Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s twenty eighth 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.

Transfers

Sorry for the delayed email. Yesterday when we went to the Internet it wasn’t working. We went to three places and they all weren’t working. So I have a few minutes right now. Elder Henson, my companion got transferred Saturday. I stayed in the area and Od Bayar is my new companion. He is in the same group, which is cool. We get along great, he likes to exercise so I’ll start doing that again. As for the first transfer in a mission, mine was great. Some people think it’s hard. It’s different for everyone.

Happy Anniversary

The fair looked like it was tons of fun. The pictures are awesome to look at too. Thanks for sending them. That’s a big TV too, by the way. Happy anniversary! [Rickety note: Jill wanted a big screen TV for our anniversary]

Secret American Store

There is plenty of clothes here to buy and traditional Mongolian clothing. I think the shipping cost is enormously high though. I’ll ask some other missionaries to see what they have done to see what’s best. Elder Henson showed me a secret American store, so we bought a big thing of pancake mix. That is really good. We eat lamb a lot still though. It isn’t my first choice of meat to eat but I can’t complain.

Well. Got to go. I’ll hopefully get to write a good response next week.

Love, Elder Willoughby

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Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s twenty seventh 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.

The Difference In Derek

Thanks for all the awesome pictures. I really enjoyed them. The only difference I can see in Derek is that… his bow tie is cricked…. Oh wait that’s a tie. Ummm… he shaved that day? He started eating baby food? He isn’t wearing a missionary tag? I don’t know looks the same to me.

Missionary Work

This week felt like it was a month. It was a really strange feeling. Our part-member’s husband, Tortogdokh, got baptized this week. He was an awesome investigator the whole time we taught him. He had a great baptismal day as well. His wife was excited for him to become a member and so were some other missionaries that had tried to get him baptized for months.

While we were waiting for our ALA family to get home on Thursday we decided to climb up the mountain near their house. We raced to the top, took a few pictures and then headed back down. When we got to the bottom another member that lived in that area called after us. We at first ignored him because it isn’t unusual for people to call after us. We decided to stop and see what he wanted. He turned out to be a member of the Church who was baptized about 8 years ago. He invited us in and fed us really fast as we listened to what he had to say. He had a son that served a mission as well. He hadn’t been going to church lately because he had moved so we invited him back. It was great that our little hike turned out to be really productive.

We also were able to go on an exchange Friday to double our efforts with the work. My companion went with the new senior couple missionaries and I went with a mini missionary. The day was great and we accomplished a lot. The senior couple also really enjoyed themselves and impressively could bear their testimonies quite well.

Our recently baptized member invited us over to dinner yesterday. We went with some missionaries that are going home this week. His wife was their new member about a year ago and the missionaries came to say good bye. The food was good but my companion and I unfortunately got food poisoning. So last night was quite the adventure with our stomach’s discarding the food as it felt it needed to. We originally planned to go to the country side today, but instead did our best to recover. We are both doing good now, just a little tired.

The youth right now go to mutual and things like that. They had youth conference about 2 months ago. They seem to do similar things as we do in America. Most of them are starting up school here soon.
Love, Elder Willoughby

Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s twenty 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.

Wedding

Those pictures of the wedding turned out great. Congratulations Alex! I also really like the picture of Sarah and Derek with the sun. It looks professionally done. Thanks for all the emails they are always fun to read.

Missionary Work

So this week we had one of our less-active member’s daughters baptized. She gave a talk at her daughter’s baptism so it was a good experience for the family. It was neat as we traveled to her baptism. We started with just Anojin, the one being baptized, and left her house. We gathered two of her friends shortly after and continued on. Her brother was walking home so we picked him up as well. When we got off the bus we met one investigator and member and headed towards the church. We helped a car that was stuck out of the mud and by then two of our less active members had joined us. It was really neat to walk the rest of the way to church with so many people to go to the baptism.

Sunday was similar, many of our less actives came and over half of the new members in our area came as well. It was a great fast and testimony meeting and I was glad that so many of the people we’d been serving were able to be there. The Lord has greatly blessed us in our efforts and I know He always gives us help when we ask.

Other exciting news is that we walked down a street and a member that just recently got out of prison came up to us and said he wanted to go back to church. That doesn’t happy very often. :) We will continue to do the best we can. Enjoy the awesome pictures!

To Adelaide

Its really cool you read my emails to Aurora. It’d be sweet to have her know my name. That reminds me of a little kid in the old ward I was in. We visited his house a lot and played with him. He was just barely starting to talk. After I was transferred and I saw him at church, he ran up to me and said, “My older brother, my older brother, my older brother.” It was way cool and he continues to do it every time I see him. It is way cute (I usually don’t say the word cute but it describes it well). Thanks for the great email!

To Kelsey S.

Hey! How are you? So it seems like they discontinued the pouch system here in Mongolia and the only mail they now send is strictly church business. I think my companion knows how to send letters through the Mongolian mail system so I’ll see if I can do that today. Thanks for your continued support. Until then, keep smiling and tell Jake (my brother) to calm down. Oh and tell Paul to take a nap. :)

Love, Elder Willoughby

Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s twenty 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.

Hello From Rainy Mongolia

Wow! Sarah has a neat hair cut. Everyone looks way happy and well. Bryson is getting really big. It sounds like Bear Lake was lots of fun as well.

Rainstorm

This week was quite an adventure. There was a huge rainstorm on Tuesday that flooded all the streets etc. We were teaching a lesson and the rain on the roof was so loud that we had to stop teaching for about 30 minutes. Luckily the bishop came with us to do work that day so we were able to escape getting soaked by the rain by riding in his car. The damage wasn’t too bad to the area and it is mostly back to normal now. I really like the picture I snapped of the fat man standing majestically in front of the flooded parking lot.

Missionary Work

I made a funny mistake when I called one of our investigators. When you call people you usually say, “Did you sleep well?” or “How did you sleep?” I accidentally added one letter and asked him, “Did you have a nice life?” We had a good laugh over that. Our investigator didn’t seem to notice that’s what I said. One of our members brought a nonmember friend to church. That is probably one of the best things members can do for missionaries. It was fun to meet her and talk to her. Missionary work continues on. I know it is Heavenly Father’s work and He really loves and helps all of His children.

To Melissa

I’m not sure I have many suggestions. Studying all the time was hard and made my head hurt but after awhile I got used to it. Steven, Jake, and Paul will know better suggestions for the language. I think it somewhat links to English so you can learn it by association with English words. There are some cool bikes to ride up on the third floor of the gym [of the MTC]. Oh and the far right part of the cafeteria has left-overs from previous meals. (That took me a long time to find :) ). Tell him to work hard and just keep going. He is doing great!

To Jason

Hey Jason! I’m doing great thanks for the comment. No I haven’t served in Darhan but if I do I’ll say “Hi” to your companions. That is way awesome that you had Mongolian companions that were brothers even. It would be way cool to meet them and tell them that I know you. Thanks again!

Love, Elder Willoughby

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List of Daniel’s missionary posts.

Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s twenty 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.

It’s exciting that Derek and Sarah are coming. Speaking of Derek… that reminds me. Every time I show the Mongolians the picture of Bryson they mention about how big his eyes are. They say literally “He scary big eyes with,” which means he has really big eyes. It always makes me laugh. I’ve been meaning to say that for like 2 months now.

This week I got to build my first ger. That was fun to see how it was done and stuff. It is way cool to see how they put their houses together and how they can move the entire thing in about 3 to 4 hours. I didn’t get any cool pictures of it so next time I make one I’ll do better at that. I had the fun job of standing in the middle and holding up the pole while everyone put in the roof support things. It’s hard to explain. Anyway it was fun.

Lots of our less active members came to church yesterday. That was exciting as it always is to see them come. We have other investigators progressing towards baptism. Within the next 3 weeks or so they should be ready. Also the bishop really liked the ward member list my companion and I finished up this week. He said it will be very useful as did a member of the Stake Presidency.

I this week through out Mongolian through spoke. It to me good was. To me better speaking Mongolian through became. Because I good goals accomplished. This week through out continue more good goals will do. I joy with. I Book of Mormon from reading better accent receive can. I language rules (grammar) better study will. Sometimes to me confuse become but to me better speak becoming. Maybe to Jake and Paul Mongolian through teach will I. Language this like is kind of. Joy with! (bye) Ha ha. That fun with was.

To Mom

I decided that you can wait till my birthday to send a package. :) I don’t need anything. Thanks for the great letters you write. How is Byron doing? When does he leave? What is his address?

Love, Elder Willoughby

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List of Daniel’s missionary posts.

Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s twenty 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.

Independence Day

Looks like the parade was cool — we had our own little one at the American embassy. We went there on the fourth of July and had a party. They had hamburgers and hot dogs which is the classic meal for that day. I saw some of the elders from my MTC group and got a picture. It was transfers that day also and I got a new companion. His name is Elder Henson, he is from Michigan and is really cool. We have a lot of things in common and he has taught me a lot of things already. It is helpful for me to have him explain parts of the language and give some tips and advice. I actually knew him well before because his apartment is basically in the same place as mine and we talked about stuff.

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Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s twenty 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.

Thanks for the great pictures and the updates about the family. It is always fun to read about it all.

Missionary Work

Ehx gerel was baptized and it went well. She asked me to confirm the Holy Ghost for her. It was good for me to learn how to do it my first time in Mongolian and also first time ever. It went well and I felt the Spirit. She is a good new member with lots of friends.

This week a lot of interesting things happened. My companion for the past couple of weeks has had problems with his eye. He has way bad eyesight so this week they did surgery to fix it. While he was at surgery I went to zone conference with a mini missionary. A mini missionary is a church member preparing to go on a mission. Depending on the circumstances they can do a mini mission for 2 weeks or so, where they are complete full time missionaries. It was fun to be with one at zone conference. Afterwards we went to investigator’s houses and taught a lesson while my companion recovered. Right now he is doing great and recovering quickly.

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Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s nineteenth 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.

The boating trip looked fun. Thanks for the pictures. They are always fun to look at.

Missionary Work

Missionary work here is moving right along. In the summer it slows down a bit because lots of people move to the countryside. My companion and I are doing the best we can. Yesterday was exciting with seven investigators that came to church. One of them my companion invited just once and he came. I like people that do things that they say they will. I’ve noticed a lot of the older Mongolian men keep to their word. It’s a good quality to have. Also church was refreshing. It was good to renew covenants and reflect on what the Savior did for me and all people.

Yesterday a 22 year old started talking to me. He read, “Book of Mormon” on my Book of Mormon. Normally people don’t talk to me first so I asked if we could meet with him later and he said yes. We went to his house that day and taught his family. It was a great experience. He said, “Please come. Please come” as we left indicating he wanted us to return.

There isn’t much more to say than that the stake was formed. Everything else is much the same and works just as normal as it did before. I know that soon they will get a Patriarch and he’ll be able to give blessings.

The Hike

Strange as it sounds hiking in Mongolia is like hiking in Utah. You start at the bottom of the mountain and walk up it. The faster you hike, the more exhausting it becomes and stopping to rest is always an option. I like to conquer the hill as quick as I can. Maybe there are some differences in hiking. I am on the other side of the world… so I’m hiking the opposite way I would be if I was in Utah. It doesn’t feel that way. It still seems like an upward direction to me. Anyway, it was great. The land was great to look at and it was relaxing to get out of the city for awhile. I really enjoyed it. I sent a few more pictures of the landscape.

To Mom

My companion is doing well. He is trying his best to learn English. We saw his sister in a mini bus while we were walking down the street. That is always exciting.

The picture of me in front of the city with the mountains in the background is my new area. All the way to up to the mountain and to the right. It’s big.

To Dad

Hey! Happy Fathers Day this Sunday. You are an awesome Dad and I love you a lot. I decided to give you pictures for Fathers Day (Mom probably likes them better). There should be 7 or so. Thanks for being so active in the church and honoring your priesthood. It is a great blessing for me to have a wonderful Dad like you.

Elder Caldwell (a couple missionary here) said you posted something on his blog. He found me at the fireside and said Hi. He said he had no clue how you found his blog. Not bad for being a little Rickety.

Love, Elder Willoughby

P.S. I think I got my mission call a year ago today.