May 15, 2012

Hello mother,

 

Thank you for the Email! I hope you had a good mother's day, and I am sorry we couldn't talk on the phone, but I was thinking of you and we will talk soon! This absolutely HAS been my best week ever! It sounds like all is well at home. There is beauty all around when there's you know what at home!

 

On Tuesday Elder Christofferson graced the MTC missionaries with his presence and instructed us about The Godhead. It was nice and simple. I have a feeling that we are having a general authority again tonight, so maybe I will have something more profound to share next week.

 

Some highlights of my week:

I placed my first Book of Mormon! It was my real nice gold one that I got here. I need to figure out where they sell golden Mongolian Book of Mormons, because the bookstore does not. I perhaps will get a snazzy new one in the country. During TRC (teaching resource center) we get to practice our Mongolian by teaching basically hometeaching lessons. A twist that we got was an actual non-member came with some volunteers and we changed our lesson to be about the restoration and taught her as much as we could and explained the importance of reading the Book of Mormon, then I left mine with her as a gift. In Mongolia books are sacred and a source of knowledge, so I think she really was grateful to recieve that from us.

 

We got a new district this week, they are going to Colorado. The first night they were here I helped them get acclimated to the MTC climate. I laid on the ironing board and pretended to sleep there all night, but really once they went to bed I did too and just got up early and returned to my sleeping perch right outside their door. When they came out they took pictures and I did not laugh or smile even though thier flashes were on and they made lots of noise! They had no idea who I was for quite a while, especially since the next night they were taken on a tour of the campus and saw me at every turn. The back story to this is that my companions are the zone leaders and conducted the tours, so I got the choice experience of perpetually staying within sight and sound without being seen or heard, until I wanted to. Another exciting upside of this was I got to read outloud my Mongolian Book of Mormon whenever the new Elders and Sisters walked by. By next week they should catch on that I am just a normal missionary too.

 

Finally, this week we are training to be certified English teachers and my companions and I taught some foriegn speaking Elders and Sisters English today! I am learning a lot about English. I am learning a lot about teaching. I am learning a lot about the Spirit. Teaching English is going to be a really huge part of my mission. If you did not know this the Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia mission is the only mission in the world where missionaries are called primarily to be English teachers and teach the Gospel secondarily. (Now I know in my mind and heart that those are in the wrong order, however, there is some article of fath about obeying and honoring the law, so not much I can do about that)

 

I am indebted to my Lord and Savior for the opportunity to be here and spread his good word of happiness and salvation. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true and restored church of God on the earth today and that we have a living prophet with all the keys and authority of the priesthood. That authority is essential to salvation. I want all to come unto Christ that thier souls can be edified and given hope and peace in this life and in the world to come. Thank you for rasing me to be a hard worker, there is no way I can be happy here if I am not working hard. It is hard work. I am thankful for the challenge of language and people skills that I face everyday. There is no place I would rather be right now.

 

Have a great week! -Elder Chandler