All of the Dealings of the Buses - Week 37

Dear family and friends,

So, this week has been absolutely PERFECT! We had appointments that didn't fall through, yes, there have been bad things that happened (lol, that will come next in the story), but I LOVED this week so much. I really don't even know what made it any different than the others, but I think that I decided on Wednesday that it was going to be a perfect week, and thus it became. There is  a lot of power that comes when you make up your mind to accomplish something there was a quote that said that you do not need to know exactly how something is going to work, you just have to picture it over and over again in your head and it will happen over time. I believe it.

On Wednesday, I have experienced the perfect day where we met with everyone that we planned, we taught the lessons with unity between us as companions, we have return appointments set, and the weather was beautiful. If you ever wondered what a missionary would look like skipping down the street because they are so happy, you should have been here this week. I promise that you would have seen it happen at least once or twice this week (but I don't have a badge, so you would just have to guess that I am a missionary). However, I have had 3 really funny experiences in regards to buses this week.

The first happened on Wednesday, it was near the end of the day and we were heading to our last appointment of the evening. Everything was great, we were at the back of a mini bus, I was standing these, talking about how to say 'with purpose' in Mongolian (it is how to ask what someone's goal is, it also sounds A LOT like 'commandment', so I was working on my pronunciation), when we were getting near a bus stop. I kind of just shuffled out of the way to allow two guys to leave, not breaking the conversation, when (as soon as my hands had let go of the bar I was holding), the bus made a quick jerk-stop. Hahahahah, well, I went flying! This is the first times that it has ever happened, but I guess I pulled a terrified look at my companion, and landed on both of the guys that just stood up. They caught me, then as I was getting back on my feet, I stepped on this other guy twice (which is a HUGE bolohgui--a not-allowed or may-not), but I also kind of did a weird mini-scream. The two guys got a kick out of it, then the guy that I stepped on (twice) told me to sit on one of the vacated chairs. It was like a command to sit because I was clearly a danger to everyone on the bus. As the two guys got off, you could hear them making fun of the yell that I did. Hahahah, I wish that I had a camera at that moment.

The other was on Thursday when we were crossing the street to go visit someone. So here in Mongolia, there are a lot of the road crossings where the path is marked on the road, but it is kind of a go-at-your-own-risk sort of crossing because you never know if the car is going to stop or not. If you are walking in a group, it is almost always a guarantee that they will stop, but even then, you never know. So on this day, my companion and I were walking across the street when it wasn't too busy, when as we were almost across, I saw this bus coming up. Buses do not stop for anyone. So this bus, as soon as I saw it, my body went into flight-mode (it was really far away, so I don't know what my body's problem is) and decided that I need to move faster. It literally made me to a hop and skip to get out of the way--a mid walking stride hop. It was so weird, but imagine seeing someone mid-stride, and instead of letting their other foot come down, they  did a hop instead. That was me. Then I finished the whole scene by skipping. My companion just laughed and laughed at me. She saw it and asked why I was walking so weird--my body had a freakout moment.

The last incident is the cherry on top to my perfect week. Someone tried to pickpocket from me, again. So here I was minding my own business and I took a picture on a bus (never really a smart idea in the first place, so my lesson has been well-learned), when this guy was like, 'hey, cool camera. I think that I should just take it from you', so the hooligan decided to try. However, it was also a day that I was carrying a big roll of tape wedged over my camera, making it extremely protected, and my bag technically a laptop bag, meaning that you have to fully lift up the pouch to get anything out, so it is really had to pickpocket from. Well, my companion saw him start to stick his hand in my bag (she was clued in because he was standing way too close) and pushed him. Then I noticed and slapped his hand and shouted loudly,. 'get your hand out of my bag' in English--it kind of causes a bigger scene. Then, he just halfway turned away like nothing happened, but I just kept my hand tightly on my bag and stared at him until he got off. *sigh* People, stealing from missionaries makes you lose brownie points.

However, I wanted to share these stories with you because I thought that they were funny to happen on my perfect week. Life is good and I stinkin' love Mongolia.

I love you all!

Sister Jessica Olsen

Hahahahahah, so here are some bus pictures. The first two are from the hike that I took last Monday and the group that we went with and the last is the picture that I took that almost got my camera stolen 30 seconds later. I thought the clouds looks so cool through the tinted windows. :)

Here are some random pictures from around my proselyting area. I am on the city-side that borders the outskirts. It is so pretty. :)

So we had an awkward 45 minutes of free time where there isn't an opportunity to visit with someone, but too much time to just go to the next person, so we decided to HEART ATTACK! It was great! We then had so much fun doing it once, that we did it again, worked up an appetite, then had a healthy dinner. My little guy, though, was being a little piggy and almost ate all of the chocolate alone :)

Sunday is Fun day!

These all happened yesterday. These are some of the ward missionaries (and they are all very hyper, they talk fast, and are hard to understand), this is a little guy who just knocked out during Relief Society, and I have the best companion in the entire world who makes delicious things to eat.

I love Mongolia!