Mongolia Mission Week 4

 Mongolia Mission Week 4

Our hope with this blog is to share highlights with our family and friends about our exciting opportunities and awesome responsibilities as missionaries. 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).

Our new home away from home is Sainshand, Mongolia, a city of about 20,000 in the Dornogobi (East Gobi) province, in the Gobi Desert. Sainshand is close to the China border on one of the main roads Chinese people use to come to Mongolia for work. It's a 12 hour (usually overnight) train ride from the capitol, but our mission president drove us, so it only took about 5.5 hours. Along the way we saw domesticated but free roaming (no fences) horses, cows, sheep, goats, and camels.

All the camels had their backs to us
except for Clyde.

Small herd of horses along the road

Symbolic gate of Sainshand, "White Door," with Pres. Namgur

We are getting settled in nicely and have already learned to be grateful:

• We are grateful when the wind doesn't blow, because then it isn't as cold.
• We are grateful when the wind does blow, because then the air is cleaner.
• We are grateful when the air is clear, because we don't have to wear N-95 masks.
• We are grateful for the smoke in the air, because it creates beautiful sunrises and sunsets.
• We are grateful that we are getting so much exercise. We walk almost everywhere.
• We are grateful that it is so easy to get a ride when we don't want to walk (more later).
• We are grateful there isn't an elevator in our building, as we are getting lots of exercise to our apartment. (Maybe not as grateful when we were moving in with all our luggage, but we had help).

We felt like celebrities when we arrived Tuesday and got standing applause from students and leaders of the school where we will teach. There were posters with our names on them, balloons, gifts, and a couple of carefully prepared musical and dance performances by students. The principal expressed appreciation not only for us, but for our sponsoring group, Deseret International Charities, which donates a lot of time, materials, and food in this country. Recently blankets and kitchen supplies were donated for children who live in dorms during the school year and live with their nomadic families during the summers. The governor of the province also gave us gifts.

We live on the 6th floor of a fairly new apartment complex. It's nice and warm. Nice views, nice location. 20 minute walk to where we teach. 20 minute walk the other way to the main grocery store, but there's a market in one of the buildings in our apartment complex.

No one plays on the playground in Dec. Daytime temps are in the high teens Fahrenheit.

View from our apartment

We have already made bread (when the store was out), tacos with homemade tortillas and fresh salsa (for our district meeting), and John's sister's homemade hot cocoa recipe. All wonderful comfort foods. And we've tried several dishes at local places that were delicious, too!

Church is about a 40 minute walk (did we mention we are getting exercise?) and on the 2nd floor of a commercial building. It's a dedicated space and is nice. Still a small congregation, with 15-20 attending on a Sunday (including 6 of us missionaries). So it's not big enough to be a "branch"; it's a "group" and has only been organized for about a year.

These are the young elders and sisters in our district -
our new best friends! They are such dedicated missionaries
and volunteers who are consecrated to the work of the Lord!

The missionaries from Mongolia are called to teach the gospel and proselyte. The missionaries from America have a responsibility to teach English in the schools and at night in the community. They assist the Mongolian missionaries in teaching the gospel when asked.

John is now the group leader at church. There are two families in the group with Melchizedek priesthood holders, and there are several boys from 7-13 years old who like coming to things at the church because they like the way it feels. Their parents send them to our community English classes that the young volunteers teach 3x a week, but the boys also come to sacrament meeting and mutual. There are some teenage girls who also come alone, which demonstrates an inspiring desire to learn; some are quite recent converts. One was teaching Kathy Mongolian phrases by writing them in Kathy's notebook, and also asked "Have you ever seen a temple?" She was so excited when Kathy said yes. And so excited when Kathy remembered her name. We are impressed with the sweet spirits of the people we've met, and with the spirit we've felt in this place.

Our church is the 2nd floor of this building.
The building also holds a pharmacy, an ATM, 
a spin class, and a tattoo parlor - not sure what else!

One of our most interesting experiences is transportation. It's a combination of hitchhiking and Uber. As you walk down the street, if you put out your hand, someone will probably stop and let you in. They usually already have another passenger. You tell them where you want to go (or hold up the address, in our case) and they take you there. You pay 1000 MNT per person or about 70 cents each. Distance doesn't matter. No haggling over price, and no tip. It's a set price. By whom, we have no idea. But it works. Evidently, abduction isn't a thing here-

We haven't pulled out all of our thermals yet (much), but we also haven't felt the urge to do a whole lot of wandering around and exploring. These people are hardy! And the children are so cute in layers of puffy coats, snow pants, sturdy boots, and mittens with strings that go through the coat armholes so they don't get lost. 

• We are grateful to know that God loves all His children and wants them to have joy - and answers their prayers.
• We are grateful to be serving Him in Mongolia in whatever way He wants us to bless His children.
• We are grateful to know that Jesus Christ lived on this earth, atoned for our sins, was resurrected, lives again today, and leads and guides His church through a prophet and apostles. 
• We're grateful for the chance to celebrate His birth and that a member of our group suggested that we all text out a group scripture about Christ every day to prepare for Christmas. It's fun to hear from everyone and add hearts to their posts. 

That's all for now. Next week we will probably feature some of the fun food items we have found. Did you know Heinz makes pineapple ketchup??