Tuesday was International Woman's Day.  I received candy from our translator at the branch and roses from our office translator, Miigaa, and her husband.  They also call it Mother's Day here.  Since it is a holiday there was no school and no office work that day. 

Several of us senior couples went to lunch to celebrate Women's Day at a very American cafe.  It was very nice and reasonably priced.  We will definitely go there again!
I also called my Mom on Skype to wish her a happy Mongolian Mother's Day.  I got to talk to her and see her at the same time.  She also got to see me which thrilled her.  It really meant a great deal to both of us because it was the last time we would get to see or speak to each other.  My mother passed away this morning at 1:38 Florida time.  This is a very sad time but I am comforted knowing that not only is she with my Dad again, but that I will see them both again someday.  That is what the Lord's plan is all about and it gives such great comfort to have that knowledge.  Of course I still cried many tears on Tom's shoulder. Mom lived a long life and was well loved by her family.  I will miss her until we are together again.

 This week at school they had an assembly celebrating the International Organization of Friendship.  Many of the students were dressed in traditional clothing from their native countries.  The two girls here are a couple of our students.

 These students were singing a Korean song.  All of the older students in the back come to our English class.

 Here they are playing a game similar to our "jacks", only they use candy instead of jacks and a object such as a key chain to throw instead of a ball.  They throw the object in the air and try to scoop up candy in their hand and catch the object in the same hand.  If they catch it, they get to keep the candy they scooped up.  The boy and girl in front our our students.  We did not get to see the whole assembly because it lasted longer than we had expected and our driver was waiting outside to take us back to the office.  We would loved to have seen the whole assembly!

 This is how those living in the countryside and outskirts of the city get their water.  This guy is pulling a cart with a water barrel on it that he has filled at the well and is taking home. They also get their wood or coal for their heat the same way.  Some have to walk a long way through the snow and ice to get it.

 This is a load of wood on a truck.  They pile it as high as they can and then drive it wherever it needs to go.  It does not seem very secure.

And this is how they haul hay.  Sometimes it is stacked even higher!  It doesn't look too sturdy but so far we have not seen any lost hay anywhere along the road!
On Thursday night Tom and I taught an Eternal Marriage class on communication in marriage. We had about 25 in attendance.  Since most do not speak English, we had a translator.  We had a couple in the class that are deaf and they had a sign language translator also.   Then on Saturday we taught a class on the temple to a group of missionaries that just returned from the MTC in Manila.  These are all Mongolian missionaries so again we had to have a translator.  But both classes went well and the students seemed happy with what we taught.
Tonight I made my first chocolate chip cookies since we have been here.  I did not have any chocolate chips so I chopped up a couple of Hershey bars.  I also did not have brown sugar so I made some with white sugar and molasses. The cookies came out pretty good, just a little crispier than at home.  They are for FHE tomorrow night at Nalaikh branch.  I hope the people will like them.

This is the chapel in Nalaikh where we attend church.  No pews, just chairs.  But cleaning is easier since you can just stack the chairs instead of trying to vacuum around them.  Here they also take the chairs out into the entry way and wash them.

   
 This is the Relief Society room.  No pictures or frills.  About 18-20 sisters meet here to receive lessons.  They do things very simple here and yet the Spirit is strong.  Makes you realize that it is word of the Lord that we come here to hear and we do not need frills to do that.

 Today I sat in on the Primary class.  Yes just one class in the Primary here.  There were 8 kids in the class.  Here they are busy drawing pictures of President Monson and Jesus Christ.  The sister in this picture is the Primary secretary.  She wanted to learn two English words.  She showed me the whiteboard and a chair and asked how to say them in English.  Then she told me how to say them in Mongolian.  Whiteboard is sambar and chair is sandal.  Her name is Khandsuren.  Next week she wants to learn two more new words and then so will I.

 This is the Primary class with the teacher and one little girl in the back.  They are like children everwhere-one little boy wants to be the center on attention and keeps speaking outloud, or kicking the chair of the little girl and making her cry.  And then there are those couple of children that are quiet and listen to the teacher.  They liked when I got the camera and took their picture.

 When we drove th Nalaikh this morning, it was snowing.  We probably got about 2-3 inches.  When we were driving home, it had stopped snowing, but the winds had picked up.  This is snow blowing across the road just like the sand does when we drive to Arizona through the desert.

Driving to and from church we pass these trucks all the time.  They are full of coal and go very slowly.  Coal and wood are how everything is heated here right now.  We were telling on of our English students that we had read where they are thinking about bringing in natural gas.  She said they have been saying that for several years now so she doesn't expect to see it anytime soon.  We now have a driver that takes us to and from the school where we teach.  Since the weather is changing to more snow or winds, it is nice not to have to walk in it.  We still walk to the office and back, and up and down all those stairs, so we are still getting some exercise!

 This is the school where we teach English.  We now have 100 students total.  We teach five different classes, one class a day.  They range from beginning 8th grade to 11th grade.  They are fun.  The statue in the front is the founder of the school.  He was a Mongolian parliament member and his wife was Russian.  The students here speak Mongolian and Russian, some Korean and English.

 This is the front door to our apartment building.  Those windows are half way up the stairs to the first floor.  We live on the 4th floor.  We go up those stairs 2-3 times a day.  I counted the stairs we climb in a day when we only go up twice and twice at the office plus once at school and it was a total of 240 steps.  No wonder I have lost 20 pounds already!

 This is the Chingiss Khaan Hotel.  It is right across the street from our apartment.  All the national bigshots stay here when they come to Mongolia.  We go through the lobby to one of the stores we shop at simce it is in the back of the hotel.  This is at dusk with the lights on.

 These are a couple of scenes of the city taken from the 5th floor of the mission office.  The 5th floor is the mission home and President and Sister Clarks' apartment.  These were taken Saturday when we were there to watch the Worldwide Leadership training conference and have a potluck lunch. 

 This is in Nalaikh where we go to church.  It is out of the city and cows roam wherever they want.  And they have the right of way.  This one had just come down the road along side the chapel and is crossing the main road.  There were actually about 4-5 of them around the chapel.  We have also seen some in the neighbors in the city.

This is the traffic driving home on Sunday.  As you can see the cars are not in straight lanes.  And the white car on the left side of the pic is cutting in.  There are no lines painted on most of the roads and people sometimes drive 2-3 cars wide on a 2 lane road.  And if a car wants to cross this road, it just pulls out and blocks the traffic until it can make it all the way across.  And you also have to walk across traffic like this, so you wait til they traffic is at a stop and then you run between the cars.  Fun huh?  This is why Tom does all our driving and why we walk everywhere can.

 This week we got some snow.  This is the sidewalk outside our apartment house.  The people are shoveling the snow and then will sweep the sidewalk to clear as much snow away as possible.  How do you like the snow shovel?  When they get down to solid ice, they chip away at it with a metal pole.  I fell twice this week on the ice.   Luckily I was not hurt either time, but now I wear my traxs on my shoes all the time when I am out. 
We have finished one week of teaching at a private school. We have five different classes, one a day, with a total of 93 students.  They are 8th, 9th, 10th, & 11th graders. The schools here only go to the 11th grade right now.  in 2014 or 2015, they will start going to the 12th grade.  We teaching them conversational English, so we spend most of the time reading aloud and other speaking activities.  It is fun.
Today Tom drove for the first time.  We are assigned to the Nalaikh Branch outside the city so the traffic is not bad, especially on Sunday.  And we did not have to much crazy driving as we got back into the city and to the mission office.  But soon after we were back the roads were crowded. Next week we are to share our testimonies in sacrament meeting, so we had better brush up on some of our Mongolian language.  We will have a translator but it would be nice to say some of it in the language.

This is a box of chocolate covered cherries that Tom bought me for Valentine's.  When we ate the two candies, we were almost knocked down.  We did not realize that the cherries were not in a juice or syrup but in a strong liquor!  But it is the thought that counts and I do have a heart shaped container!
Wow, it is hard to believe that we have been gone for almost a month and a half already!

Yesterday we went to another Tsagaan Sar celebration.  The first pic is a platter of 'buuz' the meat wrapped in a dough and boiled.  They are really quite good.  At this meal, we started with a small bowl of rice being passed around.  You took the spoon and put some rice in your left hand and ate it.  It is a traditional way of starting the meal. In the next pic, the sister in the green outfit is the grandmother of one of the branch presidents here.  She was part of a hunger strike years ago for religious freedom in her country.  She was a very courageous women.  These are some of the Elders that are serving here in Ulaanbaatar standing ouside the apartment complex where we had eaten out meal.  It also snowed because it is getting warm enough to snow instead of just freezing.

Today we went to the branch we are assigned to.  It is out in the countryside, about 30-40 drive from the city.  It is a very modern chapel. Alot of open space and snow out there.  We did not have a translator with us so we did not understand the words of the testimonies born but we understood the spirit of them.  The people there were very friendly too.  One young woman came up and gave me a hug and said I kind of looked like her mother.  Her mother was not there and is not a member.  Maybe I will get to see her some day.

Tom in the livingroom of our hostess's small home.  We were invited to eat a Tsagaan Sar meal.

This is one of two ceremonial bread stacks that were at the table.  The other had candies on top.  We had to touch the bread and then take a candy.

This is a ceremonial lamb.  Yes that is the head on top.  

We are at he table set up for us in the livingroom.  We were here with Elder & Sister Clark, Elder & Sister Ford, and Sister Clark.  President Clark was caught up in a meeting and could not join us.  First we were served a hot milk, either gost or sheep. I only took a sip.  Then we had rice with golden raisins, potato salad, shredded carrots and shredded beets both in a vinegar dressing, and buuz(meat inside a pastry and boiled).  It was all pretty good.

Elder Clark was the oldest of us missionaries and so it was his honor to cut some meat from the lamb and serve it to us.  I was surprised that I liked it. 

Us with our hostess, her daughter, and two of her grandchildren.  Her daughter works in the mission office building in the BYU-Hawaii online classes computer lab and she served her mission in AZ.  Her granddaughter did a traditional Mongolian dance for us.  AS we were leaving, the hostess gave each couple a gift-a puzzle she made from sheep bones, and candy bars.  It is a holiday traditional to give a gift to your guests. 

Inside the fenced yard there are often several small houses or gers belonging to family members.  This ger was in the yard where we were at.  We were in a small house.  Neither the house or ger have a bathroom so there was also an outhouse in the yard.  Luckily I did not have to use it!