It was a great week! I am so happy to be here and I love the work.
A couple highlights:
Elder Ballard spoke to us Sunday night in the same fireside that Elder David Archuleta sang The Spirit of God and the mission President also spoke. Immediately following that fireside my district stayed and we watched The Testaments and the spirit was so strong.
The first day all the new Mongolian Elders arrived we came into class and I was the first one so I saw an Elder sitting in the corner and he looked so scared! So we talked as other Elders arrived and he was just in shock and nervous out of his mind. We started listening to Mongolian and no one had any idea what in the world was going on. At the end ot the class period the teacher asked who wanted to pray and this Elder raised his hand. We were all suprised to hear impeccable Mongolian spewing forth. I just kept my eyes closed and hoped this would happen to me soon. After he finished he looked up and I looked at him with awe. He just started laughing and the teacher did too; turns out his visa had been delayed and he was a 16 week-er. He leaves tomorrow to be temporarily transferred to Iowa, until his visa gets through. The other 7 missionaries are already there.
We taught our first lesson (in Mongolian) our third day here and it went great! One of my companions is our district leader and he did not speak well, but he had a cool experience of teaching through the Holy Ghost (in Mongolian) in our first lesson. We have taught 2 more and I also was able to speak through the Spirit the next time.
My district has 5 total Elders, my companions are Elder Omori from Utah and Elder Hegland from Utah. I am the only one not from Utah or Idahe from the 6 who are here now. They are truly fantastic and terrific friends already!
The language is going well, I can pray and bear testimony and get to know people a little. It is most closely related to Turkish and I am so grateful for the Lord helping me learn. For those of you who are interested, Mongolian has 4 cases and uses the Cyrillic alphabet. We are being fed it through a firehose.
Oh, THE FOOD! I am so happy with the food! Although my stomach gurgles and rumbles all day everyday I really am happy with the well-balanced, calorie rich diet I indulge in.
Everything is going really well here. I would like to share a brief thought about something Elder Ballard spoke on. He talked to the MTC about this mission being a spirit foundation for the rest of our lives, and I definately know that is true. I can think of no other time when I have been so completely dedicated to a purpose. I have a singular duty while I am here and while I am serving the Lord to be worthy of the Spirit and to testify of what I know and what I believe; if I am worthy then the Lord will confirm it to the hearts and minds of the investigators we teach.
I love the gospel and I love being in the MTC. I have been called to serve for this time in my life and I am so grateful for this opportunity. Bi Borkhan hairte! Shar gou bie.
Love, Elder Chandler
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