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!