Mongolian's take their holidays very seriously

Hello. Have I ever told you that I love Mongolia? Well, guess what? I LOVE MONGOLIA AND I LOVE MY MISSION.  This week will mark one year in this amazing country, and I am overwhelming with gratitude and love for all the experiences I have had, relationships I have made, lessons I have been taught, etc. etc.

Doing some service (shoveling poop)

Just as an update, our 2 elders stuck in Logan have been on quite a difficult journey getting to Mongolia, and we've kept being told that they're coming, then they keep not coming, BUT we just got word that they are on a plane headed here as we speak!! Ashgui dee!!! I am so excited to shake Elder Hansen's hand!

This week Mongolia also celebrated Women's Day, which they treat basically the same as mother's day, but there's no school and no work (Mongolian's take their holidays very seriously). So Sister Shreeve and I made cookies and wrote notes for each of our beloved senior couple sisters, and had a wonderful visit with Sister Maynes, who was going to be alone for 4 days while Elder Maynes was on a project in the countryside, and she just really wanted somebody to visit with!

Pic stolen from other blog

Ditto

I also had the best day ever when I got to go reconnect with my favorite and best investigators from Selbe, Mygmar and Sunjidmaa!! Do you remember them? They invited me over for Tsagaan Sar and it was just the happiest reunion. I could not contain how much love I felt for them, and so cool to see after so many months that I have really made lasting relationships with people here that I will always love. It was so much fun. Mygmar is about to hit her year mark as a member in May, and Sunjidmaa has a a baptismal date for April 8th!!! They are already planning to go to the temple together, maybe near the end of the summer. What I wouldn't give to be there.

With my lovely family, Mygmar, Byanhishig, and Sunjidmaa

Chopping wood with Gantsetseg

We went to meet with an investigator who lives about an hour away, and when we got there, she and like 4 friends were all hung over and passed out around the ger, so we ate some buuz and got out of there feeling a little beat because we've had hardly any lessons this transfer. Then on the bus ride home, there was a boy sitting next to us that was VERY interested in us 2 white girls, and was acting really strange and twitchy. It's usually pretty easy to tell the ones that want to talk to us, but they assume that we don't speak Mongolian, so they just stare at us instead. So after letting him twitch for a minute, I turned to say hello, then he immediately motioned to his ears and made an "X" to tell me that he's deaf!! He was dressed like a little thug wearing all black, leather jacket, ears pierced, but as soon as we tried to start communicating with him through broken hand signals, he just lit up. This kid was radiating. His joy was contagious, and even though we couldn't communicate with him, I felt an outpouring of love for this child of God. It was such a cool experience, and I wanted nothing so badly in that moment to just talk to him and get to know him. I wish I learned more sign language from Sister Gardiner. Anyways, we got off the bus and he gave us the biggest smile and wave I've ever seen as we went out separate ways. That boy left a spot on my heart, and I hope to maybe cross paths with him again.

Can't believe how fast this transfer has gone, we're so excited to get the new missionaries here because we need them so much!! Saying goodbye to half our sisters next week will be hard and we'll miss them, but they've all got so much to look forward to!

Sister Hansen

Email me at: jennifer.hansen@myldsmail.net