January 25, 2008 - Baptism, Russia and Insights
Greetings People!
We’ve got a baptism! Tonight! Burentsetseg is amazing, and she’s going to be a great addition to the branch. Baptisms aren’t the only thing that make a mission great, but it is so amazing to see someone go from knowing little to nothing about God to having a firm testimony that He lives and of the restoration of His gospel. It’s like the peanuts in a Snickers: without them you’ve still got chocolate and nougat and stuff which is good, but throw some peanuts in and mmm mmmmm!
Last Friday President Andersen was in town to interview some pre-missionaries. After they finished the interviews, there was a little bit of extra time and, since it was preparation day, the six full-time missionaries piled into the mission Land Rover (with seatbelts!) and we drove to RUSSIA! Well, okay, just to the border. We couldn’t actually go in to Russia because of laws and rules and official stuff, but we did get to see it. It looked…cold…but with better looking buildings. That’s all I have to say about Russia.
Russia! Russia! Russiarussiarussiarussia-ruuuuussia!
Sister Bayarmaa, Me, and the Border
Here’s everybody taking pictures of the border.
Also, on the way there and on the way back everyone but me saw a camel. I, however, am cursed yuum shig and will have to wait for zone conference in Darkhan to get my first glimpse of a real Mongo-one-hump camel. Apparently Darkhan is swarming with camels so I’m not worried.
Tomorrow is the branch Tsasnii Bayar, or Snow Holiday. We’re going to hang out in the cold for six or seven hours and do snow stuff, but not the missionaries because it’s forbidden. I’m hoping to get a glimpse of the big river that’s supposedly nearby where they get all the fish that I don’t eat.
If you want to get a new perspective on life, try living on the fifth floor in a town where the tallest building has six. Every night the very last thing my companion and I do after a long day out doing missionary work is gasp and groan our way up four flights of stairs before collapsing at the top. Any remaining strength that I have is used to muscle the key into our shoddy lock and then wrench the door open.
On the other hand, walking up to the fifth floor every day makes everything else we do seem a whole lot easier. For instance, as we go around checking referrals and I see an address on the fourth floor of a building I think, “Fourth floor? That’s cake!” The two of us practically skip our way up to the fourth floor apartment and are hardly even out of breath when the person comes to the door to tell us that tiim khun baiddaggui. It’s all about perspective, folks. I mean, it’s about 20 below outside today, and as we were walking to the internet center this morning, my companion and I were talking about what a warm day it was!
Spiritual Insight from the Mongolian Language:
There’s no difference between the word for “trust” and “faith.” They are one in the same in Mongolian, which made me realize that faith really is just trust in God and His promises. The noun for “trust” and “faith” is also the same as the verb “to believe.” We really have way too many words in English. We’ve come up with so many little words with incredibly specific meanings. Learning Mongolian has helped me see connections in words that I hadn’t noticed before.
Physical Insight into Cold Weather:
As for the cold, of course the place it really gets you is the extremities. I have some really warm mittens that I wear, but the problem with mittens is that, while the four fingers are all hanging out and getting warm together in the main pocket, your thumb is hanging out by himself on the end. My thumb literally turns to ice after we’ve been out street contacting for a while, and the very tip of my nose goes numb almost every time we go out. Then there’s the snow-stache that forms on my upper lip from my breath and from the snot that drips out of my nose whether I have a cold or not. The worst is if we stand in one place for a long time and then your feet go numb. The only help for that is to get moving, no matter how many or how thick of socks you’re wearing.
We’ve got a baptism! Tonight! Burentsetseg is amazing, and she’s going to be a great addition to the branch. Baptisms aren’t the only thing that make a mission great, but it is so amazing to see someone go from knowing little to nothing about God to having a firm testimony that He lives and of the restoration of His gospel. It’s like the peanuts in a Snickers: without them you’ve still got chocolate and nougat and stuff which is good, but throw some peanuts in and mmm mmmmm!
Last Friday President Andersen was in town to interview some pre-missionaries. After they finished the interviews, there was a little bit of extra time and, since it was preparation day, the six full-time missionaries piled into the mission Land Rover (with seatbelts!) and we drove to RUSSIA! Well, okay, just to the border. We couldn’t actually go in to Russia because of laws and rules and official stuff, but we did get to see it. It looked…cold…but with better looking buildings. That’s all I have to say about Russia.
Russia! Russia! Russiarussiarussiarussia-ruuuuussia!
Sister Bayarmaa, Me, and the BorderHere’s everybody taking pictures of the border.Also, on the way there and on the way back everyone but me saw a camel. I, however, am cursed yuum shig and will have to wait for zone conference in Darkhan to get my first glimpse of a real Mongo-one-hump camel. Apparently Darkhan is swarming with camels so I’m not worried.Tomorrow is the branch Tsasnii Bayar, or Snow Holiday. We’re going to hang out in the cold for six or seven hours and do snow stuff, but not the missionaries because it’s forbidden. I’m hoping to get a glimpse of the big river that’s supposedly nearby where they get all the fish that I don’t eat.
If you want to get a new perspective on life, try living on the fifth floor in a town where the tallest building has six. Every night the very last thing my companion and I do after a long day out doing missionary work is gasp and groan our way up four flights of stairs before collapsing at the top. Any remaining strength that I have is used to muscle the key into our shoddy lock and then wrench the door open.
On the other hand, walking up to the fifth floor every day makes everything else we do seem a whole lot easier. For instance, as we go around checking referrals and I see an address on the fourth floor of a building I think, “Fourth floor? That’s cake!” The two of us practically skip our way up to the fourth floor apartment and are hardly even out of breath when the person comes to the door to tell us that tiim khun baiddaggui. It’s all about perspective, folks. I mean, it’s about 20 below outside today, and as we were walking to the internet center this morning, my companion and I were talking about what a warm day it was!
Spiritual Insight from the Mongolian Language:
There’s no difference between the word for “trust” and “faith.” They are one in the same in Mongolian, which made me realize that faith really is just trust in God and His promises. The noun for “trust” and “faith” is also the same as the verb “to believe.” We really have way too many words in English. We’ve come up with so many little words with incredibly specific meanings. Learning Mongolian has helped me see connections in words that I hadn’t noticed before.
Physical Insight into Cold Weather:
As for the cold, of course the place it really gets you is the extremities. I have some really warm mittens that I wear, but the problem with mittens is that, while the four fingers are all hanging out and getting warm together in the main pocket, your thumb is hanging out by himself on the end. My thumb literally turns to ice after we’ve been out street contacting for a while, and the very tip of my nose goes numb almost every time we go out. Then there’s the snow-stache that forms on my upper lip from my breath and from the snot that drips out of my nose whether I have a cold or not. The worst is if we stand in one place for a long time and then your feet go numb. The only help for that is to get moving, no matter how many or how thick of socks you’re wearing.
posted by Cheryl Johnson @ 7:12 PM
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