As a young girl growing up in Mongolia, Batkhishig Batsaikhan, “Hishigee,” enjoyed many of the same activities as her peers. She liked to read, eat ice cream, listen to music, and “chill.” But even then, she felt that something was lacking in her life. She explains, “My parents are Buddhists, but since I was a child, I did not believe in any religion. For a long time, I felt that something was missing. I didn’t know what it was, but I spent a long time not knowing exactly what I was missing. It’s like when you are very thirsty and drink a lot of water to quench your thirst, but it doesn’t quench your thirst at all."
In April of 2022, Hishigee moved to Japan to attend a Japanese language school in Tokyo. Being far from home and away from her family was challenging. She continued to experience a “thirst” for something more, questioning the purpose of her own existence. Seeking support from a friend in Mongolia, she received the advice to pray. However, having never prayed before, she didn’t know how.
Doing what many people do when they have a question, Hishigee looked it up on the internet. Through her search, she found the website for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (churchofjesuschrist.org), and sent an email inquiry to the missionaries, “I want to pray to God, but I don’t know how to pray, so please teach me how to pray.”
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Elder Borges and Elder Raymond, serving in the Japan Tokyo South Mission, responded, and they began to meet with Hishigee, teaching her to pray, and sharing with her the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. “From that time,” she says, “everything started to change. Every time we met, and I learned about God’s word, I could feel my thirst slowly being quenched. It was an indescribable feeling I had never felt before.”
Following the pattern described by Alma (Alma 32:28), Hishigee continued to learn. Of the experience, she said, “Good things started to happen to me. Everything became clearer and brighter day by day.” Hishigee was baptized on June 18th, amid the many new friends she has made along the way.