Пирошки

Hello everyone,

This is the week before Tsagaan Tsar, and I am wondering what the best strategy to survive is.

Let me explain Tsagaan Tsar a little bit so you will better understand.

Tsagaan Tsar is a Mongolian traditional holiday that is all about family and food. All Mongolian households make a ridiculous amount of buuz and have their family over to eat said buuz. (Buuz are like dumplings but just purely meat, fat, and dough.) This is really awesome, but it does last a very long time, and because this is a very large family holiday, we are not allowed to meet with any investigators. But we are allowed to do member visits, and we will most likely be invited to many, many houses so we can eat their buuz.

During this holiday, missionaries are invited to SO MANY HOUSES, and most missionaries end up puking on day two from how many buuz they are forced to eat. Now, normally this would be a fear-invoking thing, but let me tell you why I'm extra terrified. My amazing, beautiful, and talented Sister Jo is having some tummy troubles. These tummy troubles are so bad that Sister Namgur told her not to eat any Mongolian food for the rest of her mission. Now, every house we have been to, I have been making sure they respect Sister Jo's wishes when she says she cannot eat Mongolian food. I'm really worried that they are gonna make me eat more buuz because my companion cannot eat any.

Anyways, pray for me...

This week was pretty good. Our English classes at the Mongolia Japan Hospital started up again. We have like no students, but we always work from the ground up here in Mongolia. This week, we are expecting to put four people on date for baptism. I am so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so excited. I have loved teaching and getting people to grow closer to Jesus Christ and their Heavenly Father. It's honestly so cool.

On Monday, we had a little whoopsie.

Me and my companion were heading to our English class. I got off the bus at our bus stop and turned around to see her. And she was not standing behind me. She was still on the bus. So I tried calling her three times, but I had the SIM card. So I found which bus stop she was going to next on my handy-dandy bus app. Then I started walking. While I was walking, I called the DLs and told them what happened. I tried to get a taxi to get me to the next bus stop, but they tried to scam me because I was an alone foreigner. The most I would have paid for that trip was like 3K, but he tried to charge me 15K. (To put it into English, at most I would have paid 98 cents to $1, but he tried to charge me $4, which is outrageous.) We finally met up and walked to our English class together from then on. It was definitely not a repeat mistake, but it is a fun story to tell.

Spiritual Thought

I started reading Revelation this week because I have never read it before and I was curious. There are two verses that I particularly loved.

Verse 8:

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."

Verse 13:

"And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle."

I love verse 8. I have read "Alpha and Omega" many times but did not understand what it meant until I consulted the seminary handbook for Revelation, and I love it now. Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet, and it means the beginning and the end of all things. What amazing symbolism.

And verse 13 was cool to me too. When I first read about the candlesticks, I immediately thought of Jesus Christ being the light and us being like the candlestick to share a fraction of His light with those around us.

That's all, folks.

With love,

Sister Vestel