Family – Page 21

Missionary Dan Email #15 from Choibalsan, Mongolia

February 7, 2010 by rickety Leave a Comment

Six missionaries and four contacts in Choibalsan

Choibalsan: 6 missionaries and 4 contacts. Daniel third from left. Brother Anderson standing.

This week was somewhat slow, but at the same time was a good week. We spent some time doing some service for members. We made buuz and helped some others get some firewood. It was fun to make buuz and at the same time be doing service. This week we’ll probably spend a lot of time doing service as the holiday starts Sunday and goes for 3 days.

The people prepare by making a lot of buuz. By a lot I mean some of them make 5,000 or so. Most people though I think make around 1,000 to 2,000. That is so much! Then during the holiday everyone one says, “Eat buuz, eat eat eat.” Missionaries here like to see how many they can eat during the week and set their goals etc. Last year I didn’t count, but it I ate close to 60 or so. This year I want to get to 200 or maybe 150. They also make salads, have fruit, and candy. It is quite the celebration. Missionaries are allowed to wear tradition clothing. I bought a nice green shirt that I think I’ll wear, unless I find something cool today I want to buy. They told me to tell you that I may not be able to write next week because the internet café may be closed.

Everyone’s family comes and visits during the holiday. Like I said it is like their Christmas. They really enjoy each others company, sing songs, drink lots of alcohol, tea, etc… Not the church members of course though. Because of that and the family coming to visit, we mainly meet with members and support them and encourage them to keep the Word of Wisdom throughout the holiday. Most of them do really good and it isn’t much of a problem.

Daniel (right) in a ger with companion and Brother Anderson.

Speaking about Word of Wisdom, we were teaching it yesterday. We were saying the things we weren’t supposed to use. Tea, coffee, alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drug. My companion asked them if they knew what marijuana is. They said they had no idea. My companion explained further, something like its way illegal in America, but grows in Mongolia freely and most don’t even know what it is. They sat there for a while then their 6 year old kid spoke up and said, “Oh yeah I know.” It was really funny, just the way he said it. Anyway it’s a good thing they have never heard about the drug.

Church attendance went down. Next week will probably be a huge decline. Then after that it should skyrocket. We met a really nice investigator last night. He came back from the countryside and we were able to review the first lesson with him. He treated us really nicely and that made me happy. It was a good experience to be able to teach him.

Did you hear anymore from the dad that was angry about you calling his daughter? No. It is around -20 to -30 degrees C. Cold, but my coat keeps me nice and warm. I wear that ninja mask I got before I left, It works really well. Mom and Dad write me consistently every week. Thanks for the support. I get plenty of emails from everyone.

Sounds like Paul and Jake are doing good work with school and work. Keep it up; earn some money so you can pay for my return visit to Mongolia in a few years. Ha ha just kidding. If the economy gets too bad in America we could always just move here. My companion and I live off $65 dollars a week and we can basically go out to eat at restaurants everyday. It easily covers all the expenses. I think our apartment is around $280 a month, then the electric and water is like $35 a month or so. So total that’s about $400 right? Anyway that’s just fun information.

Along with that our apartment had a little problem this week. Some sewage came up the kitchen sink. It was really nasty. What is great though is our landlord came and personally cleaned up the floor for us and got the repairmen and everything. That shocked both my companion and I. It was really nice of her. Sorry for no pictures today. Maybe later if I get a chance I’ll send a few. I forgot my card reader. I love you all.

Love, Elder Willoughby.

Photographs from …Couple Things… blog: Sights of Choibalsan and A Real Ger and A Sweet Family!

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.
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Caption Competition #4

February 7, 2010 by rickety 15 Comments

This photograph was taken in Choibalsan, Mongolia. Those who have been following Daniel here will have already seen the picture. There are a lot of possible captions that come to mind but Judge Jill says for me to let the readers submit their captions first.

Paul with the tempting Sours that could be in your mouth shortly

The first prize (Kaysville and environs only) is a 1.5oz tin of Hershey’s sugar free Ice Breakers sours. I’ve never had any but my son Jake says “that they are worth writing a caption for.”

Judge Jill donated the prize and she will be the sole decider of the winner. I have been relegated to just the production of this grand media event.

In a week, maybe two, I will post the winning caption. Even if you are not local we still like to hear from you. However, we cannot mail prizes. This is a low budget operation, really low budget.

I hope that doesn’t sour you on participation.
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Open Thread Week: Valentines Day

February 7, 2010 by rickety 8 Comments

An open thread refers to a blog post where readers may comment and discuss any topic that they choose. Valentines Day is mentioned just to help get you started.

Jill (right) and her cousin Terry in Valentines dresses (1954)

In a week it will be Valentines Day. In the past I have bought my wife flowers or gone out to eat. One year I bought a new dryer and had it installed without telling her. When she went to use her old worn out dryer it wasn’t there any more. That made her happy. Not very romantic but fun.

Do you enjoy Valentines Day? What have you given for Valentines in the past? What have you received?
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Missionary Dan Email #14 from Choibalsan, Mongolia

January 31, 2010 by rickety Leave a Comment

Thanks for the great emails, not much to write about this week. Enjoy the little movie clip of my investigator’s son. He is saying, “Hey Kobe, what’s up?!” I think it’s great, but it was my companion’s idea.

Transfer calls came and I’m staying here with my companion Elder Od Bayar. That made me happy. I like this, being in Choibalsan. We had a normal work week with the normal meeting with people and teaching lessons. Right now we have some good investigators progressing towards baptism.

My English class was fun teaching again. I teach another English class at the church. Nothing too exciting. My companion does whatever he feels like during English.

So it is really surprising that January is already over. Time in the countryside goes by much faster and is a whole lot calmer and peaceful. In February everyone starts preparing for Tsagaan Sar and gets really busy.

During the holiday we just do our best to support the members as most other people are celebrating with family etc. It is kind of like their Christmas. This year I think lots of members will invite us over to their houses. So I’d better start preparing to eat a lot. Each house always has tons of Buuz and they make you each until you’re full like Thanksgiving dinner. Then the same day you go to another house and eat the same amount all over again. We’ll probably go to three or four houses a day for the week. I’m not really sure, but it’ll be fun.

My companion says that it is true that this is the coldest winter in Mongolia. Doesn’t really seem that cold, but when there is wind it is freezing.

The picture below with all the youth is from a question and answer competition they had. They asked questions about church doctrine and things. The winners were recently baptized members (within the last month), and another who had been a member a little over a year. Thats cool.

LDS youth in Choibalsan, Mongolia

Love, Elder Willoughby.

Missionary Dan Email #13 from Choibalsan, Mongolia

January 24, 2010 by rickety 3 Comments

Mongolian children Daniel recently visited

This week was a busy week with my companion and I running between some lessons to get there in time. We also worked with the branch missionaries to come with us so we could teach more at the same time. We have wonderful branch missionaries here that are willing to come with us almost every day.

This week I started teaching at a new location. It is called The Extra Ordinary Peoples or something like that. The name is really fitting for who they were. I think their job is fire fighting. I came in and they were all rushing around saying, the teacher is here! When they all filed in I asked them what they knew.

Basically nothing besides, my name is…, hi, OK. So they asked me to start with the ABCs. So I taught the song and we sang it a lot. It was so funny.

After singing five or six times I said, “Good.” Wrote it on the board etc… They all started freaking out, trying to say it. What? What’d he say? What’s it mean… Then I’d say it again and they try and try and try. Then after trying for awhile they would want me to say it again, so they would start yelling at each other to be quiet so they could hear me. Ha ha. I really respect their effort. After that I taught them how to count to ten. He he. So that was a highlight of my week.

Transfers are this week. I am sure my companion and I are staying here. I got a couple of texts from a friend of the lady who translated my companion’s letter. That was neat. They just say Hi etc… So no pictures this week, I didn’t really take any good ones. It is starting to warm up a bit to about -20 degrees C.

Thanks for all the support.
Love Elder Willoughby.

Caption Competition #3

January 24, 2010 by rickety 13 Comments

There are a lot of possibilities for funny captions whenever there is a photograph of Steven. Here Steven is at his parents’ home for Sunday dinner with his wife Adelaide. Submit your captions and I will update this post with the winning lines.

First prize are Sweetheart Cookies, beautiful model not included

The first prize (Kaysville and environs only) was going to be a big bar of Hershey’s chocolate. But that got ate. Jill came up with a one pound bag of Stauffer’s Sweethearts Cookies as the prize. Just in time for Valentines Day.

Caption Competition #2 Winners

As judges, mine and Jill’s captions were excluded from the competiton. Thank you all for the funny captions.

The first place winner, Ken, I do believe is not local so the prize passes to the second place caption. However, Derek, who lives in Texas is not local either so the prize goes to the third place entry. And Darrell is definitely local — he lives in the same ward as I do.

First — “Grandad, I don’t want to frighten you but there’s a Giant Shredded Wheat right behind you.” Ken
Second — “You stole the Thin Mints?!” Derek
Third — “Grandpa, I can’t believe how bad our outfits clash!” Darrell
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Mongolian Moments #11

January 17, 2010 by rickety 2 Comments

The percentage Mongolian church membership I used in the cartoon was based on a LDS membership of 7,721 at the end of 2007. According to LDS Newsroom the membership is now 8,444. The site does not indicate what year these numbers were tallied. There is one mission, two family history centers, and 21 congregations including one recently formed stake.

Click on comic strip for larger image. Created using Strip Generator. See all the comics on the Comics Page.

Missionary Dan Email #12 from Choibalsan, Mongolia

January 17, 2010 by rickety Leave a Comment

This week wasn’t quite the adventure week like last one. We did get some good experiences though. I got a snap shot of my frozen eye lash. It really isn’t as cold as it looks like. Well maybe it is, I can’t tell because my body has adjusted to the cold.

I enjoyed reading Jake’s journal entry article. I’ve kept a steady journal since I turned 16 years old. In that time I’ve probably only missed a couple of months and that is it. Going back when I was 18 or so and reading those entries was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. I am sure I’ll love it even more as time goes on. I remember the ones I enjoyed the most were the times when I recorded what I was thinking and feeling. Also my third grade teacher had us write a journal daily too as well throughout the school year. That worn out journal is more precious than gold could ever be. Reading from that allowed me to recall memories and feelings that I had when I was nine years old. Truly a great experience. It’s not always easy to keep a daily journal and at the time it seems completely pointless, but as time goes on anything you’ve written becomes a treasure of your own.

This week was a normal week for working. We had some great experiences as well. I can say it was my first real time translating from English to Mongolian. I translate all the time from Mongolian to English, but rarely the other way around. The couple missionaries needed a translator for institute. I don’t think I did very well, but the spirit was strong in the class nonetheless. As long as we’re thinking about translating, I might as well say I translated for my first time in sign language too. On Saturday the other missionaries gave me the chance to translate for the deaf people. Sometimes I did alright and translated well and other times I was completely lost and did horrible. It was really fun and they thanked me for my efforts in trying to learn. I enjoy learning sign language — it also is helping me to progress in Mongolian as well.

Daniel ready to baptize Ounbelick on 2 January. From the ...Couple Things... blog.

Some of our new investigators are coming along as well. Most of them are in families that already have a family member that is a church member. It makes it a lot easier for them to attend church and keep commitments when they have that support system. In one lesson something really funny happened. First a little background information. All Mongolians think that Americans and most foreigners have big noses. Mainly because we do have big noses compared to theirs. So in our lesson a three year old started picking her nose. Her mom said, “Don’t do that, it’ll make your nose bigger.” Then her 6 year old brother said pointing to me, “Yeah like his.” Ha ha. I should probably stop pickin’ my nose eh?

My companion and I were also determined this week to find new investigators again to increase our work and get some baptisms. So on Friday we contacted every referral. It had good success and six of them said they could meet us on Saturday. We were really excited so Saturday morning we packed up six Books of Mormon and set out early to go teach them. The first lesson was a let down and then we called the next two only to find out one went to the countryside and the other had work come up. So we decided to go straight to the next referral without calling and trap him into a lesson. It turns out he gave us the wrong address. So our last hope was down to two referrals. One wasn’t home and the other was, as his family said, was slightly crazy and that we shouldn’t come back anymore. So instead of getting six new investigators we ended up with none.

But on the bright side one investigator that before was really busy came to church. He said that as seeing his dad become a member and seeing the marvelous change in him inspired him to want to be better. He said that he is going to stop working on Sunday and start coming to church. His dad is one of the most inspiring people to watch. He is 60 years old with one leg that is bad. So he walks with crutches to get to church. It probably takes him around 40 minutes to get to church and I know its not easy for him. Not only does he go to church faithfully, but he also sits in institute on Saturdays. He is one of the greatest examples to me of sacrificing to get to church and he increases daily in his gospel knowledge. Not bad for an old man.

Well that sums up my week. I know the work I am doing is the work of God and that He truly loves all of His children.

Love Elder Willoughby.

Baptism Photo Credit: …Couple Things…

Four Simple Ideas For Keeping A Daily Journal

January 15, 2010 by jake 4 Comments

Though I keep a journal now, it has not always been a part of my life. I always thought of journal writing as something that is done for my children, or grandchildren. Planning on writing for these future generations, I systematically rationalized myself out of writing in my journal thinking that the events in my life were too trivial to write to about.

My journal consisted of an entry once every few months, but sometimes going years between writing. One day on my mission I read an old Ensign article about the anniversary of Wilford Woodruff’s birth. President Woodruff is known in part for his journal writing, so there were several quotes in the article about journals. One impacted me deeply, encouraging children to start keeping journals early in their lives. He said:

“If my young friends will begin to do this and continue it, it will be of far more worth than gold to them in a future day.” (Journals: “Of Far More Worth than Gold”, Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Wilford Woodruff, 132)

Knowing gold to be of great value, I knew that to truly be rich in my life I must keep a journal.

Even though I felt then that I must keep a daily journal, it took almost a year to be able to get into the habit. Earlier attempts to write in my journal daily always failed — usually ending up with me becoming discouraged. The rule that enabled me to keep a journal is this: Keep it Simple. Every time I didn’t want to write in my journal it was usually because I would write too much, or I thought too deeply, or I thought nothing of importance had happened that day.

The Solution?

These four ideas will enable you to keep a daily journal:

Keep it short and simple.
Two or three sentences is a good journal entry. Write more when you feel the need. Also, don’t feel daunted by playing catch up on your entire life between entires — just fill in the details when the background is needed.
Write what you did each day.
Things that are common I usually mention in a single sentence: “School, work, watched a movie with my family.”
Write what you feel.
I often also offer any feelings I might have about my life, the events that transpired that day, and especially gratitude for blessings received.
Make the choice.
About I year ago I decided I would always write something — even if I got home late or thought I didn’t have anything to say. I often found I had more to say once I started writing.

Even with short entries, I have already noticed the value of my journal. Often at nights after writing I will flip back through the entries investigating how I came to feel as I did. I can easily recognize what I did before to resolve it. Especially, I have seen the strength I have received from following other gospel principles such as when I made an extra effort to go to the temple, or a day that I was especially grateful for other people in my life. Reading my journal revives the feelings felt that day, and offers me great wisdom in how to handle the events currently transcribing in my life.

Keeping a short journal makes it easy to start a daily habit of writing. Even with simple entries, insights into past events allows you to see progress and receive strength. In a year of writing, my journals are already “worth more than gold.”