Happy Birthday, Puje!!

Puje's birthday was on a P-day so we went to lunch.  I tried to persuade her to let me invite other branch members to go with us, and she almost gave in and then changed her mind.  We went to the restaurant across from her house.  They had a very nice menu, but the unfortunate thing was they weren't serving most of them!  Finally, Puje just had them make a list of the things that were available, and there were about 6!  I had a fried potato dish that was pretty good.  The potatoes had been cut like french fries! Alan had a soup and Puje had about the only other thing on the menu.  I don't think we will go there again.  But it was fun spending the time with Puje!  She is such a great lady and we could not survive long without her!

We have Young Adult Family Home Evening on Monday nights at 6, but President Batmonkh called Puje and told her it had been changed to 5.  So we went over to the church and discovered that they had turned it into a Branch Family Home Evening in honor of Puje's birthday!  About 20 of our branch members were there to help her celebrate.  I think she was very pleased, even though she said she didn't want anyone to make a fuss over this birthday.  She turned 53!

Oduntuya, the branch artist, drew Puje's picture on the board and then wished her a very happy birthday! 

President Batmonkh wrote a poem and read it for her!

And, of course, there had to be a birthday cake and candy.  The waifers on the right are some of my favorites.  The cup contain heram--hot milk and water!  It really is pretty good!

These are some of the group who came.  There were more, but the Elders were teaching a lesson and some of the members were attending.

Just as she was getting ready to cut the cake, the power went out!  That is not such an amazing thing here and we have come to expect that it will go out about any time!  There were candles at the church and I had my flashlight, so we were OK.  Preparing for and dealing with such outages is a pretty normal part of life here!

This was taken before the lights went out!

After the lights came back on, President Batmonkh and Oyandalia put on this little skit.  I'm not sure what they were saying, but the branch members were laughing pretty hard!  I think it was some sort of a dating/courtship song skit!  They both have pretty good voices.  I am surprised at how many talents President Batmonkh has.  He can sing well, he was an actor in this skit, and he writes poetry!  On top of all that, he has a very strong testimony of the gospel, as do Oyandalia and Darjhand!  There are so many wonderful people in this branch!

This picture is President Batmonkh's family which includes him, then Puje (not a member of his family), Byanjargal (wife), Nyambayer (daughter), Bayerbat

(grandson) and Baysa (granddaughter).  They also have Tuvshinbat, but he was not at the party that night. I think he was working.

 Puje and little Baysa get along pretty well.  I think Baysa is sort of like the granddaughter that Puje wishes she had, but doesn't yet!  She keeps talking about her children getting married and giving her grandkids, but that hasn't happened yet and she doesn't think it will happen in the near future!

Oyandalia, Puje and Darjhand.
These are stalwart members of the branch!

Again, President Batmonkh, Puje and Byanjargal. We wanted to get a picture of him in his Mongolian deel with his big belt and his Mongolian boots!

Afterwards we danced both square dancing and Mongolian.  Those pictures were taken with the iPad and with the low lights of the church, didn't turn out very well.  We all had a great time though and President B. said the branch needs to get together for such activities more often.  I think if they got together and celebrated people's birthdays once a month for FHE that would be great!

Anyway, we had a great day celebrating Puje's birthday with her!  We love her and hope she has many more birthdays and that she will have great health! She comments a lot about how she is getting old and her body is wearing out! And she's only 53!  Maybe she should hang around more with young people her own age and not old folks like us!  We are sure are glad she chooses to hang out with us though!