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
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Week 1
Hey everyone!I finally figured out the way to log into the missionary email thing here at the MTC and I hope you all get it there at home. And that you figure out how to post it to my blog so everyone who wants to can read it if anyone does!That being said, life here has been amazing! Different then anything I have experienced before, but in the best way possible! My companion is Elder Sessions and the other elders in my district are Elder Kunzler, Elder Draper, and Elder Liu. They are all from Utah and have a deep love of the cold and snow - something I have yet to appreciate. I will get there soon though, I kind of have to. So far for most of the time, we have been focusing on the language and teaching the first lesson from Preach My Gospel. The language is quite challenging and uses a part of my brain that I don't think I have ever got to use before - a completely new alphabet, new sounds your mouth has to make, new meaning to everything. But I am progressing just great and I know the Lord will bless me as I continue to work hard at it. Learning from Preach My Gospel has been a very enlightening experience. I have to rethink everything I have ever read or taught from it before because the Mongolian people have only barely heard of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, or scriptures. Everything is brand new to them and so everything must be taught from the beginning as simply as possible. However, the LDS chuch is currently the largest Christian church in Mongolia and is growing at an exponential rate so more and more people are learning. Also, 10% of all those baptized in Mongolia have served missions or are currently serving missions, how cool is that? My teachers here are amazing and have such a deep love and understanding of the gospel and the Mongolian language and culture that learning from them is a treat. They care about each one of us individually and loved us from the first day, even though they didn't know us at all. I hope that as I serve my mission I will be able to gain such a great trait to be able to love everyone. They also take the time to explain everything simply and in detail so that we aren't too confused at the language, just a little bit. Although that little bit can often seem really huge because there is just so much to learn! The food here is same old, same old. Hasn't changed much since I worked here a few months ago. Best nights are still Friday night (pizza night!) or Sunday because we have an ice cream bar. It doesn't compare to home cooking like Mom does or what we have a Grandma's house, but it isn't bad. I only get to mail and write letters on my P-day which is Thursday. That being said, thanks for all the mail I have already received! I am trying to write all you guys back and make each letter personal and get to know how you are all doing, but if I don't get it all done today, I will write you back next Thursday. I love letters by the way and love that you all have sent them! They totally make my day and let me know of the love and support I have at home, which is a great blessing. I am right now in the process of reading from Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage which is an amazing book. It doesn't necessarily teach or say anything new about the Savior that I haven't heard before, but it puts it all together and makes it simple and easy to understand. The Savior's life was truly incredible and I am extremely and eternally grateful for the sacrifice that He made for each one of us so that we may be able to live with our families forever and return to live with Him and our Heavenly Father again. What a blessing beyond what we can really comprehend! I also am just finishing up the Book of Mormon and that is always marvelous. To read the testimony of the great men of the Brother of Jared and Mormon and Moroni and how much they truly loved the people even though they were wicked is such a great example to us. Also, their stories of faith and perservance as being the last of the believers and holding to the iron rod through it all, never letting go of their testimonies. I hope that I can be like that for all my life. I just mailed a letter home with a bunch more info and questions for everyone! Lora - I need to write you a letter back still, I hope to get to it today, but if not I did put a section in the family letter for you. I love you all so much and miss you all tons! But I know that this is what I am supposed to be doing right now and I feel deep down that this is where I belong and that I am doing the right thing. The Spirit here is so strong and peaceful all the time, I wish you could all feel it. It feels just like the temple, where you get to leave the world behind and only focus on the gospel and the things the Lord wants us to do. General Conference especially was very powerful here. I am kind of sad that I never was as spiritually prepared to hear the messages before as I was now because I would have been greatly taught my whole life every Conference instead of only this past one. I know that what they told us is what the Lord wants us to hear right now and that each and every one of them is called of God to their position. I know that President Monson is a prophet and that he loves the church and us deeply and wants what is best for us just like Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ do. I know this church is true and am so thankful that I am a member and grew up in a family that encouraged me to grow up the way I did and to focus on the things of the Lord instead of the things of the world. I know the Book of Mormon is true and the spiritual power that it holds is truly incredible. I can't wait to go to the temple today, I am so excited for it! I love the temple! Please send my MTC cafeteria hat if you could - our service hours are spent in the cafeteria and I would much rather wear that than the hairnets we have to wear instead. I love you all tons and pray that you all are happy and healthy every night! The fall colors up here are really cool and the temperatures are really nice although a bit nippy. I hope the weather in Mesa is beautiful and that it finally cooled off. Can you send me Elder Will Casper's mailing address? It should be on an envelope in my bedroom or if you go on my Facebook look up the group - BYU friends on missions or something like that. I have run into Elder Sterling Tracy, Elder Tanner Hatch, Elder Robert Skousen, Elder Jared Carter, and others that I know up here and it is great to see each one and hear where they are going and how they are doing. Each is so excitd to be doing the work of the Lord just like I am and you can see it in their faces. That is another thing that I like about being up here - everyone is happy and their faces just shine with the Spirit and with love and peace. It is fantastic! Well, my time is almost up so I will now finish. Please keep telling people about Dear Elder and send me mail through that instead of email - beause I only get to 30 minutes to read and write and so I need the time to just write!Love,Elder Ryan Leroy Hughes
Week 2
Hey everyone!Time here at the MTC seems to fly by, it just goes and goes and goes! It is hard to believe that it is already P-day again. Tomorrow I have to teach the first lesson in Mongolian so pray for me to be able to do it! It should be a very interesting experience and I am sure the Spirit will help me know what to say and how to say it. That is my hope and prayer anyway. So I think I might just do what I did in college and give an update on what I learned or did everyday this week and let the letter flow from there. I hope everyone get the letter that I sent to them today - I sent one to family, Grandma Hughes, Aunt Karen, and then Elder Taylor and Elder Hord. It was a crazy busy morning full of writing and now just started the wash and have time to email.So last Thursday we went to the temple and it was amazing, it always is and always will be to me. Just the Spirit that you feel at the temple is incredible and always is a highlight to my week, whether here at the MTC or when I was at BYU or at home. It just always lifts me up and lets me feel of my Heavenly Father's love for me. Friday we taught the first lesson in English to people who had served there missions in Mongolia previously. They asked all kind of interesting questions that I had never thought about and that I took for granted. Like having a Heavenly Father, how the Atonement works (as simply as possible) and other questions. You truly have to start from the ground up in order to teach them the gospel and it is an incredible experience. It helps me to remember how simple the gospel really should be and how that how powerful the Spirit can be when we just focus on the simple things and bear testimony to them. Word to the wise - it is an extreme offense to set a book down on the ground or slide a book across the table to a Mongolian. They have such a love and respect for learning. You can only hand books to them using your right hand and it has to be open palm - otherwise you aren't showing enough respect to learning and knowledge that books contain. It just shows me how much we take for granted here especially books and learning when they truly are a blessing and should be given the proper respect and cared for. Saturday we started to translate the first lesson into Mongolian and let me tell you that English and Mongolian are about as far apart as you can get - different alphabet, different sentence structure, different grammar rules, different conjugations, just everything. But I was able to get it done (with a lot of help from my district, my teachers, and the Lord I can assure you). It took me three or four days though to get my entire lesson outline translated and now I know it is still not simple enough so I need to go back and simplify it some more before I try to teach it tomorrow. Sunday is one of the best days of the week because all we have is meetings and no class. And the meetings are all blessed with an abundance of the Spirit if you take the time to feel it and to reflect on all the words that are being said and taught. Sunday is also movie night and this week I got to watch the Testaments! What a great movie that is! I could watch it 100 times over and still have an amazing spiritual experience and have my testimony of Jesus Christ and His Atonement and the truth of the Book of Mormon strengthened by watching it again! We also had a fireside Sunday night where we got to learn from one of the missionary department people of the church and he told us to keep the gospel simple and to teach like Preach My Gospel teaches us to teach.Monday was back to a full day of class and translating and trying to get Mongolian down enough to speak it. It is amazing how far I have come in just two weeks and I know the Lord is helping me as I study it and try me best and hardest to understand it. I still have an awfully long way to go though. Brother Marghetts, one of my teachers, taught us a game on Monday night that was really fun. We tossed around a ball and said a word. Then the person who caught the ball had to relate that word to the gospel or the first lesson and teach us a truth or bear testimony or something. Man, does it make you think fast! When I got the word "kangaroo" the only thing I could come up with was that kangaroos have a pouch to keep their young in and to care for them and protect them. Much the same that our Heavenly Father tries to keep and protect us from the world in the gospel pouch. But it is our choice whether to stay in the pouch or to leave it. That was the best that I could come up with, but it was a fun game nonetheless. A good break from Mongolian!Tuesday is a great day because we get to go to the Referral Center and there is a devotional on Tuesday night. I made two successful calls in the Referral Center about people receiving their free movies or Book of Mormons or whatever. It felt great. The devotional was about the need to do missionary work using the Book of Mormon because it is the book God has given us to testify of the truth of the Restoration. And what a powerful book it is. We learned that missionaries need to stop "hopskotching" around and need to start teaching from the beginning of the Book of Mormon. And not to be afraid to have investigators read a lot of pages as an assignment so that they can truly feel the Spirit before we come back to visit them again.Wednesday was a great day as well learning the language and getting along! My companion and I also got two new Elders in our room who are going to St. Louis, Missiouri and will be with us for three weeks because they are only speaking English. They seem to be really cool and I look forward to getting to know them each night and morning when we see them! Sad thing that they come and leave really fast compared to us though, we seem to be here forever! I love being on a mission and the decision I made to come! It has been one of the best decisions I have ever made so far and the Lord has blessed me in so many ways that I don't feel I really deserve. I just need to keep working hard and I am sure the language will come! I am so happy to be here and having the time of my life. Who knew being a missionary could be so much fun?!?Mom - there were a lot of questions you had that I answered in my letter home to you. My BYU password though is rh and then the 6 digit number that I always use. Don't worry too much about me, I am doing great and loving being here! It is amazing!I hope everyone is doing amazing and loving life just like I am! I pray for all you guys and know the Lord will bless you as we follow His commandments! All letters and dear Elders are greatly appreciated and I will respond to what I get every Thursday! Please send pictures too of what is going on!I love you all!Elder Ryan Leroy Hughes
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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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