Hard Work is like Ritz Crackers

Happy 1 month mark to me! We celebrated by going to KFC. It tasted like America! I think. I don't really remember what America tastes like, but it was pretty dang good!

This is my "halfsie" Mongolian companion, Sister Gantsetsig that I'm with when my regular companion is teaching English. She doesn't speak English, so it forces me to up my language game.

I got to go to my school finally this week. I will be teaching grades 6-12, so pretty much the entire upper half of the school. Also, I really have my work cut out for me.... those kids are INSANE. So hopefully I can find some ways to gain their respect and get some learning taking place in the classrooms. I'll be using all the skills I've been acquiring for the last several years- great learning experiences will be taking place! (Also great work experience- hello awesome resume in 15 months)

Me and Sister Gantsetsig

A miracle happened! That boy I told you about last week who we needed a baptismal signature from his parents GOT IT! I don't even know how! Because they live way out in the desert and don't have internet or a printer or anything.... I think they have cell phones, so he sent them a picture of the form, they recreated it by hand, signed it, took another picture and sent it back. I'm not sure though, but I don't really care because he is so excited to be a member of this church!!! Our last lesson he gave the sweetest prayer asking to be a good church member and a good missionary some day. He'll be the best missionary! He's the perfect age right now to get the priesthood and start preparing. We're so excited.

This is a little sand storm that we experienced this week! Lots of wind and sand blew in from the desert and it kind of really hurt to walk outside! Cool, eh?

There are a few special places in my area that we can see beyond the buildings of UB and get a glimpse of the mountains. These are my favorite places! Cities are kind of hard sometimes.... but still cool!

We also found a family this week with a gold-mine of potential priesthood holders, so hopefully we'll see some good things happening there.

What I've learned this week is that there are going to be days that you're really discouraged and just want to die. During those times, I've just wanted to sleep for 13 hours or just read my scriptures and hope it will go away. But as soon as we get on our feet and start moving and teaching people and changing lives, that's when we're the happiest. Hard work fixes bad attitudes. It's like the magic medicine. Like that time Kevin and I were like 7 and decided it would be a great idea to have a clementine eating contest and we each had like 20. I never thought I would see the light of day again. It was miserable. But then we found the "medicine". Ritz crackers. Somehow the salt from the crackers counter-acted the citrus from the clementines. I don't know. But we had found the cure, and then we proudly walked the street of Alturas Dr. knocking the doors of our friends to tell them "if you eat too many clementines, just eat ritz crackers, and you'll feel better." This is all a true story. Ask him yourself.

So in conclusion, hard work is like ritz crackers. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.


Hansen Egch

Having dinner at a member's home. She made us this "river fish" from a lake in Mongolia. It was delicious!