionship. We were able to visit a less active at work, contact some referrals in Congon Xanrxan (far away part of our area) and teach Totdox, Bylgaa, Oyoh Bleg (our investigators), and a part-member family. Much of missionary work is very different here. We do a lot of strengthening members. Mongon Od, our investigator who ran to church last week, his older brother was very thankful for teaching him good things. The Lord also softened his mom’s heart and they offered us some food.
Today we are visiting the countryside. I planned on sending 3 pictures but the normal computer place we used was closed and this computer doesn’t read my camera things. I am excited for another week of learning how to be a better instrument in the Lord’s hands!
To Steven, Paul, and Jake: Thanks for all the help teaching me about your missions in order to make mine a good experience. I really am thankful for all of your great examples. I love you as my great brothers.
Love, Elder Willoughby
If anyone wishes to ask Daniel a question or to send him a message, write it in the comments and I will make sure he receives it.
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