Mongolia Mission Week 43 - News of the week and more news!

 Mongolia Mission Week 43

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). 

You may think that all we do is run around visiting festivals, but one of our big responsibilities here (and the reason we have visas) is teaching English. This is the way the Lord wants His work to proceed in this country: we are here to do good through humanitarian efforts of different sorts.

During the summer, we taught high schoolers at the American Corner, which is sponsored by the American embassy. We continued our conversational English classes at the church and added an IELTS (International English Language Testing System) class for adults and advanced high schoolers who want to take the IELTS proficiency test. It made for long nights at the church (2.5 hours in the evening three nights a week), but we enjoyed meeting some wonderful new friends. Now the American Corner classes and the IELTS classes have ended just in time for our high school and medical school classes to begin. 

The start of school means school uniforms on the streets.

Our IELTS class - a serious group. They're
not really playing on their phones. They
are doing research for a class assignment.

We got home to a nice surprise one night. 
The sisters decorated our door!

For the final p-day (preparation day) before transfers, we invited the young volunteers over for enchiladas (we found green chilies in the capital!!!), churro cheesecake (to keep with the tex-mex theme), and games of Dalmuti and "Poetry for Neanderthals." 

This game involves bopping your opponent
if they use words of more than one syllable.

Elder Jonon sporting our goat horns
we found in the desert.

Daisy Hess was the only one of the three young volunteers to get transferred. Some of her young friends presented her with cute little gifts. 

She accepted gifts with 2 hands, Mongolian style

Sister Rose got a gift, too. A hand-made
bracelet.

A group hug for a good-bye. It's 
so hard to say goodbye!

Several of us met at the train station to see the two
sisters off to the city and give a final farewell.  

Sister Hess was replaced by Lindsey Fish, freshly arrived in Mongolia on Thursday and then in Sainshand on Saturday. Here she is, arriving after flying halfway around the world and taking the train from Ulaanbaatar - ready for a full day of activities on Saturday!

Lindsey Fish arrives - with a brand new pillow.

On Saturday, we had separate Young Men and Young Women activities. The boys had been wanting their own special activity ever since the girls went to Young Women's camp. So we hiked to the top of Wish Mountain (Officially Khan Bayanzurkh Mountain, it's where many Buddhists make special wishes.). We had 8 boys and 4 adults participate on a beautiful but very windy day.

Great views of the Gobi from Wish Mountain.

Buddhists decorate things with colorful scarfs when
they worship.

Found some wildlife, also decorated 
with a colorful scarf.

Stupas are memorials for the dead and can symbolize
the way to enlightenment.

For big celebrations, a very large fire can be built
in the big, decorative copper basket.

On the way back, we built a little fire to make s'mores
- a very new experience for the boys.

Meanwhile, the young women met at our apartment to learn how to make rice crispy treats - and see how many marshmallows they could stuff in their mouths!

Sister Fish, on the right, immediately fits right in.

The cereal also became a way to play a game
that is trending on TikTok.

We ended our Saturday with a welcome dinner for Sister Fish. There's a new restaurant in town called Gobi Nomads. It's very nice and has good food, except they were out of (or not making) pizza, salads, and milkshakes. Not uncommon. But she got to eat a couple of the main Mongolian foods, tsuivan (a noodle dish) and khuushuur (fried meat pies). 

We are so grateful to serve with these young volunteers. They are dedicated to serving God wherever they are called and however they are needed. That includes paying their own way to leave family, friends, school, and interests behind to come to a remote part of the world to teach English. They also get to serve in our local church congregation by helping with youth activities, teaching Sunday School, speaking (a lot! we don't have many members!) in meetings, translating for their poor senior people who don't seem to learn much Mongolian, and wherever else they are needed. Like cleaning the church every week. Everything with a willing smile. They are amazing examples of dedication and selfless service and we love serving with them! They add so much to our lives and this work.

And to end this week's blog - exciting news! Elder Neil L Andersen and his wife will be in Mongolia next week! He is an apostle of Jesus Christ. We will all get to go to the city for a special devotional and mission conference. Check back to learn more about his visit to Mongolia!

Mongolia Mission Week 42 - A land of wonderful and interesting sights

 Mongolia Mission Week 42

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). 

Life in this country has been hard on many people. The median age here is 27. But we love the beauty of the experienced, weathered faces we see. 

Sometimes they are contrasted by a member of the youthful, younger generation.

We've also seen a variety of interesting gates and fences (most very weathered) around the yards of people who do not live in apartment buildings. Gers, outbuildings, and very small houses are in fenced-off areas people own. And people everywhere seem to have a desire to decorate, when they can. Here's a peek of some sights around our town.

Some fences are made of concrete, either formed or in blocks.

Some are made of wood or metal with fancy gates.
These symbols are traditional Mongolian symbols
representing eternity.

Some gates are adorned with metal horses or dogs. 

The Bankhar dog, a livestock herding dog, is the most
common dog in Mongolia. We see them everywhere.

 

We interrupt this discussion about fences
to show this especially large Bankhar dog.
And a couple of  great elders.

This fence, like many, is made of various scraps of
metal, including one that seems to be from a larger
piece of art. Hopefully you can see the child.

This one has painted cartoon characters.

Cars, on the other hand, are relatively decoration-free. We see no bumper stickers or vanity plates, but sometimes we see interesting decals or other adornments. 

We've seen several Jokers.

This decal is sweet.

Toyota?

 

We've also learned the importance of selecting the best color of car - so that the duct tape matches!

Other sights we appreciate - we love the beauty of God's artwork, from His sky scenes to His caterpillars. We absolutely know that this is His earth, and the things on it weren't created by accident or chance. 

The sky is always captivating.

We took this in the mountains.
(We see very few insects in Sainshand -
only flies and little black beetles that
kept coming into our house for a time.)

We see and experience Mongolian hospitality everywhere. It's amazing. We witness it most days in all sorts of different ways: 

• When we go to someone's house or apartment we are always offered something to drink - hot milk or milk tea when it's cold outside, or soda and fruit drinks when it's hot. But we will always be offered a drink and usually some candy or dried curd, even when we were not expected.
• At a church youth activity, the refreshment was some form of rice chip - a rather tasty form of Styrofoam. We had eaten lunch recently and weren't really hungry, so we didn't take plates. Three separate 12-year old girls noticed we didn't have any and came by to offer us some of their treat.
• In fact, kids all the time come into the church munching on something and are constantly offering to share with us, like it's expected.
• We saw a kid at school share a chocolate bar she won with a boy who asked for some, even when it looked to us like she really didn't want to share her prize.
• Two adult women asked to meet with us to talk about options for them learning English. And then apologized that they had not brought a gift.
• We always have someone (usually a teen) offer (rather insistently) to help with bags, luggage, or anything we are carrying. It's obvious they respect their elders. (We're not old - we just look like we are ;)
• Kathy accompanied the sisters on a visit to teach Jimsee, an 8-year old girl who was home alone (not uncommon here). When they got there, Jimsee was mixing yogurt into a bowl of apples she had just chopped. She carefully put three spoons in the bowl and handed it to them to share (shared dishes are common).

A special treat from a tiny hostess

Jimsee's aunt dropped by after the lesson.

We so enjoy interacting with the people of this country. And people watching! We leave you with the amazing sight of a teenage boy (on the right) walking across the desert in roller blades. Sorry it's blurry! 

And a boy on a bike pulling a little person on a tiny bike with a long rope.

The house on the left looks like an American style
house, which is extremely unusual here.

Mongolia Mission Week 41 - We have so much to learn, but people are more than willing to help us!

 Mongolia Mission Week 41

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 longer we are here, the more we wish we could truly understand the vast history of this country. Our history is a huge piece of our identity. The identity of this place reveals itself in so many traditions and interactions, many of which come from history so much older and therefore more layered than that of our own country. A lot of times people don't even know why they participate in some traditional behaviors. They just know that they've always done things a certain way. 

Every week is an opportunity to learn how much we can still learn. This week we went to the capital to learn from another zone conference, but we went a day early to shop for things we don't find in Sainshand. And we also took some time to visit the Bogd Khaan Winter Palace Museum, the oldest museum in Mongolia. 

The Bogd Khaan, the last Khaan of Mongolia, was an important Tibetan monk established as the ruler (at age 5) of Mongolia as Mongolians were breaking away from China in the early 20th century. He is credited with bringing Buddhism to Mongolia, which has a major influence in the country today. This palace, the only remaining one of four, contains several of Bogd Khaan's possessions, including his throne, ornate beds he and his wife slept in, and a collection of exotic taxidermied animals and birds he collected about 1901.

It has ornate gates, a pavilion, and several Buddhist
 temples, each containing religious artwork.

It's always thought-provoking to see the ancient
next door to the contemporary.

His palace was built in the style of Russian architecture and is relatively plain compared to the ornate surrounding structures. It is now the museum.

The winter palace with this beauty trying to avoid the rain.

A toy ship that belonged to the Bogd Khaan 

His and hers thrones. Fairly hard seats-

Then, as usual, we enjoyed our day at Zone Conference.

Before the conference we did video 
inspections of 17 apartments and awarded
highly-sought after prizes for the cleanest.

For Zone Conference, we had a great scriptural discussion centering around how Jesus forgives and what that reveals about Him. He is so merciful and loving! Also, our mission president loves doing historical research about the authenticity of the Book of Mormon and shared with us the main arguments people have proposed against it. 

In so doing, he shared some really interesting facts with us. Joseph Smith, an uneducated farmer, translated almost all of the Book of Mormon in 60-75 working days. It contains consistent dating, judicial, and governmental systems spanning several centuries, 531 pages, 337 unique names (188 never heard of before this book), and undiscovered (at that time) Hebraic linguistic structures. It explains little-understood theological doctrines and establishes important new ones, like the fact that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is infinite. The Book of Mormon also contains facts contrary to common knowledge during Joseph Smith's time.

But logic aside, the book's authenticity is found in what it does for people's lives. The Book of Mormon brings people to Jesus Christ. Christ is on every page and in every story. People find strength, comfort, and knowledge of Christ's love for them from spending time in this book. We certainly do. And countless people around the world do. 

President Kunz is a master teacher!

Our zone - the East Zone.

Later, we went to a nice dinner with the Rottweilers
- steak on hot rocks!

Good thing we chose an indoor table.
A hail storm entertained us while we ate.

Instead of heading straight home after Zone Conference, we stayed an extra day to take in (and learn from) a Nomad Festival a few miles outside the city. We have a member who told us she would be there helping represent our province and that we should come see her. The festival was an amazing showcase of Mongolian "intangible culture" (their description) and hospitality, and they especially looked forward to visits from foreigners. It was set in a gorgeous green valley, sprawled out with numerous vendors and presenters, designated areas with portable seats for the opening ceremonies and horseback archery, and plenty of room for lots of animals (like eagles, dogs, horses, camels, reindeer, and oxen).

Each province from the country was represented in a traditional ger and had a display to exhibit what is special and unique to their area.  Presenters wore their local ethnic clothing - there seems to be at least 20 traditional styles. (People love it when we dress in traditional clothing, too.) There were musical and dance performances and craft demonstrations - wool felt is decorated and used in amazing ways! Most gers we poked our heads in had refreshments set out and people wanting to host us. There was no way to spend time in them all.

The opening ceremony, where every province paraded
in ethnic dress. We even saw reindeer from the northern
province.

This woman explained how her clothing 
differs from that of someone who is married.

This area is known for their eagle hunters.
They are very proud of  this famous
woman hunter.

Some gers we visited had wonderful 
English speakers who encouraged us
to visit their provinces.

When we stopped for lunch, we shared a table with
this welcoming family who wanted a picture with us
and gave us a bag of sweet aaruul (dried curd).

This instrument looks like a bow. It's
played by tapping on the strings and
doing something with the tongue to
vary the sound of the tapping.

One of the most fascinating gers was one where the people had focused on documenting genealogy. Wow, do we wish we spoke Mongolian and could communicate and learn more about what they had documented!

A wheel showing generations.

One of the main events of this festival is horseback archery. Over 30 countries were represented. We saw archers from Saudi Arabia and met and visited with one from Taiwan, who recognized us as members of his church because we were hanging with some 19ish-year old Americans. 

A Mongolian archer waiting near us.
These guys competed on horseback, riding
as fast (and levelly) as they could and
shooting at 3 different targets.

John got to drive an ox-drawn cart. Or at least
pose with it.

Some Mongolians associated with the festival just brought tents to sleep in, and it looks like there was quite a bonfire and drone show in the evening. We wish we could have spent longer at the festival, but we're grateful for this peek into a proud heritage.  For more festival pictures and videos, click here.

On the way home, we learned that wide loads don't
have a pilot vehicle to warn you. But it's obvious.

And this week ended with John being fairly sick to his stomach for a day. But he quickly recovered and was fine within about 20 hours. Guess he'll have to go back and listen more carefully to Sister Kunz's talk on how to stay healthy. Still, we know that the reason we've been as healthy as we have is a direct result of your prayers and our prayers for our health and safety. Thanks, and keep 'em coming!