Conference in Darkhan

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was just plain weird. Good, but weird. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday all of the American missionaries gathered together to learn about being English teachers. Professor James, from BYU-Hawaii, came to train us. Everyone called him just "Professor" all week and it cracked me up. Apparently a very special trained ESL missionary couple will be coming to Mongolia soon. The Professor came to train us and learn about our program so that he can better train this future couple. We learned some good tips, fun facts, and laughed a lot. 

On Wednesday after the training, Sister Tsevelmaa and I got put in charge of buying bus tickets to Darkhan for 10 missionaries. It shouldn't have been a problem, but there was a lack of communication which made the process confusing and long. We lost our phone during the process which made me even more frustrated. Luckily, I had a few minutes to squeeze in some Book of Mormon study before the group arrived and before boarding the bus. This really calmed me down and made me happy once again. 

No one told me that the bus ride to Darkhan is four hours. It was a long, boring, car sick inducing ride. The company made it slightly more pleasant though and the scenery was beautiful. We arrived in Darkhan just in time for Sister Zaya and I to meet with President Benson about our lesson. We actually got treated to dinner at the hotel with President Benson, Professor, Batbold, and our companions. That was an interesting but pleasant experience. We were also granted companion study marathon points which Sister Tsevelmaa really liked. Then Sister Zaya and I rushed home to plan our lesson. The next morning we got up, practiced, and performed. We taught about how to read from the Book of Mormon with our investigators. Then we showed an example before allowing the other missionaries to practice. I think it went well. It was fun to see the "country" missionaries that I never seem to see that often. 

The ride home was even more eventful than the bus ride to Darkhan. This time Sister Tsevelmaa and I got to ride in the car. The other passengers included Batbold (driver), President Benson, the Grossbecks (they are going home next week), and Professor. We were traveling with a tourist so we stopped a few times to take photos. I saw a camel (and I got a picture this time). Sister Tsevelmaa and I  just sat squished in the back with all of the stuff, eating ice cream, doing language study, and listening to everyone else talk about their cool electronic devices --for four hours. 

Now I know what you're all thinking--isn't Sister Magleby a missionary? Why is she out roaming the countryside instead of meeting with people? Trust me, we've been thinking the same thing. Our time in our area was extremely limited this week, but we had some great experiences. Yesterday Relief Society was spent doing "office work." The Relief Society President and the VTing Supervisor stood up and announced everybody's visiting teaching assignments out loud. It was weird. (Not quite as weird as the Elders Quorum President standing up and telling everyone that the second coming is going to be on an April 6before 2050 though...) It was also helpful though because we learned people's names and visiting teaching assignments. We met a member, Selenge, who was assigned to visit teach a less active member that we had planned to meet that night. We decided that we'd go together. We went together, and taught one lesson. Then Selenge took us to her house where we met her non-member husband, a few other less active members that live near her home, and heard about her friends who are interested in the church. It was a productive evening. There seems to be a lot of potential in Unur. We're now trying to turn that potential into something we can work with. 

Love, Sister Magleby