Mongolia Mission Week 53 - A land of resourceful people

Mongolia Mission Week 53

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 have to start this week by sharing a comment Kathy received one evening via Facebook Messenger. We have a friend here in Sainshand who is Protestant, speaks pretty good English (in her texts) and is not interested in our religion. But she like to attend our Family Home Evenings. She and Kathy have become friends and sometimes have interesting text conversations about things like giving burdens over to the Savior and praying for patience and other Christlike attributes. The other evening there were messages going back and forth about a job change this woman going through, some of the challenges in her life, etc. In the midst of this, Kathy gets a message, "You and your husband seem very calm even when angry, and your cake tastes really good." It made our day, although we're not really sure when we were angry. 

Christ is the answer to all of life's challenges. If not directly helping us put them into perspective or helping us overcome them, He gives us strength beyond our own to bear them. And calmness! We know this and love sharing that knowledge with people.  

This week was another uplifting and wonderful zone conference. This time, the people serving in rural areas (like us) were supposed to join via Zoom. But a few weeks ago we commissioned a nativity set to be carved with a planned completion date of this zone conference, not knowing we weren't coming to the city. So we went to the city for zone conference anyway. That way we could also perform the ultra-valuable services of buying the prizes for apartment cleaning awards and candy bars to be given to those having birthdays. And get water filters, air filters, a rock chip in the windshield repaired, etc. We make our trips productive. And we now have our nativity set up.

The figures are clothed in deels (traditional Mongolian clothes). Mary has a pretty stern look, but her hair matches one of the traditional Mongolian hairstyles - one we think Padme from Star Wars must have taken inspiration from.

One of the shepherds tenderly cares for a lamb.

Humps on camels here sometimes lean
to one side or the other. The artist 
captured this wonderfully.

Of course a trip to the city meant dodging potholes
and livestock. More than 70 million livestock live 
in this country of 3 million people.

While we've had a couple of snow storms, the weather in Sainshand has been relatively mild. But things are different the closer we got to Ulaanbaatar. It's farther north (about the same latitude as Great Falls, Montana), much colder, and gets more snow than Sainshand. On our trip we saw a thin blanket of snow across the open lands, lands that seem to merge into the "eternal blue sky" Mongolia is known for.

It's a land of hardy and adaptable people. We see motorcycles with these giant muffs attached to the handlebars. Muffs and seat warmers seem like great ideas for all the herders who use their motorcycles to round up their livestock across the steppe.

Notice the furry seat liner.

However, this week the weather is changing in Sainshand, too. 

But this winter we have a car!

After a year, we finally broke down and tried corn on the cob. With John coming from the Treasure Valley of Oregon, and with our experience with Iowa and Utah sweet corn, we are sweet corn snobs. We haven't even wanted to try this. But the vacuum sealed packaging was interesting and it looked delicious. It wasn't bad, but it just can't compare to what we are used to. Sorry, Dole!

We posted a couple of weeks ago about a school talent show. Each school here has a talent show with each class presenting several numbers. With the teachers' strike, several school shows got delayed and are taking place now. We attended some of the 1st School's performances on Friday and some of the 3rd School's on Saturday. (Schools are named consecutively from 1-6 based on the order in which they were built. The school where we teach is the 3rd school and was built in 1957.) These youth take their talent show competitions so seriously and practice late into the night in the days leading up to the show.

Since Elder Johnson got injured at the tree planting activity, he had to leave Sainshand for medical care. Elder Anand has joined us in Sainshand. As per our tradition, we had a welcome dinner at a local restaurant.

We ordered a "meat lover's pizza" which had an amazing amount of corn plus olives and pineapple on it, along with several types of meat. Like ham, not pepperoni or ground sausage like Americans are used to.

There are parts of every town called "ger districts" where gers (yurts) are set up among other small buildings. People live in them year round, hauling water for their daily use and using solar panels for electricity. But one day we were surprised to see a ger suddenly appear in a small space next to an apartment building in our complex. We see gers near construction sights for workers and/or supplies, but these buildings are not under construction. The ger had a stovepipe, so we knew it was either equipped for heating or cooking - or both. A few days later it was gone. 

We learned that gers like that are erected when someone dies to help provide for meals, etc., for several days of family and/or guests, as most homes and apartments are rather small. Tradition, culture, and utility all come together in this land of resourceful people!

Gas shortages are still a problem. We've been told that 90-95% of Mongolian gas comes from Russia, and there are problems right now with getting it. We don't really understand what's going on, but we do see long lines at certain gas stations on certain days, and we have encountered some gas stations where no gas was available. There is also gas rationing. 

Here's a picture we took in Sainshand the other day.

Here's a picture Tuvshin Goo took in another city.
People can sit in line for over an hour without
even getting a full tank.

But we have been blessed to get the gas we need when we want it (we don't generally let our tank get below half full). So far, when we've needed gas, we've been able to pull into a station, pull up to the pump, and get the amount we want. Just another tender mercy!

Mongolia Mission Weeks 51 & 52 - The Miracle of the Broken Water Line

Mongolia Mission Week 51

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'll have to wait for the miracle. First, more Halloween. So, in our last post we reported on the Halloween party we had at the church for our Family Home Evening. It was a week early, but worked well for everyone, we think.

We've asked several adults and kids here about Halloween. The answer is always the same: "It's not really celebrated in Mongolia - except for a few kids." And that seems to be the truth. Not much candy in the stores focused on Halloween. Certainly not the tons of candy and gift bags of goodies for the trick-or-treat aspect of the Lunar New Year holiday. 

But we were prepared, in spite of the fact that we had class that night. We were home during much of the day on Halloween and had a few sporadic visits from a few kids. Some had a little face paint, but there were no elaborate costumes. And they definitely didn't know to say "trick or treat." But they got a treat, just like they expected. Here are the winners of the best dressed trick-or-treaters:

Most kids came carrying grocery bags or gift
bags - 2 gift bags if both were very small-

The teachers in Mongolia were on strike for three weeks. Mongolian law requires anyone who's striking to be at their place of work for the entire work day but to not do any work. So that must have been tedious. From what we understand, they got a 50% increase. They had asked for double their salaries and thought that was reasonable because they only make about $400 USD/month as starting pay - not really a livable salary, even here. So they had some success. But rumor has it that now there will be no winter break, since there is a mandatory number of school days in a school year. 

We were not teaching in the schools this during the strike, but we still taught at the church, at the medical school, and we picked up two more online classes of Mongolian missionaries, so we kept busy. And we are slowly growing our winter IELTS advanced English class. These new classes take extra preparation, so it was a good time for those opportunities to come along while we had a break from the public school classes.

For our Young Men and Young Women activity, we learned how to crochet. This was popular with both the boys and the girls. We had some chess and other games set up, just in case. And cookie decorating. This was also a hit, even though the frosting made the cookies too sweet for many of the kids.

Our English student friend agreed to come teach
everyone crocheting.

Round sugar cookies and bowls of frosting.
Cookie cutters are non-existent here.

Due to a special request, and to show how cool an old couple can be, we made chocolate chip cookies in the shape of "6-7" for the activity. (If you haven't heard of the 6-7 craze, you are missing out on a worldwide trend. Look it up. Kids have silly fun saying "6-7" and doing a juggling/shrugging motion. Just recently, dictionary.com named 6-7 the word of the year! As though a number can be a word....) The kids were delighted about the cookies, and they got broken up and eaten within minutes!

At the start of the 2nd week of this report, 5 professors from the English Language Center at Brigham Young University came to Mongolia for their yearly conferences for Mongolian English teachers. There were conferences held in Ulaanbaatar, Erdenet, and for the first time, Sainshand. Kathy introduced the visiting professors who taught the sessions in Sainshand. She also helped gather information about the teachers' needs while the conference was being planned. About 80 Mongolian teachers from the province attended the sessions, and they received great instruction. So many schools would love to have volunteer English teachers, and there are so few of us to go around!

We helped present certificates after the conference.

Meanwhile, across the street at the Polytechnic College (a school for high school age and some older people; students are admitted based on test scores), our elders were introduced to a room full of students. The elders are going to teach a self-reliance course there for Deseret International Charities (DIC). The class is called "Education for Better Work." DIC, the charity arm in Mongolia of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is the organization that we English teachers are part of in our service here. It is contributing to miracles in this country.

The elders got to explain about the class and let students
 know there were only 12 slots available this session

The Director of the College took us on a tour of the entire facility. It's very impressive what they have been able to do with sparse finances. Many types of vocational classes are taught: automotive classes fit their engine models and classroom spaces in a garage where they also work on cars; little seeds grow under lights around administrative desks in a horticultural area before they graduate to greenhouses elsewhere. There's a room full of sewing machines and older women enrolled in a year-long free sewing class. There are graphic arts classes where students wear special aprons to protect themselves from radiation from computer monitors.

Apparently teachers sometimes spend weekends remodeling classrooms and hallways to upgrade the buildings at the Polytechnic College, and they donate their time to do it. We were told that students have built sections of the school as part of their learning experiences.  The director also showed us a pool table she bought with her own money so the teachers would have a place to spend spare time. She said it has improved some drinking problems. She really cares about her students and her staff.

John got to try his hand at a backhoe simulator.

We saw projects students make as souvenirs for tourists. We also went into the school's museum they've started. It includes several pretty impressive welding art projects.

Elsewhere, we looked out a window to find a practical but curious use of blocks to support a car.

This is our view of the super moon from Mongolia. But, unlike our friends at home, we've seen no Northern Lights!

On Saturday, we participated in a tree planting project. We were joined by the faculty of the Polytechnic College; once again they were doing service and had a large group of adults out in the bitter wind planting hundreds of small trees and bushes. DIC provides trees for many reforestation efforts across the country. 

From left to right: Elder Johnson, Sister Fish, Sister Veile,
Elder and Sister Rose, and Elder Paul

The Polytechnic College had a large group of volunteers,
including the director. This is just part of the group.

But Elder Johnson stepped into a ditch and, in a freak misstep, rolled his ankle. He and Kathy both heard the loud pop. It earned him a trip to the local hospital for x-rays and casting, and then a trip to the capital for further tests. 

He did get to ride in a wheelchair that had been donated by DIC, which also donates, food, medical supplies, and recently, the Chromebook computers we reported on a few weeks ago. 

Ironic that a DIC volunteer got to
ride in a wheelchair donated by DIC.

Now, as promised, the miracle of the broken water line. On Sunday afternoon we were in the kitchen making dinner for Sister Veile's birthday when we heard a sound that was not right. We both rushed to the bathroom to find the water supply line to our toilet had burst and water was spraying everywhere. We felt so blessed and so grateful. Why? It truly was a miracle because were were at home. Had this happened while we were teaching, or at church, or in the city (we left for Ulaanbaatar the next day), it would have been a major water disaster for several floors of our apartment building! Look for the blessings in the challenges of your life!

Have no fear. The birthday celebration
still got to happen!

This week is the end of the first year of our mission, and we pause to reflect about the blessings, challenges, experiences, and miracles we have been witness to. We feel so blessed - we record at least one miracle every day in our journals. 

We see miracles in: 

• Teachers who teach a large number of crowded classes without much pay.
• Polytechnic faculty who care about their facility, their students, and their country.
• Young volunteers who serve with us and give their all to serve their Lord. 
• The fact that we are even here. We have made such good friends and have learned so much. 
• The way being paved to have a temple in this country. 
• The good health we've enjoyed. 
• The Spirit touching people and teaching them that they are children of God.
• Sunday meetings feeding the souls of the people who attend.

We could go on. And when we have slow times - like the lowest sacrament meeting attendance since we've been here - we stand back and wait for the miracles. Apostles of the Lord have promised miracles in this country and have told us to expect them. Growth will come. In the Lord's time and in the Lord's way. We just have to do our best with what we've been given and keep trying.  

 

Mongolia Mission Week 50 - Early Halloween

Mongolia Mission Week 50

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). 

Mongolian teachers are still on strike, so no students are in the schools for us to teach. Apparently doctors are also paid by the government, and they're on strike, too.

So the main event this week was the Halloween party at our church. We hold a Family Home Evening every two weeks on Thursday nights. Our church recommends that families have at least one night a week they spend together to focus on family unity, gospel learning, and "wholesome recreation" ("The Family: A Proclamation to the World," https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world?lang=eng, churchofjesuschrist.org). Families are so important to the strength of a society. Most of the people in our group are the only members of the church in their families, so we have a group family home evening to model what such an evening could be like and to build a sense of closeness among our members and friends. 

Since Halloween is not something most Mongolians have ever celebrated, it was fun to share some American culture. We invited as many friends and students as we could, and over 50 people came (It's a good thing some people we specifically invited didn't come!) Our usual attendance is about 20. We told them they could wear costumes, but most costumes were fairly minimal; there's just not much of a tradition for dressing up. One boy proudly sported a worm he painted on his cheek for a costume.

This boy's costume was a plastic knife built to
look like it passes through his head,
but it became his pumpkin decoration.

We made doughnuts and hung them from a
string for a doughnut bobbing contest.

The sisters created a series of boxes with
interesting feeling objects inside.

The Elders created a water pong game.

One of the more elaborate costumes.

It was nice to see the mom of some of our English
students. Most parents are very busy.

The children in this country are so cute! And there are a lot of them. The government actually incentivizes women to have multiple children. Playgrounds are full of happy sounds.  Children call to us from across playgrounds and rush to say "hello!" and "See you later" so they can practice their English on us. A sometimes startling aspect of this culture is that children learn at a young age to be independent, either at home or on the playgrounds. In many situations teens fill a parental role, so toddlers often trail their older siblings around. 

We laugh at the celebrity status we hold as foreigners. People tell Kathy she is beautiful, and many are fascinated by John's hair. Some want to touch it. It's unusual because it is so curly without a perm and is soft and fuzzy-looking. It's also white; it's rare to see a Mongolian man with white hair.

Exciting news this week! Our mission will be divided next July and become two missions! This is further evidence of the exciting growth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mongolia. It's the largest Christian church in Mongolia. We will be home before July, so we won't need to worry about which mission we'll serve in. And none of the others need to worry, either. They will serve where the Lord needs them!

In construction news, the apartments being built next door are now 10 stories tall (bet they have elevators, unlike our 6 story building)! They now have platforms all around as the metal framing is put in place to hold the exterior facade panels. In a few months, these won't look the same at all. They will become very sleek, modern apartment buildings. We're fascinated with the construction processes here. Construction workers work all hours of the day and often long into the nights.

Mongolians think American construction is sketchy because we use wood for framing. They use cement blocks and bricks. The building above was constructed with poured concrete. For many buildings, the frame is poured concrete and then the exterior and interior walls are filled in with block and/or bricks.

With this apartment, you can see the 
blocks at the lower levels creating the exterior
walls. Upper ones are recently poured, and 
the supports are still in place.

Through the window, you can see an
interior block wall.

But through this window, in the same building
is an interior brick wall. No bricks or blocks will
show when the building is completed.

Thin metal panels will hook to this grid and cover the
outside of this wall to form a complete facade.

In the food news you've been wondering about for this week, we created goat yakisoba. We had some goat ribs in the freezer (doesn't everyone?) that we boiled to get the meat off the bones; then we used it to make a Japanese noodle dish....

with goat meat and red cabbage. It was tasty!

And when we found a bottle of pitted cherries we decided it was time for a cherry pie. But we only had half the cherries the recipe needed. So we improvised with some frozen wild blueberries. WOW! John said he may have to give up cherry pie for cherry-blueberry pie. Our diet consists of what we can find, plus a lot of creativity and the luxury of having a budget that allows us to be frivolous and buy such delicacies as frozen fruit. And ice cream once in awhile.

The elders and sisters didn't complain!

And in weather news, Jack Frost now visits our windows most nights.

We have a new, unique decoration every morning. 

This frost is on the outside of the windows of our enclosed balcony. Our balcony serves as extra fridge space during the winter months except for the coldest part of the winter when things actually freeze out there. We often open the door to this area during the day right now because the apartment gets too warm for us. We have no thermostat; the apartments in the building are heated with hot water radiators set to keep us all very warm. (In other news, our shower/bath water hasn't been cold for weeks! In fact, sometimes we can't get cold water out of the tap at all - even our toilet tank feels warm from the warm water.)

Warm people, a warm apartment, what more could we want?