May 30, 2016

Hi Everyone,

This week was really good. Like I told you last week, we went on a hike up in Jargalant and wow can I just say it was the most beautiful hike in the world! You will understand when I send you all the pictures I took! IT was awesome! You all would love that hike! I think the best part of it though was when we saw the shepherd with his sheep. We started talking to him and he was impressed with our Mongolian especially after we told him that we had only been here for about 7 months. He was a really nice man and he brought one of his goats over so that we could take a picture with it. He was super cool :) It was really nice just being outside and finally able to do some fun hiking and sight-seeing cause we weren't able to do too much of that during the winter so I am really looking forward to summer now :) I can already tell that it is going to be great! Some days we still have moments where it is really cold but for the most part it is warming up and we don't even need to wear tights anymore :) Let's see then the next big thing that happened this week that I can think of was I taught our District Meeting! That was really fun and I enjoyed doing that! I talked about Accountability and how important that is when relating to missionary work and how we need to be not only accountable to ourselves but also to the Lord and how we need to go to him every night with what we did throughout the day and look for areas that we did well and also for areas where we need to improve and then ask for his help on it.

Then on Saturday we were down in the Niseh area and we did some service for one of our less actives grandma. We went and got some water at the watering house that they have in the ger districts because they don't have plumbing there of course and so after we grabbed a huge bucket and filled it up and we brought it back to her house and watered all of her trees for her. She really appreciated it and it was fun being able to do some kind of service. That was my first time wearing my service clothes so that was fun :) Afterwards we went in and taught Unurjargal, our less active, about family history and it was really cool cause the family was there and they were helping her fill out the pamphlet we gave her with names and everything so it was really cool seeing them work together to fill it out. Even the grandma who isn't a member was helping and participating a little. It was just a testimony builder to me with how much family history really can connect with people and it is a strong tool that can be used in missionary work and can help people become interested in the gospel so it was just really neat being able to see that. We will meet with them again this coming week and hopefully the grandma will be there for the next lesson and who knows what will come from that :) And then this is where my week kind of went down hill because I got food poisoning again! The grandma made us this thing called mailmag which is "Mongolian oatmeal" and it is literally just oil, water, flour, salt. and water mixed together and then it sits in a bowl of oil. So you take it and spread it on some bread and then you take a sugar cube which you dip in water and then take a bite of and then take a bite of the spread and eat that. This wasn't very good but I think what really killed me was the milk I drank. Because I am pretty sure it was sour and really old but I drank it because I didn't want to offend them... Yea I won't do that again, lesson learned. I was out the rest of the night and the next day....

On the bright side though we had stake conference where we now officially have 2 stakes in Mongolia. Two members from the Seventy came to Mongolia to do this and so that was really cool! We say Elder Toronto and Elder Gong. They both gave great talks and it was really cool being able to hear from them and to have them create that new stake! SO yea its official!

Anyways that is it for this week! I love you all! Have a good week!

Sister Kerby

May 23, 2016

Hello,

So this was a good week, although I felt like it was the longest week of my life! I feel like it took forever for each day to pass by! haha. Anyways, we had a good week! I will be honest though this might be a short letter because I didn't write down anything that happened this week and so I don't really remember everything we did. The work is going so well! As I told you we now have another stake in Mongolia and it is so exciting! Dad, you mentioned the one husband and wife that I taught before with sister Tao. Turns out they are not married.... A lot of people in Mongolia call themselves husband and wife but they are not actually married. They don't have a marriage certificate because for some people it can be a hard thing for them to get so they don't have one. The sisters clarified and found that out. I hope that something will be able to be figured out for them! They are a sweet couple and he really
wants to be baptized but we will see what happens!

Remember that with each trial, we also gain a new strength so never be worried about trials rather enjoy the fact that you are being made stronger and can overcome even bigger things in the future. Try not to be overwhelmed with things going on in your life. Especially try not to focus on just the one problem in front of you and don't hold it in front of your face so that it blocks the view and keeps you from seeing the bigger picture :) There is so much better things ahead of us and that are worth experiencing these little things. So be happy in the moment and try not to stress so much over those things. Trust me I know, so I am just trying to help from my own experience in different things. It’s not worth getting upset over. At least most things are definitely not worth getting stressed and frustrated with. Yes I know I sound like one of those missionaries and you might be thinking yea okay Kristin, suuuure that is easier said then done. But I am serious. You can choose whether or not to let things effect you or you can choose to be happy, work through the hard part with a positive attitude OR you can take the harder less fun way and get upset and work through it that way. However I recommend the first :)

As for my investigators... we have a baptism coming up for our little family on the 24th of June :) His name is Bayarjawhlan and his wife Tuyatsetseg and then they have a 7 year old son named Shineehlel. They are really excited for their baptism. At first the dad wanted to wait a year so that they could be baptized together as a family but then we told him that if they both get baptized that date then in a year he will actually be the one to baptize his son because he will have the authority to do that and so he was really excited to hear that and so they will be getting baptized on the 24th! And then a year after that they can save to go take a trip to the temple and be sealed together as a family :) We have another family we are working with. The wife is an RM and then the husband is investigating. His name is Dulguun and they have a baby, He is doing pretty well! And then actually we are teaching a lot of less actives right now because there is a lot of those!

Also since my companion is still STL, I go out with Sister Harkers companion while they do splits and sister Harkers companion is a mini missionary so I am now helping train her and then we spend all day together during these times. Her name is Giiguul. She is really cute and wants to serve a mission as well except she wants to serve in Germany. She is fun and it has been great getting to know her. She doesn't speak a lot of English so I have to speak in Mongolian with her so it is nice because it really helps my language.

Other than that, that is about all. We are going on a hike today so that should be fun! Also IT IS BECOMING GREEN IN MONGOLIA. I went on a split with sister Lichtenberg from my group and we went up to her area in Jargalant and it is getting beautiful! Those will be the pics attached! Also we had a cool band playing so those are some pics of that! Anyways enjoy!

Love you all and have a great week!

Sister K

Yes those are fish eggs and yes I like them:) haha weird I know. Told you a lot has changed!

May 16, 2016

Hope you were all able to have a good week! This week has been good for me, not much missionary work done but that is because we had and English Training and then the actual English Conference on Friday and Saturday and then our Stake Conference was also this weekend so we were really busy with all of this. The English Symposium went really well! Dr. Evans came up for the Conference so it was good seeing him again. He is the Professor who trained us back when we were at the MTC and we had to go to the English Learning Center in order to be trained as English Teachers. Then Mrs. Gong, Dr. Paul from BYU-I and Dr. Anderson from BYU-H came up as well for the symposium. They were all presenters and in charge of this conference. Anyways, they all went around in the beginning of the week to observe everyone’s English classes and to see how we were doing and to make sure we had our equipment and that it was all going well with our schools. So Dr. Paul and Mrs. Gong came with Elder Taylor (one of the senior missionaries’ who is in charge of the English program here) and they observed Sister Nelson and I. Of course when they came we didn't have a projector or a computer and so we couldn't teach with the program that they had so we just taught without it. Sister Nelson and I were prepared though in case this happened and so we were ready to teach the lesson. The Professors thought that it went very well and Dr. Paul even said that we were one of the best classes that he had seen so they enjoyed it. As it turns out, because they liked us so much, we were asked to be a part of the English Training on Thursday. They asked us to teach part of a lesson they created to about 11 Mongolian students that they had chosen from the class that attends the Baynzurkh class (this is at our mission home that they hold this class) that is free to everyone. Anyways they asked us to teach them during our training and then the rest of the missionaries sat on the side and watched us while we taught. They were to take notes and make observations about how we taught and then afterwards they would discuss what we did well and what we needed to be improved on. This discussion was held by Dr. Paul. It was really funny because after we taught, Dr. Paul got up and asked us how we thought it went and we said it went well but there were just a few things that we could of explained better and then Dr. Paul asked our students what they thought and they really enjoyed our lesson. They liked our game and how we had them all conversating with one another. Then Dr. Paul asked them what we could do better and what they didn't like and they were all quiet and so Dr. Paul was like oh so they were perfect teachers then and so he’s like I will come back to you and ask again so think about it. He then went on to talk and when he finally came back to them he’s like okay did you think of anything and they were still silent so he was like, so they are still perfect teachers then and everyone just laughed at it. Sister Nelson and I just laughed an hi fived each other and then were like we will be here all year :) It was really funny. The rest of the Symposium went really well and every one that came really enjoyed it and said it was really helpful. The symposium definitely helped me realize how important teaching English here is and how much of an impact we can make by being here. I also learned some Chinese from this symposium which was pretty cool.

These are the teachers that I work with.

During one of the workshops that they had here, Mrs. Gong who actually teaches Chinese came in and did a really cool demonstration for how we can learn vocabulary and so she taught us in Chinese and showed that even though we don't speak the language we could still understand her. She had a great power point put together and it was a lot of fun. I am pretty sure I will never forget some of those words that she taught. So I officially know some Chinese :) It would actually be a really cool language to learn and I might take up learning Chinese when I come back. A lot of RM’s (Returned Missionaries) who went to Mongolia actually do that because it is another Asian language and since we have experience with on Asian language they decide to learn another. President Benson says that Mandarin is actually easier to learn then Mongolian and he is pretty fluent in both so he really does know. So along with continuing to study Mongolian I might study Chinese. Chinese is only crazy because it is a tonal language for example: during her demonstration she got off topic for a couple seconds and shared a story with us in Chinese that demonstrates this idea. Ex: Ma means three things in Chinese but they are all different because the tone and how you say it is different. 1. It means mom, 2. It means horse and 3. You are cursing someone when you say it. haha. So that is a little crazy, I am glad I wasn't called to speak that on my mission. Not sure how well I could learn that. haha So that was pretty much most of this week. It was spent with the symposium.

My MTC district ladies

We have some exciting news in Mongolia though!!!! During Stake Conference, it was announced that we will have another Stake!!!! This means that there are now 2 Stakes in Mongolia!!! It was so awesome! The district that we had here now became a Stake. We weren't thinking that this would become a Stake, we were surprised when we found out that this is how we gained another Stake because we were thinking that the Stake we already had was going to split into 2 so it was cool when we found out our districts became a Stake. This is awesome because hopefully before I go home, our big Stake will get enough MPs (Melchizedek Priesthood) and then will be able to split and then we will have 3 Stakes! Then we will hopefully get another Stake in the countryside up in Darkhan and then we will have 4 and then once we have 4 Stakes in Mongolia it shouldn't be much long before they will be able to build a temple here!!! I am so excited the work is progressing so much here! I look forward to everything that will be able to happen these next couple of years!

My MTC district ladies and gentleman

Well I think that might be it for this week! Not much else really happened this week! Although also during the Symposium a few of the missionaries learned some traditional Mongolian songs to sing during that so I was a part of that. That was a lot of fun so now I know some songs :) I wish I could send a recording of it but it is too long to do that so I guess you guys will just have to wait:) Well I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Sister Kerby

May 9, 2016

My new deel (traditional Mongolian) dress

Well this week has been pretty great :) This week we sadly won't be able to do a lot of work because we have the English Symposium coming up where English Teachers of the second language will be coming from America to this symposium and will visit our classes this week to see how things are going so that will be fun. Dr. Evans the one who helped teach us how to be teachers will be coming. The Conference will be Friday and Saturday and will be an all-day thing and then Thursday we will have a training for it so that will be interesting, I have no idea what we will be doing or what exactly it will be about but i will let you know next week how it goes:) It will be a great opportunity though for us to really be good examples and show how much we love it here and can help improve the English teaching program, Right now Mongolia is an example for this program and if it works here then it will also be used for other countries that the Church is trying to get into so it is really cool. Teaching English really is a great way to help other countries and also helps us be able to continue in this work and share it with others in countries who are not so open to different religions and won't let just missionaries in.

I also wanted to talk about my investigators because I feel like I haven't shared enough about them

This is one of my investigators,she is a contortionist

with you guys! So one family is a father, mother, and 3 kids. Their son Ganbayar has been taking the lessons for a while and just recently they have been taking them as a family, we are currently on the plan of salvation and they are doing great. They are so excited to learn and I am just so excited to teach them however since transfers happened, even though I am still in han uul. They are actually in the bounds of the other ward. So they attend the Tuul ward and so I won’t be able to teach them anymore which I am super sad about but I know that heavenly father will take care of them. I was so worried about letting them go and at first I didn't want to and wanted to ask permission to keep teaching them but the more I thought about it, the more I was like if I was supposed to keep teaching them then I

Her name is Erdenechimeg

would be in the Tuul ward not the han uul one and so I just need to trust in the Lord and trust that the other sisters will meet with them and take good care of this great family. Our other family is a mom, dad and their new baby. The mom is a LA (less active) and a return missionary who served in Arizona. She isn't quite LA but she hasn't been coming to church like she should and so we count her as LA. Dulguun is the dad and he really wants to be a member because he wants to marry his wife in the temple. Since the beginning before they even got married he wanted this and so this has helped us a lot in teaching, this church is centered on families so it is a great motivator for him. I am so excited for them. Yesterday we taught a great lesson at Janibeks house who is a member and is actually the brother in law of the wife so it was great! Our last family is a mom, dad and son and the dad is so curious about the gospel. He sincerely just wants to learn and to find out the truth. I am so excited for when we teach the restoration because this will be a powerful lesson for them because they also just want to know the truth. I have found this with a lot of investigators. They just want to know the truth. These are our main people right now, we have a couple of other investigators but I just wanted to share about them for now because they mean so much to me and I hope we can help them and that they will continue to progress in this gospel, It truly is great out here being able to see all these great things. It makes all the hard times worth it. Being able to see these families and see how much they love each other is just awesome :) Ahhh i just love them so much :) they make me want to be a better missionary :)

This was the baptism of Ariunzaya. She wasn't in my ward but I taught her pretty much most of the lessons when I went on splits with Sister Tao and Sister Harker so she counts me as one of her missionaries. She is so adorable :)

Any ways, hope you have a great week! 

Love Sister Kerby

May 2, 2016

Hey so sorry this will probably be a letter on the short side.... I had a lot of emails to read and look at and I’ll be honest my stomach isn't feeling a 100 percent right now.... I think it is the mantuu that Sister Ruu and I tried to make yesterday and they didn't turn out quite as good as we hoped.

My investigators are doing great :) Our families are really doing great. We visited them on Saturday and we showed them our albums. When they got to the picture with me and my three brothers at Ryan’s wedding that we took, the ward member we were with was like you guys are heavenly messengers or actually I guess that translates to angels in English. Sorry that was a direct translation from Mongolian, I forgot the word in English for a sec. anyways, so yea they loved us. haha and then they called my 3 brothers the 3 Nephites, haha thought you all would like that. Yawl are being compared to the 3 Nephites down here.

Also I got shocked the other day too.... Sis Nelson and I were planning for English and we were at the mission home borrowing one of their computers and the cord they had was really frayed and Sister Nelson thought we shouldn't use it but I was like oh its fine so I plug it in and then we try to turn on the computer and it doesn't work so I thought the cord just needed to be adjusted a little so I went to go fix it and then right when I touched it, it literally exploded! I screamed so loud and my had turned all black and Becky, the secretary and Munkhbold our AP came running in and were like what happened and so I told them and they were so worried. haha I’m okay though so no worries.... I took a pic afterwards of course, you can’t see it too well but oh well. Munkhbold got us another cord and told me not to touch it and said he would do for me and was all like za yu and so I was of course like za.... anyways it was scary but afterwards everyone laughed about it.
I am also picking up my deel today!!!! I finally got it!!! YAY! We went to the black market called Narantuul and I found one! I also got some cute boots! It was so cheap and awesome! I’ll send pics next week of what it looks like :)

I have never been so grateful for American hospitals until Friday.... We had to go to the hospital to get an aids test so that we could renew our Visa and stay in the country. So when we went to get it drawn, they couldn't see my vein in my arm and ended up taking blood from like the side of my wrist! It hurt so bad and they took forever cause blood wasn't really coming out from that area. They just kept saying Ymar sonin ym be? Which is along the lines of how weird is that, I can't quite explain it but it’s along those lines and I am just sitting there like yea no DUH that is weird! haha you are taking blood from my wrist like where my bone is! lol

The language.... it is coming :) there is a difference from the beginning but it is coming slowly. I’ll say that much. Also I understand more than I can speak. So yea, haha. It’s okay though, according to my investigators I am really cute so at least I have that going for me and they say that every time they see us we keep getting cuter so yea :) haha I love them so much.

Well that is it for the week! Anyways I don't have time to write anymore but this has been my week.

Love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Kerby