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Missionary Dan Email from the MTC #11

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Daniel's letter in Mongolian.
Daniel’s letter in Mongolian

Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s eleventh email from the Missionary Training Center. Daniel’s departure for Mongolia has been delayed. Instead he leaves on Tuesday for Atlanta, Georgia while waiting for his visa for Mongolia.

Wow Adelaide! There is no nice way to put this but your stomach is much bigger than I remember it. :) It’s exciting that there will be another baby soon.

Jake, thank you so much! Yes, send all the advice possible, I am seeking as much knowledge as I can get. I couldn’t ask for a better idea. Your experience is one that I had just yesterday. I don’t recall a time where I bore my testimony that someone could find out for themselves of the truth of the Book of Mormon more. I invited the lady three times to meet with the missionaries but when she found out we worship on Sunday she stopped listening. She believes firmly that we need to keep all of God’s commandments but she thinks Saturday is the real sabbath. She doesn’t belong to a religion — she is searching the Bible for truths. I couldn’t have been more excited for her and my companion said I said, “You found it!! This is it!! This is Christ’s true church.” Something like that. I think I could teach the first lesson better. She kept showing all these interesting things in the Bible. I thought of a few ways I could maybe prove her wrong but the Spirit prompted me to just bear my testimony that I know this is Christ’s true church. Perhaps I was just meant to plant a seed. I have no doubt that she knows I firmly believe and know this is Christ’s church and that she can know for herself by reading the Book of Mormon.

As you are saying I know I could have talked to more people but I wanted so badly for her to realize how close she was to finding all her answers to her questions, that I think I ignored some promptings from the Spirit. The really long phone call had some good in it. She wanted to send me something in the mail so I gave her my address. The Spirit prompted me to commit her to visit Mormon.org and send in her letter something she learned about our church. I know that if she continues searching she will find the truth and I promised her that.

Thanks Jake, I have really searched out the question you told me to. I don’t have the time now to tell you my answer but I really am thankful for the help you are giving me.

Mom, sounds like you are staying extremely busy. Kelsey really likes the Davis Park ward. Thanks for the encouragement — it’s great to hear. My leg is awesome. An elder here runs track and yesterday he “made” me run a mile really fast. He is insanely good at track. He paced me to run a 5:31 mile on the crazy weird indoor track here. That’s nine seconds off of my PR for the mile so I think my leg is completely healed. I have lost five pounds which is weird.

So everyone knows I am temporally assigned to Atlanta, Georgia. It’s so exciting to be able to go out and do missionary work! I know I am called to go to Mongolia so I am not worried about getting there soon. All I truly want to do is show Heavenly Father how much I love Him by doing all I can to help His children. I lack many of the skills of a great missionary but I rely on Him to teach me what to do and say. It doesn’t matter where I serve as long as I can be serving others. I know there is a reason for everything and I may not understand all of it at first. The Lord has a great purpose for me and I will be an instrument in His hands.

Thanks for all you do family! I love you all and I am always grateful for your example.

Love, Elder Willoughby.

If any reader 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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Missionary Dan Email from the MTC #10

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Elders Willoughby, Apo, and Nelson at the Provo temple.
Elders Willoughby, Apo, and Nelson

Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s tenth email from the Missionary Training Center. Daniel’s departure for Mongolia has been delayed.

Thanks Steven for the pictures! They are wonderful. I especially liked the picture of Sarah and Derek playing the Wii with the baby in the background by himself laying on the couch. He he. I really enjoy how you take pictures Steven, it lets me be a part of what happened because they aren’t just posing all the time.

As for our visa delays I am not exactly sure what it means that we are going to be recognized as ministers. As you know, we’ve been allowed into the country on the fact that we are just English teachers. With the little change, I think all it is, is that we are recognized that we are from the LDS Church. We still teach English and no I do not believe we can tract. As of what my teachers have said it is getting a little less strict on when you can mention the Church to people. As far as I know we still wait for them to ask us why we are there and then we can tell them. The last Mongolian elders went through a similar thing. I really have no idea what being recognized as a minister is so don’t quote me on it. As far as I know nothing has changed as to what missionaries are in Mongolia.

[I will guess that] the new baby will be born Feb. 11 at 12:45 am. Sorry Adelaide. :)

We’ve continued our studies of the gospel and language. We are learning more about “Invitations to learn” that we say to people we meet on the street. I personally love the MTC and am grateful for every moment I’ve had here. I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t enjoy the MTC. Elder Holland come for his third time to speak to us Tuesday. Each time I gain so much more from what he says.

I didn’t really unpack that much so I think I could be ready to leave in like 20 minutes. The temple is open still and we get to go today. We finished off our ESL training and received our diplomas.

I had a great experience in the RC. I received a call from a man who was calling to thank an elder for helping him to be baptized. The elder was called to the MTC because of a disability (I think he can’t walk very well). The man wanted to thank the elder personally for all that he did for helping in the process. He expressed to me how much the elders meant to him. It was really exciting to hear that the work is moving forward.

Thanks for all the wonderful advice Paul, it has helped a lot when I’ve talked to others in the RC. Thanks to Jake as well. I love you Mom and Dad thanks for being great parents.

Love, Elder Willoughby.
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Missionary Dan Email from the MTC #9

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Dan and Elder Van Weezep at the Provo temple.
Elder Van Weezep with Dan at the Provo temple

Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s ninth email from the Missionary Training Center. Daniel leaves for Mongolia next week.

Today has been quite the week. We started ESL training and things. Last week we hadn’t done anything yet so I didn’t say anything. We learned how to teach English grammar from like three classes then they had us teach the missionaries that are learning English. I really enjoyed it. Since I already know English it’s not very hard to teach it. We mainly introduce a new topic and then have them practice. We get over the “I’m not correcting them because we don’t want to be rude” feeling and always correct sentences, pronunciation, etc. We are also careful not to overwhelm them and keep it simple. Similar to how we teach the gospel. It has really helped me with my language. It allows me to see what it is like for my teacher teaching me Mongolian.

So my mission president only allows one email a week so I can’t write to others separately in email. I’d like to be able to address separate people and if they don’t want it posted on the blog then no need to :) (thanks Dad).

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Missionary Dan Email from the MTC #8

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Daniel and Spencer at the MTC.
Dan and Spencer at the MTC

Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s eigth email from the Missionary Training Center. He has a personal message for visitors to Rickety.

Dear Family and Friends,

Christmas was very exciting. Elder Holland came in the morning and taught us about Christ. He gave us 12 names of Christ to study each day for 12 days. He called them the 12 days after Christmas. It has been wonderful to get to know my Savior better and understanding His life more helps me with mine.

The RC has again been such a wonderful experience for me. I prepared this time as I felt I wasn’t doing exactly what Heavenly Father wanted me to. Through that preparation for the RC I learned wonderful missionary lessons. I was able to better follow the Spirit and help the people solve their concerns rather than just trying to get them to meet with the missionaries. I was able to bear my testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel and also of how much God loves his children. The people I talked to, some really wanted the help from the Church to get more peace in their lives. Others simply were interested in what the Church taught.

Any visitors to my Dad’s blog who are searching for God’s love or solutions to life’s toughest questions I invite you to hear The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints message. Our message is simple. We all have a Father in Heaven. He loves us. We are His children. He has placed us in families to help us have joy and happiness in this life. He has had a pattern of love and concern for His children throughout all of time as recorded in the Bible. He loved us so much that he sent His son, Jesus Christ, to come to earth. While on earth Christ set up His Church which taught His Gospel. He called apostles to help Him teach.

Though Christ only sought to do good, people rejected His message and killed Him and His apostles. After years of darkness and confusion God again has reached out to His children in love. He has restored His original truths taught by Jesus Christ through living prophets. The Book of Mormon is proof of this. We invite all to read it, ponder its teachings and pray for yourself to know whether God has restored His Truth to the earth.

We seek not to prove anyone wrong but to add to the good things that your religion already has. I know God my Heavenly Father loves me. I have felt of His love. He has great concern for all of His children and wants all of them to feel of His love.

I know that He has restored His truth again. It is the Book of Mormon. I know anyone that reads it will feel God’s love and get answers to any concerns or challenges they face. I promise that anyone who seeks out to know Christ and seek to know Him will find out. This is His church restored to the earth today. Please request your free Book of Mormon today and find out for yourself of its truth.

Love

Elder Willoughby

Related Posts

List of Daniel’s missionary posts.
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Missionary Dan Email from the MTC #7

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Daniel by the MTC Christmas tree.
Dan by the MTC Christmas tree

I interrupt the Christmas holidays to present portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s seventh email from the Missionary Training Center, received Christmas Day.

Dear Family,

Yesterday was awesome and again my preparation day is on a holiday so it is crazy. I thank Mark and Connie for sending me the card and I’m grateful they are my friends. :) Thanks Sarah, Derek, but more importantly Bryson for sending the bowling pins and card. Thank you Wards for the wonderful card and pictures of the family — they were great to see this morning. Also thanks to the Dixon family for sending me a card, I really enjoyed what they wrote. I appreciate what the Johnson family sent and I’m very thankful they spent the time to write some insightful things to me. I enjoyed the Santa hat card from the Langs as well. Thank you!!

I got your package Mom as well as one from Kelsey. The card was great too. I haven’t yet opened your package Mom but I will soon. I’ve opened the other packages awhile ago. :-) Thanks Steven for the pictures. You have a really nice camera, I really enjoy the pictures. Its like I’m living the moment, I really like how you try and capture the action and not just people smiling for the camera. Thank you Ada for your great email. I smiled when I read it. I am very happy you married my brother. I’m excited to see what the baby will look like.

So Christmas eve was really exciting. Our teachers all came the whole morning and spent a lot of time with us. We did a lot of activities like Christmas caroling, nativity re-enactment, and watched the nativity video. We shared our favorite scriptures and bore our testimonies of them. Mine was 2 Nephi 4:17. Its about how Nephi rejoices but then calls himself “wretched man that I am.” Later he says I know in whom I’ve trusted. Chapter 4 is so real to me. I want to be like Nephi, he is my hero and I love learning about him. I know I can trust the Lord. I know he loves his children so much and that he will allow me to help his children. I’ve felt of my Heavenly Father’s love so much it makes me so happy, I want others to feel what I have. I deeply love my Father in Heaven right back, I really don’t deserve the blessings he always gives me.

This email is quite long, but its Mom’s Christmas present. David A. Bednar came yesterday night. He brought his youngest son who is married. They all spoke to us. I enjoyed everything his daughter-in-law and son said. So much of what they shared answered my prayers. I am amazed at the time that is spent by Heavenly Father to answer my prayers. Elder Bednar shared a lot too — how to dig into the scriptures and really find things. He took us through step by step. His wife is really funny! Before the meeting starts they show a photo of the speaker. Sister Bednar, when she spoke said something like Elder Bednar is so young and good looking in that photo and totally photo-shopped. Elder Bednar got really red. He he. Then she said can I get a ride home from somebody else? Ha Ha Ha. It was funny.

Afterwards everyone got to shake his hand. Yep, every missionary one by one. I am so grateful that we have apostles that are special witnesses of Christ. I felt the spirit even before he entered the room. I was so happy to see him, I couldn’t stop watching every little thing he did. I really look up to him. I know we have a true prophet and that all apostles really do testify so powerfully of Christ, I know he lives and that he loves me.

Merry Christmas today! I love everyone and I wish the best. Have a great and happy day. Be nice to each other. :)

Love, Elder Willoughby.

Related Posts

List of Daniel’s missionary posts.

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Missionary Dan Email from the MTC #6

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Mongolian landscape.
Mongolian Landscape

Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s sixth email from the Missionary Training Center.

Hello Family,

I would send pictures often but I only have one chip and it takes forever to get the pictures developed here. If the machine worked I should have some to send tomorrow. I could burn them on CD but the machine charges 3 dollars.

Yes we are expected to leave January 13. I wasn’t sure on it so I didn’t tell you.

It is cold here in Provo, but we rarely are outside. My cold weather things are coming in handy. We’ve heard some cool stories about how cold Mongolia is. When you’re outside and you breathe your breath will freeze and turn into ice crystals. Then the sun shines through it and it sparkles. The sun is always up usually in the winter but its freezing. Very cold -30 degrees F. Its exciting though!

I don’t think I could ever get sick of the routine. I love the MTC. I really enjoy how much opportunity there is to learn here. I couldn’t number how many general authorities I’ve heard from. We get a member of the Seventy some times twice a week. Last Tuesday was Elder Pace.

My companions are great! We get along quite nicely. Last Sunday we were called as Zone Leaders. It’s been really good for our companionship, we’ve grown closer and its been a great incentive for us to continue to work hard. Its been a blessing because we get to meet all the new missionaries and help them. We get to serve them a lot. Its fun giving them tours and telling them all the little tips and tricks to the MTC.

My companion from Samoa, Elder Apo, was excited to see snow. It was his first time ever. He is freezing though coming from an island that was 100 degrees and 100% humidity. We all hope he won’t die in Mongolia.

I again had a wonderful experience in the RC. I talked to an old lady who had several trials. She’s had multiple surgeries and a couple of near death experiences. She had great faith in Christ and his atonement. She just wasn’t sure why she was still alive. She talked for 15 minutes about her trials and I listened. She is so prepared to hear the gospel. I told her about the Book of Mormon, bore my testimony of it and of Christ. She is going to meet with the missionaries and she wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon. The spirit told her through me that the missionaries will bring her such joy and the thing she has been waiting for. She will be a great member of the church soon.

Thanks for the pictures Steven. I liked how Sarah’s birthday present was Bryson. He is getting big, he’ll be a good track runner, football, soccer, and basketball player.

I hope Christmas will be fun for everyone. I love you all and I am so happy right now. I am so blessed every day and the Lord always answers my prayers.

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Elder Willoughby

Related Posts

List of Daniel’s missionary posts.

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Missionary Dan Email from the MTC #5

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Missionaries at the Provo Temple (Daniel 2nd from right).
Daniel and other elders at the Provo Temple

Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s fifth email from the Missionary Training Center. Photographs are courtesy of LaRae Warner who’s son is serving with Daniel.

I hope you are enjoying the Christmas season. It is really amazing here. We have Christmas lights and many things to remind us of Christ. I’ve learned a lot about my Savior here. I strive to follow his perfect example.

Thanks for the pictures. I really like the one of Old Rickety. Dad, you look great for being so old!! :)

Thanks for the reminder Jake. I think I’ve been focusing too much on trying to know the scriptures and forgetting PMG has many scriptures in it. We did an exercise yesterday, our teacher gave us a scenario and we had to solve it using the scriptures. She told us she wanted every sentence we said backed up by scripture. It was great! The scriptures are great teachers and it gives validity to what we are teaching. They help us as missionaries be more direct and get the person more willing to commit to become better.

I really love the RC. I got to talk to a very nice man who was getting a free DVD. I asked him what he believed in first and I tried my best to understand it. It really opened him up to what I was going to say. Unfortunately he said he is rarely home and couldn’t meet with the missionaries but I think when the follow up call comes to see if he got the DVD he is going to be really open to discuss what he felt while watching the movie.

This Christmas my perspective has changed. In Mongolia they don’t celebrate Christmas and missionaries work hard the whole day. What a blessing this is! The true meaning of Christmas is doing something to brighten others’ day. It is in giving not receiving. I love the first presidency message by Thomas S. Monson. I’m glad for his great example of giving selfless service always. I want to try and be like him. I know he is a prophet of God and that he leads our church.

I challenge anyone who reads this to try and do one simple thing to makes someone’s day just a little better. Do it in secret. I promise you will feel the true spirit of Christmas and be happier.

Love,

Elder Willoughby.

In the photograph: Elders Horan, Apo, Weaver, Bigler, Nelson, Willoughby, and Warner.

Related Posts

List of Daniel’s missionary posts.
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Missionary Dan Email from the MTC #4

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Learning Mongolian.
Learning Mongolian at the MTC

Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s fourth email from the Missionary Training Center. Photographs are courtesy of LaRae Warner who’s son is serving with Daniel.

Thanks Steven for the pictures. They look extremely good on this computer. Better than any pictures I remember looking at. Its probably just the person that took them. They didn’t fill up my mailbox at all. I’m at 12% so I think thats a good setting to send them with. The fried turkey looks really good and it looks like thanksgiving was lots of fun. Bryson is growing up really fast and everyone looks really happy. :)

Hello Ashley! Thanks for posting on my dad’s blog for me. I love you a lot too and I miss your wonderful smile. I am doing very well couldn’t be better.

I don’t really care what I get for Christmas. Just send some type of food I can share with my district and that will work just fine.

The MTC is truly amazing! I am really enjoying my time here. Spencer Anderson came yesterday and I was able to talk to him for awhile. That was fun. Also yesterday I had a great experience in the RC (mom ask Jake what it is). I had a lot more faith and I really desired to talk to people so I could help them. I was really surprised by how many more people I talked to. More so just yesterday than my whole time here. It strengthened my testimony that finding people to teach is based a lot off how much faith I have that they can be found. I’m not the best at talking to people but the Lord helps me with my weaknesses.

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Missionary Dan Email from the MTC #3

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Daniel learning Mongolian (center).
Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s third email from the Missionary Training Center. Photographs are courtesy of LaRae Warner who’s son is serving with Daniel.

Well today is Thanksgiving so my P-day is just a little messed up. We get to have a General Authority come speak to us today and also do a service project. That is crazy that Sarah and Derek are moving to Texas. I had a friend from Texas and they had only good things to say about it. Try and get Bryson some cowboy boots maybe? Best of luck to the both of you.

Elder Warner told me, Dad, that you were looking at some pictures of me on his mom’s blog. Those are probably the same ones that I took with my camera. I forgot to get my pictures to send but all those were were pictures of my district and one picture of my companions.

Mom, it sounds like you are growing up to be a fine grandma. Working from a Lazy boy sounds like it could be less productive but whatever works. :) I’ve always wanted to drive one of those carts around at Sam’s Club. My leg is perfectly healed. Just like I was saying it just needed to rest to recover. I can now run as much as I want and it never bothers me.

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