Mongolia Mission Week 44 - Back to School - How Does That Translate?

Mongolia Mission Week 44

Our hope with this blog is to share highlights with our !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). 

This week was our official "back to school" day. We didn't take a front door picture with a sign to post on Facebook, but John did capture Kathy at the chalkboard after we asked our 11th grade class to write adjectives that can answer the question "How are you?" They came up with some good ones, but our 7th grade class actually beat them with answers like "under the weather"! We always have a few people in each class with a pretty good grasp of the English language, but this class seems to have more people on a higher level. Interestingly enough, kids who speak good English usually get their language abilities from YouTube or video games.

After this picture they filled the board with more 
descriptive words.

The streets seem more serious these days. During
the summer, only John and the elders wore white 
shirts and ties.

But not too serious! (In case you were wondering,
different tie lengths and colors of pants/skirts
reflect different grades.)

We visited the early morning seminary class at our church this week. (The teens meet at 6:30 in the morning for scripture study.) We took them breakfast and were blessed to see the sunrise. We have enjoyed wonderful sunsets while in Mongolia, but the sunrise this morning was spectacular! 

It was fun to capture the sunrise with the windmills
and solar panels.

These youth are true pioneers (one is not even baptized yet!)

Although Sainshand has a bunch of tall, new apartment buildings in the process of construction, it is full of old, communist-era buildings (our school is 68 years old!) that keep getting updated in interesting ways. In this case, we visited a photo shop to get some of our pictures printed for the church bulletin board and found a building within a building, each with a raised threshold.

Besides interesting building configurations, we get some comic relief from language translations. On a package of frozen pork with vegetables and sauce, the writing in one place translated (via Google Translate on our phones) to "Don't eat with persimmons" and "Don't eat if you're a whole person." Luckily, we haven't seen any persimmons here. We did risk buying the food in spite of the fact that we consider ourselves to be "whole persons." So far, no really strange side effects - we hope -

Then there are fun text exchanges. If we text in English to someone who only knows Mongolian, who knows what their Google or AI translation tells them? And then when they try to respond in English, who knows what their Google or AI translation tells them to respond? It's quite a guessing game on both sides! Kathy found a stylist who understands and does a good job with layered hair, so she likes to make an appointment with that person when she needs a hair cut. One day, this was their exchange when John was looking for an appointment:

We do a lot of "reading between the lines."
The salon was closed for remodeling.

Deseret International Charities, a charity organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, donates a lot of equipment to schools and hospitals in Mongolia. Recently, kitchen equipment was donated to a maternity hospital for food preparation for the patients. When the announcement was posted on Facebook, the English translation Facebook provided said the customers would receive "toilet soup" and that the equipment would help "divert traffic in the city." We're certain that's not exactly what was meant!

But we received a delightful surprise this week! The Young Women of our stake back in Utah wrote messages to missionaries when they attended girls camp this summer, and the Young Women from our ward wrote notes to us! The notes eventually made their way to Mongolia, and finally to us. So thoughtful! And in English -

Also this week, one of our students from our church English classes invited us to come watch her perform at the stadium. In Mongolia, there are not really inter-school athletic competitions, which are so much a part of teen life in the U.S. But we learned that, here in Sainshand, every class practices a dance (elementary students learn the same dance, middle schoolers learn another one, and high schoolers learn another) and competes at a school fall festival. We understand that there is a separate festival for each of the schools in town (Each school includes grades 1-12). 

These competitions are a big deal. Girls and boys of all ages dance their hearts out with great seriousness. Besides the dances, students compete in other events like tug-of-war, marching, and running competitions. This is only the 2nd week of school, and they've been working for hours every day outside of class to prepare for their festival. We saw so many of teens we know. It was great to watch and interact with so many of our young friends!

Our Sainshand group met for District Council and homemade pizza lunch. They are so much fun to be around. We love serving with these wonderful young teachers and servants!

And, since we know many of you have been waiting with anxiety to hear what interesting food we tried this week, we found a surprise. As we've mentioned, in our small city (20,000 people), most grocery items are limited to what can be easily imported. So imagine our surprise when our local market in our apartment complex had smoked duck in the freezer! From Korea. What? That's not even a staple in America. Oh, and it was delicious!!

This coming week we'll be driving to Ulaanbaatar to hear Elder Neil L. Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles at a nationwide devotional on Thursday evening (Sept 18) and a mission conference on Friday. The only time all 120+ of us serving in Mongolia come together at the same time is when an apostle of Jesus Christ visits. We are excited for all this week holds!

And, just as we were completing the blog, we received the announcement of the Mongolian temple location and design. We had hoped there would be news regarding the temple this week with Elder Anderson' visit, so having the news come prior to his visit was an exciting surprise. What a blessing this place of worship will be to a people who right now travel to places like Hong Kong, the Philippines, or Utah for their temple blessings!

Artist's rendering of the Mongolian temple

So, we continue to feel very blessed. Every day is a surprise, and not just with translations. Getting invited to a festival we didn't know was happening and then seeing so many of our young friends there. Seeing an unexpectedly beautiful sunrise. Finding a smoked duck. Spending time with our fellow volunteers. Continuing to enjoy great health. Seeing the delight in someone's eyes as they feel the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every day is a delight and a blessing from God. And every day we are so thankful to be so blessed!