Buuz, Khuushuurs and Naps

Finally, after three days and 5 tries - the pictures all loaded on! The last couple of Preparation Days the missionaries came over to our home and cooked. These are pictures of them making buuz, (pronounced bows) and khuushuurs (hoshers). They are all very good cooks, even the Elders. Sister Battsetseg, in the blue, said she was cooking for her family at the age of 9, she grew up in a Ger in the Countryside. She finishes her mission next Monday - she is such a cutie, we have grown to love her, and all of these missionaries! Sister Uyanga, in the yellow, is a new missionary, this is her 2nd area, she started in June.

The buuz and khuushuurs are basically the same. The khuushuurs are bigger, folded over into a half circle and fried. They have vegetable khuushuurs, which is potatoes, cabbage, carrots and of course lots of onions, green peppers and garlic. And of course, they also have meat khuushuurs. I liked the vegetable ones. The picture shows the steps of a khuurshuur. Khuurshuurs are more of a summer food and they eat them alot at their Summer holiday - Naadam.

Buuz are meat filled dumplings and then steamed. Sister Baasanjav is pinching them together, there is a knack to the pinching! One I have not yet done to their satisfaction, they laugh at my attempts. But, I am practicing! Buuz are eaten more in winter, although they do eat them all year around. They eat alot of these at their Winter Holiday - Tasaagan Sar! A good Mongolian missionary can down 10 or more buuz in a meal, khuushuurs, maybe 4 or 5!

Elder Sarangerel is cooking khuushuurs, Sisters Baasanjav and Onon are preparing the buuz.
Sister Onon, also was preparing meals for her family at a young age. Most of their mothers work so the children do alot of the household chores and cooking. Sister Onon is our translator alot of the time.

Choibalsan Missionaries - Dad, Elder Usukhbayar, he is the DL, Sisters Baasanjav, Battsetseg, Uyanga (in front), Elder Sarangerel and Sister Onon. They were showing their cleaned plates.

After the meal they like to watch a Church video, they don't have alot of choices, the ones they use when teaching, or Legacy, or Treasure in Heaven, the John Tanner story.

Then they all find a spot and crash! They work hard through the week and deserve a nap on P-Day! They wake up and help me clean up so that is nice, too!

One thing we have learned -

the Mongolians don't mind close quarters,

the Sisters are all sleeping on one mat and it is OK.

They walk hand in hand or arm in arm, they fit 8 in a car or 2 on a chair.

At home, a family of 8 will sleep in one room on mats or quilts.

Their homes are small, a large home or apartment has two rooms.

They like touching and being close!

It is such a fun culture to be with and to learn from!

We as Americans and as a Family could learn from the Mongolians!

These missionaries have been good missionaries.

We are so far from Ulaanbaatar,

we learn how to rely on each other and Church members.

We love each of you so very much and enjoy connecting with you!

Remember the Lord is in charge!

This is His Church and We do Love You!

And our Mission!

Pictures

Okay so I have some pictures to post. I am going to have to get one of Caden cause he is missing in these pictures.





Okay so I have some pictures to post. I am going to have to get one of Caden cause he is missing in these pictures.

Sorry about the blurry one. We bought a brang new camera and Marlie dropped it.

Gardens and the Branch Garden Party

Brother Shijibaatar invited all the missionaries and another family to his house for a "Garden Celebration". The missionaries were very excited - there would be food! Seated from left to right: a girl, I don't know, Sister Battsetseg, Sodmaa (member), Sister Onon, and Sister Uyanga.
They are so cute, Sister Onon translates for me once in a while. Sister Battsetseg finishes her mission in about 9-10 days and is so cute, and Sister Uyanga, at night will tell me, "Have good dreams about your children and grandchildren." Sister Baasanjv was in the city to see the doctor about her ears, she is sign language missionary and cannot hear. Each set of missionaries we get close to and think no one can replace them. New ones come and we love them too, if not a little more!

The Church helped some of the members purchase materials for Greenhouses. The plants are huge! Cucumbers are what you see on the sides, they stake them up, to help with space. The plants in front are peppers. The growing season is so short that they need them in the spring and in the fall. This is Elder Sarangerel, he is a new missionary, this is his 2nd area, I think. He is friendly and out-going.

The 2 Elders, Elders' Usukhbayar, Sarangerel, helped to dig up some of the potatoes, carrots and beets, which we used to fix the dinner...soup. The Mongolians love soup, they eat very simply - soup, buuz, khuushuurs, rice and in season salads. The vegetables are a treat and they love them.

Sister Battsetseg, she is such a cute missionary! She is a Sign Language Sister, she has learned it, but she can speak and hear. She speaks pretty good English, also. She brings a lot of people to our home to teach, the Sisters are pretty good to do that and we enjoy it when they do. One of them will come almost every day.

This is the whole group. Bro Shijibaatar and his wife, she is not a member, although they have a daughter on a mission in Australia. She has had lessons, but wants to wait for the daughter, she comes home in December. Purvee and Boditsog, their grandson in between me and Dad. The lady, standing in the back, on the end, is Sister Puntsagdulam, she was the mini missionary to replace Sister Baasanjav, for a few days.

These pictures are from the Branch Garden Party. This is the Light Center Orphanage, they had a Big garden, the children did a lot of the work. Ochirsuren is the owner and a member of the Church.

They set up displays of their produce and canning - bottles of jam, pickles, beets and pickled salads. There was Squash jam, and anything you could put into a bottle. We were given 3-4 bottles of food, and tomatoes and cucumbers to bring home. Starting from left to right, Tsermaa, Purvee, Boditsog and 2 ladies I don't know their names.

This is Sarantuya, and her two boys, Altangerel, on the left and Bilguun, on the right, (he is the one Dad baptized). She lives in an apartment building, but shared a garden with a member who had some property. She did a lot of bottling

These are Sign language members, On the left is Munkhsuld, she is a new member, the baby is hers. The middle is Enkhjargal, she is a member and Sodmaa's mother. Trish met her, she is a cute and out-going lady! The one on the right is Sister Baasanjav. She is holding the baby, she's back from Ulaanbaatar, Trish met her also. She has really blossomed and is a cute missionary.

This last picture is of Byambajav, he is our translator and the Ward Clerk in the Branch. The people were sharing some of their produce and giving tastes of their bottled foods. Byambajav brought his own loaf of bread and the people scooped the vegetables or salad onto his slice of bread and he ate his that way. Very efficient, I thought.

It was a fun day and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

They worked hard and had a fun time

visiting, displaying, eating their produce!

It reminded me of bottling at home, and

I was trying to decide if I missed the bottling

I didn't!

Maybe next year I'll want to - maybe...

We love you, our family and friends

and enjoy sharing our lives with you!

The Lord is blessing us and we are doing well!

Fun at the Cabin!

We spent Labor day weekend at the Cabin this year. We hiked around Schofied, which Joshua especially enjoyed, ate lots of yummy food and played all weekend. Joshua is at such a fun age. He is growing up so fast. The best part was spending time with each other.

AN EVENTFUL MONTH

Bryn had her 4th birthday and of course her party theme was: pink, purple, and princess.

She also started preschool at our community center. They do karate, gymnastics, and swimming and she loves every second of it.

Kye 's first day of preschool

Here are some pictures of Kye on his first day of preschool. He loves going and asks me everyday if it is time to go to school.

Happy Birthday MOM!!

We love you!

How Do They Measure Up?

Ovoo and Emaa's latest blog about Jackie's Mongolian doppelganger made us think that they should be able to see some recent photos of all their grandchildren.  So Ms. Tama and I are challenging all of our brothers and sisters to post a RECENT photo of your children for Ovoo and Emaa.  I know you all know how to use both a camera and a computer.  I also know for a fact that all of the grandchildren are pretty good looking and should be photographed.  Let's do it by the end of the week.  Otherwise Ms. Tama knows where you live and has two little boys at her beck-and-call who are dying to use some karate moves on a fresh target.  (Yes, you should be scared.)

To start it off we want to show how much our little "chicks" have grown.  Although some days Mommy bird is ready to kick them out of the nest, they are also at a really fun stage where their parents just can't get enough of them.  Enjoy Mom and Dad, this is what is waiting for you when you return.  We are proud of you.  We love you!

Jackson-look-a-like!

This little boy's name is Gerelhuu. He is 10 years old, and goes to School number 12, which is in back of our home. He came to English class with his sisters, about a month ago. We carried a camera for weeks hoping he would come back so we could get his picture! Then last night one of his oldest sister came to our home, she in investigating the Church and the Sisters taught her a lesson! Out of 50 thousand people in Choibalsan, we were able to track him down and to have his sister investigating the Church, wow! When we showed a picture of Jackson to her she laughed and agreed he was a Jackson-look-a-like! We met her out front of our apartment early this morning, so we could get a picture of him. When we showed him a picture of Jackson he was surprized, also!

He is a little shorter than Jackson, at this age, but we loved the freckles, the hazel eyes, the dark red hair and the haircut! His skin is, of course, a little darker. He is so cute!

We just had to share this with all of you, and Jackson!

We sure miss you all,

and when kids start looking like our grand kids it makes us so homesick!

But, we feel very blessed and so good that the Lord would answer our prayers

to be able to see him again, so we could share him with you!

Dad and I cried a little, too!

We love ALL of YOU!!!

Preparation Day with the Missionaries

Our preparation day is on a Monday, so on Aug 30th the District went about 15 miles out of Choibalsan to a Summer Youth Camp. It was good to play games and be together, although I don't do good with the running part! And when they play a word game, like "Telephone", they skip right over us, we get it wrong every time! So I take the pictures, but, Dad does good to jump right in and play with them. This is the Choibalsan City sign. It is a missionary tradition to get a picture on, or in front of this sign. We finally did! Except Dad is on the other side of the camera this time.

It was a cool, but beautiful day. The prairie grass is so pretty. In the Countryside they cut this and store for their cattle.

The camp is set up with all kinds of playground equipment. It is closed for the season, so we had it all to ourselves, Dad trying out the roller.

We had two mini missionaries and a couple of youth from the Branch with us this day. The young woman is a mini missionary from the Branch. We had sent 2 of the sisters to the city for doctor visits.

Relay game holding the person's foot, it took them awhile to finish this part, they were laughing too hard!

The two Elders' Usukhbayar and Sarangerel and a Branch young woman, Sodmaa. They are ready to play soccer. Notice how open and wide the steppes are.

Basketball, these standards even have a hoop! The ground is packed hard enough that it works nicely.

The final picture of the day. Left to right. Sister Uyanga, Puntsagdulam (mini missionary), Sodmaa, Elder Usukhbayar, Batjargal (Branch member, he is preparing for a mission in a month or so). Standing, Ariunjargal (mini missionary), Sister Battsetseg and Elder Sarangerel.

This was probably the last day for such an outing.

The weather is changing and it is getting cooler.

We so much enjoy and appreciate them taking us along,

we enjoy being with them and seeing the beautiful country.

Bringing extra food and a camera helps, too!

We LOVE all of you!!

Relief Society, YW, and the Elders

The Relief Society Sisters meet once a week to bottle and teach others how to do it. It is so different than the way we do it in America. But, they use their resources and they are being blessed for it. This is Tsevelmaa, she is the Homemaking Director. They are bottling pickles. The jars they use are like a mayonnaise jars with a little rubber seal inside the lid. (Baby food jars in America have that rubber seal in the lid) The jar reseals, which is amazing to me and they reuse the jar several times.

Sarantuya, is making Squash Jam. It is zucchini squash. They cook it, mash it and flavor it with a "kool-aid" flavoring. It was pretty good.

This is Munkhtaven, Zolboo, Enkhsetseg, and Marlaa. They are so cute, they all went to the University this fall, and left Choibalsan. I miss them! We got close with them. Zolboo was my translator at Church. They would all come to my English Class.

This us Elder Battsaikhan, (L) and Elder Sukhbold (R). Elder Battsaikhan is the one who held onto the camel that nearly bucked Trisha off. We got quite close to him, he said, "You will have to tell your grandchildren that I am the Elder that loved to come over and eat your food!" He was a big guy, and did like to come and he would eat alot! He also spoke pretty good English and helped us alot.

He got a phone call one night at 9:00 pm and said you are being transferred to the city, catch a meeker for the city tomorrow! He left at 7:00 the next morning, and all of a sudden I felt sad! As each of the Elders and Sisters have come and gone, we have felt a part of us that goes with them. We may never see them again and we have truly loved one of them! It is amazing to me that we can get so close to them in just a few weeks and we feel a little homesick for them, when they leave! They each have a special place in our hearts!

We have had some wonderful experiences and some hard ones, too!

(the language being one of them!)

But, we are trying!

We love each of YOU!

We are so grateful for your love and support to us as we try to serve the Lord

and to be obedient to what he wants us to be doing!