Here are some pictures of our Ger camp:
Each ger had 3-4 people with a wood burning stove in the middle. We slept nice and warm all night. We also climbed the hill behind the camp and had a spiritual morning devotional with a lovely view of beautiful Mongolia.
Dustin, Caleb, and Steen even found some outfits in their ger made custom just for them.
They made the Asian experience a full reality.
Hi Friends and Families!
This is My Nguyen reporting on May 23, 2011. I think most of us have fallen in love with this country already after only two days of staying here. Mongolia, the country of the blue sky, has offered us so much. We’re all grateful that we have the chance to visit this wonderful land.
We started out with two business visits. It was quite fascinating to see the differences between Mongolian and Japanese businesses and how they talk about themselves. The Japanese tend to be extremely humble and reserved. On the other hand, the Mongolians are a lot more aggressive and straightforward. We could tell instantly how proud they are of their motherland (I’d be really proud too. Their motherland is marvelous!)
The people here are proud not only of their land, but also of their heroic ancestors, especially Genghis Khan. They have a deep love and respect for him here. We saw pictures, paintings, and statues of him everywhere. And most of the paper bills prominently feature his picture. We also got to see a humongous statue of Genghis Khan on top of a museum 50 kms away from the capital. It was really cool. 
The weather was perfect. The sky was so clear and blue. We took the bus to the National Park to stay at the Ger campsite (Ger is the traditional house in Mongolia). We passed by one of the most fantastic sceneries we have ever seen. I don’t think you can capture this kind of scenery in any picture; you just have to experience it with your own eyes…
Right when we got to the campsite, we were ready to ride a camel. For most of us, it was our first time. It was quite exciting. Many wanted to continue riding camels everywhere in Mongolia, which would have been the coolest!
It didn’t get dark till pretty late. Some of us decided to hike up and watch shooting stars. On the hillside, smoke from the fire we set earlier poured gently from the Gers. Above us the sky was clear and the only light was from the stars…
It was a long but tremendous day. We are so lucky to have met such great people and see different things everyday on the trip. And we promise that pictures and more are to come…
With love from Asia!!
My Nguyen
Hello friends and Family! Today our group got to visit LG (life's good). We were spoiled by the considerate staff there (VIP lunch, etc.) and got to learn many amazing things about LG's electronic industry as well. We got to tour around their showcase room, play some videogames, watch 3D video clips and other such technologies. After our wonderful LG visit we were privileged to go to the Korean War Memorial. Not only did they have monuments honoring the recent Korean War, but they also had a 
museum to remember the history of all Korean Wars from ancient times to the present. The history of Korea is fascinating. There is a strong and almost sacred sense of the Korean's (both North and south) to be reunited...I hope that one day, hopefully in our lifetime, this will come to pass. After visiting the War Memorials we had the marvelous opportunity to go to the Seoul, Korea Temple. It is a haven of peace and serenity in the midst of a loud, bustling city. Despite hilarious incidents such as the font being extremely small, the spirit was powerfully strong and comforting. How blessed we are to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ where the spirit is the same no matter where you are in the world. We send our love and best wishes to all ya'lls at home and know that we are having a blast and learning lots! :)
Lexi
This is Tyson Bryan here reporting on Thursday, May 19, 2011. We are still in Seoul, Korea. This morning we left out to samsung and actually got a little nap in on the way. We also went over the Walmart case study in the bus. When we got out of the bus at samsung, we looked up and there were three huge buildings that all looked similar and they ended up all belonging to Samsung. It was amazing because as huge as each one was, Samsung still is much bigger and as we further learned, a globally conglomerate company. After a brief overview from a PR rep, we went down to the showroom and play room where nearly a display of all of the modern electronics stood and BYU written all over the syncronized tv screens. It was amazing. They were also setting up for a party and it was just intense. The funniest part of the whole thing is that when we went upstairs, there was a huge semi-conductor display where Bro. Carpenter got really excited ; ). It really was pretty funny. After, we took off to the DMZ and actually got to go down into one of the tunnels that North Korea built as a surprise attack on Seoul. Now my opinion does not represent the entire group, but I felt extremely humbled to see and learn of all these stories about the North
doing these harsh things to really do evil to their countrymen, yet the
South never retaliated.... they were very loving and tried to be as peaceful as possible. Down in this tunnel it was really small and obviously for the size of the average Koreans (Short). A few of us still had
on our business pa
nts and nice shirts so we felt like execs with our hard hats down there walking through the tunnel! Those deff were great times.
Later when we got back to town, we saw this hillarious show next to our hotel called Nanta. They were all about drumming with chef outfits on and they had this whole plot going and were goofing off and cracking jokes as well as doing a bunch of stuff you would expect to see at a
show on the strip in Vegas. We all got a kick out of it and ended the night with a 1500 won ice cream cone from a local street vendor.... lets just say that whole ice cream and cone together were easily longer than a foot!
Overall, a great day and we all are stoked to keep on with
the trip!
Tyson Bryan
Here we are in Korea!Finishing up a wonderful time up in Japan, we came to Seoul, Korea. We left our hotel in Japan at 6:45 a.m., got to the hotel in Korea at 2 p.m. It was a long day of traveling but it was so worth it to spend that time to travel to visit Korea and Minji's house! Minji's mom prepared an amazingly delicious Korean dinner for all of us, which is 26 people total. There was so much food that we couldn't finish the whole thing even though we ate almost 3~4 plates each. She thought we didn't like her food because there was so much leftovers, but after showing our appreciation and praising her food, we figured out that she cooked like 40 servings for us. I know that I've cooked for almost 12 people and it was really hard. I cannot imagine cooking for 26 people, 40 servings, especially Korean food which takes a really long time to prepare a whole bunch of ingredients and cook. We are very glad and thankful to have this opportunity to travel among Asia, meet new people, and get to know the culture. WE LOVE ASIA!!!-Minji
Family and Friends... From Asia,
We had a wonderful day as everything opened up again (except for the hair-cutting stores). In the morning we had our devotional and went off to a business visit with Oak Lawn Marketing. The business is the most successful entrepreneurship company in Japan started by a foreigner. As we toured, all of the employees stood and bowed while the T.V.s displayed "Welcome BYU Students" on them. Later different group members went to the Nagoya Port and saw the museum including the first Japanese arctic vessel and a scenic lookout. Most of the group spent the day shopping and looking for good food as it is our last day in Japan! ;)
After a delicious breakfast (the semi-cooked scrambled eggs, toast, granola, and fresh fruit were all popular), we caught two subways to get to church. About an hour and a half after leaving the hotel, we arrived safely at the chapel. The ward did an incredible job accommodating us, translating many of the classes and talks into English. The ward itself was a unique mix of Japanese, Peruvians, Brazilians, Filipinos, and Vietnamese so English actually was the most comfortable common language for everyone anyways.
Following church, the ward hosted a potluck. The ward was super friendly and the food was delicious! There were all kinds of dishes - rice balls, noodles, chicken, salads - and we all ate until we were full. During lunch, many of the returned missionaries were able to use their languages to talk to the ward members - Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese.
When we all got back to the hotel, most people chose to use rest of the Sabbath as a day of rest and recovery. We've been pushing hard and most of us needed it!
We are staying in Kyoto for four days, but today we spent the day in the neighboring metropolis, Osaka. The city is the third largest in Japan and used to be known as Japan's "kitchen" because it was a rice trading center, being a large port city. So we were excited to eat there!
As we entered the gate to the main courtyard, a group of Japanese school girls, all dressed in uniform, passed by us quietly in single file. Then they all started saying "hello!" to us in typical Japanese accent, and we all waved and answered back. Then someone from our group yelled "photo!" They replied back saying "photo!" and screamed hysterically as if they were American school girls on a field trip to a Justin Bieber concert. We were celebrities! Their teacher took our camera and we all posed in front of the castle with the girls in front, making peace signs as we love to do in photos in Asia. The excitement and laughter just created a delightsome atmosphere that highlighted the friendship the Americans have with the Japanese. For me, it made the 12-hour flight to Asia worth it right there.
We also visited a business in Kyoto called Interac. It is a language-teaching company that brings in English teachers to Japan. It's an important company because all Japanese schools teach English. Our host, Shigekazu Akiyama-san, gave us the perfect introduction to Japanese culture:
We visited Osaka Castle, a huge fortress built by samurai clans for the shogunate. We were all impressed by the size of the moat surrounding the castle, even though the water level was very low. But we were more impressed by who we met...
- To show respect, the Japanese don't look people in the eyes for long periods of time.
- They say "yes" a lot to mean "uh huh" or "okay," and that throws Americans off a bit.
- Conversely, they don't really say "no" because they don't like to offend; instead they say "maybe" or "I'll consider it," which also throws us off sometimes.
- The Japanese avoid confrontation because of the concept of "wa"(倭), or harmony (think of ying yang). For example, Shigekazu-san told us that in America, we don't say "sorry" when we hit someone's car in an accident because that could be an insurance liability. But in Japan, you would definitely say "sumi masen" -- I'm sorry -- to avoid confrontation and not dishonor the other driver.
We spent Thursday, May 12, in Hiroshima. In the morning we went as a group to the Hiroshima Peace Park. This is a museum/park that has been built in memory of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The park has been built really close to the actual epicenter of the A-bomb. It was a really solemn experience walking through the exhibits, seeing pictures and learning the history of what actually happened. This picture is the frame of a dome building which still stands from the A-bomb.
After the peace park, we had a business visit at Mazda. The Mazda facility is absolutely massive! The HR management did a very great job at giving us a Q&A session. It was very informative and a great learning experience.
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