Sister Sarah Bottorff: Week 29 - Naadam celebration in Hovd!

Hey!!

Today is Naadam in Hovd! It was Naadam in UB last week and they celebrate the holiday on different days for different towns so people can travel the country and participate in different Naadam competitions. It's pretty cool! We went to the stadium and celebrated today. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

On Monday we had FHE with a family in the ward. Everyone wanted to just celebrate Naadam and watch the festivities in UB. You should look it up on YouTube. They had camels and dancers and singers and maybe even fire. I'm not sure, but I heard it was awesome!

Tuesday we fought with Naadam again, haha. Everyone wanted to watch the wrestling on TV instead of meet with us! Weird! But we had some meetings and I love my investigators. They were so nice to turn off the TV for our lessons. And on girl's dad even joined our lesson! It was so fun to feel the holiday in the air. Everyone is so excited and involved!

On Wednesday, we visited a ward member in the hospital and just sat with her for a while. And then we taught our two investigator sisters. One was in the countryside for a week or two (we thought it would be a month or two) and came home early, so we caught up with them. We met with a member after that, and The Princess Diaries was playing. I love that movie, but I didn't watch it. Go me! Then we had institute and went to the Branch President's house for Naadam food. We saw a Kazakh wedding on the way! The bride was so beautiful in her white dress! They served traditional Xuushuur and they also served the milk drink with sheep tail. Yes. Sheep tail. I've eaten weird things but this is in its own category!

Thursday was church day. We Skyped in for a zone training with about 20 other missionaries meeting in UB. It was fun to see everyone, and the messages were all so good! One was about the gift of tongues, and they talked about how we need to just enjoy the journey and remember that we are learning the language to love the people and help them. We aren't learning the language to show how smart we are! Which is such a good reminder! It's been kind of a struggle because I'm the only non-native speaker in 1000 miles, and it's sometimes easy to forget that I'm not the only one learning Mongolian. It's ok to not be perfect or sound native. The important thing is that I try and show people that I love them. It was a meeting well needed. Then, we had mutual (youth activities) at the church followed by a district meeting. We Skyped and talked about the zone conference. It was so good! We got to add our inputs, and everyone had such good things to say! We talked about making prayers more meaningful and remembering not to get caught up in pride. We need to be humble. There's no way to do this work if there's no humility!

On Friday, we planned and hen we went to the goat farm. We didn't see any goats, but it's one of the most beautiful places. And I love the family! We ate yogurt together (a Mongolian staple). Then we taught one of our grandmas and had a fun time teaching her that she can be married and sealed to her husband for eternity. She loved it! And so did I!

Saturday was great because our investigators passed their baptismal interview! I'm so excited for them! After the interview, our other appointments canceled on us. We call that being "burned". And it's not fun. And we got burned 4 times. We weren't sure what to do, but we tried to get to work anyway. And we prayed. And miracles happened! We found people we haven't been able to find. And our investigator, who we thought was out of town, called us and asked to meet! And It was so good!!!! And we also met with a new investigator who we will help serve this coming week. They are building a house, and we get to help! Yay!! It was one miracle after another. It reminded me to always pray and not to be discouraged. Which is sometimes easy. But if we look for God's hand in our lives, we will find it.

Sunday was also amazing. After church we studied, tried to visit people and got burned again several times. Everyone is gone for Naadam. But then we found lots of members to meet with, and it filled our day with happiness! :) And it literally filled our day. Our branch president's son is going on a mission today! He was supposed to go in a week or two, but they called and asked him to go today! So we helped with some preparations. And when he gets his visa, he'll go to PHOENIX!!! So I'll take him a package from his parents when I visit Phoenix after my mission! :)

Today was awesome! We went to the Naadam stadium in town. They had the opening ceremonies with traditional dancers, singers, and even contortionists. SO cool!! I took pictures of the Mongolian dresses because I'll get one made for the holiday in January! I needed ideas! I borrowed something to wear from a member. We met up with some members and ate xuushuur and watched wrestling and archery. And I also kinda competed in a cool game with animal bones. You put the bone on your leg and flick it. The point of the game is to knock over a different bone with the bone you flick. Kinda like bowling. I did terrible, and they had me move really close. Everyone was watching me. I'll practice and get better with time.

I love being a missionary! It's not always easy, but the miracles are happening! I love you all!

Sister Bottorff