July 27, 2009

My Dearest family!!!!! :)
Thank you sooo much for all the e-mails, it was fun getting last week's and this weeks, I had forgotten about you all not having e-mail, and last week the power went out while we were e-mailing so if it hadn't, I probably would have gotten your letters :) Thanks again, they mean so much, and it is fun to hear from all of you ;) california sounds good! the ward, and fancy pants lane, haha ;) hope the little house works until you can fully move in :)
Things are good here! better! it was quite the week, it started with splits with the training sisters. Splits are great, but I was reallllyyy nervous for this one because they wanted me to stay in my area, and have my comp go into the city. that means I would act like the senior comp, lead the way, etc. We had 5 lessons to teach that day, and family, think of how skilled I am with directions..... haha ;) put me in a rep district with hardly any addresses, or among a bunch of identical buildings, surrounded by people who speak a different language, haha, after being in the country 2 - 3 weeks, and I am pretty lost ;) I didn't think i could even find the houses of the people we were supposed to teach, let alone lead the lessons, etc. But, you pray really hard and that always helps, ;) and have faith that God knows what he is doing, and it was actually a great experience! The training sister is mongolian, and the first night she only spoke mongolian and when I didn't understand she would just look at me haha, (we got in the taxi and I couldn't even say how to get back to my apartment, I don't think I have ever felt so inadequate haha) so I was nervous but the next day she spoke more english, and was way sweet and so nice, and we were able to find the places we needed! knowing me, that is a complete miracle ;) we walked, and if it felt right and looked kinda familiar, we turned, etc. we taught good lessons, and as I kept apologizing when we went a wrong way or something, the training sister kept saying "we don't know, but God knows" and that is so true :) I learned a lot from it and have felt more responsibility for this work ever since. I think the split was what I needed!
oh! and it flooded this week! a lot! one of the biggest rain storms in years, we were in a rep district in an investigators home when it hit, I have never seen so much rain and there was tons of hail, people had to shovel it. It flooded the streets in front of our apartment but did the most damage in the rep districts where everything is dirt and mud, streets turned into little rivers and fences, outhouses, and roads were washed away. it was quite the thing to see, and the paths are really rocky now because all the dirt was washed away.
And the language is coming, this week one of the girls we taught asked how many years I have been in mongolia. I don't tell this to brag (I didn't understand the question so that shows I have a long way to go ;) but I do know that it is impossible for us to have learned as fast as we have without God's help. When my comp said I had been here 3 weeks the girl was shocked, I asked what was wrong haha, the Lord truly has blessed us, and it is cool to see how suddenly it gets easier to speak when we are teaching a lesson. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday, and I know I could not talk for 10 minutes from my heart, without God's help. it truly is a miracle.
Most of our investigators went to the countryside for the next 2 months, so we had to find some new people this week and we started teaching two new families that I am really excited about! This is hard work, but the people make it so worth it :)
um, I think that is all, the work is progressing and I am learning, I love you all sooooooooo much, and hope you have a great week!!!
ashley (sister manspield as it is pronounced here, I feel bad, it is really hard to say) love you!