As we flew into Mongolia, my heart skipped a beat. I was going to see Cadence that day & I could hardly wait. I looked out the window & saw the snow covered mountains & got a little nervous because I do not like the cold & Mongolia is COLD. But it was worth it if I got to see Cadence. We got off our flight & got held up at Passport control. Something with Trek’s passport wasn’t working, but they got it all worked out after about 15 minutes, then we waited for our bags. Trek’s suitcase was the very last suitcase to come up the baggage claim track. I had to laugh at that. We were grateful it was there & not lost because we were a little worried it wasn’t going to make it.
We walked out of the airport & Cadence’s friend (a former Mongolian missionary she served with) met us & was our “guide” for the day since we couldn’t see Cadence until that night. It was only 8 in the morning so we had almost 12 hours to explore the city until the missionary farewell fireside at the mission home. He had hired a permanent cab for us for the first 2 days in Mongolia (& for the ride back to the airport) & we just loved our cab driver. He was so sweet & so accommodating for us. It took us 2 hours to drive 23 miles from the airport to the city. Ulaanbaatar is the main city of Mongolia & 70% of the population lives in the city. The traffic there is the most horrible traffic I’ve ever seen. It takes hours to go mere blocks because of the amount of drivers on the road & the amount of craziness as they drove. Mongolia even has a law that you can only drive a certain number of days a week (as listed on your license plate) so the craziness is literally only HALF the population each day. It's crazy. Our first stop was the Chinggis Khan Museum. It was closed that day so we decided to come back on Thursday when it was open.
Then we walked from there to the Natural History Museum of Mongolia. We explored that for about an hour (it was all in Mongolian so we had no idea what we were seeing, but it was cool.). Then we walked to Sukhbaatar Square which is pretty much the Capital Building of Mongolia. The president & all the government leaders work in that building. It rests on a large square city block & has a statue of Sukhbaatar in the center. Chinggis Khan’s statue sits on the front of the Capital building.
After exploring the main block of the city, we hopped back into our cab & drove up to the Russian Memorial (Zaisan Memorial) at the top of a hill overlooking the city of Ulaanbaatar. The memorial honors allied Mongolian & Soviet soldiers killed in WWII. You can drive up the hill, park in the car park, but then you must make a climb of 300 steps before reaching the monument. It’s beautiful up there. We really enjoyed the views of the city. After climbing up & down to the memorial, we hopped back in the cab & drove to a restaurant, but soon realized we didn’t have enough time to eat there because we had to meet the owner of our Air BnB at 2:00, so we drove there instead.
Cadence’s friend dropped us off at our apartment & gave us directions on how to get to the mission home (it was a short walk from our apartment). We met the owner of the apartment & got all the details we needed to know, then decided to take showers & a quick nap (Jet lag guys! It’s crazy!). Mongolian beds are . . . I don’t know how to describe them. Hard? Wood blocks with a blanket on top? We laid down & both looked at each other thinking “WHAT IN THE WORLD?” We were literally lying on a piece of plywood. We all of a sudden realized that this is what Cadence has been sleeping on for the last 1.5 years of her life. I remember her mentioning that the beds were hard, but I didn’t imagine they would be pieces of wood. She spent her entire mission without a pillow either. It was eye opening. It made me SO VERY grateful for our American beds. We took a quick nap, then walked down to the emart at the end of the street to get Mongolian money out of the ATM. Very few places take card in Monglia, they like to use cash. 30,000 Mongolian dollars equals $1 for us. Our hotel for 4 days cost $300 dollars, but we found ourselves having to withdraw over 1 million Mongolian Tugrik which only come in 20,000 bills. Our stack of money was as thick as a Brandon Sanderson book! I couldn’t believe people walk the streets with stacks of bills like this. It’s crazy.
After that, we walked down to the mission home. We knew we were an hour early, but we were kind of lost in Mongolia & nobody spoke English so we thought we’d just go early & save ourselves a good seat. When we arrived there were some missionaries setting up chairs in the chapel for the fireside & they saw us & said “Are you Sister Potter’s mom & dad?” We smiled & nodded. They told us all the missionaries were super excited to meet us. That made me happy.
We decided to wander around the hallway for a bit & as we walked out of the chapel, a group of 4 sister missionaries came around the corner. I froze in place realizing it was Cadence. We both just stared at each other for what felt like forever, then we just ran straight into each other arms & started crying hysterically.
From that moment on, we were inseparable. We met so many of her missionary friends she’s been serving with & SO many of her ward members, investigators, English students, & friends. The fireside was beautiful. Each of the 8 missionaries leaving the mission got to bear their testimonies in Mongolian, then say goodbye to everyone afterward. We had so many people ask to meet us. One of the people she baptized presented Trek & I with gifts & thanked us for letting Cadence serve a mission. It was SO touching to meet so many people that Cadence meant the world to. She truly changed lives on her mission & I am SO VERY PROUD of her.
Afterward, Cadence was officially my companion for the remainder of our stay in Mongolia. She said goodbye to her friends & we walked the streets of Mongolia (about 3 miles) to the Hard Rock Café & we ate a late late dinner. We hadn’t eaten since the plane ride so we were starving. I got a salad, because Cadence told me that would be the only real salad/veggies I’d get in Mongolia & it was delicious. Then we walked 3 miles back to our apartment & went to bed on our rock hard beds. And yes, Cadence confirmed that all the beds in Mongolia were like that.
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