Winter Weather Part II...

I had a good week here, it got super cold though. It's all below freezing now, which I was somehow hoping to avoid until December, but it came early now. Luckily there's almost no pollution. The government came out with this new coal that they are selling for cheaper than regular coal. They call it improved coal, so I don't know what's in it, but it produces almost no pollution at all. It's really nice, and so far it has been working. Not having to wear a mask is way nice, hopefully the smoke stays like this and it doesn't go back to what it was like last year. On P-day last week we were at a new department store here and we found a massage table place. I asked about it, and the guy said they were full electronic so we got a free 40 minute back massage and oh man it felt good. Made me feel like a new man. 

The biggest thing this week was general conference for us. We got together with the city people and watched it in English on Saturday, then on Sunday we went with our wards and watched it in Mongolian. All of us put in an earbud and listened in English from our phones. We can understand the Mongolian, but it's a way better experience to hear it in our first language. It was a cool conference though, and I found it interesting how many changes keep coming. I enjoyed it a lot, especially being able to sit down and chat with all of the old Sukhbaatar members I know. It was cool catching up with them all again.

We met with some people in our ward who got their visas to go to Salt Lake to visit the temples for two months. They're the family that I got some of my mongolian clothes from, so I know then really well. We got to their house and took off our boots and coats and sat down and chatted while they made some huushuur. They had the Mongolian soccer game on so whenever a goal was scored they would go crazy and shout. They gave us some hot water and sweet bread to eat and warm up with. It really felt like being at home with my family. We chatted for a while and shared a scripture with them. It was just a really fun meeting, it made Mongolia feel a lot more like my home than before. 

I was talking with Sister Hansen and she told me an interesting piece of culture. She said that Mongolians will never place a stake in the ground for a tent or anything. If they do put one in, it must be wood, and they have a little ceremony for it. They believe the stake hurts the earth, so they put cheese and yogurt around the stake and have a small little ceremony for it. I thought it was a cool tradition to have, the Mongolians really respect nature traditionally, that's something I really hope they don't loose or change. 

For English we started doing something new to help improve our students listening skills. For the last 30 minutes of class we will play some music and have them write down any words they can hear. We've been listening to a lot of Beatles and Johnny Cash and country. It made me realize how much I miss music, so Scrimsher and I just sing along while the students write stuff down. So far it's been helping them a lot though, they've been progressively better at hearing the words. I'm hoping that by doing this, they will be able to better understand us as we speak. 

Our investigator Baigalmaa was in the countryside this week, but she contacted our friends there and was able to go to general conference with them. She brought a friend with her from the city, and they both sat in the conference. Baigalmaa wants to go on a mission, so she is trying to start sharing the gospel more. It's really cool to me to see someone who is an investigator do this. It speaks for itself to how real this all is. Her friend asked about the Book of Mormon, and Baigalmaa said she seriously explain it on the bus ride home (which is 12 hours so..) Things are still going great with her, and she is super excited to be baptized. 

We met with another member family this week, and it was probably the most productive meeting of my whole mission. The husband and wife are both super active people, and they had a friend over who is also really active. We chatted for a while and they asked about the mission and how life is going for us and our plans for when we are home. We got to know them really well, and asked them about some less active members we could visit. They gave us a ton of names, and even offered to take us with them and go straight to their house. We hung out there for a bit and had a really good time. 

The last story is real quick, but we were waiting for Quackenbush to come and unlock the church for piano lessons, and while we were waiting this guy walks up and he is slightly buzzed, and shakes my hand and I realized his hands were the size of dinner plates. He told me he is the national basketball teams sport masseuse, which made sense seeing the size of his hands. But he asked to take a picture with me for some reason, then grabbed my hand and put it in between his hands to warm mine up. For some reason Mongolian people's hands don't get cold in the winter. I don't know how but they don't. It was a funny interaction, and now I have a cool picture with this guy. Really that's it. Love you guys. I'm headed to Khovd right now, which is basically the end of the earth. It's far out. 

Love,

Austin

The sports masseuse. 

 Dad check out this knife.  It was awesome. It is about $500 USD.  Don't worry, I didn't buy it.  

 Member family that we met with. 

English Club at the University that we teach at.  They wanted a picture with us and want us to start helping with their club.