Unloading wheelchairs

We finally have the first order of wheelchairs for the 2013 Wheelchair project.  It took over a week to get the chairs out of customs.  But it finally happened and we had some wonderful church members and missionaries show up in the early morning to unload the truck at National Rehabilitation Center.  All in all there were about 27 people who gave an hour of their time to help carry, stack and sort.  It was greatly appreciated.  Now we need to prepare for the Wheelchair training that will take place on Aug 19, 20, and 21.  We have specialists coming from Salt Lake to train the people at NRC in the proper fitting and distribution of wheelchairs.

 Scripture: Mosiah 2:17  And behold I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that we may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

Testimonies shared, a baptism and a fun sisters zone conference

On Wednesday, July 23, we had three wonderful young women over for dinner and to share scriptures.  Batsetseg, (who is the young lady from our English Class that Elder Nay baptized) and Tsetsegee, and Tsetsegdari who are the daughters of Enkbold and are one of the stalwart families of the branch.  It was so inspiring to here their testimonies.

Batsetseg shared how before she and her family were baptized that she was not really happy.  She was looking for something more. She had questions of what her purpose was, is there anything after this life.  She attended English class at the Bayanzurkh building and could feel something there.  The senior missionaries were so kind and happy.  She decided to ask about the church and told her father about it and he called the missionaries.  She testified that she knew the gospel was true and that her family is so happy now.  She knows they will still have hard things but also knows that Heavenly Father loves her and her family and will help them make it through whatever happens.  She has graduated from high school now and is preparing to serve a mission.  She is studying her scriptures and memorizing some.  She will take BYU-Hawaii online courses this next year and a half while she is preparing for her mission.  Her plan after her mission is to go to BYU-Hawaii.

Tsetsegee, also shared her testimony.  She has been a member for over 7 years and has a great gospel knowledge.  Recently someone broke into their home and robbed them while they were at church.  They wondered why this happened when they were trying to do the right thing.  But they have a strong testimony and they know the everyone has to go through hard things.  She loves her Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  She loves the gospel and gains strength by reading the scriptures and attending Church.  She too just graduated from high school, plans on taking BYU-Hawaii online classes while preparing to serve a mission.  She also plans on attending BYU-Hawaii after her mission.

Tsetsegdari bore her testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and her love of her Heavenly Father.  She just turned 14 years old and would like to go to the temple again someday.  Her family went about 3 years ago and were sealed in the Hong Kong temple and it was a great experience for them

On Friday, July 25 we had a baptism at the Jargalant Branch.  Two young men were baptized.  One was a member baptism and he was baptized by his father, Jangaar.  The other was a convert baptism and he was baptized by a priest from the ward.  Sorry I don't have their names.  I see them every week in primary and they are great boys, I just have a hard time understanding the names.

 Jangaar, who is the Elder's Quorum President and on the stake High Council and his son

The other young man and a priest. (This young man is a great morin khur player and also is preparing to go on a mission.  

He just graduated from High School. 

Jangar's youngest son ALWAYS smiles.  He is so cute

On Saturday, July 16, We went with the sister missionaries that are in the city to Manzshir Monastery for a zone conference.  The Elders went last week and were rained out.  We were hoping for a nice day for the sisters and the forecast said it was to be hot, sunny with 1% chance of rain. We all hopped on a bus to travel the hour and a half it takes to get there. It did start our nice and sunny, but they only go through 2 of the 4 activities until it rained and rained.  It was decided to return back to the church building and continue the activities there.  Of course the sun came out when we were traveling home.  Most of the foreign missionaries do not get to see out side of UB because they need to stay in the city to teach English for whoever their sponsor is.  It would have been nice if the weather had stayed decent so they could have hiked and seen more of the sights at this old Buddhist monastery that was destroyed by the communists.

 On the bus

 Happy to be in the countryside!

 President Benson Teaching.

 Benson children are happy to be outside also.

 They loved to explore and go rock jumping in the stream

 Dr. Lewis guiding a missionary

 Puzzles are easier to do if all of the pieces are there.

 Rain

Back at church learning it is easier to work with each other than against each other

Most of the activities focused on working with the ward or branch council and if everyone worked together with a common goal, missionary work would become a great success.

Scripture for the week: Moroni 6:5 And the church did meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls.

Turnover Ceremony at the National Mental Health Center Greenhouse

We had the turnover ceremony for the National Mental Health Center Greenhouse on July 17, 2014.  This has been a great project.  Deseret International Charities provided a greenhouse, irrigation system, tools, plants and seeds for this project.  This project was to help this Center set up a greenhouse so the patients in their Ger Project good grow food and also use this as therapy.  They have found that if they give the patients meaningful work, coupled with watching something grow and taking pride in it, helps the patients to recover faster than using medication.  Of course it has to be selected patients but they have had a great response to this sort of treatment.  They also have a field where they grow potatoes and the patients take turns going out to work in the field.  It was wonderful to see the fruits of their labors.  This is a good example of the type of projects Deseret International Charities likes to fund.  It is teaching work, and self reliance.  Great Job National Mental Health Center and thank you to the many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that donates to the humanitarian fund.

Senior Missionary Humor

Okay, sometimes Senior Missionaries do get a little silly.  During Naadam, the senior couples were invited to see a new Mongolian Show by President Aydiabold, and it was a great show. (See the previous blog for pictures and information).  While we were waiting for the show to start they had some light refreshments for us to eat.  It was delicious.  We were wondering what the meat was, it was acutually pretty tender and good.  Sister Lewis noticed what looked like taste buds on the egde of the meat, so it was decided it was tongue.  Then it happened.  It was pun time.  Here are the pictures of what transpired.

 Senior missionaries are speaking with tongues!

"Tongue in Cheek"

 "Forked tongue"

 

"Watch your tongue" 

 "Bite your tongue!"

"Hold your tongue"

Some other ideas we thought of on the way home included :

A slip of the tongue,

tongue-lashing,

tongue tied,

On the tip of my tongue,

tongue twister,

and  Has the cat got your tongue?

Scritpure for the week: Article of Faith  7 We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.

More Naadam

Well, as I said before, Naadam is for FIVE days this year so I think I will post some pictures of the other events and people we were able to visit with the rest of Naadam.

On Saturday, Muugii and her husband Mugbaatar invited us to their home for "refreshments" in the afternoon.  They are living right now with Muugii's sweet mother. It was fun to visit with them and enjoy their true Mongolian hospitality. It was wonderful.  They served us delicious khuushuurs, potato salad, and cake. They are all so loving and kind.  It was a great afternoon.

That evening we went to an International Dance Festival at the Central Cultural Palace.  It was Mongolian dancing and it was WONDERFUL.  The costumes were spectacular.  The dances stunning and the dancers incredible and beautiful.  It is hard to describe if you haven't seen it. I love the Mongolian dance and I love how all of the costuming is MODEST!  It was so impressive, my favorite thing this year at Naadam

Sunday we were invited to the Bat-khorig family home after church.  They were the family of five that was baptized in April.  They live in a humble ger on top of a mountain.  We took a bus to get to their home after church. They live 4-5 bus stops away from the church.  We got off of the bus in a torrential downpour.  Fortunately I had packed 2 of those dollar store raincoats for Elder Nay and myself so we didn't get too wet,  but the poor Elders who were showing us the way got drenched.  I suggested that we stop in a little store for a minute, but we kept right on going up the hill, through the downpour, mud flow and rivulets of water.  Fortunately the downpour did not last long.  Again, we are always overwhelmed at the hospitality and generosity of the Mongolian people.  The husband of this family is unemployed. They live in a humble ger yet they feed us all that they have.  It was good to visit with them and leave a message with them. This is harder to do than it sounds, when the Elders you are with speak very little English and we speak no Mongolian.  But we give scriptural references and have them read the scriptures and hopefully they and we can understand.

 Bat-khorig and his new grand daughter

 This is the family's oldest daughter and new baby.

She has been investigating the church also. The baby is adorable!

 Elder Murat

 The great view from Bat-khorigs home.

Isn't this a great picture of the missionaries?

Monday the senior couples were invited by President Adiyabold (The District President) to a tourist show that he is trying to develop.  He runs a tour company here in Mongolia and has the dream of trying to start a Mongolian Cultural Center,  sort of like the Polynesian cultural center.  He is just getting his dream started with one show.  He was having kind of a preview for other tour companies, trying to promote his show and his idea and invited us to come along.  We went out to Terelj National Park on a really nice bus, where they have a horse riding club and this was the location of the show. It was super fun to see.  The most impressive thing was contortionists doing their art on top of camels and a horse!  Pretty amazing. It was a great day and we appreciate his generosity to us!

 How to set up a Ger in less than 3 minutes!

Have a great summer!

Scripture for the week:  Helaman 3: 27 Thus we may see that the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call upon his holy name.

 28 Yea, thus we see that the gate of heaven is open unto all, even to those who will believe on the name of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God.