Senior Companion for the Day!

WOW this week.

For starters, pretty much the whole city has not had hot water all week.... yay! So Sister Gardiner and I wake up early every morning to boil water, then we fill our washing machine and dish it out with a bowl and pour it over ourselves like a little puppy dog so we can be clean. Sister Gardiner said last summer she went an entire transfer without hot water, so this is probably just the beginning!

My favorite English class. These will be my seniors next year!

Earlier this week, my companion and I were joking around that we needed an addiction recovery program for ice cream. Well, there is an addiction recovery program in Preach My Gospel, so just for fun, we were reading it and laughing that we need to do those things to get over sugar. THE NEXT DAY we went on an STL split, and when Sister Gardiner and I were back together that evening, she said one of the investigators she met with happened to open up and explain their smoking problem, and that they want to be baptized but can't stop smoking. Well, we had just familiarized ourselves with the addiction recovery program, and the wonderful 12 step program that the church offers, and she said that she was able to take the first step in helping this person. There is no way that Heavenly Father was not in that situation. Matt emailed me this week and told me an amazing missionary experience that he recently had as well, and said "There are no coincidences, only blessings.". That becomes more and more true every day.

Teton Tony, the mountain ram, king of the Mongolian country. (Not)

[parents note: this is a reference regarding her grandfather's childrens book HERE]

Speaking of STL split, I was with Sister DeRuyter for the day, and it was great! We stayed in my area to work, and she doesn't really know Selbe, so I was kind of the senior companion for the day! Woah! I made all the phone calls, had to find all the investigators houses, schedule follow-up appointments, etc. Turns out not just following your trainer around everywhere is actually kind of difficult! But it was awesome to see that I can actually do those things, and it was pretty nice to have some responsibility. Also kind of a confidence booster that I am learning and improving, and that I could take the lead on all of our lessons without Sister Gardiner there. So, I might be OK in 3 WEEKS when she DIES.

Just, really getting into those conference talks.

Yesterday we had our new stake conference!! WOWW it was amazing!! We knew that our Selbe ward had been split, and a new stake was created, but we didn't get details until just yesterday!! Elders Wong and Toronto from the 70 were here to organize the new stake, and it was so wonderful. 5 of our branches became wards. 5!!! Our Selbe ward split into Selbe and Bayngold, and Bayngold is in the same stake, and Selbe is in the new East stake!! Which means until the end of the transfer, Sister Gardiner and I are serving in BOTH stakes!!! WOW! It was such a great day. Elders Wong and Toronto talked about how much the Mongolian members are being blessed, but how they cannot start to rest now. We are SO CLOSE to getting a 3rd stake. It will hopefully happen while I am still here. They talked a lot about the missionaries and members have to be equally yoked and work together, or else we cannot do anything. The members here are so faithful, but they have to work just as hard as the missionaries to find people, to share the gospel with their friends and family, and if they don't work with us, then we can't do anything. We need them, and they need us. It was the most interesting stake conference I've ever been too.

Cute Mongolian boy!

It was also President and Sister Benson's last conference. They both bore wonderful testimonies and shared their love for Mongolia. They have done such an enormous, incredible work since being here, and Mongolia and of course all the missionaries will miss them. But we are also very excited for President and Sister Harper to come as well!

Great things are happening!


This week in preparation for zone conference I have been studying about love, and how love and fear cannot coexist. Moroni 8:16 says that perfect love casts out all fear. So if we are fearing, then it means that we're not loving enough.

Romans 12:21 "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."
Here's my revision.

"Be not overcome of fear, but overcome the fear with love."


Have a great week.

Hansen Egch