Douglas The Cricket

Hello All!

I am happy to say that I am doing well at the MTC! I am starting to love the language and am trying to open up to my companion more. We had several interesting things happen this week so I'll try to keep the email short (no promises).

For the past week, we have had an annoying cricket noise in our room. We checked the vents, we checked in the closets and under the bed. And then Sister Kayner checked her luggage in a last-ditch attempt to find the cricket, and voila, Douglas the cricket was found. It was a little prank toy that was set up by her family. They hid it in the lining of her suitcase, so we finally found Douglas.

Last week we found out that we cannot share or post photos of us with missionary tags or refer to ourselves as missionaries to anyone in Mongolia. If we do, then we could get deported, and our district would get in trouble for going against Mongolian law. Yay. I also cannot wear my tag unless it is at home or during a zone conference. But it's okay, the harder the game, the sweeter the victory. Muhaha.

We started language immersion yesterday, and it was intense. We learned through Pictionary and charades, which was honestly really cool. We are also learning our basic phrases like "What is your name?", "How old are you?", and "Where do you live?" This was really cool; I can at least start a conversation now, even if I don't understand anything else. Let's celebrate the small victories though. Speaking of language study, our class found out that our language tutor is dating our teacher, and it was so funny! The Elders asked the question in very poor Mongolian if Jones Ax (Brother Jones) was dating Sister Haws, and then Jones Ax got really quiet, and then the class got quiet. You could cut the tension in the room with a knife. Then Jones Ax winked. THE ROOM WENT WILD. It was pretty crazy for the rest of class.

Embarrassing moments of the week:

Soda going out my nose when my companion made a super lame joke (I was really delirious)

Spilling chocolate milk all over the place because I am clumsy.

That's it :)

Pictures:

1. A really bad photo of our our boys

Left to right

Stallard, Fisher, Williams, Cavey, Higgiinbotham

3. Me and my Companion, Sister Swenson(she is really cute)

4. Elder Snyder(left) and Cavey(Right)

5. Some Random Dudes

6. My District from left to right