Doggie paddling in the baptismal font 💦

Ayyyyy whats up you guys how are you. Good? That's good. I'm great. Time in mongolia seems to actually fly by and I feel like each day just goes faster and faster. OKAY enough of that let's get into our weekly highlight reel 

highlights

-in English class we talked about similes and metaphors and personification and I played a song for each topic and had my students look for the examples in each song. And then all the other English teachers were trying their very hardest to hold in laughter as I rambled for about 5 minutes on what he meant when he said "my hearts a stereo...it beats for you" 

-there is an American family who lives in our area! The dad is working as a music teacher here, so they just picked up and moved to mongolia! Visiting them was so fun. It was absolutely wild and a fever dream for sure. For starters, we were welcomed in and given cheeze itsYeah. I was shocked. Best day ever. Then we had chocolate chip pancakes for dinner, and then they told us the story of their whole love life and how they met and it was hilarious

- we made some cookies to deliver but all of our plans on who to visit and give the cookies to were just not working outFinally we said a prayer and just started wandering around a bit and passing out english cards. After a while we didn't really see anyone we thought we should give them to, so we decided to head home and give them to a member the next day. 

On our way back we saw this super sweet old man that we've sometimes seen wandering the streets. He always waves to us and gives us the biggest smile. He walked up to us and asked us if we had any money we could give him because he needed to buy food. We didn't have much. Just a bag of cookies. We pulled out the bag and gave it to him and he just looked so grateful and said thank you over and over again. As we walked away I turned around to see him reaching up to the sky and quietly praising God

- so I guess you could say I've been really missing American food lately....I had a dream where me and another sister sneakily hacked into our mission phones just so that we could order Costa vida I was really sad when I woke up and realized that the nearest Costa Vida is actually on the other side of the world

- we got to help out with Oscar's baptism!! Oscar (оскар) is a little 11 year old boy who speaks almost perfect English that the elders have been teaching. He is absolutely adorable and we've become pretty good friends (after me and sister swenson threw magnets at a whiteboard with him and then apparently he kept asking to play with the church sisters again)

His baptism was one of the most precious things I've ever been a part of. He's such a sweet soul. Right after he went under the water, he came out and said I WANNA DO IT AGAIN!!!! and then proceeded to start swimming around He's so crazy. He was so excited though. He got to watch his mom get baptized too, and also tried to climb in again with her for a secAnyway, it was so epic and I love Oscar to death and also I think we might sing in church together 

- we got to hangout with a couple of our cute new members and play card games. The losing team had to make dinner for everyone. We played 3 rounds of the most intense and strategic card game I've ever played, and my team won ALL 3so the other team cooked for us it was great. It was so much fun and felt like a Sunday afternoon back at home fr 

- after English class we got a group together and played the Mongolian version of *pardon my French* the BS card game that we play in america. It was soooo brutal and so funny

-another thing I did this week was accidentally dump half a bottle of red pepper flakes into my curryWasn't much of a highlight tbh 

Spiritual thought!!  Every day this week, I've been praying to be placed in the right place at the right time. As a missionary I'm dedicating all my time to help love and serve and teach people. I don't always know who God has in mind for me to serve and teach though. And sometimes it's scary to step outside your comfort zone and step out of your way to do something or help someone in a way that is different than is culturally normal.

I've been studying and thinking a lot about Christ lately. He had a perfect love. And he helped people constantly.  Especially when it was something that would be outside someone's comfort zone or not culturally normal!! But all good things, all good thoughts, ideas, and desires to help people come from God!! So when you act on it you will see miracles!! I have seen so many this week and I'm grateful for every single one

Moroni 7: 13 "But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God." Well enough about me!! How are you all doing!?! Send me a life update and I pinky promise that I'll respond. 

/систэр жэнсэн 

flics

- dissy hike 

- Oscar 

- the Clark's 

- a rando dog that apparently wanted a selfie 

- the gang 

- the winning team (who didn't have to make dinner ayyyooo) 

- a really big cow tongue