Making Mission Memories in Mongolia

As you may remember from last year, the week after Naadam is very quiet and slow. Everyone leaves the city to go camping in the countryside, and our office building, along with many businesses and government offices, was closed all week. The great thing about this mass exodus is that the traffic is wonderful! Just look at this beautiful empty street! With almost everyone out of town, we were able to do some sightseeing and shopping, getting to our destinations in 5 to 10 minutes instead of the usual 45 to 60. One stop was the State Department Store, where we picked up a few souvenirs. It is a unique and beautiful building that has become one of Ulaanbaatar's most recognizable landmarks. We also visited Zaisan Hill with the other senior couples. Zaisan Hill is one of Ulaanbaatar's most popular landmarks, sitting high above the city and offering spectacular views in every direction. While there, we read the prayer Elder Neal A. Maxwell gave when he dedicated Mongolia for the prea...

 Happy Naadam! We’ve now been in Mongolia long enough to experience some things for the second time, and Naadam is one of them! As you may remember from our post last year, Naadam is Mongolia’s biggest national holiday and cultural festival. It features the traditional “Three Manly Games”—wrestling, horse racing, and archery—along with cultural performances, food, and celebrations throughout the country. You could think of it as a combination of Independence Day, a state fair, and the Olympics, all centered on Mongolia’s rich nomadic heritage. Naadam begins with an elaborate opening ceremony, which we attended last year and absolutely loved. This year, however, we decided to enjoy the festivities outside the stadium with the Ellersicks, another senior couple serving here in the city. It was fun to watch the animals preparing to enter the stadium and see all the activity taking place around us. A giant screen broadcast the opening ceremony for everyone outside, and of course, “Naada...

It feels a bit strange to be in another country while our friends and family back home are celebrating the Fourth of July. At the same time, living outside the United States has given us an even greater appreciation for the freedoms and blessings we enjoy as Americans.  Ironically, we spent the day celebrating Mongolia at a "Mini Naadam" celebration hosted by Selenge, the Prime Minister's wife. The official Naadam holiday begins Friday, but it was fun to attend this pre-celebration complete with boortsog (fried bread), traditional entertainment, wrestling, and airag (fermented mare's milk). We each took our customary sip just to confirm that, yes, we still don't care for it!  After we returned home, we finished the day with the most American meal we could think of—hamburgers, French fries, and, of course, Coke. (I couldn't resist including these two cuties!) On our way to the Naadam celebration, we stopped by a BYU–Hawaii alumni gathering where they were prepa...

Although there wasn't one big event to write about this week, we were soooo busy! This week was transfer week, which always makes for a busy schedule. Once again, we worked with the Assistants to the President to coordinate travel logistics for missionaries all across the country. This transfer was especially interesting because of the long-anticipated mission split. For the past few months, we have been preparing for the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission to become two separate missions: the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar East Mission and the new Mongolia Ulaanbaatar West Mission. Additional missionaries have gradually been arriving so that both missions would be fully staffed when the split became official—including 15 new missionaries who arrived this week! A few weeks ago, each missionary learned which mission they had been assigned to, and this transfer was all about getting everyone to the correct mission area. The transfers took place on Thursday, and yesterday the new mission president and...