Hey everyone! I just want to thank all of you for your Dear
Elders, packages, and letters! It means a lot and just brightens my day when I
hear from you guys and the outside world.
So to begin with, Elder Walton (McRae's cousin) just got
here and happens to be in my zone! He's really chill and talk about Arizona
sometimes. Anyways, there are definitely days when the language is hard and you
feeling like giving up. But then there are days when you feel like Mongolian is
coming easier to you and you can actually recall sentences and words. Elder
Scrimsher and I have been getting better at teaching fake investigators. We
used to just write everything in Mongolian and then read it off to them, but
then we realized it never really brought in the spirit. So we decided to jump
into the unknown and rely more on the spirit. It was definitely harder and
shorter at first, but now we are starting to get the hang of it. It's such a
blessing to know that Heavenly Father is always right there helping us and all
we have to do is turn towards Him and lean on Him.
Let's just say Sunday came with a couple surprises. Elder
Scrimsher and I were walking down the hall to prepare the sacrament when the
first counselor in the branch presidency pulled us aside and called us to be
the zone leaders! I was shocked because we had only been in the MTC two and a
half weeks and now we are going to be the zone leaders for seven more! So that
was crazy and then we learned that we would be having Elder Rife join our
companionship since his companions left the MTC. He's actually going to leave
in a week to the Belgium Netherlands mission and it's been fun having him with
us. He's an awesome guy and really funny.
So speaking of Elder Rife, we were all eating dinner and
Elder Rife swallowed part of a fish bone in his salmon. It wasn't that bad but
it was stuck in his throat so we decided to go to the health center to check
them out. I guess things are serious around here because they send us straight
to the ER at the Utah Valley hospital to check him out. And this also happened
to be the same hospital that my friend Ethan and I went to when we got in a car
crash so it brought back a lot of memories. But it was so weird to leave the
MTC into the outside world! The three of us felt like we were escaping the
prison we had volunteered to be kept at and didn't know what to do! When we
were in the hospital, we literally followed Elder Rife everywhere because we
are his companions. That's what we are supposed to do and a lot of people were
giving us weird looks hahaha. And then Elder Rife's sister happened to be his
nurse! She was super happy to see him and they took pictures together. So we
actually happened to stay at the hospital for three hours just for them to tell
us that it was just a scratch. But hey we weren't complaining because we got a taste
of the outside world and Elder Scrimsher and I practiced a lot of Mongolian.
Let's just say it was a success and now I'm starting to wonder if Elder Rife
was just faking it to see his sister hahaha.
Like always, this week was a pretty spiritual week. For the
first time I actually felt the spirit while teaching a lesson in Mongolian. I
told our fake investigator that I felt it and he said he felt something too.
Then the sisters wanted blessings on Sunday and one of them happened to ask me
to give them one. It was such a neat experience and I felt the spirit super
strongly while me and all of the elders in my district stood in that circle to
give her a blessing. My branch president later taught us that we need to strive
to be worthy of the priesthood so if someone needs a blessing at any time, we
can say, "I can do it." It was so amazing to hear that and a big
testimony builder for all of us. I'm so glad I am where I am today and thank my
Heavenly Father for everything He has given me. And to be honest, sometimes I
don't know when I wake up in the morning if I will have a good day or a bad
one. But whether it is easy or hard, I put all of my trust in the Lord and His
timing because He knows what's best for me. A lot of the time I put my head
down to grind through the hard tasks that are given to me, but I always keep my
eyes looking up, staying positive and looking at everything that Heavenly
Father has given me.
I love you guys so much and hope you all have a great week!
-Ахлагч Ogden
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