Farewell from Friends and Co-workers

It was a little harder to say goodbye than I thought it would be. I shouldn’t have been surprised, my favorite part about Mongolia has always been the people so it makes sense that the hardest part to leave would be the same thing.

On my last Sunday at church I gave a talk, half of which I blubbered through. I was asked to speak about my experience at church in Mongolia, and any recommendations for church members there, etc. I chose to focus my talk around Zion because I have never found a group of Saints who are building Zion more genuinely and enthusiastically than in Mongolia. Despite my exhaustion and having to get up early to write my talk, I was very grateful I got to speak because it gave me the opportunity to say thank you and goodbye to my ward. After church the YW president asked me to come down to the YW room because the YW wanted to say goodbye to me. When I walked in they had decorated the white board and started to sing ‘God Be With You Til We Meet Again,’ which made me start crying again. They had signed a card and when they said the closing prayer Gerelezaya translated it for me (don’t usually bother translating prayers) and I was pretty much bawling because the Young Woman said some really nice things etc. All of this crying I did on Sunday was partly because I was so tired and a little sleep deprived but let’s face it, anyone who knows me at church knows that I cry pretty easily anyway. So yeah, last Sunday at church was great, too much crying, but still good.

The Young Women, their leaders and I.

On Monday I went out to lunch with my office and that was really nice. Thankfully I didn’t do any crying but it was a pleasant little send off for me. They gave me a beautiful cashmere scarf and a ticket to the Nadaam Opening Ceremonies for that Wednesday. I really liked working with all of them and I hope I can stay in touch.

Colleagues and I at my farewell lunch.

Tuesday night I went out to dinner with probably my favorite people in Mongolia, Flower and Gerelezaya, sisters that I know from church. We had a lovely time chatting and enjoying Indian food. Brother Ganbold also came by (because he’s Flower’s boss so he had to give her stuff, but he stayed and ate too). They also gave me presents: a wallet (which I’m currently using) and calendar thing. And Brother Ganbold gave me a ticket to a cultural show for Wednesday night (which I went to with Gerelezaya and some people she knew from her mission and it was amazing!).

Me, Flower, Gerelezaya, and Brother Ganbold.

I will miss the people I met in Mongolia but I’m fairly confident that I will be back someday.