Week 20!

This week was awesome, as usual!  On Monday, we went to the main church building and organized folders for the English Conference that was held this weekend.  We assembled 150 folders.  It was a great time, and it went by pretty fast! :)  Then we had a singing practice for the conference.  About 25 missionaries sang 3 Mongolian songs for the teachers in attendance. It was a hit! :)

On Tuesday, I SKYPED HOME!!!! It was so wonderful to see my family!  It rejuvenated my spirits and helped me so much!  I felt so happy the whole rest of the day! :)  It was really warm, and afterward, we went and taught English.  I love that class!  They are so awesome, and we bribe them to speak only English by providing treats.  And it totally works.  And Sister Wilkins and I ate the extra treats.  So it's a win-win.  Afterward, we got the rest of our stuff from an apartment and took a taxi to our other apartment.  The driver was a little old man who was super cute.  He said all sorts of things I didn't understand, but I sat up front to try and practice Mongolian.  I'll thank Sister Wilkins one day for making me do these things.....hahahahaha

We woke up on Wednesday to a blizzard.  Ugh.  But it was another fun day because we taught English again!  We got observed by our head people in our organization, and they kept complimenting us.  It felt good to be prepared and have a great class to teach!  Our students are so good to participate.  They really want to learn English.  Then, we taught two lessons and trudged through the snow.  But it was gorgeous and I felt like I was in a painting again.  It happens often, but the feeling of happiness just doesn't go away.  It gets me every time.  

On Thursday, we had an English Training for missionaries.  Our organization flew out the top professors from the 3 BYUs and one who has been overseeing some English teaching in Asia.  They are amazing at what they do, and they provided some great ideas for me!  They served Burger King, too!  And I saw all the people from my MTC group.  I love reunions! :)  

The next 2 days were filled with more English Training.  It was really fun to see over 200 English Teachers from Mongolia getting new ideas from the people we flew in.  We all learned and got to know our colleagues at the Medical University better!  One is going to BYU Hawaii to learn English for a semester.  We are all a little jealous....but it's fine.  I'm not bitter.  I'll just be here freezing.  But it's fine.

On Saturday night, after the English conference, we had an adult session of Stake Conference.  There were many uplifting messages shared, and I felt the Spirit.  There are some YSAs here who are competing in Mongolia's Got Talent, and they sang some beautiful hymns as the musical numbers.  They are amazing!

Sunday was really great because we found out that Mongolia is getting a second STAKE!!!!!! This is something that we have been praying for, and Heavenly Father is truly blessing us!  The new stake will be created in 2 weeks, and we couldn't be more thrilled!  After church, we taught a family about the Book of Mormon.  They inspire me every time we meet.  They are humble and kind and give freely.  They love the Book of Mormon and will continue to know, for themselves, if it is true.  I know they will come to know it is true!  

I love being here!  I love the Spirit that is filling my life!  I am so grateful to be a part of this great work!  I love teaching English.  I learned so much this week, and I am really excited to implement what I have learned over the next several months.  Life is good! :)

I love you all!

Sister Bottorff