This is Batsetseg, her husband and their little daughter.  We were invited along with the other couples and some of the office people to celebrate the little one's first birthday.  It was at a very nice restaurant called Inner Mongolia.  Batsetseg is the mission's financial clerk and she also translates for us when we teach the temple classes to the newly called Mongolian missionaries.

 The restaurant had some wonderful food and the birthday cake was delicious too!

 On Friday we traveled to Nalaikh for a baptism.  It was our first experience travelling by bus.  The busses to Nalaikh were so overcrowded we could not even get in the door, so we took a shorter bus to a stop where we then got a taxi to Nalaikh.  But it was worth it.  It was a special baptism.  This sister cannot walk hardly at all and was afraid they would not be able to get her down into font.  But the two fulltime Elders and a returned missionary gave her the support she needed and she was baptized.  She was so happy, as were we all!  What a wonderful evening!!

On Saturday morning we heald another reverse MTC for seven missionaries who had finished their missions and were heading home.  We also had a couple of sister missionaries that are not going home but were with their companion who was or were signing for the sister who is deaf.  We love these classes with the missionaries.  They are such fun and ready to participate openly in the class.  We pray they will continue to have that strong Spirit about them as they start the next phase of their lives. 

 This was the scenery on the way to Nalaikh on Saturday.  It is beginning to look like it did when we first got here--a lot of white all around.

 And this is President Batmunkh's little son dressed for the cold weather.  This is how they dress their babies to go out when it is cold.  The only thing you can see is their eyes.

 We met with the Young men and Young women to teach them how to cook some Mexican food.  The girls were making flour tortillas.  They already make a dough for hooshures that make great flour tortillas so they did not need directions here.

 The only difference was in the cooking of the tortillas.  Hooshures are filled and then fried, so here they are learning to cook plain tortillas in a heated pan.  They were also learning to cook Mexican rice.

 Deegii is the Young Women's president.  She is learning how to fill the tortilla with beef and beans, topping it with cheddar cheese, and folding it to make a burrito.

 Enkhmuren is the class president.  She got to be the first to taste the food.  It was all very good.

 Some of the girls did not know how to hold the burrito to eat it and some of them were not sure they liked refried beans.  The boys had no such trouble and they all cleaned their plates thoroughly.

 This was our group of young men and young women.  They are a lot of fun to be with.

 This was our youngest young woman.  She is Deegii's daughter.  She enjoyed feeding herself the rice.

 After the lunch, they played a game we in the States call 'bobbing for apples.'  The young women did not want to get their faces wet but most of the young men gave it a try but with no luck.

So Sainbayar, 1st counselor in the branch presidency, showed them how it was done.  He had his apple in less than three seconds.  After watching him, the boys got their apples!  Then they all went about cleaning the church so that it would be ready for Sunday.  It was a great day of food, fun, and service.
Today was the Asia Area Conference.  We met with the other senior couples in the mission home to watch it in English.  All the wards and branches watched it in their chapels at their regular meeting time in Mongolian.  We received great counsel from Elder Osguthrope, Sister Dibb, Bishop H. David Burton, Elder Anthony D. Perkins of the Seventy serving in Asia, and Elder Richard G. Scott.  It was a day of great counsel and great instruction.  A wonderful way to begin the week!

 This Friday we took a two day trip to the countryside.  We drove for about three hours with open scenery like this.  We saw hundreds of horses, cows, sheep, and goats.  Also we saw some pigs and a herd of yak.

 There were miles of farmland where wheat and hay had been harvested.

 This was the gas station in one of the small towns we passed through.  One pump, and the restrooms are outhouses.  I decided I did not have to use one that bad!

 This cow was right outside the entrance to our hotel in Erdenet.  I walked right up to it and it just completely ignored me and kept munching the grass.  And to show you the contrast there is here, the hotel room we had was quite nice with king size bed, overstuffed sofa and chair with a matching settee, and all the other amenities of a nice hotel room and yet there were cows in the front of it.

 Elder Shrope had to do a financial audit in a little town called Bulgan.  It is a cute little place nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains.  The branch is so small that these two young full time Elders are also the branch presidency.

 Elder and Sister Gledhill went with us because the audit needed two signatures.  These missionaries are very valiant young men.  The one in the red tie was in our first temple class that we taught here.

 This is October and she is standing beside the portable baptism font they use in Bulgan.  They do not have a chapel and meet in a rented building.  October was along on our trip as our translator.  She is a returned missionary and served in Australia.

 This was a metal statue at the entry to the industrial area in Darkhan, another city we visited on Saturday.  He stands about thirty feet high.  The clouds were getting dark as we arrived but we had good weather the whole trip.

 This is Marta and her family.  Marta is the one with the big smile in the black shirt sitting behind her Dad.  They were the first family baptized in Darkhan.  Marta served her mission in the Czech Republic and is trying to go to BYU Idaho in the spring.  Her father did the translation of the temple ceremony into Mongolian.  He is writing a book of the history of the Church in Darkhan.  This family is also told about in Elder Groberg's book, "Anywhere, Anytime."

They are very loving and wonderful people and we really enjoyed visiting them and hearing their stories.  We are looking forward to reading his book.

 On Monday for family home evening, we held a contest.  We gave each person 2 pieces of bubble gum.  Then we asked questions about the Book of Mormon and for each correct answer they got another piece of gum.  If it was a difficult question, they got two pieces.  Then they tried to see who could blow the biggest bubble.  Some tried very hard but only managed a very small bubble.

 Some had so much gum in their mouth they could hardly chew.  Some ended up with gum on their face!

 And Enkhmuren, here just starting her bubble, ended up blowing the biggest bubble and getting a king sized Snickers bar for the prize.  They all had fun and did alot of laughing.

Friday night was a baptism at Nalaikh.  These two young men are the first males we have seen baptized in the last eight and a half months since we have been there.  Their mother was baptized a couple of months ago.  These are great young men and were so happy they could not stop smiling.
We have spent the last two days watching conference at President and Sister Clark's apartment.  What wonderful counsel we have received from such great and inspired leaders.  Then we also got to see ourselves as the showed clips of Elder Holland's trip here to Mongolia during the World Report that was shown between sessions.  Wonderful weekend!!

This is what we woke up to on Monday morning--snow!  And it was still September.  But it only snowed that day.  It has been sunny the rest of the week with one day of rain but it has been cold enough that there is still traces of snow on the ground and some wet spots are icy.  We do believe that winter is soon to be upon us.  It doesn't bother Elder Shrope, but I am not ready to start walking on the icy sidewalks yet.  Give me another 6 months maybe!!!