Ryan 's Third Week

Hey everyone!So those pictures you tried to send didn't come through - the MTC restricts them for some reason, you can't send pictures in emails. So if you could print them out and send them to me, that would be fantastic! As for me getting you pictures - there are no card reader slots - you have to hook the camera right to the computer with a UBS cable so mine doesn't connect. I am going to try to send home one of my cards full of pictures today and see if it makes it to you. Hopefully it does. Other than that, everything has been going great, even better fantastic! Life is good! :) The only thing I really miss besides people is Mexican food - there is none here to be had, I am planning on picking up a Taco Bell or something at the airport when we leave for Mongolia just because that will be the last I get. Other than that, I love it here!Last Friday, we taught a lesson in Mongolian and we actually made it through the entire thing. I even was able to feel the Spirit when I bore my testimony. The Lord truly does speak all languages and He will let the Holy Ghost verify what we teach no matter what language we happen to be speaking. It was a great event, one of the best of my mission so far. This week we thankfully get to teach the 2nd lesson in English and then the week after we get to do it in Mongolian. The translating keeps getting better and better - I am now able to do semi-complex sentences instead of just simple ones and I am able to read and sound out words a ton better. My writing has got a lot better too - it is a very neat, clean alphabet. My penmanship is probably better in Mongolian than in English but oh well. Saturday is service day and we serve in the cafeteria! Which is so weird sometimes being back in the place I used to work last year - it is a whole lot more fun to prepare food then to wash dishes. We had to marinate about 2000 chicken breasts last week and it was crazy! There was like a 10 gallon bowl filled of olive oil, salt, 3 cups of garlic, lots of thyme, rosemary, and some other spices and we had to dunk all the chicken in and then put them into pans. It was quite a mess and be the end of it everyone smelled of garlic and olive oil. We could also slide all the way across the floor on the layer of olive oil that had come to cover everything. It was fun. After that we have to head back to class and study up. It is always good to get a break and do some service - especially when it is as fun as our is. Sunday is one of my favorite days of the week because we get time to relax and reflect and to meet all the other elders and sisters here at the MTC. The sacrament and priesthood meeting are always mega-spiritual and make the whole day magnificent. We get tons of study time to read from the scriptures and discuss what we learn from them. Plus we also get to do a temple walk for an hour and talk to all the other missionaries and take pictures and that sort of thing. Then the evening ends with a fireside and movie. Way sweet. The movie this week was the Restoration movie that plays in the visitor center of the Mesa Temple every now and then. It is such a powerful movie! I feel so ready to do missionary work by the end of it because if all the old Saints could suffer so much to get the gospel restored here on earth, surely, I can go out and teach that gospel to others! I have to live up to that legacy that they left behind and the one way I know I can do that is by serving a mission! Monday was a great day - it just goes kind of slow because all of it is spent in class trying to learn Mongolian and translating lessons. It is fun work, it just takes a lot of brain power and a lot of help from the Lord. Our teachers are great too and always there to help us and to lift us up. They are all really spiritual and have the love for the gospel and the people of Mongolia. They have such strong testimonies that I hope to be able to have one to go out and preach by the time I get there. They also just love people, even if they just barely got to know them. I think that is an amazing trait and one I strive for and am working towards getting. Tuesday was great because we have the RC (refferal center) and I actually got a call where the lady wanted to talk about the gospel and loved hearing the message! She has already had the missionaries over and liked what they had to teach. She is just going through a rough time right now with the passing of her father and so doesn't have time to meet with them this week. But she is planning on it next week or the week after at the lastest! I was able to testify her of the truth and to let her know that God cares about her and her struggles and loves her. She seemed so happy to get the call and to talk about the church. It was probably the most fun I have had here at the MTC yet and it made me the happiest I have ever been to help her receive the gospel. I walked out of there just loving her and praying that she will continue to accept the gospel and all the missionaries have to teach her. It was an incredible experience and has made me so excited to be able to eventually go out and teach people the gospel! And I am now looking forward to the RC next week! It is way cool!Wednesday was yesterday and that was great! We went through some of Preach My Gospel and escpecially what the Atonement means in our lives and to us. It was a really great day and the Spirit was there extremely powerfully. I got most of my second lesson translated and was able to teach some of it to my companion and to study all the vocabulary that goes along with it. There is a lot, but it is coming along great! It has only been three weeks and I have already learned so much, more than I think I would have learned in two years in a high school class at any rate. I know in large part that is the Spirit helping me learn and the gift of tounges that I have been promised and I am so grateful for that. It is truly amazing. It blows my mind just to think about the amount of information I have learned in such a short amount of time. Today has been good so far! I got a bunch of letters written and still have to finish up a few. Writing letters is a blast and it is good to be able to write everyone! I got some b-day cards for some people too. So hopefully those make it home. I can't find the addresses for people, I thought I had a sheet of them but I seem to have lost it. So I am just going to send it to you Mom and you can give it to the people the cards are meant for. Their names are on the envelope. Wow, this half hour goes by so fast, I only have 5 minutes left. Thanks everyone for your letters and Dear Elders - they are so much fun to read and to hear from all of you and what is going on! Thank you Grandma Hughes and Lora for that package - I really needed the shoes and hat and the candy was great! Andes are the best - they help to keep me awake right after we eat and have to go sit back in class for three hours. Thanks for the pictures Emma - they are beautiful and will hang up by my desk! I love and pray for you all and hope that everyone is having a great fall and will have a wonderful Halloween - although I guess I get to write again before then. Please send me pictures in snail mail because I can't access them in email. I haven't been using money really Mom - so you don't have to worry about that. I still have tons of cash left so far. I also traded some Mongolian sisters for their money and will be sending that home so you guys can see it. They needed it because they are going to Colorado and don't have any American money yet - so we went down to the travel office and got the exchange rate and everything. Being here is great and I love it! Thanks for all your prayers, they really do help and sustain me all throughout the day!Love you all so much and I love being on a misson!Elder Ryan Leroy Hughes
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