Griffin's Years in Outer Mongolia: July 16th, 2017

I'll put up a post of just pictures soon, including more from Naadam. Here is what we got from Griffin this week:

So hey everybody! This wee was Naadam, which is a giant cultural festival here in Mongolia. The whole city shuts down for this festival, and it's given to missionaries as a p-day basically.So to start off our plan was that A and I would split for the day, and that I would go with a few other Americans who also have Mongolian companions. We did this because Naaadam is close to Mothers day or Christmas for Mongolians, so all the Mongolian missionaries get to Skype with their families. So all our companions would Skype their families, while we spent the day at the festival. It worked pretty well!
To start off the day I got ready and put on my Mongolian tsamts,it's like a traditional festival shirt. We went over to the apartment we were going to switch at and we switched. I got together with Elder Callahan and Whitaker. We go to the festival. By this point I still didn't have tickets to get into the stadium, because I was told I could get them there from scalpers. When we got there there were not scalpers because the police cracked down hard on them that. Also they hardly had any tickets because so many people came to see he new president's inauguration. So we chilled for a little bit until right before a stadium opened. At this point I still didn't have any tickets. So we had this idea! They televise Naadam! So went to this fancy restaurant called California, by this time we were joined by Elder Lambert who also forgot to buy a ticket. It was awesome! The restaurant was like Olive Garden and had sweet food, I forgot what pasta tasted like until I ate some Carbonara. And we watched Naadam on the tv. It was super cool! They had a play and live music, and then Wrestling.

After we ate we went to Naadam again and played fair games. I was the best archer in my group and I won 10000 togrogs because I knocked down a few cans! Then we went to Hard Rock Cafe, and I've never been in one before and it was dope! They had music I ate an awesome club sandwich. Then we got a call from the ap's (i was still with the Americans) and they were a little mad cause we weren't with our companions. So we got with our comps and went home. Naadam was awesome.

Then on the 12th was president birthday (same as my brothers, happy birthday bro!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

). So here in Mongolia there are these toys called spinners and everybody has them. So we got president one! Overall this week was really relaxing, and super fun. We also started to meet again with investigators cause they started coming back to the city! Things are looking up!