Mongolia Mission Week 20 - Driving across Mongolia or "Who's Clyde?"

 Mongolia Mission Week 20

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). 

Surprise! We took another train ride to the city. We left at 7:30 pm but then stayed up, as we wanted to Zoom in for the talks given by Boyd and Carol Fife in our ward back home prior to them going on a mission to Adam-ondi-Ahman. But traveling across Mongolia on a train means poor cell service and certainly no wi-fi. We got to hear about 5 minutes of only Carol's talk and were lucky to get that much. Then we were awakened at 6:15 am by helpful (?) train staff after about 5 hours of sleep so we would be ready for our arrival in Ulaanbaatar at 7:00 am (!). More than ample time to deflate and fold up our indispensable camping pads we brought from the US. 

Then John finished studying for the Mongolian driving test at the mission home. He only had to do the written part, which was to answer 20 questions out of a pool of 800. He, like all the foreigners we know, found it amazingly hard because of how detailed the questions are about everything from first aid (which drivers are required to offer when they come across someone who needs help, including taking them to a medical facility), to pedestrian rights, to both city and country laws, and to a dizzying array of traffic signs and symbols.  And many questions are purposely tricky. 

On top of all that, there are funky translation issues. The test is in English, but that doesn't mean the translation is great. "How far from a railroad crossing must you be to stand?" Hmm, does stand mean stop or park? The answer for each is different. Anyway, he passed! So we rented a car from the mission and drove back to Sainshand the next day. It's a RAV4 with the steering wheel on the left side. Most drivers in this country have steering wheels on the right side, because those are the cars they can get. But we all drive on the right side of the road. You get used to it.

First time driving in the big city, and headed for
the country as fast as we can legally get there.

This is the traffic John had to join - and
 then cross to make a left turn at the corner.

A cemetery along the way home - the first we've 
seen in this country.

We passed herds of cattle, horses, sheep, and goats.
People herd with cars, horses, motorcycles, or ATVs.

Everything stops when there are cattle crossing,
but the herder threw a rock at the last one to 
hurry it along.

We weren't in the city long this time, but we did catch a few pictures to share.

Choijin Lama Temple Museum against a skyscraper
backdrop in Ulaanbaatar. Too bad it was closed!

Nearby, some construction. We got a kick out
of all the bad things that can happen if you enter!

We found a store that sells American brands - for 
three times what we'd pay in America-

Yes, there's a disability ramp, but 
what a wild ride that would be!

Vietnamese Pho for lunch with the Mission
President and his family 

After driving through lots of blowing tumbleweeds that kept looking like rabbits darting out across the road, we finally got back to Sainshand, thankful for its reasonable number of cars on the road. 

Then it was back to teaching. When we went to teach at the medical school on Thursday, the person who oversees our teaching let us know that we would only teach for a half hour because a country-wide emergency drill was scheduled and we would all have to leave the building.

It turns out that when the first siren rings, presumably for an earthquake, we are all to get under our desks....

When the 2nd alarm sounds, we are to exit the building and meet at the designated gathering place. In our case, we just followed the crowd. But we didn't realize we were supposed to hold a book over our heads!

Interestingly enough, the students returned back to class afterwards and wanted to continue where we had left off!

One very busy Saturday, we were invited to help with a service project. We thought it was to help plant trees. When we showed up at the restaurant that was the appointed meeting place, we were fed a filling breakfast of mutton and seaweed soup, fried bread, and warm milk tea. Then we drove to the outskirts of town and helped fill in a trench, at least part way, but then we had to leave for other commitments before any trees arrived.

Tumenjargal, Tierney, and McWhorter
(in his suit pants re: baptism later)

John had a shovel with a very long handle - and
slivers -.made from a rough 1x2

He traded off periodically with Kathy, whose
shovel had an extremely short handle!

That same day we went to visit a young lady from our church who'd had a premature baby and had spent several weeks in the hospital with her. 

John was able to give a priesthood blessing to bless
this infant as she grows to be strong and healthy.

Also that same day, we had two young men get baptized and join our church. They recognized the truths of the restored Gospel and want it in their lives. They both have a special and obvious glow now and were confirmed and received the gift of the Holy Ghost the next day in sacrament meeting. We are excited to see new young members in our group here in Sainshand! The Holy Ghost is such an important part of our lives; we're pleased to know that other people can share in this precious gift of peace, knowledge, and protection from our Heavenly Father. We were both baptized and confirmed when we were young and have so appreciated having access to the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost in the ups and downs of our lives and know it will bless these two young men, as well.

Attendees at the baptism.

P.S. In case you're wondering who Clyde is, we named our little, white RAV4 "Clyde" because

we don't have a camel to ride across the desert (a nod to Ray Stevens fans).

Mongolia Mission Week 19 - Pi Day, Rubik's tournament, and Transfers

 Mongolia Mission Week 19

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 sat down to write our blog and thought, "This was a pretty quiet week. What is there to share?" Then we looked back through our pictures and realized there are so many random things that would be fun to share. First, Pi Day, always important for the math nerds in our family. 

Chicken pot pie!

Chicken pot pie is always a winner. Then we thought we'd try a banana pie. Hear us out on this. First, we don't really have a pie pan. The one we used for the pot pie is a very large lid from a casserole dish. So we made our banana pie in a 7" x 9" pan. That works out to the same area as a 9" pie pan (using pi to calculate this, of course). And we can't find vanilla pudding or banana pudding, but we did find a light colored pudding imported from Turkey (most grocery items in this country are imported from somewhere else - our jar of pickled beets said "We love vegetables!" on its lid in Polish). Our pudding turned out to be honey almond flavor. And the whipping cream doesn't really whip into peaks, but it is delicious. The result was a success and probably impossible to ever recreate. 

We ate the pies when the sisters came over to watch the Relief Society broadcast with Kathy. It was for the commemoration of the beginning of the Relief Society, 183 years ago, broadcast from the red brick store in Nauvoo clear to Mongolia! They shared a sweet experience in watching and talking about the broadcast and feeling a part of what is considered by many to be the oldest, largest women's organization in the world. We'll watch it again in Mongolian if the broadcast gets translated. Then we can include the one adult sister in our group and maybe some of the teenage girls as well.

Walking home from school one day there was some sort of military event going on.  Not sure what, but we watched the formation and listened to a soloist sing a beautiful number in a wonderfully deep voice. It may have been a rehearsal of some sort, because there was no audience and because kids were running around on the parade ground while it was happening. The mysteries keep piling up.

One day when we were with Sister Taylor and Sister Tierney, we went walking along the top of the hill overlooking our little city of Sainshand right at sunset. Our apartment complex is on the hill, but we've never done a lot of exploring because of the cold.

There's a memorial of a war hero up there,
as well as a tank.  

So is a monastery - you can see the silky scarves
people have hung from a line between two poles.

There's a row of gers at the foot of the hill.

There's a fun footbridge that crosses
above the highway

The students we teach at the school were part of a Rubik's Cube tournament this week. There were both individual competitions and class competitions (where the clock keeps ticking until all members of the class finish). It was painful watching the last person of a class trying to finish, with the pressure of the entire class upon their shoulders. Sometimes the time just ran out. The school had decided that holding a competition like this would motivate students to spend less time on their phones. We'd been wondering why so many students have been obsessed with the cubes in class - while we are trying to teach-

The competition was held in the elementary school gym.

These are some of our 8th grade students.
Students here wear school uniforms.

These are some of the cute students that attend
English class at the church. Some are taking church
lessons, too. They  love learning about the Savior.
 

They learned that one teacher was being
transferred and would leave Sainshand
the next day. Serious sadness.

On Thursday, all of our young teachers headed to the city. Ally Taylor and Bryant Higginbotham both got new assignments after spending over 12 weeks in Sainshand. They all left Thursday night, spent the night on the train, went to meetings Friday, then the ones coming back got on a train for another overnight train ride. Good thing they are young! We wouldn't survive with that kind of a schedule.

Headed to the city for transfers - we miss
them already!

Dylan McWhorter and Rylee Tierney got to stay in Sainshand. When they got back, we got to meet Roman Eves and a sweet native Mongolian missionary, Sister Tumenjargal. And that afternoon they all got right to work. For Mutual, we picked up garbage around an outdoor basketball court near our church. We had a small but mighty crew, including a girl we picked up along the way. We had actually seen her when we walked to the church that day. 

Many times when we walk past kids, we hear them yell "Hello!" Most don't know how to answer us when we try to have conversations or even when we ask "How are you?" But, assuming we are English-speakers (a fair assumption), they like to call out the English word they do know and have us respond. And it makes us feel like celebrities. One the other day yelled, "Hello, Grandma!" and "Hello, Grandpa!" Anyway, this one girl greeted us on our way to church, and when she saw us later with our little band, she stayed to help.

A small but very hard-working crew

John's partner

Afterwards, the elders joined a game.

Sunday was another amazing day. All of our cleaning crew from the prior day came to church and stayed for the entire two hours. We had other investigators, too. Again, translations worked and important messages were received through the Spirit. The adult Sunday School lesson was on personal revelation. After discussing it for awhile, Kathy asked our investigator who is getting baptized on April 5 about his experiences with personal revelation. He said he'd never had any. Then she asked him how he knew he needed to be baptized, and he launched into a story about his first discussion with the elders and how warm and happy it made him feel. He can't wait until he is baptized. He is so excited about everything he is learning. His life has changed enough that people have noticed a big difference in him. Kathy then had a chance to clarify that those feelings are, indeed, personal revelation. 

We are humbled to feel the Lord's guidance. He continues, in His divine way and within His divine timeline, to bless this area, the people here, and the small group of us who are working to serve them.

Mongolia Mission Week 18 - Spring? in Sainshand

 Mongolia Mission Week 18

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). 

The Tsagaan Sar holiday, which seems (among other things), to be a celebration of spring, ushered in some warmer weather. We've had several days in the 50's, which feels incredible. Kathy has bid her long coat farewell. Kids are starting to wear tennis shoes to school instead of fur-lined boots. We hear that spring also ushers in sand storms, but we've only had one day of that experience, so far. Blowing sand and tumbleweed races!

The  warmer weather has caused small

children to appear on the playground

outside our apartment.

This downtown concrete framework has been

untouched all winter and now activity has resumed.

Building safety standards are not like the US ones.  

This is an enclosed balcony off our apartment. The
insides of the windows have been coated with thick ice
crystals all winter. We got to see what's really out there.

Turns out the answer was a dust storm. Maybe washing
windows is like washing your car, only instead of it
bringing rain, it brings dust. This was the next day!

Tumbleweeds piled up along our school fence.

Next topic, food again! Of course!

After Tsagaan Sar, we ended up with 15
very sturdy loaves of sweet, fried bread.
They last forever. People enjoy munching
on them or dip them in hot drinks.

We decided we could make them into bread pudding.
One loaf makes a 7x9 inch pan of bread pudding!

Tsagaan Sar may be officially over, but making and eating buuz (the traditional dumplings) is not. 

Chuka and Baagii invited some of us 
over for buuz. Their family is so warm
and welcoming and is the anchor
of our church group.

Alice invited all of us Americans who teach English at the 3rd School to join her and her daughter, Michelle, in making buuz. It was fun and delicious. Schools in town are numbered. The 3rd school is the third one that was built in Sainshand; it was built in 1957.

 

After buuz-making, Michelle, who is 5,
read us some stories in English.
Her English is awesome!

We ended the week with a Mutual activity where the youth worked on making "Look unto Christ" bracelets using the pattern provided in the church instructions for this year's youth theme. Turns out they take longer to make than we anticipated, but we had a great turnout and everyone seemed to enjoy the activity. A lot of attendees were from the English classes we all teach at the church.

Most of the kids just got creative and
made bracelets, necklaces, or phone
dangles out of beads.

Every Sunday turns out to be unexpected and amazing. Imagine preparing a Sunday School lesson knowing that you could be teaching only missionaries, only the one main family in our group and a bunch of little boys, or all of the above, maybe with an investigator or two. It's a daunting prospect, one that needs language interpretation and lots of inspiration. But this is the Lord's work, and He directs the lessons to suit the needs of whoever is there in beautiful and inspiring ways. 

On the 16th, there were very few of our local members in attendance - just 3 teens. But several people showed up who are interested in learning more about the gospel. In fact, 11 non-members attended. That's the most we've seen since we've been in Sainshand.

We had great discussions together, and the non-members actually took part in teaching each other. Two of the non-members, a boy and a girl, were teens whose English is phenomenal, and they helped translate! Asked to help translate John's sacrament meeting talk, the girl found herself trying to explain terminology she had never heard before, like "Restoration" and priesthood." She was assisted from the audience by the elders and sisters and also the other teen investigator. Afterwards, she said she really didn't want to do that again, but then she became so involved in the Sunday School discussion that she found herself translating it as well! When an investigator lady would ask a question, Kathy, the teacher, would answer it, but both the question and the answer needed translation that she, the other teen, and the sisters provided. It worked! The 3 people stayed after church for an hour to talk and ask more questions. And the Spirit was so strong. 

Then the investigator lady invited us to come over and eat and play games with her family. It was a delightful evening getting to know her family!

Every family plays Shagai, the ankle bone game.

The daughter, whose dance competition
medals are on the living room wall,
showed us a traditional dance.

In other news of this week, our sweet puppy who currently lives with Steven and his family in Nebraska, turned 5 years old. We miss her. And our family. But we appreciate their love and support. We have been blessed by prayers from home, and we thank you all!

And, even in Mongolia, we got to see the "blood moon."

We close this week with a quote from Alma 30:44: " ..... and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator."  

We see that witness of God in the animals, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the tumbleweeds. We see God's hand in the people of Mongolia. In how our Sunday meetings go. And in the help we receive as we teach lessons, meet people, and work with such amazing young people who are also here to serve the people of Mongolia. God's love for His children is amazing! We are so blessed to get to experience it and be witnesses of it.