Happy Fourth...

July 07, 2019

Happy Fourth...

This week went well. We stayed pretty busy the whole time luckily with service and meetings with people. We were supposed to have 2 baptisms on Saturday but our investigators both went to the countryside suddenly. They literally left on the Friday before the baptism. We just had to laugh at it. It was a classic Mongolia mission problem but it's all good. They come back at the end of the month and both want to be baptized the weekend after they come back to the city. So it's nothing big just gotta move it back a few weeks. This week is the festival of manly sports called Naadam. We are all pretty stoked for that, the city becomes really fun during this time. But because of it, the week is so far not busy at all, no one meets with people over Naadam. Most people go to the countryside so the city is pretty empty, it's kinda weird seeing so few people. Naadam is gonna be really fun though I'm pretty stoked for it.

On Saturday we got a call from some others guys saying they were double booked for service and they needed our help. So we met up with them and went back to the hole guy. I guess they wanted it 4 feet deeper. So we showed up around noon and just went to town for the whole afternoon. We finished around 5:30 at night. The guy came up to us and actually told us that we need to slow down or else we will make ourselves sick from working to hard. It was pretty funny to hear that and it just made us crank it out faster. So the hole is now 9.5 feet deep which is bigger than any bathroom I've ever seen in this country, but he said he wants it about 8 more inches deeper. So in 2 weeks we are going to help him set up his ger and finally finish the hole. When it's all said and done there will be a little shack placed over the hole with a door, and that's your ger district bathroom. It's really fun to be able to help out like this though. I really miss working like this. Plus the farmers tan is coming in tough.

This week we had mission leadership council as well. It was really cool to be able to get to know the new mission president. He is kinda intimidating though. His Mongolian is literally perfect. Sometimes other Americans and I don't understand him. It's kinda crazy. He's a super good guy though, he has a fire under him and he wants to go. He is really trying to help us find more things to keep us busy which will help out a lot. It's such a different feel than President Harper though. I'm really going to miss the Harpers. It's interesting to have a younger guy running the show.

Earlier this week we were planning a meeting with an investigator but he got busy last second so we headed to the BZ to print some permission forms off. We got those printed off and on the way down the elevator Sorenson pressed the up button on accident. So we had to go up and literally right as the door opens on the top floor a member sees us and says "oh you two were sent from heaven, help us move this piano." so we had to flipping haul this upright piano down and load it into a truck. We were trying to lift it in and these 2 huge Mongolian dudes saw us and picked up the whole thing by themselves and loaded it in. Then they just casually walked off like lifting this 800 pound piano into the bed of a truck was nothing. It was probably the most casual flex I've ever seen. We took this piano and moved it into a new mission presidents home.

For the 4th of July we got some ice cream and then ate at Hard Rock Cafe. It's the most American restaurant in the country. It was pretty fun, we had some shakes and fries and there were some other travelers there who wished us a happy fourth.

This week was the Mongolian EFY too. So Sorenson and McComber (Scrimshers new companion) went to it for a few hours to represent Deseret International Charities. So Scrimsher and I were together for the day. We met with Delgersaihan. He is the guy who has a family that's also interested but he is checking out our church first. He is such a solid guy. We taught him about temples and family history and it really touched him that we can do work for our ancestors. He is going to Canada soon for school and he asked us if there is a temple that that he can go get sealed in with his wife and do work for his relatives. It was really cool to me to see someone who just learned about temples to already see the importance and the value of them. After the EFY I saw a ton of pictures posted by the leaders and the was about 430 kids that attended from all over Mongolia. Every youth in the country was invited and the church helped make all the travel arrangements for the countryside people. I noticed that tons of less active youth went and a lot of non member youth went with their friends. It was a huge success here. On Sunday the youth all bore their testimonies about how much it helped and there were a couple of less active kids who said it helped them remember why they joined the church in the first place, and gave them a desire to stay active and even serve missions for some. It was awesome to be able to see all these kids like this.

After the meeting with Delgersaihan, Scrimsher and I had nothing to do so we started walking around and ran into members everywhere we went. We actually found some American people who asked us about church and when it was. It was cool to see how even though it felt really pointless to just walk sorta aimlessly around town that God was preparing where we were going with people to talk to. Pretty cool missionary moment.

That was really the week. It's getting harder to find stuff to write about most the days are spent walking around trying to be seen and noticed. How you all had a fun fourth. Love you guys.

Austin