What's Cooler Than Being Cool...

November 19, 2018

What's Cooler Than Being Cool...

Mongolia is Ice Cold. In both meanings of the word. This week was pretty good though. We didn't do very much, but somehow stayed pretty busy which was nice. It's just so freaking cold here. And crazy thing is, it will only get colder. Today's high is 8 degrees. So go team. But I did buy a blow torch for making fires when we go hiking, so that should help lol. But yeah, this week was really good. We had some baptisms on Saturday we got to see which was sweet. Let me tell you what all happened though.

Tuesday: Went hiking. It started snowing. Built a fire. Still froze. But it was really fun still. We got to see some pretty cool parts of the world no one really gets to see. We climbed this mountain up this snow and ice, and got to see the city from a ways away. And it was awesome.

Wednesday: Taught at the high school again. The high school is super different from the regular college, the students just kinda sit there and don't ask any questions. It makes it difficult to teach, but the classes are only 40 minutes long so they still go really fast. After teaching Perry and I got back together and we went to Naarantuul (the black market) to get some deel material for Perry and Teasdale. Little did we know that Naraantuul is the coldest place on the planet. No one really knows why, but it's a good 20 degrees difference from the rest of the city. Rand said it must have been -10 or -15 F. I had my neck gator on and there was ice on the outside of it. Rand had ice covering his eyelashes and eyebrows. Sorenson's leather bag froze solid. So we tried to hurry and get it and get out, but that really didn't happen. So we just sat and froze for a while haha. But we did talk to the material people a lot and they gave us some discounted prices because we spent the time to learn their language. So we got out of there and then went to the church to meet with a new investigator. His name is Tuguldur. He is a younger brother of a ward missionary. Super solid kid. The lesson went really well. After that lesson, we were still freezing from earlier in the day, so we went to this ramen place to try and get hot soup in us to warm up.

Thursday: District meeting in the morning, it went pretty well. We had the Zone Leaders teach. After that we were going to meet with a less active, and a member was taking us there. We got to the house, but the less active wasn't there, only the active members in her family. It was nice to see them, but we just stopped in and said hi then left. Right after that though, Cox and I got together to go to the English speaking club at our school. President Harper wants us to figure out what it's all about and see if it's worth our time. So we went and it was pretty dang cool. The kids in there know English really really well, so we just got to know them all and helped them wit their pronunciation. It's a really fun club. So then after that (it was a busy day) we went to teach an investigator with Cox and his companion. It was the last lesson with this investigator. It's the girl who he found on the bus, she ended up getting baptized on Saturday. So this lesson was really good. She was stoked to be able to be baptized. And after that, Cox and I started our District Leader Split. We have been eyeing this French Restaurant for a while and we decided to go. I used the birthday money that Pops and Grandma sent me. So we all roll up in our suits and everything. People are convinced we are these really rich Americans. So of course, we sell it for all it's worth. And the people in there totally think we are these real upper class people. It was funny. But I ordered this steak and man, it might have been the best steak I have ever eaten in my life. Best part is, it was only $18. We also got some creme brulee for free. Don't know how we swung that one, but we did.

Friday: We got up and I made some crepes for breakfast. We hung out with Rand and Teasdale for a bit in the morning, and I joked around about going back to the French Place again for lunch (it's the best food I've had, even for American Standards). Then we all kinda joked around with the idea. Next thing you know we are back in our same chairs at the same table ordering some Tomato Soup and more unlimited bread and vinegar, and of course creme brulee. It was actually pretty hilarious looking back. After lunch though we met with Myadag and taught her. It went super good. She had some questions like "why do we not have the gold plates anymore?" and stuff like that. So we were able to answer those and help her understand some deeper things. It was a really good lesson. It went a bit longer than we thought, so we litterally ran to the bus stop and caught the bus up the canyon to our next lesson. It was with this member and it was really good. She told us how the missionaries need to be the leaders and the strength of the ward, and she gave us some things to do that will help with that. This member is also an Anti- Corruption person. So she gives public speeches on corruption in the government. It's actually really interesting stuff. Cox had a hay day though talking politics with her haha. After that though, Perry and I got back together.

Saturday: We got up early and went straight to the church. The ward missionaries organized a hike to go on with us. It was so flipping cold. But we got everyone and then hiked up this mountain and had a picnic at the top. Made a fire and roasted some marshmallows. And one of the ward missionaries brought a friend of her's who is interested in the church. So we got to know him really well. He is back from his army service (every boy in Mongolia has to do 1 year of service). And he told us all the stories from the Army. Pretty interesting guy. After the hike, we went to the ward missionary leaders house with him and they fed us some lunch and we got to know his family really well. Then we went to the church and started the font for the baptisms tonight. We got to our apartment and showered, then went back to the church, only to find that the people emptied the font because the water was cold. And the baptism started in an hour. So we literally had every sink and faucet in the place running to fill this font up. It was quite the production, but it ended up working. Chuka's granddaughter was going to get baptized, but her dad wouldn't let her go for some reason. So we are meeting with them this next week to try and talk to them and see what they really think. It was really sad she couldn't get baptized. Enkenerel was baptized though, and so was this boy we taught once. It was pretty sweet to see Enkenerel get baptized. She was super excited and Perry was able to baptize her which was pretty cool for the both of them.

Sunday: So the Bishop just told us, literally 10 minutes before the sacrament meeting started, that we were going to have to speak because the speakers never came. So we mad scrambled to get some stuff together. It didn't end up going too bad actually. I just got up there and talked about the scriptures and shared some stories and that was it. I felt like it went pretty decent. We also decided to get to know the ward missionaries better, so we are taking them to lunch with Myadag this Saturday. Rand thinks that Myadag feels like she doesn't really have friends in the ward, and it's hard for her to want to go to church, so we are gonna try to introduce her to more people. After church, Altansukh had us over for dinner and it was really fun. We talked about all the things he's done and he showed us some pictures of Huvsgul Lake which is just gorgeous. I gotta go there some day.

Monday: Today we really did not have much. School was cancelled because of the Autumn celebration that they had going on. So Ogden and I (we found out school was cancelled after we split) just got some lunch and then got back with our companions. Rand and Teasdale wanted to see this school celebration thing that was going on, so Perry and I went with and it was really cool. I got to see some of my students and they sang and danced, some did traditional mongolian stuff too. It was really cool. So we watched for a little bit then left. Perry had to get his deel measurements from the seamstress, so we went to her house and chatted while they measured him. It was a really chill day, not too much going on.

Love you all so much.

Austin