I want to write about the senior couples Don and I were privileged to know in Mongolia. Every couple has left retirement and children and grandchildren to go work using their skills, abilities and effort at building up the Kingdom of God on earth. Their vision is clear and the faith is steady and strong.
They truly are “…other choice spirits who were reserved to come forth in the fullness of times to take part in laying the foundations of the great latter-day work… I observed that they were also among the noble and great ones who were chosen in the beginning to be rulers in the Church of God. Even before they were born, they, with many others, received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to came forth in the due time of the Lord to labor in his vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men.” Doctrine and Covenants 138:53-55
Elder and Sister Powell are from the Provo area. Having taught junior high school for 35 years, Elder Powell and his wife are responsible for the English teaching by the American missionaries. Mongolia prohibits the proselyting of religion especially by outsiders. Americans are allowed into the country only as “English teachers.” The Powells have spent endless hours organizing material in the English library in the Bayanzurkh church building. Drawers of work pages and shelves of reference materials organized for easy access by all English teachers. Many of the young returned missionaries want to attend BYU-Hawaii. In order to do that, they must pass the Michigan English test. The Powells have made available not only materials but classes to prepare them to pass the test.
The day we arrived in Mongolia, Elder Powell was asked to step in as the acting mission president in Pres. Mecham’s absence. He had served as the secretary in the mission presidency. Dealing with missionaries in Mongolia has unique challenges. These young people are called, set-apart fulltime missionaries laboring in their hometown – with their non-member moms, dads and girlfriends 10 minutes away. Many of the 120 missionaries were actually called and were serving in other missions in the world, then “recalled” to come back to Mongolia to finish out their missions when the government of Mongolia kicked out all the American elders and sisters who had been serving there. It seems that the Americans hadn’t taken the English teaching seriously and weren’t, in many cases, doing it so they kicked them out! This happened within the past year. Then the unexpected challenge of having Pres. Mecham leave, these young men and women’s commitment was challenged. Our leaving has left the mission shorthanded. Simply stated, it’s been tough on the mission. President Powell has done a remarkable job under these very difficult circumstances.
Sister Powell welcomed us with a housewarming gift of a jar of Jiff peanut butter and a loaf of her homemade bread.. We leaned quickly that this was a sweet and generous gift! While Elder Powell was being “President Powell,” she was keeping things running smoothly in the English department which duties they formerly carried out together. As I pointed out before, a lot rests on English teaching. Every American missionary teaches English, including the doctor! The Mongolian government has made it clear why they think we’re there and it isn’t to share the gospel.
I can’t help but wonder if he and Sister Powell weren’t given “lessons in the world of spirits” to deal with this. They truly are “noble and great.”
Elder Eliason keeps the young elders and sisters healthy advising them about exercise, healthy eating and safe drinking water. He has had to deal with emergency surgery and accidents. At one point he accompanied a senior missionary home who’d had a heart attack. He is serving as a doctor and paying for the privilege, supporting himself and his wife on their mission. Talk about selfless!
Sister Eliason’s duties are directing Family History and organizing temple trips. Mongolia really needs its own temple. One of the qualifications for a temple is that the people need to have 50,000 names ready for temple work. The nearest temple for the Mongolian people is Hong Kong, an expensive three-day train trip away. Sister Eliason organizes a temple trip every quarter and has something to do with temple preparation classes.
In addition to all this, she and Elder Eliason teach English in the special medical schools, their primary role according to their visas. They carry out assignments in their branch when Elder Eliason does home teaching every Sunday evening at 7:30 and Sister Eliason plays the organ for sacrament meetings and has several other branch assignments. It is amazing what people will do when they believe there is a prophet of God on earth!! They go anywhere and do all they can to build up Zion!
Elder and Sister Clark are from Tallahassee, Florida. They served their first mission to Mongolia, went home for six months and decided to return to Mongolia again. They run the Perpetual Education Fund and Returned Missionary Office in the Ulaanbaatar. They love the young people and the young people love them! The Clarks love Mongolia and find joy every day in their missionary work. They are a joy to be around! Elder Clark has a hard time saying the unusual Mongolian names so he gives them nicknames. They don’t seem to mind at all but, coming from Elder Clark, consider their nickname a term of endearment.
The Clarks have covered the walls of the returned missionary office with pictures of all who have completed their missions by year. They know their names and when and where they served and what they are up to now that they are home.
Sister Clark is the social leader for the senior missionaries, organizing potluck dinners and other get-togethers. Senior missionaries enjoy one another and will be lifelong friends. Besides that, she helped organize a service project making baby quilts, knit caps and ties for new mothers. Twenty-five or 30 warm, new tied quilts made with adorable baby fabric in soft colors with a knit cap and ties to keep the quilts around the babies in winter were made in a joint effort by the youth and young single adults. Because they had no quilt frames, the young men kept the quilts taut by holding the corners while the young women tied them. The Young Single Adult women sewed the edges and made the ties. A quilt with a baby’s knit cap and a tie were put in individual bags and taken to a maternity hospital. One of the new fathers had his baby wrapped in a towel the day the quilts were delivered. Can you imagine the joy of wrapping his new baby in one of those beautiful baby quilts?!
There are a couple of stories Sister Clark told me about Elder Clark which I enjoyed hearing. The first is about a young Mongolian boy who was going to school at one of the medical schools in Ulaanbaatar. He joined the Church and developed a desire to go on a mission. But he had to get a release from his school in order to go. Elder and Sister Clark went to the school to speak with the school officials about releasing the young man so he could serve a fulltime mission for the Church. Elder Clark explained how that the young man would return more prepared to study, he would learn people skills which would benefit him in the medical profession and that he would most likely learn the English language – all excellent reasons to let the boy go on a mission. Then the school official asked the Clarks if “their organization” was the one which provided the wheel chairs. Elder Clark responded that it was. The school official said his school could use some wheel chairs. Elder Clark asked how many could they use? About a hundred was the reply. Elder Clark assured him he’d ask about it. Apparently, the wheel chairs were provided and the boy has been on a mission in the Washington D.C area for about a year. Elder Clark refers to the young missionary as “Elder Cha-Ching” because it was a big price to ay to get him on a mission.
The second story I enjoyed about Elder Clark was concerning a lady’s coat. Upstairs in the furthest corner of the 5th floor is a storage room. Besides some food storage, in this room one can find everything to outfit a missionary including garments, shirts, ties and coats. These items have been left behind for the use of anyone who may need them. It seems that Sister Clark, while on her first mission, saw a coat she needed to get her through the harsh Mongolian winter. It was full-length with a hood which had fur around the edge. Indeed it was a coat made to shield someone from the severe cold Mongolian winters and Sister Clark took it. Elder Clark named the coat “Fifi.” She wore the coat throughout her mission. As she was preparing to leave her mission, Sister Clark gave the coat back. After all, they were heading back to balmy Florida and had no use for an extreme weather coat there. Once they decided to return to Mongolia, Sister Clark had to buy new winter clothing again since she had left most of her clothes in Mongolia for sisters to use. But she had trouble finding a new coat to buy. Once back in Mongolia, she looked for “Fifi.” Come to find out, “Fifi” had been borrowed by Sister Anderson who is serving north near the Siberian boarder of Mongolia and is making good use of the coat.
While I was there, Sister Clark did find another very warm coat which she borrowed. I wonder if Elder Clark will name it?
Elder and Sister Lasson have the responsibility to lend humanitarian aid to the people of Mongolia. Elder Lasson is a retired civil engineer in a country where those skills have been of great value to the people. Besides making it possible for hundreds of wheel chairs to come into the country, he and Sister Lasson have labored to make possible the building of “dump tanks” which supply clean drinking water to several ger districts in Mongolia. They have organized neonatal training to prevent infant mortality in the country. Theirs is a remarkable, gospel-in-action service which has lifted the very well-being of Mongolians whose life expectancy is sixty. I encourage you to read about their experiences in their own words by reading their blog at www.makingmemoriesinmongolia.blogspot.com
Elder Lasson is a counselor in the mission presidency. Sister Lasson works in Primary in their assigned branch. Of all the adventures they have, out of necessity, driving in Mongolia is something Elder Lasson does well – and that’s saying something! Mongolians have to be the world’s best drivers and the scariest!! Elder Lasson goes with the flow and truly falls into the “best driver” category. When we first got to Mongolia, Elder Lasson took us on a tour of the town. We felt his love of Mongolia and his excitement for the work going on there. In the short time they have spent on their mission, the Lassons have accomplished great things to lift and improve the lives of the Mongolian people. They are “doers of the word” who have put into action their faith in the Lord and His plan. What a joy it has been to rub shoulders with these magnificent people!
Elder and Sister Ford came to Mongolia a couple of weeks after us. Their assignment is to run the mission office. Sister Ford told me she never wanted to be a secretary. Wow, the Lord knows how to challenge us! The mission has been without an office couple for several months. The Fords have been a great blessing. Their main concern in the very short time they have been in Mongolia has been to get a grip on the office and make it function smoothly. Like the other couples, they put in long hours every day getting it done. As time goes by they will get involved with a branch and have callings which will strengthen the Church. They have already begun teaching an English class on Thursday nights at the chapel. Their latest class was attended by nearly 60 people!
Elder Ford established and ran a greenhouse in Colorado where they produced millions of pounds of tomatoes and shipped them all over the country. I wonder how this will play into his mission in frigid Mongolia!! No doubt about it, Mongolia could use tomatoes – and celery and lettuce and other vegetables.
There are two other couples, both Andersons, who live some distance from the city. They work in outlying area where they give support to the Church and teach English classes. We never met these couples but heard about their roles giving stability and strength to the Church and communities.
We saw with our eyes and heard with our ears and felt with our hearts these great missionaries called to serve in Mongolia. What an honor to have been among them and to be considered a part of them though it was such a short time. These are noble and great people doing noble and great work among the Mongolians.
Steven Covey wrote of missionaries, “In the mission field you experienced a quality of spiritual and service life, likely unknown to you before. Many of you felt after leaving home that you had left the Garden of Eden and gone out into the ‘lone and dreary world.’ But gradually, as the months passed and through the divine process of missionary work, study and prayer, your heart and your world changed from a physical, social, self-centered one to a spiritual one where all of your energies and enthusiasms and time became focused on one grand goal – that of bringing souls to the Lord and His Restored Church and Gospel.
“This is why to a great degree you felt far more wrenched on leaving the mission field than you did on initially leaving home. Your heart had changed and so had your world, and you felt you were truly leaving the Garden of Eden to go back into the ‘lone and dreary world.’”
We know the feeling!!
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