Ziason and the Zok

Ziason is a high hill on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar where Elder Neal A. Maxwell and the first missionary couples went on April 15, 1993 to dedicate the land of Mongolia for the preaching of the gospel. There is an enormous memorial to the Russians at the top. From the top you can see the great city and ger districts. It's quite beautiful. The day we were there was September 19th, a Saturday and it was freezing cold. We went with Elder and Sister Ford who had just arrived in Mongolia and LJ and Hannah Nielson, a former missionary to Mongolia and his bride who were here in Mongolia on an internship. Because LJ speaks Mongolian fluently, we were able to get around and enjoy the day with his help. Besides his languae skills, we just plain enjoyed his company. It was a very fun day. Besides Ziason, we also went to the zok - a huge open market often referred to as "the black market."

This is a bride and groom making a climb to the top of Ziason we think to get married. However, all a couple needs to do to be married is to register, pay a fee and wala, they are legally and lawfully wed - a residue of the old Soviet influence.

On the inside of the ring-like structure is a huge mosaque showing the friendship the Russians showed to the Mongolians. Elder Carter and I are here with Elder and Sister Ford with the city in the background.

From Ziason looking down on a shrine to Buddha. Mongolia is a Buddhist nation.

The ascent up to Ziason. There were a zillion stairs, the wind was freezing cold, but we made the trek and enjoyed the time we had there. LJ helped us get taxis and arranged for them to wait for us while we hiked around and got pictures then they took us back to town where we got lunch and did some more exploring.

Anyone for levis?? This is part of the "black market" in Ulaanbaatar.

Don bought this Russian looking hat. Looks rather dashing, don't you think!

Elder Ford looking for a winter coat.

There are plenty to choose from!!

LJ trying on another dashing hat. Wonder how it looks?? Not to worry the sellers provide a mirror so you can have a look. They'll even hold it for you!!

District Conference - Sunday, September 19, 2010

After getting better from Chinggis Khan’s revenge, Sunday evening from 4 to 6PM we attended the District Conference meeting at Royal Opera House. It was a very nice setting. One of the branches was asked to furnish a choir. All the girls were dressed in the same dress and the boys in ties and vests. Singing “I Believe in Christ” accompanied by a piano and cello, they sounded like an angel choir. Mongolians sing just beautifully! The little girl on the cello played “How Great Thou Art” as a solo during the meeting. It was stirring.

I marvel how the Spirit of the Lord teaches people truth to honest hearts. These people ARE Latter-day Saints. They struggle, they strive, they fall and they keep trying just like Latter-day Saints I’ve known everywhere else we’ve lived. The District President, his counselor and a member of the high council spoke to us. Their talks were honest and encouraging, expressing how the gospel has changed their lives and that they have received many blessings since joining the Church. One spoke about how important it is to do simple acts of kindness and service – beautiful talk! They all bore witness of Joseph Smith and the Restoration, and each testified that we are led by a prophet of God today who is President Monson.

In my heart I wondered how they know this and made changes in their lives to conform to the teachings of a Church from so far away, from a different country, and from a different culture. But then I realized that people of the scriptures believed in a Christ who WOULD come but hadn’t yet come during their mortal lives. One way or the other faith is the key, and having exercised faith having the Holy Ghost stamp it upon one’s heart. And it’s that simple formula: “We believe the first principles and ordinances of the gospel are: first, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, repentance; third, baptism by immersion for the remission of sin; and fourth, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Our interpreter was a former missionary to Mongolia who is here for a visit. I can’t get over the number of missionaries who come back for a visit. I’ve met three in the two weeks I’ve been here. This young man served here at the same time as Caleb Larsen and remembered him. He understood Mongolian and was picking it up again pretty well.

Two young women who will soon leave to serve missions bore their testimonies to us. One is bound for Japan and the other will be going to San Bernardino, California. When they complete their missions they will add to the army of over NINE HUNDRED returned Mongolian missionaries. This country has the greatest number of returned missionaries per capita in the world!! And they are great young people!! They desire to go forward with their educations, they all strive to improve their English and they want to get married and contribute to the Church, establish strong families and help Mongolia. It is a wonder!!

Alma said, "For because of the word which he has imparted unto me, behold many have been born of God, and have tasted as I have tasted, and have seen eye to eye as I have seen; therefore they do know of these things of which I have spoken, as I do know; and the knowledge which I have is of God." (Alma 36:26)

We learned that things are not so good for Sister Mecham, the mission president’s wife. When they did surgery, cancer was found in her lymph nodes. She will have to go through chemotherapy which means they will be gone for a long time. We ask why. Why were they called when certainly the Lord knew how this would play out. This has to be an Abrahamic experience in which Sister Mecham showed the Lord she was willing to do anything He asked her to do.

In the meantime, Elder Powell is acting as president. Don and I have decided to call him “President Powell” because the young missionaries need that example and he deserves our support and respect. President Powell spoke at conference following a talk by his wife. He said, “I wish you could all have an angel for a wife like I have. But you can’t have her, she’s mine.” Everyone chuckled. Then he warned us that he’d be sharing a personal experience. He recounted how his first wife got cancer eight years ago. Each time before going to the doctor, he and his wife prayed together. He said their prayers were always simple, “Heavenly Father, please bless us with good news today.” And they would feel a great peace and warm feeling in their hearts and they knew things would be all right. They continued to pray for good news before every doctor’s visit, but each visit never brought good news. Finally, the doctors told them it would not be long until she would experience death. They were a little confused because of the sweet, comforting peace which had come to them every time they prayed. Finally, Pres. Powell’s wife recognized the message Heavenly Father kept sending them. The message was that Heavenly Father loved them and was in charge and they were not to fear. After a long battle with cancer, she passed away.

Pres. Powell said he didn’t think he could ever be happy again - until he could be with his wife again. He felt such great loss and loneliness. Then he met up with one of his wife’s dear friends. She had suffered a terrible divorce and had raised her three daughters alone. Pres. Powell asked her to dinner. From what we were told, he asked her soon after their first date if she’d like to go on a mission with him. She said she would. They knew they’d have to be married in order to go so they got married. He told everyone how that he knows that Heavenly Father loves him and us all. He said he is is happy again. They celebrated their first wedding anniversary last April!!

“The arm of the Lord has been revealed…” and the Lord knew this good man would be needed here in Mongolia at this time. Don doesn’t think Pres. Mecham will be returning due to the condition of his wife. The Lord alone knows. But Pres. Powell is here, now, giving his best effort to lead and strengthen the mission. I think this is a story about “five loaves and two little fish” and what the Lord can do with them.

Chinggis Khan Revenge

Montezuma has no corner on the "revenge." I ought to know! I had the Chinggis Khan's revenge starting Thursday night through Saturday and it was ugly!! Just let me say that I never throw-up - even with morning sickness, I never threw-up. Steele stomach!! But this hit me and I purged, and purged and purged. Afterward, I got better. It's over. Two days though and I thought I was going to die in Mongolia without seeing my children again. Don gave me a blessing and really think that the throwing-up was in answer to that blessing. It was the only way Heavenly Father could get it out of my system. It worked. Other than feeling heavy and lifeless, like I'd been run over by a Mac truck, I got better!!

We had invited a government official to come to dinner along with his little family including his wife and two children. We had also invited a young American couple, the Nielsons, to come. LJ Neilson speaks Mongolian and is here for a bank internship during his off-track semester from BYU-Idaho. He served his mission here in 2006. Now he brought his bride back to his old missionary stomping grounds. Hannah, his wife, works in the mission office helping out and teaching music skills. Hannah will continue teaching our government official English after we leave for Darkhan at the end of September.

Saturday, after Don had failed to get in touch with our man, Bat-Tur, and when I knew I was incapable of cooking, I told Don to call Hannah and ask her come cook. She did. I stayed in bed and they all had a nice meal and good visit.

Just For Gracie!!

Hi Gracie,

This is Grandpa with Elmo in New York City last summer. I've been meaning to send it to you. We love Elmo but most of all

we love Gracie!!

HeHeHeHeHe!

Bisous!!

The BZ Building

The BZ Building in Ulaanbaatar is so named for the street on which it is located - Bayanzurkh. Really it’s more like “A thru Z” because it is a multipurpose building and used around the clock. In fact, it has a 24-7 guard!! It’s like a beehive – there are people here from 6 AM to 10PM daily. Three units of the Church, a Stake, the Mongolian Mission offices, and the Mission President’s residence are housed in this building and it’s one of the brightest, cleanest and most well built buildings in all of Mongolia. Six stories (including a basement), this 40,000 square foot building has it all including a rarity – an elevator!

The 5^th Floor is the Mission President’s residence and a sisters’ dorm for incoming and outgoing missionary sisters. President and Sister Mecham haven’t been here for about a month because she is being treated for breast cancer. Soon after arriving in Mongolia, Sister Mecham discovered a lump and went to America to have it checked out. Once cancer was diagnosed, President Mecham was instructed to go be with her. It is a stage two cancer and she will have surgery and radiation treatments. They are hopeful that it will all work out and plan to be gone for about three months.

The 4^th floor houses the mission offices including Elder and Sister Eliason’s medical room and the elders’ dorm. Elder Eliason is a retired physician. The Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission is the only mission in the world with its own doctor. Before coming here to Mongolia, the Eliason’s, parents of ten children, served a mission in South America where he supervised the medical services for three countries. The English library and classroom are also on this floor supervised by Elder and Sister Powell. Elder Powell taught school for about 35+ years before retiring. He and his wife have prepared curriculum and organized material used for teaching English, the official reason why we’re all here in Mongolia. At the moment, however, Elder Powell is the acting president of the mission while Pres. Mecham is out of country.

The 3d floor houses the stake, the patriarch’s office and the high council room. There is another huge classroom on this floor, which is used for Sunday School Classes, Relief Society, Mission Staff Meetings, and a daily seminary class.

Classrooms and the ward and branch offices take up the 2^nd floor. Here, young people together for their weekly Young Men/Young Women meeting. On Sunday these rooms are used for Primary and other classes.

That 24 hour guard sits on the 1st floor which is the entrance floor of the building. The chapel and overflow, baptismal font and room, and the humanitarian projects offices are located on this floor. Every Friday evening has been set aside for baptisms. Baptismal services begin in the chapel and everyone moves to the baptismal font room where we squeeze in for the ordinance then move back to the chapel. If, by chance, there are no baptisms, a fireside is held. The baptismal room is a busy place. Tuesday thru Thursday English classes are held here. Don and I had our first class last Thursday evening attended by 35 people. The Clarks class on Wednesday had about 45. They said they have had to seat people in the hall at times when over 60 people have come to learn English.

The basement floor includes a computer lab where students can take BYU-Hawaii classes on-line. The Career Center and PEF offices, which are run by Elder and Sister Clark are here too. Pres. Odgerel’s day job is overseeing the Seminaries and Institutes. His office and his secretary’s office are also here in the basement. There is a huge classroom which is used Tuesday through Thursday for various Institute classes including the Doctrine and Covenants, and Marriage classes. The Young Single Adults attend them all. We’ve seen it filled with 67 students!! One day earlier this week, the tables here were filled with baby quilts and sewing machines. The youth tied the quilts and the YSA would hem them. The quilts will go to a birthing center for new mothers who can’t afford quilts for their newborns. There is a small kitchen room useful for socials as well.

It's a wonderful building, dedicated to the work of the Lord. "By their fruits shall ye know them." Latter-day Saints here love the gospel, the Restoration and the activities of the Kingdom. It is a joy to be a part of this. But the one building these people are praying for is a temple. They have to have 20,000 members and have 50,000 temple ready names in order to qualify for a temple. They are half way there!! With over a thousand baptisms a year, a temple is within reach. Hallelujia Mongolia!!

YSAs Dancing!!

The young man has been home from his mission for less than a month. He served in Signapore where he learned English from his American companions. He is glad to be home and is looking forward to dating and finding his "eternal companion." He's just a darling fellow!!
This is Brother Jay dancing. He, too, has just been released from a mission to America. He was just hired to work in the mission offices here in Mongolia. His dad is in the branch presidency in Darkhan and Don will be working with him there. We had dinner with his mom and dad last week. They don't speak a lot of English but Jay's dad introduced his mom as "my honey."

These young Mongolians love to be together. They spend all their time with each other. Here they are on a Saturday evening for three hours at a church dance. Cutest thing - they were given instruction in a waltz to the music of "We are daughters of our Heavenly Father who loves us and we love Him, yes, we love Him." The dance was lovely and seemed somehow to fit the music and the lyrics.

Grand Grandchildren!!

and their moms and dads and aunts and uncles!! How we love our family!!

Our First Baptism

Every Friday evening here there is a baptism. Tonight we attended baptisms for seven people. There were at least 200 people in attendance. We had a returned missionary sit behind us and interpret for us. Most weeks there are many more but because of various circumstances this was a small number to be baptized.

We sang "Count Your Many Blessings," and "The Spirit of God" with all these wonderful Mongolian brothers and sisters. They can sing!! We sang the hymns in English while they sang in Mongolian.

Exactly like everywhere else in the world, this meeting included a talk on baptism and a talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost. Two sisters gave those talks and they were wonderful!!

Then everyone walked to the baptismal room and squeezed in to watch the ordinances performed. All dressed in white, it was stone still when the baptismal prayer was said. Remarkable - exactly the same as it's done anywhere else in the world with one exception: After the baptisms, we gathered once again in the chapel where we heard each of the people who had just been baptized bear their testimony. Wonderful!! This ought to be the standard everywhere else in the world. They were not at all shy or embarrassed and bore sweet, pure testimonies of what they have come to know is true.

We are just thrilled to be here in Mongolia serving the Lord and some of His children here. These are sweet, dear people who are new and fresh in the gospel it has become the center of their lives.

Ulaanbaatar - an interesting capital city!!

We are in Mongolia!! Arrived here on Sept. 6, 2010 - a Monday. Today marks our 4th day. Everyone has been wonderful, but we have come to learn that everyone is very busy with their own responsibilities and really have no time to entertain us. We have tried to do a lot of observation and are at the point where we are making our own way. We will not be allowed to go up to Darkhan until we are registered with our sponsor and that will be in about two more weeks.

In the meantime, we have been asked to give personal, one-on-one English lessons to a government official who is going to take an English test soon and wants to be tutored. We will spend an hour and a half daily teaching him. We are a bit nervous but anxious to jump in and get our feet wet!

Tuesday night we were the senior couple atttending the ARP meeting. Wow! What a great experience. There were 25 people there - mostly non-members. They all shared openly the battles they are trying to overcome. The Church manual has been translated into Mongolian which is read and discussed. The teacher speaks only Mongolian and we had a translator who sat behind us and whispered in our ear what the teacher and participants were talking about. There was much said about Heavenly Father and his help. Many were recognized for their progress and changes. There was one man who is a bit obnoxious and took away from the meeting. We will most likely attend again next week and Don has decided to have a talk with him before the meeting to set some ground rules. The meeting is held every Tuesday night. Many of the same folks have attended for a while and expressed how much they have benefited from the meetings.

We observed an English class taught at the same meetinghouse on Wednesday night. This meeting has been ongoing for a couple of years. The Clarks, a senior couple, teach the class which is a free offering open to the public. Because it is taught in a chapel, they are a little more free to bring up gospel principles although they are careful to maintain the purpose. Last night, they had the class members read from the family enrichment manual (FHE) about what a happy home is. They read aloud and asked questions and discussed the ideas. Each of the participants volunteered to introduce themselves using a guide of statements they had to finish with their own information. There was a police detective, an OB-GYN doctor, legal people, construction engineers and others. They ranged in age from 16 to 47. The one thing they had in common was that they came to learn to speak English better.

We can see why people get interested in the gospel by participating in these kinds of classes. They are in the chapel, they feel the Spirit of the Lord, the teachers enjoy being with them and try to help them reach their goals.

People do all kinds of things for a living including mopping stairwells, picking up trash or whatever. These people are very ambitious and willing to work rather than getting a handout. We were told that people live in the manholes and there is a lady who lives under our stairs in our building. We were also told that doctors here are paid less than a translator. Things are very different here.

We live in an apartment building. Our apartment is on the 4th floor. There is no elevator. There are 69 steps to reach our door. We are comfortable and happy to have our apartment, which is an interesting subject for a future blog.

Traffic here is like something out of Indiana Jones!! Policemen stand in mid-intersections and blow their whistles non-stop. Good thing they use their hands and twirl a baton to SHOW who goes where because they whistle at everyone but it could be anyone! Drivers need two hands to drive - one hand the steer and the other hand to honk their horn! There are no rules of the road. Oh, I guess there is one rule, don't bump into another car. They miraculously keep that rule pretty well!!