Making Mission Memories in Mongolia

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving week filled with food, family, and fun! The holiday looked a little different for us this year as we’re away from home, but we were grateful for the chance to host the missionaries for Thanksgiving dinner. Cooking for others made it feel much more like the Thanksgiving we are used to. Here in Palau, they celebrate Thanksgiving much the same as we do in the States—and I especially love that the Friday after Thanksgiving is also a holiday: Family Day . We were surprised (and relieved!) to find all of our traditional Thanksgiving staples: turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, and rolls. The missionaries were so appreciative, and we hope it made their holiday away from home a bit easier. After dinner, we wanted to express our gratitude through service. While cleaning out some storage closets at the church, we discovered extra artwork of the Savior and a podium. We immediately thought of the small chapel at the hospital that we had toure...

We wrapped up our week in Pohnpei and returned home safely on Friday evening. While it was wonderful to experience a different culture, meet new friends, and spend time with the Area Presidency, we were definitely ready to be home! Our visits with Elder Teh and several government officials took place on Monday and Tuesday. Meetings with education leaders and representatives from the U.S. Embassy helped strengthen relationships that may enable future humanitarian donations. These visits really made us grateful for what we have! One need we learned about is Pohnpei’s desire to establish a diagnostic center—ideally with an MRI machine. Right now, anyone needing an MRI must fly to Guam, and since most people can’t afford the trip, many conditions simply go undiagnosed. The Church could potentially donate a machine, but currently no one on the island is trained to operate or repair it, which means it wouldn’t be a wise use of resources. During our meeting with the Embassy, we discovered a ...

The first bit of exciting news this week comes in the form of PICKLEBALL! We found out there’s a group that plays each evening at the local community college, so of course we had to join them. The gym has a roof, but the “walls” are just chain-link fencing, so it’s a fun mix of indoor and outdoor play! With the vinyl flooring marked by all sorts of lines, the humidity, the indoor/outdoor setup, and six months of not playing at all, it took a little adjusting—but before long it all started coming back to me. J.D. fit right in, and we had a great time. This will definitely become one of our regular activities on evenings when we don’t have other obligations. Speaking of humidity, we are slowly getting used to the sudden rainstorms that seem to appear out of nowhere. One minute it’s sunny, and the next it’s pouring. This happened while we were grocery shopping this week, so we just waited it out under the awning with our bags and enjoyed the storm. It’s hard to see in the pictures, but ...