Too Cold...

This week was pretty good, it feels like it went by super fast. We were pretty busy the whole time which was nice. It also has gotten ridiculously cold, the highs are gonna be in the negatives soon. It's a cold I can't even describe, but breathing in without a neck gator literally hurts. It's so weird. So you gotta have every piece of skin covered when you walk outside or it just hurts. It's gnarly. But it is pretty fun. All the people here make fun of us because we wear so many clothes. I guess Mongolian's just don't get cold. Most old guys here don't wear any beanies or hats, which I just have no clue how they do that. It also snowed and it's funny how different the snow is. It is super super dry and then it just freezes to ice as soon as it hits the ground. But here is my week:

Tuesday: Went hiking again, it was super cold. But I made a tin foil dinner and it was nice to eat. But it was so gorgeous up in the mountains, and nice to get some fresh air. 

Wednesday: Taught at the high school again and it was a lot better than regular. The classes today were super focused and engaged. Plus they knew some pretty good english, so we just could practice talking with each other and it was pretty fun. Then I went to the distribution center to pick up this new book I ordered called Saints. It's super good, everyone should read it. And it reads really really quick, but it gives the stories of the pioneers in a cool way. It feels more like a novel than a history book. After that Rand came with Perry and I. He needed to do his Zone Leader/ District Leader split so we just did some trio splits. Later that night we had mutual. We just started it up, and we did a combined with the other ward. We were hoping that we could get some of the youth to come so we could know them better, but only people from the other ward came haha. But it was still really fun. We just talked and played some games. After mutual we went to Enkhenerel's house to teach her a new member lesson. And her sister made some really good food for us. It was a fun lesson. Their family is super nice. 

Thursday: It was Thanksgiving back in the states. It was weird, it just felt like a regular day, but we decided to go all out for Thanksgiving. Funny thing is Mongolians don't have any clue what turkey is, so we just fried some chicken. I made some stuffing and vegetables. Cox made 12 pounds (literally) of mashed potatoes. Scrimsher made some awesome desserts. And we played some games. None of us really had appointments until the night so we did a long lunch thing. It was really fun. Felt like an actual Thanksgiving. Then Cox and I had our English club. It was really fun. We help them mostly with their pronunciation and a little bit with grammar.  And our last appointment cancelled on us, so we went to my apartment, and found everyone still there playing some uno haha. We just hungout most the night and it was a super fun day. 

Friday: We were walking around and Perry bought a newspaper. The headline was "Corruption is on the Rise: Bribery in government hits an all time high." Crazy huh. Corruption sucks. It's stil crazy to me just how different this place is from America. We also had a meeting with Myadag that went really good. She asked a lot of deep questions, like "Are there other planets out there?" and "Why do they teach evolution in school and push it on us?" So we spent most the time answering those and other questions. It really hit me when we were answering those questions. I remember asking the same questions to you guys, and asking deep questions a lot. But Myadag doesn't have any parents to ask these questions to. All she has is us. I really can't explain what this realization felt like. All I can do is explain it like I did. Just something to think about. After that we went to go to another meeting, but the lady got locked out of her house so she had to cancel on us, and then we were going to go meet with Chuka and her granddaughter and her granddaughters family, but the dad was super drunk and Chuka didn't think it would be good for us to come over. So we just headed home for the night. I just wish I could do more for the people here. I feel like it's really all in God's hands and we sometimes just have to wait for Him to do His thing. 

Saturday: So just realized as I'm writing this that today was my 10 month mark haha. It snuck up on me and I guess I forgot. We planned to do this ward missionary meeting and invite Myadag. We were going to take them to lunch. But they all got busy, except for Myadag. So we just got some Chinese food with her. It was nice, I think she really enjoyed it. We are trying to introduce her to more people in the ward. After that we had an appointment with our new investigator at the church so we went there. Her name is Bolorzaya (means crystal destiny, it doesn't translate that well, it's a pretty dope name in Mongolian). She is 17, literally the same age as Myadag. So we are super stoked because her and Myadag could become super good friends, that's our hope. Bolorzaya is also a crazy good investigator. She just really accepted what we taught her and was willing to do anything we asked her, like read the Book of Mormon and pray. She is pretty much the golden investigator. After we taught her, we went to the French restaurant to get some Creme Brule. It was nice, and thankfully really cheap. After that we went to a members house and had dinner with them. It was really fun. We are really trying to get to know every member in the ward. And it's pretty cool to hear all their stories. 

Sunday: Church was good. President Harper came to our sacrament meeting. It was nice to see him. After church we had to help with some clerk stuff for a while, then we went to an investigators house. But the parents weren't there so we couldn't meet with them. We headed to our apartment and relaxed a bit before we went to the bishops house. He had us over for dinner. We were able to get some logistics down and get some names of people to meet with. When we walked outside it was a freaking blizzard. 

Monday: We were super busy today. So we first met with Pujee and her two nieces and finished up their new member lessons. We were hoping to get their parents interested, but they never were. Then we went to Horolsurens house. She is a member in the ward, and lives in this community building (lots of small small rooms people can live in). Turns out half the wards lives in this building too. So Batsagaan's family was there too and we made some huushur with them and had dinner. It was fun, they told a lot of stories of what old Mongolia was like and I really wish I was able to see it. Then we headed to our investigator appointment. We couldn't understand him over the phone for the life of us, so we had a mongolian talk to him. We waited at the bus stop for like 30 minutes and it was so flipping cold. But eventually we made it to his house. He is related to the old bishop that passed away recently, and has been an investigator for 5 years. He asked some really deep questions. And after we answered them he had to go to work. He works from 8 to 4 am. So we chatted with his mom, the old bishops wife, and she is a great member. She told us a lot about her husband and how it's hard having him away from her. But she said she found God more through her loosing her husband than ever before. And she said when we go home, to get married and love our famlies. She said that once we get married to do everything, because life goes too quick. Honestly she just gave us solid life advice the whole time. It was probably the best meeting I've been to. 

Love you all,

Austin

Pics from our P-Day hike.  I think these are ending soon due to the weather. 

 Yeah, it's cold. 

The air pollution.  Rand said that he has never seen it this bad before. 

 Don't let this picture fool you.  It is freezing cold here. 

 District meeting.

 Thanksgiving dinner.  We ran out of plates so Perry had to eat out of a cake pan. 

 Making huusher with Batsagaans family. They stuff them with meat, potatoes and onions.  Literally what they put in everything.  And they never season it because they don't have seasonings here.  I have literally eaten the same mixture of meat and vegetables prepared the same way, every day of my whole mission.  But they're good. 

Video from our P-day hike.