Mongolia Mission Week 13 - Fasten Your Seat Belts

 Mongolia Mission Week 13

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).

We thought after the first few weeks we'd be settled in and not have as much to share. Well, that's not the case. It's been quite a week. Again.

We love these little Mandarin oranges.
They're pretty small, but this is the 
smallest we've seen.

We had a baptism last weekend in our congregation. Besides the six of us assigned here as English teaching volunteers, there are basically two families that make up our group (congregation). There are also several boys between 7 and 11 and a few teenage girls, most converts of less than a year.  The teenagers and kids that we see the most don't have any other members in their families. This week an 8-year old was baptized. He is supported in the gospel by his 10-year old brother. They are such impressive boys - coming to church faithfully every week and staying for the whole 2 hours! They know and love the Gospel and are just plain inspiring. When they're not being squirrely little boys.

Our new convert bore his testimony -
both at his baptism and also in our 
fast and testimony meeting.

This is the baptismal font. It's in the church kitchen.

The next day (Sunday) we had our sacrament meeting. Our new member was confirmed as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, blessed with the gift of the Holy Ghost, and given a special blessing, just like other members around the world. That day in church, the only adults were the six of us English teachers in Sainshand. Six boys and 2 teenage girls also attended. It was our monthly fast and testimony meeting and had very few lags. We had great testimonies from these young men and women and a few of us adults. It was a wonderful meeting! The Church is in its infancy in Sainshand, which has only had a congregation for a year, and it is amazing to feel the Spirit and be part of it. These kids are the future of the church; it's clear they will be prepared to be leaders. 

For those of you who are wondering, we are still dancing three nights a week - sometimes. It depends on what other things are going on. It's great exercise and also keeps us very humble as we try to keep up and negotiate the language barrier. But this week we left early on Monday as we were invited to learn how to make buuz: a type of dumpling that is the national food of Mongolia, particularly popular during holidays such as Lunar New Year.

Our friend, Molly, invited us to her home to teach us
to make buuz with her family. Her two kids are in our
English classes at the church.

Buuz are formed, then steamed in a large pot.
The weird looking ones were Kathy's.

Delicious! We made some with seasoned
goat and some with seasoned vegetables.

Molly is going back to Taiwan to continue work on a master's degree. She's spent some time in the US and mentioned liking lasagne, so we made some and invited her and her family to dinner. This is actually tricky to make here. There isn't ricotta cheese. Or lasagne noodles, or most other things we needed. But we found a skinny, lasagne-like noodle in the store (one inch wide!), made a white sauce instead of ricotta (which is actually an authentic Italian thing), etc. And we had brought back ground beef and parmesan cheese from the more cosmopolitan capital. It all worked out and was delicious. 

Molly's family brought a centuries-old game called "shagai," or "ankle." You play different versions of this game by rolling the ankle bones from sheep or goats like dice. The bones each land on one of their 4 sides representing a horse, camel, sheep, or goat. These are the main "cattle" traditionally raised in Mongolia. The differences in the sides of bone are a little bit hard for us foreigners to recognize. It was so much fun, and they gave us a set of bones as a gift. We need a lot of practice.

We played on a towel so the bones
wouldn't wander too far.

 

Thursday we sent our 4 young English teachers to the city. It was "transfer week," where changes take place in assignments. This happens every six weeks. We senior couples never get moved. The young ones don't know what will happen with their assignments until the day before, and then, if either of the pair changes, both go to the city to meet and bring back a new companion. Jackson Abbott and Sister Narantungaleg are leaving. Stay tuned next week for that news. We went for a meat platter feast together for one last meal before they left on the overnight train. 

Many restaurants offer this type of dining.

This platter had sausage, pork, mutton, beef,

 and 3 kinds of chicken. Plus potatoes and salad. 

All this for less than $38 USD.

We'll be sad to split up! But these two have important
work to do elsewhere.

Then, on Friday, we went to another Camel Festival! Last week's was a small one in the village we told you all about, Saikhanduulan. This one was more like the county fair version. It was hosted by and for our province, Dornogobi (East Gobi), with all the other cities/villages invited. They honored all the winners from the other areas. What a party. We weren't there for any races or polo, but visited some of the gers each group set up and saw the parade of camels and an opening performance with music and dancing that was amazing. 

Alice, our special friend from our school, was our 
host. We and the local Peace Corps volunteer English
teachers were honored by a chance to go to the festival.

We and Alice were welcomed by our friend, Amgaa,
the governor of Saikhanduulan.

We were treated to a lovely lunch in the Sainshand Ger,
complete with nice, warm soup. We love the carvings in
these gers.

It's hard to see, but the open space
is a big stage for dancers. Couples
were doing nice formations with a
variety of steps and tempos.

There were singers on a stage
and dancers performing below the
stage. Drones in the sky and news
cameras took in the festival.

Many of the dancers were teens
who took their parts very seriously. 

We feel so blessed to get to know the wonderful people of Mongolia and to get a glimpse of their cultures and traditions! Fasten your seat belts, because we have some great experiences to share. But, more importantly, because the Lord's work in Mongolia is taking off. The Lord is preparing people in Sainshand to experience the joy that comes from learning His gospel. Soon there will be a temple in Mongolia. Mongolia's time has come for an outpouring of blessings from God!! 

We personally have experienced the joy of knowing His plan of salvation, the blessings that come from making and keeping covenants with Him. In case you can't tell, we love sharing our experiences with other people. And When Apostle Elder Holland visited Mongolia in 2011, he told the missionaries, "The answer to every problem in life, whatever the question . . . is the Atonement of Jesus Christ--the doctrine of Christ, the gospel of Christ . . . If you believe that, you will change . . . your history, you will change Mongolia's history, and you will change the world's history" ("Elder Holland Instructs Mongolian Saints, Missionaries," ChurchofJesusChrist.org.) It's happening.