Eating at Pizza Hit with the Sister Missionaries in my Zone.
October 5, 2014
Hi Family and Friends,
I’m so excited to watch Conference this
week! It’s like Christmas for the missionaries in Mongolia. haha. And we get to
watch it in English (thank goodness). I too love the prophets. I bought a warm
winter coat (for about 150 dollars) it was a little pricey but I didn’t want to
go cheap for that one. Now I’m on the hunt for good winter boots and other
winter accessories (mittens and camel hair socks.) I’ve been so stressed out
about it. I’m constantly trying to
find the balance between quality and price.
And yes, you are right on the mark about
how things change with the situation your in. Sometimes, I look down at the
food I’m about to eat and I think back to the days when I wouldn’t drink milk
if it were even a day past the expiration date. I am a changed women... haha.
The other day, someone cut up watermelon for us and they must have used the
same cutting board as their meat because the rinds had raw meat all over them.
yeah, that was a struggle... The food is pretty good. It’s all the same
ingredients really, just prepared differently. Everything has meat, potatoes,
onions and peppers in it. And it’s put together with some sort of flour product
(bread, dumplings, or noodles). I’ve still been a little weary about eating
because it made me so sick before. But, when someone gives you food, you eat it
and they always give you food. haha. I have also grown to love milk here.
Everywhere you go, they feed you Orum (a hot mixture of clotted cream, water,
and salt) and sometimes they put rice in it. That probably would have been the
death of me in America, but its actually really good. And I don’t care what
anyone says, I will never get used to the taste of Aaruul. Never. hjaha
Aaruul – Ааруул Dried curds.
Preparation
Leave the milk (usually from cattle, yaks, camels) to curdle. Lift
out the solid components with a fine cloth and let as much of the liquid drip
off. Then press the mass into a cake between two wooden boards, weighted down
with stones.
Cut the solid cake into pieces of
about 10 length. Arrange the pieces on a wooden board and put them into the sun
for drying. In Mongolia, this happens on the roof of the yurt.
A cover of fine white cloth will keep the birds
Our apartment is small but nice. It’s
just me and Sis Magleby. Its funny because the first apartment I lived in Darhan,
I thought is was sooo ghetto. The shower was always cold and we had to hold the
faucet in our hands and everything was kinda old and broken. And now I’m living
in my 3rd apartment and they are all relatively the same. But each one just
seems better and better. The apartment I’m sleeping in now has bunk beds and I
got the top. And literally every tiny move I make makes the whole bed squeak.
lol. No real bugs. Just tonzzzzzzzz of flies.
We eat at members/investigators houses
every Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Its pretty nice except when they
make you eat seconds and thirds and sometimes fourths... haha. So we barely
ever cook for ourselves and when we do its just rice and milk or oatmeal. I’m
starting to really love milk here. Like even the really thick kinds.. Its
weird.
The thing that has really surprised me
about Mongolia is just the normalcy of it. It seemed like such a foreign
country when I first got my call. But people are pretty normal here. People
wake up, ride the bus, go to work, go shopping, and have cute style. All that
stuff. But they still embrace their rich culture. I love it. And no, no one
even knows about Halloween... or Christmas really.
English is good. I’m still trying to
find my identity as an English teacher. Because yeah... I have no training. My student
is Enk-uchral. He is 7 and he acts like a 7 year old who just got out of school
and doesn’t want to learn more English. So, I’m sure you can imagine. I’m
trying to find my discipline balance. If I was a real Mongolian teacher, I would
just slap him if he was being bad... haha But, I’m not going to do that. I do
have to find my stern teacher face. Lisa maybe you can help me with that? How
do you find your balance in teaching? And his English is pretty minimal. He
needs to practice writing. So, if you have any basic writing worksheets or
coloring pages to send in the package that would be great!
Okay, here are some of the highlights of
my week:
First of all, on Tuesday night, we had
an interesting experience. We had just finished our nightly planning and
getting ready for bed when there was a knock on the door. Yeah, okay. Of course
we're not going to answer it. But the knocking got louder and so we went to go
check out the peephole to find a policeman on the other side of the door. I
froze. Because of our precarious nature being missionaries in Mongolia, I have
become terrified of policemen. We didn’t know what to do, but when we talked to
him through the door, he said he had some questions for us. So we opened up the
door slightly to answer him when he and a lady come barging through the door. They
were speaking in Mongolian and I was holding back tears, so I'll have to tell
the story according to Sister Magleby because I couldn’t understand anything.
So she comes in and asks to see our papers and passports. She examines them
carefully. All the while, the policeman is taking picture of our house and us.
Sister Magleby explains that we are English teachers and asks her why she is
here. She said something that neither of us understood, wrote down our
information, and they both promptly leave. As soon as the door shuts, I burst
into tears and Sister Magleby calls president Benson. We talked to him for a
little bit and he said that someone will be on it the next day and then we are
left to worry on our own. The whole night, I was thinking "They are going
to kick me out." "Where are they going to send me now?" It was
the longest night of my life!
In the morning, we talked to someone
from our mission office who said that she talked to the lady and figured
everything out and that we don’t need to worry. Apparently this happens a lot.
So now as I look back at it, I think it’s hilarious. But, at the time, it was
probably one of the scariest moments of my life! But it is so comforting to
know that there are people here who take such good care of us.
Later this week, we were meeting with
our investigators, Tsagbataar and his family, and we decided that we needed to
re-teach the Word of Wisdom. He smokes everyday but he has a great desire to
follow Jesus Christ. I think that the thought of quitting smoking is so
overwhelming that he hasn’t even tried. So, we knew that we needed to help him.
I had been thinking about him and his family all week and had been praying that
he may understand our love for him and most importantly his Father in Heaven's
love. That night, before we knocked on the fence, I said a silent prayer that I
could teach with the spirit.
We started by eating dinner together and
it was so fun! We were talking like friends and I could understand what they
were saying and they could understand me. They were all making fun of me
because I’m going to freeze in the winter (that seems to be a common source of amusement
for people haha) Tsagbataar was saying that in the winter, I’ll step out of the
house and freeze mid-step. It was so funny! I couldn’t stop laughing. And then
dinner ended and we gathered together to start the lesson.
As the opening prayer was being said, I
was again saying a prayer inside. We taught the lesson with confidence and
love. He confided in us that it was going to be so difficult for him to stop
smoking. He told us what triggers him and what he has done to stop in the past.
We made a family plan with him and he agreed to come with us to the Addiction
recovery program on Tuesday. I bore my testimony that his most powerful
recourse will be prayer and I told him that we would pray for him and his
family everyday. The love was so strong in the room and we felt impressed to
ask him if he will go to church. He has never gone before because he works. But
he agreed and I knew that he really meant it. We then asked him to say the
closing prayer. It was the simplest most powerful prayer I’ve heard in a long
time. He promised the Lord that he would go to church and stop smoking and then
pleaded for His help. He cut the prayer short because he started crying. It was
such a powerful moment and probably one of the best moments of my mission. So,
pray for Tsagbataar okay?! Man, he's soooo great!
A lot more happened this week, but I
have no time to write it nor will it be half as funny to you as it was to me...
sorry. haha. But I love you all! I hope you can feel my prayers in your behalf
and I constantly feel yours.
Love you,
Sister Royal
