Spent the Fourth in a Communist State...

July 08, 2018

Spent the Fourth in a Communist State...

Hey mom,

This week was good. Really full of things we had to do, but it was good. Nothing too new, we just did the usual, but here is my week:

Tuesday: So we had an appointment with Batbileg set up, but he couldn't make it, and because of the festival, he went to the countryside with his family to watch the horse races. So we didn't see him at all this week. But it's all good. We had a meeting with a member right after that, and it was pretty interesting. She cooked this weird quinoa egg flour stuff, and man, my mouth felt like the sahara desert. And she only gave us this milk water and salt drink (hiram) to wash it down. So it was a pretty hard meal to eat. We had another set of elders with us, and they were struggling so hard haha. Super dry, pretty odd tasting, and a weird milk drink makes for a funny time. But we practiced talking with her to improve our language which helped a lot. Then my companion had a District Leader training with President Harper, and President Harper told me to sit in on the meeting because I'll need it soon enough lol. We will see. Then later that night we had to go on splits with another set of elders. I was with a brand new elder, he legit got here a week ago. He was teaching English at the church, and I needed to see if there was a ward member we've been looking for was there. He wasn't there, but the new guy (Sorensen) told me that our MTC group has been tagged as "Disturbers of the Peace" at the MTC. Apparently we had a little too much fun, and everyone hated us because we were loud and having a good time haha. We brought fun to that MTC, they should thank us. But yeah, they made some new MTC rules because of us, so we are a little proud of that. Still hilarious they black listed us. Also, in the English class, we do this thing called speaking club. So we divide the class into groups of 10 and then they all circle up and talk to each other while we help them practice. But this one girl in my group says "Austin (they can't say Schofield) what do you think about Trumps illegal immigration policies" hahah. I was like "you gotta be joking me, everyone here hates Trump, how am I supposed to tell them my opinion" So we had a good discussion for a couple of minutes, people here have very wrong information about Trump and the USA. But then this big guy in my group says "hey can we not talk about politics" and I was so glad he said that. Then he say by Buddhist bracelet and asked why I wear it. I said it was cool, and hes like "they are prayer beads, let me teach you Buddhist mantra" haha. So he taught me this mantra that means happiness is in all things. Pretty neat. Then after class, our PI was there, and he wanted us to help him read the intro to the Book of Mormon. And this kid speaks not a lick of English, and it was me and the brand new elder. But we did it, and somehow I spoke legit fluent Mongolian for this 20 minutes. I dont' know how it worked but it did.

Wednesday: Another pretty packed day. We had to help the set of elders that helped us, teach a lesson. So we went back to those little girls we taught a while ago. The ones who called me Harry Potter. And we taught them the last little bit of the lessons, they got baptized on Friday which was awesome. But they were so funny. And the mom and her sister were making some miniature ger souvenirs to sell to stores for money, and then when we left, they gave us some to take home for free. It was kinda hard because they use this as their only income, and they gave them to us for absolutely free. It was super touching. And in the lesson, Stoney (part of the companionship we helped) asked them who they want to baptize them and this little girl (9) said "hold on let me pray". So she said a silent prayer right there and it was the most adorable thing I've ever seen. Then we had a member meeting that night again. This guy came up to us at church and said "Hey!!! when are you coming to my house??!?" So we went over, and he cooked some super good spaghetti. This guy is super nice, he is a returned missionary. And his wife and little boy live in this bashun (a house in the ger districts, just like a ger, but has walls and a roof). His brother and grandma live right next to him, literally 20 feet away, in their gers. Honestly, life doesn't get better than that. He is super happy and it just said a lot about what really matters in life.

Thursday: Today, my companion had to pick up his Mongolian shirt that some lady made him, so we went to her house with Scrimsher and his companion (he also got one made by this lady) and she wasn't done with them. So we were all the way out in the ger districts, and we had nothing else to do, so we just spent the day with Scrimsher. And in the ger districts we ran into this mongolian ger gang of teenagers. They wanted to take pictures with us because we were white. Haha weird people. Then we went to the mall and Scrimsher and I found this guy who handmakes leather shoes, custom to your foot. So we might have to get that done before we leave. Then Scrimsher and his companion had an appointment, so Lambert and I went to get some food and at the food place we ran into this Canadian guy who asked if we were Mormons. So he sat down and we had some good chats. He said he was just in Utah for the South Jordan Temple Open House. It was pretty cool to have him know about our church a little bit. But the conversation quickly turned into me asking him about Banff (he is from Calgary) and how I can get there in the most scenic way possible. So he told me all about it, then he said he is visiting 70 countries this year which is nuts. Lucky people. We also went to the soccer field to meet our companions again ( I was with sorenson still) and we were waiting for them to be done playing soccer, and this drunk guy came up to us and asked if were Christain and he started talking some serious gospel. so we had some good gospel drunk man conversations.

Friday: So we had district meeting today which was fun. And afterwards, the elders in our district (Stoney and Rand) had a baptism and they needed help cleaning out the font. So we went with them and cleaned it out. It was honestly quite a circus. We used comet, so we were afraid of getting our clothes bleached, so Rand says "I have an idea" and walks out, then walks back in, only in his garments haha. So we all stripped down and cleaning this thing for like 3 hours. The fonts here are so gross because the water they use is unclean, so it took a while for us to clean it out. After that we had a meeting with our PI, it was his birthday and we both had a sorta odd feeling about going, but we did anyway. He lives way back in the ger districts, also in a bashun. And his family cooked some super good food, and let us eat as much as we want. The people here are so kind. But we didn't stay long because it was his birthday and everything, but his dad said "you come back after the holiday and we will cook some goat for you and you can teach my son a lesson" So that's pretty cool.

Saturday: We met up with Scrimsher again to get their mongolian shirts, and the lady had them done which was super cool. But she had to put the finishing things on them, so we were there for like 3 hours just talking to this old lady. It was pretty nice. Then I called these people to give talks tomorrow in the virtual branch, and we went to a baptism. Lambert and Scrimsher taught these people when they were together and they just got baptized. So we went to that and it was fun. I ran into the mongolian missionary who was in my district again. She is home now, and it was funny seeing her as a regular person. Then we went home and started to train for the bar hanging competition they have at the Naadam (festival of manly sports) this year. It's the countries biggest holiday, and we got tickets to see it which will be so cool. And we get to wear mongolian clothes and its going to be awesome. All outside the stadium they have these strength competitions, and I am dead set on winning them. I have the pride of the USA on my back. But yeah, this festival is so dope. It's got some serious feats of strength. I'm so stoked for it. But we have been training and working out so we can win all these competitions. It's gonna be so fun.

Sunday: Sunday it started to monsoon again which was nice. It has been unbearably hot again, so the rain is so nice. At church though there was legit 20 people and only 4 guys. So I had to bless the sacrament and really help run everything. Everyone leaves for the summer, and then the people left leave for the Naadam festival. But church was good, we really just had to help hold it together today. And in virtual branch, lots of people called in which was nice.

But yeah, thats really it. My week was pretty bland.

Love you all!!

Love, Austin