Eight Months

Time here is going quickly.  Each week we see new things  There are always new people to meet and new experiences!

Our Mission President and wife are finished their assignment next week so there have been extra activities as everyone wants to wish them farewell.  As senior couples, we get invited to share!

Patriarch Batbayar,  Sister Buted, President and Sister Clark
at the 20th Anniversary Celebration  

One night we were invited to the "Summer Home" of the Mongolian Patriarch and his wife, a very famous opera singer in Mongolia.  It seems that many people go to the countryside for summer.  In many cases, it is a home just on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, but away from the apartments of the middle of the city.  They have a nice home and yard (as she explained, "Our gardens are not like those in North America".)

They added a new green house this year and inside are many squash,
eggplants, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and flowers.  It is an
ambitious project!!

 They get their water from a well and then into a barrel up on a platform and then by gravity through a hose and then by bucket to the individual plants.



















She has many bushes of berries but to get an English translation for the names was tricky.  There were green gooseberries and what seemed like variety of raspberries but we will just have to go back later in the season to see what they really are!!





 Her sister and two of her grandchildren were visiting there too.

They fed us a lovely Mongolian meal and then we were favored with songs by three of her graduating music students from the Dance and Music College where she has been a teacher.  They also helped with the serving and cleanup of the meal.  It was a very special evening and we loved the Mongolian music and company.

Sister Buted and her students

They sure liked the food!!

She wrote a song for her husband

 a few years ago about

 "Snow in Autumn"

 and performed it for us.

No Mongolian home would be complete without a dog.  This one is the "Mongolian Dog" breed, BANKHAR??  He was not vicious!

For the past few months we have been assigned to organize Family Home Evening for the Young Single Adults.  Apparently some of the wards have their own, but they still hold one at the main building for those who are interested.  It is always a bit stressful to think up the food and activity but has  turned out to be a fun evening every time.  One week we talked about the early pioneers of the Church.  They are all pioneers here because most are the only members in their families and the Church has only been in Mongolia for 20 years.  For our activity that night we did some pioneer games.

Bubble blowing contest thanks to Barb's
sister-in-law Melissa, who sent us Bubble Gum!!

BONES - a Mongolian pioneer game (and still popular)
using the ankle bones of Sheep - there are lots of variations to the game

It has been raining all night and continues today.  We walked to the Hospital for a meeting with the Director this morning regarding the possibility of getting a lithotripsy machine (for blasting Kidney Stones).  It is a project we have been working on for a few months.  It was so wet with big puddles of water everywhere that we came home just soaked.  There are lots of cute and colorful umbrellas here!
But too rainy to take a picture!! 

Life is Good and All is Well - looking forward to TREK next week.