November 9, 2007 - That Water's Cold!

I think I’m going to be really upset when I get home and all the old people aren’t wearing deels.

I didn’t get a chance to tell you about the baptisms from two weeks ago so here it goes now. It was a typical Mongo-baptism: we started about 30 minutes late and the two branch missionaries who agreed to give the talks didn’t show up. They keep the baptismal clothes in a locked cabinet at the church and there were only two small enough for our 14- and 9-year-old investigators. They stepped into the bathroom to get dressed and when Anudari, the 9-year-old, stepped out she had a frown the size of Sukhbaatar Square on. She pointed dejectedly at a big iron burn on the front of her baptismal clothes. We tried all we could to console her and tell her that the clothes weren’t really the important part, but hadn’t we spent the past few weeks telling her about how she would be dressed all in white and be able to become completely clean on her baptismal day? I held her hand as we walked back to the chapel. She looked so miserable and everybody kept trying to cheer her up saying, “Hey! Why aren’t you smiling? This is such a wonderful day!” That only made it worse.

We took our seats at the front of the chapel and waited for the rest of the people to file in. Then, out of nowhere, I heard a quiet “hem hem.” We turned around and there was Elder Johnston holding some new, clean, baptismal clothes. Who knows where they found them, but anyway Sister Khorloo, Anudari and I ran back to the bathroom and made the switch. As if that miracle weren’t enough, I took a look at the clothes just beforehand and they were a little too big, but when Anudari stepped out of the changing room it fit just perfect. She practically skipped back to the chapel, and everyone else that had been in on the drama was just beaming now that she could wear her white, white baptismal clothes on her baptism day.

Sister Khorloo and I got to see the baptisms and then rush back into the bathroom to welcome the two young girls with their towels. I was hoping for some profound words expressing their joy but the first thing Namuunaa said was, “THAT WATER’S COLD!!!” Now, why build these nice fancy chapels with nice fancy baptismal fonts if the water’s going to be just as cold as the rivers they used to baptize people in around here? I know there’s hot water here. I guess that’s just another one of those things that falls through the cracks in an area where the church is still young. All in all the baptism went well, and we had a great turn out from the ward members. I was on a spiritual high. We rode back with Anudari and her mother on a big autobus which was just packed with people. At one point along the way Anudari asked me to stick out my hand and she poured a pile of glitter all over my glove. Thanks? Not really. Like most things in life, glitter looks really cool but it’s way hard to get out of clothes. Don’t think about that last analogy to hard.

We’re working hard on street contacting nowadays. It’s really hard, but also sometimes really funny. One guy got really angry and said “I don’t love Jesus!” Okay. Most people just say “Not interested,” or something, but that’s cool, Angry Guy. We stopped to talk to this other guy who happened to be a little tipsy and he said, “Missionaries??? I got into church and stuff when I was in Korea (everybody gets into church when they go to Korea), and you know where that got me?!?” Then he pulled off his glove and pointedly (or slightly less pointedly) shoved his four-fingered hand in our faces. He gave no explanation for how going to church lost him his finger (I suspect there was none), but after talking to him a little bit longer he said he would come to church on Sunday to check it out. Adventures, adventures.

Those are just some of the crazy ones, though. Sometimes we get to talk to some really cool people. One time we caught a ride in a taxi on our way down the mountain, and it turned out that the driver had been meeting with the missionaries while living in Taiwan. He had been taking the discussions in Chinese and went to church a few times but since returning to Mongolia he hadn’t been to church. There are people like that out there and that’s why we open our mouths.

Happy not-quite Thanksgiving!