Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s thirty first email from the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission. If anyone wishes to send Daniel a message, write it in the comments and I will make sure he receives it.
Daniel and his companion (left) with a Mongolian family.
Teaching English
Thanks for the pictures Dad! They were great. This week I started teaching a lot of English. My classes don’t know English very well so I have quite a bit to teach. They are all college students studying to be English translators. For that major it would seem they should have a little better speaking ability. It will be fun to teach them though.
Mongolian child praying.
Missionary Work
It was the worst week missionary work-wise this week in my entire mission. We taught very few lessons but we were still able to meet standard of excellence with talking to people on the street. We’ll get back to work and do the best we can this week. There are so many other little things that take up our time that it is starting to be annoying. That happens a lot in life though so I’m learning how to adjust and move on.
Our investigator got a job at the church so that was really exciting. He has had a problem with alcohol and smoking. With his new work it will help him to stay away from it. He has a goal along with us to be baptized in a month and a half. He has the support of his wife and family as they are newly baptized members. It is exciting to see him progressing.
Also one of our less active members came to church. It was funny because for about two months we met with her every week. This week was the only week we missed and she came to church. Hmm… It is important to meet with them but maybe we shouldn’t. Ha ha — just kidding.
New Missionaries
I’m sure I ran cross country with Leland Steinquist, but I could be wrong. That will be really cool if he is the one I know. I’m not sure about Lauren Call, doesn’t sound familiar. They should get here in two or three weeks I think, so I’ll see then.
Happy Birthday
Yep I’m turning 20 years old. I remember when I turned 13 and I said to myself, “Hey, you’re a teenager.” Now when I turn 20 I’ll say to myself, “Hey, you’re not a teenager.” That is probably how it’ll work out. Maybe a little less dramatic. I teach English on my birthday so I’m planning on teaching them Happy Birthday and have them sing to me. The package will most likely get here fine.
Thanks for the great emails and for the continued support!
Love from Elder Willoughby
Daniel checking out lunch.
Darrell Burns commented on my blog’s Facebook feed:
Hey Elder Willoughby,
It’s those tough weeks that really test your faith and endurance. I once worked in an area of Brazil that hadn’t had a baptism in over a year. Imagine that, in Brazil!
Anyway – I had a companion who refused to get discouraged. He kept me going when I was getting depressed about the work. He kept telling me that if we continued to work hard, the Lord would bless us. I didn’t believe it, but I did work with him hard anyway. Turned out he was right! After about 5 weeks of virtually no lessons, very few appointments, etc, it suddenly turned around and we were so busy we could barely keep up. We had 23 baptisms in the next few weeks before he went home. Definitely, he was an example to me of enduring the trials. He worked right up until the end of his mission.
So – keep working hard and trust in the Lord. I can promise you he will bless you for your faithfulness.
Sincerely,
Brother Burns