Day 287: Turned 20, Still don't know what I'm doing...

Hey Mom, 

This week was pretty good. It was weird going through your birthday and then mine. It's a weird thought to think that no one will know me while I'm 20. But regardless, we celebrated all day Saturday. We also met with some really cool people this week. I'll get to that later in the email though, but it was pretty sweet. Other than that, it's getting pretty cold here. It won't reach 0 degrees Celsius again until April haha. So wish me luck. But here's my week:

Wednesday: First off, Halloween. And we partied. But first we did some work. Made some dank chili. Then I was with Lhagwaa because of English splits, and he took me to lunch. I have never been to this restaurant before and he told me to get this salad as a side, so I trusted him. And it comes out and there's some meat in it. I wasn't really concerned, ya know, meat sometimes goes into salad. So I eat it and then he says "do you like it?." And I say "yeah its good, what is it?". And he says "it's sheep intestine, it's super healthy for you." Fun fact, Mongolians think that all the weird parts of animals are super healthy, they think that the tail fat from sheep is the most healthy thing you can eat, and that stomach and intestines are good for you. So I was kinda grossed out and Lhagwaa was dying laughing in this restaurant haha. Looking back it was pretty funny. So yeah, cross sheep intestine and stomach off the list. After that, I had an interview with President and it went super good. We just talked about prayer. And we had a really good conversation. Then I taught English which was awesome. My students are super super funny. They all wanted to follow me on Instagram (it was my last time teaching them, I got assigned to teach on Mondays this transfer). It was an awesome last class with them. After teaching I met back up with Perry and we got to our apartment and finished up the chili and people came over with some Circle K hot dogs and we made chili dogs. And then I made an Apple Pie that turned out pretty decent actually. I impressed myself haha. 

Thursday: Happy birthday mom!!! Hope it was a good one. Today though we tried to find this address that Perry got from our teacher Batsagaan last P day. So we first went to an internet place and google mapped it. Another random fact, addresses really don't exist in this country. So we got the name of a building and the district it was in, and we google street viewed until we found a place that might be it. Modern missionary work, welcome to the progressive era everyone. We walked there, and then asked a person if this was the right place, and we were close, it was the next building over. But we still weren't 100% about it. We found their door in this old Russian building. So sketchy. It was built in the 50's and it's falling apart. There's no lights on the inside and the floorboards are all ripped up, so it was pretty nuts. And I felt like there was no way this could be the place. But Perry wanted to knock on the door that we thought was their's (it may have been, but I wasn't 100% sold on it). So I told him that's not a good idea, and then after some time he accepted it and we started walking down the stairs back outside. As soon as we were walking down, a police man walked right past us. Policemen can deport us, and if he saw us knocking on the door that would have been an instant deportation. So I'm glad I trusted myself and didn't knock. Then we got some lunch and met up with Rand and his new companion Teasdale. He is super cool, I'm really glad he is in Sukhbaatar with us. Then Perry and I had this appointment with a member. He is a member, but his wife isn't. So we got on this bus and went way up in the mountains and we were completely alone. It was really cool, it was dark out, and we could see all the lights from the gers. It was beautiful. We made it to this guy's ger and had some awesome conversations. It was the first time I felt like I really got to know someone here. I could just go back and forth with him. We talked about where he grew up, and how his parents were herdsman. He told me all about what it was like growing up in the countryside. It was super cool. And then I started talking to his wife and found out she was a shaman. She has grow up shaman her whole life and it's honestly a really cool religion. There's a scary amount of similarity between it and the Lamanites and Nephites in the Book of Mormon before they come to Christ. It's really cool to learn about. So we started teaching and we talked about baptism (they have little children who will be 8 in a few months). And I asked the wife if she wants to be baptized, and she said yes, but she wants to think about it. And then the husband (Ganbold) told me that her family forbids her to do anything related to church, and if she does they will disown her. It's a tough situation, they live right next to her family too. So we still aren't really sure what to do. I want to meet with her family and talk to them, but then again I don't want a shaman curse following me around. But we will see, I really do want to talk to her family and let them know what we are all about. 

Friday: This was my last day teaching on Friday, and honestly it was super fun. Turns out one of the girls has a FAT crush on Ponton so we teased him about that and dang it was hilarious. Teaching went really well though, my students always ask to see pictures of America and of my family and friends. And they always go nuts over the blonde hair haha. After teaching, Perry taught at the BZ so I was with Jesperson and we went to this Japenese restaurant and it was pretty decent. Sweetwood experimented and got this shrimp on accident haha. They still had their eyes and everything hahaha, it was hilarious. Then we just hungout the rest of the night

Saturday: Turned 20, and it was weird. It felt just like another day. But we partied, and it was super fun. I opened my package from my family, and thanks so much for that mom. It was so nice. Especially the Thoreau quote books. I really like that a lot. You know me too well. But we went to this all you can eat buffet. It's a lot like Hu Hot in America. And it tastes like American food. It's a Mongolian bbq too, so they cook the food on the big stove like at Fire and Ice in Tahoe. So that was awesome. And thanks to Teasdale, the people there brought me ice cream and sang to me haha. It was awkward, but Teasdale was dying. Then we went to our apartment and I baked myself a cake, and man it was good. Funfetti is the best, and everyone else agrees haha. It's the nostalgia. So there is proof mom that other people like funfetti. Then later that night, Teasdale and Perry went to teach Chuka and Oiyunanden, we thought it would be good if they went to get to know her more, seeing as how they are both relatively new to the area. So Rand and I were together and we were going to go to another appointment but they cancelled on us, so Pickering came over and wanted to make me some brownies for my birthday. So he came over and we had a really good time. It was a super super fun day. And Perry said that Oiyunanden really opened up, she would respond to them and talk to them. Something happened and we aren't sure what, but she is like a new person. It's so sweet.

Sunday: Church was really good. I had to conduct the music haha. And Rand played the piano. And Oiyunanden and her brother came, all dressed up in their best clothes and it was so cute. She would actually talk to me too and respond and look at me and smile. It was so tender. We also got 3 new potential investgators which rocked. After church Perry and I met with 2 of them, its a mom and her 9 year old daughter. They just walked into church because they are trying to find God they said. She is actually a super Buddhist lady and she knew nothing of God or Christ or anything. It was really cool to teach someone like this. She has no idea what God is or what He looks like, or what He is like. So it was crazy to teach like that. But I loved it, she seemed super super interested and it went super good. After that meeting we went to our apartment and ate some dinner and hungout with Rand and Teasdale. Pretty fun night

Monday: I now teach English on Mondays which is good. I teach with Ogden, my pal from the MTC. So it's pretty cool. The students are super funny and they all tease Ogden which is hilarious. We had a good time, and laughed a lot which helped class. After English we met with Myadag and taught her a new member lesson and then we taught her English which went super good. She told us about where her parents live, literally the middle of no where. And she goes there in the summer and swims in these lakes right next to these enormous sand dunes. It's so pretty there. We were all really jealous haha. Then we went to teach another person, but when we got to their ger it was locked. So I called to ask if they were going to still meet with us and they apologized because they got busy and forgot to tell us. And that was the day, pretty good honestly. 

I love and miss you all so much,

Austin

Happy Birthday to me.  

 Our super good chili

 My apple pie was amazing.  I could out cook Easton any day now. 

 Outside of the ger that we went to for our appointment, but they weren't there. 

 Those spots that look like snow aren't snow.  It's pollution.

 I forgot my mask.  It was rough.  

 Me, Lhagwaa, and Rand

 The sketchy old Russian building

 More air pollution 

 Ganbold and his family

The following pictures are from the summer during Naadam. Pickering took them.  This is Mongolia.  The little girls here are so cute.  It's kids like this that make me want to move here and adopt all the kids. 

Our awesome rendition of Happy Birthday. 

It was a good day!

Birthday NASA Shirt.