Stare Into The Sun: I'm Leaving Darhan for the UB

First traditional clothing picture. Sis. Magleby is the queen and I'm her servant appearantly. lol

August 18, 2014

Loved ones,

So, I am leaving beautiful Darhan :( I am so sad to leave the peaceful countryside but, I am excited to get back to the city. I’ve been in Mongolia almost a month now and I have no idea what the city is like. Oh, and next week I will be starting English as well!

This week has been so crazy/funny/hard/awesome. haha Each night when we get home we say, "Man, today has just been the weirdest day." and then we realize that we just said the same thing the night before. haha. First, I want to publicly thank the Hatton Family for the delicious Reeces candy. I don’t know where you are or how you got it to Mongolia, but it was so wonderful. I never thought I would miss American chocolate so much and I also never thought I would almost cry over receiving American chocolate. haha So thank you :)

So, this week, because the work is pretty slow here, we decided to start talking to everyone and also to work with the members. It’s hard in Mongolia (and Darhan especially) because if someone asks if we are missionaries, we have to say no. But, we can at least serve the people around us and maybe they will figure it out on their own. ;) haha.

So, in the name of serving everyone, one day we were walking and a man who owns a picture place asked us to come in and help him with his computer. His printer wasn’t working and the computer was all in English. So, we went in and did the best we could. After helping him, he told us that he would take our pictures in Traditional Mongolian clothes as a thank you. It was so fun! And afterwards, we laughed so hard because we looked so silly. But it is so wonderful getting to know that rich Mongolian culture. And I won’t be surprised if, a few years down the road, our picture will be somewhere hanging up in that Mongolian picture shop. :) haha.

This week was also a week of firsts!

First, I met my first Mongolian drunks. I hear they are common, but I haven’t seen any until this week. It was probably the scariest/funniest thing this week. They kept on trying to talk to me, but

I can barely understand regular Mongolian let alone drunk Mongolian. haha. It was an experience for sure.

Next, I used my first noith (which is basically like a Mongolian outhouse). Because the ger districts don’t have plumbing, they have these big holes in the ground with 2 two by fours. haha. I’ve been so scared to use one! But one night I just couldn’t hold it and I bit the bullet. It wasn’t too bad actually, but boy was it an experience.

Oh, and I also got grabbed by some creepy Mongolian man and I slapped his hand so hard! haha

Um... What else... We met with lots of members this week and they are all so nice to us. They feed us delicious Mongolian food and give us referrals. I just love it here in Mongolia :) I’m sad to leave Darhan but excited for the city :)

EMBARRASSING MOMENT OF THE WEEK: there are many to choose from, but this week, I will choose something that happened during district meeting. We were practicing the second lessons with the elders and they asked me where I thought we lived before this life. And I meant to say heaven but ended up saying "gay" instead. The elders laughed for the rest of the meeting about it... haha. Oh well. At the very least, I’m glad my pain can make someone else happy :)

I love you all! Have a great week and know you are all in my prayers. The Lord loves us all :)

Sister Royal