Sister Sarah Bottorff: Week 60 - Preparing for Tsagaan Sar

I am in love with my new ward! And so many fun things happened this week! I love every day. They go by so fast, though. That's my only complaint.

We went to the Hunu mall on P-Day and it was America. I didn't know what to do with myself! There was an ice rink and go-karts and a movie theater. We indulged in popcorn and walked around the mall, trying out the couches in the furniture store and checking out every store. They even had dinosaurs! It's my happy place.

On Wednesday we went out with the sisters in the Baynzurkh district! It is my previous area, and Sister Bollwinkel also served there, so we took Sister Hansen and Sister Shreeve to show them some houses that would be impossible to find on their own. I went with Sister Hansen (my missionary training center companion). It was so fun! We got a whole couple of hours to catch up and talk about our missions! That really hasn't happened since the MTC! A whole year ago! We could use another 2 weeks to catch up, but we took what we could get! We visited some really fun people and places! We sang Happy Birthday to a cute grandma and took pictures and played on the train tracks. That's my favorite place. Maybe ever. I loved being with Sister Hansen! And I am excited for her to serve In Baynzurkh. She is going to love it. But that's no surprise - it's a great area!

We had a great rest of the week! We are meeting with the cutest 18 year old girl. She is progressing really well. She was half way through her missionary lessons when I got here two weeks ago. She is progressing and loving the Gospel. She keeps her commitments and says she receives answers to her prayers. Her aunts and uncles are Church members who are a great support to her. I'm so proud of her. We teach her commandments and parts of the Church and she so readily accepts it. She has such great faith!

I also taught a lesson in English this week! A member in our international branch has an Indonesian friend who wants to learn more about the Gospel, so we had a lesson in English! And the sister seemed so excited to learn! She even came to Church on Sunday! She has a Christian background, which is really rare here. She loves Jesus Christ. And I'm excited to help her in whatever way I can!

We have another investigator who has been investigating the Church for a while now and is getting baptized next month! She's more than ready. Her children are members, and she supports them. She has showed such great faith as she has relied on the Lord to overcome her challenges and is so prepared to be baptized. I feel like I've walked into a perfect ward! The people here are so prepared and humble. We received another 2 referrals this week of people to teach. One family and also a 23 year old man. They are so excited to learn more! They are just busy with Tsagaan Sar coming up next week.

Tsagaan Sar is the biggest holiday in Mongolia. Everyone wears traditional clothing and visits family and friends for the entire week. There's lots of gift exchanges and eating TONS of buuz, the national food. Steamed mutton dumplings. They make about 2000 of them for the week. Sister Bollwinkel and I will do our best to help people make buuz this week and then not eat too many next week. It starts on Sunday, February 26. So we are prepping this week because everything will be closed next week. We're buying lots of yogurt and Coke. And fruit. And ice cream. Cuz ice cream is ALWAYS on the list! :) The ice cream is cool here because you buy it in a bag and cut it. No ice cream scoops needed! Can someone change American ice cream so that it's in bags when I get home? I like it the way they have it here.

We had a split on Saturday with 2 sisters! That just means I go out with a sister missionary and check on how she's doing and offer to help however I can. We also party for the day. And we checked off all those things. I went with Sister NELSON from the Air Force Academy! It was a blast! We talked about all sorts of fun things. And we visited people and ate good food. I'd say the day was a raging success. We lost power in our apartment that afternoon, though, and ate PB&Js since we couldn't cook. I also got ready in the dark on Sunday morning. Fun stuff. The daily adventures continue!

Today's adventure occurred on the way to email. It's probably a little over a mile to get to the post office, so we decided to get a taxi. But the traffic was so bad. Like SO BAD. Worse than I have ever seen. We decided to walk until we could see that the traffic was better, but we ended up just walking. And passing hundreds of stationary cars. Good times. So I got my exercise in today! :)

I love you all! I hope you are having adventurous weeks! They make life more fun! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Bottorff