Sain uu everyone!
Well, I hope everyone’s week has been a
good one. I hear that spring has hit Arizona. Well, at least it’s warming up
somewhere... haha. I’ve learned this week that I was so wrong in thinking that Mongolian
spring would be a step up from Mongolian winter. Because its not! This week has
been the coldest week I think I’ve ever had! And to make it worse, the wind
blows like crazy now. It’s a good think I wear lots of tights, because there is
no hope in keeping my skirt down! haha. Anyways, despite the cold winter, this
week has been full of great moments! I'll start from the beginning:
The night I heard about the transfer, I
was so excited I was getting transferred I couldn’t even think about the fact
that we were going to have to speak Mongolian. haha. And then, we got to the church;
made the transfer and bam... it hit me. Oh my gosh, I’m the senior comp... in Mongolian!
I have had lots of feelings of inadequacy this week, especially because my comp
has only been in this area for 6 weeks so we don’t know that area well... at
all! It’s been such a stressful but soooooo fun time calling people and trying
to find their houses in the middle of these crazy ger districts. haha. I’ve
actually quite enjoyed it. My comp actually has really good Mongolian (way
better than I was after 3 months in the country) So, we've been making do. She
is 22 and she is such a good listener! Sometimes, it will be quite or I’ll be
feeling a little sad or overwhelmed and she comes up with the most random
question to ask me and it lifts my mood. She’s just what I need :)
The new area is pretty great! At church
yesterday, we found 2 new investigators, which is great! We teach lots of English,
but with the little time we have, we meet with some great people! Yeah,
sometimes it feels weird to be the one who has to make decisions. haha. I
forget that as I senior comp, she looks to me for answers... and sometimes I
have no idea what to do. But I fake it till a make it and it seems to work out
pretty well. haha. It’s actually kind of fun :) We get a long really well.
Here are some highlights of my week:
1) Returning to my favorite kindergarten
in the world! When I fist came to Mongolia, my trainer Sister Magleby taught English
as a cute little kindergarten. Those times were some of the most fun times of
my mission. And, as luck would have it, my new companion works at the same
kindergarten! So, 5 months later, I got to return to that place a see all of my
favorite kids and teachers again! And what better is I could actually
communicate with them this time ;) haha. I am thoroughly convinced that there
is nothing cuter than Mongolian kids!
2) This week, we have spent a lot of
time getting used to the area. My comp has only been in the area for six weeks
before me, so in a lot of ways, we are kind of whitewashing the area. It’s been
really fun and stressful trying to get our way around and consequently, we
haven’t had a lot of time to meet with people. So, every meeting meant so much
to us. One night, we were heading over to meet with one of our investigators
when she suddenly cancelled on us. We were so sad because we didn’t have enough
time to travel anywhere else to meet with someone. So, I asked my companion if
there was a member who lived close to the area. She told me that an old grandma
lived just in the floor below us. Although it was kind of late and we weren’t
sure if she was even home, I felt a strong need to meet with her. So, we
knocked on her door. As we walked in, the grandma burst into tears. That
morning, she woke up and her sight was gone. She had been laying in bed all day
praying that someone would come by to visit her. We sat down with her, prayed
with her, read her a scripture and then called someone from our ward to help
her out. We sat for almost an hour just holding her hand. As I sat there, my
heart was filled with gratitude that we were burned by our investigator. It is
so interesting how the Lord works. Of course, being stood up by an investigator
is never fun. But, it is through that experience that we were able to bless the
life of someone who truly needed it. I’m so grateful that the Lord knows our
plans better than I do :)
3) So, now that I am together with an American,
we have made a goal to improve our Mongolian . We thought for a while what our
plan would be and we came up with the idea to speak English when we are home
and to only speak Mongolian when we are out of the house. At first, I was a
little apprehensive... lets be honest, I enjoy speaking my native tongue. But
as we have been trying it, it has brought more blessing and funny experiences
that I could have imagined. So, I just want you to imagine this: being a Mongolian
seeing two Americans trying to speak to each other in what I like to call
Monglish (mostly Mongolian with an English word here or there if we don’t know
the word) lets just say, we've gotten lots of funny looks, laughed at, and had
lots of people come up to us and talk to us. It’s actually been so fun! There
have been many times just in this week where on the bus or in a taxi, people
hear us and ask us what we are doing here in Mongolia. Although I can’t
straight up talk about the church, we have invited many people to come to our English
classes we teach at the church. Again, I’ve been reminded this week that the Lord
works in mysterious ways.
Well, that’s my week in a nutshell! I’m
sure there are lots of other things that I forgot, but this will have to do.
Our weeks are full of miracles; we just have to look for them :) I hope you all
have a good week! Love you all! Hairtai shvv!
Love,
Sister Royal
No comments:
Post a Comment