Mongolia Mission Week 23 - Random pictures and stories we've been dyeing to show you

 Mongolia Mission Week 23

Our hope with this blog is to share highlights with our family and friends about our exciting opportunities and awesome responsibilities in Mongolia. It's an impossible task, though, because it's hard to condense everything into a few words and pictures. So ask us individually if you'd like to know more about anything! You can contact us by email (jrose219@gmail.com or krose213@gmail.com), Facebook messenger, or you can text Kathy's phone (515-537-3273). 

Random thread 1: Our students at the 3rd school (named such because it was the 3rd school built in town) were back in school after a three week break. One week was a study at home week at the end of the last semester followed by two weeks of vacation. So, for our first week back, we reviewed with them topics from prior weeks - things they like, chores, what they do in the morning, etc. 

For one activity, we divided the class into two teams, gave each team a piece of chalk or a whiteboard marker (depending on the room), and had them take turns listing things they like. We were amazed at how many English words they knew. Their teachers were amazed at how many English words they knew. Competition spurs great effort. It was wonderful to watch the more advanced English speakers help the struggling speakers.

In this class, one team feared the other team would see
their words and copy, so they created a human wall
to protect the precious info.

Random thread 2: There's a certain amount of Korean influence on the food here, maybe because a fair number of Mongolians go to South Korea to work for a few years and like what they taste there. Some come back and open Korean restaurants. We see kimchee in grocery stores. 

One of the other foods is "kimbop," which is a Korean rice roll, somewhat similar to a California roll type of sushi, only they usually contain a hot dog rather than fish. Kimbops are in most snack food stores and vary a bit in composition and taste. The best ones we've had were made by Sister Tumenjargal, so we invited the sisters over on their preparation day to teach us how she makes them. Hers are very non-traditional. She has adapted them to her taste and uses the seaweed wrapper, then cooked rice, siracha sauce, mayo, a small layer of mashed potatoes, chicken cooked with a chili sauce, and scrambled eggs. Unusual, but delicious!

Kathy rolling up her kimbop

Random thread 3: It was time to go to Ulaanbaatar for another Zone Conference. These take place every six weeks. This time we drove instead of taking the train, which is both good and bad. We got there faster and got to travel in the daylight on our own schedule, but we had to stay awake and constantly scrutinize the road for potholes. It's quite an obstacle course, and some of those potholes are big enough to swallow half of our car! Google says it will take 5.5 hours, but it takes us 7.

Luckily, sometimes there are fun things to pay attention to. The entire 280 miles is open range (no fences) so we get close up looks at some of the animals along the way. 

Turns out Mongolians aren't the only consumers
of mares' milk!

Storm clouds on the horizon, and we eventually
passed through a little cloud burst - a first for us here.

Zone Conference was wonderful. Great to get some spiritual uplift and inspired instruction.

Our district won all the apartment cleaning awards.
We got to present awards since the Leavitts are now
serving remotely. We didn't do the checks this time.

After the conference we went to a Chinese restaurant and discovered some amazingly good dishes.

Last time we were in the city, the Choijin Lama Temple Museum was closed but looked interesting. This time we got to visit. It was one of the most impressive Buddhist temples we've been in, and we visited several in China. Mongolians adopted Buddhism during the period of time when they were part of China (until the early l900's), and some Mongolians feel that it should be considered the national religion today. 

Photography isn't allowed inside the buildings,
but there are such wonderful construction and
artistry in the design and artifacts.

Set in the city among the most modern structures.

Kathy disobeyed the sign and didn't 
mind her head - said it didn't apply
to her!

We saw interesting construction of glass
being placed over the concrete structure,
turning it from rough to modern.

More animals on the way home. We love them 

and especially enjoy the young ones of Spring.

Random thread 4: We got back home Friday evening and immediately started boiling eggs and making some eggs dyes for coloring Easter Eggs with our church youth the next day. We could not find commercial dyes, even in the city, because Easter is not really known or celebrated in this country. So we found recipes for making dyes using boiled purple cabbage, boiled onion skins, and ground turmeric.

The liquid after boiling purple cabbage
turns eggs a beautiful blue. If you boil
tumeric with purple cabbage, the dye
is dark green.

Boiling onion skins to extract color

The eggs colored using our natural dyes.

On Saturday we made a pancake breakfast for the group and watched the last two sessions of General Conference, delayed from the prior week by the all day power outage.

Last week we had a fair number of kids watch 3
sessions of conference with us all day; this week 
on Saturday there were still several people who
stuck with us. That's quite a level of commitment.

After Conference, kids decorated Easter eggs with markers and stickers. Elder McWhorter opened a package from home that contained commercial egg dyes, which he used for the activity. In addition to the natural dyes, we had nine more colors!

One little investigator boy decided to
draw Jesus on his egg.

Done by a woman who loves the Bible,
isn't interested in the Book of Mormon,
but watched 2 sessions of Conference.

Taking their eggs home

Finally, Easter Sunday. While we are blessed by the Savior's atonement every day, all year, it is marvelous that there is a day set aside to focus specifically on His atonement and resurrection. The 2 of us worked together, using the scriptures and the Church website, to write the script for our Easter Sacrament meeting. Then the two sisters, the two Elders, and our most recent convert each presented a part (after translating it into Mongolian!), some adding their own thoughts. We sang many of the Easter hymns that are available in the Mongolian hymnbook. It was wonderful and powerful to meet together and remind each other of the sacrifice of our Savior and joy we can have because of Him! 

We are so blessed. Every person on the earth is blessed by His life, His love, and His sacrifice - even if they don't know it or want to acknowledge it. We truly stand all amazed at His love and the support that He offers us!

Mongolia Mission Week 22 - Being in the dark!

 Mongolia Mission Week 22

Our hope with this blog is to share highlights with our family and friends about our exciting opportunities and awesome responsibilities in Mongolia. It's an impossible task, though, because it's hard to condense everything into a few words and pictures. So ask us individually if you'd like to know more about anything! You can contact us by email (jrose219@gmail.com or krose213@gmail.com), Facebook messenger, or you can text Kathy's phone (515-537-3273). 

We'll get to the "in the dark" in a bit. 

First, we finally made it to a local museum. Small but fascinating. It is focused on the history of our province, Dornogovi, or East Gobi. The Gobi used to be filled with freshwater rivers and lakes with a humid climate. Therefore, it is known as a very productive region for the discovery of dinosaurs, including fossilized dinosaur eggs and nests. According to area specialists, the velociraptor and protoceratops were also discovered here. And recently, the largest fully preserved dinosaur claw.

Thigh bone horns that look like the noses adorning
some Buddhist masks. Many things like this we just
have to speculate about.

One of our church members accompanied us and
tried to be helpful, despite the language barrier.

We were amazed at the amount of metal 
rivets/bolts in this ancient carriage wheel.

Someone in this painted fabric did not like the soup.

We found intricate metalwork or
paintings on ancient musical instruments.

One of our teaching responsibilities is at a medical school here that draws from the 5 eastern provinces. There's a desperate need to train medical people to work in these rural areas. A new campus was recently announced to be built, and construction has begun right next door to where we teach.

Every construction site includes a few gers. Most
likely used for tool and material storage, it's 
possible that some construction workers stay onsite.

Alice, whom we've mentioned before, coordinates our assignments at the secondary school where we teach. We invited her and the young American English teachers to dinner and to celebrate her birthday. She is such a wonderful friend and helps us with all our questions and issues. She speaks excellent English.

Alice's birthday candle in a sweet jello salad,
which is an unknown here. Mongolians make
 their own savory gelatin that contains little bits 
of meat and vegetables and is served in slices.

Last week we mentioned a change in the weather from 75 to 35 degrees. It came with strong winds and actually snowed several inches of snow, the most we've had all winter. But everything bounced back to the 70s a couple of days later. And then 80 degrees. Things got mushy really fast, which isn't fun when we try our best to keep the church floors clean.

On Friday, April 11th, there was a city-wide power maintenance outage scheduled from 6 am to 8 pm. It was the day of the blizzard and a good day for everyone to just stay home. But then the outage was rescheduled for Saturday, so the 6 of us gathered at our apartment to watch General Conference in English.

And then it became a spa night.

Not our idea. It was he who will not be named.

However, moving the power outage to Saturday ruined our Conference plans for our church group. We had planned to have a pancake breakfast and watch two sessions of Conference (each two hours long). We had to cancel and reschedule that to the following Saturday to watch along with holding our Easter Mutual activity. 

For the outage, we planned ahead for cold meals, including The Everything Raisin Bread peanut butter sandwiches for dinner. (John bakes most of the bread we eat, and when Kathy requested raisin bread, we didn't have enough raisins. So we also used all the craisins we had, all the dried mangos, all the dates, and some pecans. Turned out delicious and probably can never be recreated.)

We went to the church in the afternoon, just in case any of the youth showed up for Mutual, and to clean everything for Sunday. One young man came,  so we taught him how to play the Skyjo card game. Then we went home before dark.

Because then it was really dark. The outage didn't end at 8 pm as scheduled. It lasted until 2 am. The only lights were flashlights in some of the apartments. No streetlights. It was pretty eerie.

Our romantic, flashlight-lit living room.

The only lights we could see were apartments 
with flashlights or cell phone lights in use.

On Sunday, our group gathered to watch 3 sessions of General Conference (in Mongolian) with all who wanted to join. (We just read along in English.) Over 20 people attended, mostly youth 10-16 years old, and mostly non-members. We set up tables with gospel coloring pages and similar activities. Between the first two sessions we had a potluck lunch.

John matches the men of the Tabernacle Choir!

Between the first and second sessions, Kathy sent all the kids outside to pick up garbage with their pent-up energy. Between the second and third, we walked as a group to the "kissing dinosaurs" which are just outside of the museum.

We don't complain (much), but sometimes the water we get in our bath leaves us feeling we were cleaner before the bath. This is the water fresh from the tap before we used it one bad day! We don't know if it's influenced by the wind or the melting snow or just the rust in the pipes, but it seems to be worse after a storm, like it comes from a surface source. Good thing we have filtered water for other uses.

So, it was a challenging and wonderful week. Storms, power outages, forced changes to plans, and dirty water. Yet, we were able to watch Conference in English and Mongolian, spend time with so many people who are important to us. It was a humbling and joyful experience to hear people pray for the missionaries. We know that many of you do, and we thank you! We want you to know that your prayers work. 

We appreciate receiving messages of hope and inspiration from prophets, apostles, and other leaders chosen by God. It's amazing how much peace, joy, and hope come from a knowledge of God's plan for His children. It's nice to be reminded of what is important during our time on earth so that we can enjoy the blessings He has prepared for us after this life.

Mongolia Mission Week 21 - The Gathering

 Mongolia Mission Week 21

Our hope with this blog is to share highlights with our family and friends about our exciting opportunities and awesome responsibilities in Mongolia. It's an impossible task, though, because it's hard to condense everything into a few words and pictures. So ask us individually if you'd like to know more about anything! You can contact us by email (jrose219@gmail.com or krose213@gmail.com), Facebook messenger, or you can text Kathy's phone (515-537-3273). 

How is the weather in Mongolia? Well, it depends on the day. Lately, we've had several nice days, including some without the spring wind. The people, bikes, and roller blades just keep multiplying. 

The playground in our apartment complex has kids' play equipment, a basketball court, and several adult exercise devices, which we work out on periodically. One day we had a little shadow who mimicked Kathy's every move on each piece of equipment. She was so cute! She stretched on the stairs afterwards with us as well. Then she went inside when we did, telling us something very serious in Mongolian which we didn't understand. "Thanks for playing?" "Tell me when you want to play again?" "Why do you exercise for such a short time?" We miss a lot in this country, or assign our own meanings to streams of conversation-

However, next week is another wild ride with the weather. Thursday is supposed to be 71 degrees. Friday is predicted to be 35 degrees with 1-3 inches of snow! Oh, well. We have learned to take it all in stride (or use Clyde - in spite of our pact to keep doing a lot of walking!)

Predictions for future erraticity.

As we imply in our headline, the Gathering of Israel continues in Sainshand! After two baptisms last Saturday, we had another one this past weekend. Erdenejargal is a 16 year old boy our English teachers met one day when their normal students, a bunch of military guys, didn't show up. Miracle Moment. He asked them questions about the Gospel, and in the words of Elder McWhorter, he "truly was one of the most prepared people I have or will probably ever meet. To be more prepared by the Lord would be someone standing in a font just waiting which pretty much he wanted to do do since the first time we taught him." 

President Namgur, our Mission President, spent the weekend here, and it was such a blessing to have him visit. Side note: You heard a story about him told by Elder McCune in General Conference. (We recognized him through Elder McCune's description of the man with energy and light.) The mission president actually holds the Priesthood keys for groups, so he does interviews with our people in Sainshand and knows them all well.

Elder McWhorter and Elder Eves had ties made for 
themselves, Erdenejargal, Elder Rose, and President Namgur. 
Here are the five in matching Mongolian ties.

Sister Tumenjargal, Sister Rose, Elder Rose, Elder Eves,
Erdenejargal, Elder McWhorter, President Namgur,
Erdenejargal's girlfriend, and Sister Tierney.

.

Group photo after the baptism service, including
Bayartsogt, President's wonderful traveling companion.

Missionaries all make treats for 
baptisms. Elders made no-bake cookies,
sisters made banana bread, we made
mini-cinnamon rolls. 

Later that night, we held a "girls spa night" for the women and girls in our group (and friends). They painted nails, braided hair, used face masks, watched each other's dance performances, did crafts, and ate treats. Lots of visitors had fun together with our members. The guys got together with President Namgur and studied the For the Strength of the Youth pamphlet (which was new to them), sang "I Am a Disciple of Christ," and ate pizza. It was a powerfully spiritual event for them, in spite of boys who often are full of rambunctiousness. 

We did a lot of cooking in our apartment for that weekend: mini cinnamon rolls (turns out that with frosting they are too sweet for a lot of Mongolians), cookies for the women's event, and rolls and soup for a group lunch after church the next day so the President wouldn't leave without food. It was a logistical challenge, given our small oven and few baking dishes, but with some careful planning we made it work. Although Clyde did spill soup on the way - there are lots of very big speed bumps in this town.

Traditional Mongolian dance

We all went home really tired after a busy Saturday of activities, but floating on a cloud because of how well they turned out. We really feel the love and support of the Savior as we strive to serve in this area!

On Sunday Erdenejargal was confirmed a member of the Church. Another young man received the Aaronic Priesthood and was ordained a Deacon. President Namgur, who was presiding and bore his testimony, mentioned it may be his last visit to Sainshand as he will be released from his calling at the end of June when we get a new mission president. It was sad. 

Although it was the first weekend of April and General Conference in America, on this side of the world we still had our fast and testimony meeting. The conference meetings are in the middle of the night here. We have General Conference a week later when we can schedule to watch during the day and when the talks have been translated into Mongolian. 

What a difference from the Sunday meetings when
we first arrived. Those generally had 6 missionaries 
and a small handful of other people attend.

We had 33 in attendance in Sacrament meeting - a new record for Sainshand. The church has been here for just over a year and has grown from one family to an exciting group of saints meeting together, serving together, and worshipping together. 

Yes, many are kids. They love hanging out at the church, because they love the feeling and the people there, whether they know it's the Spirit they're feeling or not. Most native missionaries and adult member leaders in this country joined the church when they were teens. Most were the only members in their families and many still are. Kids absorb the truths of the restored Gospel like wide-eyed sponges. They can feel the Spirit, recognize truth, and are humble enough to want more. They don't generally have a lot of bad habits to get rid of when they join. True, they may have challenges which take them from the path before they become the next generation's leaders, but the Spirit has borne witness that they will return to these foundations. 

It is truly amazing to see the Gathering of Israel in its infancy in one of the remote parts of the world.