Week 71 - Sugar coma!

Hey everyone!  

So this week was super fun! I got to go to Unur and take my companion fabric shopping!  We met up with my new member from Unur and she helped us shop.  It turns out my companion is a pro. She was super calm about fabric shopping and got her fabric in about 30 minutes.  I can't explain how impressed I was, considering the hours on end I spent almost ripping out my hair and wanting to give up.  In my defense, there were just so many options and I had no idea what I wanted.  It's an overwhelming experience for someone like me.  But I guess my companion needed no help.  She just wasn't stressed at all.  And her fabric is beautiful.  I'm excited to see the finished product (deel / dress)!  We also emailed from a super fun place last week.  It looked pretty futuristic. The lights were turned off and all the computers and mice and keyboards were lit in neon.  And the keyboards clicked louder than normal.  It made me want to be a professional gamer when I get older.  Ha totally kidding.  Anyway...

We got to be in a companionship of three for 24 hours!  Sister Brezenski was waiting for her trainee to arrive from the Philippines Missionary Training Center, so we got to be together.  Sister Brezenski was trying to get over a bad cold, so we went to her house and deep cleaned while she slept.  And then we walked over to the grocery store and my companion fell in love with these Belgian waffle cone things filled with cream.  Yum.  With the new groceries, we made banana cake with cinnamon glaze.  They tasted better than they sound.  They tasted so good that we left them at her house and then made our own the next day.  And then we were in a sugar coma.  Oops.  

The Stake Conference choir is sounding absolutely beautiful.  After about 2 hours of practice, they went from not knowing parts at all to singing parts with the piano accompaniment.  It felt so good to be back at the piano.  With beautiful singers.  I melted.  

On the way to English class, we happened upon a really fun Russian singing competition.  And the one song my Mongolian companion tried to teach me was the one song that we saw!  It was awesome!  Other than that, the students were adorable, as always.  One girl spoke NO English and it reminded me of my first little bit in Mongolia.  It's not a fun feeling, but I know she'll improve with time.  

Remember that sugar coma?  Yeah.  Well it all started when my companion had to get her blood drawn for her visa.  And we went to lunch afterward with Sister Wilcox and Sister Weaver.  We ate at the best bakery ever and stuffed ourselves silly with savory donuts and cream cheese tarts and peach pies.  Heaven, I tell you.  Then, we went home and taste tested the candies and goodies in Sister Tillemann-Dick's newly arrived package.  And then we opened our fridge and it had 2 bananas that were perfect for making banana bread.  They were kinda funky smelling, so we HAD to make banana cake RIGHT THEN.  And after all that, we felt pretty sick.  I couldn't bring myself to eat anything healthy because I didn't want to eat anything more.  Oops. You'd think I would have learned by now...

Oh yeah - the elders in our ward keep making cupcakes.  I'm not complaining.  They share every time.

Our investigator family is doing so well!  They are progressing and loving what they learn.  Next time we will teach them the 10 commandments!  As they progress, I feel so blessed to be a part of their progression.  It's really fun to see people who are good turn into people who are even better.  I have experienced that so many times.  The people here are all such good people and it's so fun to see them come to have more peace in their lives as they follow the example of Jesus Christ.  It's the way to true happiness.  And I've seen that in myself and in so many others.  

Love you all!

Sister Bottorff

 

A monument to the Fab 4 (Fab 5?)

I never dreamed that I'd be sitting next to a Beatle!

There's got to be a good reason for painting the tree...

Isn't this cool??

THIS is how to cut onions :)

I dropped my ice cream. Oh, well...

Week 70 - This is why I am here...

It's been another great and super-fast week here in Ulaanbaatar!  We kept things low key on P-Day last week.  We went shopping (and tried on all the fur hats we could find) and wandered around the city.  No orange sky or craziness - just super cute kids we ran into on the city square singing and dancing.  They were some of the cutest kids I've ever seen.  That night, we did service for our new member who has 4 kids and recently got a job and was also sick.  So we cleaned.  And it was one of the most fulfilling nights of my mission.  I got to clean out her fridge and freezer and do lots of mopping while my super awesome companion did dishes and scrubbed bathrooms.  It felt so good.  The whole evening, I kept thinking, "THIS is why I'm here.  And it feels so good!"  :)  

Wednesday was kinda rough for setting an appointment, so we walked around an unknown part of our area.  It turned out to be a success because we found a great grocery store and met a dog just like my dog, and we got to be in the warmth.  The weather is beautiful now and I'm obsessed with being outside.  Well, today and yesterday are a little cloudy, but it's still warm! :)  

I practiced piano a lot on Thursday because my companion had a training meeting and I needed time to practice for Stake Conference.  It felt so good to play again.  

Friday we taught English and then we had a dinner appointment and totally ate another sheep head.  That's a record!  2 in one week!  We are pretty proud of ourselves! :)  As we watched our hostess tear the goat head apart, all that came to mind was the medical textbook we had read all day...

The other excitement happened on Monday and Tuesday at English Conference.  We overdosed on Japanese food and Lasagna and cookies and other stuff, but we learned a ton.  It was such a pleasant experience, and I learned a lot that can be applied to the lab and for the rest of my life.  We learned about improving reading, writing, and conversation skills with our students.  And keeping them engaged.  

Other things that happened:

1. My companion and I had a competition to eat a whole packet of pop rocks all at once.  I lost.  But I did laugh super hard and watch my companion eat the whole thing.  Good times.

2. At our Saturday appointment, the little 8 year old daughter said the prayer in a very very very hushed whisper.  All the while, her dad was snoring SUPER loudly in the background - down the hall in another room.  We all tried our hardest to keep ourselves together, but as soon as the mom let out a laugh, we couldn't hold back any longer.  The daughter promptly closed her prayer and we all laughed for another 5 minutes and then throughout the lesson and the meal.  

3. Our investigator family all came to church!  They loved it and can't wait for next week! :)  

Anyway, sorry my email is short.  But I had a good week, don't worry!  Life is amazing!  I love it! :)  

Sister Bottorff

From the English Teacher Conference

What a great performance!

Yay for my new nephew!

The best side of the tracks - above!

Just a cool building

Week 69 - Kung Fu Panda and a head named Clyde...

This week was pretty eventful!  I'll just tell you the stories…

Tuesday afternoon we went to the Museum of Mongola.  It was really cool to see the displays of the history of Mongolia.  It wasn't long ago that they became a free nation, and their history is rich.  When we came out of the museum, the sky was orange.  It looked polluted, but it was all orange.  And after about a minute outside, I touched my face, and a layer of dirt came off.  Gross.  But the sky was ORANGE!  It was so cool!  We tried not to stay out in it long, so we got pizza and stopped by a market and picked up a dragon fruit.  (My companion sang a new Drake song, and we renamed it a Drake-n-fruit.)  We skipped out on the pig head that was staring at us on the meat counter.  We just thought it might be a pain to get him home.  But don't worry!  Because we got another head.  My companion wanted to try a sheep head (in the privacy of our apartment).  So, since I'm the best companion any missionary could ask for, we went yesterday to the meat market and I got her a sheep head.  And we named him Clyde. It was probably one of the funniest moments watching my vegetarian companion (who is eating meat here at member's houses) watch me cut the skin off of Clyde's face. And she ate a little of every part.  The tongue was her favorite! :)  The head was cooked before we bought him, so it just required a quick 2 minutes in the microwave!  Easiest lunch I've ever made! :) Clyde lived a good life and was good to us.  

Another great time this week was going to the Stake President's house for dinner.  His family is the best!  And his little 2 year old son is a genius.  He counts, in English, to 100, and then he counts from 100 to 1.  He can also recognize and write his numbers.  I thought my little heart would melt.  And it did.  But luckily I've recovered a little and have the strength to go on.  

On Thursday we decided to do companionship study in the little coffee shop by our house.  The best part was the berry bingsu stuff we bought.  It's a huge cup of layers of shaved ice, cream stuff, and berries.  It's all topped with ice cream.  And berry syrup.  It's basically heaven in a cup.  And I'm guilty of going back yesterday and getting one with Oreos.  Oops.  Sorrynotsorry. We looked out the window of the coffee shop after eating the berry goodness only to find a parade happening!  So we quickly packed up our stuff and headed out to see everyone!  I'm still not sure why the parade happened.  But I do know that I met Kung Fu Panda and watched lots and lots of traffic all backed up waiting for the parade to end!  It was a great time!

I also taught English.  That was a good time.  We stocked up on chips and cookies.  And the students are adorable as ever.  The most exciting thing that happened was that we walked into the lab only to find our 15 or so tables missing.  So we just accepted the fact that they must have rearranged.  And then half-way through one of our lessons, people started randomly bringing back tables.  5 or so every 10 minutes - haha.  The school closed early, so we headed out early! :)  

I met up with Sister Hansen and had a great split with her!  It was like being back in the MTC minus the being stuck in one building part! :)  She had to help out with a music thing, so we got to stay at the church for a while and play music.  I was in heaven!  In the end, I was asked me to play the piano in stake conference coming up.  Should be a blast!  I'll play the hymns and accompany the choir in 2 musical numbers.  

My time with Sister Hansen was a blast!  Basically, we spent our 24 hours talking non-stop - minus the 8 hours of sleep and the 1 hour of personal study.  It still wasn't quite enough, but we made do with what we had.  Together we went to district meeting and did the exercise where we went out for 40 minutes just to talk with people.  Turns out I'm really awkward and can't talk to random strangers very well.  Oops.  Gotta work on that.  But we rewarded ourselves with KFC and then attended a baptism that night for a girl I taught when I was in Han Uul.  During the baptism, I thought about the changes she's made and the changes her membership in the Church will make over the course of her life.  These changes are all for the best.  And as I thought about it, I wondered what causes all of this change.  Change is hard.  And she did it.  But while thinking about it, I kept coming back to the idea that we change when we feel God's love.  Other sources, can, of course, change us.  But the driving force behind good changes is love.  She felt it that day.  And so did I.  I feel it every day.  And I'm so very grateful.

In other news, my companion and I are teaching the sweetest family, and they accepted the invitation to be baptized.  I'm so excited for them.  As I teach them, I can't help but feel God's love for them.  They are such a good family, and I know that through living the Gospel, they will be so much happier.  I love the Gospel!  

Other good moments this week were plentiful.  One was when we were walking back from an appointment and we were laughing really hard.  I realized I had to go to the bathroom and then I told my companion not to make me laugh anymore.  But then she proceeded to tell me all these stories about people wetting themselves and then we were standing on the side of the road coming pretty close, ourselves.  We made it safely, though.  I also ate spicy food, and I didn't cry or want my mouth to fall off.  Still don't love it, but the gift of eating is real.  

So many good things happened this week!  I hope you had a great week, too!  Love you!

Sister Bottorff

I love dragon fruit

Shaved ice, cream, berries, ice cream, and berry juice - wonderful!

Looking for people to talk with...

Yes, it's really Po!

Joyful reunion!

The study area in our apartment

This is Clyde

Clyde was so good to us!