Father's Day Update June 21, 2009

Last Monday evening we were invited to attend a home evening at the home of Battsagaan in Sukhbaatar. It was very enjoyable. There were about 6 of his friends who are now members also there. You could feel the spirit of the gospel in his home. They live in a ger during the winter. They had taken it down for the summer and were living in a one-room shack. As I sat there, I thought here is a home of Zion in this one-room home far out here in Mongolia.

This week we had three opportunities to talk to people about learning more about the gospel.

For our Thursday class at the hospital we only had one doctor in the class, Doctor Bolormaa, a neurologist. We talked to her in English for an hour. She said she had a Christian book in English, but she couldn’t understand it (I think it was the New Testament). We asked if she wanted someone to teach her about it. She said yes. Since she lives in the Khan-uul district, we called Elders Neumann and Ray and gave them her phone number so they could teach her. We will bring her an English and Mongolian Book of Mormon to class Tuesday if she doesn’t already have them by then. She wanted an American elder to teach her. Hopefully she is interested in learning about the gospel, not just in learning English.

Upon our leaving the hospital, a doctor (we think) spoke to us and said she wanted to bring her daughter and come to our church. She asked and we gave her the times of the meetings at Bayanzurkh. We were not successful in getting her name and phone number. We went to the Bayanzurkh building to meetings today to look for her, but we didn’t see her.

Saturday after the piano class, when I was going up in the elevator, two young girls Odmaa and Saran ages 15 and 13, who had been in the piano class, got my attention and told me in English they like the Church and want to join. (Later I discovered that Sister Andersen had told the students in the piano class that if they were not members, she wanted them to take the missionary discussions.) I don’t know if this influenced them or not.

I took them up to the mission office looking for missionaries. I asked Elder Bayasgalan and his companion if they could teach them right then. They said they couldn't because the girls didn't live in their district, but the elders called the training sisters and an appointment was made for the training sisters to teach the girls.

Our English classes at Bayanzurkh have about 45 young people in attendance each time. We really enjoy these classes. We’ve been trying to find a way to keep teaching these classes and also attend the Addiction Recovery program, but this may not work. My new assignment when the Hitchmoughs leave at the end of July is to be in charge of the Addiction Recovery program.

Saturday evening was a senior social in the basement of Bayanzurkh in honor of the fathers for Father's Day. We watched a short video clip on fathers, played dominoes, the men played pool (yes the Bayanzurkh building has a pool time which they carefully guard), and of course ate goodies.



Sunday, Father's Day, we invited Gloria Wheeler over for dinner. Dinner was made by Dad even though it was Father's Day. He made beef stew in the crockpot, and we had homemade bread which he'd made Saturday. I added a peach crisp with ice cream.