Elder Willoughby (left) and Elder Odbayar in a ger visiting with the grandson of a family

The holiday is great. We’ve been visiting members etc. It has been lots of fun. So far my stomach has handled the increase of meat intake. Some of the buuz tasted really great. I’m tied with Elder Naisbitt with 30. We have the rest of the week to go.

So this week’s work was really slow. Everyone was busy. We spent our time doing service helping others prepare for the holiday. I got better at making buuz. I still need to learn how to make them better though. We had some taco seasoned buuz at the couple’s house. Those were the absolute best buuz I’ve ever had. We also had interviews over the phone with President Andersen. That was great. I also like talking with him. I think I’ll be staying here through the next transfer.

Congrats to Jake. That GRE test score looks amazing. Keep up the great work. The birthday party looked like it was lots of fun as well. Happy birthday Aurora!

Good job on the weight loss too. I’ve gained about 10 kg so I’m sitting around 83 kg right now. Which is about 180 pounds or so. It is crazy because I have no idea where the 10 kg came from. When you look at me you can’t see where it went either. Oh well, must be the cow stomach eh?

This week we’ll just enjoy the holiday meeting with people. I was surprised to find the internet open. My release date is November 17 because Mom wanted to know. You can ask Sister Andersen if you want to.

Alright we’d better get going. Thanks for all the great emails. They always are really fun to read.

My companion would like some boxing gloves. It is impossible to find them here and the ones that are here are no good. His hand from his palm to his fingers is 20 cm. I told him that we could get him some. He’d like ones that are very hard. It’d be good to search up on the Internet for the best kind. He’ll use them for practice on the punching bag and for competitions. Preferably ones like they use in the Olympics, red or blue color is fine with him. I think a reasonable price range would be $30 to $70, but make sure they are good. He was friends with the Mongolian Boxing Olympian who got Mongolia’s first Gold medal. He trained well with him and will continue after his mission. I will pay for it gladly; just take it out of my account. Thanks.

Love, Elder Willoughby.

P.S. Sorry once again for forgetting my memory card reader. I’ll be sure to send some of the best pictures next week.

Photograph from …Couple Things… blog: The Ger – Another Family, Part 2

Presented have been portions of an email from Elder Daniel Willoughby serving in the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.

Choibalsan: 6 missionaries and 4 contacts. Daniel third from left. Brother Anderson standing.

This week was somewhat slow, but at the same time was a good week. We spent some time doing some service for members. We made buuz and helped some others get some firewood. It was fun to make buuz and at the same time be doing service. This week we’ll probably spend a lot of time doing service as the holiday starts Sunday and goes for 3 days.

The people prepare by making a lot of buuz. By a lot I mean some of them make 5,000 or so. Most people though I think make around 1,000 to 2,000. That is so much! Then during the holiday everyone one says, “Eat buuz, eat eat eat.” Missionaries here like to see how many they can eat during the week and set their goals etc. Last year I didn’t count, but it I ate close to 60 or so. This year I want to get to 200 or maybe 150. They also make salads, have fruit, and candy. It is quite the celebration. Missionaries are allowed to wear tradition clothing. I bought a nice green shirt that I think I’ll wear, unless I find something cool today I want to buy. They told me to tell you that I may not be able to write next week because the internet café may be closed.

Everyone’s family comes and visits during the holiday. Like I said it is like their Christmas. They really enjoy each others company, sing songs, drink lots of alcohol, tea, etc… Not the church members of course though. Because of that and the family coming to visit, we mainly meet with members and support them and encourage them to keep the Word of Wisdom throughout the holiday. Most of them do really good and it isn’t much of a problem.

Daniel (right) in a ger with companion and Brother Anderson.

Speaking about Word of Wisdom, we were teaching it yesterday. We were saying the things we weren’t supposed to use. Tea, coffee, alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drug. My companion asked them if they knew what marijuana is. They said they had no idea. My companion explained further, something like its way illegal in America, but grows in Mongolia freely and most don’t even know what it is. They sat there for a while then their 6 year old kid spoke up and said, “Oh yeah I know.” It was really funny, just the way he said it. Anyway it’s a good thing they have never heard about the drug.

Church attendance went down. Next week will probably be a huge decline. Then after that it should skyrocket. We met a really nice investigator last night. He came back from the countryside and we were able to review the first lesson with him. He treated us really nicely and that made me happy. It was a good experience to be able to teach him.

Did you hear anymore from the dad that was angry about you calling his daughter? No. It is around -20 to -30 degrees C. Cold, but my coat keeps me nice and warm. I wear that ninja mask I got before I left, It works really well. Mom and Dad write me consistently every week. Thanks for the support. I get plenty of emails from everyone.

Sounds like Paul and Jake are doing good work with school and work. Keep it up; earn some money so you can pay for my return visit to Mongolia in a few years. Ha ha just kidding. If the economy gets too bad in America we could always just move here. My companion and I live off $65 dollars a week and we can basically go out to eat at restaurants everyday. It easily covers all the expenses. I think our apartment is around $280 a month, then the electric and water is like $35 a month or so. So total that’s about $400 right? Anyway that’s just fun information.

Along with that our apartment had a little problem this week. Some sewage came up the kitchen sink. It was really nasty. What is great though is our landlord came and personally cleaned up the floor for us and got the repairmen and everything. That shocked both my companion and I. It was really nice of her. Sorry for no pictures today. Maybe later if I get a chance I’ll send a few. I forgot my card reader. I love you all.

Love, Elder Willoughby.

Photographs from …Couple Things… blog: Sights of Choibalsan and A Real Ger and A Sweet Family!

Presented have been portions of an email from Elder Daniel Willoughby serving in the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission. If anyone wishes to send Daniel a message, write it in the comments and I will make sure he receives it.

Mongolian children Daniel recently visited

Presented have been portions of an email from Elder Daniel Willoughby serving in the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission. If anyone wishes to send Daniel a message, write it in the comments and I will make sure he receives it.

This week wasn’t quite the adventure week like last one. We did get some good experiences though. I got a snap shot of my frozen eye lash. It really isn’t as cold as it looks like. Well maybe it is, I can’t tell because my body has adjusted to the cold.

I enjoyed reading Jake’s journal entry article. I’ve kept a steady journal since I turned 16 years old. In that time I’ve probably only missed a couple of months and that is it. Going back when I was 18 or so and reading those entries was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. I am sure I’ll love it even more as time goes on. I remember the ones I enjoyed the most were the times when I recorded what I was thinking and feeling. Also my third grade teacher had us write a journal daily too as well throughout the school year. That worn out journal is more precious than gold could ever be. Reading from that allowed me to recall memories and feelings that I had when I was nine years old. Truly a great experience. It’s not always easy to keep a daily journal and at the time it seems completely pointless, but as time goes on anything you’ve written becomes a treasure of your own.

This week was a normal week for working. We had some great experiences as well. I can say it was my first real time translating from English to Mongolian. I translate all the time from Mongolian to English, but rarely the other way around. The couple missionaries needed a translator for institute. I don’t think I did very well, but the spirit was strong in the class nonetheless. As long as we’re thinking about translating, I might as well say I translated for my first time in sign language too. On Saturday the other missionaries gave me the chance to translate for the deaf people. Sometimes I did alright and translated well and other times I was completely lost and did horrible. It was really fun and they thanked me for my efforts in trying to learn. I enjoy learning sign language — it also is helping me to progress in Mongolian as well.

Daniel ready to baptize Ounbelick on 2 January. From the ...Couple Things... blog.

Some of our new investigators are coming along as well. Most of them are in families that already have a family member that is a church member. It makes it a lot easier for them to attend church and keep commitments when they have that support system. In one lesson something really funny happened. First a little background information. All Mongolians think that Americans and most foreigners have big noses. Mainly because we do have big noses compared to theirs. So in our lesson a three year old started picking her nose. Her mom said, “Don’t do that, it’ll make your nose bigger.” Then her 6 year old brother said pointing to me, “Yeah like his.” Ha ha. I should probably stop pickin’ my nose eh?

My companion and I were also determined this week to find new investigators again to increase our work and get some baptisms. So on Friday we contacted every referral. It had good success and six of them said they could meet us on Saturday. We were really excited so Saturday morning we packed up six Books of Mormon and set out early to go teach them. The first lesson was a let down and then we called the next two only to find out one went to the countryside and the other had work come up. So we decided to go straight to the next referral without calling and trap him into a lesson. It turns out he gave us the wrong address. So our last hope was down to two referrals. One wasn’t home and the other was, as his family said, was slightly crazy and that we shouldn’t come back anymore. So instead of getting six new investigators we ended up with none.

But on the bright side one investigator that before was really busy came to church. He said that as seeing his dad become a member and seeing the marvelous change in him inspired him to want to be better. He said that he is going to stop working on Sunday and start coming to church. His dad is one of the most inspiring people to watch. He is 60 years old with one leg that is bad. So he walks with crutches to get to church. It probably takes him around 40 minutes to get to church and I know its not easy for him. Not only does he go to church faithfully, but he also sits in institute on Saturdays. He is one of the greatest examples to me of sacrificing to get to church and he increases daily in his gospel knowledge. Not bad for an old man.

Well that sums up my week. I know the work I am doing is the work of God and that He truly loves all of His children.

Love Elder Willoughby.

Baptism Photo Credit: …Couple Things…

Presented have been portions of an email from Elder Daniel Willoughby serving in the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission. If anyone wishes to send Daniel a message, write it in the comments and I will make sure he receives it.

Daniel getting in a little translating.

This week was by far one of the bigger adventures. Sometimes I think I’ve seen it all then something else happens. Not bad for an old man like you Dad to have your own cell phone.

This week’s adventures start out on Sunday night as my companion and I diligently worked to plan out our week’s work. We had a goal to contact all uncontacted referrals. So we called them all and a lot of them said we could meet with them later this week.

We had received a referral from a member that said he had met with her early on the street and said she hadn’t met with the missionaries yet. Of course the missionaries hadn’t met with her yet because we kind of forgot about receiving the referral :). So I told the member we’d make an effort to contact her soon. My companion talked to her, she is probably 15 years old, and asked if we could meet with her. The girl said maybe but her family doesn’t really investigate other religions. We passed her information to the Sister missionaries and thought nothing more about it.

Munkhchuulun, Daniel, and Tuul

We went to bed and had our regular Preparation Day like usual. We went home Monday night and started planning for the next day. We wanted to make up for last week’s work not being so good so we spent about an hour planning. After we finished we got a phone call from a referral that we contacted yesterday. This time it was the 15 year old’s father demanding how we had got their phone number and why we had called. We calmly told him from a member and his name. He demanded that we give him his phone number so he could talk to him. The member doesn’t have a phone so we couldn’t. The man asked his daughter if she recognized the name of the member, but of course she denied because he was so angry. My companion said about his anger, “Out of all Mongolians I have never seen one so angry like that.” The phone calls continued off and on with the man not clearly understanding what we really were intending and what really happened. He time and time again threatened to kill us, talk to high authorities to shut the church down, and went on and on about how he could accomplish it.

After about an hour my companion had calmed him down somewhat to the point where he said he’d meet us at the church tomorrow. He said he was going to kill us etc etc. So by this time it was 10:30 pm. My companion and I had no idea what to do so we called the district leader and told him we were coming over to talk to him about something. We then called President and the church’s lawyer to find out what to do. They told us that tomorrow all missionaries were not to leave the apartment the next day and that all church activities had to be closed for that day as a precaution. So the district leader had to call all seminary students telling them the church is closed tomorrow. Someone asked why and sometimes he said because someone wants to kill the missionaries. It was quite a serious thing, but few people believed him.

So Tuesday came around and we stayed home all day…. Which was too bad because we had spent an hour planning the day. Our plan was really good that day, but what can you do? Nothing happened on Tuesday, everything was fine. It was a very boring day, but we got to do some things that we normally don’t do. Like take a nap. We don’t even know where the man is or who he is. He hasn’t tried to call us or contact us. We figured he was bluffing. So Wednesday, President said we could go to work, but to be careful.

Daniel (far right) with investigating Damdindorj family

Wednesday was awesome! It was a complete miracle. We taught 5 lessons and found 4 new investigators. We usually struggle to find 4 investigators in one week, but we managed it in one day. The rest of the week was similar with finding investigators and by the end of the week we found a total of 8. A record for me personally on my mission. Truly a blessing. Our work this week was still good despite the little event on Tuesday.

On Sunday all new members came again. I got a call in the morning saying I was giving a talk. So I gave a talk, my first one since first transfer. I talked for like 8 minutes or so about tithing. I think I did alright. It is almost easier to give a talk in Mongolian than English. The language is at a point where I can say what I want and people understand me, just sometimes I don’t understand so much other people. I really need to work a lot harder to get better. It is hard to see progression at this point.

Well that sums up that crazy week. This week should be a really good week getting to know our new investigators better.

My grandpa! What big teeth you have (like little red riding hood). If that one is taken: You look good for how old you are grandpa.

Love Elder Willoughby.

Presented have been portions of an email from Elder Daniel Willoughby serving in the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission. If anyone wishes to send Daniel a message, write it in the comments and I will make sure he receives it.