I love Mongolia

September 27, 2015

Hi Family and friends :)

Hahahaha! It makes me so happy and makes me laugh so hard that I have such a connection with a super moon. They were real the whole time! lol. Also, I absolutely LOVE that talk about the music of the gospel. I have it printed out and put in my "RM" binder. Did I tell you I have a RM(return missionary) binder? It’s full of talks and stuff about being a good person... and a good wife and mom... haha. Typical. Anyways, you and dad always did a good job helping us to hear the music and you were always good at just letting us kids enjoy the moment. So thank you :)

This week, I got a new companion. She is brand new, straight out of the MTC. haha. She is really cute and nice. She is pretty young. You know how on the mission they call trainers moms? Well that is really the case with us. I am a mom and she is my daughter. lol. But we have a lot of fun together :)

So, have I told you about my investigator named M? If you look at the last baptism pictures I sent you, you will see one with a guy with curly hair and a yellow jacket. That is M. He is truly a miracle. He came to church on his own one day and we started to meet with him. From the first meeting, I knew that this guy has seen a hard life. And as I’ve gotten to know him more, we have really become great friends. And he has opened up to me. From the age 13 he started smoking and drinking. He has lived a drunken life until he was 25. During that time, he was in jail, homeless and unhappy. He even said that during that time, one night he was drunk and desperate and robbed a couple of two foreigners with white shirts and ties and black name tags just like ours... When he was 25, he stopped drinking on his own but still was searching for something. So he decided to try religion. The reason he decided to choose our church was because every other Christian church doesn’t like our church, but we never say a bad thing about other religions. That interested him. So he came. And since that time, he has changed so much. He has been meeting with us almost everyday. The other day, we taught the word of wisdom with a member who used to be a chain smoker like M and at the end, the man gave him a priesthood blessing. That night, he called me. He said, "I’m reading the Book of Mormon. Is that blessing that I got real?" I said, "Yes, it absolutely is". And, after a little silence he said, "Yeah, It is real. I don’t feel like ever smoking a cigarette again." My eyes filled with tears. I just love this guy. The gospel truly changes lives. And now, he is about to be baptized into the same church of the missionaries he stole from. The gospel is so true!

I love you  :) I hope you have a great week!

October 4, 2015

Hello Family and friends,

Man, I’ve really wanted you this week. haha. So sorry if you’ve been worried about me this week. I got pretty sick up in Darkhan. So, doctor Lewis sent me back to the city to get some tests. It was really pretty awful, especially considering that they didn’t put me to sleep or actually give me any sort of medicine. I really wish you were there for that. But, its over now. As far as everyone is telling me, they are pretty sure I have some sort of bacterial infection. But, it will be ok. Everyone is being so kind to me :) So you don’t have to worry about me. We’ll get it figured out :) 10 more Sundays. And even if I’m sick for the rest of those 10 weeks, that’s ok. The Lord is helping me along. And you really don’t have to worry mom. I got lots of tests done and even though they aren’t really sure what’s wrong, everything else in my body is very normal. I’m pretty healthy. Don’t worry, we are close, even though we actually couldn’t be any farther from each other. And people are taking good care of me :)

I love you!!

Sister Royal

Winter has come to Mongolia

September 2015

Friends and Family

Everything is good here in Darkhan. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but we are the only ones in Darkhan and the work is just soaring! We literally have no time to meet with all of the people we have to meet with! We are trying to go on splits with members almost everyday on top of teaching English at the church and at the immigration office... Most of the time we don’t even have time to eat! But its ok, we won’t be this busy forever. New missionaries are hopefully coming our way this week! And on the up side, I think I”m loosing weight! haha. We are running everywhere, trying to do splits with members every chance we get. We don’t even have time to make food for ourselves... but, its kind of nice being busy. Time really flies that way. I can’t believe its already Monday again! Anyways, Sometimes, being on a mission and having church in a foreign language, its easy to zone out, think about something else, think about my investigators or the lessons we will be teaching that day. But, you just reminded me how important it is to learn from church. And then apply what you learn into your life. No matter where you are or what language it’s in, we can all learn something new each week at church. 

That’s so funny that you emailed me about the addiction recovery program this week because my companion and I were just talking about it this week! We have an investigator who is awesome! But, he smokes like a chimney. For example, at church, he goes out every hour to smoke and sometimes during lessons he says he needs to go smoke a cig... its so bad! So, we just gave him the book on the LDS Addiction Program and my companion is also working on it for her personal study. It’s such a good program. Probably some on my most spiritual moments were when I was working with those people in the program at BYU-I and working for myself. We all have addictions. We all have character traits that we want to fix, but we just can’t. But, it’s through the atonement of Jesus Christ that we can change. And that is exactly what the ARP program is: it’s the savior’s atonement broken down into 12 easy steps. And we all need the atonement. So keep it up mom :) I’m glad you thought of me this week :) 

As far as Bayarjav's seminary class, I know him! In fact, I work with him a lot! He is in my branch in Darkhan :) I will talk to him about it. I actually think they would LOVE it. It would be a good chance for them to practice their English. I'll let you know about it next week :) (Note from Patty: The Mountain Pointe HS seminary class are going to be pen pals with the Darkhan, Mongolia seminary class. We are very excited!)

This week has been really busy, but really great! We are back in the city... again! haha we are having a mission conference this week and elder Gong from the 70 is coming. That will be fun! I’ll take some pictures. 

The weather is getting a little cold, but its ok, because it means that December is coming soon :) hahaha. I love you! 

BTW, I am having a dress made for Lisa’s wedding. I went and picked out the material last week and it is almost done. I think it’s going to be really cute! Well, I sure love you guys. 

Welp, I love you a lot! 

Love, 

Sister Royal 

Pictures:

#1  U___. She is a 22 year old girl who has been an investigator of the church for a year now. I found her when i was in darkhan the first time and I got the opportunity to see her be baptized this week :    

#2 Mongolian Art

#3 Meeting with Elder Gong