Answers to Questions

 Momma and Family,

I'm really anxious to hear more about your mission. How much longer do you have your companion?
 

I only have a month left with my companion before he goes home. Then I will probably get put with a Mongolian missionary.

What does a typical work day consist of? A p-day etc 

A typical work day:

Wake up at 6:30 and play soccer with the other elders that live nearby

8:00-11:00. Personal and Companionship Study. During our personal study we read the scriptures, a Liahona, Jesus the Christ, or whatever we feel is best for that day. Then during Companion study we talk about what we learned, practice teaching out of Preach My Gospel, and work out of a book called the 12 Week Program

11:00-9:00. Out teaching. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday I teach English for 1 1/2 hours each day. Then we ride a bus for about 45 mins to our area. Then we follow our plan and teach people. Almost everyday we have to take off our shoes and socks and cross a river to teach an investigator. Many times people aren't there so we teach our backup people.

9:00-9:30. First thing we do when we get home... plan. First we write down our numbers for that day. Pres Monson says:
“When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates". Then we plan the next day. We decide who we are teaching, and what we are teaching, and when we are teaching.

9:30-10:30. Free Time. We write in our journal, usually eat dinner, whatever we need to do.

Tell me some fun and happy stories.

Fun story. Well I was pooped on. We were walking under a building and next thing I know there was poop all over me. Also the bird had diarrhea. It was right before we started teaching English so I had to teach English with poop all over me. On a positive note, my students made fun of me... IN ENGLISH!!! They are doing great with their English.

Another fun story: The mission doctor out here had four of his grand kids visit, and one of the grandsons came out to teach with us for a day. So the whole day I translated for him because one of us had to teach and one had to translate. Since my companion has better Mongolian he mostly taught and I translated. It was awesome! Such a confidence booster to realize that even though my language isn't that good, just three months ago I was like him and now I am able to translate. I couldn't translate everything but I could usually get the general idea across. It was really awesome!

What have you learned?

Here are some things I learned from personal study recently. I was reading Jesus the Christ (which is awesome), and it started talking about Jesus as a child. It said something really cool I never thought about. I've always assumed Christ was born with a full knowledge of His heavenly kingship, but in Jesus the Christ it said that Jesus learned precept upon precept, grace upon grace until He realized His heavenly role. It says Christ was born "a dependent child" just like any other.

Also another cool thing I learned. I've always wondered about Free Agency and God's Foreknowledge of our decisions. I never knew how God could know what decision we would make before we made it if we had the free choice to make any decision. I found the answer in 'Jesus the Christ', the Book of Mormon, and Preach my Gospel. Its kinda like the analogy of a father who knows that his sons favorite ice cream is chocolate so he knows that if he presents a chocolate and a vanilla ice cream his son will choose chocolate. Our Father in Heaven knows each of us so well He knows what decision we will make before we are ever presented with it. So even though we have the right to choose, and we have our Free Agency, God knows His children so perfectly He knows what we will do before it ever happens.

How is it going with your investigators?

Alright a little update on my investigators' status. Naranbaatar, our most prospective investigator, had his baptismal date set for this upcoming Sunday. Unfortunately we were going through the baptismal questions and come to find out he hadn't yet repented, and his knowledge about God was seriously lacking. Its really frustrating because we've gone over this over and over. We ended up pushing his baptismal date a week back to make sure he has repented and has a good knowledge of the gospel. We may have to push it back another week too, just to be safe but we are playing it by ear.

Did you celebrate Nadaam?

Nadaam: Awesome! A popular food here is called Howsher. Its deep fried bread with meat in it. During Nadaam they make SUPER good howsher!!! We bought some and it was super super good. Also a HUGE part of Nadaam is the tournaments. They have the three manly sports: wrestling, archery, and horse riding. My companion bought tickets to the event months ahead of time and we got President's approval so we were able to watch the wrestling. They have this really big traditional dance and performance before the event and we watched it live and it was incredible!! I still havnt worked out the picture issue with these computers but as soon as I do I'll send pictures.

Another fun thing we did was make "American" Howsher. We had Apple Pie Howsher, Bacon Chicken Howsher, and Garlic Chicken Howsher. Sooooooo good!!!

We were also able to go to a music concert too. Elder Boyd's English Sponsor (the person he teaches English for) bought us really great tickets to this music concert. They have preformed in Carnie Hall and other places. They were soooo good!!!!

Well that was Naddam.

Well that's it, love ya mommy

 (Ya, I know this may embarrass him. I don't care. LOVE MY BOY)

-Elder Clement