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Missionary Dan Email #36 from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

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Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s thirty sixth 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 (second right) with missionaries from his zone in Ulaanbaatar.

Daniel (second right) with missionaries from his zone in Ulaanbaatar.

General Conference

General Conference was great! It went by extremely fast. We were sad when it was over. It was so exciting to watch. Waiting for it to start was like going to a midnight showing of a movie that just came out. Luckily I didn’t read any spoilers. Ha ha. Elder Holland was really into his talk on Sunday. It reminded me of when he came to the MTC and “yelled” at all of us to stay on our missions. He is one of my favorite speakers. Also all the Elders from my MTC group were there. We planned our year mark party that is coming right up.

Missionary Work

My companion and I are getting along good. The first week with him was quite a challenge, but I’ve adjusted. He gets to call President Andersen every morning now because he didn’t wake up on time a few times. That has really been helping him to get out of bed in the morning. He is lots of fun and is helping me learn Mongolian better. He is also feeling much better. The doctor gave him some Tums. It is funny because the word tums in Mongolian means potatoes. Those have helped him out.

A Funeral

I don’t know much about funerals in Mongolia. I went to someone’s house that recently had someone die like one week ago though. We helped them peel tons of potatoes and cut lots of meat. Apparently they have lots of people come over and eat food. They also have a little black box that plays somewhat strange music. They let it run until the battery is dead. It is next to a picture of the person that recently passed away. Other than that I have no idea what they do for funerals.

Dogs and the Weather

Dogs are everywhere in Mongolia. We run into at least five a day. They aren’t much of a problem though. All the dogs I have met are always afraid of us. If they start to approach you, you can just pretend to pick up a rock and they run for their lives.

The weather has actually stayed very warm. Today it is actually hot. It is strange because last year at this time it was very cold. It is kind of handy that the only winter I am in Mongolia for hasn’t yet come. They say January is the coldest month.

His Work and His Love

We didn’t take a single picture this week so there isn’t any to send. I’ll do better this week about that. I am thinking of taking some pictures of the families I meet with every week.

I know this Church is true and that the Heavenly Father and His Son are helping us do His work each day. I have come to know more fully of His love for us, His children. I know He does indeed love us.

Love from Elder Willoughby
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Missionary Dan Email #35 from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

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Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s thirty fifth 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 (second right) with missionaries from his zone in Ulaanbaatar.

Daniel (second right) with missionaries from his zone in Ulaanbaatar.


Thanks for the pictures of Bryson. He looks really happy. A few of our new members have children about 7-9 months old. They are fun to play with when we visit them.

Zone Conference

Yesterday was Zone Conference. We learned about how to help our new members. We are now doing more to help new members in their change to becoming a member.

Byyz

Afterward we went and ate at our new member’s house. They cooked up some nice byyz. Byyz are dumpling like food with sheep meat inside of it. These byyz were somewhat more difficult to eat though. I completed the task and finished them all. There was a lot of them. My companion and I went home and then to sleep and I woke up at about 3 o’ clock with my stomach hurting. I threw up all the food I ate that day. Feeling better I went back to sleep only to again throw up 3 hours later. Afterward I felt much better. I was discussing with my companion how my stomach was hurting etc. He surprised me when he said the meat in the byyz wasn’t sheep meat, but that it was goat stomach. I thought they tasted a little different… Ha ha. Anyway I am doing good now and feeling better.

General Conference

With General Conference this weekend, we don’t have much time to do missionary work this week. I am excited to watch conference though. Our investigators are progressing along quite nicely.

To Mom

I am guessing the mail system is broken or just really slow. I got a letter from Aunt Susan about 2 weeks ago. It made me happy to read it. Bryon is having some crazy experiences. Other than that I haven’t received any letters. Anyway have fun in Texas!

Thanks for all the support and emails.

Love from Elder Willoughby
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Missionary Dan Email #34 from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

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Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s thirty fourth 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 with Mongolian children.

Daniel with Mongolian children.

Transfers

Thanks for the great pictures and the fun emails. I always enjoy reading them. Transfers were Friday and my companion was transferred. My new companion is Tumup ocip (not sure how to spell it in English). He is great. His little sister is a missionary in our district. I think that would be weird to serve in the same district as my younger sister, but lucky I don’t have a younger sister. He doesn’t seem to mind it either.

Investigator

This week we met with our new member’s friend, Odon bat. About 3 years ago she investigated the church and received all the lessons but because of work she never became a member. We were excited to hear that she remembered most of the Joseph Smith story. She said she had a dream about the story and she was able to recall most of the details. She recognized too that it could have been an answer to her prayers to know if the church was true. We were very happy to meet with her and she came to church yesterday too. The Lord has greatly blessed my companion and I with great investigators.

Elders Warner and Weaver

I am still in the same area. I’ve been here for 3 months now. It doesn’t seem quite that long. Maybe next transfer I’ll get to leave the city, since I haven’t left it yet. Lots of missionaries like the country-side, so it would be fun to be able to see what it is like. Now in my district is Elder Weaver. He was in my MTC group. Now there are three of us in the same district. Elder Warner, Weaver, and I. It is really fun to talk to them. All of my MTC group’s elders are in the city so we’ll probably have a year mark party together.

Came To Church

Our less active member that we’ve been meeting with diligently for 3 months came to church yesterday. We met with her Saturday and she said there was no way she’d be able to go. About 2 weeks ago she broke her arm trying to come to church. She said maybe after her arm healed she’d try to come. She hadn’t been to church in probably two years. I was so excited and shocked to see her. She met up with some old friends and it was wonderful. It made me really happy. We’d been thinking on giving up on her and her family for about a month now, but then she came. It really made all the visits to her worth it.

To Melissa Lee

My Mom sent me a package September 3 and I got it September 15. So a package probably takes about 2 weeks is my guess. We’ve heard the American group has been delayed. That is cool that Justin gets to be in Montana. It was a good experience for me to be in Alabama while I waited for my Visa.

Thanks for all the support.

Love from Elder Willoughby
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Missionary Dan Email #33 from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

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Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s thirty third 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 (front, second from right) with his zone on his birthday

Birthday

This week was great! My birthday was awesome. It was also my old companion’s birthday, Ganbileg. The whole zone came in the morning and we had cake. It was good. They sang happy birthday etc. Then I went on a split with Elder Warner (on the left in the photograph), he was in my MTC group. We went and taught English where they also sang to me. It was really fun to teach English that day because the class simply talked to us and we didn’t have to teach much. It was fun teaching lessons with Elder Warner as our language is close to the same. It made both of us happy to do more of the talking during the lessons.
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News From The Mongolia Ulaanbataar Mission

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Mongolian Sunset.
Mongolian Sunset. Credit: Elder Dan Willoughby

The following is from the Mongolia Mission Moments July 2009 edition. President Andersen wrote that “Perhaps we should stop more often to recognize the significant accomplishments already accomplished, that we might have faith to continue to improve.”

  • A stake has been formed with full priesthood leadership.
  • A patriarch has been called.
  • Erdenet branch has been split. Other units should soon be able to split.
  • A new building will open in Khan-uul this month.
  • Sacrament meeting attendance has increased by 400 per month over last year.
  • Missionaries have increased from 90 to 180.
  • Local missionaries serving in Mongolia have increased from 30 to 120.
  • Baptisms increased from 488 in 2007 to 731 in 2008 to over 800 expected this year.

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Missionary Dan Email #32 from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

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Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s thirty second 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 pseudo-tracting in Ulaanbataar.
Daniel pseudo-tracting in Ulaanbataar.

English Class

We went to work this last week and it turned out to be a great week. We did a lot better than last week. It was good for us to be able to have a little success. Thanks for all the great emails. I feel very loved. Well this week I teach a lot more English. It is OK but not the funnest thing to do. We had a good class last week that was really fun and another one with 45 students in it which was ridiculous. Anyway that will all work out alright.

Missionary Work

Missionary work is still continuing to be good. President Anderson said my companion became a missionary while with me which made him very happy. I didn’t do anything as when he first came he was ready to work. It was good though to hear that President is happy. My companion and I did well on receiving referrals from members this week. That was a huge improvement.

Birthday

Thanks too for wishing me happy birthday. Yea! I’m going to be twenty. Oh yeah and as you can clearly see from the picture we can go tracking. No just kidding, but the door on the fence was really funny.

To Mom

We have a washing machine in our apartment. It’s not very big and you put water into from the tap. It then has a spinner that spins the clothes, then we hang them up on a rack to dry. All people with a ger have an outhouse. Some of the service I have done is digging the hole for the outhouse. There usually is furniture all the way around, and they sit on the beds during the day. So I guess they become couches. They do laundry with the same machine I have. They simply reuse the water a bit. Their sinks have a little drip handle and it drops into a sink, then into a bucket under that. It is cool. Some have refrigerators and yes, most if not all the houses have power, with T.V. etc.

To Ada

Happy Birthday! You’re turning 21 right? Wahoo! Have lots of fun. :)

To Brother Burns

Thanks for sharing your experience with me. It truly does seem to work that way. First the Lord tests our faith then later He greatly blesses us. The miracles that happen make doing missionary work worth it. It seemed like you had one amazing companion! Thanks again.

Love from Elder Willoughby
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Missionary Dan Email #31 from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

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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 with a Mongolian family.
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.

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Missionary Dan Email #30 from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

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Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s thirtieth 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 helping to construct a ger.
Daniel helping to construct a ger.

Zone Conference

So yesterday was Zone Conference so I wasn’t able to write. Zone Conference was about adversity. It was really good and I learned a lot. The Mission President explained that this life is like a testing center and like any testing center isn’t the funniest place to be in. But, after leaving the testing center you are relieved, depending how you did on the test. It was good to put things into perspective.

Conversion Story

Thanks so much for the conversion story, Dad! I read the whole thing, it was really interesting. It really is amazing how the Lord prepares people to hear the Gospel, just like he prepared you. Also thanks Mom for writing how you met Dad. I’ve actually never heard it before, so it was really fun to read. Now I can see where I inherited all my dating skills when I was in high school. :) ha ha.

Missionary Work

So this week was a good one. I had two experiences where I was talking to people on the street telling them about the church. The first one I was prompted to ask if he’d ever been to a Christian church before. He said he’d been attending one for about five years. That started a conversation and we talked for about five minutes. As usual I asked if we could come by later and meet with him to tell more about the church. To that he said he had time right now! I was surprised as that has never happened. We were able to meet with him, tell him about the church, give him a book of Mormon, and share our testimonies. It made us really excited.

Then another day just as similar someone was observing my companion and I talking to people. As it probably looks a little funny with us walking along side people talking to them for a minute or two then going straight to talk to someone else, the person asked me what we were doing. I said we were missionaries and told where, what time, and what my church is. I asked her if we could meet later and she said, “I can meet right now.” I was again surprised but very happy for the opportunity. We were able again share about the restoration and our testimonies.
I know for a fact the Lord helps His missionaries do His work. It is a great blessing to talk to someone who has a genuine interest and share what is so important to me. I know its true and can see the blessings that have come in my life and the lives of others.

My companion is great and his ear will be okay. We simply get to go the doctor everyday. Also school is starting up so I’ll be teaching more English. That will take quite a big chunk out of time to do missionary work. We’ll do the best we can with the time we have. Sorry no pictures again, I don’t have my camera. Hopefully next week I’ll have it with me. I’m still adjusting a bit to how my companion likes to spend Preparation Day.

To Adelaide

Wow you had some crazy dreams. Thanks for telling me. I’ll be honest I had a good laugh.

I’m not sure about the language, it could possibly be dialects. I do tend to understand people I’ve listened to a lot more than someone I just met. As for other areas they do have different dialects. One area a missionary said was like a southern accent, but they were speaking Mongolian. Keep up the great work! :)

Thanks for all the great letters and the support. I love you all!
Elder Willoughby
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Missionary Dan Email #29 from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

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Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s twenty ninth 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 holding a pig on prep day.
Daniel holding a pig on a prep day in March.

Surgery

Thanks for all the cool pictures and the cool updates. It is always fun to read them. This week was quite an adventure. My new companion has to attend the doctor almost every day for his ear that recently had surgery. So with the main road closed etc. it has taken quite a bit of time out of missionary work, but none the less we did what we could. In all reality he isn’t supposed to be working at all (the doctor said), but that doesn’t seem to stop him.

Missionary Work

We are working to find some new investigators. It is somewhat discouraging to have so many people say they are busy but in time we’ll find success. Also people always go to the countryside. It is way cool that they can move in one day their entire house and have no one know where they went, but when missionary work is concerned it isn’t that cool.

My companion and I get along very well. He speaks no English at all which allows me to speak a lot. I’m at the point in the language where some days I speak well and understand most all things, and others days I can’t hardly speak and I understand nothing.

We met a lot with our new members and less actives to strengthen them. I was happy when they came to church. We’ve also ran into a few old investigators that now have the opportunity to get baptized as before they weren’t able to. It is always fun to find out who their first missionaries were.

A Dream

I had a crazy dream last night, that I was home in America. Everyone asked me why I came home. All I could say was, “I don’t know — Arhhh!!” I was so upset that I started to call my mission president to send me back. I woke up right when I started to call him and was relieved to still be in Mongolia. Ha ha. That was exciting. Did that happen to anyone else when they were on their missions?

To Derek

Thanks for sharing that story. No worries about taking up my time, I like hearing from you. I haven’t had quite an investigator like that, but there have been a few that have made doing missionary work worth it. That is a sweet car. My companion likes it.

To Mom

The normal mail gets here perfectly fine. It doesn’t matter how much time it takes as I’ll be here for another year or so. :) I don’t really want anything so that is all good and well. Maybe some Gatorade powder. Can you also send me your side of the story of how you met dad. :) Thanks.

To Dad

Hey thanks for the awesome emails. I’ve been wanting to ask for awhile but keep forgetting. Lots of people find it fascinating that you are from England and are a convert and went to America etc. Could you send me your conversion story etc. and how you met mom? I have a basic idea but thats about it. Thanks!

Well that’s all for this week. Sorry no pictures this week as I forgot my camera. I didn’t really take any either.

Love, Elder Willoughby

Related Articles

List of Daniel’s missionary posts.
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