Day 441-Someone Asked If I Was Korean...

Not too much going on around here, but things are still going good. I got my new companion, his name is Elder Yorke. He's from Missouri. They came in on Thursday so I have only spent about a half a week with him, the other half I was still with Elder Morales. We somehow managed to stay somewhat busy this week which was good for us. The weirdest thing this week was that it snowed out of nowhere. All day Saturday it was a blizzard here, so we are back in the cold, hopefully it warms up soon. I'll send some pictures, but last P day we went out by the river and found a field and played some ultimate frisbee, it was really fun. I also officially hit my 1 year in Mongolia this week. It was pretty crazy to think that I have spent the last 365 days in Mongolia. It's been fun, really different, but I like it here. 

We went to Naraantuul this week and I found the fox hat ladies. They still don't have any fox hats, but they had some sheep furs. As I was looking through them I had the greatest idea I've probably ever had. So I whipped out my scriptures and put them up against the sheep furs, found out they are the same size. So I bought a sheep fur and I'm having someone make me a sheep fur scripture case. It's gonna be the most Mongolian thing you've ever seen. I'm pretty stoked for it. 

We also met with Puje this week twice. The first time she had us over for dinner and she taught us a BYU Pathways lesson about giving back. She had some good insights into that. She said that it's very easy to want to give back to the people who give to us, like our parents and friends and family. But we need to learn to give to everyone, even though it's harder, they are still of the same worth as our parents and family. It was interesting. Then on Saturday, we got a call from her saying "Hey I made way too much food for a party I had last night, you must come eat it." So of course we went over to eat some. She made crepes, but they weren't dessert, they had chicken and rice in them. They were actually pretty dang good. But we were there for like 3 hours, I asked her about some Mongolian history and she says "now in order for me to explain that we need to go back to the beginning of Mongolia." So we got the whole Mongolian history from her, so pretty much I know everything about Chinggis Khan now.

I taught again this week, Friday and Monday. The classes went pretty good. The school is getting kinda difficult though because the teachers don't really give us any curriculum to teach from, so we just kinda wing it the whole time. We are getting good at making up lessons on the spot, but it's a bit frustrating. We had a teacher ask us about teaching a teachers class, so we would do an English club sorta thing, but only for teachers and help them get better at English. That would be really helpful I think, so hopefully we can do that. 

We met with Baljinyam and Tsetsrel again this week. They are the husband and wife we have been teaching. The husband (Baljinyam) is not a member, but the wife (Tsetsrel) is and she used to be less active, but now they come to church every week. Teaching a family is very different. I actually like it a lot more than any other appointment style, like with single people. We taught about the plan of salvation and when I said that after this life, we can live with our families, husband and wife, grandma and grandpa, kids and parents, Tsetsrel just whispered "wow that is so cool, I want that" and she looked over at her husband and they both realized that they want that. You could really feel the love they have for each other and for their daughter. It's a really cool feeling, and a really cool thing to be a part of. Tsetsrel told me that she really is trying hard to become a better member, so she reads the scriptures and prays everyday and is trying to be better for her family. Sometimes you run into people with more faith than you've ever seen. 

Another day in the week when I was with Morales still we were walking to the bus stop from our apartment, we heard this guy whistling like he was whistling to us. So we turn around and he says "hey wait up!" So we wait for him and then he starts asking us what we do here and says he just came back from Salt Lake City. So I say that we are missionaries and we teach English too. Then he says he isn't a member but he pulls up his phone pictures and shows us his Salt Lake trip. He pulled up a picture and it was him and Elder Gong. Literally just chatting with each other and meeting across this table. Then he says "look at this guy, the German person." It was Elder Uchtdorf and they sat by each other at this concert. I was absolutely blown away, you don't just meet one on one with an apostle. I asked him what work he does and he says "oh I am an immigration worker." Morales's eyes got as big as dinner plates and he was like "frick Schofield we done messed up." So I start asking him about his family, turns out his sister is Puje, the one I was just talking about earlier in the email. Pretty wild. So we were safe, and as we started walking towards the bus stop again he was with us and he said he is headed back to Salt Lake. I'm not sure why, but he seems to be a big wig at immigration. Pretty interesting.

So last week I got a call from this less active member, and she says "I need my baby to get a blessing." So I tell her to come early to church and we will help her out. So she comes right as church is starting and she says "my baby needs the name blessing." So I was kinda nervous, having never done that before, so I went and got the bishop, and he did the blessing. She called Sunday after church and she said "Thanks for helping me out! Come over to my house on Monday and I will make you Indian food." That was the easiest appointment to accept for me. So we went over and we walk in, and turns out her husband is legit Indian. From India. So he cooked up this awesome dank butter chicken. He speaks English and very little Mongolian (his wife speaks English fairly well). So we started talking about religion and God and he believes in one God, so we connected our religion to that. It was really cool to chat with him. He wants me to see if I can get him an Indian Book of Mormon. He also owns an Indian restaurant in the city that he wants us to come to, he said he will give us a discount, so we are stoked. But for the lesson I had to first say everything in English and then say it all in Mongolian for his wife. It was interesting, I liked it though. It was pretty fun. Hopefully he gets more interested in the church. That would be pretty cool. 

I legit got asked if I was from Korea from these younger kids.  I looked at them like, "really? You think I'm from Korea?" I just shook my head at them.  But afterwards I started thinking that the kids only know Korean people from K-Pop music and videos.  A lot of the K-Pop singers have bleached their hair blond.  Maybe that's where they got it from.  Anyway, it was pretty funny.  

That's about it, I read Matthew 16 this week for Come, Follow Me. Verses 24-25 really hit me. Check them out. Love you guys.

-Austin