It was great to get your comments about 'Black Friday'. How quickly we forget! We are told they do some celebrating of Christmas around here, but so far we have seen nothing to indicate Christmas is close at all. Except we are getting daily visits from "salesmen" coming around to peddle their wares. They see American's as easy targets. But since our 'home' is bare of decorations (Christmas or otherwise) we are buying a Mongolian nativity. We'll have to send you some pictures when it arrives. Then we will have an American one, an Australian one and a Mongolian one! I wonder if they have a Nauvoo one?!
We are also going to attend a Mongolian production with their traditional dance and music. It was to be last night, but they have moved it to December 8th. That's just the way they do things here. They have a saying around here--T-I-M (This Is Mongolia). You would think a big production like this would have to go on as scheduled, but they decided to add a few dance numbers so they had to make more costumes--so the logical thing to do was to postpone it for a week! But, when we do attend, it will seem like a holiday celebration to us.
That change actually turned out good for us. Our Area supervisor is coming next week from Hong Kong, and now we will have some entertainment for him. We haven't been here long enough to know of anything else to take him to.
The power went out in about 1/2 of the apartments last night for mostg of the evening. Fortunately ours was not one of them, so a couple of the seniors came over here for the evening. It was fun. We have some really great senior couples here. This couple is going home in April and we will really miss them.
We look forward to talking to everyone this weekend. Maybe you can get us into the holiday spirit. But please, no stories about 5:00 a.m. shopping! You have heard what shopping in UB is like--nothing you would get up early in the morning for (especially when the temperatures are below zero and you have to walk to the store)!
Love to everyone,
Elder and Sister Caldwell
4 comments:
How lucky you are! You didn't even have the option of having a temporary moment of insanity and braving the crowds for Black Friday!
Hey you cute missionaries! this is becky's friend and old roommate Angie. I hope its ok that I comment on your blog. I have been looking at it and reading your stories they are some great experiences. I was wondering if you knew a sister missionary over there named Nedra? Her husband is a doctor and they should be coming home pretty soon. Let me know they are friends of my parents. Take care and keep smiling!
Sometimes we take things for granted as necessities things like Christmas shopping, and decorations, until they are gone. Then it turns out we never really needed them in the first place. You get closer to the birth of the Savior and that singular point in time when the world changed dramatically and irreversably. Christian and non-Christian alike must admit there never has been a man in history who so influenced the course of human events. And "it all started with a family," in a stable on a night in Bethlehem.
God bless you in this Christmas season to have the true Spirit of Christmas, which is the spirit of change, of conversion, of redemption, and of compassion. May you know that baby born two millenia ago and share his love with the people of Mongolia.
We love you. We pray for you. We think about you. We talk about you. And we miss you.
I can't believe what you are going through! I truly know that you have a testimony, and that the Lord will be with you and bless you. He will have angels in your rearward and in your foreward--or something like that--I think the scripture goes. I believe what your son said--we all need to keep our minds more on the Savior and what He did for all of us. We truly love your more for all you do. What struggles you have each day, and yet you make successes from each one. We truly love you more for it.
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