Lessons learned

Ive learned a lot this week and I wanna share it. A couple of weeks ago one of my friends was having a hard time on his mission. He was having insecurities about his teaching abilities, and I recommended that every night before he sleeps he think of an investigator then teach that investigator a lesson in his head. I realized last week I needed to take my own advice. Starting from the beginning of last week, I have done that every night in Mongolian. Right before I sleep, I open my lesson notebook where Ive planned all my lessons, I re-read it, then think of an investigator and teach them in my head. I also have been learning diligence, dedication, and perseverance. My companion is incredible at this. He does something bad then doesnt stop until he better than everyone else at it. President Heber J Grant was also this way. President Grant was horrible at penmanship and after practicing for a LONG time he became a penmanship teacher and wrote important documents for banks and important organizations. I am not very good at perseverance. If I do something bad its very hard for me to continue to do it until I am good at it. Right now my mongolian language is below average. I have been studying but not hard enough because I had no hope I could ever be fluent. I had faith God lived but I didnt have trust in His ability to help me with something like this. I decided last week, I was going to completely dedicate myself to God and this mission. I havent had a wasted moment this last week at all. And yesterday was one of the biggest miracles of my mission.

Im not a great teacher and when its in Mongolian I teach even worse, but yesterday was the first opportunity to teach a lesson this week (we had a lot of trainings and conferences this week), I opened my mouth and the Spirit was immediately overwhelming me and controlling everything that came out of my mouth. I had no constraints of language or teaching ability. Everything I taught was simple, clear, and understandable. I had the full attention of the investigator and EVERYONE in the house. When I went to turn it over to my companion to teach he only looked at me dumbfounded. He turned to the investigator and tried to say something but could only stutter a few words before he turned it back to me. I taught the entire first lesson completely by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was the most incredible thing thats every happened to me. I know understand what The Gift of Tongues means. I love the Lord, I love this work, I believe in God and trust in His ability to help us.


I love you guys!
-Elder Clement

Just Some Pictures

Another Baptism.... Yippee

Had another baptism and have another planned soon if I stay here. Transfers are this week so I dont know whats gonna happen.


So i'll tell you a little about whats going on here. Ive been here in this city for six months now (thats a while in a mission). I love this city and would love to stay here another transfer but at the same time I feel like Ive really contributed to this area and I could move on now comfortably. When I got to this branch we were hitting around low 30s every week for attendances and last week was a little over 50. Ive baptized three people in this branch and have a fourth investigator with a baptismal date. I feel good about whatever happens with this transfer.


A cool experience that happened here. We were called 20 minutes before our baptism last Sat and told that our investigators six month old baby had been very very sick with a high fever, and they wanted a blessing of health for her. We rushed over, and the parents were red-faced, and baggy-eyed. They told us the baby hadnt slept at all and had been crying almost all day. Almost as soon as they finished telling us this the baby fell asleep in the monther's arms. Then as we laid our hands on her head the Spirit directed us to heal the baby of her sickness that day. After the blessing we rushed back to the baptism, preformed it, and then called the parents back to see how the baby was. She was fine, fever gone and sleeping.


Alright about the baptism. It was a little boy of an inactive member. We have been working really hard on preparing him and it worked. We baptized him this last Sat and he asked me to do the ordinance so I actually did the baptizing! It was funny because the ward had planned a HUGE open house that day and we were so busy with that we forgot about filling up the font. So we were scrambling for ideas right before the baptism started. Finally someone thought up the idea to use the firehouse at the church so I jimmied the lock and we used the firehouse to fill it up. Which worked but made the water FREEZING cold!!!


Anyways thats all here, hope you guys have a great week!
-Elder Clement

Perfect Day!

My baptism this week was awesome! Her name is Zolboo and she is the daughter of my new member! I can now say that I have baptized an entire family into this wonderful gospel! She was awesome, the missionaries before told us not to meet with her but we did anyways and she almost baptized herself! After meeting with us she started reading the book of mormon on her own and praying with her mom, she was incredible! At her moms baptism they brought a relative that now is an investigator and now at her baptism they brought two relatives and told us to meet with them. Because of their dedication to this gospel almost their entire extended family are members! She bore her testimony on Sunday when she and her family were with extended family and her Buddhist grandpa was making some bad remarks about the church she said the person after person bore testimony and the spirit was so powerful! She is great! The woman standing next to me is her mom my new member! And their wonderful family (they love me and feed me everytime I meet with them!!)

Alright so this week my companion and I decided to fast. He has been having some personal issues, and together we felt the need to fast for him and our work. Let me tell you what happened. The next day was perfect! We taught a bunch of lessons, all went perfectly, and all of the people gave us food! One of the people gave us my FAVORITE food, not knowing it was my favorite. In one of the lessons as my companion was teaching about the pre-earth life (very well) for just a moment my mind was opened and it was like I caught a glimpse of Christ and satan presenting their plans before our Father. It was powerful and as I later bore witness of the truthfulness of what my companion taught the Spirit was unbelievable! In another lesson we were struggling to teach a person with complicated needs, I quickly prayed for inspiration and opened my scriptures flipping through until I got a confirmation I needed to share something from this page. I shared the scripture and it was EXACTLY what he needed. As we were walking home we were looking for a place to buy a small cheap jacket (it snowed a couple of days ago), as we were looking we went into a store and found really nice looking REALLY cheap jackets that were perfect, and were only 7 dollars! Then finally we got invited over by the Senior Couple here for food. Talk about a perfect day!!! The power of fasting!

Skinny
Boy

Baptisms

My week: This week we had two baptismal interviews. One person passed, one didnt. The one that passed is the daughter of my new member who will now be baptized, which means I have taught and baptized an entire family now. I hope the generations later will continue in the church. The one that didnt pass the interview is a little boy who forgets as fast as he learns. Hes a good boy is just hard to teach him what he needs to know to be baptized. We are going to continue working with him and get him baptized!

What I learned. Fairness is no excuses for not having charity. Sometimes I would justify being selfish by saying that im just being fair, but ive learned that charity is more important. Ive learned, if nothing else, how to really have charity and love. Its probably been the most important lesson on my mission. How to love and where it stands on our priorities. Are we willing to give up a little in some areas to give more in other ways. Ive found the more I give and sacrifice for others, the more I actually get through the blessings of our Heavenly Father.

Loving the mission, growing lots

-Elder Clement

My washing machine. We have to lift it into the tub because we have to physically drain it after using it.

View from my apartment. The red roof place and orange wall place are both small stores called Delguur (they are everywhere!!)

General Conference

Im not really sure what to write this week. It hasnt been a particularly eventful week, but for some reason it has been a powerful one anyways. We watched general conference this week, which was perfect. We worked really hard and encouraged every one of our investigators to attend, and the work paid off. We had all of our investigators with a baptismal date show up, and two of them have infants that they patiently cared for for all 6 hours of conference! It was awesome!!! They obviously wanted to be there, I hope the Spirit touched them. It seems this conference was really focused on investigators' needs (or maybe I just think that because im a missionary), but it was really great. I especially liked the part where they said we hold the happiness of generations in our hands. It really touched our investigators and touched me too. My new members daughter is now an investigator and we have been teaching her. We are trying hard to get her baptized and if she is then the whole family will have become members of this wonderful church (theres only the two of them in their family). Right there we have two generations changed and brought into this happiness.

I also have run into a few challenges this past few weeks, yesterday everything worked out and "my eyes were opened". I am preparing to be ready for anything. If I am made a trainer, or a leader am I ready? Im not aspiring to be a leader but if I am made one I want to be ready. and I also want to finally become the missionary I should be at my one year mark. Yesterday really helped me see what is it to be the missionary I want to be, and how to do it. My confidence and faith has increased and Im ready to baptize a nation of people! What I wrote last week about us needing to be put through challenges in order for us to grow and then for the Lord to be able to fulfill His role as savior, has really made a lasting impression on me and given me the sight I need in order to see past trials.

Alright a little about my investigators. We have five progressing ones. All of them come from members, and have a support line in the church. We've learned that thats the key. If there are friends, or family that can bare testimony in lessons, be with them at church and can encourage them, then its makes it so much easier and faster to baptize life-long members. We have really worked hard to give each person at least one friend to support them, and its really working. Also we've learned to focus our efforts on select, improving, investigators and not to waste our time on teaching uninterested, non progressing investigators. This has made our time more valuable, and made the progressing investigators feel more important.


Well thats all for this week

-Elder Clement

Lessons Learned

Alright, so I am gonna share what I learned this week and about the work here. The 3 most important lessons I've learned thus far: Love for everyone, Diligence, and not giving into discouragement.

To clarify a little better let me talk about Grace. What is it? The bible dictionary describes it by saying: "divine means of help or strength". This is what Ive learned. My mission has been really hard, new language, people, culture, and country. I've had my challenges like everybody else, but this week I had the opportunity to meet with our Mission President and other mission leadership. I learned that our Savior cannot deliver us if there is nothing to be delivered from. In order to grow and learn from Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father, we must be placed in situations that allow us to grow then after we learn from and put our trust in God, He delivers us. So if we have faith in, and use the infinite blessing of grace, our burdens are lifted and we receive that "divine help and strength". We will never be exempt from trails but its because we will never be perfect. A loving Parent wants us to improve and be happy but we must learn to rely and trust in Him.

Alright my typical week. Right now I have several progressing investigators. All of them come from either a member friend or family members. That is the most important part of the work, member missionary work. The daughter of my new member is an investigator and we meet with her two or three times a week, then we have another relative of theirs that is also a progressing investigator doing really well. And our third best investigator is the husband of an returned missionary. He is trying to decide why this church is different from other ones. Yesterday we had a powerful lesson on prophets and the book of Mormon. The two things that make our church different. We are really being encouraged by our mission president to teach with church member witnesses that can bare testimony to them, so we try to have one in every lesson. We have 5 planned baptisms this month. All of them, again, come from personal contacts within the church. "Every member a missionary". Our mission goal is 21 lessons per week, that may seem small, but with english teaching and everything else it is hard work. Only got 11 this week but next week we'er going to try really hard to get that goal! Wish me luck!