costumes Mongolian

Here we are in our group with the costumes. The red ones were by Jim using the green ones as a pattern and the hats are Tour de France hats, ,modified with Christmas decorations

thanks that keeps on giving

After Thanksgiving dinners, we are thankful for turkey noddle soup and that the Mongolian fete was well attended., First, even though we did not prepare a bird ,we got the bones after eating at the mission home celebration to make soup for the Institute and that is my favorite part! The most significant dinner was at the Institut as ,most of them didnt even know the holiday or what any of the food was. And they like the idea of celebrating being.... Thankful. We had many visitors that night including a family from Germany. Wednesday night we shared our table with a couple from India, and learned alot about their culture. Her family entertained Gandhi in their home! Small world! And..now we are finished with the Mongolian Fete, We ran out of plates and had to use the Relief Societies after 150, so I am guessing 200. We performed the dance 3 times, beginning, middle and after the closing prayer, so we got our monies worth out of the costumes which we made after trial and error!. I cant say it ran smooth, but I can say we had 15 nonmember Mongolians, many other interested visitors and the Mongolian Embassy. So, the only other thing I can say is,,,I am thankful that I dont have to worry about that any more, The biggest struggle was language, again, Most of the people we worked with spoke, of course. Mongolian, So, my last piece of wisdom for this blog, is the importance of clear, simple communication....ahead of time. There was one moment when I looked at my watch and it was 8:10 and I said, gee, too bad my watch broke,,later, Jim said, he looked at his at 8:30 and said the same thing!, NO, our watches didnt break

Encore

One stress down,, we sang on Saturday with about 35 YSA and some missionaries,< Lord I will follow thee> in a choral arrangement with the altos singing the meloday (of course), in french, spanish , English, and American Sign language, and I guess it was good enough that they asked us to sing at the Crown Plaza Hotel the next day. NOW we have the Mongolian fete to finish. But, in between we have our lovely fete (holiday) Thanksgiving, I thought we would get by easy this year but, now .. we get to celebrate with our friends Wednesday, Thursday at the mission home and thursday evening at the Institute, So far I have made 7 loaves of cornbread and chopped up a big bowl of dried cranberries and walnuts. The cranberries here are the bomb, they are big and plump, much better than Costco *except the prix. And I have surrendered my code of cooking cornbread and added WHITE flour and sugar. The local honey is the best also... So, as I ponder this time of thainsgiving. I say ENCORE, because, we are glad to be here for another year. We dearly miss you all, and some days are more painful than others. and those days are .... like missing the birth of another grandchild, the musical Grease, the dance, violin, and piano shows, and all the sports, But, most of all the Hugs and Kisses. Here, EVERYONE bisous *KISSES everyone, two or three times on the cheek. There is no other touching, no shoulder , no body, and usually no hand shakes.. But. I get confussed and many times extend my hand, then go to kiss , but put my hand on a shoulder to stop the collison of bodies. But, the hugs and kisses of our little ones are the most precious. So, we say Encore..bring on the New Year and Noel. My testimony is the importance of scripture reading is greatly strengthened. We know that this is where we should be and hope you all feel our love for you. We pray for you and the blessings of a loving holiday season

My happiest day here was yesterday, I sat at the cumputer and waited and waited, Jason said that it would be lunch time before he would come,.. so I ate lunch at 10>30, Lucky me ! ERIK ANDREW came a little after 4 (Michigan time) weighing in at 8>4 and 22 inches, any other info must be received directly from Valerie and Jason Mercado... because everyone knows I cant get my numbers straight. Besides being healthy, which is great. He brought NEW light into the name and memories of my ERIK, who died 30 years ago. So, what am I thankful for.? Simple> Family,Friends. and Our Saviour Jesus Christ

Thankfulness

In this very busy time for us ( tonight we sing for Stake conference with Seventy Rep- Elder Texiera ) I pause from all the preparation. For next week,s Mongolian fete and the organization for tonight and give thanks. Thanks for the great visit we had at the Mongolian Embassy. We went there inviting them to come to our celebration ( yes, I know, why would they want to celebrate their Independence Day with us! ) At first, we were not well received but by the time we left , they were asking us to help them with finding someone to help a Mongolian girl with translation while attending school here. and telling us about some of their actvities and a big national flag and magasins!. So we now have a part time job to offer one of our Mongolian YSA. Another job offer came to us for an Au pair -80E a week Part of our calling here is helping with housing, jobs and of course the GOSPEL of LOVE. Again I mention the thankfulness for teaching the New Testament, as I am forced to really study the life of Christ and apply his teachings AND make it meaningful for those that travel great distances in the evening to share in our lessons. Most of our YSA travel in public transport- tram and bus , with transfers and at least an hour travel time. This week I am including a district photo, more Monoglian photos, choir practice.. and notice....no extra travel and visits.. so,.. I am thankful that this stress will be over soon.... and we can prepare for NOEL and NEW Year .....and welcoming Erik into the Mercado home :)

pressure

I heard Billy Joel's song twice today (My fault)! I was trying to avoid pressure but instead was reminded of it. So,why? We have two big activities a week apart. First, teaching as many as possible YSA and Missionaries an arrangement of (French, English,Spanish... end in French) Since it is an arrangement we had to translate and put in all together, Sounds easy.but notes and words needed changing, Then, the next week is Fete de la Mongolian (Mongolian Independence Day) and I only know the alphabet and hello, how are you, (which sound like---SAY NO U N) to answer you say.. I N (fine). We had a quick visit with cousin Frank Hatch and enjoyed sharing old and new stories and later we took a walk at twilight after looking for beads for the costume . On our blog we have photos of Jim sewing with my adding technical help ; like darts, facings, hemming, trim, etc, and it has been PRESSURE,( I am also including last weeks photos of down town Geneva, Saint Pierre archives with the church in Gothic and Roman style and the reunion from 400AD of a baptistery when immersion was still practiced. It is easier to fill the blog with more photos, so if you havent seen it, go to...jlandpj.blogspot.com..... the church stopped baptisme by immersion because it wasn't as practical ) I am writing this on 11/11/11 as it is a holiday everywhere and everything is closed which makes for a much needed break from the PRESSURE.

This is what we see every day

This is just a quick visual of our every day life.. view from our window, view on the way to Institute on the Freeway (not free!) and the view around the Institut. The post just before had the Ferney Voltaire cemetery and a close by stream where we saw an old mill

Tousaint Day--Perfect brightness of hope

November I is TOUSSAINT , All Saints Day, or as I learned from my Sp friends Dia de muertos (sp?) is a fete catholique to honor the faithful departed, which isnt this what we do in family history by doing the work for the dead,!! Not that far off from us. The peasants would end the harvest by gleaning all the potatoes in the field in preparation for the winter. So the family history display at the stake center is well timed this weekend. We visited Annesy ward about 1 hour from us. It reminded me so much of my experience growing up in the mission field, feelings I will always cherish. It is there that my testimony of the Gospel began. Small in numbers but mighty in spirit. And this is the message that I wanted to convey as I gave my talk to their ward. The main speaker did not show up so about 4 minutes before Sacrament meeting started they ask Jim and I to speak. Jim had given a talk last week and got a translator to help him. (one of our YSA from South Amercia translating into french!), I wanted to give mine in french and jotted a few notes down and practiced reading what I thought was my favoirte scirpture in 2 Nephi,, Perfect brightness of hope.,,,in french,,. The first speaker was in Bishops daughter ( the bishop gave the combined RS / priesthood lesson and his wife gave the Sunday school lesson) His daughter reminded me of myself, 13 years old.., thin,.. braces,but, a well planned and presented talk. As I listened I went back to the mission field in Valley Forge PA, and remembered my burning testimony in 8th grade, That is the year that we did Promised Valley, in Philadelphia, directed by the original director ( I think, Dr, Christensen, I might be mixing him up with someone from BYU) ..there is only so much space in my brain left, now that all this french is in there) And so as I began my talk I really felt the spirit. I made it through without help and finished with my scripture. Later I looked up the scirpture and sure enough it was....perfect brightness of hope.. which is the message I wanted to convey to them and to you,,as we continue our own personally mission here on earth that we will have HOPE.

This week contiued working on the Mongolian fete costumes which we are still struggling with. May our struggles only be costumes! May you all have hope and love this season.