Mongolia Mission Weeks 75 - 77 - We're Back!

Mongolia Mission Weeks 75-77

Due to a number of interesting situations and challenges, we haven't published our last few blogs yet. So, in response to popular demand, here are the highlights of our last few weeks in Sainshand:

In our week 75, things were beginning to change for us as we approached the end of our time in Mongolia.  We began experiencing "last" events: our last round trip to the city, our last zone conference, our last classes, our last church services, and our last goodbyes. 

Every trip to the city is unique, and we always find new wonders on the road. One sight every trip includes is trucks with leaning loads - always leaning towards the highway shoulder. The roads have a slight slant down from the middle, and over time, some loads start shifting. Trucks have higher and looser loads than we've seen in the US. 

This load leans more than most we've seen.

After all this time, though, the traffic in Ulaanbaatar still caught us off guard and made our planned 6 hour trip to the city become 7 hours, as we were delayed by an hour after getting to the city limits. The last 3-4 miles took an hour. 

John's afraid that his Mongolian driving skills of just
butting into gridlocked traffic will not serve him well in the US.

In Ulaanbaatar, we got some meetings in and helped serve food at zone conferences. We also met Kim and Lisa Clark, a senior couple from America who had originally been assigned to serve in Khentii, a town in eastern Mongolia. When they got to Mongolia, their assignment changed to replace us in Sainshand!! We're sorry for Khentii but so excited that another senior couple will take over teaching our wonderful students and loving our little flock for the next 14 months. We were able to join the Clarks and the Harts for dinner together one night. The Harts left Mongolia the same time we did.

Monday night dinner out. The Clarks are
seated closest to the camera.

The hamburgers here are messy, so
eating establishments provide gloves.

Our zone conference was wonderful, of course. Each one seems to get better than the last. And we got to see so many of the young teachers we have served with, especially since the three most eastern zones met together. 

It made for a large gathering.

Eleven of us who were returning home got to share testimonies and experiences. We all did our best but felt totally inadequate to put words together to share our feelings and testimonies.

The Horitos, another senior couple (with ties to Cedar City!), were in charge of meals for these conferences. They decided to make a twist on Hawaiian haystacks. An explanation for those of you who are not familiar with haystacks: they are a parfait of rice with toppings of meat, various vegetables, and fruits served buffet style. They can be very individualized to your taste. But the Horitos called them "neigh-stacks"—because they were made with horse meat and toppings like horses might eat, such as carrots, lettuce, and apples. They turned out great. Not everyone may have realized exactly what meat they were eating, though- 

Kudos to the Horitos for another great lunch
that included lots of fruits, vegetables, drinks,
and birthday cake, since there are always birthdays!

We'll miss the old tires that have been cut, sculpted, and painted into fun works of art!

When we got back to Sainshand we enjoyed the fact that spring is the time for end of year performances. That Saturday, one of our young women called us and very urgently thought we should join her at the local theatre to see a dance group putting on their show. We were between projects and hurried to join her.  We were amazed at the quality of the dancing with both contemporary and traditional dances.

Enkhrii thought this was probably our last chance to see such a performance. We were so glad she thought of us and let us know! After all this time, there are still so many things we wish we could see and do! There are days where 18 months feels like a long time, as we miss our family and see how much our grandchildren are changing. There are days we are just plain tired. On other days, time seems to have passed very quickly and we feel like we've barely scratched the surface of what we want to experience and accomplish.

We did get to attend the 1st grade graduation of our dear friend Michelle. You've never seen anything more adorable than 100 or so Mongolian 1st graders singing their hearts out, bowing after reciting their lines (poems about letters of their alphabet), and wanting to dance even when it wasn't time for them to dance! We also got to attend a major regional event where children of all ages took turns competing in music and dance. We saw boys as young as about 8 singing serious songs, some with dancers performing to their songs. 

Batmunkh, the mission office guy in charge of apartments, drove the Clarks to Sainshand in our week 76. For some extra challenge, we switched up apartments. We've been living on the 6th floor of our apartment building, and two elders were living on the 1st floor of the building next to ours. With Clarks' arrival, we moved the elders to the 6th floor and put the senior couple on the 1st floor. We had often wondered whose idea it was to put the old people on the 6th floor without an elevator. Maybe it was to make sure we got our exercise in- 

Generations of elders and sisters accumulate
lots of extraneous stuff on apartment balconies.
It was time to purge.

It was much more work than we thought it would be - actually three moves in one. Besides the swap of the two apartments, we moved into a temporary apartment for a week. This meant basically packing up a week early into suitcases and living out of them as we finished everything. But Batmunkh, Baagii, and Chuka came to our rescue, as did the sisters and elders! 

Hiking things up and down the stairs is a lot of work!

Our temporary apartment had a really cool clock!

We got to experience our final Gobi dust storm.

And its aftermath.

Our final  Gobi sunset.

We attended our last youth activity at church, where we played get-to-know you games to introduce the Clarks. And we hosted a seminary dinner at our apartment (just before we moved) for the teenagers who attend scripture study during the week. They are such amazing young people!

One special experience was being part of a book launch. Misheel, an excellent English student, has become good friends with us, especially Kathy. Misheel wrote a romance/fanasty book in English and published it just before we left. We got to attend the launch and book signing. 

It was impressive to see how much
Michelle is accomplishing at age 17!

Her proud dad speaking at the book launch.

There is a monastery just down the hill from our apartment complex. Before we left, we finally made it there to visit. Most of the buildings were closed, but we enjoyed what we got to see and finally checked that one off our list.

Beautifully ornate and colorful inside.

Week 77 was our last week in Sainshand. At least one little 7th grader ended up in tears as we passed out chocolate kisses from America and told the students goodbye. Later, she waited for us in the hallway and gave us a very special note of gratitude for our teaching. We took the Clarks to the 3rd school to introduce them to our classes, showed them a few of our favorite shopping places, and did what we could to answer all the questions one has when trying to establish life in a small city in Mongolia. We met with the principal of the 3rd school and with the minister of the department of education. We also met for the last time with friends from the medical school and were treated with lunch by friends from the English department at our 3rd school. Everyone was so gracious. We came home overflowing with thoughtful gifts and remembrances. 

On our last Sunday, we both spoke in church and transitioned the group leadership of the congregation from Elder Rose to Elder Clark. Several people came to our services just to say goodbye, including English teachers from the 3rd school. Our dear friend Alice even translated for Kathy during her Sunday School lesson where her discussion was about the importance of families. Afterwards there was a potluck. All of this was so hard. We will miss the people of Sainshand! They have been so warm, friendly, kind, and helpful.

We know that, while in Sainshand, we have done as much as we could, focusing on teaching English and contributing to our local church congregation. We have met many wonderful teachers, students, merchants, and others. We were told before we came that even if we did not know the language (and we certainly didn't have any language tutoring before we came or after we got here), we would be able to use the universal language of love. We truly have been able to achieve effective back and forth communication with love. People have been patient with our cultural bumbles and our inability to express ourselves without Google translate. It's been a privilege to rub shoulders with and learn from them.

We have felt God's love for them and we have felt God's love for us. We've been protected from sickness and injury and blessed with words to say when we needed them. Activities and dinners worked out with obvious divine help. We've been guided in our teaching. Our experiences here have shown time and time again how the Lord's arms are always outstretched, ready to comfort and support all of us if we just ask.

Stay tuned for 2 more installments before we end this Mongolian season of our blog. These 2 installments will include:

•     our final thoughts about what we'll miss and what we won't miss
•     our off-the-beaten-track tour we took in remote areas of Mongolia