This is the 100+ missionaries serving here in Mongolia at our missionary conference this past weekend.  On Thursday night the 11 missionaries we taught the temple lessons to a few weeks ago returned from the MTC in  the Philippines.  On their flight was also Elder and Sister Holland, and Elder and Sister Pratt, who were coming to visit Mongolia.  On Friday morning, Elder Shrope and I met with the 11 new missionaries again and taught them the last temple class.  Then they were introduced to their trainers.  All the other missionaries from all of the areas began arriving for the conference.  Elder Holland and Elder Pratt, accompanied by President Clark, spent the day visiting with various government officals.  Friday evening we had a baptism service where 10 people were baptized.  Then early Saturday morning we returned to the chapel where all the missionaries had a group photo taken with Elder Holland.  When we receive our copy, I will post it for you to see.  When Elder Holland entered the room, I begin to tear-up and Elder Shrope felt his chest tighten and a lump appear in his throat as the Spirit bore witness that we were in the presence on an Apostle of the Lord.  We all took our seats as Elder Holland and those with him moved to the stand.  We were privileged to hear from each of them.Elder Chueng said that we are not alone in this work but have the Holy Ghost to guide us. Sister Pratt said that it is not enough to know the gospel, we have to live it. Elder Pratt taught that in the scriptures when it says that we will prosper, it does not refer to wealth but to happiness.  Sister Holland counseled the missionaries not to be afraid to claim that Jesus is the Christ for every time we do it is recorded by angels in heaven.  Elder Holland then left the stand and came down on the floor.  Instead of talking, he taught us.  He said he had never taught like this before and thern began to teach the Plan of Slavation in a way we had never thought of before.  He talked about the plus and minuses of beeing in the Garden of Eden.  Then he showed how the pluses became minuses and all the minuses could become pluses after the Fall of Adam.  Then he taught that through the Atonement of Christ all problems in life are solved and all pluses and minuses were made into multi-pluses. Then we began a full day of missionary lessons.  Elder Shrope and I taught a 2 hour class on "How to Begin Teaching" from Preach My Gospel.  We were quite nervous because some of these missionaries have been out teaching for over a year and knew more than we did.  But everything went great, and a couple of sister missionaries asked us to go with them to a lesson they had with one of their investigators.  We did that last night.  This lady was very sweet and it was easy to share our testimonies with her.

 On Sunday morning we went to the Ulaanbaatar Palace to hear Elder Holland speak to the members in Mongolia.  This is a concert stadium.  In fact there was a rock concert here on Saturday night.  But it seats many and all the members were invited.  We only had a little over half of what we had hoped, but many live many hours and in some cases a day away and could not get here.  But there was arounf 1500 or so in attendance.

 This is one of the young ladies from the branch we attend singing in the choir.  She is the the third one from the right looking straight at the camera.  Her name is Enkhsuren.

 This is the choir singing as Elder Holland arrives.  They did such a wonderful job tha Elder Holland said they should come to Salt Lake and sing at general conference.  He kept blowing kisses at them and gave the director a kiss on the cheek. Again we were spiritually fed as our leaders bore testimony to us.  Sister Holland bore testimony that her husband was an Apostle of the Lord.  She told how he had been a skinny boy with very deep dimples in his cheeks and how as the years passed and he had strived to do whatever he was called to do, he grew into the man that would be an apostle.  She also said that he had perfect love for everyone.  Elder Holland then spoke to us on the Plan of Salvation and how the gospel how been restored for the last time.  He expressed how lucky we are to be living during this last dispensation where we had the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  Then he gave all of Mongolia an apostalic blessing.  He blessed the children, the women, the men, the land, the government leaders, the missionaries, that the Church would swell in membership, and that prayers would be answered.  He promised that he would have the blessing printed and a copy sent to us to give to all the members.  It was a wonderful meeting and Elder Holland left expressing his love and blowwing kisses to all of us.

 On Monday morning we had activities with the missionaries.  Our activity was trying to keep the balloons in the air.  The wind made it difficult at times and also we would throw in extra balloons.  It was to represent taht sometimes missionaries have many things on their plates at once.  They need to work together and they need to concentrate on the important ones first.

 Then they had to act out their favorite animal.  Some of them were too shy to do it and of course some really got into being that animal.

We ended the conference with them telling why they chose the animal they did and what Christ-like qualities it had.  Everyone had a great time and learned alot.  It was a very busy weekend but was well worth all the hours put in.

This last week has been one of changes.  We have changed our English teaching schedule because this is the end of the school year.  We now teach the director only.  And so our new schedule is from 8:30am to 9:30am, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.  And we are back to walking to the school and back.  It is mostly nice weather now but we did have to walk in snow flurries and tiny ice balls on Thursday.  It was sunny when we left the school though so we walked to the office in sunshine!  But that is typical Mongolian spring weather.

They have now shut off the heat to the apartments.  They do that in the middle of May.   So two days this week we have had no hot water.  The water from the tap is ice cold.  So in order to bathe and wash our hair, we boil water and then fill empty soda bottles half full of boiling water and half full of storage water.  The storage water is warmer than the tap water.  It only takes two bottles to wash my hair and four bottles to bathe and rinse.  Oh the things we learn to do!!  It is quite funny at times.  In June they turn the hot water off for two weeks.  I guess this was preparing us.  Oh I just can't wait!!!

Tonight we attended a special fireside.  A group of BYU students with their professor are touring Japan, Korea, China, and Mongolia as a part of their studies.  Several of them spoke and shared their testimonies. 
It was wonderful and the Spirit was strong.  I think everyone in the chapel was touched.  And it was nice to have a meeting where we did not have to wear headsets or have a translator.  Instead everything was in English and had to be translated into Mongolian.

Tom has planted some tomato and cucumber seeds.  We will see how they grow here in Mongolia.  We will try and grow them in pots in our apartment.  When the weather is nice we will move them out onto our little balcony and see how they do. We haven't seen any bees as yet and so Tom may have to get a little brush and pollinate them by hand.  But we will have to see if they even grow before we have to worry about that.

Now we are getting ready for Elder Holland's visit this coming weekend.  We also have a group of missionaries returning from the MTC in Manilla at the same time.  We will also be busy teaching them their 7th temple lesson and also helping to prepare them to teach.  It is going to be a busy week.

We had a fun week.  Three new senior couples arrived late Wednesday night after their fight from Bejing was canceled twice.  They are the Martins, the Gledhills, and the Richardsons, all from Utah.  We are so happy to have them here with us.  On Saturday afternoon, the Fords and us took them on a walk down to Sukhbaatar Square.  We heard this brass band playing, and when we looked we saw these two soldiers placing a wreath at the monument.  Then a large group of military, governmental, and civilian dignitaries  all saluted the statue and then walked around it.  The band played the entire time and when they ended, everyone left.

Then that night we all went to a little theatre for an evening of cultural music and dancing.  This group played musical numbers and then for all of the singers.  They were all in traditional dress and played Mongolian instruments.

The singers were very interesting.  The lady had a beautiful voice and the gentleman in the gold robe had a nice deep voice.  The other one sounded like he had a vibrator in his throat.  They were all traditional songs and the sounds they sing have certain meanings.  It was very interesting to hear the different types of songs they sang.

This man not only sang a song but played his horn during parts of it.  You will notice that he is a member of the orchestra.

These dancers performed very fast numbers.  Each of their movements tells a story.  Since we are not Mongolian, we did not understand the story but the dances were fascinating.

The old man and the others in the large masks did an ancient dance that told a story of the gods.  The young lady dances with china cups, one in each hand and one on her head.  Again each movement she did with her hands and the cups had a meaning.

This quartet played some music that seemed almost like it might be a Mongolian western.  The one in the different colored robe is playing a string of animal bones.

And they also had a contortionist.  She was amazing and oh so flexible.  She is not double-jointed.  They start training at a very young age and so they remain this flexible.
And this is Sister Shrope standing by a huge Mongolian violin-type instrument in the lobby of the theatre.

 We had a busy week.  Doesn't Elder Shrope look busy while he is watching these young adults play a little basketball?  This was Monday just before family home evening out at the Nalaikh building.  He wanted to join in but they were just too good and besides church clothes are not the right type of attire for playing ball.

 Then on Tuesday we received this invitation to go to listen to a concert of choirs.  Our stake choir had been invited to perform.  This invitation was so beautiful it looked like a wedding invitation.  We walked there and back with Sisters Ford and Clark.  It was only a couple of miles round trip.

 This is the banner at the back of the stage that says this was the 7th annual choir concert.

 There were several Mongolian choirs but this one had a quartet of singers in traditional clothing plus some traditional instruments.

 This was an all children's choir.  They were very good.

 This was an all women's Korean choir.  Their music was beautiful.

 There were two military choirs.  This one had traditional instruments while the other had the normal brass band with it.

 This is our stake choir.  They sang hymns in both English and Mongolian.  They were wonderful and we could really feel the Spirit as they sang.  It brought tears to Sister Ford and my eyes.

 Then on Wed. and Thurs. we taught six temple preparation lessons to this group of missionaries that were leaving at 1:00 am on Friday for the Missionary training center in Manila, Phillipines.  Our translator, who translated for four of the lessons is the small one sitting beside me.  Her name is Batsetseg.  This is a wonderful group of missionaries and we look forward to teaching them the 7th lesson when they return from the training center.
While we were teaching them, Elder Shrope was fighting a runny nose.  On Friday it got the best of him and he spent most of the afternoon in bed.  But he was up and going again on Sat. and is his old self today.

On the way home from church at the entry to Ulaanbaatar we saw this truck carrying 4 horses.  I put this picture in for my grandkids and all the other kids that like to see the animals we see here.  When they are transporting horses that they want to sell, they carry them in the back of trucks like this one. This was the first time we had seen 4 horses in one, usually it is one or two.

Monday morning we woke up to wet roads from rain and snow flurries.  They did not stick though.  Then on Tuesday it was back to sunshine but cooler temperatures.  Then Thursday night we were awaken when the winds outside blew our bedroom window shut.  When we awoke on Friday morning, these was the scene from our den window.  Yes, snow on the ground.  There were flurries all day long but that did not stop some of us from going shopping for clothing! By Saturday the snow was gone but the cooler temps are still here.

This is a sign leading to the street where there is a shop with American brand foods.  When you see signs like this you follow them to see what kind of treasures foodwise you can find.  We found taco seasoning packets, dill pickles, pistachio pudding, and Hershey's cocoa here.  We walk to this store since it is only about a mile away from our apartment.  Good exercise!
We received three boxes from home and a letter from The McClellan family.  I got cards for my birthday and a mug from my siblings with all their pictures on it.  I love it and use it every morning.  We also got an Easter card and candy from Kaylob, Riley, and Bayleigh.  The McClellan girls drew us pictures which I hung in my office with the ones from the grandkids. It felt almost like Christmas with all these boxes!  Thanks to our family and friends for all their love and support.
Tonight we hosted FHE for all the couples.  There were only 4 of us couples since the Lassons are visiting with some of their family who have come to take them homenext week.  We had a great lesson on charity and a great time just socializing with one another.  We have these once a month and we really enjoy them.