February 22, 2008 - Photos & Flood

Jiriin Udriin Mend Khurgee!


Here’s a picture from Burentsetseg’s baptism a few weeks ago. She is doing fantabulous now. She was called to be the youth Sunday School teacher, and her first lesson went well. I was going to sit in on the lesson and help her but 1) I usually spend that hour with Chinggis’ Littlest Descendants in Primary (the urge to conquer neighboring children still runs strong), and 2) that day they asked my companion and I to teach the investigator class at the last minute.

In the break between classes everyone was going this way and that and in the hubbub Elder Hardman caught my attention and asked, “Could you go check out the girls bathroom. I can’t really tell but I think something’s going on in there.” I went over to check it out, and as I opened the door I was greeted with a vigorous spray of water that was gushing forth from one of the sink pipes in all 14 cardinal directions and then some. I shut the door before getting thoroughly doused (my skirt and glasses took the worst of it) and turned to look at Elder Hardman and said as calmly as I could, “Please go get Khosbayar.”

Khosbayar is one of our star branch missionaries who also works as the church cleaner and therefore the one with the most knowledge about these pipe-bursting kind of things. We ended up sending one of the young men in to try to close off the water. We gave him a 1-2-3 and he burst into the room, pushing passed the gushing spray. Just as his hand went for the knob…the water stopped by itself. Ha! He got really wet, and the hallway got flooded for a little bit, but by the time church ended the water had been cleared up and only a little bit of water remained that had seeped into the carpet of the Primary room. That’s an entry for the Small Branch Crisises Solved in 30 Minutes section of my journal.


This is Batsaikhan, his wife, and Gantuya, their newborn. The Mongolians can do the baby-burrito like no baby-burrito I’ve ever seen. This was her first Sunday at church after chilling at home for a month with her mom. The flesh-colored circle in the center is her face, but when they take her outside they pull all the layers down so she’s not exposed to the cold. This method ensures warmth but one would question whether the baby can breathe or not. Anyway, yay for Mongolian babies coming to church!

The Elders told us this was a “no smiles” shot. Little did we know…
Selenge District- Doesn’t this look like the poster for a movie or something?

Happy Tsagaan Sar! [New Year]
We all went to the train station to see Sister Bayarmaa off the night before transfers. Sad!