Details on the Transfer

(In response to a harrasing email from mom for not giving more details) :)

Sorry, haha. Ok the detailed filled email:

I left the city without any notice or warning. They just said get on the bus that's leaving in two hours to the city, and I did. I hurriedly packed my bags, and jumped on the bus. President hadn't decided exactly who I would be with or where I would go, but it was transfer day and people were being transferred so he just told me to come to the city with my bags. Anyways I got there and a day later I found out that I would be with Elder Sims, in Enkhtaivan Ward. Only the second time I've been in a ward in Mongolia, usually they are branches instead of wards. So basically I'm serving with one of my friends in a very strong very awesome ward, or in other words I am in Heaven. It took me like 10 hours to get here from Erdenet. There is Elder Sims (my companion, 1 year 6 months), Elder Moore (11 months), and Elder Olivas (3 months).

I'm not teaching English right now which is super nice, but I'm trying to teach a lot of lessons. We got the ward list and this last week have been going to almost all the most active member houses and asking them to identify and update less active members on the list, then we started trying to meet with them. And bonus when we went to the good members houses to teach and ask for their help on the list they all fed us so I've had some incredible foods this week from members! I am about a forty minute bus ride to my old area. Yeah got a few investigators, they're doing good. Getting to know them and their needs right now.

(Questions from mom)

Do you see Pres Benson more now that you are in the city?

I see him more but I don't meet with him more, he still is super busy.



Did you have leave your beloved mattress behind?

No I brought the mattress, I love that thing, but it almost takes up one whole suitcase.

How are you liking the city?

The city is good, I miss the countryside though, but to be honest I want to spend Christmas and the winter in the city just to see how smoky and cold it really is here. Its supposed to be pretty bad.


How is Elder Huckvale? Do you see him often?

Huckvale is doing good, dont see him too much though.


What do you do on P Days

On p-days we have been material shopping for a cool companion and apartment tie. There are 1000s of materials totally available everywhere, and it super cheap to have someone make a tie for you. We also have been going to fancy restaurants, which is funny because "fancy" here is KFC.

The first transfer in over 10 months

This week has been great! There was a transfer where I got a new companion and finally a new area (After ten months, and one whole journal). I am now with a good friend of mine from the mission. He is one group ahead of me, and his name is Elder Simms. He's great and I'm super super excited. He has great language also so I am gonna learn just a ton with him. We are also in a powerful area and powerful ward now with lots of return missionaries and long time members. We are both very eager to work and have lots of fun! I'm in the city and I'm roommates with two other american missionaries. We are having the funniest, best time of my life. Its constantly fun. We all like telling jokes and its so funny all the time! Also I'm in the city so I have access to almost all the american foods at home (as far as ingredients and stuff).


Love,
-Elder Clement
Note from mom: We firmly believe that Elder Clement needed this change. He is always so positive and rarely complains at all, but we have been fasting and praying that if it were the Lord's will, that he might be able to go to a new area. 10 months is a long time to be in one spot. As you can see, he is one happy boy.

"Oreo's" and Milk

Eggs in a Bag

Missionaries in Tyler's new area

Going down 9 flights of stairs

Long trip back to the city

Old district. The missionary right next to him is his old companion and his favorite thus far.

His old district and the wonderful Bro and Sis Hill

Lot's of pictures

Not a lot from Elder Clement today. Just answering a lot of questions. Prepare yourself... These answers are long and detailed. ;)

Q: HOW ARE YOU FEELING?
Feeling good

Q: ARE THEIR MANY AMERICANS IN YOUR DISTRICT?
Nope, only 1 other american in my city.

Q: HAVE YOU TRIED THE MILK I SENT? (Ty has become lactose intolerant so I sent him instant milk from my amazing company. :)

Tried the milk. Seems good.

Q: ARE YOU STILL GETTING THE BOILS?
Yes but its all good, got some really powerful medication from the doctor.

TODAY IS TWO YEARS SINCE GRANDMA SAVAGE PASSED AWAY.
I think of Grandma a lot and I actually sometimes pray for her to be with you and the family and me.

Q: I SEE YOUR OLD COMPANION IN A LOT OF PICTURES. IS HE STILL IN YOUR AREA?
Yes. In my area, just different companions.

YOU LOOK LIKE MAYBE YOU HAVE GAINED A COUPLE OF POUNDS BACK. YOU LOOK HEALTHIER
Yeah im doing good, and exercising.

Q: THAT'S CRAZY THAT PEOPLE LIVE UNDER THE STAIRS. DO THEY HAVE A KITCHEN OR BATHROOM?
Yeah and nope. They have kinda of a electric dutch oven thing that they boil water in, and cook their food in. No bathroom or even running water.

 

Waffles made with the waffle iron we sent him. Peanut butter & Syrup- A family Favorite

Bad sunburn from zone conference and being outside all day picking strawberries.

Zone Conference

Zone Conference

"Yours truly, looking like a stud"

The group, hanging out.

District

"Come Follow Me"

Members and Missionaries at Big Mongolian Celebration

Elder Clement eating his favorite Mongolian Food

Me holding a ceremonial ribbon in my mongolian shirt

A member of our branch that has an incredible voice and was chosen to participate in the national ceremony to sing a song.

Me just being silly and sticking my head out of the moving van

The mission doctor and his wife took us out to eat at a fancy pizza restaurant.

An old english student of mine, whos wife had a baby and came to church (she was an ala) for a blessing. He saw me and agreed to take the missionary discussions! One of those hidden blessings of teaching english.

I dont know if Ive made mention of it but there are some really poor people that live in the space under the stairs in apartment buildings. They clean the stairs and the places around it and for that they get a free place to live. One of our investigators lives here. We nicknamed them the Harry Potter Couple. Its about the same space as under our stairs.

The perfect Day

First off, I would like to share a scripture: Philippeans 4:3 in the
Bible. Read it as a family it's pretty cool.

Next I wanna talk about something cool I learned this week. In the
scriptures it often talks about prophets receiving revelation AFTER
they ponder on something. I was reading in the Book of Mormon and had
the impression that in order to improve my studies and get all I could
from them I needed to spend time just pondering. Nephi before getting
his own vision of the tree of life was pondering on it, then later was
caught up in a vision. After spending this week really taking time to
ponder the things Id been learning and also some of the large
questions of my soul. I have received an almost non-stop flow of
personal revelation.

Ok let me tell you about the best p-day of my mission! Today we went
with all the missionaries in our district to a mountain near-by our
area. Hiked up there (which was beautiful) then spent a few hours just
picking and eating wild strawberries! Then ended it by playing
Phase10! It was a perfect day! The strawberries were wild and packed
with flavor! It was incredible! I got completely sun-burned EVERYWHERE
though! The back or my arms, legs and neck, really really bad! I have
a super bad farmers tan now, haha.

Just a few funny stories

So I was doing some service at the church pulling out this HUGE weed, and I was pulling and pulling and finally this thing came out but I fell back because I was pulling so hard. Well just so happens I land on a bush of stinging nettle, on my backside, and for a while I was very very sore.

Story number two. I saw the video of Trent for the first time two days ago. The one where the people give him money and he buys silly string... Sister Hill showed it to my district and we had a really good laugh. Trent's a cute boy, especially when he waddles like a penguin with an arm full of silly string. "and look at this poor kid..." haha

I used to teach English to a class full of young twenty year old girls, all looking to get hitched to an American. Let me just say it was interesting. They were constantly flirting and it was really funny. Well they just graduated and what do you know, they got me a going away package. A really awesome looking pen with my name inscribed on the side, a little notebook, and a bag full of my favorite Mongolian food! Whoo hoo, this is what you get for being a good(looking) English teacher! (Note from mom.... I'm guessing he hasn't learned humility on his mission yet. lol)

I also got interviewed on TV! This week was the big Mongolian holiday Naadam. We celebrated for three days straight. It was awesome, but I didn't get any work done unfortunately. Basically for three full days you just watch sports (wrestling, archery, and horse racing) and eat lots of Huushuur (a really good deep-fried mongolian food)! And I rode a camel!!! Whoo hoo, it was so AWESOME!!

That is all, love you guys

** PICTURES DID NOT UPLOAD SO WE WILL TRY TO GET THEM AGAIN NEXT WEEK*

Elder Huckvale & A sweet present for home

So this Tuesday I had a really big english teacher training. As you know part of my VISA requirements to be a missionary in Mongolia is to teach english. All the Americans have sponsors and companies they professionally teach for (we even got BYU-Certified in International Teaching while in the MTC). Because im in the countryside I had to take the train in, which is a 12 hour ride. So in order to get to the training on time I left a day early, and it was a two day training so basically Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I was in the capital city for the training. Then on Thursday I had a Zone Conference in a different city six hours away, so I went to that by bus. So after all that I got back to Erdenet on Friday... only to have my companion break his tooth on a piece of candy. Our mission presidents wife asked us to come back to the city so that evening we went back to the capital again, another 12 hour train ride. Got there on Sat, and they put a cap on the tooth then asked us to come back on Monday (today) so we waiting here and taught lessons with missionaries here. So I basically havnt been in Erdenet more than a few hours this week! haha

Did have a funny quote to share though. I stayed in the apartment of one of my old companions and I asked him if he was glad he got a new companion so he didnt have to hear me snore anymore, he looked at me and just said in complete seriousness: "No, actually for the first little while after we got new companions I couldnt sleep at all. Your snoring was like a lullaby to me". So there you go guys, I soothe people to sleep!

Oh ok also the best thing that has happened to me on my mission so far! I saw Elder Huckvale! My MTC companion! I was waiting at church headquarters and we saw each other and we tackled each other! It was awesome, I missed him soooo much! Then to make it better all the americans in mongolia got together for that training so I saw all my group missionaries! I seriously was so unbelievably happy! It was complete peace! All my mission stresses and worries melted away and I was so happy and calm I cant even explain it. It gave a total recharge to my mission batteries!

Well thats all here

A painting that Elder Clement had painted for me. He lost his Grandma Savage just a few short months before his call. I LOVE MY SON!

Elder Clement is being published?

Ok first a really cool thing happened this week. I got a letter (the handwriting looked just like moms so I thought it was from her) from Arizona. I didnt recognize the name and opened it. Turns out its a woman who is writing a inspirational missionary letter book. She found my blog and a few of my posts really inspired her. She said she wants to put a few of them in her book. She also really liked my poem on humility! She told me how my letters home had really helped her feel the Spirit. It was awesome!


Also I came up with an awesome quote: "You cannot live without regret but one with little is one well spent". Cool right!?!

Alright the last thing is something that I really learned this week. You can read more about it in Job, but its about Fear and Faith. The ONLY thing keeping us from unlocking our entire potential is fear. We've all heard stories of men working crazy miracles with the priesthood. Those were men who had their faith and didnt let their fear get in the way. In Job it says what he feared most came to pass. He was a righteous man but also had a lot of fear. If we dont let our fear overpower our faith we can be successful in EVERYTHING we do. I mean we can be successful business men and woman, be physically healthy, mentally acute, and will receive answers to your prayers like youve never imagined. I am really working hard this week on positive thinking and powerful praying. I believe if we believe we will receive the things we ask for our Loving Father in Heaven will give them to us.

That's all for this week, love you guys

Elder Clement