Dear Family and Friends,
Do you want to hear the most exciting news of the week?! There are now two stakes in Mongolia because our District met the qualifications to become a Stake and this is AMAZING, the blessings of a temple are only coming closer and closer, I am so excited for all of the people out here whose lives will be blessed. It has definitely stirred inside of me the good news of the Gospel: that families can be together forever and that God knows and loves each one of us very much. Our Savior knows every happy and sorrowful moment in our lives and we are never alone without comfort, the Atonement is the difference. I am overwhelmed with how happy I am about this, my mission has only just started here (or so it feels) and I already would give the people whatever help I can in order to help in any small way. So I will make this declaration now: I am going to continue to work every single day and not be discouraged because this good news needs to be shared. I am so humbled by how good the people are here.
This week has been another great week in Ulaanbaatar, the weather is lovely, the birds have been chirping, and I have only had to pull out my heaviest jacket for one day; so I have nothing to complain about. Except, I do not have hot water in my apartment anymore!! That is right, the water temperature goes from a nice cool when you turn the faucet on to a frigid frost-bite feeling of cold, it is like they are pulling the water straight from a glacier; this is making showers very interesting. So now, I am basically 'glamorously camping' in my apartment where I have to bring three pots of water to boil for the water source and my shower has become the equivalent of those three pots of water and a mug. I was going to take a picture of the pots, but I forgot, so I will send that next week. I have also decided to never say 'glamorously camping' because there is nothing glamorous about it. I have learned, though, that the freezing cold water makes for a great rinse on my hair because my hair has been extremely shiny this week--look at that, I found the silver lining. Maybe there is a little bit of glamour in it all.
I am only going to teach one more English day on Tuesday and then I will be done until September, this kind of breaks my heart. I really do love the students that I teach and will miss them. So every class we begin with a song (this is a really great way to get everyone to work on pronunciation loudly) and we picked, 'You are my Sunshine', it was really fitting. I don't know if the students know just how much I love them, they are wonderful, talented, a complete handful, they make me eat chocolate at the end of hard days to cope, but I love them. I need to take pictures of all of the older classes next time so that I will have more to share. Again, next time I see them, hopefully I will be speaking better Mongolian (I never use it in the classroom, though) and they will be able to notice that I still really like teaching them. So, in the meantime, I will also work away on my project to have an upgraded curriculum for the next school year.
Also, guess what I did this Saturday? I did some good ol' gardening outside and was able to use a power tool--I felt like an addict because I miss all of my tools at home. I loved building things with my dad like the planters or helping to just make something random like a wheelchair ramp--speaking of which, we need to make a matching planter when I get back! It was a really fun morning of hauling dirt around, manure, and falling in love with the idea of making a greenhouse and growing all sorts of plants next year. It started quite a few ideas in my head and I think I am going to try to grow a mini herb garden in my apartment right now, I just need to gather all of the stuff (this is a lot harder to do out here because there isn't a convenient Home Depot to just run to for the supplies, so it might take me a while, speaking of which, I miss Home Depot.). I love giving service.
So all in all, life is good and I love Mongolia. I love this work and am enjoying ever single moment of it.
I love you,
Sister Jessica Olsen
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