December 8, 2007 - Minus 20 and Loving It

I'm still in Selenge [Selenge is the province, Sukhbaatar is the town], and I still love it. The locals tell me it's about 30 grats which, according to my math, is about minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Bring it on.

We have 8 missionaries right in Sukhbaatar: Sister Bayarmaa, me, Elder Humphries, Elder Hardman, Elder Gantugs, Elder Khosbayar, and the couple, Elder and Sister Thueson. The six young missionaries have split up the area so we don't see each other much when we're working, but the main part of town with grocery stores and stuff is pretty dinky so we're practically stepping on each other on p-days.

Older computers may have USB ports in the back, but Mongolian computers have none, apparently. There are 3 internet places in town so I'll check the others before I give up on sending pictures. There is one ATM in town and yesterday it wasn't working (neither was the internet, which is why I'm writing today on a Saturday). We get our allotment through our debit cards. We get about $30 every two weeks per person for us khuduu missionaries. There's no public transportation so that's pretty much just all food money.

I really love this small town branch thing. We're at the church almost everyday to teach English or for one type of meeting or practice or another and all the missionaries see each other every day. My companion and I have only gone out to eat three times and two of those times we entered the restaurant only to find the Thuesons (the couple serving in Selenge) already sitting down getting ready to point randomly at an item on the menu and try their luck with the Mongolian food. There's a woman in the branch who served a mission in the US that usually translates for them when they're out and about doing business, but as for the everyday stuff, they usually just muddle through on their own with pointing and sign language. They are very grateful whenever I can lend a hand, or a tongue, as it were. Sister Thueson loves baking and is always sharing her Mongo-baking secrets with me. They just got a package from their family with some cream of tartar in it so we're going to make snicker doodles. I love couple missionaries.

The town is located in a valley, and we walk up into the mountains to teach, but please don't envision mounding boulders with the goats. There's a well-organized street system with addresses and numbers and dirt roads so just imagine it's like hiking up the foothills in Salt Lake. There is a little bit of snow, but remember Mongolia is a desert. We don't get much snow, but what falls stays for the whole winter. We just had the first snow last night here in Selenge.

As for our apartment, it's stinkin' sweet! I mean it's the nicest missionary apartment I've ever been in. It is warm, and they bought everything new for us. Sister Bayarmaa and I just finished opening up all of the new appliances and dishes and stuff yesterday. The only bad thing is it's on the fifth floor in a town without a single elevator. Living on the fifth floor really puts things into perspective, though. As we're going around checking up on contacts and I see one that lives on the 4th floor, it's like "Sweet! Only four floors!"

We are in full swing preparing for the branch Christmas party. It's the biggest activity of the year and everyone is really excited. The young peoples are doing a dance, and I mean a for real dance. Not like NSync or anything but with couples and waltzing and stuff. Everybody knows how to dance here. I feel like I'm back at BYU... The missionaries are also contributing to the event. Elder/President Gantugs was like, "The missionaries are going to be doing a play of the Savior's birth and Sister Johnson is white so she's Mary and that's that." Za. Bolno bolno.

We are actually having two nights of activities, one for the kids and one for the aged. If you ask anyone in the branch why they're splitting up into the two groups their face gets all dark and they just say, "The Halloween party," shudder, and walk off wimpering. I wasn't here at Halloween, I don't exactly what happened, and I'm pretty sure I don't want to. There are 179 members listed on our branch list and last week we had a record 72 people in sacrament meeting.

I have decided that it is pretty much essential in Mongolia to know a church member who owns a delguur [store]. It just makes things so much nicer, especially if the store also happens to be on the first floor of the building you live in. We stop in almost every day to see Sister Burensaikhan, to use the phone, to meet investigators, or just to get a little "idekh yuum." She was baptized the week before we got here, and she has got the missionary spirit. She refers practically everyone she knows to the missionaries and 3 of our investigators that we are teaching right now all came from her.

One of them is her younger sister, Burentsetseg who is the kindergarten teacher for one of the local schools. One of her students, a little girl, became very sick, and she asked us to help her pray for the young girl. The next time we met with her she informed us that the little girl had died. She started crying and told us she was so worried about the girl and whether or not she could be saved. Oh what a blessing it is to be able to look your investigator straight in the eye and share Heavenly Father's plan of salvation. We read from Moroni chapter 8 with her and my companion, the two girl branch missionaries and I were all crying by the end. I love being a missionary.

I also teach English at a huge school here in the city with about 1,000 students ranging from 1st to 11th grade. There's a huge bust of Lenin in the entryway, which is bizarre and normal all at the same time. I've finally gotten the hang of not speaking Mongolian in English class, and as far as these students know I don't speak a word. If they say something to me in Mongolian, I just pause a little and look nervously at Sister Bayarmaa and then they give up. It really is better this way. If they know you speak Mongolian, they won't ever speak English in class.

That's all for now! Have fun wherever you are, but I guarantee you, you won't be having as much as I am. Sorry. Merry Christmas!

Love, Sister Johnson

P.S. We only get mail here once every 6 weeks, and what that means is that every 6 weeks we go to Darkhan for Zone Conference, and they bring our mail from UB to Darkhan for us. All the missionaries are going to UB for a huge mission conference and the big Christmas party, so I will get mail then.