Sain Batsgaan yy?

Happy Tsagaan Sar! It's been a great week and I'm including lotsa pictures to give you a better look into the week and then if you've got questions about them ask away.... next week! It's kind of a strange situation on Tsagaan Sar, if you do anything but celebrate it's kind of a cultural taboo, so from Wednesday to Saturday most people would only let us eat food with them, lessons weren't part of the program. I had my testimony of missionary work strengthened this week from that. There is a different feeling and spirit to the day when you come home and have not taught the Gospel. Tsagaan Sar was great and I had a great time soaking up all the traditional Mongolian, but I didn't feel the same spirit with us and when Sunday came around I was so glad to start teaching people and doing real missionary work again! There is a real joy that comes into our lives as we are instruments in the Lord's hands and I felt that especially this week. We did eat a ridiculous amount of byydz (boughdz, the dumplings), I was keeping track for a while and it was 100+, so much mutton! In that show we all watched before I left there was the exotic meat jello (from the boiled head), the mares milk, and tons of the aaroltht that I gave to you guys. I love aaroltht now and everything else was good too, but you can have too much of a good thing ya know?

Saturday was transfers and I'm happy to say that Elder Amarbaysgalan and I are still in Sansar! We do have 2 new Elders and 1 new Sister in our district, all of which are great missionaries and I'm very excited for the next few weeks as we do the Lord's work!

I'm sorry this has to be a shorter email, today the Chingeltei building had a flood (on the outside) and the whole road iced over! The police weren't too happy about that and so all the missionaries went over with some members and until about 4:30 were clearing the road. It felt really great to get some good hard work in! I have been really bad these last couple of weeks about emails, especially my spiritual experiences and that will change next week, but I wanted to share some of my thoughts about receiving my Eagle Scout and what I thought/heard about that as you asked. I talked with the Powells when I first got here and found out that only missionaries who had received their Eagle Scout had the opportunity to come to Mongolia. I have not figured out a specific reason other than what it shows the Church, my sponsor, and the Mongolian government that a young man can start something and has the resolve and the determination to continue to work on small goals, over a long period of time, and finish them to obtain a big goal! It's just like the missionary rules, we make a lot of small choices and constantly strive to be better to obtain a goal. That's what makes a successful missionary and to have already shown that through getting an Eagle or Duty to God tells a lot about the missionary we will be.

Love you guys! Elder Jolley

Elder Jolley and Elder Reeve - geared up for Tsagaan Sar

Tsagaan Sar Celebrations (at at least four locations!)

Wow! Check out the feasts!