We over did it – entertaining, Family History training, teaching English

Artwork: From Victims of the Persecution Museum: A dark chapter in the history of Mongolia

This week ended on a whirlwind of activities.

Our new partner. On Friday night we had Ulziika and her sister PuuJee for a stir fry dinner and to talk over PuuJee’s new Asia Area calling, Family History Country Advisor for Mongolia. Her calling is much like ours – training FH Center Directors, priesthood leaders and encouraging members to do their Family History work.  We will train her and she will have all our knowledge and background on Family Tree so when we leave there will be continuity to the work. She is bilingual and will be a great resource to us in our work with non-English speakers.

We see this as a significant step to leaving a permanent impact on the course of the work in Mongolia. Ulziika also works in the UB Family History Center as an Assistant Director. It is amazing to us that both these young women were our daughter’s converts and now we are working with them as an integral part of our calling. Unfortunately we were so involved in conversation that we forgot to take their picture the night they came over.



Nasanbold, Sister Farmer and Orkhon

Family History Training. We were asked to help with the UB Family History monthly meeting on Saturday. Darlene prepared two power point presentations on getting documents ready for temple work and how to use a scanner.

Our new scanner is a bit complicated

She also gave an inspirational talk on the various roles of Family History Consultants can play in furthering this work. She is amazing me and herself with all the computer skills she is learning.  She went the second mile this week in preparing for this event.

Our group of Family History Consultants in UB

Hosting a new senior couple.  A new couple, the Linfords, arrived this week. They have the calling of working with the Young Single Adults. The Linfords will be great in their new calling.

A delightful new senior couple joins us in Mongolia 

Part of the tradition of this mission is that all the senior couples take their turn in hosting the new couples for dinner during their first week or two in the mission. They, in turn, will fit into the rotation when even newer couples arrive.

We had them over for a Mexican meal (they didn’t know how hard it is to get Mexican food in Mongolia). I fixed a Pico de Gallo salsa and we located chips this week. Bonanza!

The Neuberger family after church on Sunday. The mother and daughters sang a beautiful number during the meeting.

The St. Louis connection. Elder Neuberger’s parents arrived on Friday night to pick him up from his mission.  They came with three children (teenager and young adults). We met them on Sunday morning and went touring with them before our 2:00 pm meeting. We went to the Bogd Khaan Winter Palace and the Victims of Persecution Museum.

Elder Neuberger saying goodbye and introducing his family

Elder Neuberger and we serve in the same Branch. After our mini-tour we walked with them  to the church instead of catching the bus. It was a "long" walk but they got to see a lot of things.

 

The Wedding Palace - family group waiting for the bride and groom to emerge

Victims of Persecution Museum



Art work depicting the missing father and husband

After church, they went to visit a family and then came to our apartment for beef curry dinner and special Nan (North Indian) bread. It was a great meal topped off with pineapple upside down cake with whipped cream.  They brought some used clothing and medicine as charity contributions with them to Mongolia and will help us out by taking a few items back with them to St. Louis.

They are loving Mongolia and being with their son and brother again

Earlier in the week we had shopped for these three meals to make sure we had everything we needed. The cumulative effect of this week was two tired Senior Missionaries. We love the memories. It all worked out. We just need a couple of down days to recuperate.



Artwork from Victims of the Persecution Museum. "A Day in the Life of Soviet-style repression and persecution"

Teaching English class. Our class goes for three weeks, three times a week for two hours a class. It requires fairly intense preparation time. We decided to teach English around fun activities, games, movement, and singing.  We are also dividing the class into three groups, each performing a play.

Getting ready to do the Hokey Pokey

We are using the stories, “Billy Goats Gruff”, “The Three Pigs”, and “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” as scripts. We taught them vocabulary and will teach them pronunciation and projection for their performance in front of their parents on the last day of class.  

Goodbye to great servants of the Lord. This week we will say goodbye to 6 of our American missionaries and next week 3 more will go. We appreciate the fine caliber of young men and women that serve here. We will miss them greatly. New ones are arriving next week  to take their places.



The missionaries came in various shapes and sizes but they go home in freshly minted condition.