Mongolia Mission Weeks 65 & 66 - Random Tidbits and Birthday Happenings

Mongolia Mission Weeks 65 & 66

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 we want to share tidbits from the last couple of weeks:  

Introducing our current cat, who sneaks into our
apartment building to be warm near the hallway pipes that
are full of hot water - it's the way the buildings are heated.

In other animal news, we were greeted
by the cutest little fluff ball one day!
This one stayed outside, hopefully with its mom.
Dogs pretty much run free here.

-In case you were wondering, we again found a way to celebrate Groundhog's Day on Feb 2. We always have a dinner featuring "ground hog," this year in the form of some big link sausages we found in Ulaanbaatar when we were there. They were good but didn't have the familiar sage in them.

Our guinea pigs trusted us-

-School responsibilities are ramping up for us. We've been assigned an English Club at the high school with over 20 students choosing to attend each week. Several students communicate with us to some extent in English and many look at us hoping to. We also gained an IELTS class for 10th, 11th, and 12th graders, also of various abilities, which is a challenge as we try to do the most good for the most students in the class.

Grouping students allows more proficient students to help others.

-For those of you worried about our brown water last week, this week it was clear! But completely cold. The rust was mostly coming through with the hot water, so the hot water was turned off and we heard lots of banging on the pipes in the building throughout the week. We assume that meant people were working on the water issues. We (gratefully) got warm water a day before the elders did, so they came to use our shower that day. Now the rust issue is a bit better.

-President Kunz and Enkhjiguur, the mission secretary, came to Sainshand to interview our English teacher volunteers and our Mongolian missionary. It was great to get to spend some time with them here in Sainshand, even for just a few hours.

-Then it was Kathy's birthday on the 13th. It meant lots of birthday wishes on her birthday here, and many more on the 14th, which was her birthday back home. Her birthday was pretty low key for us - we taught and went about our normal schedule, except that we made a cherry/blueberry pie. It's our new favorite. A while back we wanted to make a cherry pie but were short on cherries, so we used blueberries to make up the shortage. It was even better than either cherry pie or blueberry pie. So she requested it again for her birthday.

Cherry blueberry pie in the pie pan Horitos 
brought from the States for us when they heard
we had a hard time finding one!

The sisters made mac and cheese to celebrate our birthdays 
and for District Council meeting snack - it was wonderful!

-On Saturday our youth activity was a celebration of Valentine's Day and all the Group birthdays. We have many members with birthdays in February. Of course! That's the best month. We played games and ate several kinds of cake, including banana, which John requested, since his birthday is on the 19th. It's his favorite, and our Mongolian friends really like banana bread, so we were sure the cake would be a hit.

The group schemed and connived to surprise us
with a thoughtful birthday card featuring lavender roses
made from ribbons. 

Also, our apartment door was "heart attacked." We felt so special!

Now for a couple of humorous stories. We hope the humor comes through in our translation for you:

-During our Fast Sunday sacrament meeting at the beginning of February (see last week for our discussion about Fast Sundays), John decided to share his testimony and asked Chuka, our member who served a mission in Nebraska 20+ years ago, to translate for him. But when John greeted everyone in Mongolian (which he's been working on): "Sain bats ganuu akh duu naraa," Chuka dutifully translated it for him. Into English: "Hello, brothers and sisters!" Chuka is a character and caught everyone off guard, including John. Translations usually go the other way for us! 

-Then last week, 14 year old Sanchirmaa was speaking in church. She has a 3-year-old sister, Enkhrii, who sometimes comes to church with her. During the talks, Elder Paul sits on the stand between us to translate for us. Enkhrii was over by the electric piano at the front of the room and several times told Elder Paul to "Shhh!" After all, he was talking while the speaker, her sister, was talking. Finally she walked over, planted herself right in front of him, put a finger to her lips, and told him rather loudly to "shhh." None of the three of us could keep from laughing (in front of everyone) due to her insistence and intensity.

The real blessing this week, though, was the baptism of two young men. Last week we mentioned our trip to the countryside to get a parent's signature. Now the reason for the trip became a reality as Uilstuguldur was baptized. Jonon, who served here in Sainshand as a missionary, came back for the baptism and confirmation of Buyandelger, whom he had helped teach. Buyandelger had waited until he was 18 so he needed no one else's permission to be baptized. 

Jonan, Elder Paul, Buyandelger, Uilstuguldur, Elder Anand.

The elders gave each young man a tie, followed by
Elder Anand teaching them how to tie them.

We had a nice group for the baptism.

It's a beautiful thing to see these young people learn about and glow with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We know we've mentioned this before, but most teenagers who join the church here are the only members in their families. They are truly pioneers. Many church leaders in Mongolia are in their 30s, 40s, or 50s and joined the church as teenagers. People need to be willing to open up their hearts and minds to the whisperings of the Spirit and willing to make changes in their lives to walk on the covenant path. As we age, we get set in our ways and it becomes harder, it seems. 

It was great to see and spend time with Jonon again! When he was here as a missionary, we admired his diligence and his dedication. Jonan was one of those Mongolians who joined the church when he was a teen. He's now serving in a leadership position in a congregation in Ulaanbaatar. 

Sister Veile, Jonan, and Sister Grover with their game faces on.

 

On Sunday, our 2 new members were confirmed members of the Church and received special priesthood blessings. A fairly large group of people attended that day, including a couple of adult women visitors and a young woman we don't see very often - it was indeed a special day. Each individual is important to us and to our Heavenly Father. We sometimes get a glimpse of how special His children are to Him and how happy He is when they choose to be close to Him. We've learned to rejoice in even one person learning or feeling something important from our meetings, knowing the Lord is working miracles one by one. 

We'll sit there on a Sunday morning thinking no one is coming, and then they trickle in: deacons who seemingly have little reason to be there, a grandmother who understands very little, teenage girls whose lives are full of drama, and our one family who often have work or family situations that take them away but are such a light when they come. 

Just like members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in other places, we all make sacrifices to be in church, but we are all drawn to the light and the feelings we have when we attend. We know what covenants we've made, and we want spiritual power in our lives. We actually believe that "a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation" (Smith, Joseph. Lectures on Faith [1985], 69). 

When it comes right down to it, however, there is no sacrifice we can make that comes close to repaying God for the blessings He has given us. He has given us everything. And he will forgive us of our sins through the sacrifice of our Savior if we do our best to turn to them. What joy we find in doing that and in watching his children do that!