Starting from Zero Point Nothing

I'm in Darhan now.


I'm training deaf kids. YEAH. I love shock, because it is a close friend of denial, which means nothing amazing has happened at all. Anyways, came here by train, that was kinda cool,


. . . other than the attendants didn't wake us up and we went all the way up to Selenge, which is next to Russia, and had to come back. Other that, we've just been running around up here.

[Mom thinks Selenge (the city) is about as far from Russia has Darhan but Suhbaatar is MUCH closer and on the Transmongolian Railway. However, Mom has since learned that the aimag (province) of Selenge surrounds the Darhan-Uul aimag which was carved out of the Selenge aimag in 1994. So one would end up in Selenge (the province) on the way to Russia from Darhan.]



We're opening a sign language branch up here so that means we are starting from a total membership of ZERO POINT NOTHING. Well not nothing, just the disorganized void, and from these referrals we will organize a branch for them. That they ay go to church there on it [Mom has no idea how to fix this sentence].

Got the pants, I’m wearing them now.

Or am I?

Mom Says Grab a Tissue

Yes, that is Sister Garrett [See last photo in Hugs and Flying Dragon Kicks. Sister Garrett's sister happens to be the chorister in Elder Byrd's home ward]. The Clarks [who have family in the Jay branch which we attend when visiting the G-parents], she, and I are the only peeps representing the true south right now.

Oh yeah, The APs said I have to tell you that I will die July 2, that is my group is scheduled to fly home then. The irony would be that I would probably get set apart to normal on Independence Day. Bah. Bah upon it.

So anyways, this week was exiting in an everything exploded kind of way. But a lot of it involved disciplinary interviews so I guess a lot of it gets left at that. Speaking of divorce, went running around keeping one of my closest homies from doing such this week. Elder Andersen and I went running around playing peace maker, and after getting both sides to talk without the other knowing, we found out that they both wanted the exact same thing but had gotten so mad and stuck on dumb little things that she (he) thought he (she) hated her (him); and they both have a fiery side that would make anyone in our family proud.

As far as Sarah goes, yeah, she's totally still my baga degüü [small sibling]. I've been meaning to call but I need to ask the mission president since it’s been so long between calls.

I have been working at church a lot lately. It's kind of cool because I’ve had many unexpected teaching moments. I related a story that touched one guy so much that he used it in his sacrament talk and it touched even more people. It was about an almost dead puppy I found and nursed back to health (on the coldest day of last winter). We couldn't get in any houses and then there was this little dude stuck on the road. I put him in my jacket and drug him around with me all day, warmed him up and I fed him a little. That night we had a family home evening at a church member’s house. We went in and put the little dude by the fire, and the family said they would take care of him. It is important to note that this was a very popular breed of dog, and a male, which is hard to find for free. We left thinking the puppy would be alright, but when we came back the next day it was cast out dead on the trash pile. At first we thought it had died at night, but the family said the idea of having to take care of it before it could take care of itself sounded too annoying so they chucked it. There's a lot more to it but that’s the gist of it.

In his talk, added that we do that to people, even new members.

Sometimes I think many things I do don't matter and then I find out a month (or months) later that it impacted someone. For Example this Wednesday Ochiroo, the local administrator of the Light Center Orphanage, became an investigator after six freaking months of working our booties off there. I was talking to him about when he first started coming to church, and he said that a little over a year ago he came to see if he could get some aid from Deseret Charities, which he did, but he never came to church. He popped in when he needed stuff, but never came on Sunday. Then seven months later Naisbitt and I go out there every day for a week and work like slaves for a meal. The job would have taken him at least two months to finish alone. He said because of that he has been coming to church ever since, and then us coming out and working to build a small building out of nothing but rough hewn stone and gravity (in -25 weather) touched him even more. But that’s . . . whatever, these little orphan farts are the cutest things in the world. While we're working on the walls, the branch missionaries had mostly given up on working, so we just hammer it out much slower on our own. The little orphan monkeys notice this and start fumbling around with rocks the size of their torsos and dragged/pushed/heaved/etc them over toward us. They are such little studs. We told Ochiroo to start bringing them all over to primary.

I was looking at my work right now. In a billion investigators and referrals way, it's kinda . . . whatever. But we have these five families we’re focusing on, that’s the most of my whole mission. That’s sweet.

Transfer calls are next Sunday. I really *REALLY* don’t want to go, but I'll serve were I’m needed.

Baptisms, Buuz and Bunnies (oh my)

Uh, this week . . . I baptized the Elder Quorum President’s 2 little farts. That was pretty cool. They are 12 so they had to go through all the lesson stuff with the sisters and an interview with me, and I guess they decided the novelty of a giant foreigner was pretty cool (the dad did however give them both the gift of the Holy Ghost. The little kid got all confused in the font and forgot his own name (well, it’s more like I let the other elders do the font and they only turned on the cold water... and its -26 outside) but it was cool, only had to dunk him 3 times.

We played ice/snow soccer. I destroyed my old companion in slide tackles and body checks. He got a little cocky cause he could take out the teachers and priests, so I gave him a foot planted stone wall, which he tried to take out but sent him airborne. It was saikhan.

My camera broke, going to send it to the city to get fixed.

We spent most of the week getting coal for people and keeping members from dying.

The elders got a knife pulled on them, but the very small drunk man went for our branch missionary named Tank, who just grabbed his arm and took the knife out of his hand.

The branch lost a grandma and we had to go look for her, found her in the hospital and got her full of food and finally back home. She thanked us my making these buuz out of this paste that not even the hardened Ganbold could figure out what it was.

The truck from the city comes Wednesday, should get packages then.

My new member had her birthday Sunday. We went over with the branch missionaries and ate buuz, not the weird pasty things.

Out of nowhere one of my sisters got transferred to Darkhan to help the Relief Society President. We had just had transfers so it was kind weird to get another transfer call a few weeks later.

Just trying to rock out in my own little way, never know how things pan out, so I’ve just decided to try to make everyone around me a little better than when I got here.

Speaking of making something better, my 2nd councilor is trying to figure out a way to kill bunnies to get more food into his diet. How do I make traps or ghetto rig wrist slingshots?

Happy New Year

Anyways, was sick alot this week.

Then we had a New Year's party





. . . and then I danced.





That sums it up l dee. The internet is really slow so i'm going to start loading pictures now, and one of my district members is getting transfered so we have to go take pictures down at all the silly choibalsan stuff today.

Hugs and Flying Dragon Kicks

I don’t know how to do that thinking nonsense anymores...



Well, the Christmas party was.





My whole district gets a last minute cut from the mission party, and then I went back to Choibalsan. I love this place.

Oh, and yadaj I got a wicked huge head cold that blew me on my face for a whole day. And then church attendance numbers fell from the 120 we had been working back up toward down to 83. Bah. Dumb city.

Now we do have pass-a-long cards in Mongolia. One of my English students from almost a year ago joined the church. Reason for first listening to missionaries on street ni: Me and Monukia were cool and didn't act like perverts (and in general just seemed different) so that meant that elders were different from normal people. Cool.

There is nothing more annoying that people who just go to church and sit. We get more referrals and in the end more active members from the less active members than from any of the "active" ones. Think about the word, would you call a kid sitting on the bleachers watching stuff happen around him an "active" participant. No. I think a lot of us are spiritually flabby.

My sisters are dead. That’s weird. Editorial note from mom: sisters serve for 18 months, not 24 and dead equals released.



Hugs and flying dragon kicks to those who deserve them.

Hungry for Work (and food)

You have no idea how much I needed to hear of pie and football.

I haven't eaten today. I am hungry.

I am in the city for 5 days. I am not happy.



I will not be sad if I die in Choibalsan and do not see this place for a long time.

SO yeah in the city, kind bummed and out of it, going to miss the branch Christmas stuff. Not being able to work for a week is slowly driving nails under my nails. There are lots of ridiculous things in the city that I will not miss.

So anyways, we worked on building a building at the orphanage. We did a lot but then the other elders went behind us to try but they got cold after an hour and quit. The director got a kick out of it. The two Americans (and the sisters) plug it out in -20C weather hauling bricks around and then the other guys came, played around in what we did, and then went home. little lol



We also worked on helping the 2nd councilor on his skating rink, but in the end ( and as I found, for the better) it fell through.

Translated the movie Testaments again and this time it came out a lot clearer.

Mostly, I’m in the city and going nuts for lack of anything useful to do.

3/4 Milestone Ignored

I'll probably call the 26th, 6:00 a.m. or so Mongolian time.

I don't know anything about dad, but everyone keeps asking me if I know.

So we're trying to cross the road today and then a car comes. My branch missionary and I decide to run across the road, but then Ganbold gets scared and run/jumps back . . . right into my nose. It was sweet, had a nice little go of blood. Ganbold thought I had hit him with my elbow because the force of us crashing knocked him almost on his butt. It was sweet.



I baptized a person, first in Choibalsan that I've got to teach from beginning to end. She's way good, understands stuff better than most of the older members her age. So that’s cool. It's funny, her member friends are more of an annoyance and a problem than the other people she hangs out with, but that’s another story.

Everything else cool happened in interviews so I can't talk about it.

We went to one of our new member’s concert performances. It is the only one like it outside of the city. They were pretty good.

That’s cool about the growth in Tuscaloosa, kinda reminds me of Choibalsan, lots of potential that’s just farting around not doing much sometimes.