Mongolia Mission Week 68 and Large, Gentle Visitors at Our Garbage Bins

 Mongolia Mission Week 68

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). 

Our last entry ended with young women in tears because Sister Veile and Elder Paul left on the train to be transferred to another area. On Sunday, Sister Keogh and Elder Ricks arrived. They got here bright and early in the morning after spending the night on the train. With nothing more than a brief meeting before our 12:00 church, we all got busy setting up the sacrament meeting room and teaching a young woman how to lead music for the day's hymns. And introducing the youth to the new companions!

Fresh from the city. And in Sister Keogh's
case, fresh from America! 

We have to share this next picture that we caught the other day. We're always just running into interesting solutions to everyday problems. When we do have the occasional snowstorm in Sainshand, it doesn't melt because the temperatures don't get above freezing. So it gets scaped by hand (shovels) off the roads, drives, and parking lots. It gets piled up in neat little piles of dirty snow. Sometimes workers shovel it into wheelbarrows (or garbage cans) and dump it away from the foot traffic!

When it does finally melt, there is a slope for the snow to drain away.

Sometimes in the cold we also see small children
out on the playground amusing themselves.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in our apartment complex, we have cows occasionally patrolling the garbage bins. Not overly impressed by some of the things they find, they will continue to search for goodies. Occasionally there are a few horses grazing around, but they haven't disturbed the garbage. That we know of. Maybe they just let the cows and the dogs take the rap.

They must find enough to make it worth coming back;
this is not an unusual sight.

Between the dogs and the cows, there can be quite a mess.

Our Seminary youth (teenagers who attend scripture classes during the week) came over one night for a late Tsagaan Sar celebration. We fed them buuz and salads (because that's what you do, even for a late Tsagaan Sar!) and played games. One surprisingly good salad we've tried here and reproduced for our guests is chopped beets with mayo, tuna fish, and canned, mixed vegetables. Don't knock it until you've tried it.

They brought their teacher Baagii with them. We also
invited the elders to help translate for us.

For our church family night, we had a lesson on Noah's ark, then made paper boats and modelling clay animals. Everyone really got into it, even the adults. And we had a new member join us! Boyka is our first returned missionary in Sainshand. After serving in other parts of Mongolia, he is now ready to help us in any way he can while he's home with his family. 

John demonstrating boat folding in his best Mongolian - not!
Boyka, who speaks good English and Mongolian, translated.

We're not sure there were octopuses on the ark,
but this young man made a wonderful one!

Boyka is shocked at how much our church group has grown. When his family got here a little over 2 years ago, people met in his parents' home for Sunday services. At that time their family had recently moved here to help build the church in Sainshand. There was no official place for Sunday services or for English classes. He had no one his age who was a member of the Church. He was here for 5 months before he left on his mission and left a church group that had just a handful of members and a lot of hope. 

Now the church rents the second floor of a building that we put to good use almost every day of the week. We average 20 in sacrament meeting. There's a nice group of teens who have joined the church who enjoy having friends who share the same standards and values they have, friends they can be comfortable with and grow with. Three robust English classes each happen 3 times a week - beginner, intermediate, and IELTS preparation. We've had some wonderful volunteers who have done a nice job of creating dynamic English classes - besides teaching English classes in schools and at American Corner (sponsored by the US Embassy).

Each person who has served here, if only for a short time, has done their part to nurture this growth and has offered their own inspiration and experience to the development of these people and programs here. Each person who leaves on a train leaves their influence behind in ways that cannot be measured. Each person was sent here for a reason, for who they are and what they could contribute. 

Sometimes it's hard for us to see progress, but Boyka's reaction helped us see what we have heard the Spirit whisper to us: the Lord's hand is in this work, and people's lives are improving. For instance, our prophets and church leaders have an amazing vision of who teenagers are and who they can become. The divinely-inspired programs our church offers these kids are designed to help them as they grow into disciples of Christ, support each other, and develop good leadership skills. We expect a lot, and they deliver.  We're watching kids learn to plan activities, look out for each other, teach, and bear testimonies. What amazing strengths they will have as adults!

Saturday brought a surprise. We had what is called an emergency transfer. This is when one of our teachers or missionaries gets a new assignment in between the normal 6 week transfer schedule. In this case, Elder Ricks went to the city after only six days and Elder Odbayar came to Sainshand. He arrived on Saturday about noon and by 3:00pm was helping with a youth activity.

Elder Ricks made a few quick stops for some memory photos. 

Breakfast with Elders Ricks and Anand just before
heading to Ulaanbaatar for a 6-hour taxi ride.

Our new group at lunch, with newly arrived Elder Odbayar.

For our youth activity that day, the young men went out to a local restaurant and had a gospel lesson followed by eating chicken and pizza. The young women had a lesson and celebrated birthdays.

On that Saturday night, since we learned there would be a major alignment of several planets that would be visible to the naked eye, we went star-gazing. We drove to the edge of the hill that overlooks Sainshand (not far from our apartment) and watched the sun set and the stars and planets come out. It was a peaceful, beautiful, evening date. But chilly enough that we kept getting back in our car to warm up.

Overlooking our town and one of its ger districts,
complete with dirt roads.

Pictures never show planets very well. Take our 
word for it that there is a planet in this picture.

It was nice to take a moment to be alone together and marvel at the beauties of creation. We are blessed to be around wonderful Mongolian people, enjoy beautiful sights, enjoy amazing experiences, and see God's hand all around us in so many ways.