Somewhere over the rainbow

Sorry this post was suppose to go last week and didn't.

There is another more recent post if you keep scrolling  down

I love this picture that  President Benson took last week in Mongolia.

I think it shows that great love and promise that Our Heavenly Father has for the people in Mongolia.

The people are the true gold in Mongolia!

This week Elder and Sister England returned back home after serving and giving so much love here in Mongolia.

We will truly miss them.  

They have been great friends, great missionaries and true disciples of Jesus Christ.

This week we also had the opportunity to travel to Darkhan for a senior missionary conference.

It was fun and inspiring to be with the other senior missionaries.

After the conference we went over to Sun Child orphanage where DIC did a project last fall

 and the children again put on a wonderful performance for all of the senior missionaries.

We are continually impressed with the good work that this orphanage does.

 Nays, Fredleys, Grosbecks, Benson Family, Linfords, Lewis', Hills and our Mongolian Couple

 Some performers from Sun Child Orphanage with Elder Nay and John Benson

 Interesting pedestrian bridge in Darkhan

 Horse monument in Darkhan

Buddhist statue in Darkhan. 

 There are always a lot of pidgeons at these so some reason.

Wildflowers in Darkhan

On Saturday, we had the opportunity to travel a couple of hours north of Darkhan to Selenge province, the city of Sukhbaatar and see the Russian Border.  We could not go into Russia, because Russia is not in our mission boundaries. (Also we just might not get back into Mongolia).  But Batbold who works at our Service Center and is a great friend to the senior missionaries arranged for us to go to the border to take a picture and to also go to an overlook to view the convergence of two rivers and to see into  Russia.

It was a rainy day and the visibility was not very good but we appreciated the opportunity to see this.

 The LDS Church house in Sukhbaatar, Selenge

 Approaching the Russian Border

 Standing on the border with Russia in the background.

On the border looking into Mongolia

A beautiful overlook onto two rivers converging and looking into Russia

Can you see the profile of Chinggis Khan? 

This rock formation was by the overlook.

Scripture for the week: Matthew 6: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

First Day of Summer

This week we have been involved with meetings concerning wheelchairs and wheelchair users in Mongolia.

We met for 2 days with different government agencies and NGO's in trying to come up with a realistic goal and plan to move forward to make Mongolia more wheelchair friendly.  Mongolia needs to have more wheelchairs, more people trained in the assessing and fitting of wheelchairs, more wheelchair accessibility and more opportunities for those who are in wheelchairs.  The meeting was interesting, but there is a lot of government bureaucracy, and people with their own agendas which will make it interesting to see if anything really materializes from this meeting.  The meeting did help to clarify that our partner for wheelchair distribution, National Rehabilitation Center, still needs to have our wheelchair assessment and fitting training and they need to have people there that will actually be doing the fitting and assessing.

This is the best news, another member of our English Class was baptized this last Friday.

Her name is Oyuntoya.  She is 20 years old and has been attending our English Class.

She has been taking the missionary lessons for 20 days and just radiates the light of Christ.

The other exciting thing was that a young man who has been a regular attendee of our 

English Class and was baptized on April 25, 2014 gave the talk on the Holy Ghost at this baptism.

It was great and filled my heart with joy and love.

It was also the first day of summer.  This week has been off and on rain.  

But the rain has made everything green.

Here are a few pictures of green

 I saw this person during my early morning walk, it looked like she was doing her laundry in the river.

 Flowers planted by our front stairs

The view from our kitchen window looking down on the grassy area in front of our apartment.

The grass is about 12-18 inches tall right now.

They do not mow the grass.

Mongolians do love color.  A lot of their buildings are painted bright colors.

The bright colors seem to help during the dark winter months.  

The problem however is that the paint doesn't seem to last very well. 

But it is great to see the color while you can.

 Can you guess what the name of this children's store is?

(It is the name of a little lost fish)

Okay, it is Nemo

 Can you see the ger on top of the shorter building?

A lot of buildings will have a ger or something shaped like a ger on top of their building.

I don't know if it is the penthouse? Or maybe it is a storage area. 

I really haven't found out what they are.

  Have a great summer.

Scripture of the week: Doctrine and Covenants 58:27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

A little of this and that in Mongolia

We had another special baptism this week.

A young man name Khasbaatar was baptized by a new convert, Bother Ganbat.

Ganbat was baptized about 4 months ago along with the rest of his family.

He is the father of Batsetseg that Elder Nay baptized.

We are so excited to see this family each week at church 

and to see how their testimonies are growing.

They are always at church, well dressed, sitting  front and center.  

They are willing do what ever is asked of them.

The other week it was their turn to help clean the church house and sister Naransetseg (Ganbat's wife)

was asked to clean the storage room. 

She spent the whole time in the storage room all by herself,making it shine.

Elder Hill, Ganbat, Khasbaatar, and Elder Murat.

On Saturday, Elder Nay ran the Ulaanbaatar Half Marathon

 There were lots and lots of people there, most of them running the 4k or the 5k.

But everyone started running at the same time.  

 This is Elder Lewis, the new mission doctor. He ran the 5 k

Alvin did great.  He ran 21k in 1hr and 33 minutes and was the 33rd person in for the half Marathon.

It was also interesting today.  They had a no motorized vehicle day in central Ulaanbaatar.

It was fun to walk down the center of the road.

People were strolling, riding bikes, scooters, roller skating and just enjoying the freedom of  movement without being hit by a car or a bus.

Have a great week!

Scripture for the week: Doctrine and Covenants 10:4 Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided to enable you to translate; but be diligent unto the end.