My stories as a Sister Missionary serving in Mongolia.
Write me!
Email Address: amy.royal@myldsmail.net
Sister Amy Royal
5th Fl, LDS Church Bldg, Tokyo Stree 6
Bayanzurkh District, 1st Khoroo
Ulaanbaantar
13381
Mongolia

Monday, April 20, 2015

Greetings from Sister Royal


April 19, 2015


Hello Family and Friends,


My year mark is in a month.... A MONTH! Time goes by so quick and so slow all at the same time. I feel like I just got here to Mongolia but it also feels like I’ve been away from you guys for at least 13 years. haha.

First of all, no it feels just like home to be called Amy :) I would feel weird if you called me anything else. Second, I do dream in Mongolian! My comps tell me I sometimes teach them lessons in Mongolian in my sleep. haha. But, mostly my dreams end up being in Monglish (mostly Mongolian with English words here and there) haha. And I can’t tell you how excited I am for this weeks weather!!!!! I think I might be able to take of my coat for the first time in like 7 months! yay!

You made CHICKEN WELLINGTONS?!?!?!?! I think that might need to be the first thing that you make for me when I get home! Or yummy pasta. Or a chicken burger! haha. I guess anything will sound good if it doesn’t have fatty meat in it. I never thought I’d say this but a steak sounds like the least appealing thing right now. lol. And, I will definitely take you up on your offer to go KFC. It is so good mom. Like a million times better than American KFC. haha.
It made me really happy to hear about Kevin’s talk. I actually loved reading it. Its so weird to me that Kevin is becoming such a fine young man. I hope he really means what he says about me being an example for him. That’s not the only reason why I went on a mission. But, I am aware of that and I try hard to make him understand the importance of missions. To be honest, missions really suck sometimes. haha. You go to some foreign country, you’re far from home, you have to live with people you may not like and you are never so aware of your insecurities and weaknesses. BUT, there is this other side of missions that are really hard to explain on paper. It is this feeling you get that even though it’s hard it is worth it. I’ve had some of the funniest/happiest times of my life while on my mission. And not only that, but I know and can feel that the things I’m learning and the blessings I’m receiving will continue to bless me the rest of my life. So, it is worth it. It is worth going through really hard times. It is worth being exhausted every morning and every night and all in between. It is worth it. So, I hope I can convey that to people through my words and my example. A mission is so worth it.

I was ready an article in this months Liahona about weaknesses. The point of the article was that weaknesses are not sins. The difference between weakness and sin is that while one takes you further from God, the other (weakness) actually brings you closer to God. Sometimes though, we rationalize our sins as weaknesses and assume our weaknesses to be sins. The trick is to identify your weaknesses and use the help of the Lord and His atonement to become strong. We all have weaknesses and sometimes our problems can be a combination of sins and weaknesses but the important thing is recognizing it and then growing closer to the Lord by making your weaknesses stronger instead of walking farther away from the Lord by sinning.

This week was a pretty great week! This Friday, Our investigator, Nom was baptized! She’s had some pretty hard times since I’ve been meeting with her. My first week in my new area, she was ready for baptism when her father died suddenly. She of course was devastated and had some really concerns and doubts about the gospel. But we didn’t give up on her and most importantly; she didn’t give up on her testimony. And although its been a long road since then, I’ve never seen her so happy as she did when she came out of the waters of baptism. I guess what I learned from this is that its ok to have doubts sometimes. It is ok to be a seeker of truth. It is ok to want to know things for yourself. But the important thing is to go to the right sources. Just like we can’t see the beauties or comprehend the vastness of space by just using binoculars, we cant receive real truth from magazines or opinions of others. The Lord, and asking him through sincere prayer, becomes our "Hubble telescope". Through seeking truth by going to the Lord, our eyes can be opened to the vast beauties of the eternities and we are able to see things through His eyes. So keep asking. Keep wondering. And as you do so with real intent and a sincere heart, the Lord with answer your prayers.
Well, even though it was a week later than all of you, I finally got to watch conference! yay! Conference is always special. But conference on a mission in Mongolia is even more special! Haha. Ok, so, there are a million other things that I want to write about right now, but there is no time! Lets just all agree that conference is wonderful and we can all benefit from listening to those talks again :) I am so grateful to be a missionary in Mongolia! I’m so grateful for a living prophet and apostles who speak the Lords words. I grateful for each of you! I love you and, family,
I love you! I’m so happy to be here and I’m so happy for the warmth that has found its way to Mongolia :) Have a good week. Oh, and don’t remember that I'll get to see you in just a few weeks :) God bless Mothers Day ;) hahahah a
Love, Sister Royal

Pictures:

1) Our investigator who is getting baptized this week! It was her birthday so we treated her to yummy KFC. Seriously, the best restaurant in Mongolia... hahaha weird huh?

  2) Just riding on the busses AKA my life. haha. I love those busses though :)



3) We went with our investigator family to get water from the nearest water pump.  Those who live in a ger have no indoor plumbing. They make mundane things fun :)

 



4) The MTC six back together again at a zone conference.


1 comment:

  1. Good morning, how are you?

    My name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.

    I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because through them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.

    For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
    Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Mongolia? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Mongolia in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:

    Emilio Fernandez Esteban
    Calle Valencia, 39
    28903 Getafe (Madrid)
    Spain

    If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.

    Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.

    Yours Sincerely

    Emilio Fernandez

    ReplyDelete