Mongolia Mission Week 71 - Easter, Spring, and New Beginnings!

Mongolia Mission Week 71

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). 

One day as we drove through the parking lot of our apartment complex, we found a complete ger in the parking lot. We're told they sometimes get set up for the week of a funeral to give family a special space to meet and share meals, etc. We wanted to get a picture of it, but before we knew it, it had been disassembled and was in the process of being taken away. 

They are built and taken down so quickly!!

We start this week's blog by reporting on our Saturday church youth activity: "mini-missions." We helped the youth plan a 90 minute mission experience, and we were blown away by the Lord's hand in how it turned out. In the States, many times mini mission experiences for the youth require weeks of planning and coordination, which are luxuries we do not have (due to lack of people and resources). We streamlined our plans, but when even some of our basic ideas didn't work or fell through, we were discouraged. Then we realized, once again, that we just needed to have faith that the Lord knew what needed to happen and would help our youth have a meaningful experience.  He did.

After receiving personal invitations, the youth all came in dresses, skirts, white shirts, ties, etc. to the activity (This is a big deal! Wish we could get them to do that on Sundays!). They were buzzing with enthusiasm. Some had gotten up at 6:30am to more fully experience mission life.

They received training and were each assigned a companion.

We split them into 2 groups. They headed down opposite sides of the street the church is on, each with a pair of elders or sisters. They greeted everyone they met and let their lights shine. One group found us sitting on some steps, and one group found Boyka, our recently returned missionary. We each accepted invitations to learn more, so they took us back to the church and taught us about the Savior (The church is where most investigators get taught). 

Our group of testimony-filled youth and their mentors.

It was an amazing experience! These kids have testimonies of the Savior and His atonement. They answered our questions, which were typical questions Buddhists might ask, with conviction. It was humbling to see the Lord at work. They even got a taste of  how challenging mission work can be.

Then President Kunz and his family came to Sainshand to conduct interviews with the young people serving here. He also reorganized our Deacons' Quorum. Since our group is part of a mission branch, he holds the priesthood keys and is the only one who can set apart a new Deacons' Quorum president. It's pretty cool that the priesthood keys this new 12-year old president holds came from a man who got his keys from President Oaks, our church president. It's real power and authority.

A couple of days later was March 14th, pi day. We celebrated with a chicken pie.

Then our Family Home Evening for the month focused on Easter. Once again, it was very clear to us that the Lord directs this work and magnifies our simple plans. Our plans fell together quite miraculously. We briefly discussed some events of the Passover week, the atonement of Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection. We watched a couple of short videos to help these new members (and some investigators) with understanding. Then, those attending all wrote down what Jesus has done for them on palm leaves. 

We used them to line the hallway of our church as decorations for Easter.

We concluded with bringing in a celebration of spring, which included an easter egg hunt for candy-filled plastic eggs. 

Sisters filling eggs Elder Eaves gifted to us last spring.
Thanks so much to his mother for sending them last year!

Pretty sure Elder Odbayar has never hidden Easter eggs before. 

There was an empty egg, representing the empty tomb. It was the hardest to find, and the finder received a prize. 

Then we decorated and colored hard-boiled eggs.

It was a great evening with good participation.
(And some help from Amazon for egg dye.)

On Easter we will hold a special church service focused on the Savior, Jesus Christ. The following weekend, April 11 and 12, is our Church's General Conference, two days of broadcast meetings with talks from our prophet, the apostles, and other women and men who are general leaders of our church. Due to time differences and the need to wait for it to be translated into Mongolian, we watch the broadcast a week later than it occurs in the USA. 

Our next youth activity was focused on physical fitness. We rented a gym for two hours; our youth played volleyball for an hour followed by basketball for an hour. This is a pretty common practice here. Often these gyms are school gyms - you reserve one, and if no one more important reserves it out from under you for a competition or something, you can pay a minimal fee for personal use. People here love volleyball and basketball. That's mostly what school PE classes focus on, and there are a lot of really good players who continue playing as adults in various teams and tournaments. We had a great turnout for this and strengthened our teamwork and friendships. 

We found another English speaker in town! Well, there are 4 Peace Corps volunteers teaching English here, but we rarely see them. Natalie is here from an Australian charitable organization as a volunteer at the medical school. She's a nurse teaching medical topics. We got together for dinner and a nice chat. She's only here for a few months, missing the adventures of winter and summer.

In Sainshand, the weather is warming, but we are still a ways away from seeing anything greening or blooming. Meanwhile, back at home in New Harmony, spring is in full force with our nectarine tree and plum tree both in bloom, along with the daffodils and hyacinths. 

Nectarine blossoms we hope won't freeze.

Ditto for the plums.

We miss home and family, but it's incredible to be part of this work here. We see clearly how much the Lord loves His children. We see how He gives them (and us) opportunities to grow through important lessons and to see His hand in what happens. Spring is a wonderful time to reflect on new growth and fresh starts and to remember the Creator of the world, what He has done for us, and what He is willing to do for us, no matter what.