Teaching English -- Church, Doctors and Kindergarten Teachers

We taught seven English classes while we were in Choibalsan.  There were two at the church--one for the Relief Society Sisters and one from Preach My Gospel where we learned simple prayers, testimony and the Articles of Faith.

 Very first class assessing the ABCs.  Most of them already knew those!

 Those who continued to come made some good progress in their English speaking abilities!

 They were a pretty active group and enjoyed participating in the activities.

 PMG practicing dialogues.

 Individual help for Ganhuleg from Oyuntuya, our translator and an English teacher!

 Oyuntuya often taught parts of the lessons.  She was very good and could explain grammar very well in a language they all understood.

 This group of doctors was really fun.  They are internal medicine docs.  We planned to teach them for 6 weeks and then move on to the next class of doctors.  But they didn't want to quit when the 6 weeks was up so we kept going for a full 10 weeks.  It was fun! Their conversation skills were pretty good, but they got even better as we went along.

This is the second group of doctors.  Really we only taught three of these.  The two surgeons with surgical caps had visited America--actually SLC and Provo--and were pretty good at English.  This day, they brought a doctor from Belgium who was learning from the Mongolians.  We actually taught the lady doctor, Bolortuya, Bayarbileg and Enkhzorig. They have pretty good conversation skills and the class was really more of a review and an opportunity to speak English.  It was a fun class too!

 We were a bit surprised by the U of U surgical cap!  He likes the U and the other doctor who went with him thinks BYU is the best.  The rivalry goes on even in Mongolia! The pro-BYU doctor attended one session of conference at the church and seems to have some interest. 

 This is our kindergarten teacher class!  They were all so eager to learn, but most didn't speak English very well, so it was an exercise in increasing vocabulary and then using what we taught. 

 They took notes and then typed them up for everyone to review!  Pretty dedicated students!

 Learning body parts -- Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

 This school is pretty amazing . They are a ways out from the center of town so they come to the church and pick us up each week and then drive us back to the church after class.  Before we leave the school, they serve us a light meal.  We have had some good food there!  They are so appreciative of our service.  We only had 5 weeks to teach them before we left and school got out. We wish we could have started sooner. Three of the teachers wanted to take piano lessons, so started taking those at the church.  So many good things are coming from this class.

Returned Missionary Reunion.

On April 15, 1993, Elder Neal A. Maxwell dedicated the land for Mongolia for missionary work.  For the 20th anniversary, each branch was asked to do so something in honor of the work going forward here.  Since Choibalsan is so noted for it's strong contribution to the missionary force, we decided to do a missionary reunion for those RMs who were still in the area.  We had 11 out of the 16 or so invited who came--not as good as we would have liked, but it was ok.  

 Munkhtsetseg-Seminary Teacher                           Nyambayer-Branch Mission Leader

 

 The spiritual part - Flight to Eternity!

Owantuya--now in UB at school.                                  Azbayar--Institute Teacher.                                                                                                                                                                                                 .

 The cakes say "We LOVE our Choibalsan RMs."

 We had three kinds of soups and bread.  Not sure they were familiar with buffet style serving, but it worked well and we had tons of food as we had planned for 50 and had 35 attend!

 Returned Missionaries--Nyambayar, ?? , ??, ??, ??, Ganbold, Owantuya, President Damdindorj, Azbaya, Martbold, Munktsetseg and Byambajav.

 Future Missionaraies--Gansukh, Azjargal, Ganhuleg, Turbat, Bolormaa, Holboo, Branch President Damdindorj, Oyuntuya, Odna and the full time missionaries, Elders Bataa and Gantogtaw.

 Then we had a short talent show where Martbold played his saxaphone and then we learned several square dances, the Heel and Toe Polka and Big Mountain.  We think everyone had a great time!

Branch Youth

We have a great group of youth in this branch.  Here they are practicing for a choir number to sing on Easter Sunday.  They love to sing!

These are our early morning seminary students.  Their class starts at 6:30 and then they have breakfast at 7:30 and head to school.  Munkhtsesteg (middle) is their teacher.  She is an RM and is amazing!

 Sharing the LOVE!

 This picture was taken the night we filled out the missionary applications for three of the members--Gancykh, Turbat and Battsetseg!  They will be great missionaries!

Service--Cleaning the Church

Every week the members come to clean the church.  The kitchen usually really needs it because they feed the Seminary kids breakfast before they go to school. 

                                              

   

 We have a great group of youth who are always there to help!

 They clean the carpets with water in a garbage can and a rag.  It's amazing how much dirt they can get up using that method.

           

Gereltuya -- an investigator soon to be baptized!

               Nomin - such a cute girl!                                 

This is our chapel.  They move the chairs around and then clean the rug and move the chairs back. It's alot of work, but they are always happy when they are doing it and enjoy spending the time with friends in service.
It really is a nice chapel/multipurpose room!

BolorErdene cleaning the bathroom.                        

Hoploo cleaning the bathroom floor!

At the beginning of spring, the city does a huge cleanup.  People are required to clean up in front of their business, their homes and the streets.  It was amazing to see how many people showed up to for this major clean up.  And the city looked so nice when they were done.  Anyway, the church was no exception.  Members showed up to pull weeds, pick up garbage, sweep the dirt from the parking lot and plant seeds for summer flowers.  It was a great project.  There weren't as many there to help as they had hoped, but those who came worked really hard and it looked great when they were done.

 As usual, they had food for those who came.  It was a whole-day project and they earned their keep!

Relief Society Birthday Party

The branch celebrated the Relief Society birthday by having a sister in the branch who makes traditional Mongolian clothes and head gear bring some things for the sisters to try on.  It was really fun and there were some pretty amazing hats.  And everyone had to try them on.  This is me and the oldest sister living in the branch.  We visited them for Tsagaan Sar.  She is really a sweet lady!

Somehow these Mongolian hats just don't look quite right on me!

I was quite surprised that the Mongolian Deel fit me. It had long sleeves and was fine through the body.  It was a little shorter on me than on most Mongolians though!  It was really a beautiful deel!

This is Azbayar (one of our RMs) and her daughter Nomina!    This is Munkhtsetseg--another beautiful

They both have such cute dimples.                                       Choibalsan Returned Missionary!

 

I know these are not all sisters, but these two youth in the branch are such characters--they really wanted to try on the hats and then have their picture taken.  In the picture are Munkhtuya, BolorErdene, me, Azjargal, and in front, Erdenemunkh (BolorErdene's son).  They actually look better in the hats than I do!

 Two of my favorite sisters in the branch--Munkhtuya and Suuvda (the Branch President's wife). Truly amazing women and true sisters in the gospel.

 Gerelchimeg--a member of the RS Presidency.  She's an amazing woman!  She was so helpful to us when we did the RM reunion--spent all day in the kitchen cooking and all evening in the kitchen cleaning up . We finally got her to come join the festivities.

A dinner was served and we had salad first.  The salads were put on various plates along a long table and then sisters were given forks and spoons and stood around the table eating from the plates!  I didn't get an eating utensil so wasn't in the crowd around the food, but someone brought me a plate with my own salad and a fork.  I hope it wasn't that obvious that I was less than thrilled with their serving style!.

And we had HAMBURGERS!  Everybody here loves these pre-made, pre-packaged, heat in the microwave or eat cold hamburgers.  They actually tasted pretty good.  They were running low so Alan and I split one and it was still plenty of food.

And, of course, we had birthday cake.  These cakes look really rich and dreamy, but they really aren't that sweet and are more like a sponge cake!  They were OK!

After eating we took pictures.  I sort of stand out in this crowd, and, well, almost every crowd here!

 These are the grandmothers of the branch.  I fit right in with them, agewise anyways.  

I love their beautiful deels!

 These are some younger sisters in the branch.  Top row is Odna, Oyuntuya (our translator), Ohwantuya, ??? , Tumee and me.  Great group of kids!

We had a pretty good turnout!  

 And they played this card game where the cards had to be passed from person to person not using hands.  It was pretty fun to watch and they had a great time!

 It was a very fun night spent with wonderful Mongolian sisters in the gospel!