Khankh

I went to Khankh to inspect the 3 water stations we have built for the city.  We ended up driving across the frozen lake,180 km long.  It took 3 hours.  It was a little eerie looking down through the ice to see water sloshing around 100-300 feet deep and to hear the cracking of the ice as the day warmed up.  Sometimes it was slick and sometimes rough and sometimes there was a heaved-upped ridge of ice because of expansion.  Khankh is on the Russian border in Nothern Mongolia.  They carry water to the school by Yak, two 5 gallon barrels, one on each side of the Yak.  Running water is a huge blessing and about 50% of the Mongolians do not have it.  They must haul it daily form some place. An outhouse and hauling water is okay in the summer but in the winter it is no picnic!  We are looking forward to planting a garden as soon as we get home, at the end of May.

Muruun

This week we have a water specialist with us from Lehi, Utah. His name is Reed Mellor. We have been visiting and evaluating past water stations DIC built in Mongolia. We are also visiting the water stations we have constructed and visiting possible sites for future consideration. The church is very concerned when we do humanitarian work that there is sustainability, which means the project will last for many years because it was completed properly and because the organization or group of people we helped have the desire and ability to maintain the project in the future. Elder Mellor is very pleased with the projects we have done. Most of them, it looks like, will have a 30 year life expectancy. We are in Choibalsan right now, the far Eastern edge of Mongolia. 

(Alan left this morning for Khankh, up by the Northern edge of Mongolia. Batbold is driving and it takes all day to get to Muruun and then 8 hours to drive around the lake because it's a bumpy, dirt road. They don't dare drive over the ice lake because it's not very thick ice this year.  Yes, people, even big trucks drive over the ice lake--scary! They'll check out the 3 new portable water stations and make their way back to UB.  They're hoping to be back by Saturday night.) 

Everywhere we go the people treat us wonderfully. They want to improve their lives and are very grateful for the little bit of help we can give them. We are doing good.  We love the gospel and our parents that taught us the gospel and started us down this path of exquisite joy.

Zunnmod Village

This week we had a closing ceremony at the Zunnmod Village ​​​​.  We rebuilt their library for them.  We were supposed to show up at 11:30 am.  They had a celebration all set up for us.  The children sang several songs, they danced, and recited poetry.  The children were beautiful, all dressed up and performing before us.  There was one dance that was fascinating.  A teenage girl, about 15, danced with 4 bowls stacked on her head.  As she moved around and about her head never moved and the bowls did not fall off. Then she put one bowl in one hand and another in the other hand and danced more, then she squatted down and put one bowl on her foot and stretched about, then another bowl on the other foot and stretched about, all this while there were two bowls still on her head. Then another bowl came off her head into her hand and she moved all about, then finally the four bowls went back on her head and the dance ended, and then she poured the water out of the bowl that had stayed on her head the whole time.  Quite a show! After the ceremony they feed us Hor Hog. It is a traditional Mongolian meal.  Lots of meat, potatoes, carrots, all cooked in one big pot.  There were also lots of salads on the side.  So, we had a good week this week. We gave the Michigan Test 3 times this week to young adults that are trying to go to BYU-H.  Usually only 1-2 pass out of 25.  We are hoping for better results this time.

Road less traveled

We had an Asia Area Conference today.  It was so nice to go to a conference or church meeting and get the messages in English, not through a translator.  There were 4 speakers, Elder Brent Nielson, Sister Marriott, Elder Hallstrom, and Elder Gary Stevenson. It was a great meeting in which the following things were taught:

We need to increase our faith and one way to do this is for families to have spiritual time together--we pray that our reading the B of M, praying and having HE helped you and that you will continue these with your families.

We need to pray for spiritual strength to live & keep our covenants, which will get us eternal life. Covenants are our iron rod--a great blessing.

We can have peace, even in trials. The Savior can make trials lighter and we can help others by bearing each other's burdens.

Dads and moms need to work together in their families--it's a combined effort to help families get back to Heavenly Father.

We have a water specialist arriving from SLC this week so we will be touring all over Mongolia for the next 2 weeks.  We have more water requests.  The need is so great.  We hope some of these requests can be done to bless and help the people.  A water station helps them improve their health and it also makes things much more convenient; not as convenient as water tapped to their home/geir but still better than what many have to do to get water. 

This week is Tsgansar in Mongolia.  It is a big national holiday, much like our thanksgiving, except everything shuts down most of the week.  It was a little warmer Saturady around 25 degrees.  It was so.......o nice.

Old Henry Smith

Since we have told you about the English teaching, training, and supervising we have been doing, we do not want you to get the wrong idea. Grandpa says his English is about the same as it always has been and to prove it he's sending a poem he put together the other day.

Old Henry Smith was a thinkin' one day,

Oh, that I could run like that horse of mine o'r yonder

Or, wouldn't it be grand to fly like Mr. Crow up overhead.

And then he heard his yellow Lab a thinkin',

Oh, that I could talk like Old Man Henry does

Or, wouldn't it be nice to cook like Mrs. Smith.

Then Henry straightened up and thought again,

Maybe it is quite remarkable that I can

think, and speak, and do all the things I do.

It might be best to leave the runnin' to my horse

And the flyin' to Mr. Crow, and be content to

do the thinkin, and the speakin' and the doin'

And then another thought came into

Old Henry Smith's soul, Man is different,

He truly is a child of God ya' know.

I think it's culte and so true. We love each one of you and pray you'll be guided and protected in all you do.

Zunnmod

This week we had a closing ceremony at the Zunnmod Village ​​​​.  We rebuilt their library for them.  We were supposed to show up at 11:30 am.  They had a celebration all set up for us.  The children sang several songs, they danced, and recited poetry.  The children were beautiful, all dressed up and performing before us.  There was one dance that was facinating.  A teenage girl, about 15, danced with 4 bowls stacked on her head.  As she moved around and about her head never moved and the bowls did not fall off. Then she put one bowl in one hand and another in the other hand and danced more, then she squatted down and put one bowl on her foot and stretched about, then another bowl on the other foot and stretched about, all this while there were two bowls still on her head. Then another bowl came off her head into her hand and she moved all about, then finally the four bowls went back on her head and the dance ended, and then she poured the water out of the bowl that had stayed on her head the whole time.  Quite a show! After the ceremony they feed us Hor Hog. It is a traditional Mongolian meal.  Lots of meat, potatoes, carrots, all cooked in one big pot.  There were also lots of salads on the side.  So, we had a good week this week. We gave the Michigan Test 3 times this week to young adults that are trying to go to BYU-H.  Usually only 1-2 pass out of 25.  We are hoping for better results this time.

Faith in Every Footstep

This week we worked on our 2 wheel chair projects, our 4 water stations, a school library project, and our English Class.  At our English class they asked us some questions that were way beyond us:  What is a subjective verb?  What is auxillary verb? What is a nominative case?  We think it is so funny, us teaching English! We need some of you over here to help out:)  Since all our students can read English, we just tell them to read, read, read--aloud. Listening to Conference talks and then reading them aloud is a good practice. Spend 2 to 3 hours a day doing this.  We tell them listening and then reading aloud is the best way they can get familiar enough with English that they can understand a native speaker and speak fluently enough that a native English speaker can understand them.  We tell them one hour a week is not enough to make hardly any progress.  They want to know all the grammer rules and they memorize a lot of words, but they cannot use the word in a sentence and they have no idea what we are talking about when we try to explain a grammer rule.  

We heard this week who will replace us the last of May, Elder and Sister Washburn.  This is good news so there is not a big gap between the Humanitarian senior couples.

This is Laurie--I was asked to lead the singing in Relief Society last week--the sister who usually does it is gone to America to visit some family--and this week the Presidency asked me to help them all learn to lead the singing--so, me, and our sweet translator, Taivnaa, explained about measures and 4 beats to a measure and drew on the white board the 4/4 time pattern--then everyone stood up and followed along as the two of us lead the song.  We faced the front so they could see the right direction our arms were going. Next week I need to watch them all lead so I know if they're getting it, or not. Then maybe I can have them take turns leading.  Anyway, it was fun:)