Mongolia Mission Week 62 - A Drive on the Wild Side

 Mongolia Mission Week 62

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). 

This week had so much going on that we slipped part of the week into last week's blog. So we begin this week's blog with Thursday, when we had a Family Home Evening at the church. We've been doing these every two weeks, but with the new year decided to have them once a month. 

This month's event was planned by our young women. They assigned out a spiritual thought and organized several fun games, one of which was "Four Men on a Couch." It's a challenging game where you have to remember people's names, but everyone has taken someone else's name. The youth were up for the challenge, but we weren't. We have a hard time saying Mongolian names, let alone remembering them when their names are switched. We've found that our old brains aren't as flexible as they once were. But we were assigned treats, and that we could do. The girls specifically asked for two of their favorites: banana bread and Jell-O. (Which we make with fruit, fruit juice, and unflavored gelatin)

This is the lap-slapping game where Kathy gets out
every time it's her turn.

On Friday, our youth spread some light at a senior living center. The center has 18 residents. We took them gifts of toilet paper, bananas, and handmade wall decorations and pictures. We also took some games, including checkers, chess (2 popular national favorites) and a blow-up beach ball. The staff gathered about a dozen of the residents around some tables for our game of roll the beach ball and encouraged them to participate, even if they couldn't really see the ball. They certainly knew where it was when it gently bumped their faces! They laughed and had a good time with the game.

This man challenged brave souls to a game of
checkers  He couldn't be beat!

The youth spread some cheer throughout the center.

Taping notes to the doors

Waiting to be carried (in the chair) downstairs by
several sets of muscles - there are no elevators
 in the building.

Then on Saturday, we had a baptism! Minjirmaa, a sweet young woman with a special light, committed to becoming a disciple of Christ. We have such admiration for these youth who respond to the truth of what they're taught and are willing to change their lives for it, even if their families and friends live other standards.

Elder Anand baptized her.

Sisters Grover and Veile taught her.

Sunday was a great day. Minjirmaa was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we had two young men ordained to priesthood offices. 

We can prepare in this life to meet God. Every experience is an opportunity to choose what will draw us closer to Him. For some, it's first learning of God and His love for them - that every person is a child of God. For some, it's that first step to join His path through baptism. For some, it's continuing on His path and each day making choices that bring greater power to do good into our lives. 

Olzii was ordained a deacon
and Temuulen was ordained a teacher.

We had zone conference first thing on Monday morning, so we left immediately after church to drive to Ulaanbaatar. We don't like driving at night due to how hard it is to see the potholes. The first half of our ride was in daylight, but then the sun set. About an hour outside of Ulaanbaatar, we ran into blowing snow in the dark. It wasn't actively snowing, but the wind was picking up the snow from the open steppe and shooting it across the road. One car in our lane (we think it was our lane; it was hard to see) got stuck in a snow drift - not a good thing to happen with a wind chill putting the "feels like" temperature at 50 degrees below zero! And something about the cold or the headwinds meant our car guzzled gas at twice the normal rate.

We found it easier going to stay behind the taillights of another car. But we did make it to a gas station that actually had gas. And an attendant who would pump it for us. (No Mongolian gas stations are self-serve - a fact we're glad about in these temperatures!) The attendant actually had ice crystals in her eyelashes.

Even the gas pump and the hose are wrapped up for the cold!

Stay tuned next week for our adventures in the frozen city. When we go from our little community of 20,000 people to the capital city of 1.5 million, we feel like we're in a different universe. We're always on the lookout for new/interesting sights and sounds. For your amusement, here are a couple of pictures from a past trip - you can only imagine what we will find this time!

One time we wandered around a mall. What a modern concept - it even had escalators! And one store had quite the display of women's nylons - in every color and pattern you could ever want!

Also in Ulaanbaatar we found an egg vending machine. Eggs get lowered by a little elevator, not dropped to the bottom. These must be special eggs because lots of eggs are available for sale the regular way, in various stalls and markets, usually by the egg (bring your own carton or bag). 

While it is bitter cold, the gospel and the people here warm our souls. They have found a way to live and follow the light in inhospitable conditions, and they do it with style. We feel so blessed to know that in any circumstance, God is aware of us and will give us the strength to learn, grow, and endure, no matter what happens. We know that the more we lean on Him, the stronger we become because of Him. 

Mongolia Mission Week 61.5 - Our Claim to Fame: Meeting the Prime Minister

Mongolia Mission Week 61.5

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). 

This week brought transfers. We never know who will be leaving and who will be coming. But Thursday was a day of excitement. Alice and Michelle invited us all over for dinner, hide and seek, and a coloring contest.

And then it was time for the train. Of the six of us serving in Sainshand, only Sister Fifita was transferred to Ulaanbaatar. So two sisters took the overnight train to Ulaanbaatar and then the overnight train back the next day. 

 

Our farewell lunch before Sister Fifita left.

We welcomed Sister Grover to Sainshand, which was a snow-covered city Saturday morning. We never get more than an inch of snow. But it's enough to make things slippery, especially when it packs down and turns into ice.  

This snow will never melt.

People scrape off the snow and carry it away.
We've only ever seen one snowplow.

We were assigned the snack for Saturday's District Council
the day the sisters got back. It became a French toast breakfast.

Then for our youth activity, we rented out a school gym for 2 hours. Apparently this is a common youth activity in this country. When the youth first told us they wanted to rent a gym, we envisioned weights, swimming pools, a big price tag, and wondered how a gym would allow our youth to really interact with each other. But especially in the winter, these kids have nowhere to play volleyball and basketball, two sports the entire population passionately embrace. So they rent school gyms and play hard. 

We played volleyball...

Then basketball....

And wheelbarrow races....

But somehow we managed to get three balls stuck in the rafters. You see, a volleyball got stuck on top of the HVAC ductwork. Then a second volleyball got stuck in the same area, as helpful people threw it up there aiming to get the first one down. Then a basketball got stuck trying to get both volleyballs down. Can you believe a fourth ball then was drafted into the action??? But the end of the story is that a couple of our English students were able to knock the two volleyballs down without getting another ball stuck. We ended the day with only the basketball still stuck. When we turned in the school volleyballs, the employee wanted to know where the basketball was. John showed him the picture and the employee really wanted to know how it got stuck there. There was not an easy way to explain that.

You can see one of the recalcitrant volleyballs hiding
from our attempts to dislodge it.

Sunday was a tough day. Church attendance was low, and one of our speakers didn't show up. But one of our youth did a great job of presenting the Sunday School lesson. And a visitor showed up in time to hear this lesson, which was important. The lesson was made even better by the testimony of an elderly non-member. She never says anything in class, and maybe doesn't understand a lot of what is said, but John specifically called on her. She let people know something she does know very clearly: that we are all children of God. So there was light in a discouraging day. God blesses and uplifts us even when we try to be discouraged. We just need to trust that things are in His hands. And we do. We see and feel undeniable evidence of that.

You get a bonus few days, as we are covering a portion of week 62 in this entry. Our Monday started with receiving a message at 7:30 am asking if we could be downstairs in 30 minutes to meet the Prime Minister. Wait, what? He was visiting our apartment complex. So, we went downstairs to meet him.

Turns out he wasn't quite there yet and no one wanted to stand out in the cold to wait. So we went back to our apartment to wait for a call (Have we mentioned that we hike up 6 flights of stairs to our apartment?) A few minutes later, we were called back downstairs and escorted up another six flights of stairs to an apartment at the other end of our building. The room was full of people, including the Prime Minister and a member of Parliament. And a lot of photographers. We got to shake hands and listen for a few minutes.

The Prime Minister is on the left. Of course, no house
is complete without a bowl of dried curd 

It turns out that our apartment complex is unique in Mongolia. A couple of our buildings are part of an effort to make housing more affordable. There is a "rent to own" plan to make apartments available to some elderly, disabled, single mothers, etc. And a plan where an apartment can be acquired by some people who qualify and are willing to teach English in one of the schools. So this plan was being promoted by the Prime Minister's visit and a special presentation.

The Prime Minister listens to the presentation.

Now we know why there was a heavy security presence (long, black cars and men in black standing around) in our complex.

This was actually a couple of days earlier.
We wondered what was going on. The day
of the visit no one was allowed to enter this area.

Later that day, we attended a graduation ceremony at the Polytechnic College. Our church has developed several free self-reliance classes. The topics include getting a better education, finding a better job, starting your own business, personal finance, and emotional resilience. For the first time in Mongolia, some of these classes are being offered, and our area is piloting them. 

The Polytechnic College is a vocational school for high school students and some adults. Some of the students recently completed a class on getting a better education. Now, some of the teachers graduated from an emotional resilience class, taught online for 12 weeks by MJ, who lives in Ulaanbaatar. He came to Sainshand for the final class and for the graduation ceremony. Eight students graduated and we helped award the certificates. This class is very similar to the classes offered in the U.S., and we hope to spread them across the country.

Helping people help themselves

You can see that our weeks can have a lot of variety, even in the dead of winter. So much of what we're here for is to make connections and spread the light where we can and however we can. Good things are happening in Mongolia!

 

Mongolia Mission Week 60 - Our New Year Comes Glittering In

 Mongolia Mission Week 60

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). 

Glitter, glitter everywhere!

It was the week of the New Year and its celebrations. It started with Baagii, who is the mom in our only fully member family in Sainshand, inviting us over for a dinner of soup, steamed rolls, and buuz - so delicious!

Ulzii, our newest deacon-to-be, won at
his computer game.

As we got back to the apartment, we saw three cars completely decked out in holiday lights. You can see two in the picture, one headed down into the underground parking. On New Year's Eve, there were five of these cars driving through town together. 

Taking his white elephant gift from Christmas seriously, John's holiday celebration consisted of assembling a miniature snowman - 210 little Lego-style pieces. Frosty immediately began instructing the camels on holiday etiquette.

New Year's Eve was on Wednesday, which is a teaching day for English classes at our church. But no students showed up on a holiday evening. The other teachers and Misheel, a good friend and one of our best English-speaking students, came to briefly celebrate New Year's Eve at our apartment. We had a couple of kinds of chicken from a local eatery, chili dogs (a favorite of Sister Fifita's), chex mix, peanut butter truffles, and fruit. (Nice fruit gets shipped in for the holiday - we even had a good watermelon!)

It's hard to find hot dog buns, so John
made some for us.

For some reason, we were struck with
 the urge to make peanut butter truffles.

Sisters Fifita and Veile, us, Misheel, and Elders Anand and Paul.

At about 9:00 pm (just before curfew for the young teachers), everyone but Kathy fired off long confetti canons. (She just stood with her hands over her mouth.) Altogether we had a short but fun celebration. Then the 2 of us saw the new year in not by attending the karaoke celebration in sub-zero temperatures at the town square, but by finding and containing all the confetti as we listened to the pops and bangs of the local fireworks. Ah, the metallic glitter in our apartment! The static made it particularly challenging to release from some surfaces. Despite our best efforts, when we leave this apartment the new residents will most likely find some little bits of clinging glitter somewhere.

After the cleaning, it was still stuck
to the bottoms of house slippers...

And to the ceiling!

This week also included the wolf super moon....

Games and fun with the youth at the church on Saturday.

Sunday was a special day for us even though our church attendance was the smallest since we arrived. Schools don't start again until the end of January or February, so many people have either gone to the city or to the countryside. It was our monthly fast and testimony meeting. On this day members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints fast for two meals (about 24 hours) and donate at least the value of our meals to those in need of material assistance. We offer special prayers during our fast for people and places that need extra help from God. The fast provides nourishment for our spirits and a closeness with God if we approach it in the right frame of mind. Our Sunday meeting that day occurs while we are fasting, and the worship service consists of the spontaneous sharing of testimonies as people are moved by the Spirit.

With the very few in attendance that day, we heard testimonies from most of us assigned to serve here in Sainshand. And from a man who was baptized in Mongolia 19 years ago, hasn't been active in church for most of that time, and attended today. And from our very recently baptized teenager. And from Narankhajid, a 77-year-old non-member who expressed her appreciation to us for her understanding that she is a child of God. Those testimonies were so special.

Narankhajid always enters the church saying "Hello,
children of God!"

Narankhajid loves to attend church and activities, whether they are council meetings, Young Women/Young Men activities, or gospel teaching appointments. She shows up at random times and loves the spirit and belonging she feels at the church even though she doesn't always comprehend what is going on. She will sometimes tell Kathy long stories or share something from her life, which we understand has been a hard one. Kathy listens attentively, and they connect spirit to spirit, even though they don't understand each other's speech.

Joining in the youth activity - but when Narankhajid gets
"out," Hurlee tries to take her turn sitting on the floor so
she doesn't have to.

Kathy matches Narankhajid's expressions as she tells her story.

Sunday also had another blessing for us - the baptism of our granddaughter in Nebraska. Thanks to the blessing of technology, we were able to participate remotely from Mongolia in the middle of our night! We felt a special spirit as we rejoiced with other family members in this life-changing event for her. 

Molly was so excited and so ready for
her baptism!

Another special day for Steven and Stephanie.

And so a new year begins, filled with blessings and new opportunities. And glitter. For each of us! 

Our choices determine our experiences and our joys. Truly. We can't control all things, but we can control how we react to people and experiences in our lives. We know where to turn for peace and joy and how to anchor to what we know is true while we search for answers to our questions. We know we have access to divine help with our burdens and challenges by staying close to Jesus Christ, for that is His plan and His purpose. He promised that if we will keep His commandments, we will have joy. "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." (John 15:11) We bear testimony that this is true.

Mongolia Mission Week 59 - Christmas in Mongolia

 Mongolia Mission Week 59

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). 

And what did our actual Christmas day look like? This was a quieter but more special week. 

Quieter because we had fewer classes to teach since the public schools are on winter break. We still taught online Mongolian missionaries and also at the medical school, but it was the last time at the medical school until the end of February, as they have exams and then go on break. 

More special because it was Christmas. 

On Christmas Eve we invited the other English volunteers over after class at the church. We made pizza and watched the Mission Christmas Devotional, which was a Zoom event for companionships all over Mongolia. We watched Christmas musical numbers previously recorded by English teachers and volunteers. We watched (and participated with other senior couples) readings of Christmas scriptures from the Bible. We ate cinnamon rolls and drank hot chocolate. It was a special evening.

The next afternoon we observed P-day (weekly preparation day) on Christmas day by celebrating with our young friends. We ate beef roast, potato casserole, green beans, rolls, whipped cream fruit salad, baked apples, with bread pudding for dessert. It made a decent feast reminiscent of a Christmas dinner in America (although maybe you don't all feast on bread pudding made of twisty sweet pastries).

Then we participated in a construction project that had been suggested; we assembled and decorated gingerbread houses. We can't find molasses here, so we had found a recipe using honey and corn syrup. Not bad. We had created templates and made five batches of dough over a couple of days.

We also can't find ingredients for the suggested "glue," royal icing. So for the walls and roofs we made a glue of sugar and water cooked until it turned a caramel color. It made a great glue, but we had very little time to use it before it hardened. Pretty tricky, but we were successful. We used buttercream frosting to glue the candies.

A ski resort with spaghetti ski lift cables.

Inside was a manger scene.

We had fun with a white elephant gift exchange.

The highlight of our game playing was Monikers, which is like Charades on steroids. It consists of three rounds where we present the same phrases differently each time. At the end of the standard three rounds the boys and the girls were tied, so we did a fourth round tie-breaker - finger puppet charades. What a hoot!

Elder Anand is very athletic.

Finger puppets

A special Christmas experience for us was talking to each of our children and several grandchildren over the course of several days and several time zones. And on the 26th, we got up for a 5:30 am Zoom call to participate in the supremely important annual white elephant party with Kathy's family. Nearly 20 of us participated from various locations in America - and Mongolia. We made our gift selections via camera and will pick them up when we get home in May. It was a hoot! Families are wonderful!

Isn't Zoom wonderful?

Some of our youth asked us why we were celebrating Christmas on December 25. Christmas decorations and festivities here are all focused on December 31 as Mongolians celebrate the new year. Father Christmas comes to schools and gives special gifts like prizes for kids who have achieved something special. In some homes he brings gifts to kids on New Year's Eve. Christmas trees are adorned with baubles and also money (often for the kids), which parents set up and visitors might add more money to. Some decorations look like U.S. Santas and reindeer and even the Grinch. Home Alone is s popular movie and Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas" is a popular song. It's a season of celebration with a lot of U.S. influence, but it's not necessarily a season of religious celebration.

Saturday was another youth activity at the church. The elders helped the young men take charge and organize several fun games. It was a nice turnout and a lot of fun.

A jeopardy game of Mongolian, Church, 
and Sainshand Group trivia 

The Church has been here in Sainshand for 2 years. We feel the weight of helping these new members (mostly youth) come to know Christ. They know the basics about His atonement when they are baptized, but there is so much more to know and experience, especially if they were not Christian before. It's difficult when our conversations with them have to happen through a missionary translator or with Google Translate on our phones. It's difficult when they don't have family support to attend meetings regularly. And teenagers have to deal with teen emotions and experiences! 

We love them, see their potential, and do what we can, but our hearts ache for them to be able to experience the joy of the fulness of His Gospel, both personally and as a church community. There's a whole feast available to them. Someday there will be a fully functioning ward here with lots of adult support. Until then, they're doing an amazing job on their own because they've experienced spiritual experiences that motivate and sustain them.

We enjoy working with these youth in various teaching moments with and without translators. We are grateful for our knowledge of the Savior and for the season that allows us to pause and remember Him and His mission in a special way. We celebrate His birth, His atonement, and the gifts He gives us every day of the year. We are so blessed to know Him and work to receive the blessings He offers. We especially work towards being worthy of our family being together forever. And with Him. 

Joy to the World!