Dan had the privilege last Friday of baptizing this sweet grandmother, Duudee. The little girl is her granddaughter whom she is raising on her own. After she was baptized, this sweet, quiet woman stood at the pulpit and gave her heartfelt testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how she was a "changed person". As she spoke, you could hear a pin drop in the Chapel. The Spirit was so strong. It was truly a highlight of our mission.
Afterwards they had refreshments. The sister missionaries, Sister Onon and Sister Stevelmaa, had baked 2 delicious cakes and 2 pans of jello with fruit! Then everyone around the table read 5 scriptures each. Sister Onon, who is cutting the cake, is a very good interpreter and has helped us out many times when Nyam-Od was not available. The interpreters are our life-line. Without them we surely could not accomplish all that we set out to do. We are still learning phrases and words in Mongolian, but it is slow going. :( Nyam-Od has been invaluable. She is like our guardian angel, always watching out for us!
It was a very special evening!
Below is the Batsaiken Family that we've been visiting. We first got to know Brother Batsaiken as he did a lot of taxi driving for us. He's an exceptional taxi driver, always willing to go the extra mile and the real PLUS is that he knows where all the members live!! :) If you've ever driven or walked the ger district you would understand why. It is just a mindboggling maze of fences, gates, ruts, rocks, dogs and mudpuddles.
We have a hard time getting the Mongolian people to smile for pictures. I guess it's a tradition. :)
Anyway, they had us over for delicious Mongolian homemade noodle soup, so we had them over, and of course our interpreter, Nyam-Od, for American BBQ chicken, American potato salad and of course American baked beans and homemade French Bread. :) It was quite a different experience for them but they loved it!! Brother Batsaiken said he wanted to drink the whole bottle of BBQ sauce!
They are a sweet couple and family. See the boy, in the red sweat shirt? He is sitting on a box. We had originally put our coffee table at the end for the kids to sit on since we did not have enough chairs. But, the mom and dad said it was bad luck to sit on a table and would not allow it. We thought that was very interesting. There are a lot of other strong traditions/superstitions like that in Mongolia, of which I am sure we have broken especially when it comes to ger etiquette! Oh dear!!
Above is our dear, sweet, Sister Uran, her grandson and great grandson! Sister Uran is a precious daughter of our Heavenly Father. We met her when we first arrived in Mongolia. She had had two daughters pass away within two weeks of each other. It was so, so heartbreaking. As we continued our visits, we have become very close. She says, "You are my parents"! :) Sister Uran is 78, hard of hearing and going blind.
Her oldest son who is 60 years old, is totally blind, mostly deaf and needs a wheelchair. Deseret International Charities gave him a wheelchair some years back, but no longer can Deseret distribute them to anyone. The government here requires that they are given first to Social Services, then the people have to apply for them. If they want to give you one, they will. Deseret recently gave them 200 wheelchairs. They got a newer one from Social Services but it was too small. We took her to Social Services to get a bigger one and at first they said yes, then a week later they said no. But a few weeks later, they just showed up one day and delivered one. Yay!!
You can't help but smile when Sister Uran is around. She is such a fun person to be around and always upbeat. She reminds me so much of my own mom. Brother Batsaiken, the taxi driver, and I make our way to the far end of the ger district to pick her up each Sunday for Church. She always has her dell on and ready to go. She came to one of my English classes and had a blast!!
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