Monday we celebrated everyone's birthday at Nalaikh.  It was actually Elder Davaadorj's birthday on Monday which is why we decided to celebrate.  I baked 28 cupcakes and a large bundt cake and brought three large bottles of soda.  They ate it all.

Then we played Twister.  They really had fun trying to figure out their left and right hands and feet.  They start out being nice and then get competitive.  We may leave this game with the branch when we go home!

There are statues everywhere around the city.  We took a walk to Sukhbaatar Square and took pictures of these statues that we saw.

This is a statue of Marco Polo.  He has a bird on his shoulder and I am not certain why.

This is a statue of Lenin.  There are alot of statues of Russian leaders and people all over the city.  It is from the days when Mongolia was under the Soviet's rule.

And then these guys are out in front of several buildings around the city.  Maybe they are some kind of guard animal.  It was just a beautiful sunny day and great for taking a walk. 

We then went to lunch at Millie's with all the other couples.  We were saying good-bye to Elder and Sister Gledhill as their visas were cancelled and they have to go to Hong Kong until it is settled and they get to come back; or they are reassigned.  Four Elders have also had their visas cancelled and two more couples are waiting to see if theirs will be too.  It is one of those sticky situations we all dread facing.  But we are thinking positive and that it will all turn out okay.  Our visas do not expire before we go home.

For all of you back home that hate having to remember which day and what time the streetsweeper comes so you do not get a ticket, we thought you would like to see our streetsweepers here in Mongolia....

Of course we do not have to worry about moving our car because they just sweep around it.  They do not really sweep private streets though.  These here are on Peace Avenue which is one of the main streets in Ulaanbaatar! 

This week has been some crazy weather.  Most of the week was beautiful.  It was warm enough that we went to the office in our shirt sleeves without the need for even a light jacket or sweater!!  So Elder Shrope transplanted the rest of our little garden into large pots and put them out on our balcony.  He had taped up some plastic to help guard them against the wind that bent them over last year.  But then on Thursday the temperatures dropped a little and so he brought them into the livingroom.  And we have had snow for the last three days!!  It doesn't stay for long, but it is cold outside, today I had to wear my heavy coat.  And the winds are over 20 km an hour!!  So this is a scene from our livingroom...

This has been a week of good and not so good.  Bolorsaikhan and Tsolmon were refused their visas at the US Embassy.  They had wanted to go and be sealed in the Washington DC Temple.  That was a real bummer!  Then Enkhmuren, a 17 year old young lady at Nalaikh, called us from the hospital Wednesday night.  The doctor said her heart was very bad and needed repairs.  Then on Thursday he said her heart beat was good and she could go home.  We saw her on Saturday and she cannot even stand without labored breathing.  So we have fasted and prayed for her.
On a better note, we have a new English student on Monday and Tuesday afternoons.  Her name is Oko and she is Altan's daughter-in-law.  She graduates with her masters in financial analysis this month but needs to speak better English.  We will help her all we can.

On Monday we had a little fire for FHE outside the chapel in Nalaikh with the youth.  We roasted marmellows.  Some had never roasted them on an open campfire before.

A few had never even eaten a marshmellow at all before!

This is Enkhmuren putting more wood on the fire.  She was having no heart problems then.

Even the Sister missionaries were enjoying the fire.  Then the youth played games as they do at the end of most FHEs.

On Saturday they had a joint youth activity in Nalaikh.  They had about 30 youth from other branches in the district join the 15-18 youth from Nalaikh.  It was a good turnout.

Elder Davaadorj planned and conducted the activity.  He mixed all the youth up into groups so that there were youth from every branch in each group.  We had to leave early and they were late getting started but they were all having fun.  We had cooked all the hamburger patties and cleaned the kitchen for them.

This is our new love.  We had plain aloe vera drink before and it is good, but then we discovered it in flavors!  We have tried the grape and strawberry and they are good, but our favorites are the mango and pomegranate.  So now we drink these with our meals at home and only have soda when we go to a restaurant.