808Blogs

Week 47

October 19, 2008 Aloha Family and Friends, Well it looks like things are going to change really quickly here. I just got news that I'm leaving to Murun this next week. I can't wait for a change of scenery. Murun is North West and close to a giant lake so it's going to a bit colder. I'll tell you more about it as I find out. I really hope president doesn't change his mind now that he's told me. I'm happy to know that I'm leaving, but at the same time I've been here for nine months and some of my investigators are ready to be baptized. Unfortunately I won't get to see any of them. Two of the girls I meet with regularly when they found out that I was leaving they wanted to be baptized this week. Unfortunately they haven't been to church in the last 3 weeks because they were in the country side. Oh well, I have got a good companion here and he'll get them baptized in my absence. Mail is going to take a little longer now and I'll probably be forwarding more things through you as I will only be able to get mail every 6 weeks or so. Also all the commodities of the cities will be gone so, barbeque sauce, peanut butter, and what not will be appreciated more than ever. Apparently there is nothing out there. Oh yeah, I'm going to be the Branch Presidents companion which should be fun. He's apparently a real sweet kid and a hard worker plus it means I'll still be with a Mongolian so I'm happy. I have a lot to do today so this will be short. Love, Elder Pitt

Week 46

October 12, 2008 Aloha Family and friends, All is well in Mongolia. It's funny I haven't had half as many people threaten to kill me since I've been with a Mongolian companion. This week was pretty good, but then again it was conference week, and conference week always seems to be good. I had an investigator come back from the countryside and we finally got a chance to meet with her this last week. She's been investigating for over a year, but struggles with smoking and was having a hard time understanding the message we were sharing. This time it was different and I think everything is finally falling in place. The two investigators I had baptismal dates set for almost 2 months ago never made it, school started for one and the other just got back from the countryside after a month long sojourn, but I know that at least one of them knows it's true so I am hopeful. The area was re-divided a week or so ago and it's opened up a whole lot more possibility, but I haven't really had time to work the area lately because of a busy English schedule. I'm getting better at teaching English, but it's still exhausting. I'm learning to have fun with it though, playing silly games. This last week we played "Do you love your neighbor?". It involves everyone sitting in a circle of chairs with one person in the middle. The person in the middle asks one of the people in the circle if they love their neighbor if they say yes the two people sitting on either side of the questioned person have to switch seats. If they say no then they have to say what kind of people they love and everyone fitting the description has to swap seats i.e. people wearing black. The class really seemed to enjoy it. If anyone has any good games I can play in English send them my way. Not much more to report really. One correction, I said I bought a 16oz jar of peanut butter for 12$'s last week, I was mistaken it was really a 48oz jar, just thought you would like to know. Oh yeah I almost forgot, transfers are coming up soon and it looks like I'll get a change of scenery. Keeping my fingers crossed. ~Elder Pitt

Week 45

October 5, 2008 Aloha Family & Friends, Not much to report this week outside of a strange craving for peanut butter. I went to one of the few places in the city you can get the stuff, and ended up shelling out almost $12's for a 16oz jar of Skippy extra chunky peanut butter. I regretted the decision all the way up until I sunk my teeth into my first peanut butter and apple jam sandwich and then in an instant the clouds of regret melted away, and were replaced with a subtle euphoria that is beyond words. I never thought peanut butter could bring such great joy, but then again I have never lived in a place where you have to pay $12's for a jar of peanut butter. My companion's been complaining about the area a lot lately and it really got me thinking about how much I learned from working in such a difficult area for so long. I think the greatest growth has been in my patience. I haven't seen a baptism in 3 transfers; I haven't had any investigators that I can consider progressing in almost a month. I've been averaging 4 lessons a week. It hasn't been easy, but I try not to complain. I was talking to other missionaries and it almost made me laugh to hear all their complaints. One elder was complaining about a horrible split he went on and how there wasn't a lesson all day, I laughed as I thought about weeks when I couldn't manage to find a single person to meet with. Another Elder told me about how he was tired of contacting worthless referrals. I wish I had referrals to contact. I complain from time to time, but not often. I can't say I've learned a lot here but my patience and my perseverance has definitely been stretched to new limits. I imagine if I hadn't learned patience I would have ended up killing one of the dozens of rude people who go out of their way to offend me each week. I just keep going forward even when it seems like there is not much on the road ahead. I imagine that that is something I need to work on is to expand my vision to see exactly what is on the road I'm traveling. ~Elder Pitt

Week 44

September 29, 2008 Aloha Family, Another uneventful week, with not much to report. Zone conference was this last Monday so I'm a day late on my email, hope you didn't worry too much. Really don't know what to write this week. Sounds like there is a lot going on back home. I'll be keeping you all in my prayers. I got another letter from Adam and he seems to be doing really well. I really don't have a lot of time or content to write today. Love, Elder Pitt

Week 43

September 21, 2008 Aloha Family and Friends, Another week with not much to announce has past. Time flies much too fast, all I can do is to try to catch what I can of it before it zooms past my head. It's hard to find balance between keeping myself working diligently and going insane. On an up note things are getting easier. Having a Mongolian companion has been a great help. I was reading one of the missionary pamphlets today in Mongolian while my companion was getting his hair cut, and minus a word here and there, I understood it perfectly. The Book of Mormon still poses a slight problem, but I can usually get the general idea of what the verse is saying. The real highlight was being able to translate an entire session of sacrament meeting for the several English speakers that attend my branch without having to make up a lot to fill in the gaps in my understanding. The first speaker spoke real fast and my translation was spotty, but I was able to pretty much able to keep up with the second speaker. I'm still far behind those I came to Mongolia with but, I think I'm finally learning to be grateful for the abilities I have been given and not become discouraged because my peers abilities exceed my own. I imagine that I might actually get the hang of this language before it's time to go home. I had the opportunity to go into an interview with President Anderson, the mission president, this week which is always a booster. Among other things we discussed the difficulties that my area has been facing. Selbe isn't exactly a struggling area, but because of a poor division of the area some companionships, my companionship included, have a hard time finding work, while others constantly have a strong investigator pool. We discussed the need for a re-division of the area as well as the importance of strengthening the members of the branch. Hopefully with the insight I gained I will be able to move forward and do some good in this branch before moving on. That's all for now, Elder Pitt

Week 42

September 14, 2008 Aloha Family and Friends, I'm a little late again today, went on an early morning outing to Terelj. It's nice to get out of the city, but it's stressful as well. It seems like every ten seconds we are forking over more money to pay some other phony charge for this or that. I guess I need to get a tan and shrink a few inches if I want to experience Mongolia without getting ripped off. But on the bright side apart from getting to see a giant turtle shaped rock and a Buddhist temple I got to see camels as well as an eagle. Outside of our little outing not much has happened lately. We threw a party on Saturday and invited all the branch missionaries new members and investigators which was pretty fun. My two investigators came and they seemed to enjoy it, unfortunately they didn't make it to church on Sunday. They are supposed to be baptized this coming week but it looks like we'll have to push it back as one decided to go on an unexpected trip to the country, and they want to do everything together. English is picking up again I got it all scheduled out and I'm going to be teaching 12 hours pretty soon which I'm not looking forward to, but you got to do what you got to do. Sorry I don't have a whole lot to write this week. I'll send some pictures from our outing today as a consolation. Love, Cam

Week 41

September 7,2008

Aloha family,

I got my package Friday right on the year mark, thanks a lot I'm really enjoying the dried mangos. My companion seems to like them a lot as well so we're racing to eat them.

Thanks a lot for the lengthy letters, and the concern this week. Try not to worry too much about me though. I haven't been feeling extremely sad or anything like that.

In other news, work has been moving along slowly but surely. My two investigators with baptismal dates are progressing nicely and school has started so everyone is coming home from the countryside.

I really don't know what else to say today. Thank you all for the concern especially Krissy for her lengthy letter.

Thanks a lot love you all.

Sorry for such a short email this week. All I did was sleep and try to when I wasn't sleeping.

Love, Cam

One Year Mark

Aloha Everyone,

This is "The Mom" stepping in to say hello! I hope you won't mind that I share some of my thoughts with you.

I can't believe that a year ago this week we were dropping Cameron, oops I mean Elder Pitt, off at the MTC in Provo. I remember the awesome experience of sitting in a room full of Missionaries with their families and feeling overwhelmed by the spirit that was present. All of these young men and women had kept to a higher standard and were worthy to be called as servants of the Lord. My son stood tall among them and I couldn't have been any more proud of him than at that moment. After a tearful goodbye, and the last hug I knew I would receive from him for two years, we waved him off as he walked through the Missionary's door. I have missed him tremendously.

I have always felt extremely blessed to have such a good and noble son. Because of him, I have had on many occasions, the opportunity to feel closer to my Heavenly Father. I felt so humbled when he was born as I knew that I had been entrusted with a special spirit. I gained a testimony of the healing powers of the priesthood through him as my husband blessed our infant son in a time of need and I witnessed an instantaneous response to that blessing. I saw the prayers of a young child answered specifically for him (and I also) to learn that prayer is real and powerful. As he grew he was an example to me of what was right and true.

Raising Cameron was a joy. He was mature beyond his years in many ways and I learned much from being his mother. I want him to know that the love that I feel for him is most likely just a small measure of the love the Lord, with his capacity to love, has for him. He is truly deserving of this love.

Elder Pitt is now continuing to bless my life as he goes forth in his willingness to serve the Lord on his mission. I believe that the people in the Mongolia mission are very lucky to have him there and that he is where he was meant to be. I am so grateful that he is now having this incredible opportunity and my prayers are with him as he continues to serve a valiant mission.

Thank you my son for your goodness. May the love that surrounds you, and that you are so deserving of, lighten your load and uplift you. Go forward with peace in your heart and the knowledge that you are truly a chosen son of God.

With Love,
Mom

Week 40

August 31, 2008

Aloha Family and Friends,

Hope all is well. I can’t believe that this next week is going to be a year. It feels like one really long week. I seem to be incapable of judging time anymore. I tried to think about all the experiences I’ve had over the last year last night before I went to bed, but I just ended up falling asleep. My overwhelming desire for sleep seems to be a problem these days. If I’m not actively involved in doing something, before I know it I’m asleep. It doesn’t help that we went back to winter hours this week so my sleep schedules thrown out of whack again.

I’m going to have a full English schedule before long again, which I’m not looking forward to. You would think that after a year I would have learned how to teach English, but it’s just not the case. Plus now that I have a Mongolian companion it’s going to have to be a 100% me 100% of the time. I guess I better try to learn fast.

Work had a slight pick up this last week, which was nice. One of the families that we meet with regularly was remodeling their house, so my companion and I were kept busy laying down linoleum and doing random repairs. We have two investigators preparing to be baptized on the 9th of this month which is exciting. After a year of being on my mission these are the first two investigators to get baptized that I can call my own. My area is kind of an anomaly in this mission, or perhaps it’s just the missionaries that get put here, either way this will be the first baptism in this area in almost a year. Hopefully it’s not the only baptism I’ll see here.

The website is moving along. Hopefully I can get it finished up soon and get out of the office.

School is starting here which has brought all sorts of chaos. I really dislike chaos. Large amounts of people just make me anxious, and the hecklers don’t help. Some guy started chewing out my companion today and I just started laughing at him. He didn’t quite know how to take it, nor did my companion.

It seems I don’t have a whole lot to say this week.

Until next time,
Elder Pitt

Week 39

Hey Family and Friends,

Hope all is going well. Another week has past and I’m glad to say that it was a bit more exciting than the last. First off Mongolia won not one but two gold medals, which resulted in all around madness. It reminded me somewhat of whenever Kahuku won the state high school football championship and everyone would go crazy: people running around the streets, hanging out of car windows waving flags, screaming, honking horns, public drunkenness (wait that’s normal here….um an increase in public drunkenness), etc. It reminds you of how big a Gold medal actually is. You kind of forget the significance when your country gets a couple dozen every time. If I understand right this was the first time Mongolia has ever won a medal, so I guess I’ll forgive them a little.

In other news, fall hit like the flick of a switch. One day it was burning hot and the next it was cold enough to warrant a suit coat. I imagine at this rate winter will hit in a day or two.

The work hasn’t been great and I doubt all the excitement has helped, but despite low numbers we keep pushing on. We have two baptismal dates set for the 19th of next month which is exciting, it will more or less the first baptism that I can say I really had a significant part in. Hopefully everything runs smoothly.

My body hasn’t been cooperating with me lately, doesn’t ever want to wake up. I’ve been taking vitamins, eating well and drinking lots of water, but I’m afraid I just have some sort of bug.

I hit my year mark in two weeks here which is quite discouraging. Time flies much too fast. Before I know it, it will be time to go home. Only more motivation to buckle down and get to work I guess. I suppose.

Well I’ve run out of things to say this week until next time,
Elder Pitt

Week 38

Aloha Family and Friends,

Another week has flown by, things move so fast. In few weeks here I’ll be hitting my year mark which scares me to death. It’s taken me a year to just barely start to be able to speak the language, by the time I figure everything out it will be time to go home, I fear. Being with a Mongolian has been a great learning opportunity. A lot of Americans have a hard time with Mongolian Elders, but my companion's a sweet kid so I guess I lucked out. I understand about 90% of what he says, about 70% of what everyone else says, and then every once in a while I understand nothing. Speaking Mongolian 24/7 continues to be a challenge; it’s good for me, but mentally exhausting at the same time.

After a long dry spell work finally seems to be picking up, which is a blessing. I’ve gotten so used to having nothing in the way of investigator work that it’s going to take some getting used to. I’ve been on my mission for a year now. I guess I need to learn sooner or later. Luckily the website is finally starting to move forward so I imagine if I hurry and no more problems come up I could be out of here by the next transfer. I like Selbe, but the more my companion and others tell me how great the countryside is and how friendly the people are the more I want to get out. I guess I just wasn’t made for the city, but I’ll try the make the best of it while I’m here.

It’s seems like I’m running out of things to write these days. Not much new has happened lately. I went to a big Buddhist monastery this morning. It was interesting, but I just felt out of place walking around a Buddhist temple wearing my name tag. Not that the Buddhists cared, it actually seemed more like a tourist attraction than a holy site. They charged about 2.50$ for foreigners to enter the monastery and another 2.50$ if you wanted to take a picture of the giant statue that resided inside. Meanwhile outside all sorts of peddlers walked around try to get you to buy their trinkets. I don’t mean to belittle their religion it just felt extremely awkward to me.

Well I seem to have run out of thing to say today. Until next time.
Elder Pitt

Week 37

Aloha Family and Friends,

I hope all is going well. I survived my first week as a father. It actually wasn’t that bad, my head just hurts from speaking Mongolian 24/7, but apart from that my companion and I are doing fine, and I’m learning a ton. My companion hasn’t quite adjusted to the city life yet, and is somewhat discouraged by the unfriendliness of the city people and difficulty we have in finding work. He keeps telling me how much nicer it is in the country, and how much easier it is to find people to meet with. It doesn’t help that my only two investigators that were consistently willing to meet with us packed their bags and headed out to the countryside as well. It’s hard to be in such a progressing successful mission and see no success in your own work, but I’m trying to be optimistic. If there is one thing I’ve learned in the last 6 months of being in this area is that pessimism/negativity doesn’t help anything. I keep telling my companion that he needs to remain optimistic and have faith that the Lord will give us work, and eventually we’ll find some investigators. In the mean time it just means a lot of walking, and looking for work, hopefully we’ll find some soon.

I was supposed to go to the black-market today, but unfortunately a bunch of computer problems came up, so I sent my companion with a few other elders and now I’m stuck in the office waiting until they get back. Unfortunately, not much happened this week and I’m kind of at a loss as to what to write. I would attach some pictures, but I left my camera at home so I guess you’ll just have to settle for a short email this week.

~ELDER PITT

Week 36

August 3, 2008

Aloha Everyone,

Sorry I didn’t write much last week. I’ll try to make up for it this week.

I’ve become a father! Okay, so I haven’t really become a father that’s just what missionaries say when you become a trainer. When you become a missionary it’s like starting a new life. The MTC is the pre-mortal life, then you’re born into the mission, your first area is your birthplace, your trainer is your father, your trainee is your son, your trainee’s trainees are your grandsons, and when you leave your mission you die. The whole life cycle is experienced in a two year period.

Anyways, this last Saturday transfers happened. I’m staying in Selbe and as I mentioned before I’ve become a trainer. My trainee is a really sweet Mongolian kid named Gurragchaa, from an outlying city called Khovd. So far having a Mongolian companion has been great. It’s so nice to have a native speaker with you to practice the language and ask questions of. On top of that he has a really wonderful spirit about him. I’m afraid I was becoming a little less than enthusiastic about the work, and since he has come the fire seems to have rekindled itself. Transfers are always a great time to re-evaluate what you have been doing and make changes. It’s like having a fresh start every 6-12 weeks.

Other than the transfer not much has happened as of late. I’m still working on the website, trying to get that finished, despite all the obstacles that keep popping up. One of my progressing investigators decided to go to another outlying city for a few months which is somewhat frustrating. Luckily both Elder Romberg and Elder Armstrong, my two former companions who also taught her, are both there now so she won’t have to feel uncomfortable with a new set of missionaries.

Oh I almost forgot! In other news I’m apparently popular with the Mongolian ladies. I was doing street contacting the other day, when two girls that we had recently walked past decided to turn around to catch up and ask us a few question. I talked to them and answered the usual questions of who we are and what we do. They asked if we could give them private English lessons, and if they could hang out with us as we walked around the city talking to people so they could learn English better. I said no, but told them about the free English classes at the church, that I and the other missionaries teach, and took down their information to contact them later. Luckily they lived in the Sisters’ area so I passed their info to the Sisters. The Sisters called me the next day and started teasing me because apparently the two would only agree to meet with the Sisters if Elder Pitt was there. Now every time I see the sisters they mimic the girls in a really ditsy/flirtsy voice saying things like: “I’m really busy, but if Elder Pitt’s there I’ll make time” and “I’ll only meet with you if Elder Pitt is there”. Even some of the branch missionaries are teasing me now. I just tell them that when you’re as cute as me it's inevitable. You would think that it would boost my self image, but I just figure some Mongolian girls must like 20 year old balding white guys.

Well that’s it for this week.

Love you all.
~ELDER PITT

Week 35

July 28, 2008

Aloha Everyone,

Hope all is well. Today I went on another missionary outing. They’re fun to go on, but at the same time can prove to be very frustrating. Get a bunch of missionaries together and nothing ever goes as planned.

Anyways, congratulations on your new call Dad, I’ll be praying for you. New callings always are intimidating. It looks like I’ll becoming a trainer in a week, and I feel like there couldn’t be a worse person in the mission to take on the responsibility right now. But who the Lord calls he qualifies. Hopefully he qualifies me. I’m so tired of this city, but it looks like I still have something to learn here over the next 3 months. Well I’m a bit late today and tired from the outing so this is going to be short.

Until next week,
Elder Pitt

Hi There!

This is "The Mom" breaking in on the blog to share the news!

Gary was called as First Counselor in the Kahuku 1st Ward Bishopric this Sunday. Just as Cameron has congratulated him others too have congratulated us. I laugh as I'm not sure if that is customary or what? In our church we never aspire to a calling. It is something that we do as a service and we do not receive compensation for our time or efforts. When we are presented with a calling, most often we feel totally humbled for one reason or another.

I accept the congratulations from all as an acceptance of my husband in this new calling. I feel so incredibly blessed to have a husband that is not only worthy, but willing to accept a demanding calling such as this without question or concern. Our family realizes that things may change, but we look forward to the blessings.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support of Cameron and our family.

Aloha, Adina

Week 34

July 20, 2008

Aloha Everyone,

Well the moral of the story for the week is never make any goals to be happier, because the moment you do things will get real bad, real quick. Ok so it wasn’t that bad, I just thought it was funny that the week I set a goal to be more joyful everything seems to try to work against me.

It all started on Monday when I was out and about amongst the people. I was just walking around minding my own business trying to share the gospel with those who would listen, when I got attacked by three 20 something year old, long haired, wanna be hardcore heavy metal rocker guys. As I was walking past them two of them decided to sucker punch me in the gut without warning. As they walked past they turned around and started giving me the Mongolian equivalent to the middle finger (think “I got your nose”). The punches didn’t hurt, partially because I think they were too chicken to go all the way and partially, because I moved into the blow to block them from getting to my companion. Either way I was mad, so being the Christ like person that I am, I started yelling at them, which sadly didn’t make the situation any better. In fact, all it got me was a weak kick from one of them which I deflected anyways, just to have the tough guy run back as soon as he realized that his other two cohorts weren’t at his side. I left the situation not half as angry as I would have been in the past, and actually laughed about it. I just was a little upset at the fact that they walked away from that probably thinking that they had won. I know I did the right thing by not fighting, but my imagination is restless now with other ways that the situation could have played out. If anything I could have laughed, thanked them, and wished them a good day which not only would have been funnier than yelling at them, but would have let them know they hadn’t won. Anyways what has happened has happened.

Tuesday passed without any consequence, but by Wednesday I had come down with a nice sinus infection, bringing wonderful congestion induced headaches, that coupled with the 90 degree weather outside was debilitating. I tried pushing through it on Wednesday to no avail and by Thursday I decided that it wasn’t worth it and woke up in order to teach a lesson or two and come straight home after to go back to sleep. I really wish I could help my companion more, according to President Andersen he should be getting a Mongolian companion next transfer which I think would help him out a lot. He’s an amazing kid, he was like me just a computer geek before his mission, and you know all the problems us computers geeks develop with our antisocial life styles.

The kicker was Sunday when Elder Lutz my district leader decided that it was my turn to translate sacrament meeting for the few foreigners that attend our branch on occasion. I knew that I had never understood the sacrament meetings before well enough to translate them, but I also knew that trying to get out of it would be pointless so I tried anyways. I lasted through the opening announcements up until the first speaker, and then lost it. I can understand words here and there but not well enough to put together anything coherent that others would understand. So I just sat there silent until Elder Lutz gave in and took the MIC. I think everyone expects me to be at the same level as my peers, but I’m just not there yet. I’m trying, but I just haven’t got there yet.

I was thinking about it and I was remembering how in 2nd grade I had to go to that special class because my reading skills weren’t quite at the level of the rest of the class, but if you would look at me, and my love for reading now, you would never have ever thought that at one time I had to attend a special class. I don’t remember well but I think they thought I had learning disabilities. Perhaps Mongolian is the same, perhaps once I get a hang of it I’ll just take off like I did with reading.

Either way given the circumstances I don’t think I failed at my goal. I wasn’t ecstatically joyful but I didn’t let everything get me down as much as I usually would.

~Elder Pitt

Ps. I got a letter from a father who’s son just got a call to Mongolian and was so happy to have found my blog.

Forward

Week 33

July 13, 2008

Aloha Everyone,

I wrote you an email that said the real email was coming and then the power went out. Seems to be a city wide black out, luckily the church building has a backup generator.

Anyways here we go one more time.

This last week was pretty fun it was Naadam, Mongolia’s second largest national holiday. Naadam is three day event consisting of archery, horse races, and Mongolian wrestling competitions. The first day there is a large opening ceremony not so much not like unto a giant high school assembly. It’s really quite interesting. You’ll have to read up on it some more. The Highlight for me was getting out of the city to go see the horse races. Now that it’s rained everything is a brilliant shade of green. There are miles and miles of lush green rolling steppes. It’s a stark contrast to the ugly brown dirt that is inherent in the city. I imagine Dad would like it here. You could go out a little ways and be the only person for miles and miles, just you and your horse, though I’m pretty sure dad is too big for a Mongolian horse. I’m attaching some pictures.

In other news I had the pleasure of hosting two young men from one of the outlaying cities at my house while they were putting in their missionary applications this week and needed to come to the city to be interviewed by the mission president among other things. It was nice to have natives around and get some practice speaking in situations beyond rehearsed conversations and the usual small talk. They were really good kids, I imagine in a country such as Mongolia where communism stole away all the moral foundations before abandoning the people, the saints stand that much higher above. If you think America is bad with what we have on tv, just be grateful the public drunkness is still a disgrace and that they aren’t allowed to sell pornography at every news stand, making every venture outside a test of moral integrity, and an exercise in quick reflexes and avoidance abilities. It’s a different world that’s for sure, and those who live it face a lot of different challenges than the challenges of the world I know. The same temptations I imagine just without the taboo placed upon them, though it seems like the whole worlds going that direction.

Anyways,

Happy Birthday MOM! Better to get it early than late I imagine. Everyone reminded me, no faith I tell you… I had it written in my planner all along. That list you sent me has come in handy.

On a side note, I got a letter from the parent of a young man who will be serving in Mongolia in the near future. He found my blog online and was grateful to be able to get some insight into the mission from serving first hand.

Love you all, tell the girls not to be too boy crazy, they’re still too young…. Sigh…

~Elder Pitt

Week 32

July 6 2008

Aloha Everyone,

Don’t worry, everything is fine here. The riots kept us home all last week and stopped us from talking to people on the streets once we were allowed out again, but everything is more or less back to normal now. I’m sure you know more about it than me from reading the news so I won’t go into any of the details I know. The building that was attacked is actually one block outside my area and I walk past it every day on my way to church. The night of the riot I was eating dinner at our branches 2nd councilor’s house and saw a lot of it happen live on TV, before actually having to walk past it to get home. I really don’t know what to think about it. Mongolia’s government is extremely corrupt and before now I have only seen a lot of complaining and no action. So part of me feels optimistic in the fact that the people stood up for themselves. The other part of me knows that the chosen path of action was wrong, and through it many innocent people’s lives were greatly damaged. Regardless of what I may think this is not my country and this is not my people and however much I might want to understand them at this point in time I do not and so whatever my opinions may be in the end I really don’t know.

As a result of the riot we were not allowed out of our house for three days. So I took that time to study, write letters, and nap. My sleep schedule is so thrown off now it’s ridiculous, but I imagine that will correct it self in time. Though, the riot was big news, not much happened this week. Stayed inside, finally got out, did some work on the website and that was it.

Time continues to fly. It’s so scary to realize that I’m almost hitting my year mark. In three weeks this last transfer will be over and it will be time to move on to the next. I have a strong feeling that I’ll be staying yet another transfer here and my companion will be moving on. The mission still needs someone to keep the computers, and this new website project going. This is all just guessing though, we’ll see. Part of me really wants to stay so maybe I’ll actually get to see some of my investigators get baptized. So many of them are right there, but I just haven’t figured out how the get them to take the step yet and get baptized. I tried extending a baptismal commitment the other day and the lady just looked at me like I was stupid, after 4 times of saying the same sentence over and trying to get her to understand me I gave up. I came back a few days later and taught the word of wisdom and extended it there, but she wanted to quit smoking first. I wanted to explain to her that by setting a goal to be baptized it would help her reach her goal to quit smoking, but again I ran into a communication barrier. Whatever happens I hope that the next elder that comes in can help these people. Because I know they’re ready I just haven’t figured out how to help them get there yet.

It’s all about pressing forward and moving on, hopefully I'll see some breakthroughs soon.

Love you all,
Elder Pitt

Week 31

July 29, 2008

Aloha Everyone,

Hope all is well, from mom’s E-mail it sounds like everyone’s having a great time. I wish everyone an early happy Fourth of July. Sorry I’m a little late today my companion and I decide to take a p-day nap today, and it was much needed. We’re going to have to end our P-day early to finish calling people and studying but the nap was worth it. We were supposed to go on a missionary outing today too =P.

Anyways, I made my first batch of beef jerky this last week and it was a hit. Some of the Mongolians couldn’t figure it out, most of them like it though, and of course the Americans loved it. It’s funny because I would remember leaving the oven on over night to get it dry back home, and here it take less than an hour. You’ll either have to send me some more seasoning when this runs out or some recipes, but I got quite a few batches left with the seasonings you sent me. So, no worries.

This next week should be fun there is a really fancy apartment complex here in the city that caters to American embassy workers and other expatriates. Every year they throw a huge Fourth of July party for all expatriates in Mongolia. It’s requires proof of American citizenship and 5 dollars to get in but, it’s all the hotdogs and hamburgers you can eat. I’ve never been a big fan of hotdogs, but they don’t exist in Mongolia so I’m sure I will be taking advantage of the opportunity fully. All the missionaries from the city are headed down so it should be fun.

Work hasn’t been great lately, but I can’t complain. I think I’m finally pulling myself out of the lousy groove I smoothed out. I fasted all Friday, and it really helped, just in that day I was able to overcome quite a few barriers that I had setup for myself. I wrote several weeks ago about the Russian lady I was teaching, and she was doing great up until we taught the word of wisdom. She doesn’t believe she can stop drinking coffee and tea. It’s so hard to see someone who you can tell knows it’s true question their faith the second something difficult arises. Then at the same time I have an investigator who I know has not received a witness of the truthfulness of the gospel yet, and is willing trying to quit smoking. I don’t quite see how that works. I am praying my hardest for both of them and I know that the Lord will bless them, as long as they open themselves up to receive.

Oh in other news I think we might actually be breaking through to one of our inactive members. He’s been in active for almost 8 years now, and is always quite a pain to meet with. He used to smoke in front of the missionaries just to try to irritate them, and since I’ve been in this area has refused to meet with us on a bi-weekly basis. I've met with him 2 times before this week and both times, he was totally unresponsive. He wouldn’t read anything, he wouldn’t pray, and for the most part he wouldn’t pay attention. However, this last time he expressed a desire to return to church, read the scriptures with us and, actually prayed. I don’t know what happened in his life to illicit this change, but I am grateful. He didn’t make it to church this week, but hopefully he’ll make it in weeks to come. He says right now he wants to come but he doesn’t know anyone, so hopefully I’ll be able to introduce him to our branches first councilor this week.

The language continues to be difficult. After a lesson this week one of my investigators pulled me aside and exhorted me to practice more, he said he only understood about 20% of what I said. If he only knew how much I work on this language everyday. Regardless I am taking his exhortation and trying to pack a little more into each day, and praying a little harder for the gift of tongues. After having been on my mission for almost 10 months now you would think that I would have gotten it by now, but I guess it’s either not required for me to be at the level of my peers now, or I’m doing something wrong. I don’t know, but regardless all I can do is keep working. I think part of the reason I have the companion I have now is to remind me that there are those who struggle more than me.

The website is slowly coming along. My companion and I will have to throw it into overdrive in-order to hit the dead-line on time. The site is going to be one of the more work intensive projects I’ve done, but luckily a lot of the ground work has already been laid by the German site.

I’m going to start trying to take more photos. I actually set a goal for this week. I always have my camera, but I never use it, don’t ever really think about it. But, I’m going to try harder so hopefully you’ll get some pictures next week.

Make sure to try to keep the blog updated as I don’t have time to write everybody as I’d like.

Love,
Elder Pitt

Week 30

June 23, 2008

Aloha Family,

Sorry, I'm a Day late again. It was zone conference yesterday so the schedule got all switched around. That seems to happen a lot, can't do much about it.

The weathers been interesting here, we're on our fourth day of rain now. I kind of like it but it makes work a little more tricky than usual. My work continues to be slow. I have three progressing investigators and outside of that there is not much else. People keep telling me that theres no such thing as a bad area, and I'm trying to believe them but it's hard. My area is in the heart of the city so very few of the people I see in the day actually live in it and those who do are very busy and overall not as receptive to the message, but those who I do have are gold. Every missionary I've talked to who has served here has had a hard time with this area, perhaps I'm just perpetuating the cycle. I sometimes wonder if a more experienced missionary would do better here, and what I could be doing different, but I just haven't figured it out yet. If anything I'm learning patience, and how to deal with rejection. Two things I imagine will help me through out my life. But on a brighter note I have a baptismal date set for the 4 for July and another investigator who is committed to quit smoking. I'm going to try to give my third progressing investigator a baptismal date today.....

In other news my companion and I started on the website for Mongolia which is going to be a huge time drain. It's so weird to do work like this again just because of how much apparent dead time there is in it. I really hope something good comes out of our efforts. I'm going to be building it off of German's church website as they have provided a good solid start point. I really don't have enough time to build it from the ground up anyways.

I'm going to try to make beef jerky today. I cured the meat last night so it should be ready to make today. Hope it turns out well. The meat I bought might have been cut a little too thin, it's stir fry beef. There's a guy who delivers meat here in the city cut to American standards. It's of course about American prices, but it's worth it. I don't what I would buy if I went into a meat market, random animal parts laying all over the place.

Anyways until next time
Elder Pitt

P.s.
that is what part of the alphabet would look like if "q" and "r" were eliminated...........

Week 29

June 15, 2008

Aloha family,

HAPPY Father's Day Dad!

I moved again today.

Nothing much new this week. Still just pushing forward. I often feel like I don't know what to do. It's really easy to get discouraged quickly, but I'm trying to keep myself optimistic even if it's not something I'm good at. Most of my frustration is centered on the language, I just can't seem to figure out. I guess complaining isn't going to help anything so I'll stop now.

It is great to hear that Adam is awake I wrote him a letter and I'm going to try to send it off tomorrow. Hopefully there aren't too many long lasting health problems that come from what he went through.

I don't know what to type today. Moving pooped me out, and nothing really happened this week.

We finally are allowed to go out without our suit coats. Which is a relief with the temperature hitting the high 90's lately. My suit coat looks so ugly now. I really should dry clean it but I just haven't had time, that and I don't really no what to say when I take it into the dry cleaning place.

Until next week,
Elder Pitt