The Monsoons Are Back...

This week went pretty well. We met with a ton of people and one of our investigators came back from the countryside. We actually found a new family who might be interested in the church to teach and we met them once this week. It was a great week for the work here. It really took off. It's also been raining like crazy now. Every morning we go outside and all the roads and side walks are flooded under water. It's pretty fun, it makes for some really nice days and evenings. Things are going pretty good here. The rain is making everything super green. It's making me excited to one day get to see the countryside with all you guys. I had my interview with President Hansen this week too. It went really well. He is a super spiritual guy, so the interview was really just us chatting about the gospel. It was cool.

So this week we set up an appointment with our bishop. We went over to his house for dinner and it was only him. His family has a cabin up in the mountains north of the city so they live up there during the summer. It's still pretty close to the city but it feels really secluded and away from the business of the city. I actually wish there was a way I could move up there haha. But so we get to his house and he brings out Burger King. I was blown away. We pounded burgers and fries and then we just started chatting. Neither of us really knew him much so we just tried to see who he is. Eventually we get talking and he brings up stock trading. He asks if we know about crypto currencies and stuff. So we say yes and then he asks about other stock stuff and turns out he trades on the foreign exchange market which I know a little about. I tried to do that for a bit in highschool so we talked for a bit and then he runs over to his computer and says he found a huge list of resources that teach how to understand all this. He totally geeked out and talked for literally and hour on this and then emailed us the links to the resources. It was pretty funny in person. He just went on and on about the stock market and how it all works. It was a cool meeting. I feel like we became pretty good friends with the bishop, just funny how it all turned out.

Before we met the bishop though we asked past the city square and found out the was a Thai festival going on. We stopped by and all these Thai people from the Beijing Thai Embassy came here to host a Thai festival to celebrate the diplomatic relations between Mongolia and them. They had all these lady's going hard cooking curry and spring rolls. We bought some and it tasted like heaven. Probably one of the only foods with spice I've eaten in about a year haha. The missionaries in Thailand don't know how good they have it though. We stayed there a bit and talked to some people. I found someone selling Thai curry paste and coconut milk for dirt cheap so I bought tons of it and made some Thai curry the next night. It turned out really good. Definitely beats the potato and sheep meat soup. There was another lady who had some coconut products like lotion and chapstick and even toothpaste. She was giving out free tests with the lotion. So we went over and tried it and she said that we could keep it for free as a gift from Thailand. It was super nice of her so we got some free lotion and chapstick. 

So on Thursday I got up and went to the kitchen and found out our fridge decided to literally stop working. So all the stuff in the freezer melted and spilled all over the floor. It was great. But we cleaned it up and went to our district meeting. I heard that this person I used to teach in Bayangol is getting really serious about joining the church and it made me pretty excited. I hope all those people I worked with eventually join. They are all great. We went to mutual later that night and it was fun as usual. Even though it's summer the youth still come and hangout which is cool. I feel like if I was in their shoes I would be camping or hiking or something that wasn't mutual with a bunch of foreign people. They are really great kids I'm excited to see where all their lives go. It's been really cool to get to know them all so well. We had to leave mutual early and meet with this family we were given as a referral. A Mongolian missionary in America told us about this family that might be interested. We went over to their house and got to know them. It's a mom and her son and daughter who are both young teenagers. They were very nice and curious about why 2 American guys were in mongolia and spoke mongolian. They didn't want to get a lesson just then, so I gave them a pamphlet and she asked about it and what are church thinks about God. We ended up pretty much teaching a lesson without actually teaching a lesson. It turned out really well. I hope that they felt the sprit and want to continue meeting with us.

Saturday was super packed busy. So we had our investigator Myagmarsuren message us saying he got back from the countryside and wanted to meet. We got down to the church and met them there. He had a few questions about baptism and wanted to choose a date for it and stick with it. We went with next Saturday and we reviewed the questions with him. He is a solid guy, it really helps that his wife is a member. They read the Book of Mormon everyday together which has been helping him a lot. It's pretty cool to see how much just reading a book will change someone. After we met with them we met with some new potential investigators we were referred from a member in the ward. They came to the church and we chatted for a while. It kinda seems that they are only interested in learning English but maybe there is something there where they want to learn about the church. I really hope so. They are 2 cool guys. One is a Swat police man who offered to take us hunting lol. It was really hard to say no. 

On Sunday we went over to a members house for dinner. In church 2 Korean guys showed up and I translated for them (they speak some English) and we get to this house and find out that they are staying there for the night before they continue on with their traveling. They come to Mongolia often so they know this member pretty well. They cooked us some really good Korean food and talked a lot about the missionaries in Korea. It sounds like a pretty cool mission over there. Plus they only eat pork which sounds amazing. They also told us if we are ever in Korea to let them know and they will take us around and be our translators. They are super cool guys. 

That's about it. This week was really good. We had a lot of stuff to do and it felt really good at the end of the week to look back and see that. Love you guys. 

Austin 

 The new family we are meeting with. 

Statue of Mary wearing a bike helmet in the roller rink.  We all thought it was hysterical. 

 In our traditional dress for the Nadaam Festival last week. 

 This was at Nadaam last week.  This guy was just told to stand on the street and flex all day.  He was huge. 

 Dinner at the members house with the two Korean visitors. 

 Dad, I found your new suit shop. 100% cashmere. 

 Thai food from the Thai festival.

 This food was amazing.  

 Frozen eggs from our busted refrigerator. The freezer stopped working at the fridge started freezing.  

 Views around town.