Making Mission Memories in Mongolia

 This week was birthday week! One of the fun things about living in Mongolia is that I get to celebrate two birthdays—one on the Mongolian date and one on the American date.  My Mongolian birthday was on Tuesday, which happened to be the day we serve at the House of Mercy Homeless Shelter. What a wonderful way to celebrate a birthday—by serving others. We made treats to share with the other workers, and when they found out it was my birthday, they quickly found a few small gifts and even a candle to add to the celebration. We truly enjoy serving with this amazing group of people. That evening, we took the young volunteers in our district out to dinner. It is always fun to spend time with these incredible young people and hear about their experiences. On Wednesday—my American birthday—the office staff took me out to lunch. Yet another wonderful group of people we love spending time with. This along with all of the birthday calls and wishes from home was a perfect way to wrap up...

 We started the week by preparing crêpes for 30 employees at the Church service center—a labor of love that kept us cooking for two hours! We always enjoy serving them, but what we treasure most are their heartfelt expressions of gratitude: “My mouth hasn’t tasted something this delicious in a long time!” These dedicated individuals work tirelessly to support the mission and the Church here in Mongolia, and it’s a joy to do something special for them. On Monday, we also helped clean out the mission library in preparation for upcoming remodeling. There has been a great deal of construction and reorganization as plans move forward for an additional mission. The new mission office will share the same building as ours, so much effort has gone into preparing the space. It is exciting to see the continued growth of the Church in Mongolia! Much of our time this week was also spent writing. We recently completed a story about the America Days choir— here is the link to read more. It’s alw...

This week was heavily focused on the choir for the U.S. Embassy’s 250th birthday celebration, America Days. Each ward had been practicing on its own, but this week we began full choir rehearsals. One thing we have definitely learned through all our activities is that the Mongolian people work hard—and they work hard to make sure things are done right! We had three- to four-hour practices on Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday leading up to the event on Saturday. Each rehearsal included pizza or sandwiches for everyone, and there was a lot of thoughtful preparation: matching outfits were ordered, American and Mongolian flags were purchased for each choir member to hold, and everyone was willing to do whatever it took to make the performance a success. Since we can’t understand much of what is being said, we often just hold on for the ride and hope we know what’s expected of us! It’s an adventure—one that we will always treasure. Everyone was so excited to sing, and the final perform...

 One of the many things we have learned on our mission is the importance of being flexible. We both really enjoy having a plan for our days, but we have discovered that things here rarely go exactly as planned—and that’s okay. A perfect example of this happened on Monday. Our plan was to attend a Zone Conference and help prepare lunch for the missionaries. We arrived at 8:00 a.m. to begin preparations, but at 9:15 we received a call letting us know that Selenge (the Prime Minister’s wife and Director of Royal International University) had invited us to participate in their graduation ceremony…at 1:00 that same day! Recognizing the importance of the invitation (more on that below), we quickly passed our assignments on to others, went home to change, and prepared for the unexpected opportunity. When we arrived, we were given traditional caps and gowns to wear. However, since the gown barely fit over JD’s shoulders, he opted to stay in his suit. We were then seated among the honored g...