History

Today the second Mongolia Stake was created.  It was a pretty historic event.  It has been a little over twenty years since the first baptism.  The first member of the church in Mongolia is in our branch.  He joined the church in Germany and then chased the missionaries down when they came to Mongolia.  There are around 12,000 members now, 2 stakes and a district.  In patriarchal blessings every tribe of Israel has been revealed.  I have not heard any other place in the world where every tribe is represented. 

(There was a choir of Young Single Adults--beautiful singers!  As they were singing I, Grandma, felt strongly that if they remain faithful and raise up good, strong families, then the Church here in Mongolia will keep growing and we'll have more stakes and maybe a temple.  That's a dear hope of these good people.)

  

We are still working on gardening, English, and humanitarian projects. We will send some pictures of our latest projects next week.  An older lady in our branch fell into a manhole this last week.  There are manholes everywhere in the streets, sidewalks, etc.  These manholes are access to the large heating system that comes from the power plants.  The manhole covers often stick up 3-12 inches anywhere.  You have to watch out for them so that you do not trip and fall.  Occasionally the workers do not put the cover back or only back part of the way so a common accident in Ulaanbaatar is to fall into a manhole and get all bruised up or a leg or hip broken. Oh, and another interesting summer event, the city turns the hot water off on sections of the city for 3-21 days to work on things, so right now we have no hot water.  It has only been 6 days for us, but 6 young sister missionaries have been 3 weeks!  We are very grateful we have water! Other than no hot water we are doing great.

Time?

We spent the week doing English stuff.  We had 4 visitors:  one from BYU-Provo, BYU-Hawaii, BYU-Idaho, and SLC.  We spent 5 days with them.  It was good but we are conferenced out.  We had 200 Mongolian English Teachers to our English Conference for two days.  They seemed to really enjoy being in our building and attending the workshops on how to teach English better. 

 We understand that the average day time high most of the summer will be 65 degrees.  We are doing good.  Days are cold and windy, then they are warm and sunny, alternating back and forth. It is still freezing 50% of the nights. On Tuesday we had a nice day--almost warm--then on Wednesday we got 3-4 inches of snow and the wind was cold, strong and wild.  (I, Grandma, had to pull out my shoe cleats so I wouldn't slip and fall.)  

The senior couples took our four visitors to the Cashmere Factory--it's quite a process but the final product is soft and beautiful.  The pictures are from the factory.

We are so busy that the time is flying by.

 

 

Pick them like you mean it

This week we started doing more English because the couple that is doing English now is leaving shortly.  We participated in training young missionaries in their English teaching assignments and we visited some English classes taught at some high schools.  One set of sister missionaries teaches 12 classes in two days and they have 240 students.  It is tough! They do not know most of the names of the students because they cannot pronounce them.  

A member that is participating in our gardening project showed up to pick up the gardening supplies for the American Denj Branch.  He was walking and had several miles to go.  He took a 55 gallon barrel, 2-50' hoses, 2 shovels, 1 rake, seeds, plastic for a greenhouse, and two water carts. ( I might add that dad helped him load it up and that helped a lot!)  It was a sight to see.  He said no worries, he would get it home!  Life is always interesting here.  We are working on three water stations right now--they will provide water for 600-1200 families.  We are doing good.  Trying to bless people's lives.

We got a skiff of snow last night but it's gone now:) Yeah! Not that I don't like snow, but I'm so ready for some warm weather!

This mission is so different from our last one, in that we aren't very immersed in the Gospel every day.  So, it's nice to have a District Mtg here at our apt every Friday--it reminds us of our real purpose--bring real, lasting happiness to Heavenly Father's children here in Mongolia.