Happy B-day Chinggis...

So this week went pretty good. We had a ton of appointments planned but literally all but 2 got canceled. So that was rough, but it's all good. If this email is super short though that's why, honestly not too much happened. It's still cold, and just getting colder, not too fun but it's all good. This past Monday and tomorrow English is canceled because it's Chinggis Khans birthday. The country still goes crazy over him. 

English this week went really really well. I've perfected the history lesson about Thanksgiving and the students are super into it. I draw a big map of the the Atlantic Ocean and describe the pilgrims and where they came from and why they left. Then we talk about the natives and who they were and stuff. It gets pretty in depth, the students love history I guess. Then we do the turkey hand thing, and we throw on some country music. The students go crazy for it, so I really did find my people I guess. They start singing along to some songs we repeat a lot, so their understanding is getting pretty good. It was just a fun time in class, it was the type of class I wish my teachers had during the holidays back in high school. The students really appreciate it, and it was interesting to see what they put on their list of things they are grateful for. I might have said this last week already, but it's cool to see what they value in their lives. It gave me some new perspectives.

We met with our investigator Nergui again this week. There's something interesting about her name, a lot of Mongolians have the same name too. So it means "nameless." But what happens is if the parents give a name to their child, but the child gets sick as a baby, soon after birth or getting the name, it means that the name wasn't strong enough, or right enough, to defend the child from the spirits, so the spirits got them sick. So they take the child's name, and name them Nergui, or nameless. Kinda cool. So we met with her and it went great. We brought along Uuree, our ward missionary. We met him at the bus stop, and then hiked back up the mountain to her house. I realized I'm gonna miss walking across the frozen dirt roads, and fields trying to get to someone's house to share the gospel with them. There's something about putting in a lot of work into something that really attaches your heart to it. She has a baptismal date now, and is going to most likely be baptized before I leave to America which is awesome. I would love to see her join the church in person. We taught her about the gospel itself, and mostly on repentance. She really thought it was a cool thing, so I hope she is feeling it and wanting this sincerely, she's a great person.

We went to sit in on a meeting with the bayangol people. Morales and Wadsworth are there right now, and they met with an old member that I would meet with pretty regularly when I was there. It was super nice to see her again and chat. She remembered me which was super cool, so catching up was really fun. Plus it was a good time to be able to be with Morales and Wadsworth, they are both really fun guys.

I had a member call me a while ago and asked to meet us at the church. I didn't know what she needed but we went, and turns out she needed some help with some piano and choir stuff. I guess because I'm teaching piano, the city members all think I'm some musical wizard haha. Helping her was fun though, music is pretty cool. There was also a huge stake wide relief society activity where people sewed some children's winter hats and cloves and pants, to give to the poorer people in the city. It was pretty dang cool to see, and it's going to help out a ton of people. 

I went to the black market this past week, and bought some cool dream catcher thing from a legit shaman woman. She told me how they work and what they are for. They are made for little kids, and mostly babies. But they look cool, and it's a cool culture. Plus it was handmade by a shaman woman, so it probably works for real. She was extremely nice though, and kept calling me her son, and explaining how all the shaman stuff works. It's a cool belief they have.

On Sunday we had prayers answered because we had another person bring their friend to church. They seem really interested and are really nice and kind. We also got a referral from another set of missionaries. And during elders quorum, the ward was super helpful and gave us a lot of people to work with. They all set up times with us this week to visit some less active and old investigators. It was really cool, and now we have the most set up week I've ever had my whole mission. It's pretty fun.

Really that was it though, not much happened last week haha. Love you guys. 

Austin

The shaman lady I bought the dream catcher from. 

 My English class and the Thanksgiving lesson. 

Out visiting people with Uuree. He is leaving on a mission pretty soon. He got called to Mongolia. He was a little disappointed with it, but he is excited to serve a mission.  He's a great kid. 

I didn't take this picture, but it is so Mongolian.