Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Week 15: Another Week in a Desert Paradise! :)

Hello!!
This week was just another great week!  Of course my life isn't perfect, but I seriously love and cherish every minute! 
On Monday, Sister Wilkins and I went to a nearby museum and checked out some cool stuff.  It is a museum of the stuff from a Khan.  I'm not sure of all the details since my Mongolian isn't up to par with Museum type vocabulary.  But we saw some Buddhist stuff and some animals the Khan guy brought back after his travels around the world.  And we saw a ger he had that was made of 120 leopards.  He got it for his 25th birthday.  So mom, you have over a year to plan MY 25th birthday present.  Ready go.  The rest of the day, we cleaned and got our laundry done.  It's nice to have a few minutes to sit on the couch and think about nothing! :)
Tuesday was a zone conference, where about 25 missionaries got together and talked about improving and becoming better missionaries.  I felt really uplifted after hearing from my mission leaders!  They are great!  Later we did some English training.  And then  I went on an exchange for 24 hours with Sister Harmon and Sister Namonaa. 
Wednesday was quite the adventure!  We did our studies and then headed out for the day.  We got stuck in a totally random blizzard on our way to teach our first lesson.  It was blizzarding out, and the little boy didn't hear us knock on his gate.  So we were standing out there and decided to try to get his attention.  We snuck around their crazy scary dog and ended up teaching a great little lesson.  I wrote some sentences in Mongolian, and I started to read them.  Then he said, "Can I just read them??"  I understood what he was saying, but Sister Harmon encouraged me to just keep going.  So I did!  And he got over it! :)  Haha  He was really cute!  Then, we saw another investigator and his brother.  Two grandpas watching their 1 year old granddaughter.  SO CUTE!!!  We taught them about how God loves and knows them personally.  It's my favorite thing to teach about because it's the very core of what I know to be true.  That evening, we had a meeting to plan for this week's English classes.  We are doing placement tests tomorrow, so we planned the tests.  I'm excited to start at the medical school!  I start tomorrow and start actually teaching on Wednesday!
On Thursday, I met up with Sister Guild and she and I substitute taught an English class.  They were middle schoolers, and we had every level from "I don't know how to say my name in English" to "I'm so fluent and I'm not sure how to use big words, but I have them memorized and just want to get them out" hahahaha.  It was a fun challenge.  But we totally rocked it!  And we got cookies afterward, so that made me feel great!  Cookies make everything better.  Then, we went to the doctor's apartment and ate some more cookies while we waited for our English training to start.  Our trainer was stuck in traffic so long that we ended up cancelling the training.  But we LOVED the fresh baked cookies!! :)
On Friday, we planned for the week and then headed out to teach lessons.  We met up with my MTC teacher who went and taught a lesson with us.  She brought us a sheep head that we ate later that night.  Turns out tongue tastes like hot dog.  Then, we visited a member for dinner, and we learned to make Buuz, which are like dumplings.  Ours were NOT as pretty as the member's, but we had some great laughs.  And they tasted great!  We taught 2 other lessons that night, and headed home.  It was a great day!!!
Saturday and Sunday were FULL of general conference.  I felt so uplifted and inspired by the messages from the sessions.  Look up President Monson's talk on choices!  I felt so strongly that I need my little choices to be good because they add up and help me to make really good big choices! 
On Sunday, we met with the bishop of our ward, and he is so nice!  I am so grateful to be serving with him!  He encouraged me to speak Mongolian, and I tried! 
Sometimes I struggle with wanting to speak and then not knowing how to say what I want to say, but I am getting better at trying!  I love the language, and I love the people.  And speaking is important for me to express that love!
I love you all!  Have a great week!!
Sister Bottorff
"Us after our last English training! I love these girls!"
"Mongolian vest and hat I tried on."
"The sheep..."
"In a winter wonderland."
Sister Bottorff :)



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