40 degrees yahoo

Well, this week we were liberated:  It has warmed up enough to take off the thermals, stop using the scarfs, gloves, and heavy coats.  Wow, it was so nice to feel free.  We still wear lighter coats but 40-45 degrees is marvelous. 

The immigration folks are checking everybody very carefully.  We have to have our alien card, a copy of our passport and immigration papers with us at all times.  And guess what, they showed up at our door. They were really nice but they checked everything and asked a lot of questions. 

We are training the new American missionaries to teach English.  It is amazing to see so many Mongolians come to the English classes that are held in the church buildings.  We make them fun, they participate a lot.  We try to have them talking 50 to 70 percent of the class time.  We help them understand the words and pronounce them correctly, then they repeat after us 3 or 4 times, and then again 3-4 times with a partner.  When we are out on the streets or on a bus the elementary kids love to try and talk to us in English.  They are so proud of themselves when they say "hi," or "how are you,"  or |"what is your name."  They get our names a lot better than we get their names.  Here are some of the most common names: Batbold, Baatar, Osomajamaa, Aydibold, Nomuna, Undraa, Pujae, Khungarsol.  All these names have been shortened so that we can say them.  Their full name is something like Baatarazakhuraa.  They only have one name, no last names. 

We are doing good and staying busy. We are very grateful to be here in Mongolia at this time. We feel it a privilege and a blessing. We love this Gospel and it's wonderful to see it spreading throughout the world.

Gardening

We have been looking up how many weeks before planting do you, or should you, start the following in the house:

Tomatoes

Peppers

Cucumbers

Cantaloupe

Squash

Pumpkin

Strawberries

Cabbage

Broccoli

Cauliflower

You can see gardening is on our minds.  We will have 16 branches doing gardening projects this year.  Each branch has 5-12 families that are poor and needy that will try gardening to help supplement their meat, fat, and noodle diet, with vegetables.  There are other families already gardening that we do not need to help.  The things they like to grow here are:  Potatoes, carrots, beats, tomatoes, and cucumbers.  Some people try other things like melons, squash, pumpkins, cabbage, and strawberries. They grow a berry here that they make juice out of.  It tastes very good and is classified as a super food.  You should read up on it--Sea Buckthorn.  We think you will find it very interesting.  Many of those that garden have to haul their water in a water cart for the family's daily water needs and also to grow a garden. 

We have 30 requests from various organizations, we have translated and investigated, that have asked for help:  Schools, hospitals, handicapped programs, prisons, universities, kindergartens, rehab centers, cities, towns, providences, and immigration offices.  We have selected some to help this year and we have selected some that we will reject.  The need is so great and we cannot do everything for everyone.  It is painful to have to tell people we are unable to help them this year.  It is both sweet and bitter when we tell people we can help some but not all.  We try to help where it will help them to help themselves and become self-reliant.  Example:  We are going to help a kindergarten with new fixtures in the restrooms.  So our question is, if we purchase these items for you can you install them.  We do not want the new fixtures sitting around because they are not capable enough to get them installed and working; however, we also want them to have some skin in the game and help themselves.  So this is our current challenge.

This is what we have been doing this week.  

Grandma (Carol) Maynes has consented to give us 100 quilts to hand out to poor and needy as we are out and about. We are trying to get them shipped for free with the new mission president's shipping container.  

We are doing good.  We love this Gospel; we have true happiness as we live the principles and keep our covenants. We are so grateful that living this Gospel has taught us self-reliance and for goodly parents who also taught us this

Eagle Hunter

Dear all,

We have been working, trying to get gardening projects put together.  We have seen lots of the country, towns, and people and we have been in lots of homes.  We think living conditions in the countryside are much like it was when our moms and dads were kids.  No inside plumbing, an outhouse, a one or two room house, the people scrounging a living for themselves out of mother nature.  They make everything from scratch.  They have a berry here in Mongolia that they really like.  They make juice out of it, Sea Buckthorn.  I looked it up on google.  It is very good and considered by many to be a superfood with lots of vitamins.  The members of the church are so faithful.  It is very impressive.  In a town called Khovd the branch president picks up ten students in his small SUV every morning for seminary.  Most of the early morning seminary teachers we have met are 18-20 year olds and they do a great job.  We visited a number of places that have made a request for help: A university, a prison, a kindergarten, water stations, a few hospitals, handicap programs, an immigration office, etc. 

We went to an Eagle Hunter's Festival yesterday.  The men were dressed up in Mongolian traditional outfits: Fur Coats, hats, leggings, boots. They were each on their horse with their eagle on their arm.  They had contests where each hunter and his eagle would compete.  The hunter would ride 200 yards away while someone else held his eagle.  He then would call to his eagle and off his eagle would go and land 300 yards away on his masters arm.  Most did superbly, however once in a while an eagle would take off and land somewhere else.  It was very interesting!  They are Golden Eagles.  There were about 20 eagle hunters, each with their eagle and horse, at the completion.  The horses are a little smaller than our horses.  They have shaggy coats and the rider rides further up towards the front than we do.  The horse, rider, and eagle all get along nicely and have a majestic look about them as they are riding along with the eagle on the riders arm and his wings part way stretched out.  We will send some pictures in a day or two.

 

 

Road Less Traveled

This week we are on a big gardening trip.  We will be on this trip for another 9 days.  The unemployment is very high in Mongolia so gardening is one thing that tremendously helps those willing to garden.  A small green house helps because the growing season is so short and they usually get a cold day or two in the summer which can freeze their crop. Right now we are in Murun which is up by the Russian/Siberian border.  There is a large lake, Khuvsgul, that is frozen over which they use as a 260 mile long road in the winter to save miles.  Trucks, cars, and motorcycles all making their own road across the lake.  Yes, we have seen people on motorcycles in -10 below weather racing along all bundled up.  Three on a bike bundled up with hats, coats, boots, and scarves, makes for a very interesting sight.  This is not something we are interested in trying.  As you travel along in the countryside there seems to be nothing but miles and miles of snow covered plains and rolling hills, and then you will see some sheep, goats, horses, cattle, and maybe a yack or a camel and then you will see a herder out in the cold walking or riding a horse and then you spot a Ger out in the middle of no where, no electricity, no store or town for miles.  The harsh condition these people live in and survive in is amazing to us. We stayed by the lake in a cabin.  They fed us well.  The water they needed to cook was obtained by chopping a hole through 3 feet of ice and carrying it back to the kitchen in buckets. No running water and an outhouse were our experiences. We found a Mongolian dish we really like, it is called golash: Meat, potatoes, carrots, onions all mixed and cooked together kind of like our stew.  Also, they have a small wild blueberry they make jam and a fruit drink out of which we find very delicious.  The active members have such great faith, they are very friendly.  We went to an early morning seminary class that was supposed to start at 6:30, it started at 6:29 with 10 of 11 students present, the eleventh showed up a few minutes late.  After seminary they have to make their own way to their various schools; walk, take a bus, or a taxi (at -10 degrees to -40 degrees), we call this faithfulness!  

Who wants to ride a camel?

Above zero = warm weather

Some of this past week we had warmer weather--above zero:)  It felt so much warmer that we didn't wear our hats or our very warm socks.  We did wear our very warm coats, and our thermals however:) But, today the weather is back to -10.  They say it won't really start warming up, a little, until the end of March. 

Tuesday through Thursday was a National Holiday here in Mongolia--Tsagaan Sar, or white month/lunar month because it's the first new moon of the new year. During this 3 days people visit family member's homes and eat traditional food--montone bodts (round meat dumplings), potato salad, carrot salad, cabbage salad, lamb meat, curd and candy. When you enter the house the oldest person is sitting at the head of the table, wearing a hat and a special shawl.  Each person entering greets them in a special way, and we're also wearing hats. When we're done eating we tell them how good the food was--"mush ahmt-ta bella".  We only went to 5 homes and ate enough bodts to last awhile:) When you leave a home the host gives you a present--chocolate candy bars, money, lotion, whatever they want.  Then we say, "biyerthla (thank you). 

The Relief Societies love to make quilts because they are in such great need.  The Mongolian women love to sew bright colored dresses. We will try and attach some pictures.  We'll be going on a trip this next 2 weeks, all over Mongolia.  We'll be checking out the member's gardening projects and how we can help this years projects be more effective.  No snow plows, some dirt roads, and a few airplane rides out into the wild countryside of Mongolia:  Zuunkharaa, Seleng, Darkhan, Erdenet, Murun, Khovd, Choibalsan, Nalaikh, Sukhbaatar, Unur, Selbe, Jargalant, Khan-uul.

Somehow They survive

Thursday and Friday we went to Darkhan and Erdenet to attend a Deseret International Charities' closing.  These two cities are North of Ulaanbaatar up towards Siberia, 7 hours away.  We donated 3 delivery beds, 1 C-Section bed, 2 neonatal resuscitation units, and 1 fetal monitor.  The local Relief Society also made 45 blankets to be given out to mothers and new born babies.  The hospital and staff were very grateful.  The equipment they have been using is very old and out dated.  There were about twenty people from the hospital that came to thank us.  The 4 doctors showed us the new equipment and how it works.  The church is amazing.  We can't do everything so we choose things we think will help the most people.  This hospital is a regional hospital that delivers most of the babies in a large geographical area.  We will attach some pictures.  We are busy and we think we are doing some good and blessing some lives. 

As we drove up North we went through some Geir Districts.  The poverty in these Geir Districts is unimaginable.  They somehow survive.  One of the biggest expenses for the poor people is to buy bags of lump coal or wood to heat their Geir's.  They raise their own food: milk, meat, and curd and mix this with some flour or rice. They eat everything, the head, the tail, all the insides including the intestines.  We saw lots of herds: Goats, Cattle, Sheep, a two humped Camel, and occasionally we would see a lone herder out walking or riding a horse, out in the middle of nowhere, in the -15 degree weather. 

The gospel brings peace and happiness; it also answers the questions the Mongolian people have always had in their hearts and minds. Buddhism left them empty and communism left them confused and troubled. The restored gospel gives the people purpose and therefore lifts them out of poverty.  It is a long process, even taking a generation or two, but it slowly happens.