January 12, 2007

Hello all!

I am still in Mongolia. The work goes on despite broken arms and increasingly cold weather. I wish I had a thermometer so I could get some kind of exact numbers for you, but since I don't I'll just describe it to you. It’s so cold that my cheeks go numb after about 10 minutes. It’s so cold that our eyebrows and eyelashes have a layer of ice on them from the moisture in our breath after about 15 minutes. It’s so cold that I wear three layers of long underwear AND fleece pants over that and my legs are still cold if I'm not moving. It’s so cold that the windows on the buses and the meekers the windows have an inch layer of ice on them and you better just know where your stop is because there's no way you'll be able to see anything out the window.

So basically it’s really cold. This quote by Albert Camus comes into my mind at least once a day: "It was in the depths of winter that I found I had within me an invincible summer." It’s cold outside, but I comfort myself with the thought that it’s only going to get colder. Oh wait...

I had pretty much my worst bus experience yet this past week. By the time we head out to our area after teaching English and such there's usually only buses and no meekers going out to Khailaast. It wasn't too crowded, but there were already a ton of people standing up when we got on. This nice man offered me his seat, which I didn't want to take because I know from past experience that seats are worse, but he insisted so I sat down. They kept squishing more and more people on and then squishing children into the leftover spaces and pretty soon I was sitting down with one side completely pressed against the window with a wall of people pressing on the other side. I was in the seat at the front of a row and the guy standing in front of me kept leaning further back to get more breathing room. By the end of the ride he was pretty much sitting on my lap and this kid standing next to me had been pushed to the point where his face was right in my face. It’s times like this that all you can do is count to 1000 or sing a hymn and just wait until people stop getting on and start getting off.

Sister Hunt and I just have the greatest time together. I love teaching English too. We were playing this really sweet game where the students have to describe a picture we've given them to a person who hasn't seen it and is trying to draw it on the board (thanks Sister Infanger!). Sister Hunt had these pictures of Grover the Muppet in overalls and taking a bath with a rubber ducky, and hearing the students trying to describe Grover was the most hilarious thing ever. "It’s a monkey...man...a blue man...or a cat." We tried to explain what a muppet was afterwards, but you can't really describe a muppet to someone who has never seen one before.

English is a pretty ridiculous language. We have so many little words! In Mongolian everything from your shoulder down is called "gar" and they just don't bother with hand, wrist, elbow, forearm, etc. We were teaching parts of the body and Sister Hunt and I kept laughing as we taught the students "nostril" and "ear lobe" and everything. I think the students thought we were crazy, which is fine. We've also found a fool proof method for fending off the Weasel. We just play really awesome games or teach them songs and then he gets bored because he can't interrupt and show off his English skills. He just leaves the room or tells us he's got another appointment at the Palace. See ya, Weasel!

We taught a really great lesson last night. We have been meeting with this family for a week or so. We were riding the bus to our area one day, and this guy was just staring at us the whole time. When we got off at the same stop, he finally came up to us and straight up asked if we could come to his house and teach him and his family more about our church. This actually happens to us a lot. The Lord knows we're not allowed to proselyte, so he just brings people to us.

Anyway, they have this crazy 4-year-old kid named Uguudee who just runs around and throws stuff at us all during our lessons. If that wasn't distracting enough, the mom always gets really angry and gets up to yell at him during the lesson. Well last night we had a branch missionary come with us who usually is kind of a saikhan gar (a punk). I was a little wary of how the lesson would go, and at first the kid was way out of hand and I thought it was going to be another disaster. Nothing the mother did was calming the kid down. Then the branch missionary got out of his chair, picked the kid up and went and sat down with him in his lap. He showed him some Book of Mormon pictures and talked with him and the kid was completely quiet for the whole rest of the lesson. He even sang the closing hymn and folded his arms during the prayer. It really was a miracle. We were actually able to feel the Spirit, and I think the mother noticed the difference. It wasn't just the actions of the branch missionary that calmed the boy down.

I'm having a great time teaching and getting to know the branch members. I don't always know just how good a time I'm having until we leave an appointment and Sister Hunt tells me what went on. I have to ask her, "Okay, that one point where the little girl said something and everyone laughed, what was that all about?" I don't understand much yet, but I know some gospel stuff, and when it comes my turn I can say my part. The Mongolians really are so much more understanding and helpful than I thought they would be.

Until next week,
Sister Johnson

Some Questions Answered:

• Are you using your winter gear? I am using my neck gator (tube scarf) every day and I have been using the YakTrax (ice grippers to attach to boots) for traction. The YakTrax are fairly essential since all of Mongolia is one big sheet of ice right now. Sister Bryner gave Sister Hunt some YakTrax that she had in the mission home so we could both have some.
• How much sun? The sun is always out but usually severely handicapped by the thick layer of smog that covers the whole city, but today it’s really sunny for some reason. Sunny and cold.
• Electricity? I haven't used the transformer yet. We use Sister Hunt's CD player and my hairdryer already has the conversion switch on it, but I have used the plug adaptors a lot.
• Diarrhea? The diarrhea is completely normal and I’ve actually been a lot healthier than missionaries usually are. I have yet to catch what the missionaries call "The Chingis" which is apparently simultaneous explosive diarrhea and vomiting. I haven't had to stop working yet so I think I'm doing all right.
• Toilet Facilities for gers? Mongolian bathrooms are just big holes in the ground. Sometimes they have a little wooden shelter around it for cover and support, but mostly they're just holes in the ground. There's no such thing as public restrooms in the city so we usually just hold it until we get home.
• Favorite new food? I really like tsoivan. It’s just noodles with beef and this ketchup-like sauce that has a little bit more kick to it.