Hey everybody!
Well time here at the MTC continues to fly by and it goes faster and faster with each passing day. I still feel sometimes like I have no idea how to speak the language and I am going to get to Mongolia and have no idea what people are saying to me or how to respond. But I know I have learned a lot (considering I had zero experience with Mongolian before I got here) and that with tons still to learn that I can do it with the Lord's help. And I am more excited instead of nervous for the first time to teach the third lesson in Mongolian tomorrow instead of English. I think I am still going to mess up a lot, but I am just going to be confident in what I say and let the Spirit work to bear witness of the truth from there. Sounds like the best plan to me at any rate. Ok so here is the past week in retrospect and what I did/learned for each day. Does this format work for everyone? Or do you think just writing one big long thing for the week would work better? Or keep splitting up each day? I don't know, just let me know if you like the format I currently send them in or if you would like me to change it. Whatever is easier and more enjoyable to read!
Friday - Amazing, wonderful day! We played guinea pigs for a new program all about getting to know what an investigator must feel to be converted and what a missionary must feel in order to teach by the Spirit to help them reach that conversion process. It is going to be way sweet when they implement it, I am super excited for all the missionaries in the future entering the MTC - they are in for the spiritual experience of their lives the first few days they are here. They are now teaching us how to focus more on people and where they are on their spiritual journey back to our Heavenly Father and so what they need to be taught at this particular time to fulfill their spiritual needs and come unto Christ. It is way powerful stuff - and we got to try it out on Elder Packer's grandson who was playing an investiagator part of his brother-in-law and it was eye opening to see and listen to how an investigator feels when being taught. And how each and everything little thing we say could draw them closer to Christ or push them farther away depending on how sincere we are in our love and care for them and how much we let ourselves follow spiritual promptings instead of just doing presentation lessons and such. We taught the third lesson later in English that day and it was the most power spiritual experience I think I have yet had (well, maybe except for the temple, but you get the point). We taught the way that missionaries are supposed to teach by the Spirit and honestly trying to meet the spiritual needs and wants of the investigators that were there at the TRC. We were able to answer every question and I know that blessing was through the Holy Ghost. We also shared a lot more personal experiences of things in our lives and beared testimony of them and the effect was way powerful. You could tell that both us and the investigators that were there were edified and spiritually uplifted and it was a powerful, wonderful feeling. I am so excited to teach again tomorrow (even though it is in Mongolian - I am going to teach as confidently as I can and ask questions and show my love and care for those there and see if the Spirit can still help me to teach the message in a language I barely know and understand).
Saturday - service day. Fun times. We made it all the way back around the menu again and so dumped grilled frozen chicken breasts into pans like we did about a month ago - there was about 30 boxes of 40ish chicken breasts each to give you an idea of how much food we work with. There are so many missionaries here at the MTC that it just blows my mind sometimes. We did the service the fastest they had ever seen it done and so got out way early - I kind of wish they had given us another assingment but they had nothing left to give so I guess it was all good.
Sunday - As always, an amazing day. I had double duty in sacrament meeting because I got called on to give a talk and to give a prayer. That means I have offered a prayer all but two Sundays that I have been here, but praying is awesome so I am thankful for that. Impromptu talks however are not quite as much fun. What happens is they just call on two people from the congregation to get up and give a talk on an assigned topic we had throughout the week to think about. I thought I would be safe this week, so I didn't prepare as much as I should have and I was sadly mistaken when they called my name. But I bore my testimony of the power of baptism and the covenants that we make there and shared a few scriptures and filled up the time that I was supposed to, so I didn't fail I guess. But Ididn't come up with any good, funny jokes either so I felt kind of bad about that - I think I was probably really boring to listen to, but oh well. The lesson in priesthood that day was really great and was all about repentance. I thought I would have learned about all I could about repentacne considering how much we hear lessons about it in the church but I was way wrong. I learned that repentance is learning to submit our will to God's will and is a whole lifelong process of learning to willingly submit and being happy to do it. Great lesson, it even had pictures to go with it, but I can't draw them here, but they are in my journal and I think I will put them in the family letter so there you go. The fireside that night was really good and they had a special muscial number that I want the arrangement for so bad! It was a piano, cello, singer trio doing "I Feel My Savior's Love" and it was so good! I would add a bit more to the cello part, but it sounded awesome and made me miss the cello so much! I don't know how he got his in here but he did and he was great at it! I have to wait a whole another two years before I can play mine again, but I am looking forward to when I can and then mom I promise I will play for you in sacrament meeting - I promise. Testaments that night (the movie) was as powerful as always!
Monday - Translate the third lesson craziness day! I got almost the whole thing translated into Mongolian and my sentences were a lot more advanced and longer than they have been in the past. I can now add adjectives and adverbs and do appositive phrases and dependent clauses and all those fun things I like to do in English writing. It makes it a ton more fun to write! And the even better part is that I understand what I am writing unlike the first lesson where I had no clue what I was saying and had no idea what it meant. So I can see my progress there and it has been HUGE! Thank you for all your prayers for help on the language for me, they have truly been answered!!!
Tuesday is Referral Center day! Amazing day! I love going there and this week was the best week yet. I got two incoming calls for a free Bible that I was able to get them to agree to meet with the missionaries and to start taking the discussions, how cool is that? I bore my testimony to them of the truth of what the missionaries would be teaching and they sounded excited to hear it and excited to learn more! I love missionary work - even over the phone! I then got to make some good phone calls to people who are progressing in the missionary lessons and loving it. They aren't sure if they want to be baptized yet but they have felt the truthfulness of the gospel and just need to have a few more questions and concerns taken care of the next time they meet with the missionaries. I also got a chat for the first time and it was from a guy who could quote scriputes up and down to me from the Bible. But I eventually was able to ask what he knew about the Mormon church and he said he had heard the song "Praise to the Man" and loved it. So I bore my testimony about the prophet Joseph Smith and that he restored the true gospel. He then was kind of silent for a few minutes and said that he knew what I was saying was true! He then said he would meet with the missionaries! Cool, huh? I love the RC and the feeling that I get from working there and I am so excited to be able to go to the field and do that full time! What a great blessing and privilege!
Wednesday is Mongolian intense grammar day which is good. Just a little head hurting sometimes. We learned how to have phone conversations in Mongolia (they do not say goodbye, just hang up when you feel the conversation is over). We learned how to do some more grammar fun things like more endings to add on to words to change the meaning and where to add adverbs/adjectives in the sentence depeding on what they are modifying and what they say. We also learned how to mash two verbs together to get a new verb which is extremely helpful! Although it is a whole lot of new vocabularly I am going to have to memorize!
Anyway, life is going wonderfully and I love every second of it! I am going to miss the MTC when it comes time to leave but I am super excited to get out into the field. Wherever that may be seeing as our visas are delayed for the forseeable future and perhaps for quite a few months into next year.
I love you all and pray for you all to be happy and healthy! And to continue to grow and progress in the gospel like I am! Hopefully sending these emails home allows you to feel the Spirit that I feel somewhat!
Elder Ryan Hughes
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
I am sorry this is part of the same email didn't copy and paste whole thing starts where preivous ones ends
How cool is that? I am praying that both people will continue to grow in faith and in their testimonies and will be able to get taught and be baptized! It was just awesome to do missionary work, even just over the phone. That night we had a devotional given by Elder Rasband of the presidency of the 70 and it was great! It was kind of all over the place, but ultra-spiritual and uplifting. The part that hit me the hardest was the closing song "ABide With Me". I felt God's love and approval for me and for what I was doing. It was a tangible feeling that encompassed me and made me feel like someone was actually there giving me a huge hug. I don't know how else to describe it. It was just a miracle and one of the best experiences that I have ever had. I know that we can all feel the same and that Heavenly Father loves each and everyone of us! He is there for us always! I promise!
Wednesday, really quick because I am running out of time! We got to pilot a new program that the MTC is creating for the first four days that missionaries are here at the MTC. Nathan is going to have the most spiritually amazing time with what they are preparing! It is going to be fantastic! It was an amazing experience all about the different people all over the world and God's love for them and His desire for them to hear His gospel. Whenever they debut it, it will be amazing and a great orientation to the mission field.
Well, that is pretty much it for this week. Please send me letters and Dear Elders - I love to hear from you all and get updates about what is going on! Hopefully, you all love to hear back from me and I don't bore you or anything. I know that this gospel is true and that the Lord is blessing me and preparing me to enter the field in a very short amount of time! Thank you all for your prayers and support - they mean so much to me and I know those prayers are answered because of how I have been progressing here at the MTC and the Spirit that I always feel!
Lots of love,
Elder Ryan Leroy Hughes
Wednesday, really quick because I am running out of time! We got to pilot a new program that the MTC is creating for the first four days that missionaries are here at the MTC. Nathan is going to have the most spiritually amazing time with what they are preparing! It is going to be fantastic! It was an amazing experience all about the different people all over the world and God's love for them and His desire for them to hear His gospel. Whenever they debut it, it will be amazing and a great orientation to the mission field.
Well, that is pretty much it for this week. Please send me letters and Dear Elders - I love to hear from you all and get updates about what is going on! Hopefully, you all love to hear back from me and I don't bore you or anything. I know that this gospel is true and that the Lord is blessing me and preparing me to enter the field in a very short amount of time! Thank you all for your prayers and support - they mean so much to me and I know those prayers are answered because of how I have been progressing here at the MTC and the Spirit that I always feel!
Lots of love,
Elder Ryan Leroy Hughes
Happy November everybody!!!
It is so hard to beleive it is already November - only about a month and a week left here at the MTC before I leave! I hope that I will be ready by then, I am going to need all the Lord's help I can get in the language (that is for sure). Thank you everyone for the letters - I got a ton this week and it is very appreciated! I am about done writing those and sending them off, I just have one more to write. I hope that everyone is happy and healthy and loving and enjoying life like I am!!!
Ok so this is what happened this week as far as I can remember because I forgot my journal back at the room...my bad.
Last Friday we taught the second lesson in Mongolian and the Lord completely and totally helped. I would not have been able to say half the things I said without His help, the sentences came to me and the correct grammar and vocab and everything was there. What a great blessing that is! The Lord will truly help us while we are on His work and errand. We just have to remain worthy and pray for that gift and then listen as the Spirit prompts us. I love being able to feel the Spirit so strongly in Mongolian as well as English - it happens more and more now and it helps to strengthen me everytime. We were able to teach the entire lesson and fill up the time slot perfectly, down to the second. We ended with prayer and commitments just as our time ran out and we were beeped to exit the room. That was something else that I had been praying for and it was answered - to be able to use the whole time in teaching and answering questions. Friday was amazing!
Saturday is service day! Hooray for that! We just did chicken cordon bleu this week - so no exciting hunks of meat to season or million chicken breasts to marinate. Just taken frozen preprepared things out of packages and loading them onto pans - we did get 129 boxes done with about 40ish chicken cordon bleus in each box, so we work fast! Then we started cranking out our third lesson outlines which is all about Christ's gospel. There is so much to teach in it and to get the investigators to understand! We also started translating that self-same day so we could write more involved, in-depth sentences.
Sunday was great - it was fast Sunday! We fasted as a district with all the missionaries in Mongolia and the ones currently postponed elsewhere in the U.S. that the visas will come through. That the people currently out in the U.S. will get to go to Monoglia as soon as possible adn that our visas will be able to reach us here while we are at the MTC. With that many people fasting, I am sure a miracle will happen. And if not, I know the Lord is in control and I will be delayed to an area that I am supposed to teach in for a little while, to touch the people there. We still have no word about the visas, but the church attornies are there now in Mongolia working with the government to get them processed and sent to us as fast as possible. It was great on Sunday to hear the testimonies of all those that were leaving - all the Indonesian elders and sisters were leaving and a lot of them were able to get up and bear their testimonies. I know that they will be great missionaries and the Lord will bless them to find and teach the people there that are ready to receive the gospel! Our branch is really empty now because the St. Loius and California people left too - so there is only us Mongolians, and some elders going to Hawaii and Texas. Sunday night we had a great fireside from the executive secretary and his wife here. They are some of the most energetic and humorous people I have ever heard speak! I have never heard someone talk as fast as she did! It was all about the need for gratitude in our lives. We will be so much happier if we recognize how much the Lord has truly blessed us with already - families, friends, the Spirit, learning a language, whatever. Just looking back physically writing down and counting those blessing will enable us to see how much the Lord really does love us and wants us to be happy. And how truly blessed and privileged we all are. We were challened to give a prayer of all gratitude and I did that later that night and it showed me in great depth and detail about how much the Lord has truly done for me and how much He will continue to do for me as I remain faithful and work my hardest here in the mission!
Monday was translation crazy day. I got about half of my third lesson translated and we worked a lot on grammar principles in Mongolian and vocabularly. There is so much to learn! Sometimes, I am a little jealous at the people learning Spanish and French - because I can understand about half of what they are saying without much previous background (except for two year of high school Spanish, but that didn't really do much). But I know the Lord knows that I can do it and He has prepared me to serve a mission in Mongolia and will bless with me with help in the language as I work at it and ask for it. I will get there eventually. Then by the time I get home, I will just have trouble speaking English - two of our teachers do because they just got back a couple months ago and their grammar is always off in English and they forget words in English but can say it in Mongolian - so I know it is possible to fluently speak and understand the language and I pray everday that the Lord will bless me with that gift!
Tuesday was amazing! Simply amazing and wonderful and awesome! The RC that day was the best ever! I got to call two different people who are excited about the gospel and who have met with the missionaries and are excited to remeet with them again as soon as possible! Bearing my testimony to them and listening to them bear theirs even after one lesson (they were so strong!) was a great blessing and made me so happy - like bursting with joy happy, that Ammon hints at in Alma 36. One lady was in Florida who right now is working all the time as a nurse and is just waiting for her next day off to be able to meet with the missionaries - she is reading and praying and wants to learn more. I bore my testimony to her and told her that I would pray for her to get a day off as soon as possible so she could receive the word. She was so excited! The other person was a blind man who heard the missionaries about 4 or 5 months ago and then had to move. He is anxious to meet with them again though and so I pushed the button that to send the missionaries to his house as soon as they can get there. He is super excited to learn more about the gospel as well - and he bore testimony to me that he felt the truth of the Joseph Smith story
It is so hard to beleive it is already November - only about a month and a week left here at the MTC before I leave! I hope that I will be ready by then, I am going to need all the Lord's help I can get in the language (that is for sure). Thank you everyone for the letters - I got a ton this week and it is very appreciated! I am about done writing those and sending them off, I just have one more to write. I hope that everyone is happy and healthy and loving and enjoying life like I am!!!
Ok so this is what happened this week as far as I can remember because I forgot my journal back at the room...my bad.
Last Friday we taught the second lesson in Mongolian and the Lord completely and totally helped. I would not have been able to say half the things I said without His help, the sentences came to me and the correct grammar and vocab and everything was there. What a great blessing that is! The Lord will truly help us while we are on His work and errand. We just have to remain worthy and pray for that gift and then listen as the Spirit prompts us. I love being able to feel the Spirit so strongly in Mongolian as well as English - it happens more and more now and it helps to strengthen me everytime. We were able to teach the entire lesson and fill up the time slot perfectly, down to the second. We ended with prayer and commitments just as our time ran out and we were beeped to exit the room. That was something else that I had been praying for and it was answered - to be able to use the whole time in teaching and answering questions. Friday was amazing!
Saturday is service day! Hooray for that! We just did chicken cordon bleu this week - so no exciting hunks of meat to season or million chicken breasts to marinate. Just taken frozen preprepared things out of packages and loading them onto pans - we did get 129 boxes done with about 40ish chicken cordon bleus in each box, so we work fast! Then we started cranking out our third lesson outlines which is all about Christ's gospel. There is so much to teach in it and to get the investigators to understand! We also started translating that self-same day so we could write more involved, in-depth sentences.
Sunday was great - it was fast Sunday! We fasted as a district with all the missionaries in Mongolia and the ones currently postponed elsewhere in the U.S. that the visas will come through. That the people currently out in the U.S. will get to go to Monoglia as soon as possible adn that our visas will be able to reach us here while we are at the MTC. With that many people fasting, I am sure a miracle will happen. And if not, I know the Lord is in control and I will be delayed to an area that I am supposed to teach in for a little while, to touch the people there. We still have no word about the visas, but the church attornies are there now in Mongolia working with the government to get them processed and sent to us as fast as possible. It was great on Sunday to hear the testimonies of all those that were leaving - all the Indonesian elders and sisters were leaving and a lot of them were able to get up and bear their testimonies. I know that they will be great missionaries and the Lord will bless them to find and teach the people there that are ready to receive the gospel! Our branch is really empty now because the St. Loius and California people left too - so there is only us Mongolians, and some elders going to Hawaii and Texas. Sunday night we had a great fireside from the executive secretary and his wife here. They are some of the most energetic and humorous people I have ever heard speak! I have never heard someone talk as fast as she did! It was all about the need for gratitude in our lives. We will be so much happier if we recognize how much the Lord has truly blessed us with already - families, friends, the Spirit, learning a language, whatever. Just looking back physically writing down and counting those blessing will enable us to see how much the Lord really does love us and wants us to be happy. And how truly blessed and privileged we all are. We were challened to give a prayer of all gratitude and I did that later that night and it showed me in great depth and detail about how much the Lord has truly done for me and how much He will continue to do for me as I remain faithful and work my hardest here in the mission!
Monday was translation crazy day. I got about half of my third lesson translated and we worked a lot on grammar principles in Mongolian and vocabularly. There is so much to learn! Sometimes, I am a little jealous at the people learning Spanish and French - because I can understand about half of what they are saying without much previous background (except for two year of high school Spanish, but that didn't really do much). But I know the Lord knows that I can do it and He has prepared me to serve a mission in Mongolia and will bless with me with help in the language as I work at it and ask for it. I will get there eventually. Then by the time I get home, I will just have trouble speaking English - two of our teachers do because they just got back a couple months ago and their grammar is always off in English and they forget words in English but can say it in Mongolian - so I know it is possible to fluently speak and understand the language and I pray everday that the Lord will bless me with that gift!
Tuesday was amazing! Simply amazing and wonderful and awesome! The RC that day was the best ever! I got to call two different people who are excited about the gospel and who have met with the missionaries and are excited to remeet with them again as soon as possible! Bearing my testimony to them and listening to them bear theirs even after one lesson (they were so strong!) was a great blessing and made me so happy - like bursting with joy happy, that Ammon hints at in Alma 36. One lady was in Florida who right now is working all the time as a nurse and is just waiting for her next day off to be able to meet with the missionaries - she is reading and praying and wants to learn more. I bore my testimony to her and told her that I would pray for her to get a day off as soon as possible so she could receive the word. She was so excited! The other person was a blind man who heard the missionaries about 4 or 5 months ago and then had to move. He is anxious to meet with them again though and so I pushed the button that to send the missionaries to his house as soon as they can get there. He is super excited to learn more about the gospel as well - and he bore testimony to me that he felt the truth of the Joseph Smith story
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