Still in Erdenet

I'm still in Erdenet, which I'm very thankful for. This was president bensons email to me this week: "You keep leading your district as you've been leading. You will bless their lives and the branch. Thank you. ". I love my mission and these people, I never want to go (sorry momma). I will do the best I can before I have to go. The transfers are every six weeks, but this one was delayed. The next one is Jan. 14th.

My loving companion taking pictures of me during a long ride in a van.

 And me with my new member, his wife and some church members

Short and Sweet

"Tell us about your week?"


President Benson is having all of the missionaries in the whole country come together and celebrate Christmas together this year. Did you know his wife just had a baby?

We will only be there for a day probably. Our next transfers are on the 18th. Thats when my last companion will also go home.

I baptized our sister missionaries investigator.

Sister Hill made us AMAZING burritos!

Baptisms :)

So... I had a baptism! His name is Chinsanna!! I started meeting with him first over a year ago now (one of the benefits from serving in an area for so long). He was really great and we knew at once that he was going to be baptized. Unfortunately he went the to city and we couldnt finish teaching him. Then later I went to the city but couldnt find him. When I came back to Erdenet he and his wife also happened to move back. I called around and found their number and called them. They were very excited to hear that I had come back and we met that week I think. Anyways we started meeting and meeting and meeting! Pretty soon it was them calling us and asking if they could meet with us. Our first lesson was SUPER spiritual, and after that I think they hungered to feel that same peace and spirit again. We ended up meeting almost everyday and if we couldnt meet with them one day they were really disappointed. They started reading the Book of Mormon, and praying everyday. They also came to the church whenever they could. They said when they met with us or came to the church they forgot their fears and troubles. It was a really powerful experience for me. He was going to be baptized this week but because of family issues had to be baptized last week. He chose me to baptize him and I did. That day the hot water was gone so we had to fill it up with only cold (WINTER, FREEZE YOUR FACE OFF COLD) water. When we came out though he was BEAMING, he was sooo happy. He just kept saying, 'thank you, thank you so much'! He was overwhelmingly happy and so was I. Later he also asked me to give him the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and after I gave it to him, and hugged me almost crying! Later my companion gave him the Aaronic Priesthood and he could wipe the smile off his face!! He gave my companion and I another hug and, and was really really happy.

It was an awesome experience, and im so thankful I was able to watch him be baptized!

I also baptized some one else this week. Her name is Munguntuya. When she first came to church I befriended her, and I handed her to the sisters to teach. She was amazing and received several spiritual experiences. She also asked me to baptize her! It was really cool to see her get baptized too!

-elder clement

Our district. Im 'K'

my favorite mission district!!!! 

my favorite mission district!!!! 

my favorite mission district!!!! 

a pic of me and a member after the district conference

a pic of some missionaries together. I was companions with all of them at one point of another except the guy in gray pointing to his arm and the american.

Thanksgiving

Hey momma,

So good news and bad news. We had a great Thanksgiving. I made cornbread, deviled-eggs, shredded chicken, and potatoes with gravy! It was AMAZING!! Unfortunately my camera went weird and all the pictures are hard to access. I don't know if I can get them from my camera. It was great though! My companion and I about died from how much we ate! It was just my companion and I though.

We had a big district conference (like a stake conference, but without the stake), and there was no one there to translate so I translated for them. It was fun, but really tiring.

Its really weird. I only have three planners left for my mission. Its getting closer. Also I got your letters! Send more! Letters are WAY better than emails!

Im doing good, I promise. There is not a single thing I can complain of. I am given everything to the Lord and He has given me so much more. Im doing really good.

Our week was good. We had that two day conference. We had to take a long three hour van ride with all of our members to the city where the conference was being held. It was a cramped ride. We actually had to take four "vans" to get there though, and a couple of cars.

-elder clement

Just a few pictures

Grilled Cheese Hamburgers

Lunch. That is a fruit drink (in case you were wondering) :)

Transfer

Q: How was your first week back in Erdent?

A: It was awesome! I know so many people, and many of them had fallen through the cracks after I left so it was great to come back and be able to help them. I also have changed a lot since I've become trainer. I want my trainee to be the best missionary in the mission so I know that I have to show an example of excellence to him and give him a good experience to base the rest of his mission on. I'm not letting this second chance pass me by. I'm working harder than I ever had in my entire life and the blessings are definitely following. Church was great, our attendance is a lot better and the branch is working with us really well. Yeah I saw a ton of our members this Sunday.

Q: How do you like your new companion?

 A: My companion is awesome, he's trying really hard to adjust to the mission and to the new standards required of him. I know that his future companions may not be perfectly obedient so I am making sure that we are EXACTLY obedient in every way so that maybe he can be an example to his future companions.

Q: How are you feeling?

A: I'm feeling great momma. Like I never have before. I have another scripture that I am memorizing and trying use to strengthen me even more. Its Helaman 10:4-5

"4 Blessed art thou, Clement, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness (Diligence, a Christlike Attribute) declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared(Trusted God) them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.
5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will."
They are, ive eaten at their house twice already. They're awesome! They didnt, what did you post on Facebook?

The baptism I missed. That's me on the far left (the one you can't see)

Back in the country

I'm really good. Yup already got the package! Got here in ten days!!

Transfers: I am back in Erdenet (which I am very grateful for), I'm training a brand new missionary, and I'm District Leader. So far it's been awesome.

The work here is disheartening. When I left I had got each branch from 30 church attendance to 50ish. After I left it went lower than where it was before. We only had 25 members at church this sunday in the Erdenet 2nd Branch, and 36 in the 1st Branch, and neither branch president showed up. It broke my heart. We got to work though. We got branch lists for both branches and had many members check and update it. We will use the new information (its so outdated its not even funny) to meet with members and get a lot more less-actives to church again. I want to get the ward attendance above 100, and I fully believe thats an achievable goal before I finish my mission.

I also have a new scripture that is fueling everything I do. I've been given another chance, and I know it. I will make the most of it. Ive got a chance to make a lasting and big difference on this branch. Maybe enough to make it a ward. The scripture that has really helped me is:

Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me".

I have been learning about Fear and Faith from the scriptures, and Im have no doubts as to whether or not I can do something anymore. Ive had a thought thats been going through my mind lately, I dont know if ive heard it before or just made it up myself but its been really helping me. "Through submitting our will to Him, we in turn are made free". I am truly renewed in Spirit and Mind and im not worried about sicknesses or bumps in the road at all. Im ready to work.

My companion has also been a really good experience for me. I told myself if I ever got a brand new missionary I would be the perfect example to him in obedience and Christ-like attributes. Because thats happened ive kept my promise. I havn't given myself a moment of rest, I've been using all my time effectively and leading my example. This is the chance I needed, and im not going to let the Lord, my companion, or you down.

I'm excited for the many opportunities that lie ahead.

-elder clement

Horse Meat Burgers

I'm cold but doing great! No more snow, but its still cold. Wearing a jacket everyday almost. Actually the last two days have been awesome!!! Super warm and great! Every night it gets cold though. I havn't had to use it yet but I pulled out my big winter jacket yesterday. I'm super jealous of your beautiful Utah weather!! Feel free to send some my way! 

(In response to a comment I made about having a picnic in the mountains today after church)

That's it! That is the exact meal I want when I get home. That right there! That is what I miss more than anything!! I mean don't get me wrong, I definitely want Tori's "cut-diagonally, mayonnaise-on-one-side-and-mustard-on-the-other" turkey sandwich, but what you just said sounds amazing!

This week not too much happened, but no I think the sisters from my group leave in a little less than a week. And the new group will come. This week is also transfers, so wish me luck with my new comp and area! I found an awesome scripture though. For the last month or so ive been focusing my studies on Fear and Faith. I was reading in the Bible and found this: "whosoever belongeth to my church need not fear" DC10:55. It really made me realize that we have no need to fear. Fear is of the devil and has no place in us if we are righteous. It was a cool realization for me.

I'm feeling really good. I've gained 10 lbs. Im up to 145ish now!

Both of my companions are doing really well. My sign language comp is working hard and learning lots and my American companion is not too trunky. All is well. haha.

No, my old Mongolian companion isnt in my Zone. My sign language is coming along really well. Im a visual learner so im picking this language up a lot faster. I feel pretty confident speaking it.

Haha yeah its weird how close I am. When my american companion goes home, it will almost be the three month mark for me. Crazy!

Thank you momma. I re-read the scripture you wrote on that pillowcase yesterday. Its kinda like what you just said. I'm glad I am living up to what I should be doing. I'm thankful for the examples and teachings you and Dad were able to get into my thick skull. love you too.


-elder clement,

Horse Meat Burgers

Email to his Dad

Its going good. Yeah its still cold. No snow anymore but still really cold.

We only got one new investigator this week. His name is Maygmardorj. He's 18. He looks like he can be a really good investigator. The biggest problem though is that he goes to school at a Army school and his free time is really restricted. Mongolians dont have any problem with 12 hour work days all week. We met him one time but they are having a really hard time.

The sign language is going really well. Im learning a lot and been translating a lot too. Its really fun, I like it a lot, but its one of those things that gonna be really hard to keep up after the mission. No new adventures but here are some funny stories from my deaf comp:

- So first mongolians as a whole are very uneducated about sciences, but deaf mongolians basically have NO knowledge of sciences or things like that. So my companion saw a Solar Eclipse a couple years ago with a bunch of other deaf friends and they all started freaking out. He thought the world was ending and Jesus Christ was coming back. He was expecting earthquakes and stars falling from the sky, etc. haha

- So one day he was trying to start something one fire (didnt catch what), but he didnt have any matches. So he decided to take some glasses he was wearing and try to light it with that. He saw it once on TV. He said he just held his arm there forever and was thinking about random things when all of the sudden it lit on fire and he said he was really grateful. I realize writing this that it doesnt sound that funny in english but if you can imagine a 21 year old kid with very vibrant facial expressions signing this all out with his hands its a lot funnier.


love you dad!

-elder clement

Short and Sweet

This week has been awesome. We watched General Conference and all the Americans got together. I love this beautiful wonderful country but its nice just to spend a few moments with Americans watching something so sacred. It was great. And even though we spent two days watching that we still were able to teach 18 lessons! I still love the threesome thing a lot. I'm learning a lot about how to train and be better, and he is so humble and awesome. I love being with our deaf trainee!.

We are going to the bookstore today for my companion. and we are gonna get some fried rice and shrimp!! We found a little new york style roadside stand that sells some awesome food!

Mongolian Writing and More food pics :)

So no big email today because I was emailing a ton of people! but I thought I would show you guys something funny. In Mongolian you add letters to words and brake it apart to change its means.

бүтээ: to create
then бүтээ-гд: a thing created
бүтээ-гд-эх: to be a thing created (verb)
бүтээ-гд-эх-үүн: to be a thing created (or in other words a product) (now a noun and not a verb)
бүтээ-гд-эх-үүн-үүд: products (plural)
бүтээ-гд-эх-үүн-үүд-ийг: products (specific ones kinda like 'the' in english)
бүтээ-гд-эх-үүн-үүд-ийг-ээ: my products (possessive)
And the end result: бүтээгдэхүүнүүдийгээ my products, haha this is the language I am learning!!!!

Getting ready to make the traditional mongolian food, Khuushuur





















A HUGE fire right in the middle of the busiest part of the city! It was insane!



Its official. I am a nerd... Ive learned how to RUBIX cube...



A random dog that just got on the bus and was chilling on a seat. No one was stopping it or anything. Just laughing. haha

Winter In Mongolia

Winter has sprung in Mongolia. I had to wear one of my winter jackets... and a sweater... and my suit to stay warm!

. A cool little drawing my deaf companion made for me (it says Elder Clement The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

And what it looks like outside right now...

The flashdrive I got last week that I told you about

Awesome Week including a CAMEL RIDE

Hello!
This week has been awesome! Hey so fun announcement right after I emailed you guys I got a call from the APs. My companion and I got a new companion, a deaf missionary! We are a three-some now! And he is deaf so we have to speak sign language all the time now!!!! Its awesome, im loving it so much! He is a super great, obedient missionary and I love having him as my companion. He also is really educated so he can communicate very well! He has been teaching me and helping me a ton!!! He is a new missionary also so President Benson told me im his trainer!!! Trainer Round 2!!

We also had a BIG, HISTORIC mission conference here in Mongolia. We had President Gong (the Asia Area President), President Rasband (The President of the Seventy), and Elder Allen (President of the Mission Department of the Church) all come and have a mission conference with us!!! We talked about mostly effective planning. It was two days of complete awesomeness!!! I got a picture with Elder Allen but President Gong, and Rasband were really busy and didnt have time. It was really cool, we all shook hands with them and got to talk with them and ask them questions at the end. President Rasband talked about his talk he gave in General Conference about how mission calls are made, it was soo cool! And they are all members of the 70 so I met and shook hands with three members of the seventy!

Ok and let me tell you the results of the conference so far. Mind you this is only five days since the conference. At church (four days after the conference) we had five what we call eternal less-actives. A husband and wife, who havnt been to church in years. A father of a family who only recently we re-activated his daughter. A middle-aged man with mental issues that makes it difficult for him to come to church. And finally a teenage kid my companion met ten months ago. We have been meeting these people for about a little over two months now with no success. Finally after applying the things we learned in the conference we got all of the less-actives we were working with to church. We have to find new less-actives now, haha. It was an amazing blessing.

Also momma, very last. Sister Benson mom came a couple days ago to visit. And she immediatly saw me and said "Your Vicki Savages grandson, arent you?". Just thought it was a nice way to be know by.


-Elder Clement

No words necessary

Again, no words...

My MTC Group

A missionary stayed at our house and drew this awesome picture of my companion and I on the mirror!

Elder Allen, President of Mission Department of the Church

My two Erdenet members that are now missionaries with me! I served in their ward for ten months

Elder Standley from my group

Me building a traditional Mongolian house

An awkward picture of me before we were rushed out of a members house

Me building a traditional Mongolian house

A little fun for Elder Clement

I'm doing good, transfer was today and we found out my companion and I are still together in the same area (super happy about that!)!!! We are having a HUGE mission fireside. President Rasband (President of the Seventy), and President Gong (Asia Area President) are doing a big mission conference tomorrow and ALL missionaries in the entire country are coming in (some people flying in). Its a huge historical one because these guys are such big guys and BOTH of them are coming.

Questions from mom

Q: We saw that the President of Russia came to Mongolia. Anything to be worried about?

A:Yeah I saw the police escort for the president. Dont worry about it, this was a public appearance, well not public but Ive seen him come secretly before. He came in the open today so it wasnt anything bad.

Q: How are you feeling? Are you gaining weight?
A: Feeling good. I put on about 8 pounds

Q: How are the investigators?
A: They're good, we are working hard and getting blessed so it awesome. We are working with a family of investigators and then a couple other people as well. They all are doing really good.

love you too

-elder clement




Bought Clay for object lessons but got carried away.


More Clay



My comps birthday



Sorry I got ANOTHER painting. The guy walked up to me, and said "Look, dont you want a smiling camel picture!?!" in mongolian and it was really funny so I bartered it down a quarter of the price and got another painting thrown in for free! But look, a smiling camel!!!!! :D



I am learning the ancient Mongolian script language for fun, and I learned how to write Clement, so I used some clay stuff and spelled our name




Found a pumpkin for cheap, so I bought it


Apt Roommates and "Jack"


Matching Ties


Haha. Clay Family?

Jello Juice

Mongolia is great!!! Im loving life and working super hard.

This week though something kinda funny happened. In Mongolia 80% of the products (food, clothing, etc.) are in a different language so they can't read the instructions or what exactly it is. Its kinda sad actually, but anyways these awesome members invited us over for dinner and they gave us this pink looking drink. We were really suprised because Mongolians usually drink and give either a hot milk, salt drink or hot water. When she gave us this we asked her what it was. She showed us the package very excitedly and we read 'JELLO' on the front. Turns out she had bought a russian jello mix and thought it was a juice drink mix. We was so proud and happy we didnt have the heart to tell her we didn't want to drink it. So we drank it all... and every time we took a couple of sips so would refill it! It was like drinking slimy syrup!!! I felt like throwing up after drinking it!!!!

My companion is great. He is going home in December and he is a linguist so hes got awesome mongolian and mongolian sign language so he has been teaching me a lot! And he is really obedient and easy to be with so we have just been doing great work! Funny stories, well you can ask trent, I told him a funny one.

Well our church was FULL to the back in EVERY class!!!! We have been working hard on the ALAs and yesterday we filled the church COMPLETELY!!! In every meeting, in every classroom, it was totally full!!!

This week was another great one, we didnt get 21 lessons this week but we almost hit it. We got 17 lessons! And what I love the most is that they were all quality lessons! We have a lot of investigators that are doing really well, and we keep getting these investigators from out of nowhere and its just another way of God showing us His blessings. I love this work and im proud to be doing it.

-Elder Clement

Tyler's Food Masterpieces

Hey mom-ma-mee-aa (dont know how to spell that)

(In response to mom thanking him for a detailed email the week before)

Your very welcome, and just to show you how well I am eating now I sent you some pictures of food we made! I am in the city now so I have a lot easier access to all those american things. Still a little hard but its easier. Last week was good, got some nice lessons in (16), got seven new investigators, and five new baptismal dates!

I emailed Dad a funny random story about a Russian guy. It doesnt sound as funny in an email but if you picture me standing next to two people speaking fluent Russian and then this very energetic, slightly drunk Russian guy buys a drink it was funny.

I'm loving the ward, its really powerful and has lots of return missionaries that are helping to strengthen it. Im loving the roommates but they are being switched out with other missionaries. These guys that are here right now are really far from their area and so we are getting new roommates that are the missionaries in our area. Its actually our District Leader and his companion, so that will be fun.

The less-active member teaching is really great! We are working really hard contacting ward members asking them to help us update the ward list and contact information for people. Its going awesome!

Grocery wise im doing great! We are finally budgeting well and have plenty of leftover money! The Lord is POURING His blessings on us in every way. We all cook, I've actually gotten pretty decent! :) We also eat out a little, but only like once a week

love you Momma


All of Elder Clement's pictures this wee are FOOD. Haha. Some things NEVER change

Brownies

Um, Ya. He made that burger.

Close Up

Omelets (not sure about the head on the table (haha)

Huu Sha - Elder Clement's favorite Mongolian Treat

Taco's

Chicken Nuggests

Orange Chicken