The Mountain Spirits...

This week went well, we honestly didn't have that much going on. It started to rain a lot again this week, and there was a holiday on Saturday so people went to the countryside and are still there. So we were kinda out of luck with having a lot of meetings, but we still did some cool stuff. Last P-Day we went out pretty far away to this river. It was super pretty. We walked along the bank and found this huge patch of grass and laid out and made a fire. All the trees were blossoming so it smelled nice, it sounds weird but this whole country smells like sheep lol, so being able to smell something nice was pretty strange. We started exploring around and found a huge cliff face. We started taking pictures of it and literally 10 seconds later I see Scrimsher scaling up it haha. It was pretty funny, he got some cool videos though. We found some wild horses running around and that was it. It turned out to be a really fun P-day.

This Saturday was also the national children's holiday. They go pretty wild for here. Everyone spoils their kids like crazy, and normally they go to the countryside for a few days to camp and be together. It's a really cool celebration to me, all the little girls wear nice dresses and the boys all wear nice shirts and pants. But because of this, no one could really meet with us this week. But we met with Enhjin earlier in the week and she invited us and Scrimsher and Teasdale on a hike for children's day. So we went and hiked up these mountains in the north part of the city. It was super pretty. The grass was pretty thick and there were tons of butterflies and we found some wild mountain onion. We got to the top of this peak and it was on the brink of raining, so we asked Enhjin if she knew a Mongolian shaman rain dance. She did know one, but she didn't do it sadly enough. There is some pretty interesting culture stuff that I learned though. I was picking up some rocks and throwing them down the mountain, but Enhjin said that it's rude to the mountain to do that. The mountain spent a lot of time getting that rock to the top, and now it's at the bottom. So Teasdale, just to tease her, threw one more, and she said that the mountain spirits are gonna be mad now. Then we started hiking down and it literally started thundering and raining and it got super windy. So don't mess with the mountain spirits. Enhjin said it's mongolian culture that all the mountains have spirits and stuff, so we need to respect them. Pretty cool to me, sounds super hippy, but it's kinda dope to think that. I dunno, I kinda like it. After we got off the mountain we went to the city square and it was packed. So many people were there it was wild. I've never seen this many people gather for anything here. The whole square was shut down to traffic and they had it set up with booths and tents with games and stuff for the kids. The world U18 3v3 basketball championship was also going on at the square oddly enough. We watched some of that, America didn't participate for some reason, probably because it wouldn't even be fun for the other teams. Really though, they weren't that good. It was weird though that all the players were younger than us. 

Earlier in the week we were crossing the square and there was a fat protest going on. It was huge. The people were really ticked at the government because of the rising meat prices. A lot of Mongolians can't even afford to eat now, it's really sad. So there were some real angry people there and they all were chanting "retire the government, start a new one" or "we want honesty, we want capitalism." It felt like a full on revolution. They were demanding a government take over. It was kinda cool to see, part of me really hopes they do something, the government is really corrupt and getting worse. 

So we did meet with one person this week. Her name is Haliun. She is about 30 years old and has a husband and kids. She isn't really interested in the gospel though, only english help. We still meet with her though. She lived in San Francisco for a bit too. We went over and gave her a Mongolian Book of Mormon and an English one. So hopefully as she "tries to improve her English" she notices something about the book. We will see, fingers crossed. She is super nice and always talks about America. Kinda makes me miss it a lot after the meeting.

We were eating lunch next to a cashmere place and as soon as we finished we saw a bunch of cashmere models walk by and start a fashion show. We all were joking about throwing on our cashmere and jumping in. We pretty much have become walking advertisements for the cashmere companies out here. Everyone has so much of it. 

Scrimsher and I went on the hunt for a trucker hat for him. He wanted one and you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find one out here. Literally took us 5 malls. We both were saying how in America some of our favorite hats were 2 dollars from Maverick. So then we started wishing they could start a Maverick out here. Gas stations are not a thing in Mongolia, it's weird. It's just a pump. No food or candy. 

The ping pong is still going good. We are all improving a flip ton. There will be literally no competition in America for us. Our goal is to go home and sweep anyone who tries to challenge us. I think its gonna be easy. I'm just glad we found ping pong to pass the time. It's been really fun. And that's the week. Sorry it's pretty boring for you guys to read, it's fun over here though.

Also, Dad I've been thinking about your talk coming up.  You asked for a few thoughts, so here you go. 

Alma 24:11-12, 15 

They repented afer all they could do. It wasn't a passive thing, they had to work for it. After repenting they buried their weapons, what allowed them to commit sin. Doing this allowed them to "always retain a remission of their sins" as as promised in Mosiah 4: 11-12. We all need to ponder about our own lives and find out what is preventing us from always retaining a remission of our sins, and being more fully engaged in the gospel. For the Atonement to work its full purpose in our lives we need to allow ourselves to be changed by it, but this again is not a passive thing. We obtain the hope of forgiveness only after all we can do. The scriptures teach that we need to work to obtain this hope that lets us into the rest of God (Moroni 7:3). 

One of the best examples of allowing the atonement to change human character is Paul. Before Paul was Paul, he was Saul, a person who went around killing the disciples of Christ. It frankly doesnt get much more worse than this. It is said that Saul caused a havoc of the church (Acts 8: 3). However, soon after this Saul is completely changed through the Atonement of Christ. Read from Acts chapter 9. (Start and read 1-5). Right here in verse 5 Saul could have stayed on his knees, begged for forgiveness, and prayed some more to try and not feeling the guilt associated with his sins. In our lives are we ever caught doing this? We feel bad about a past mistake or just committed sin, so we pray that night before bed or even maybe right away, and beg and beg for God's forgiveness, then stand up and go about our day as if nothing happened. We checked the boxes off on the how to repent guide and call it good. What else could we need to do? It's all been done, check the chart, all the boxes were checked. Just like we sometimes do, Saul could have done this, and probably have been okay if he was sincerely repenting. He could have said his peace and stopped killing the followers of Christ, returned to his home and lived his life out. But that's now how the Atonement works. In verse 6 it reads (read it). Saul was changed by the atonement. He asked what the Lord would have him do to repair the damage he has done. And he "immediately began to preach" (verse 20). Saul experienced the mighty change of heart King Benjiman talked about (Mosiah 5:2). He no longer desired to do evil, but to do good continually. This is what needs to happen in our lives. Instead of praying and begging for forgiveness then standing up and going about. Ask the Lord what he would have you do. The purpose of this life is to prepare to meet God, there is no better way to prepare than to become more like him. And in order to do that, our will and His need to be aligned. 

Change isn't easy, one of the things most feared in the world is change. During elections, new school years, and changing jobs, people's anxiety visibly rises. It makes sense that change would be hard, if it were easy it wouldn't be a challenge to change from the natural man and follow God, and therefore we would learn nothing. Anything simple to accomplish is never retained. God knows this, so he made part of our natural man hate change, and like the status quo of things. The atonement however, was made for just this purpose od change. Through the atonement we are forgiven of our sins, we all know this. But we are also promised that through the atonement we can experience deliverance from our feelings of despair, guilt, fear, sadness, inadequacy, neglect and so on. All of this points towards change. Towards becoming someone. Becoming like God. There is a power in the Atonement that will help us change, and enable us to do what is necessary to get back on the path of God. In Peter chapter 5:6-7, Peter discusses this same thing. (Read). We are exhorted to cast all our care upon him. All our doubts and fears, all our pains and afflictions. He knows how to succor us, that is why he performed the Atonement, so why would we not want to access this power Chrisr worked so hard to give us. As we learn to cast our burden on the Lord we will see that he will do all the work for us. He will take care of all the pains and sadness. He will do the weeping and worrying and fretting for us. We have no reason to fear change, there is a divine system set in place to help us accomplish it. Christ will be there in our midst, going before us and pushing as our rearward (D&C 49:27). 

While on my mission I've noticed that people don't really have a problem with prayer. At least in Mongolia, prayer is a very normal thing. The culture here is very religious, and has a lot of similarities to the Lamanites when they did not know the gospel. The Mongolians believe in a Sky Father who created all, and traditionally they pray to the sky every morning before eating. So people here pray, given it is very different from our prayers. So when we teach people, they love to hear that they have a Heavenly Father who loves them and wants to communicate with them through prayer. They are very willing to pray, but they believe that some of the feelings of their hearts are silly and not important to God. So they pray very simply and for the first while, they leave out a lot of sincere questions and emotions. I believe sometimes we do this too, despite knowing a lot about the nature of Christ and God. There is no reason to fear or fret telling God something. He already knows the feelings of our hearts anyway, we can't keep a secret from him. But more importantly, Christ suffered all and he knows all the feelings of embarrassment and nervousness. Whatever feeling we ever felt, he also has felt. He suffered all of it before we ever did. The weight of the combined sins and afflictions of humanity caused Christ to descend below all. No one has ever nor will ever be as low as he was. In John 16:33 Christ proclaims his victory over all. He has overcome the world, he knows us all and knows how to help us. In John 14:27 we also find a divine commandment given by him to all. We are commanded, not urged or reccomend that we let our heart not be troubled. But Christ has commanded that we do not worry. 

Just as the Anti-Lehi-Nephis, let us remember to hide away our instruments of sin as a testimony to God that we have allowed the Atonement to work fully in and through us. That we can stand before him and the last day and truly testify that we have changed our hearts and remained clean. 

That's all I got dude. Just some thoughts, I don't know how much it will help. I'm out of practice haha. Love ya dad. 

Austin 

 The square during the children's celebration.