Summer in Choibalsan

Remember our little Ice Skating pond out back of our window? Here it is in the summer - a parking lot. There is a lot of rain during the month of June. We had about 2 weeks of rain. A couple of thunder storms and even lightening! With no mountains to block the thunder, it goes on forever - rolling from one end of the Countryside to the other! You could hear the girls scream and run for cover. The rain doesn't bother them, just the thunder and lightening.

We went for a walk, there was this cute little park with green grass and trees - and a public restroom, for all to use! we passed on the opportunity!

Family Home Evening at our home. We had dinner - pancakes, eggs and hash browns, they really didn't like the syrup, to sweet. But they liked everything else. We had a lesson and played a game of "Shagai". There are several games, we're trying to collect some and learn the game so we can show all of you. The Shagai is ankle bones, usually sheep, sometimes goat. It is interesting to see and watch how fast they are. Right to left - Bolor Erdene, Sunshine, (her name means sunshine, she likes to be called that and it is easier than her Mongolian name), Dad, Erdenetsegseg, (Sunshine's daughter), Tserenume and Bimbajaw. Bimbajaw translates for Dad at church and we take him visiting with us once in a while.

Dad getting his exercise on the playground equipment.

This is Tagooch, she is about 80 years old, she has been in one of our previous blogs. This is her new calf, she was so proud of it!

Pool is a common summer pass time for the men, I haven't seen many women play. This is at a young member house and his friends. I'm not sure of names. At the Zaax there is about 15 tables set up. We've seen a lot of betting and gaming.

I'm amazed at the construction of some of their public utilities, The green pipes are water lines, this is a public road to one of the neighborhoods so they built it up and over the road. I'm amazed they hold up in the cold winters, but they do! If you go any place other than the road you just climb over them or under them!

The trees they have here in Choibalsan are Cottonwood or Chinese Elm. It is warm enough for the cotton to fly. The Mongolians call it "snow in summer" and it looks like snow, it covers everything and gets all over. Dad is feeling it in his eyes!

The other night we heard some singing, we looked out and saw the Military marching on the street in back of the apartment. They do love their music, love singing, and they are all good singers, too. It was kind of fun to watch and hear them. There is a Military Base here in Choibalsan, so we see men and women in uniform all the time.

We do love all of you!

Hope you are having a fun summer, too

Happy Father's Day from Mongolia!

To the Father's, Son's, Brother's and Uncle's in our life!

We are so grateful for each of you and the wonderful

examples you are to us!

Dad is bored, with no grandchildren to come and visit - so he made some cookies.

He also wants you to think he does all the cooking, cleaning and baking...

I don't think so...

but he still vacuums!

Thanks for taking care of your families!

Thanks for watching out for each other, and your sister's!

Thanks for being good examples to all the children in your lives!

We love, appreciate and honor you!

To my own Dear Father!

I love and honor you!

We are so grateful for the rich heritage and legacy you have given to,

not only me but all of us as your children,

and to all of our children,

and to our children's children!

We love You!

Happy Father's Day!

English Classes

I teach a Beginning English Class. These girls are pretty good, they mostly want the practice of speaking. We have had a couple of interesting experiences with these classes, we wanted to share with you. One was when we registered the last part of May, with the City and neighborhood, for our residency papers, we thought we were OK, they told us were didn't have to do any thing more. But, the next day the Immigration people showed up at the Church and our English Classes, wanting to see our passports and work permits. We needed to leave and go home to get them. The girls were a little upset, "Maybe they will have to leave Choibalsan again," so they all said a prayer for us! This is quite touching, because half of them are non-members. We had the right papers and all went well, we finished the classes. One of the girls in Dad's class, Zolboo, is a translator for me at Church, she speaks very good, she told me about them.

Dad teaches the more advanced class. The two on the left are missionaries, Elder Onon and Sister Mandkhai. The other two are Zolboo and Nergui, they are wanting to take an English test to enter a university. Elder Onon wants to come to BYU Idaho when he is through with his mission. Elder Neal A Maxwell said, "EFL is the way the gospel will be taken to the world." They so much need and want to better their lives, I hope we are helping in this small way. We are actually teaching 13 English classes a week. 8 at the church, 2 at the Red Cross, they are our sponsor, and 2 at the Eznis Airlines and 1 at the Herlen Hotel. We are busy with them!

These girls are so fun! At the end of class we sometimes play games to review. One day we were talking about describing words, so we were playing a game of "I Spy", they would describe something and the rest of us try to guess what they were describing, with yes or no questions. One of the girls picked something - The questions came down to: It is a person, a girl, she's old, she's medium fat, she's beautiful and she teaches English. I had to laugh, the "beautiful" part off set the "medium fat" part and I was just grateful that it wasn't just "fat"!

"Main Street" in Choibalsan. It really is beautiful! We were told that the Russians, when they were here planted the trees. I am just amazed they can survive the cold Mongolian winters, but they do and they are pretty! One of their main trees is the infamous 'Chinese Elm'. We ought to send all of our seeds over here, they do well here! One of the missionaries told us that the first of May is cold, snowy, no sign of life, but by the end of May there would be leaves on the trees - that was true, I have a picture of of snow on the playground the first of May, and this is what it looked like the end of May. I'm standing in front of the Church building, it is off the the right.

Like I have said several times the Sunsets are beautiful!

We love each of You!

Always do your best!

Be thankful to God for the blessings you have!
We do have so much and are so blessed!
Love Emaa and Ovoo

THE FIRST "BOYFRIEND"

So I have heard that apparently girls may have to kiss a lot of toads before they find Prince Charming ... but what will a girl who kisses a lot of turtles find, besides salmonella?

Driving Ms. Daisy a.k.a. Someone is the Brains in This Companionship and Someone is the Brawn ... Guess Which One is Which

Kherlen River

Just for your information - Utah isn't the only place that has dandelions. They even survive Mongolia's winters! They are called "Yellow Flower" (Shard Tseteg). We haven't seen a lot of them, but they are around. They have planted wild flowers in front of the Apartments, city offices and at the Church, can't wait to see them. They also planted a lot of trees this Spring, Choibalsan is known for its trees. The flower we have seen the most of is a sticker weed, and we have gotten a lot in our shoes, already.

The Kherlen River is a big river that goes through Choibalsan. It is a beautiful river and you could hear the birds and frogs chirping. The best time to go is early - before 6:00 am, they say the water is clear and there aren't many people out. We have seen walkers and some go out to see the sun rise. We plan to do that soon. The sun comes up about 4:30 am, and goes down about 9:30 at night, and because of the wind/dust there are some beautiful sunsets.

This is Herlyn, she is about 14 years old, she is a non-member who took lessons in our home a few times. She lives in the next apartment and always says hi to us, when she sees us. We happened to meet her and her sister on our walk. The river is about a 20 minute walk from our apartment. It was a beautiful day, on a Sunday afternoon and we were anxious to just get out of the house.

The river is a place where a lot of people to play, swim and bath. We saw a couple of guys, stripped down to their under ware, using a bar of soap. The kids don't have bathing suits, they just take of their clothes and jump in! This girl on the right is Herlyn's sister, when she changed clothes to go into the water, Herlyn just held a big towel around her sister's waist, or the top and she changed, no need for a dressing room!

This guy is fishing, a stick and some fishing line and a hook. We are told they have pretty good size Carp in the river.

The kids love playing volleyball. We see them playing on the street in front of our apartment, every night. They have a group, such as the one above, or we have seen them play with just two of them bouncing the ball back and forth. Once in a while they play basketball, but there aren't many basketball hoops around. They play bad mitten, like they do volleyball, and the little kids jump the rope a lot. There are a few bicycles, and we have seen a few kids on roller blades, but not many. They are out until 10:30 at night on the street and the little playground, just below us. old people, teenagers and little kids. It is fun to watch them play together.

We are enjoying the summer and the warm weather!

But, they also do a lot of repairing and building.

The missionaries told us this morning that the city is turning off the water for 4 days!

So, we are doing laundry and trying to find things to put water in for the toilet.

T.I.M.!

We do enjoy our mission and we are being blessed!

We do know the Lord is aware of us and that He is watching over you, our family!

He has whispered peace to our hearts, when we have been discouraged
and he is always near!

He lives!

He love each one of us!

We love you all too! Take care of each other!

It's Summer!!!

We’ve been waiting anxiously for the weather to make up its mind that it is, indeed, summer. Finally, we’re seeing warm temperatures and cloudless skies just in time for the end of the school year and the start of summer break. In keeping with tradition, we kicked off our summer with a trip to the Schofield cabin, which included four-wheeler rides, airsofting, sewing, a Wii tournament, reading, napping, and loads of junk food. Joshua got his first taste of the great outdoors. He loved the sunshine and the swings.

Down at the swings.

The traditional bath in the kitchen sink.

The Battle

So Bronwyn Sue uttered one of her first complete sentences this week.  While under normal circumstances (if there is such a thing as normal), it would have been cause for celebration; on this occasion it wasn't.  Instead it was marred by a rather "unfortunate" event.  I thought it was funny.  Tama did not.  Lately our little girl has become Miss Independent.  She wants to do everything herself, including getting dressed.  While we heartily support the autonomy of our children in most circumstances, we have to draw the line somewhere.  Case-in-point, to the left is what happens when little Bronwyn Sue dresses herself.   Cute but a little to Idaho.  Lately, it has been a struggle to get her dressed.  What should in theory only take a couple of minutes takes much, much longer.  She is unwilling to allow any sartorial help.

The other night after her bath, Tama tried to get Bronwyn ready for bed.  Little Susan would have none of it; she refused to let Mommy help get her dressed.  She wanted to do it herself.  Bronwyn Sue was very defiant.  There was plenty of tears; however, Mommy eventually overpowered her petite but strong little girl and wrestled a diaper and pajamas on her.  Bronwyn was so mad she gave Tama the evil eye and marched into her bedroom.  A couple of seconds later she calmly yelled, "I PEE!"  Tama went into her room to discover the pajamas and clean diaper on the floor where they had been thrown off and our naked little girl squatting over a wet puddle in the middle of the carpet.  The gauntlet had been thrown down.  Needless to say Mommy was quite mad.  Bronwyn just looked triumphant.

While it wasn't the most grammatically correct of sentences, I think it got the point across.  Little Susan can play a mean, sticky game of terrible twos.  And to think we have sixteen more years of this.  If only she wasn't so darn cute ....

MOMMY'S IDEA FOR A SANE SUMMER BREAK

With the completion of a new addition to the back of our house, Mommy is now officially ready for Summer vacation.  I have a feeling the "new room" is going to get a lot of use.

THIS LITTLE GIRL KNOWS THE IMPORTANCE OF GETTING ALL HER DUCKS IN A ROW!

"The Light Center"

This is the gate to the Light Center Orphanage in Choibalsan, the words on the gate say "Light Center". A member of the Church runs it. There are about 13-15 children that stay here. Some are orphans and some, their parents live in the Countryside and they are staying here.

This is Ochra with some of the children. The youngest is 6 and the oldest is about 18years old. This is the kitchen area. The kids help with the fixing and cleaning up of meals. He said he is trying to teach them some life-skills.

The bedroom is one big room, with 4 sets of bunk beds. The rest of the children sleep with mats on the floor. The wardrobe is probably where they store their bedding.

He has chickens and a turkey, the turkey is right in front with his back to us. The chickens lay eggs and the children collect them everyday. I don't know how they live through the winter, but they do. He does have an enclosure for them. These people are fixing a Ger, the door is in the background.

This is the well where they get their water. He says the water is clean, you can see the electrical cord, for electricity to pump the water when needed. A couple of years ago the Church helped him dig the well. He is preparing a lot of space for vegetable gardens and he has fruit trees, that he has just planted.

It is amazing how little people can live with.

They don't know any thing different, the kids play in the dirt

and make tunnels and bridges and carry water for little lakes.

They play together and don't mind having no "space"

We are so blessed to have the freedoms and things we have!

The Lord loves his people - wherever they live!

We know that He lives! We know that he is aware of us

and will help us as we help ourselves

and are obedient to Him and His commandments!

We love each of you so very much!

Love Ovoo and Emaa