Monday, May 12, 2025

Mongolia Mission Week 25 - In search of blossoms

Mongolia Mission Week 25

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 view out of our 6th floor window always amazes us. One morning there was an interesting layer on the horizon. Smog? There is no city north of us for hundreds of miles, if at all! Clouds? Looked rather brown, but maybe it was sun reflection. Dust storm? Likely, but everything was so clear that day. As the day went on, it dissipated and didn't affect us.

A few days later, it was dark storm clouds. Once in a while (not often!) we have a cloud cover, but we hadn't seen clouds like this in Sainshand since we got here. We were rather excited that we might have a real rain storm. Nope! Just a few raindrops that didn't amount to much and definitely didn't interfere with the basketball being played on the court outside. We understand rains may come in August-


This view is fun. An apartment building like ours on the right edge of the view. Small group of traditional gers just to the left of it. And solar panels at the bottom of the picture. 

Such a blend of the traditional and the modern
living in harmony here.

It was a week of change. Here we are on our final night for this group. Dylan McWhorter and Rylee Tierney left us for assignments in other parts of Mongolia. Bittersweet! We know they and their special gifts are needed elsewhere. We love and admire these two and will miss them.


And the work just keeps rolling along - here we are with two new replacements. Grace Gainer and Elder Jonon joined us in Sainshand. We are excited for them to join us in serving here. They jumped right in with our group activities, even after 2 straight nights of sleeping on a train.


And what a unique place Sainshand is for some of us. There aren't really fences between the city and the surrounding open range. We've posted pictures of our local "wildlife" before, but always find it interesting to be headed home from school and find a cow next to a playground or apartment building. We tend to live harmoniously together unless the cows start pulling garbage bags out of the trash dumpsters and scattering it. Then the cows win.


For our preparation day (day off from teaching), we went to the Khamariin Khiid Monastery area with Chuka, our English speaking church member who treats us so generously with his time and talents. There are some special Sakura blooms from seeds someone brought from Japan that are planted out there in the desert, and the bushes bloom for only a few days around May 1.


The monastery covers a lot of ground and has several different buildings and monuments. It is known as an energy center with special properties. Inside this building, the walls are covered with (maybe bronze?) wall sculptures that are very detailed and amazing. We could spend hours in there, but we arrived just as it was closing, and Chuka convinced them to let the volunteer English teachers look around. So we tried not to spend too long. Chuka said it's the first time he's even seen them because the building is not always open.

 



Near the monastery complex are some caves we have visited before. These caves were hiding places when the Russians were killing all the monks. Monks have historically used them as places of meditation, and people visit them now to leave offerings and offer prayers.

Then we found the elusive flowers in a small ravine. Apparently we were a few days early, but we did find some blooms! There were a lot more buds than blooms, but we were delighted with their delicate beauty in the desert. 

People come from miles around to see the blossoms.

These were a different bloom. Also 
so refreshing!

We also found little stacks of rocks everywhere. People stack rocks together in kind of a ger shape to make a special wish. They believe the structure also creates or signifies unity in their family.



The first baby calves we've seen. 

We never get tired of camels wandering along the road.

We also went to Wish Mountain, which is extremely busy on the first sunrise of the lunar new year. We understand that this is the highest hill in the area. People climb to the top and make wishes. Women are allowed to go as high as the structure on the right and men climb to the higher level on the left. The small white monuments are memorials honoring the dead of individual families.




Chuka said his wife's family paid for
one recently for their family's dead.

Some of the artwork in this area features
 scorpions, which are an important symbol.

With Spring also comes construction! Everywhere. A couple of weeks ago, we shared a picture of a two guys precariously perched on the second floor of a building who looked like they were working on rebar. That building now is 5 stories tall and changes every day. This is a side view of the building. The front looked like this for a while, but now all the space between the concrete floors have been filled in with blocks, mostly of the same size and shape. And there are piles of bricks on each floor. We are curious to see if those are for the interior or exterior, but seems it would be hard to apply them to the exterior.



What the building front looked like
a few days later.

Construction for us also means that a hot water heater was installed in the church! We haven't seen one that can be mounted horizontally before, so that was fun (for those of us fascinated by such things).
We are excited for something we will never take for granted again. We so appreciate having hot water. And this water heater will certainly be a blessing to the people who get baptized in our church! 

The font in the background now has a
stainless steel spigot instead of PVC pipe
hanging out of the wall.

On May 4th we had a baby girl blessed and given a name in our church meeting. Here are the mom and baby along with the four priesthood holders who participated in the blessing. The mom asked John to perform this ordinance. What a special privilege for him to get to bless a baby in Mongolia! Babies aren't baptized in our church; we believe they are pure and haven't committed any sins. But this ordinance is a special blessing of health and guidance in the name of Jesus Christ. What a great experience for that mature spirit now in a mortal body. What a special experience for her family to be reminded of who she is, where she came from, and what she can become.





Monday, May 5, 2025

Mongolia Mission Week 24 - Random things to share

Mongolia Mission Week 24

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). 

Our goal this week is to share some pictures from both Sainshand and Ulaanbaatar that just caught our attention and were fun. We hope you enjoy them, too!

--Some young Mongolian girls were drawing on the board after English class at the church, with drawings representing their teacher, "Eves," and the two of us! 


Wonder why they characterized us that way?

--South of our apartment complex, a large performing arts center (we think) is being built. There wasn't much activity during the winter, but with spring there is construction everywhere in the city. 

One day we set off walking and saw a taxi by the performing arts center. Workers were stacking a large quantity of foam boards on top of the taxi. The stack had become taller than the taxi and very out of reach of the people who were trying to load it, and we found the project interesting. Then we realized what was really happening. A slight breeze kept picking up and blowing the top few foam boards off the stack. No sooner did these wanna-be sails get caught and pushed back into place than they blew off again. We needed to get to a class we were teaching and didn't get to see how the story ended.

.

There's also a construction project to the west of us, most likely more apartments. It has suddenly sprung to life with 12 - 20 workers, depending on the day. New industries are coming to Sainshand in the next few years, and we see a lot of apartment buildings in different stages of construction. 


--This is an area known for dinosaur discoveries, which is celebrated in our city logo, signs, etc. In Sainshand there is even a life-sized statue in front of the local cinema. It's made of keys that have been welded together. Both creative and amazing!

 

We also see evidence of petrified wood discoveries, like this short wall with pieces of petrified wood set in concrete along the top.



This is larger example in a store where you
 can get jewelry made with petrified wood.

--But we're starting to see a new face of the Gobi:

The seemingly dead twigs lining the streets
have timidly but persistently been
pushing out some green.

The streets are coming to life!

 The amazing thing is that we don't see many drip lines for water. 

We did, however, see a water truck with 
a hose attached and guys watering trees by hand! 

--Also on the streets, we see horses and camels being hauled, but never a horse trailer. Stock is often hauled in the back of not very big trucks with short racks. The camels are hauled with them kneeling in the back of the truck. They seem fine with it.

This one has a cover, which is unusual. 

--Every city seems to have a sign like this. In Sainshand's case, the "60" represents the 60th anniversary of the city in 2021.

Notice anything strange? No winter coats!

--John is compelled to check out each food market in town, and there's a small one on practically every corner. However, you can't really have a go-to store for some specialty items, like squirt whipped cream or baking powder, because the inventory is always changing.  One thing that is very ubiquitous, though, is all the snacks, drinks, and ramen, much of it imported from other countries.

The ramen isle in one store. There was more on the ends
of the racks.

There are also lots of ice cream bars - not much ice cream in containers, and certainly none in large tubs, but lots of bars. John's favorite treat is a chocolate ice cream bar covered in dark chocolate with pieces of shortbread cookie in the coating. We don't eat much ice cream, but he's always on a quest to find them.

And the flavors! If we find tortilla chips (only in the city), they're usually flavored, like cheese or salsa flavored. And we were excited to find Cheetos until we realized they were ketchup flavored-



In the "unusual foods to find at the
supermarket," add horse jerky. 

Squeezing coconuts must be
rather challenging- 

When you go to the local supermarket (the closest thing we have to a warehouse store) and find a stuffed cactus in a pot, the good news is that it never needs water.


--One of the interesting aspects of travel is just the differences in cultures and expectations. Americans have a certain way of life and we find anything else to be strange. And so it is with restrooms. We stopped at a very new convenience store that is about the half-way mark between our city and the capital. The store just opened in the past month or two, completely remodeled and everything new.  We were delighted with their clean, free restroom. But it is shared. You walk in to the sink area, then turn down this alcove that contains three stalls - the first two for women and the third for men - directly across from the men's urinals. Stand close, fellas.




Turns out our dashboard works great for reheating pizza!
We took leftover homemade pizza on our last trip to the city.

We ran across a poster in the capital. Evidently, 
One Republic was performing at the end of April.

--We have developed a reward hug system for each other for the one who does the dishes. It's nice to be noticed for doing the dishes, and a hug from behind is our tender way of saying thank you. But one day Sister Rose did the dishes and didn't get her hug. When Brother Rose realized this, she got more than the agreed upon hug.


Being called as couple volunteers at this time of life has many advantages over what the young people experience: 
  • we get to choose our own companion 
  • we have already learned to live with them
  • we've already worked out some relationship goals
  • we've already begun learning each other's language
  • we've learned to be patient with each other's weaknesses (and boy, does living with each other 24/7 give a chance to refine that patience!)
  • we've committed to a forever relationship and have the Lord as our partner in that relationship

--But a favorite photo - the picture more so than the selection inside the bakery - is a picture taken just for the sake of the name!


And finally, we thought the sunset in the rearview mirror was fun. We end our blog with the end of a day. Once again thanking God for all his creations and for all the experiences we get to have as we strive to serve Him in Mongolia! We are so blessed every single day! Some may be harder than others, but every day is a blessing and we thank God for those particular experiences. We either cherish the experience or are grateful for the growth and learning gained from it. Either way, we are blessed!





Tuesday, April 29, 2025

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!