Friends and Family,

Really glad to hear from all of you guys!! Thanks soooo much for the HUGE packages I received from the Robinson's and my family! Should last me for the next 9 weeks!

 

My current start on my year supply

This week has been very hard but very rewarding. We had our last lesson with гэрлээ (we had 5 lessons). We invited her to be baptized and she said yes and then what do you know, she ended up being our teacher surprise surprise. But from our lessons together as a companionship we have really grown. Our lesson planning is on point and we get along really well. There's a lot of construction going on here so the MTC is moving alot of people around. We have 3 zones in our residence building and they all super immature and they keep us up at night. A couple of times we went out together and told them who they are supposed to represent and how they need to change. They didn't. They are all a bunch of fruitcakes. But we notified the branch pres. and they miraculously shut up so were good. We are also moving buildings for our classroom tomorrow. Everyone on the third floor, which is our whole zone, has to move because were getting a big load of Koreans. I don't know why they need the whole floor. There's already 4 empty classrooms on our floor alone.

Anyway last Tuesday we had a devotion on repentance from Elder Neil L. Anderson, no biggy just one of the 12 Apostles. haha He talked about how we don't have to make our lessons complicated, we should speak the gospel plainly or simply. In the scriptures it says the gospel is so simple a child could understand. And as we speak with power and authority our words will move them to repentance. Our words, when we have the spirit, are the most powerful thing. 

I've been doing choir and that's been a blast. We sang for Elder Neil L. Anderson. We sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer. That was good. The teacher is awesome though, it's pretty much why I went in the first place. But now we are practicing Consider the Lilies. It's a cool song

This past weekend we were getting ready for our first lesson with our new investigator билгүүн and a scripture in D&C 84 was weighing on my mind. I don't have the exact verse with me but it talked about how we should not think about what to say beforehand but to treasure up the words of life and then the spirit will put in your mind what you need to say. Then the next verse says that if you are truly faithful don't bring any notes or script. As a companionship I thought this would be a good approach. It will challenge us and cause us to grow.

 

Notes to learn Joseph Smith's First Vision in Mongolian

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So we studied questions we would ask and possible answers. We prayed alot before and then we found out we only had 10 min to give the lesson so we knocked and he answered and we went in without any notes. We found out he loves basketball and reading. So we talked basketball and then asked what he knew about our church, about God and Jesus Christ. He was giving us nothing. His understanding of God was nothing, so we told him about how were His children and he loves you. Then I asked him, You like reading right? We have what's called the Book of Mormon and so we talked about that and left him with a restoration pamphlet and left him to read Alma 32. We bore testimony too and we definitely felt the spirit. So as companions were doing great and our faith and trust is increasing also. 

In class, our district leader keeps calling on me to pray like every day and our teacher asked him why. He said he feels the spirit most when I pray. To me that's pretty powerful. That is one thing I have really focused on is my prayer. While speaking in Mongolian, I can kind of pray from the heart. It's still a little rehearsed but I can say it clearly and pretty fast. I'm working on my testimony right now so when I give my talk I can bear testimony in Mongolian. I've definitely learned to not look ahead because it can seem overwhelming at times, I've been focusing on looking behind and seeing how far I've come. It's like climbing a mountain, like Mount Everest. 

On another note, yes my haircut is good haha. I explained to them how important my hair is and how delicate it is. She rolled her eyes and pulled out the razor and laughed. It scared me but she was just kidding. 

The branch president is really cool. Me and him are pretty close. When we walk to the temple every Sunday, we talk a lot. I can see a district leader position in my future hopefully. Our D.L is cool now, but he always sleeps during personal study.  He opens his scriptures and just konks out. It's hilarious. But I've been working hard on my public speaking and leadership skills so maybe I can one day be a zone leader, then an AP.

I love it here and 2 weeks have gone by fast. They keep giving us different departure dates. Some say beginning of March and some say mid-March. At this point I just know I'm going to be here a long time. Again just a reminder. Dearelder.com is a great way to send letters. You will need my address, so you can get it from my blog on the right or from my parents.

бакаа!!! (goodbye) pronounced baka So there, you are about as far as I am in conversation speaking.  

Love you all,

Elder Heacock