Road less traveled

We had an Asia Area Conference today.  It was so nice to go to a conference or church meeting and get the messages in English, not through a translator.  There were 4 speakers, Elder Brent Nielson, Sister Marriott, Elder Hallstrom, and Elder Gary Stevenson. It was a great meeting in which the following things were taught:

We need to increase our faith and one way to do this is for families to have spiritual time together--we pray that our reading the B of M, praying and having HE helped you and that you will continue these with your families.

We need to pray for spiritual strength to live & keep our covenants, which will get us eternal life. Covenants are our iron rod--a great blessing.

We can have peace, even in trials. The Savior can make trials lighter and we can help others by bearing each other's burdens.

Dads and moms need to work together in their families--it's a combined effort to help families get back to Heavenly Father.

We have a water specialist arriving from SLC this week so we will be touring all over Mongolia for the next 2 weeks.  We have more water requests.  The need is so great.  We hope some of these requests can be done to bless and help the people.  A water station helps them improve their health and it also makes things much more convenient; not as convenient as water tapped to their home/geir but still better than what many have to do to get water. 

This week is Tsgansar in Mongolia.  It is a big national holiday, much like our thanksgiving, except everything shuts down most of the week.  It was a little warmer Saturady around 25 degrees.  It was so.......o nice.

Old Henry Smith

Since we have told you about the English teaching, training, and supervising we have been doing, we do not want you to get the wrong idea. Grandpa says his English is about the same as it always has been and to prove it he's sending a poem he put together the other day.

Old Henry Smith was a thinkin' one day,

Oh, that I could run like that horse of mine o'r yonder

Or, wouldn't it be grand to fly like Mr. Crow up overhead.

And then he heard his yellow Lab a thinkin',

Oh, that I could talk like Old Man Henry does

Or, wouldn't it be nice to cook like Mrs. Smith.

Then Henry straightened up and thought again,

Maybe it is quite remarkable that I can

think, and speak, and do all the things I do.

It might be best to leave the runnin' to my horse

And the flyin' to Mr. Crow, and be content to

do the thinkin, and the speakin' and the doin'

And then another thought came into

Old Henry Smith's soul, Man is different,

He truly is a child of God ya' know.

I think it's culte and so true. We love each one of you and pray you'll be guided and protected in all you do.

Zunnmod

This week we had a closing ceremony at the Zunnmod Village ​​​​.  We rebuilt their library for them.  We were supposed to show up at 11:30 am.  They had a celebration all set up for us.  The children sang several songs, they danced, and recited poetry.  The children were beautiful, all dressed up and performing before us.  There was one dance that was facinating.  A teenage girl, about 15, danced with 4 bowls stacked on her head.  As she moved around and about her head never moved and the bowls did not fall off. Then she put one bowl in one hand and another in the other hand and danced more, then she squatted down and put one bowl on her foot and stretched about, then another bowl on the other foot and stretched about, all this while there were two bowls still on her head. Then another bowl came off her head into her hand and she moved all about, then finally the four bowls went back on her head and the dance ended, and then she poured the water out of the bowl that had stayed on her head the whole time.  Quite a show! After the ceremony they feed us Hor Hog. It is a traditional Mongolian meal.  Lots of meat, potatoes, carrots, all cooked in one big pot.  There were also lots of salads on the side.  So, we had a good week this week. We gave the Michigan Test 3 times this week to young adults that are trying to go to BYU-H.  Usually only 1-2 pass out of 25.  We are hoping for better results this time.