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

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