Christmas in Mongolia

We didn't really get a blog email for Christmas with Elder Clement but we were able to speak with him on Skpe. He was very sick Christmas Eve but still had a wonderful Christmas. We were able to speak with companion on Christmas day as well. We are so very eternally grateful to the Senior couple Bro and Sis Groesbeck who have taken our sweet boy under their arms.

Just a country boy

Its kinda funny. I am seriously a novelty here. Being a white American is like wearing a clown suit and walking around speaking to clickity language. I'm out in the countryside where there are really no Americans and everyone things its the weirdest thing to see me here. The strangest thing about getting home will be not having everyone stare at me!

My missions going good though. I have a great companion, I feel like im learning a lot about the language, people, and the gospel. I love my new area (way out in the countryside, im in the boonies guys), and everything is going right. This week hasn't been too cold, about the same as utah probably, but the smoke was really bad. The people here burn coal and so at night or on cold days there is just a thick layer or black smoke. We have been given masks so its ok, but its really ugly and dirty.

Alright not much happened this week but I want to share an experience that happened. First of all Mongolians are great, caring, and loving people who will give you everything they have and more, but many also have big tempers. We had a Zone Conference where our two Zone Leaders were  teaching us how to be better missionaries. One of our Zone Leaders is American, and he was clarifying something some missionaries were confused about. Completely out of the blue a missionary started yelling and and angrily asking a bunch of questions. Then his companion piped up too, everyone is completely shocked and frozen because of how unexpected this is. They get to the point that the American Zone Leader asks them both to leave. Everyone I've talked to believes that this was the correct move on the zone leaders part, but it made the two angry missionaries even more mad. Long story short, it got very heated very fast.

What I learned most from that day was not that message that these two Zone Leaders shared, its how the Zone Leader acted that taught me the most. While he was being yelled at, criticized, ridiculed, and told by other missionaries that he needs to repent (all in front of 30+ missionaries), he remained totally calm and collected. His voice was not raised, he didn't call anyone names, or say anything mean at all. He was the perfect example of Christ-Like love, and charity. After the conference I saw him meet with each person, and I watched his face while he did that. A calm, peaceful look never left his face. This is how we should, and Christ would, face difficulties.

Alrighty, I read this scripture this week and I wanted to share it. Its Helman 10:5

"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".

God gave this manpower to do anything, and then He said this man wouldn't do anything that is contrary to the commandments of God. We should live our lives so that God doens't need to give us a commandment about every little thing, "it is not meet that I should command in all things", but instead we should try and make our lives something that God knows will be righteous.

-Elder Clement

Short and Sweet

Family and Friends,

Foremost I want to share a quote I found in a Liahona. I lost it later though and dont remember which one its in. Heres the quote though: "There are times when human words fail in the presence of spiritual clarity".

Ok cool experience. This month I fasted, but I really fasted for something that I thought was important and would really help the work progress here. I fasted that the less active members would feel a desire to come to church, we would find more investigators, and our work would be blessed. That was last Sunday, and this Sunday we had a ton of less actives show up, many who hadn't attended in so long that the members (and us) thought they were investigators. Then yesterday after church, we were teaching a lesson to a little boy, and found out his relative who just happened to be babysitting was a less active and we were able to get her number and invited her to church with a good response. And on our way to that lesson we knocked on the wrong door, and the neighbor of that wrong person heard us knock and thought we were knocking on his door, and he came out and talked to us and was very interested in meeting with us later. And our work since that fast has just been good lesson after good lesson after good experience after good experience. It shows the power of blessings, and shows how obvious blessings are sometimes. Faith is easy if you are willing to look.

Sorry nothing else this week.

Love you all,

-Elder Clement

A little extra Q&A

Momma,

(IN REGARDS TO MY CONCERN AT HIS WEIGHT LOSS)
Yeah Ive lost a lot of weight... some because I was sick, but I have also been working out so that's part of it. I feel healthy so I don't think its a bad weight lost or anything. When I checked in the city I dropped about 35 lbs. A typical meal for us is meat (chicken, or sheep), potatoes, carrot, onion, cabbage, rice, and bread. I think its pretty balanced, I dunno we usually just make soup with rice.

(IN REGARDS TO SOME STRESS I HAVE BEEN DEALING WITH)
You need to remember too, that the best way to relieve stress and anxiousness is to go to the temple. You may find more stress in finding room for it, but going consistently will make EVERYTHING better. You can also make it personal, one-on-one time, with Trent and Jennie and go do baptisms. 

The language is coming a lot better, I was really praying hard as to why I felt like I was in a slump (I wasn't really learning anything new for a while and it was really frustrating), I prayed and received a clear revelation. There are TONS of Liahonas and Ensigns here and I love reading them so in my free time before bed or in the morning I read them. While I was reading one I herd in my head, 'You want to learn the language but you dont spend your time studying it, so how do you expect me to help you?'. While what I was doing was good, there was a better way to spend my time, and that's doing what I was praying for, studying the language. Since then my language has gotten better everyday. I'm learning a lot more words everyday than I was before.

(IN REGARDS TO THE FACT THAT HE IS IN THE COUNTRY AND ASSUMED HE MIGHT NOT GET HIS PACKAGE)
I don't know but I will find a way to get the package, don't worry.

-Elder Clement

Letter from the Groesbecks

The Groesbecks are from our hometown here in Mapleton. And now they are serving with Tyler. How cool is it to have Tyler's old mission president live just a few miles from us and his new mission president, Elder Benson, married to someone who was in my ward 25 years ago. Now, to have someone else from our neck of the woods in his ward. I know my boy is being watched over.

Hi Sister Clement,

I hope this is the correct address to email you.  Just wanted you to know that we are now serving in Erdenet with none other than the famous Elder Clement.  We were so excited when we heard he would be transferred here.  We wanted the opportunity to get to know him better and now we have it!  And, just so you know (you already do I know) he is an amazing young man.  He is always so upbeat and positive and so happy!  He's so fun to be around.  And he is so very helpful.  He translates for us and is helping with our Mongolian learning.  We have really enjoyed the week we have had together and are looking forward to many more!  His language is so good.  I wish they would teach us old folks the way they do the younguns so we could speak like they do!  But our responsibility is different than theirs and we get the chance to know and work with wonderful Mongolian translators, who we so appreciate!  Anyway, he seems to be doing very well, has a great companion and is anxious to find more people to teach.  As you probably already know, he is teaching an American and is pretty excited about that!  There is lots of work to do here and we are grateful for this opportunity to be a  part of it and have Elder Clement here too!  We'll try to take good care of him for you!

Sister Groesbeck

To the countryside

What is going on with me you ask? Lots.

I was reading the Aug Liahona and came across this article I really liked. Its written by President Monson and he wrote down four words to live our lives by:

Listen:

I promise you that if we have an ear attuned to the Holy Spirit, if there is a desire for righteousness within our heart, and our conduct reflects that desire, we shall be guided by that Holy Spirit.

Learn:

Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith. DC 88:118

Labor:

It’s not enough to wish, it’s not enough to dream, it’s not enough to promise. We must do.

Love:

They do not love that do not show their love. -William Shakespeare

I was reading in Ether Ch 2 verse 3, and found out what 'Deseret' means as in Deseret Industries.

"And they did also carry with them deseret, which, by interpretation, is a honey bee"

This week was transfer and guess what... I got transferred to the countryside!! Im the first American to come here in years!!! Its a place called Erdenet. Its WAYYYY out in the boonies! All the Americans in the city are super jealous. They all have to teach English in the city with their English sponsor but because mine is a church member he doesnt care where I go. Its really awesome! The capital is ridiculous. Tons and tons of cars (you cant even understand how annoying and loud it is. America has nothing on this city!), but the countryside is very peaceful and quite. Its really beautiful!!

Thats all here, love you all

-Elder Clement

Baptism

гэр бүлээ,

My Family,

My mission is going good. We have a baptism this week. Her name is Enkhmaa, shes in her 20's, and shes been an awesome investigator! We should baptize her this Friday if everything works out alright.

Also I wanted to tell all of you guys about a really awesome member named Otgonbayar. She was baptized as one of the first members of the church in Mongolia! She has no legs (or very small disabled legs), and has to use a wheelchair to get around. Which is really really really hard in Mongolia. Almost all the poor or middle class people rely on buses for transportation and since she is in a wheelchair she cant get on a bus. The church is far from her home and its very very very difficult for her to come, but shes determined. We have since helped her, by coming to her house every Sunday morning and picking her up but even that is difficult for her. The bus travels on rocky uneven ground and the bus sways and shakes, which is hard for someone standing up, but for her and her wheelchair its a scary roller coaster. Her wheelchair will tip up on one wheel then tip backward then tip to the left. Its really scary for her even when we are their to try and help balance her. Her dedication though is steadfast. She WILL come to church, and she WILL partake of the sacrament. 

Also here's a fun thing that comes from teaching English, and learning a new language. You notice patterns and new things about your own language. This is one thing I learned when I was teaching some students about guys' and girls' names. The majority of male names will end in a constant. The remainder will end in a silent vowel. There are very few exceptions like Lee, and Joshua. A majority of female names will end in a vowel, then a very few amount will end in a constant. Fun fact from Mr. Clement.

-Elder Clement

Life is Good

Family and Friends,

Life here is good. I cant even describe the peace I have felt this week. I don't know if it has come from your prayers or what but this week has been a constant source of peace from the Spirit. Its been really nice.

We are going to have a baptism in two weeks for an awesome investigator so thats pretty cool! She bore her testimony on Fast Sunday a couple of weeks ago and it was AWESOME. She's new and we didn't know her and everyone was kinda just nodding their heads not really paying attention then she ends her testimony with "Oh and Im an investigator". Every head in the audience shot up (including my companion's and I)! Nobody would believe she was an investigator. We all thought she was just an awesome member or something from a different ward. Turns out she was being taught by the wrong missionaries in the wrong area, and she came to the correct ward (our ward) for the first time that week. Shes awesome! I'm really excited. Her name is Enkhmaa.

We also just started teaching a new family two weeks ago, and they came to church both weeks! Im really excited about them, we will probably give them a baptismal date this week!

Here's a little scripture I would like to share. Its D&C 63:9. I've realized as Ive taught about faith, that's its important to remember that we must have faith, before we expect miracles to come.

"But, behold, faith cometh not by signs, but signs follow those that believe."

Sorry for the short email but to end I would like to share a quote from one of our members:

"Marriage is like baptism. As you partake of baptism and marriage you feel like a new person and you become better."

Love you guys,

-Elder Clement