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!