I Love Mongolia!

First off, it is getting soooo hot here!!!! And on top of the heat, we spent a lot of time this week checking less active address, which meant hours wandering around hot and dusty ger districts..... Mongolian addresses are rough. One day we spent a good two hours walking almost our whole area trying to find one house. We did find it but when we knocked, the husband answered and yelled some very very mean things in Mongolian and English at us.... first time that has happened to me on my mission- got a little taste of what it must be like to proselyte and knock doors... my heart goes out to all you missionaries who have to deal with that every day! On the bright side, this girl is getting an awesome foot tan, haha.... but my poor shoes are already starting to fall apart- so sad :( just hoping they will last a few more weeks!

Oh, and one day we had a surprise thunder storm/ hurricane! It was crazy! Out of no where, as I was teaching English it began straight pouring down rain and all the streets were flooded within 10 minutes! The struggle was real trying to get back to our area after class- drenched to the bone!!!

But, besides the rough weather, our work is doing pretty well actually!

1) Maria- we finished her lessons, she did her interview, she passed, and she will be baptized on Thursday!! She is so incredibly happy and she said she can't stop smiling and she is just so happy!!!! 

2) Moogii- Is doing great and meeting with us well. He has a huge desire to be baptized and soon, but he doesn't understand the gospel super well and it is super hard for us to find witnesses to meet with him all the time, so for his sake, we passed him to the elders. We were sad to pass him, but the elders will do great and I think it will be better for Moogii.

3) Munhkbileg- Also doing great! She still is not smoking- such a strong women! All of her lessons are done and this week we went over the baptismal questions with her! She is so incredibly ready for baptism as she understands, believes, follows, and has received confirmations of everything!!! the only roadblock in her way is that her and her boyfriend don't have a marriage certificate. She really wants to follow the law of chastity though and we helped her set a goal of a date she will have everything talked out and decided by.... I really hope she decides to and finds a way to follow this important commandment- I know it will make her all the happier in her life! She says whenever she prays or reads from the book of Mormon she gets so happy that she feels like singing, and I know that if she follows this commandment, she will feel all the happier!!!

4) Shinebayar- met with us four times in one week- has a huge desire and understands everything so incredibly well, I feel like he is teaching us the lessons!!! We are struggling to get him to ask for himself through prayer though if these things are true, but he said he is scared that he won't get an answer, but we spent a long time talking about that and he is going to do it!!!!

5) While we were checking LA addresses, we ran into a member who has been a member for 19 years, and brings all of her 4 young children to church every week, and well it turns out that her 10 yr old daughter hasn't been baptized, so we are teaching her the lessons now so she can quickly be baptized. That young girl is awesome though because she already knows everything, she understands the scriptures well, she loves the church, she really wants to be baptized, and she loves god and Christ!!!! God truly blessed us with this young investigator :)

Everything we did this week-teaching awesome lessons, walking around the ger districts, meeting with members, etc seemed to really hit home to me a couple things; I love this work and I love serving the people of Mongolia, I love this country so much and it truly is my second home, and this mission has changed my life! 

The air is good except when smoke from Siberia forest fires blows in.