Friday, November 28, 2008

Mom: Well, looks like everyone made it through Thanksgiving. I thought of a lot of things I am thankful for that I thought I would share with you. I'm thankful for hot water in the morning, I'm thankful for my dishwasher (not Dad), I'm thankful for a lawn, and real landscaping. I'm thankful for traffic signs and people that actually obey them. I'm thankful for the FDA and packaged meat. I'm thankful for packaging directions in English.

All joking aside, I'm really thankful for my family and I miss you all a lot. I am thankful for the good friends we have made here and that we have the opportunity to look out for each other. I'm thankful for the strong testimonies of these very young Mongolians. I'm grateful everytime I hear one of them pray. They are so reverent. I love you all.

Dad: I bought a new suit today. I new I would need a second one all along, but waited 'til we got here to buy it. Finally came time, seein' how's the old one is gettin' in bad need of a good cleaning! The suit cost us about $65 American; it's grey and mom thinks it looks pretty good on me. Now, here's the rest of the story. I bought it in one of those stores I have mentioned before. Just a bunch of individual merchants with a booth like arrangement of about 20 feet or so each. I found the suit and, of course, needed to try it on.

However . . . . . . . . . . . . . no dressing rooms in that kind of a deal! Each booth has a counter type arrangement in the front part of the booth, stacked about chest high with goods. Then each has the expected side and back walls, all covered with hanging and/or shelved goods. So, they had me step behind the counter, the owner stepped out front and I tried the pants on! Being a bit sheepish, I noticed a full lenght mirror on wheels against the wall beside me and sort of moved that out by the walkthrough space in the counter, to give me just a little bit more privacy.Then I proceeded to . . . . . . well, you know . . . . . . . take my pants off! No one could see below my waist, but no one walking by or around us would have any doubt what I was doing either!

This experience continues to be filled with new and exciting things to write home about!

We also purchased a set of sheets today. Not too exciting. But . . . . .The beds here are box springs only, for the most part. No mattress. So you purchase a one or two inch foam pad to go on top of it. Not us! We purchased four inch pads to get the softness we are accustomed to. Didn't think much of it nor tumble to the problem it might create with sheets. It seems the sheets here are made to accomodate the thinner pads. The bottom sheet is really a sack with a zipper in it. But the zipper only goes about half way across the sack. It is apparently expected that you fold the thin pad in half and insert it through the zippered opening. Ever tried to fold a four inch foam pad and insert it in a small sack opening? I'll tell you about it sometime!

This is a picture of the Church building where our office is. We are in the basement. It's actually quite a nice building - one of the nicest around, in fact. We'll take some pictures of the inside and post them, but probably not until next week (it is late Friday night here right now).

We love you all and think of you often. Thanks for all of the support. It means alot to us way over here!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like everyone is out doing early shopping this morning because nobody has commented yet! We got up at four and did all of ours online. We didn't leave the house so we didn't have to elbow anyone to get out stuff. That's the way to go!
We're having a good time. We spent Thanksgiving day at Dean's uncle Ron's place. He lives in a beautiful house in remote Idaho - you know, very few neighbors. I can see Dad wanting to move up there when you come back. We got to go four wheeling and feed the horses. Today we are going back up there to swim in some hot springs.
We are grateful for your safety and that you seem happy and content in Mongolia. We pray for you everyday (although Jarod's prayers say "please bless Grandma and Grandpa that they will come home soon.") Happy Thanksgiving!!

The Fendleys said...

You think that we would be starting to get use to how different life is over there by some of your stories, but I am amazed at each thing you tell us. It makes me very grateful for everything that we have here, that is for sure!! Well, my dinner went good. I made enough food to feed our family though. I guess we will be eating it for a week. I stayed up until 1:00 am this morning to shop Kohls online, and then turned around and went shopping at 5:00 am also. CRAZY!!! I did get everything that I was after, but I am extremely tired. And I really should not have done it because I am still quit sick, but you know me and a bargain. I just can not pass them up. I would lay awake thinking of all the money I could be saving if only I would get out of bed, so may as well get up and do it, right? Anyway, we missed you yesturday. My house smelling like Thanksgiving food made me think of your house smelling like Thanksgiving food and I missed you. But it was nice that I got to make alot of the things that we usually eat at your house. It was nice. We love you!!

Ryan Cowley said...

We really do take a lot of things for granted living here in the States, like dressing rooms! Who'd a thunk? I am grateful for the ability to communicate so readily with you. It has been fun. I got thinking that you have been gone a little over two weeks, about enough time to get a letter in the mail but look at the correspondence we have been able to have! I put a video of Hannah laughing on my blog for you if you get a minute to check it out. We love you and miss you!!