Only 3 weeks left!

Hi Everybody!!

The weeks are flying and I can't believe I leave in three weeks. Next week Monday we are only allowed to speak in Mongolian. We'll see how that goes since I only know gospel vocabulary. But our teachers tell us that it will prepare us greatly and we won't be as shocked when we get to Mongolia.
Last week at the TRC we taught the gospel which is faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the end. For some reason, I was really excited to teach that day even though I wasn't prepared more than normal. I bore my testimony all over the place during our lesson. The lesson went well but the poor investigator was really tired and I guess my slow Mongolian put him to sleep. He kept falling asleep throughout the whole lesson. So I guess it was just my luck.
We got a new teacher this week who got home from his mission two months ago. His accent is different and takes a little to get use to. But he is really patient with us and believes in us and sees great things. The MTC is hiring another Mongolian teacher so we'll have three! But we're not sure when he comes in.
We taught English for the last time this week and it is a great feeling to kneel in prayer with people from around the world. We taught a class with people from Tonga, Panama, Honduras and Cambodia. We taught them how to teach their investigators about what happens at a baptism. I was helping the two Cambodian sisters and they are sooo cute! One was explaining to the other, "You will then be immersed in the water for one minute." I told her that it was probably only a second. She realized her mistake but then she made a joke out of it. She said, "No, actually we'll baptize you for one hour because you have many sins and it will take along time to wash them away." They both burst out laughing and so did I. I love the internationals!
Last week we had a large group meeting where we talked about a missionaries purpose, which is to baptize. The teacher said that anyone can baptize. The capacity that we have to baptize will be directly related to our preparation, obedience and our ability to teach with the spirit. How many you baptize is not preordained, it is up to the missionary. Pres. Hinckley challenged the church to double the number of baptisms. That was back in 1999 and the numbers keep dropping. People have a misguided view of agency. You can influence people and how they use their agency. If you do a good job they have more of a chance of using their agency correctly. He asked us, "Does it make any difference on how we present the gospel, YES!!" If we don't teach with the Spirit then nothing will happen because the Spirit does the conversion. If the missionaries are disobedient, the Spirit cannot be there as they teach. The Lord has promised us that the field is white and ready to harvest and that there are people out there who are looking for the truth but do not know where to find it. If we ask for the Lord's help then He can prepare a way for us to find them. So DON'T go telling anyone that they are going to a place where it is hard to baptize. If they go on their mission thinking that they can't baptize then they won't. You must encourage them to work their hardest and to follow the Spirit and be obedient and they will baptize. The field is READY for harvest. It is not a time for planting seeds, it's a time for harvesting, we just have to find them.
Quotes of the day:
Elaine S. Dalton when she came and spoke to us:
"You must be willing to give up the life you have planned, in order to have the life that is waiting for you"
"We need to value the companionship of Holy Ghost that we will never let anything get in the way of losing that companionship."
"I can do nothing of myself and cannot even do hard things. But if I rely upon the Lord and His Atonement, I cannot only do the hard things but I can do ALL THINGS."
Proverbs 3:5-6
Sister Sumstion