Ebo

I have had the wonderful opportunity to "tutor" one of Andy's former Mongolian mission companions over Skype for the last month.  His name is Enkbold Baatar or Ebo for short.  Andy asked me if I would be interested in talking with him and helping him work on his English.  We met him several years ago when we visited Mongolia and I remembered him from that visit.  Ebo and I have a standing appointment on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8:30 am Utah time, 10:30 pm Mongolian time. The 14 hour time difference can be hard sometimes to maneuver, but we are able to speak several times a week notwithstanding.
Anyway, Ebo is trying to pass the dreaded Michigan Test in order to be accepted to attend BYU-Hawaii with his wife.  She has already passed the test and he is working very hard to pass it in November so that they can attend together.
I love this young man!  He is working so hard and has such a desire to learn English so that he can attend an American university and better his life. He plans to return to Mongolia to live and work, but his chances of securing a good job are so much better if he can speak English and if he has a degree from an American university. BYU-Hawaii was created for just this purpose!
I have shared with him some of the techniques I have learned by volunteering as an English tutor at the MTC in Provo for missionaries who struggle with comprehension, vocabulary and focus - using the Book of Mormon as a tool.  We have talked about his family and his past history, our family and the happenings in Mongolia.  Although his English is broken and he doesn't always get things right, he is making great progress.
He recently told me about an event they are having in the LDS church there in Mongolia where he attends. He serves in a bishopric and works very hard in his calling to help people and build up the church in Mongolia.  They had a challenge in their stake (which is relatively new and the only stake in Mongolia at this point) to read the Book of Mormon this year.  They have held various activities to encourage reading the Book of Mormon and one  activity he shared with me was an art contest that is currently underway.  He sent me pictures of some of the entries in the art contest and I was impressed at the creativity and quality of the work that is being done.  All age groups are invited to participate.  Several participants have used works of art already created and made them their own. Some entries are completely original and are fantastic! Take a look:

This beautiful depiction of the Tree of Life was done by Ebo's wife Nomungerel.  She is very talented!

I have such love and respect for this good man and his talented and capable wife.  They are such a wonderful couple and I wish them all the best.

Enkbold and Nomungerel Baatar

Meeting Elder Baatar when we visited Mongolia.
He is seated in the middle.
 And no, Mongolian restaurants (even in Mongolia) don't serve typical Mongolian food!

My visit to AZ

At the end of September, I got to travel to AZ to be with my oldest daughter Jordan as she celebrated her 35th birthday and to tend their children while they traveled to attend the BYU game in Michigan. The trip started out poorly since my Allegiant flight was delayed for nearly 11 hours while they brought in three airplanes until they finally found one that would work.  I was sure that we were going to crash into the Grand Canyon in route.  The original flight time was at 1:30 pm and we actually finally left at 12:30 am.  That was a LONG day sitting in the airport.  At least I had a good book and a sandwich.  To their credit they did bring in pizza in the evening and gave us each a $100 voucher.  Small consolation for a terrible, wasted day. Allegiant is great when it works, but absolutely terrible when it doesn't.  I felt really bad for the many families who were traveling with little children.

Moving on...poor Jordan came to pick me up to start off her birthday at about 2:00 am.  That is not the way either one of us wanted to start the day.  After sleeping in we woke up and she got to tear into her pile of presents from her family.  Her little children were so sweet as they presented their homemade gifts and cards.  Among other gifts, Jake gave Jordan a book that was a compilation of letters and notes people had written to her.  It will be a treasure for years to come and moved her to tears. They then had their traditional dance party to Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday song. So fun to watch them having such a good time.

We then moved on to the American Girls store to celebrate AG style with a pink luncheon party.  It was so fun for the girls and Jordan to take their AG dolls to the party and to enjoy a lovely lunch and birthday cake with some of their friends.  Jordan got one of the first AG dolls when it came on the market as a child, and many of the workers commented on what good condition her doll Samantha was in and that she was still in her original outfit!  Again, I was so happy I could share that fun time with them.

Later that evening, I took the children over to the church where a HUGE birthday party was underway for Jordan.  Jake had asked some of her good friends to organize a party, and boy did they ever come through with a lovely Mexican food meal, darling decorations, delicious desserts and fun music and lots of visiting.  The kids loved looking around and enjoying some treats before we headed home and let their parents visit with their friends.  It was such a tribute to Jordan and I am so grateful to the many friends who made this lovely birthday party possible (and to Jake who thought of the idea in the first place.)  My sweet daughter Jordan is a marvel and everyone knows it!  I love this daughter of mine and she makes me proud every day.  Her talents and abilities bless the lives of so many people.

After Jordan and Jake left to go out of town, the children and I got busy with fun projects.  We went to Hobby Lobby and we each bought a fun fall craft that we enjoyed doing together.  We watched "Back to the Future" and we made cookies.  We swam in the pool and went out to eat.  It was 106 to 108 degrees the time I was there.  Yikes!  I'm not use to that much heat in late September.
I taught Lauren's primary class and we enjoyed going to church.  We read stories and we had such a good time together.  While the girls were in school, I sewed Ada a new dress for Kindergarten. We cleaned the house and had it all ready when their parents returned.  I loved spending time with my grandchildren and these little ones are so sweet to me and are so good to help me out with chores, cooking, cleaning and going to bed when asked.  I couldn't ask for better grandchildren who are a credit to their parents who are raising them right.  They give me hugs and kisses and are just the sweetest little people.  Our four days together were wonderful!

I started a tradition of making a new outfit for
 the grands as they started Kindy.
Here is the dress I made for Ada.

I finished Tommy's one year old scrapbook
finally and got it delivered.
He is such a sweetie pie and it was fun to see
 his pictures as he grew throughout the year.

 John 1: 4 I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in truth.

The rennovated BYU Marriott center

This summer the BYU Marriott center underwent a major renovation and the finished product is fabulous!
I remember entering the Marriott center for the first time in 1973 when I arrived at BYU as a new freshman.  I had never been in any building that large in my life.  It was built in 1971 so it was practically brand new and as a freshman I attended devotionals, firesides and special event programs there that first year.  Several years later, my first date with Rick was attending a fireside in the Marriott Center.
Since then, I have attended events in the Marriott center hundreds of times.  I have attended some of the university weekly devotionals, monthly firesides, Education Week, Women's Conference, Homecoming Spectacular, concerts performed by touring groups (back in the day), the 4th of July patriotic fireside, Christmas programs and dozens and dozens of graduation exercises.  For many of my employment years at BYU, I organized the college graduation exercises.  I had access to many of the underground rooms and tunnels in the Marriott center and got really well acquainted with the building.  Coincidentally, all of my four children (and several of their spouses) graduated in this building from BYU.  Oh, and did I mention the hundreds of basketball games we have attended in the Marriott center over the years?  We have enjoyed so many exciting games watching Danny Ainge, Travis Hansen, Jimmer Fredette and most recently Tyler Haws (to name a few.)

Through the 44 years since it was built, it has undergone many upgrades and renovations.  This time around all the lower gold bowl seats were removed and new, padded larger seats were added.

This latest updated version is the best!

In August, I attended some classes for Education week in the Marriott center and also Chelsea's graduation there.  The entire renovation took place in less than four months.  How did the workers do that? It looks amazing!  The seating is so much more comfortable with more width to the seats and more leg room.  Rick and I are excited for the new basketball season and our new chair seats and hope to enjoy many more experiences in the BYU Marriott Center.

Next stop...LA

After being home for about five days, we took off again.  This time we headed to Los Angeles to see where Andy and Chelsea live and to attend the BYU football game.  We packed a lot into the three and a half days we were there.  We started off attending the beautiful LA temple.  Andy and Chelsea were married there over two years ago.  We had all attended sealing ceremonies in the LA temple, but none of us had ever gone to a session there.  Wow!  It is a HUGE temple!  The murals are beautiful in all the rooms and we even got a tour of some other areas from one of the temple workers afterwards.

These two live down this street a few miles.
 How convenient!

Beautiful temple grounds

That evening we met up with Chelsea's dad and his wife and they hosted us all at a dinner in Santa Monica.  We ate outside on a beautiful evening and enjoyed celebrating these two great children. They brought this beautiful birthday cake that we all enjoyed.

We walked around the Santa Monica
pier on a lovely evening.

The next day we headed to UCLA to look around.  Chelsea is pursuing her PhD there.  I had never been on campus before and we enjoyed a campus tour, lunch and looked at the office and building where Chelsea is going to spend her life for the next many years.  The campus if beautiful! It was such a fun morning to hang out with Chelsea.

Next we moved on to visit the Getty Museum.  Seriously, I was unprepared for how amazing it was.

Besides being an architectural wonder itself, the contents of the museum contain some of the most priceless and famous pieces of art work in the world.  Like these:

Piere Augustus Renoir

Pablo Picasso

Edouard Manet valued at $65.1 million

Vincent van Gogh valued at $111.9 million

Degas and many more.  I was spellbound and in awe of all we saw.  Plus as an added bonus, the museum is situated on top of a hill just west of Beverly Hills and the view is spectacular!  A person can see from the ocean on the right all the way around to Beverly Hills and Bel Air on the left with the entire city of LA in-between. Oh, and did I mention that admission to the museum is FREE?

The guys went to attend a Dodger game that evening while Chelsea and I watched a Nicholas Sparks movie.  I love this dear DIL of mine.  We are great friends and I love to spend time with her.  I'm so proud of the good person that she is and look forward to seeing her achieve her goals.  She and Andy make a great pair and they complement each other so well.  I'm so happy that she is a member of our family.

Saturday was Chelsea's birthday.  Her mother Laura and her sister Audrey arrived the night before and we got going and headed to Venice beach.  It was hopping with people and we did some people watching and saw a lot of homeless people as well.  It was a beautiful day at the beach and Rick, A&C enjoyed the water.  I was content to sit on the beach and get some sun.  Afterwards, Chelsea requested sushi for dinner, so we headed to a little restaurant close to their home.  Then, it was on to the game in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl.

It was a great game and BYU played well, even though they lost by one point.  We met up with our B-I-L Bob and his son Rom and his girlfriend.  It was such a fun night and the weather was perfect. The parking and the crowds were not, but it is the price you pay to attend a game at the Rose Bowl.

Sunday was Andy's 27th birthday.  Happy birthday dear son of mine!  I love the great man he has become.  I love his drive and his independence.  I love his kind heart and his good spirit.  I love how supportive he is of other people and how fun he is to be around.  I love that he is grounded and knows what matters in life.  I just love all 6' 5" of him and I can't wait to see what he accomplishes next. What ever he puts his mind to, he achieves.

We took a late morning flight home and returned to our own beds and our own routine.  At least for awhile.  It was a very fun trip and I loved seeing where our children are and how they are situated.  It will be a great place to visit in the future.