Missionary Dan Email #7 from Choibalsan, Mongolia

Thanks Mom for reminding me to answer your questions. I totally forgot that there was any. There is no need to feel like you’re rambling because I really like reading what’s going on.

I got my package on December 10th. So my companion and I opened the first ten days together. We had lots of fun guessing with the scriptures. I got the tuna fish right. I even guessed it was Starkist brand or whatever its called, I can’t remember now. Thanks again.

I know that we will be calling on Christmas day for y‘all, so for me it will be the day after. It is ridiculously cheap to call from here to America. It is $2.50 for about a 3 hour phone card. Speaking of cheap the yellow jacket I modeled in the pictures was about $2.50 too. Tell me next week what time you’d like me to call and that’s when I will. Probably in the evening is best from 6 to 9 pm your time. Of course the phone call is limited to about 30 minutes so have some good questions ready.

The weather is getting colder. The thermometer I got is way cool. There is one slight problem though. It only goes to 0 degrees F. The other day it was 2 degrees. I haven’t needed to wear my big coat yet so it really isn’t that cold. As I was talking to my investigator yesterday he said right now it’s warm outside and later it will get much colder. He laughed at me when I asked if he was serious. So my thermometer won’t be able to measure the temperature here in a bit but that’s OK, it is cool to see when it is below -20 degrees C.

President Andersen wasn’t able to come here. The night before he was going to leave some problems came up. With some missionaries running away (which happens a lot so it wasn’t the main reason) and the visa problems he had to stay to attend some meetings. I’ll say a little about that later or when I call. I was able to have a phone interview with him. He said I will be staying here in Choibalsan and will most likely get a Mongolian companion. So that was exciting to hear, I really like being here.

The assistants, Sister Andersen, and the new couple that will be staying in Choibalsan came. The old couple left with my companion really early Saturday morning. We had zone conference which was way different as there are only 8 missionaries out here. We cooked up some chili for all of us to eat and it turned out way good. In the picture I’m frying up the meat.

Right now I have a mini missionary for my companion. He is actually my new member who was baptized last summer. He is 21 and preparing to go on a mission when he reaches his member year mark. I really like doing work with him and he could almost be a missionary right now. Mongolian missionaries have tons of opportunities to prepare for their missions so they come out really prepared and ready. I’ll get my new companion next week at transfers.

The 12 year old is my recent baptism and the other is the one baptized Friday. It was Elder Armstrong’s very last day of doing missionary work and he was able to see Munkhtushig get baptized. Surprisingly to me he asked me to baptize him. It was great. On Sunday he received the Holy Ghost and as he was receiving it I felt a warm burning feeling. It was neat to recognize that was him receiving the Holy Ghost to help and guide him in his life. I know there is great power that comes from the priesthood and it greatly blesses our lives.

Anyway I’m out of time for today. Thanks for all the emails.

Love Elder Willoughby.

Presented have been portions of an email from Elder Daniel Willoughby serving in 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.