Rode with the Eagle Hunters...

January 07, 2019

Rode with the Eagle Hunters...

Hey Mom,

This week was good, we didn't have much to do though, we only had 2 appointments and both were with members. They went really well though. We called our investigators and they were all pretty busy with work starting back up, and school is still on break so one of the people we teach was in the Gobi haha. Last P day though was so dope. We took a bus out to Nalaikh and met this guy who owns some eagles and camels. I brought my deel too so I could get the full experience. I asked the guy about this eagles, and he said he hunts with them still. He takes them with him when he hunts rabbits and foxes and he lets them do all the work. Pretty cool to meet a guy that still does that. He hand makes all his fur hats and clothes from the animals his birds get. So instantly this guy and me were best friends. So he took me over and said "here hold the vulture (22 kg) and my golden eagle (10 kg) at the same time, then you'll look super Mongolian. Got some dope pictures, but those things were so freaking heavy haha. The guy there also told me he is going wolf hunting the next day, so jokingly I asked him "could I come?" and he looks at his friend and his friend goes "of course." Don't worry I didn't go, but man I was tempted. But now when we come back I have a guy to take us wolf hunting. Then we rode his camels. They are way bigger than I thought. When they stand up you feel like you are on a mountain. They are twice the size of a horse at least. Pretty crazy how big they are. In the winter they grow out their fur and it's super thick and soft. So when I rode it, it was like a huge cushion. Also when we were there we saw some wild camels off in the distance. Really made me feel like I was in Mongolia.

Also this week we met with Ganbold and his family. He is a member, but his wife and her family are all Shaman. We went to just see if they are progressing at all, and if they are considering the church. It was a good meeting, and we talked about the church, but the wife's family is still not sold on the idea of her joining. It's kind of a hard situation, but I think eventually they will all come around. Their family is super cool though. They are all pretty traditional Mongolians, so their mannerisms are super different than most. It's a cool thing to see.

We also played some basketball this week with Pickering and his ward. They do a mutual thing with their ward and invite people to play with them so they can bring some of their friends and maybe get some people to teach from that. So he invited us and it was pretty dope. It was in this indoor gym which was really nice and well kept which was kind of surprising. The funny part was the rims were not 10 feet. They were like 9 and half feet, so Teasdale and I could slam it in like it was no deal haha. It was pretty funny seeing the Mongolian people go nuts when they saw a white boy do that. It was just really nice to get some time to run around and exercise. The winter here is tough because its -20 all day long and there is no way we are gonna run around in that weather, so we are stuck indoors and in buildings most days. We are trying to make this basketball thing a weekly activity, fingers crossed.

We also heard from the Sisters that our old investigator Bayarjargal is doing really good. We taught her one lesson maybe 2 weeks ago then passed her to the Sisters to teach. The Sisters said she came to the lesson with her pamphlet all highlighted and underlined with some questions to ask. She is going to get baptized on the 26th of this month which is pretty exciting. Our other old investigator the Sisters have, Cici, is also getting baptized on that date. We may not be teaching anyone, but it's still nice to see people we used to teach progress.

Cox told me too that Odsuren, my old investigator from American Denj, came up to him and told him he wants to be baptized and is willing to do anything it takes. He was struggling with some things, but he just cold turkey quit them all which blows my mind. He's got a huge drive to get baptized and he quit some really hard things. I was really stoked to hear that about him. He is such a solid guy, and should be getting baptized on the 19th I think. I will definitely be going to that. I'm just really excited to see him progress on. It's a really cool thing to be able to see someone change so much just by learning the gospel.

As for 2 hour church, the Mongolians are still figuring it out. It ended up being just around 3 hours haha. And then we had a meeting after church with the ward council which went another 2. And then we had a stake wide missionary meeting which went 3 hours. So like 8 hours of church on Sunday lol. Our church starts at 9 am, so it was nice to have some stuff to fill the rest of the day with. In between meetings we went with Altansukh (the EQP) to visit a less active youth in the ward. Altansukh remembered his door location, just not the right floor. So we went to this building and knocked on like 6 doors and asked for this person. Funny enough this one guy walks out and goes "I don't know who that person is, but what do you all teach?" So Altansukh says "We share the Gospel of Jesus Christ." Then the guy says he is interested and wants us to come back later. Pretty crazy for a non proselyting mission. Makes me wonder what it would be like if we could proselyte. So we will probably go back to his house, we forgot to get his phone number which was a huge mistake. But hopefully we will be able to get back there.

So one night this week we set this water bottle by our windowsill before we went to bed. When I got up in the morning I went to get a drink, and the water was frozen solid. Inside our house. Our heating was broken for a few days, so we had to wear our coats around the house haha

And yeah that's my week. Sorry it was so boring, next week school starts up so things should be more entertaining. Love you guys.

Austin

These pictures are all from a little village called Nalaikh. The same tiny village that I visited in the summer and where I picked up that rock I sent Dad. This guy was on the side of the road trying showing off his eagles and camels and trying to make some extra cash. It cost me $2. Literally.