Mormon Bloggers

Read the rest of this post here: Farewell Mongolia. Missionaries bid farewell to Mongolia (Daniel rear, 4th from right) I received this photograph and email from the mission. Parents, We thought you would like to see this photo of your missionary children who left our mission last week to go to other missions. We had a dinner and testimony meeting with the missionaries on the night of their departure. We celebrated the wonderful work they did in Mongolia. They put on a happy face. Thank you so much for the great parental support you have given to our mission through your missionaries. We hope that the visa problem can be resolved so that the elders can return to serve the remainder of their time here. Since Mongolia has a high incidence of tuberculosis, it is important that your missionary son or daughter has a TB test. It is up to the mission president in the missions where they are serving whether they have the skin test now or at the end of their mission. We just wanted you to be aware... Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this post here: Missionary Dan Email #1 from Hermiston, Oregon. Daniel (left) at Hat Rock State Park with Elders Seymore and Clark The plane ride took a long time. I got to sleep from Korea to America a bit. I think total flying time was 20 hours. Plus the layovers which added up to around 17 hours. It was good flights with opportunities to share the gospel on the way. I’ve been very shocked to be back here. Everything is huge and there is stuff everywhere. I’m quite in the culture shock. My companions have been great, asking lots of questions and showing interest. I have two right now. Elder Seymore from Arizona and Elder Clark from Utah. Daniel was in Salt Lake City for three hours It has been fun to teach in English, but also very different. Just the things people talk about here is way different. It was interesting hearing words I haven’t heard in forever. The members are awesome. I learned what the meaning of dinner appointment is. We have one... Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this post here: Daniel Prepares To Leave Mongolia. Daniel (wearing yellow shirt) with Mongolian family Daniel has to leave Mongolia. He traveled by car from Choibalsan to Ulaanbaatar to catch a plane to Korea. View from Daniel's apartment I am OK and alive. The trip took 13 hours. The city is really warm. Most of my group is here and it’s fun to see them. I think I have overspent on buying some things, but if I never come back it’ll be just about right. BatBold, one of the church leaders here, drove for us and he did great. We had some trouble with snow etc. so the trip took a while longer, but it’s all good now. The pictures: one is from my apartment window. I got a two-pant custom fit suit with way awesome inside material for about $55. It was exciting. One picture has one of my Mongolian shirts. And then one is with three of the people being baptized this Saturday. Left to right: Baatarsvkh, me, Thogtbayar, Bayarcaikhan. It’s sad to leave... Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this post here: Missionary Dan Is Kicked Out Of Mongolia. Daniel (second right in rear) with members in Mongolia. At the time they did not know he was leaving. We, Daniel’s family, knew last Sunday that Daniel was imminently leaving but were asked not to blog about it until we were sure it would happen. It will be a loss for Mongolia to have all those missionaries leave. They love Mongolia and its people and contributed much to improving their lives. Daniel wrote in an email Sunday: I was in complete shock hearing the news last night. Since we hit our year mark in the country 3 days ago I thought I had a solid 9 months left to work hard. It has been quite the challenge to have to accept I’m very likely leaving in a week with a possibility of finishing my mission somewhere else. As a foreign missionary, Daniel has two documents which allow him to be in Mongolia: one is his visa and the other is his residential permit. Both are stamped in his passport. His visa... Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this post here: Missionary Dan Email #17 from Choibalsan, Mongolia. Daniel (right) and companion in traditional Mongolian garb Thagaan Sar was lots of fun. We spent almost every day visiting members and eating buuz. It was an adventurous week. Elder Naisbitt and I didn’t quite make our goal of eating 200 buuz, but we did eat 155. Not bad at all. I was so full all the time. It made every day this week feel like one day. I really enjoyed the holiday. The best thing that happened this week though was Sunday. Church attendance soared. It was around 159. Along with that we had seven investigators from our work came. Three of them were faithful through Thagaan Sar so they will be baptized very soon. It truly made me happy and thankful. I hope that I will be able to see their baptisms. Transfer calls came as well so my new companion is on the way. I’ll see what I can do to get some pictures sent on their way. Daniel (second from right) with Mongolian members Daniel (back... Read the rest of this entry »

I’m temping in an office today. It’s boring. No, scratch that, because saying it’s boring only reflects badly on me–implying that I’m the kind of person who gets bored. There just … isn’t much to do. How’s that? I look forward to the mail coming once a day so I can spend twenty minutes sorting it. I love it when the phone rings even if the caller has the wrong number. Or is a telemarketer. Yesterday I took a survey about office supplies over the phone. I think I have made my point. Fact: working as a front desk secretary is essentially being a professional flirt. Think about it. I am the smiling face who greets the Fed Ex Guy and other delivery workers/couriers. I soothingly and chirpily connect callers to the department they seek. I charmingly welcome potential job applicants (all male so far). And I make small talk with my temporary co-workers, one of whom walks by the front desk much more than he needs to, it seems. I smile, I laugh,... Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this post here: Missionary Dan Email #16 from Choibalsan, Mongolia. Elder Willoughby (left) and Elder Odbayar in a ger visiting with the grandson of a family The holiday is great. We’ve been visiting members etc. It has been lots of fun. So far my stomach has handled the increase of meat intake. Some of the buuz tasted really great. I’m tied with Elder Naisbitt with 30. We have the rest of the week to go. So this week’s work was really slow. Everyone was busy. We spent our time doing service helping others prepare for the holiday. I got better at making buuz. I still need to learn how to make them better though. We had some taco seasoned buuz at the couple’s house. Those were the absolute best buuz I’ve ever had. We also had interviews over the phone with President Andersen. That was great. I also like talking with him. I think I’ll be staying here through the next transfer. Congrats to Jake. That GRE test score looks amazing. Keep up the great work. The... Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this post here: Church is Helping with the Mongolian Dzud. This article was written by Sister Andersen and was published in the January 2010 edition of Mongolia Mission Moments. In Mongolia this winter we are experiencing a natural disaster called a zud or dzud. There is no English equivalent for this Mongolian word. Zud results from one or a combination of phenomena: a very cold winter, a summer drought, an impenetrable ice cover and/or heavy snowfall occurring on the winter pasture lands. Animals from the Mongolian dzud. Photo credit: CAMDA A zud causes livestock to die from starvation and cold. Some parts of Mongolia experienced heavy rain and flooding this past year, however the areas most vulnerable to zud experienced a summer drought. The tall grasses which the herders would have cut to feed the animals through the winter were not available. Additionally the animals were not able to build up their strength by eating well through the summer months. In an ideal Mongolian... Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this post here: Missionary Dan Email #15 from Choibalsan, Mongolia. Choibalsan: 6 missionaries and 4 contacts. Daniel third from left. Brother Anderson standing. This week was somewhat slow, but at the same time was a good week. We spent some time doing some service for members. We made buuz and helped some others get some firewood. It was fun to make buuz and at the same time be doing service. This week we’ll probably spend a lot of time doing service as the holiday starts Sunday and goes for 3 days. The people prepare by making a lot of buuz. By a lot I mean some of them make 5,000 or so. Most people though I think make around 1,000 to 2,000. That is so much! Then during the holiday everyone one says, “Eat buuz, eat eat eat.” Missionaries here like to see how many they can eat during the week and set their goals etc. Last year I didn’t count, but it I ate close to 60 or so. This year I want to get to 200 or maybe 150. They also make salads, have fruit, and candy.... Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this post here: Missionary Dan Email #14 from Choibalsan, Mongolia. // If you cannot see the video click here. Thanks for the great emails, not much to write about this week. Enjoy the little movie clip of my investigator’s son. He is saying, “Hey Kobe, what’s up?!” I think it’s great, but it was my companion’s idea. Transfer calls came and I’m staying here with my companion Elder Od Bayar. That made me happy. I like this, being in Choibalsan. We had a normal work week with the normal meeting with people and teaching lessons. Right now we have some good investigators progressing towards baptism. My English class was fun teaching again. I teach another English class at the church. Nothing too exciting. My companion does whatever he feels like during English. So it is really surprising that January is already over. Time in the countryside goes by much faster and is a whole lot calmer and peaceful. In February everyone starts preparing... Read the rest of this entry »

Missionary Dan Email #13 from Choibalsan, Mongolia is a post from: Rickety Mongolian children Daniel recently visited This week was a busy week with my companion and I running between some lessons to get there in time. We also worked with the branch missionaries to come with us so we could teach more at the same time. We have wonderful branch missionaries here that are willing to come with us almost every day. This week I started teaching at a new location. It is called The Extra Ordinary Peoples or something like that. The name is really fitting for who they were. I think their job is fire fighting. I came in and they were all rushing around saying, the teacher is here! When they all filed in I asked them what they knew. Basically nothing besides, my name is…, hi, OK. So they asked me to start with the ABCs. So I taught the song and we sang it a lot. It was so funny. After singing five or six times I said, “Good.” Wrote it on the board etc… They all started freaking out,... Read the rest of this entry »

Missionary Dan Email #12 from Choibalsan, Mongolia is a post from: Rickety This week wasn’t quite the adventure week like last one. We did get some good experiences though. I got a snap shot of my frozen eye lash. It really isn’t as cold as it looks like. Well maybe it is, I can’t tell because my body has adjusted to the cold. I enjoyed reading Jake’s journal entry article. I’ve kept a steady journal since I turned 16 years old. In that time I’ve probably only missed a couple of months and that is it. Going back when I was 18 or so and reading those entries was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. I am sure I’ll love it even more as time goes on. I remember the ones I enjoyed the most were the times when I recorded what I was thinking and feeling. Also my third grade teacher had us write a journal daily too as well throughout the school year. That worn out journal is more precious than gold could ever be. Reading from that allowed me to recall memories and... Read the rest of this entry »