Felt Like Tibet...

September 02, 2019

Felt Like Tibet...

This week was awesome. First I want to tell you about last weeks P-Day. We left really early and got out to the Chinggis Khan statue, and it was pretty dope. It surprised me with how huge it was. It's quite a cool thing. They put it way out in the countryside and it really looks like he''s just riding around on his horse conquering. We went on the tour to the top to take some pictures and could see a nomad herder with his sheep riding around on his horse with his sons herding their sheep. It really felt like Mongolia then. We got back in the car with our old man that I made friends with in a village and paid him some money to drive us around for a day. He was a cool dude. We took off then to the National Park called Terelj. This place honestly blew me away. It kinda made me a little homesick lol. It was a mountain area with huge granite boulders sticking out of the mountains in between the pines. I was waiting to round the bend and pull up on Tahoe to be honest. We saw the megalith Turtle Rock. I asked the taxi guy about it and he told us the legend around it. There was a rich Khan and queen who were getting wrecked in this war, so the Khan had all his soldiers put the silver and gold in a hole on the top of Turtle Rock, then they all fled and never got the treasure back. There have been a ton of people try to get it back, but it's impossible, and apparently still there today. They use the story as a representation of the power and force of nature, it's pretty neat. Then we continued on up the mountains to the top and got out of the car. We walked up this path that led to a monastery at the top. The path was lined with Buddhist proverbs, some were actually pretty good, but mostly they were funny and called non Buddhists ignorant to the universe. I got a kick out of it. Halfway up the mountain is a big wooden suspension bridge that the Mongolians built to cross this river/ravine thing. Then we reached the stairs that lead up to the monastery, and I could see on the mountain boulders at the peak that there was paintings of the Buddhist Gods and some Buddhist scriptures. It blew me away the level of worship and devotion they put into this place when they built it. We got to the top and hiked a bit higher to reach a little house they built to meditate in. I went in and it was super small inside, but they built the house right on the mountain and around a huge granite boulder. They carved some of the boulder away and had a green rock statue of a little old man. It was cool, they also had some feet of the Budda there which is rare. There are only 3000 or so of them around the world, they are pretty important to their faith. We checked out the main monastery and it absolutely blew me away. I took off my shoes and walked around inside. The whole thing was solid granite floors but covered in carpet. It was super intricate and had paintings of these ancient monks around the whole thing. We were the only ones up there, way at the top of the valley, on a mountain, in an isolated monastery. It was dead silent and really for those moments, it felt like it shouldn't exist. It seemed like it was something out of a movie or a book. It was such a cool feeling being the only ones, alone, up in this monastery. I really can't describe it.

Something also really cool happened that I swear only happens here. I was on Facebook and noticed someone commented on the Mongolian church facebook page about being interested in our church, and that they live in our area. So I messaged her and told her we are the ward missionaries. A few days passed then on Sunday night right in the middle of me making dinner, she called and said she is at the church with her friend. So we stopped and hustled down there and taught her and her friend the first lesson. It was probably the best first lesson I have ever had. They were very engaged and asked very deep good questions. I felt like I was able to speak freely in Mongolian too, everything was just coming to my brain. I've learned that when things need to be said in a meeting, they get said. It's really cool to experience. I talked about God and who He is and what He is like, they were surprised that I could say I know all these things. After teaching about the Holy Ghost they asked what I pondered about in my mind when I was trying to figure out whether or not this is all true or not. They asked some genuine questions that really blew me away. The whole meeting ended up being about an hour and a half, but it was awesome. I really hope they stay interested and recognize the spirit they felt.

Another day we went out with Lutz and his companion to show them how to address check. We went out to look for 2 people and found one of them. I unfortunately got an important call about English and my school so I wasn't able to sit in on the visit, but Lutz came down the elevator and was super giddy about finding someone. Her daughter is a member, but she isn't but she is interested. Pretty much what he just did was the dream of most other missionaries. He found an interested person with a cold call knock, pretty cool.

I also had my opening ceremony for my school this week. With some crazy new transfers stuff that happened, only Scrimsher and I will be teaching at the university, and everyone else will be at the High School. So we represented the boys yesterday at this ceremony. We showed up and sat down with all the teachers, and everyone was blown away we could converse with them freely in Mongolian, and they thought we were the coolest cats around because we are almost 21 and teaching English in a foreign country. It was a fun ceremony though, we were also able to meet with some of our old students which was cool. They are all really cool kids. It's really fun working at a university though, I'm honestly so grateful I got to go here where I can do this. I really won the lottery with my mission.

Last week I mentioned we were starting Piano classes, and we had them this last week. We had like 13 people the first day and then the 2nd class 16 people came and a ton of non members came too. It was really cool to be able to teach them. We are only teaching them classical music so they hopefully learn more difficult music and can progress faster. It's going really well, and the students are progressing really fast. Our goal is to get them playing hymns for church within the month and we are planning on doing a recital for them at the end of next transfer. It would be pretty fun. I really enjoy this though, it helps me feel like I have a purpose I can see and measure.

That's the week though, it's been awesome. I really love it here. Asia is dope, kinda strange sometimes, but I love it. Mongolia is even cooler. Putin is also here today so maybe I will get to see him. Who knows. I have on an American Flag T shirt though so if he sees me it's a win for the people back home. Love you guys.

Austin