Yep, I Ate That!

I spoke too soon Mom when I said we were lucky and didn’t have to eat that head … we went back on Monday to do FHE and guess what they cooked for us! Yep, the sheep’s head, kidney, liver, stomach and all kinds of lovely stuff. It was a struggle but I ate it and some of it wasn’t all that bad actually. My companion ate an eyeball (she loves them) and an ear & roof of the mouth! I wouldn’t try those, but I had some tongue, stomach, kidney and I’m not really sure what else because it was all in a big bowl that we all ate from.

I went on splits this week with a Mongolian sister who serves in Darxan and that was quite the struggle. She knows absolutely no English, so some stuff we would just give up on explaining … you can only try for so long until the point doesn’t even matter anymore. Haha. It was fun. We also did mutual this week and taught about missionary work, then played missionary tag and some other games. It was so fun!! The youth here are amazing! Two sisters here who are inactive brought two friends to mutual and now we are teaching their friends! Their friends are awesome and so faithful. They come to everything. As well, we had zone training this week in Darxan – about 5 hours away by train. It was so great and I learned so much! We took a taxi on the way back and it was the most beautiful drive through the countryside … so so so beautiful! I would love to wander the country and just enjoy the beauty.

I taught my first English class here this week and that went great. We taught on Saturday for two hours and had about 20 people show up, including some investigators, woohoo! I teach with the other American, Sister Cleveland, and the senior sister, Sister Hill. It went pretty well and was so fun.

We have the most amazing young mom who will have her interview for baptism this week – pray for her! If all goes well, next Friday we will have her baptism!

This week I was reading a talk by Elder Uchtdorf in the newest Liahona (church magazine) about the pioneers. Everyone should read it! It made me think about a lot of things but one thing I realized is while we are trekking across the plains, we are all pioneers in our own way and we all have our own treks. I realized that my mission is my own trek and I truly am a pioneer – I am 1 of 13 American sisters serving in Mongolia right now, 1 of about 60 missionaries, and 1 of 406 missions in the world!! I am the second child in my family to serve and the first girl to serve. I am one of the new 19 year old sisters serving throughout the world. I am in Mongolia teaching the gospel to the Mongolian people and because the church is so new here, every member is a convert – EVERY. It’s so cool to see their faithfulness and desire to learn. It’s a common question to ask when someone got baptized and who their missionary was. These people, this country, and this work is amazing! It is changing people’s lives here and throughout the world for the better. I know that this is the true and full gospel of Jesus Christ once again established on this earth. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that through him, we have the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is true, in every language. It is our guide and help in this life and I know that if we live its teachings we will be blessed.

WEEKLY QUESTIONS:

1.     Where do you attend church and how many people go?

The church building is just up the street and the last few weeks we’ve have about 30 people (everyone was gone for Naadam) but this week we had 68 people in sacrament! It was awesome!!

2.       Are there any elders in your area? There are two elders (district leaders) but their area is two hours away. They have two apartments – one here and one there. They are in Erdenet for a few days a week for district meeting and p-day.

3.       How are the clothes holding up? They are fine, just starting to look a little worn. It’s the shoes that are dying! The pair I’m wearing right now will probably only last another week or so.

4.       Do you hear any news about other parts of the world?Not really, only church news that we see on lds.org on p-days.