A Week of Realizations - Week 31

Dear family and friends,

Did you know that yesterday was Harry Potter's birthday? These are important things to remembers; therefore, me and my companion had a celebratory dinner of Shepard's Pie (improvised because some of the ingredients are baihgyi here) and it was delicious. I have always wondered wha Shepard's Pie tasted like, and now I know and my life is more complete because of it. Life is wonderful.

 

In other news, this has been a VERY HOT week here. Hot enough to feel like I have been melting everyday, I am wishing back for the cooler weather, but do not want the COLD weather to settle in, it is a fine balance, really. This week has been nice though, and it started with a very nice FHE on Monday night. We were visiting this family with 4 little kids under the age of 7 and for the closing prayer, the 6 year old said the cutest thing, 'thank you for letting the sisters visit us and please let the light guide them this week. Please let them come back to visit my family." So, when was the last time that you let the Light guide you? Have you gone out doing good? It is the little things that make the biggest difference in people's lives and usually takes almost no effort on your part, you just need to listen to the little promptings within you to do something good. This is the Light of Christ. Every person is born with it and is often described as a conscience, but it is a wonderful gift that helps us understand how to help others and recognize truth. I love thinking of a light being within me!

However, as with the norm here in Mongolia, we had quite a few cancellations on us. Basically every single day someone will burn us, thus is the life of the city in Ulaanbaatar where everyone is out enjoying the beautiful countryside before the winter sets in and locks everyone inside for months on end. I really can't blame them, I would want to be out in the countryside, too. I did have a tender mercy this week and was able to snuggle up with the cutest dog and just love on her for a few minutes. I did an STL split with Sis. Ruyter, working in her area of Unur (it neighbors my ward boundaries), and met the cutest boy with a friendly dog. As a rule of thumb, you do not ever reach out to touch a dog, even the ones that are considered pets, because they have a really bad habit of biting. At this house, though, the boy was petting her and I couldn't resist. I pet her and just hung out for a few minutes, it made me miss Lucy SO MUCH! They both have the same color eyes and this dog was reveling in the fact that I was petting her, I cannot describe how much I loved it. Animals have this way of looking at you and giving you unconditional love, everyone needs to feel that way some time.

I have been making HUGE strides with my language, though! So, I have started to actively take and make phone calls. I hated the phone when I first got here. With the phone, there is a lack of clues as to what people are saying and they cannot see me and see me make motions for what I am trying to say, it is all about language speaking and hearing. Intimidating. My companion was feeling kind of sick, so I decided to just grab the phone and go for it. Luckily she was close enough to listen in to jump in if it became overwhelming, but I did it! I am able to sometimes answer questions during church, talk to kids, and my reading and pronounciation is getting better. Oh my heck, Mongolian is hard, but I love it! I picked up this little brown book that I received in the MTC and flipped it open to a random page and was able to start to read the words without a huge struggle (I happened across a word that I COULD NOT say in the MTC for the life of me and was able to pronounce it this time). The Lord really is helping and I feel like a more functioning adult now that my tongue is becoming unlocked. A lot of it is just having the faith to open your mouth and go for it (after diligently studying) and do everything you can. There is this saying that I am starting to appreciate, 'if you have faith, you will speak the language." It doesn't say how well, just that you will do it. I am starting to open my mouth, and Mongolian is actually coming out. I LOVE it. I know that this is the work of a loving Heavenly Father because I am not a natural linguist.

So, in all, the celebrating, dog-petting, Mongolian-speaking, and call-making moments, are helping me realize that I really am in the right place at the right time. In my opinion (lol, or from my thoughts), I am in the best mission in the world.

I love Mongolia.

Sister Olsen

 

Hahahah, on a side note, I was teaching an English class on Saturday as a Speaking Club and one of the students riled me up into getting on a soapbox, if you will. he was saying how he was tired of how it was easy for Americans to go to any country in the world and be fine, but it was not that way for Mongolians. I disagreed and told him that everyone had to work hard. Finally, he got me to the point where I told him that if he wanted to make changes, it was going to have to start with himself, he has to find places where improvement could be made, become active in his community and government, and do everything to make positive changes. Nobody is going to just hand you an easy life. You need to work for it. The class ended shortly thereafter, so I don't know how well he took it. Life. What can you do?

 

 

So yesterday, we basically hiked a mountain to see a member in what felt like  1,000 degrees, just to find out they weren't home, so we took refuge in the shade of utility vehecle. Me and my comp were just taking silly pictures when the kids from the neighbor's jouse came out to play. Hahah, you should have seen their face when they saw two 'gadaa hyns' (foreigners) sitting outside their fence where they were going to play. Normally you do not get foreigners out in the ger districts, so it always takes them by surprise when they see us. The oldest one, when she saw us, was like 'yawna' (the 'oh man' phrase) and the mom came out to see who was outside of their house. We had to do some quick explaining, but the kids were a good sport and posed for the picture.

Here are some pictures of what I will see during my normal day. The last is a Water Station. The gers do not have plumbing, so they will need to walk over to a well (water station) and get water several times per week to drink. So, everywhere you go, you get boiling hot water to drink (an extra assurance that it has been cleaned) and you do not waste water, it is precious out here, so you drink every last drop. I will never leave anyone's house with anything in my cup.

This is part of my new area. Lol, look at the walls of the ger, it is rolled up because it is so hot.

Yoga on the rocks (ahahahahah, get it?) and pics from this week .I bought all of these clear sheets to organize my papers and they fell out of my arms into the middle of a backstreet. My companion had to help me clean it all up!

 



Being a Missionary is a lot of FUN! - Week 30

Dear family and friends,

First off, IT'S (still) MY BIRTHDAY (in the US), and life is wonderful! I was thinking about it and I write a lot about the hard work, about the times that I am taken out of my comfort zone, about all the spiritual things that I am learning, but I also need to say, being a missionary is a lot of fun! It is about finding joy in the journey and making sure to have fun with your companion whenever possible, I mean you are only a missionary once while you are younger, so you might aw well work hard and enjoy yourself. Who wants to be dull anyways? Jack certainly doesn't--hahah, get it?

Any way, this week has been a lot of fun! It was my birthday yesterday (here) and we made sure that it was going to be a good day, and it was. Starting with Big Plan last week--this is where you carve out a couple hours to plan the next week's meetings and schedule--with us setting apart 30 minutes on my birthday to celebrate. That is right, from 9 PM to 9:30 PM, it was party-time in our apartment and by Party Time, I mean that we made a cake, frosted it, and then ate it with ice cream. We live on the wild-side here. (It was a fun 30 minute party made possible by my wonderful family back at home.). So we also made sure to schedule the day with good investigators and members, there is one member in my ward who makes the most delicious food and so going there yesterday was an added bonus. Before one of the appointments, it was really cute because we were about 10 minutes ahead of schedule, so my companion and I stopped by a little park to pass the time. There was this little monkey bar set and we were hanging on it, when these two little kids ran across the playground to show us how to use the equipment properly. They were climbing and doing flips all over the place, it was really cute. Lol, then the little boy (probably 8) asked me and my comp if we were Mongolian. I messed around with him and said I was... not (Bi Mongols hun... bish), but then asked if he was a Mongolia. He said that he was, then pointed to about 10 different people in the park, stating that they were also Mongolia, then told me that I was in Mongolia. Huh, go figure, I don't know how that happened. :)

This week, though, we started it out by eating delicious Burger King (always a delicious occasion) and then a little shopping. The weather was good and slightly rainy this week, so I have not been melting, but now I am worried that summer is ending. I AM NOT READY FOR THE COLD TO BEGIN, JULY ISN'T EVEN OVER. Seriously, this is a huge concern, I think that it should stay pretty mild until next month. Keep your fingers crossed! I have also come to the sad discovery that Mongolia's two favorite foods--huushuur and buuz--make me want to die on the inside. They seriously give me some upset stomachs and eating them are awful, but everyone loves them. After being here for all of this time, I don't like the taste of Mongolian meat. Every time that I eat at someone's house, the next day I have an upset stomach, except if I am only fed hediim (it is like a milk-water drink) and bread, then I am completely fine. Life, what can you do? (hahahah, but I am going to make these when I get home to let you know what it was like, be ready). I will tell you, you still have fun!

The air has been extremely smoky here also, kind of like there is a fire somewhere and we are getting the left-over smoke, and it was so bad the other day that I couldn't see the mountains. Messing around, I pulled out a winter smog mask and wore that everywhere for the rest of the afternoon, I couldn't help but laugh the entire time. You gotta admit, it is a good look.

Oh well, I guess I really just wanted to take a moment and let you know that life is wonderful. Bad moments happen, but that is not reason to let it pull you down. Just get out there and enjoy every minute of it, life is good.

I love you all. Thank you for the presents and all of the letters. It was one of the best birthdays,m even though my family was on the other side of the world!

Sister Jessica Olsen

Yum, my favorite!

The makings of a great P-Day

I LOVE Burger King

One of our travel methods (don't worry, we didn't go far!)

I LOVE Mongolia!

This is what makes us feel better after we eat something that upsets our stomach; coke & bread! Nothing better!

I bet you're jealous, wouldn't you want to be my companion!?

My "save my lungs" look. Cute, huh?

Balloons for my birthday!

The great balloon fight that ended up the a cup of water being spilled on my bed!

No worries though! Mami's amazing blanket just wiped off and was good to go. 

One of the best birthdays yet

Thank you for the birthday package!

My party on my birthday :)

Delicious cake! (my favorite kind)

Delicious Day has been Established - Week 29

Dear Family and Friends,

I love celebrations! They are fun, it is good to get out, you get really great pictures, but there are also not very many people to meet. They are out having too much fun. Life. What can you do? I'll tell you what we did, you get out there, give everything that you have, then go home and try to call and meet with everyone that has ever been contacted by a missionary in our books, and then after all of that (without success), you say, "at least I am here" and be happy. That was the lesson that I learned over and over again. Everyday, we were burned, on Saturday, we were burned 6 times over, even our back-ups burned us; our emee who cannot even leave here house burned us. Thus is the life during a celebration week when you are white-washing. 

To help explain, being 'burned' means that your appointment stands you up after confirming the appointment the night before (at 10 PM). Either that, or they cancel while you are in route. We had one wonderful Less Active sister that we were going to meet and after she gave a very excited confirmation, we were on our way to her house when she gives us a call (less than one hour before the meeting time) and let us know that she was suddenly in her summer home. We don't give up on them, though, because we are hoping to meet with her tonight instead. 

So, we decided to establish Delicious Day and make a delicious dinner to celebrate that we are missionaries doing hard work. I don't know, maybe the Lord knew that we needed to eat dinner instead of just going to an appointment (Some times we get fed, some times we don't. Mongolia does not have a Dinner Schedule like at home). Oh man, my companion is a great cook, so Delicious Day actually is quite delicious. We tried making potato-huushuur for the first dinner that was established and then for Delicious Day (again) she made 'Bollwinkel Goop' (that tasted like mole) and I made flour tortillas. From scratch. By hand. It was amazing.

So moral of the week, keep your chin up. Life is not always going to work out the way that you planned, but that is not a reflection of who you are as a person or necessarily caused by what you are doing. Sometimes, the entire country will take a week-long celebration and make it impossible to meet with people. Don't worry, though, Sunday will always come. 

Yesterday was probably one of the most amazing days of my mission because I realized that I am becoming the type of missionary that I have always wanted to be. We gave a 5 minute talk over the phone to the 'long distance' branch (it is a call-in Sacrament meeting for those living too isolated to go to a meeting) and I thought that it was hard, but doable. Then, while we were going to head over to our ward starting within an hour, we received a call from the bishopric asking us to give talks during Sacrament because the assigned speakers were not going to be there. So I fretted a bit while on the bus thinking of how my Mongolian is too crazy to give a talk, but my companion tried to talk me off the ledge. When we arrived, though, there was so much that we needed to do before that I didn't have time to worry about it until I was suddenly at the pulpit before the congregation. An amazing thing that happened was that all of my nervousness left as I opened my mouth to speak. At that moment, I knew that I became a better missionary. The talk that i gave was irrelevant, the words and language are simply a vessel, by standing at that pulpit I proved that I am becoming the missionary that will do whatever is asked of me, inside or outside of my comfort zone. I am becoming a true disciple of Christ.

I love being a missionary.

I love you with all of my heart, 

Sister Olsen

Making Huushuur

This was the establishment of Delicious Day! 

Us trying to do planks before eating dinner, because why not?

You have to wear your deel, it is a must!

Emergency clean session! Sister Hansen was on a split that night and helped clean!

Sister Hansen from my MTC group. 

Me and Sister Bollwinkel making plans on being more healthy and not drinking as many cokes. They are so delicious here, it is a real problem.

My tortillas!

The Bollwinkel Goop. Don't they look delicious!? 

This is the long distance call branch

My favorite!! All of my roommates are making contributions/pictures for my weekly letter home. 

Instead of helping them, I was in the shower! It makes me laugh because this is how I know they love me!

I Love America & Naadam Fun! - Weeks 27 & 28

(Email from two weeks ago! - Dated July 3, 2016)

Dear Family and Friends,

To celebrate the best day in the entire world, I dressed like the American flag today. I know what you are thinking, how in the world are the people in Mongolia going to deal with this much awesomeness? To be honest, they are taking it in stride and just thinking in their hearts how glad they are that I get to share my great nationality and love of country---haha, or they just ignore me. One way or the other, right? Gosh, I really do love the Fourth of July so much and am going to be as American as I can and get hamburgers and milkshakes to celebrate. I will definitely take a picture.

This week, though, has been a very HOT week in Mongolia. Just last week, I was talking with my companion about how I thought that it was a lie that Mongolia was going to get hot, but Mongolia taught me not to be a skeptic. The sun is out and the breeze has seemed to take a rest, Windy Ulaanbaatar has become an oven. I am not that graceful about the overheating, but as of July 1, I am constantly hot and sweating. It is not that pretty, so today I am on a hunt for a fan as well (wish me luck!), but my sunscreen is really coming in handy. However, this has been a very fun and busy week otherwise.

On Monday, a group of us went out to a picnic by a river here. This river was in my previous area, so it was a fun and relaxing afternoon of enjoying the sunshine and listening to water babbling in a brook. I could have honestly stayed there forever, we even splurged and bought a watermelon and busted out the peanut butter that came in the mail. It was great! There were also three little boys that came and joined us and they ended up walking away with a bag full of chips, cookies, a bubble wand, and I even donated my Cola to the cause. They were so cute, I love all Mongolians.

By Tuesday, Sis. Bollwinkel and I set out to actually look around the area that we now serve in--so Songino is on the complete opposite side of UB that I used to be on and is just as big, so there are 5 different bus routes that go out about 40 minutes from the city. One of the routes is straight 'hood' where I don't think that I will go there at night, but the other three that we have seen so far are BEAUTIFUL! I love this new ward that we serve in. There is only one more route to see and I hear that it is just as pretty as the other 3, so we will see. The only kind of bummer is that most of the members and investigators live closer to the city, so we won't go that far out too often. In the other ward, there were two inactive families that we visited all the time, so we'll see what ends up happening. But I am happy and love my new companion. It is honestly just wonderful.

One really cool thing that happened this week is that I am going to have my first baptism on Friday at 6:30 PM! She is wonderful and so completely ready to be baptized! We went over to teach a lesson last week and it was almost like she knew the scriptures better than me, I am so happy for her! The new mission president and his wife are AMAZING as well. I am so happy to have been here with the Bensons and now I am excited to see what the Harpers have to offer. Good things are coming, I know it.

I love you all with my whole heart,

(Enjoy those beautiful fireworks)

Sister Olsen

(Email from this past Sunday - dated July 10, 2016)

Dear family and friends, 

Oh man, today has been so much fun, this is one of the reasons for the delay in my email. Today is Naadam here, it is a huge celebration and like a 3-day long Mongolian-style Olympics where there is wrestling, horse races, and archery. We went to the opening ceremony this morning and there were dances, singing, and the parade of people and military. It is a fun celebration of Mongolian heritage and pride, oh man, I LOVE being here--it even has me thinking that if I end up staying longer than next 4th of July and being here again, that wouldn't be too bad of a deal, except no fireworks here. This week has also been raining a lot, so the weather has been humid and cooler than normal, so in other words, today has been fantastic. About two weeks ago, I also went out and bought a Deel, the traditional Mongolian dress, and people have been calling me a Mongolian all day. Hahahah, I felt like a bit of a celebrity because there were foreigners EVERYWHERE today and they kept stopping me and my companions to take a picture with them because they liked our dresses. It has been so much fun. I am still not a fan of Huushur, so even the 'special' ones that they made today weren't my favorite, but it was a good experience to eat it. Me and Mongolian food, I don't think that we are ever going to really get along 100%, but that is okay, I always get to cook my own breakfast.

However, speaking of this week, I had my first baptism! It was the best feeling in the entire world to be with her on the final steps of the process and watching how excited and respectful she was at her baptism; she was completely ready for it. Before the service, my companion and I just sat with her before the baptismal font as she read the scriptures and just kind of took a moment to be still, normally, there isn't that opportunity for stillness. It was amazing! We were also there to help afterwards and just talk with her a little about her feelings before joining up with everyone else to conclude the service, these are precious moments. Just being with her during this small moment has made me realize how much I loved her, completely, and wanted her success. I really did feel complete joy because of her decision, it is not like I tried to take any credit for myself (because I am one of the least involved missionaries that have helped her as I am the newest and speak the least), but I was just so happy. It is like when I saw any of my nieces or nephews for the first time and knew that life would be different from that point on; I may be just a small part of her life, but she has made a huge difference in mine. At the service, the Sister Missionaries sang, 'I Need Thee Every Hour' and that was when it clicked that I can't wait to see what other good things come into her life because of this decision. 

As we all know, a baptism is not complete with receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost the following Sunday. What an adventure. So as I said earlier, it has been raining buckets this week and there really isn't a drainage system here, so everything just kind of floods. So on Saturday, it drizzled on and off all day, making the air extremely humid--worse than Tennessee after a rainstorm in the middle of summer--and it was hard because there isn't any air conditioning, so you just because hot and sticky. Blah, that feeling, this is probably another reason that I did not go to a more tropical place. Then, the ground was already saturated, it rained hard all morning on Sunday. The water was everywhere! Luckily, I had my rain boots because in some parts of the road, the water went a little below mid-calf. The problem was on Sunday with all the rain, our new member wasn't there, but she also has 3 little kids under the age of 7, so we thought she might be stuck. My companion and I went out and walked to her house to help her so that she could get to church and seriously, there was flooding everywhere around her house. What normally is a five minute walk turned into 15 because we kept having to find ways around the water. Once we got there, it turns out her kids were not going to be coming to church, so we ended up walking back to church with here. We had to take 3 different routes because of the water. I made a joke and said, 'ta ariun cyncnii beleg avah heregtei' ('You need to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost') and she made a joke of how she knew and someone was trying to stop here because of all of the flooding. I love here.

We made it to church 25 minutes late, but she received the Gift. She leaned over during Sacrament meeting and even made a comment of how the ordinance felt like her baptism all over again. Seriously, she is wonderful.

So between the crazy rain storms, English lessons, and Naadam, I am loving life. I hope that you are having a great summer so far.

Love you!

Sister Olsen