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.