“I Felt Like I Belonged There”

In March 1991, Nyamdoo Genden, the Mongolian ambassador in Washington, D.C., gave a lecture at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, which led to an agreement between the Church and the government of Mongolia. Beginning in September 1992, several senior missionaries with education credentials taught university and high school classes in Ulaanbaatar, with permission to teach the gospel privately.

On February 6, 1993, students Bat-Ulzii Tsendkhuu and Purevsuren Lamjavwere baptized. On May 8, 1993, another student, Davaajargal (Sylvia), was baptized. Mongolia had been dedicated for the preaching of the gospel by Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on April 15, 1993. Young missionaries arrived at the end of the summer of 1993.

Batchimeg Magsar was the eldest in her family of five children. She read widely. When she first read the New Testament, she felt a burning sensation. “I guess it was the Holy Ghost,” she recounted. “I knew what was written there was true, and Jesus Christ wasn’t just a personage in history, but he was who he was, who he claimed.”

A couple years later, in 1994, Batchimeg was grappling with questions about the meaning of life after the death of a beloved uncle. One of her cousins’ friends went to “some kind of American church,” and Batchimeg asked if she could go with her. As soon as Batchimeg stepped into the meeting, she felt peaceful. “I remember this feeling from when I was five years old, in the woods, lying down,” she recalled. “I felt like I belonged there the moment I walked in. They sang the hymns, and I liked the hymns. The whole process just felt like I had to be there.”

Batchimeg’s friend, Soyolmaa Urtnasan, who knew her from their days as students in Russia, noticed that Batchimeg was no longer drinking tea. “Why not?” Soyolmaa asked. She began attending church with her friend.

The day after Soyolmaa was baptized, she was confirmed as a member of the Church and called as Young Women president. Because Soyolmaa and Batchimeg were fluent in Russian, they were able to read the Book of Mormon, which was only available in Russian at the time.

The two friends frequently accompanied the missionaries as translators. “I knew all the missionary discussions by memory,” Soyolmaa said. “I knew what questions to ask. I was translating, and sometimes the elders would forget a part, and I would say, ‘You forgot …’”

Shortly after her baptism, Batchimeg attended school in St. Petersburg, Russia, where she found the local Latter-day Saint congregation and learned more about the Church. When she returned, she told Soyolmaa, “Did you know we can serve missions?”

They filled out their missionary applications together, the first local members to do so. In June 1995, they traveled to the United States to serve, Batchimeg in the Temple Square Mission, and Soyolmaa in the Utah Provo Mission.