Christmas was great. We had a branch party at the church. Lots of members came and had a good time. It was definitely a different Christmas than I have ever had before. Sounded like everyone there had a good time. I’ll be honest, everyone sounded really weird. I didn’t even recognize Jake. Who is he anyway? I enjoyed talking to Paul. Thanks for the good counsel, I wasn’t really speaking into the microphone. Everyone else sounded great.

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Choibalsan is located in NE Mongolia about 50 miles east of the Chinese border and 160 miles south of Russia. On our map Choibalsan is at bottom center and country borders are in white. Pan left to find Ulaanbaatar 377 miles to the west. Cannot see map? Click here.

So the visa problem is complicated. So the American elders and sisters haven’t been able to come. I don’t know if they ever will, but there still is a chance for them. So the government found out that we were sending people to be English teachers and be missionaries. Which I’m sure they knew the whole time, but this time they got mad that we were doing missionary work and threatened to throw all of us out of the country. So for the past two weeks or so American missionaries aren’t allowed to talk to people on the street. Before we would talk to 70 people a week and get referrals that way. But, for now we aren’t allowed to do that. Meaning talk to people on the street about the church to try and meet with them. Mongolian missionaries can still talk to people freely. We are getting some branch missionaries set up to talk to people for us to get some good investigators that way. My visa is fine for two more years and as far as I know the problem is calming down.

This week was a little harder to do missionary work. Everyone is busy getting ready for the new year. Elder Od Bayar and I still did alright on our work though. We found three new investigators which was quite an accomplishment. We were really blessed. Hopefully they will progress well. I really love being with Od Bayar again. He has changed since last time I was with him. Today I got this email from President Andersen:

Elder Od Bayar specifically wanted to be with you again. He thought that you were his best companion and wanted to learn obedience and diligence from you again. I think he is ready to learn this time with you!
Pres. Andersen

I was surprised to read that. It did make me happy though. It makes me want to work harder. I have been trying to accomplish some good goals this transfer and being with Elder Od Bayar has been helping me a lot. He has definitly changed in how he teaches and his desire. I can really tell that he wants to do good work and become a better missionary. He is my favorite companion and teaches me more than I teach him. It has been a great opportunity for us to be together again.

My mini missionary, Munkh Chuluun, who I was with last week came to a lot of church activities this week. He got a branch missionary calling and is doing his best to repent and prepare for a mission. I heard from the Branch President that two weeks ago he met with Munkh Chuluun and he said he didn’t want to serve a mission. He did the mini mission with me and then met with the Branch President again. This time he told the President, “I want to serve a mission!” I was glad I was able to help.

That week was truly a miracle as I see God’s hand preparing houses for us to go to and teach them. We had really good work and taught many lessons. I felt the spirit strongly with Munkh and I know it will impact him the rest of his life. He asked me for some little reminder that he can carry for when he has the desire to smoke. I gave him most of my mints before not knowing that he had a problem with smoking. He told me that he was using those when he had the desire and it was helping. So I’m going to give him some more! It makes me very happy to see him want to change and be better. I pray that he’ll become a great missionary and help many others receive the Gospel.

I know this Church is true and it really blesses many people’s lives. God hears our prayers and answers them in His own time and own way. He truly loves us and helps us every day. I know that I have been called of God to do His work among His children that they might have everlasting life.

Love Elder Willoughby.

P.S. This computer’s USB isn’t working. Sorry no pictures again :(. And I don’t have a mongolian accent.

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.

The party looked really fun. The house looks really good too. It makes you look really rich. I haven’t seen something like that in forever. The pizza looks really good too. I like pizza.

So this week my mini missionary and I had a good week. He had been inactive for about six years or so and just barely started coming back to church. We took the opportunity for him to serve a mini mission to strengthen his testimony and get him on a mission as well. He was lots of fun to work with and had great desire to learn. The change I saw in him was incredible. Last week he was sad and not confident looking. By the end of this week he was smiling and laughing all the time. It was a great experience for both of us.

My new companion is my old companion Od Bayar. I was really surprised that I’d be with him again. He is full of energy. We worked well together so I figure president wants us together again. I am excited to be with him again, next to my trainer he is my favorite companion. He comes today by airplane.

Last week I also relearned the sign language alphabet. I learned it before, way back in my first transfer like my second day in Mongolia. I couldn’t really learn sign language well then because I didn’t know Mongolian even. Now I am picking it up fast. It is way fun to learn and really cool to talk to deaf people. They have a special spirit about them. So I’m going to keep learning, they have a class that we go to learn. I want to get good so I’m going to work hard at it.

So I can call at 6:30 pm. That will work fine. The call is limited to 40 minutes. Yes, my apartment is big, there is a kitchen, bathroom, living room, and bedroom. I wear my coat, no I’m not cold. The church is close to my house. Choibalsan is great and I love being here. OK, that answers a few of those questions. Merry Christmas!

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.

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.

The house looks really comfortable. Thanks for sending pictures. I liked the comics too. Good job Dad :). Congratulations on losing weight too. That graph looks really fancy. I think I have gained a few pounds since I’ve been here, but there is really no way to tell.

Jargal Caikhan got baptized this Saturday. It was really good. He has been an investigator for quite some time. He is 12 years old and his aunt who he lives with is a returned missionary.

The church opened this week so we got to have church. The branch president forgot his paper when he went to announce newly arrived missionaries, so he didn’t even get close to saying my name right. It was funny. Later as I bore my testimony I said a little joke how Mongolians can’t say Willoughby at all. That made them laugh. I need to remember to record them trying to say it, it is funny. I have already met a lot of church members, so it didn’t seem like I was a new missionary in the branch. Church was really great; my other new member who is 60 years old received the Priesthood. That was a really good thing that happened and it made me happy.

We worked hard to find new investigators this week. We didn’t have much success until Sunday. I met a really nice person on the street earlier and he said we could come by. He talked to us for quite a while. He lives in the countryside though so we may not get to teach him that much. It is always exciting to find new investigators.

It’s not hard to deal with the cold really. You wear a coat and its fine. Later this month is when it really gets cold as the 9 nines starts. That will be fun, I’ll probably wear my bigger coat.

Well that’s all I have for this week. The computer’s USB isn’t working so I’ll send some pictures next week.

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.

This week was full of adventures. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. All the missionaries went to Elder and Sister Anderson’s house to the dinner. They are the couple that is assigned to our area. We had chicken instead of turkey. The stuffing was really good. That is always my favorite and we had some great pumpkin pie.

The house looks way awesome! Congratulations I hope all goes well. It is exciting that Steven and Ada are having another kid. They could have a third one on the way before I get home :). Congratulations a second time.

The sisters apartment lock broke and they weren’t able to get in their house. So they had to take over our apartment while we slept at the district leader’s house. We fixed their lock today so we get to be at home again. It was really strange to find a long black hair on my sheets.

The church was closed again so we took the sacrament to the members again. We did it 9 times to 58 people. Hopefully the church will be open next week. The Branch President returned from his temple trip so we got to meet him. He is young and really cool. The members are still very thankful to receive the sacrament.

I mistook the words “work cow” for “husband” at one of the member’s houses. She was asking if we could give the left over blessed bread to her husband. She said, “He eats vegetables, fruit, paper, meat, just about anything. I thought for a moment and it really didn’t make sense to me. So I asked her, “Your husband?” That was funny, we laughed very hard.

I got the Primary letters last week. The package will be coming with President when he makes his trip out here for zone conference on December 11. So I’ll get it then. Also that is when my companion leaves. When I get my new companion I’ll be to a total of 11. That is quite a few for only being half way. Maybe soon I’ll have a companion for more than one half transfer. Anyway thanks for the all letters. They are way fun to read.

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.