School and weather

We start school tomorrow--the college where I teach English.  We had a little opening ceremony today.  When I walked into the room, the students started cheering. I'm not sure how genuine it was, but it was funny.  This semester will go right up until I am going home.

Now that it's getting cooler in Mongolia, I joke with the students that I am going to escape to America in December because it will be so cold here. It's strange how the year is just long enough that every summer, no matter how short, is just long enough for you to forget what it's like to be cold....

We met a kid one day walking near our apartments who spoke perfect English. It turns out he learned English in three years when he lived in America at about the age of 8. It was fun to meet his family, all of whom speak English to some degree. We were happy to introduce them to the first lesson about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Not much else to report here.  I know the next few months will go fast, and I'm working hard to focus on using my time as a missionary well. 

Here's a little poem I wrote while flying from Choibalsan to Ulaanbaatar in August:

NO CLOUD CAN SHROUD THE STRATOSPHERE

The sun retreats, the sky grows dim as clouds grow thicker overhead.

The hope of sunshine growing thin, we wait for raindrops to be shed.

Though heaven's metamorphosis from light to dark spells no sure doom,

we know that as the clouds persist, they cast on earth a certain gloom.

The sun who bears the light of day casts cheer on every human soul.

To see this beacon fade away can dull this joy and take its toll.

The cheer we knew a day before can even fade from memory,

And in the rain we may implore to have the day brought back to be.

But don't forget, the sun's not gone; it lies untouched beyond the mist!

The land the sun smiles down upon will see the light clouds can't resist.

Of course, this comes as no surprise to us who've seen our every day

That when the sun sets, it will rise e'en though the clouds push it away.

Today the clouds bedeck the sky, but I'm aboard an aeroplane!

And at the altitude we fly, we see the sun without restrain.

Quite rightly are the heavens named; up here whenever it's not night,

E'en where the earth by storm is framed, the sun shows forth its mighty light!

I see the clouds which, dark below, are crowned on top a snowy white!

This landscape spans, for all I know, from coast to coast all glowing bright!

That's not to say the land's not dark; that's not to say the sky's not dim.

But I wish only to remark that we must all remember Him

Who sees each day from past the clouds and we cannot peer in return:

Despite the veil that thickly shrouds above, as ever His Glory burns.

Though clouds may come, and sure they will, the rain is not a cause for doubt.

When darkness looms, remember still That Light above has not gone out.