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