Around Christmastime two years ago, a student in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, knelt before a Nativity scene and prayed to find her phone. Although she never found the phone, the moment sparked her conversion to the Catholic faith.
UCA News reports that Enkhjin Baatar grew up in a rural area in a hard-working family — her parents worked at a meat-processing factory to support her and her two younger sisters. Her parents are not religious, and she moved away from home to attend college.
Catholicism is a minority religion in Mongolia, with just 1,500 members in the country of 3 million people. Baatar said that her friend and classmate, Khashdorj Michael Arvanai, introduced her to the faith.
“Through him, I started to learn about Jesus more personally,” she said.
Arvanai is an altar server at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, and his family members attend Mass regularly. When Baatar lost her phone on a crowded bus, he encouraged her to go pray before the Nativity scene at the cathedral.
Baatar said the experience gave her a lot of peace of mind.
“That was when I began to understand that prayer is powerful. Jesus listens,” she explained. “When we ask in faith, He responds in His own way.”
Baatar had visited a Protestant church before, but she was drawn to the Catholic Church because of the miracle of the Eucharist.
“What draws me to the Catholic Church is the altar, where the Body and Blood of Jesus are sacrificed and given to the people,” she said. “This nourishes the soul. I want to experience it personally.”
Arvanai’s grandmother, Tuya, is also a parishioner at the cathedral. She spoke affectionately of Baatar: “She is an intelligent and prayerful girl. She does not yet understand many teachings of the Church, but she says, ‘I have faith in Jesus.’”
Baatar was accepted as a catechumen last year, and will enter the Church during the Easter Vigil. She has not yet chosen her godparents.
Baatar spoke about how she hopes to bring others to the Church like Saint Andrew, who told his brother Simon Peter, “We have found the Messiah.”
“Just like Andrew, my friend Arvanai brought me to Jesus. This is a very important moment in my life as a young Mongolian,” she said. “In the future, I also want to become an ‘Andrew’ for many ‘Peters,’ bringing them to Jesus. I understand that this is the role of every missionary in this young Church in Mongolia.”