Kirtland Ohio - A New Opportunity For Us To Serve

Yippee!

2011-10-31T12:33:00.000-07:00

Amost Home! It's been a long drive home contrary Winds!

Powells

2011-10-25T12:19:00.000-07:00

What's your email address? We need the rules for Dork!

All Good Things Must Come To An End

2011-10-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

We have many thoughts running through our minds about now. We will be heading home in four days and should arrive either Monday or Tuesday.

And we admit to being a bit excited about returning to our 'huge' home (not really all that big but we have been living in an RV)! We've been gone a lot over the past four and half years or so and we are ready to stay home for a little bit.

One thing I learned; I had a 65 year warranty on this earthly tabernacle of mine, and it ran out last July! We both have had some health issues while we have been here. Mostly, backs that are not up to this sort of work any longer! I have no cartilage left in the lowest (or L5) position, so it is bone on bone. Don't know how long it has been that way, but this mission let me know about it! I've been in pain most of the six months we've been here.

Sister Caldwell has also had some back trouble the last couple of weeks.

But we will make it home and then take some time to recover!

None-the-less, this has been a wonderful experience and we are thrilled to have been able to serve here. Kirtland holds a much larger roll in Church history than we knew. For example, Joseph and the headquarters of the Church were in Kirtland longer than anywhere until Salt Lake. Not Nauvoo or Missouri, Kirtland, Ohio. And nearly half of all of the revelations contained the Doctrine and Covenants came here, in Ohio. And the list of things which began in here in Ohio is a rather lengthy and impressive one. Such things as the offices of Bishop, Apostle, Seventy, Patriarch, Deacon and others, all began here.

And the list goes on.

A VERY common response from those who come here and take part in one of our guided tours, is, 'Why don't we talk about this more in the Church' or 'Why don't know we know about all this in the Church'?

The included photo is of the Johnson Inn and the Whitney Store, just two of the venues we help with here.

We have learned a lot here.

Wonder what our next mission will teach us.

Fall is here!

2011-10-12T16:10:00.000-07:00

Actually, it's about finished. What a beautiful area! We actually stay fairly busy at the sites here in the fall. There are a number of tour buses which bring loads of tourists to the area just to see the fall leaves. We're not surprised! It is quite stunning, as you can see!

We also have quite a few Amish folks living in the area. Amish are of German descent and speak both English and German. But being several generations removed from Germany, their German seems to have changed a bit. I spoke something fairly simple in German to a couple of the children but they had no idea what I said. Not that my German would be anything to brag about!

It is really interesting to see them as they plow their fields and work their farms with only horse power to do it. It's amazing what they are able to do!

We learned a lot more about them recently when we all had an Amish dinner at the Miller family farm -- Amish farm, that is. The Miller's are Amish and run a window making business in a large building behind their home. They simply moved all of the equipment aside, setup tables and fed about 50 of us!

The Amish hold church services from 9:00 am 'til about noon, every other Sunday. They have about 200 in attendance, on average, and they take turns meeting in members homes. In the case of the Millers, church would be held in their shop.

After church, they (the hosting family) feed all who attend. Yup, all 200 of 'em! But it does get spread around over time!

They also run their own school system -- by agreement with the State. Their children attend grades one through eight and then graduate. And we were told that they receive almost the same education as our children do, in twelve years of schooling.

We don't have any pictures of the Miller family; they do not generally believe in pictures. They feel it would increase the likelihood of vanity. So, we readily agreed and didn't take any pictures of them.

The food was really good and we had an enjoyable time.

This is the kind of scenery we drive through to get to the historic sites every day. The leaves are extraordinary, as you can see. In Utah, to see something even close to this, we have to take a nice trip through the mountains. They can't here. They don't have any mountains!

But, we haven't had snow yet, like Utah has!

Don't you wish you were here? Come on up!! We have two weeks left! We'll take you on tour!

Oh, yeah. We will be heading for home in about two and half weeks. We've enjoyed it here but it will be really nice to be back in our home where we can where we have to get out of our dinning room chair in order to reach things like the stove, the cabinets, the sink, etc.!

It's That Time!

2011-09-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

Yup! Believe it or not, it's time to put up Christmas lights!

They put up quite a few decorations here at the Kirtland historic sites. And though it seems awfully early to be putting up lights, we have to start now to get it all done. Especially since we find ourselves dancing between raindrops in addition to just needing the time to get them all up.

And, to this point at least, I seem to have drawn the short straw and have taken the biggest burden for the lights. of course, that is really because I am so talented at it! Yah, right!

But I don't mind. It will bring a lot of happiness to a lot of people at a very special time of year.

However, lights are not the only thing they do for Christmas. The Visitors Center will be full of Christmas creches. About 700 of them to be exact!

Unfortunately, we won't be here to see the final result or when the lights are finally all turned on. Hope someone will send us pictures!

And really, we are not that early with the decorations. Temple Square started over six weeks ago.

Wonderful Kirtland!

2011-09-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

Part 1

The 124th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, verse 84 says, in part, " . . . nevertheless, I the Lord will build up Kirtland . . .". So what, you say? The 124th Section was received in 1841. The saints had been forced out of Kirtland three years earlier, in 1838. So why does the Lord say, he will build up Kirtland, after they had already left? Easy, it is yet to happen. Or at least, it was yet to happen.

Hiram Smith, Joseph's brother, prophesied of the future building up of Kirtland, too. But he said that the building up of Kirtland was to happen many years in the future and would be accomplished by the descendants of those who lived there in the 1830's.

Little did we know that when we came to Kirtland, it would be in direct fulfillment of prophecy!

Part 2

Fall is showing up in force, now. We've had night time lows in the 40's a few nights and the trees are really starting to turn. Still not a majority of them but it is really getting pretty. When Karen and Grady arrive, things ought to really be showy!

We are really looking forward to all the color that they all talk about around here.

Better late than never!

2011-09-20T18:08:00.000-07:00

Things have been a bit hectic for us lately.

Our oldest daughter, Julie, had open heart surgery on the 9th -- unexpectedly. They had to repair an aortic aneurysm. It was something that one hopes they will never have to face. But the surgery went very well and so has her recovery. We flew home for a week to help and I was able to give her a Fathers blessing before the surgery. How grateful we are for the power of the Priesthood.

She is back home and they say she is 'way ahead of the curve' on her recovery. And we are back in Ohio.

All is well, all is well.

The End of Summer?

2011-08-25T13:29:00.000-07:00

Let's see, today is August 25th. Fall leaves are just around the corner but we are still dealing with hot summer temps, right?

Not so fast, Smallville! Don't know about your part of the country but here in Ohio, Mother Nature seems to be a bit confused. Our temps are in the 70's during the day and hover around the lower 50's at night -- most days and nights, at least. A bit colder, we suppose, at tree top height.

And then to really mix things up, take a look at the accompanying pics. No, this is not some sort of trick and no we didn't get them off the internet or take them a couple of years ago. We took them a couple of hours ago on our way home from the historic sites.

Some locals have told us that this is a bit weird even for Ohio (which we think is sort of weird any way -- had to include that for some of our Ohio readers!).

So, if the weather is already fall like in August, what is it going to be like at the end of October, when we try to drive nearly 2000 miles to go home? Yikes!

We probably should mention that most trees are not like this. Just a few here and there. But it makes a better story if we let you think all the leaves have changed and are falling from the trees.

Honesty has its draw backs.

Rain!

2011-08-20T15:20:00.000-07:00

It rained here a day or two ago. I know what your saying. It always rains in Ohio, so what's new?!

You don't understand. It REALLY rained here a couple of days ago.

The still photo is a pic of a small brook which runs right through the historic sites here. The little trickle you see is actually a bit larger than what it sometimes is. It is spring fed and so never runs dry, but most of the summer it is just this gentle little trickle of water running over the stony bottom. Thus it's name, Stony Brook.

That is, it is like that most of the time. But not all. The video shows the same section of the 'brook' after one of our major rain storms here, though this was a bit worse than most. We've never seen it quite this full. There is about ten feet of bank there. It was lapping at the bottom of the bridge I was taking this video from. Through most of its length, it was full to the very top of its banks.

The rain continued for two days and so did the level of the creek.

Hale Historic Farm

2011-08-16T12:18:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, we went with a couple of other seniors to a historic farm located south and west of here about 45 miles. The farm is the largest and most complete operating historic farm reserve in Ohio, though there are quite a few smaller farms around, too. It was a fun day, though it would have been even more enjoyable had the temperature been a few degrees cooler.

First, we saw this old truck. Then, virtually right next to it was an old safe. Nothing special looking about the safe, until you find out that it was "Joseph Smith's Safe!" We would know it as the safe that was used in the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Bank Company. If you look closely, you may notice that there doesn't seem to be any visible way to open the safe -- no key hole nor combination. In fact, we couldn't figure out how it opened and the people on duty there didn't know either! Interesting.

Later, we watched a re-enactment of the Civil War. It was really quite a production. Lot's of noise from cannon such as this one and muzzle loader rifles. In fact, the whole area became hazy sometimes from the gun smoke!

We kind of wondered that with all that shooting and them at such close range, nobody seemed to get shot. But then someone reminded us that it happens all the time in Hollywood movies!

Poison Ivy!

2011-08-10T16:02:00.000-07:00

One thing we don't have a lot of where we live in Utah is any of the poison family of plants such as Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, etc.

Well, they do have those in abundance here in Ohio! Sister Caldwell can (unfortunately) attest to that!

This is a shot of her arm about 10 days after she apparently played in a nice patch of Poison Ivy! Not fun!

Attending a funeral

2011-08-06T09:42:00.000-07:00

The mother of one of the men who actually works at the historic sites, passed away unexpectedly a couple of days ago. We are at the lunch following the services right now.

It's been an interesting experience. Have not attended a non-LDS service before. It was conducted in what appeared by name to probably be a Jewish funeral home, by a Catholic Priest. The lunch is in a Methodist Church but provided by an LDS Relief Society. Wow!

Johnson Farm Part 2

2011-07-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

The Johnson's had a rather large pantry in their home. It was right off the kitchen and would likely be stocked mostly with things produced right on the farm. Additional storage was had in the basement (which were seldom used for living space then) where it was cool and moist.

The second picture is of the "Master Bedroom" on the main floor, where grandma and grandpa Johnson would have slept. It is just to the left as you enter the front door and is also where we think Joseph and Ema slept during the year they stayed here. There is in reality some disagreement as to which room was actually theirs, but this seems the most likely to us. It is also the room as determined by Karl Anderson, who wrote "Joseph Smith's Kirtland'. As we have spoken with him, we agree that there is no other place where grandpa and grandma Johnson would have put Joseph and Ema.

This, then, is where they were when a mob came, dragged Joseph from the home and tarred and feathered him.

The floor has an interesting pattern to it. We know it was the original pattern used by the Johnson's. Care was taken during restoration, to peel through the layers, down to the original. Under the bed, in the corner, still remains some of the original paint, left unrestored.

In the next post, the 'Revelation Room'.

Johnson Farm

2011-07-26T16:51:00.000-07:00

Realized we really haven't posted much about grandpa Johnson's farm, for some reason. Just sort of slipped by us somehow!

The Johnson farm holds a very special place in the history of the Church -- much of it good, some of it not so good.

We travel to the Johnson home once each week to clean, repair help maintain the inside and also prune, weed, plant flowers, etc. on the outside. It is something we quite enjoy and look forward to each week.

Grandpa Johnson was one of the most well-to-do (if not the most well-to-do) farmers in the entire area. And he was quick to share when it seemed needed.

And it was at this home that more recorded revelations were received than in any other single place - at least until the saints reached the Salt Lake Valley. Those revelations were received during the year that Joseph and Emma lived here the Johnsons (Sept. 1831 to Sept. 1832).

The inside picture if of the kitchen and is quite large, especially for that time. The curious finish around the fireplace and in other areas of the room, is . . . interesting. But it is apparently how the Johnson's had it when they lived there. If you look closely at the open closet door, you can see that same painted finish. It is from the inside of that and other closets, that we know what much of the house was originally like. The insides of the closets were apparently left unaltered over the years.

Interestingly, we are told that taxes were at least partly accessed based on the number of closets a home had. The Johnson home was not lacking in closets.

They also had a rather nice and separate dining room - something not often found in homes of the time. Another indication of their success as farmers.

We are headed there again tomorrow morning (Wednesday) to make certain things are in good order.

Visitors From Mexico

2011-07-19T16:21:00.000-07:00

At least some of you know that in addition to our duties taking care of the grounds here in Kirtland, we also help as tour guides on Sunday and other days when they have an unusual need. Last Sunday, a bus load of people from Mexico showed up without letting us know they were coming. So, we helped both because it was Sunday and because there was an unexpectedly large crowd all of a sudden!

We took half the group. Most did not speak English but there were a couple of them who did speak good English and were able to handle translation during the tour.

All the regular site missionaries were a bit flustered, trying to work out just how to handle the sudden influx. And this was the last day of the busiest weekend of the year (they are always busy here during the Cumorah Pageant run). But, we did good!

Sister Caldwell and I lead the second half of the group, so we were last. And we had a really good time! Just sort of took us back to our time in Mongolia when we always had to speak through an interpreter. These were wonderful people and we made some new friends that day!

After they left, Elder Caldwell ended up taking over a small group as they finished the last half of a shortened tour later in the evening. One of them was a non-member, which we do not really see here that much. Most are members for whom we are committed to providing a testimony strengthening experience.

This non-member lives about 6 miles from Kirtland and decided he would finally stop and see what all of this was about. And he had a lot of very good and very thought out questions. It was fun to be with him, too. He very much wants to come back to visit the parts he missed this time (it was later in the evening so it was cut a little short).

The opportunities we have to share the Gospel while we do tours are our favorite. We do like helping with the landscaping but it is even better to help with tours sometimes.

Oh, the forecast for Thursday is for the hottest temps in 16 years!! About 97 degrees and 75-80% humidity! Ouch! Lucky us!

Happy Birthday Emma

2011-07-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

To celebrate Emma Smith's birthday, the Community of Christ Church (i.e. RLDS) invited us to join them in the Kirtland Temple this evening. It was called the Emma Hale Smith Bidamon Hymn Festival. They had prepared a program telling the story of her life intertwined with music from her first hymnal. Our Sister missionaries were invited to sing a couple of numbers (and believe me, they can sing!). They sat in one of the corner choir sections and sounded like really accomplished singers!

They also asked several of our senior missionaries, our site director and our mission president, along with other missionaries, to participate in the program along with their own members. It was well written and well presented. We sang songs we had never heard before, but all of them were sang to music we were familiar with, so we just joined in.

The first hymnal Emma prepared was printed with words only. There was no music. Apparently they had several favorite tunes and they fit the words to the music. For example, we sang "Now Let Us Rejoice" to the tune of "The Spirit Of God". Our closing number was the familiar tune and words to "The Spirit Of God". The Sisters joined in with a beautiful descant on the last verse. It was so beautiful! What a privilege to sit in the Kirtland Temple and be part of meetings there. That would not have been possible just a couple of short years ago.

When we left the temple, people were outside, looking upward and pointing to the top of the temple. I looked up, expecting to see angels, but it was only a wasp nest!

What a great way to end of busy Sabbath!

The USS Cod

2011-07-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

On our 42nd anniversary (see previous post), we went on a self guided tour of the USS Cod, a World War II submarine. This one is the only one left which has not been heavily modified to more readily accommodate tourists. The Cod is pretty much just as it was during the war.
And it still is service- able. They start it up every month or two, just to keep it in decent condition. But they have to be careful. There are strict laws against operating any kind of war vessel on any of the Great Lakes.
Look closely at the right and you'll see the periscope. Just like in the movies! "up periscope!"

It is amazing to see how cramped it is in there. And difficult to imagine that as many as 90 men would man it at any one time. Makes the two of us living in our RV seem quite palatial!

To the left is a pic of the most important part of the whole sub! And it's bigger than the one we have!

The sub has four huge diesel engines. But, curiously, it is all electric. Huge electric motors actually drive the boat. The diesel engines just power huge generators which provide the electricity and recharge the batteries.

And, of course, something else we always see in the movies are the torpedo tubes. Pictured here are two of the four on board the Cod -- two at each end.

There's not much wasted space in this thing! It is tight quarters everywhere! But we are told that the subs always got the best food. Real top notch, apparently. That must be to make up for the lack of much of anything else!

It was a fun little 'field trip' to go see this special boat!

Happy Forty Second!

2011-06-28T15:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (Monday, June 27) was our 42nd wedding anniversary. Been a while since we have celebrated one of those at home!

But, we did celebrate! Last night and today (Tuesday is our normal free day). We started out with dinner and a movie on Monday night and then continued with a couple of fun things on Tuesday.

Here's some pics of a couple of the things we did.

The second picture (the first being anniversary flowers, of course) is of the James A. Garfield mansion in nearby Mentor, Ohio. It is quite a place! James Garfield was the 20th President of the United States but was assassinated after only 120 days in office.

The house started as a simple nine room home which the Garfield's added onto and fixed up over a period of a few years. We'll show pictures of the inside in a later post.

From there, we went to the Cleveland Zoo (again). They had the sea lion and seal exhibit back together (it was closed for our first visit) and we were there when they did their daily show. We kind of enjoy zoos.

And then drove over to Lake Erie to visit a nice piece of World War II hardware -- the submarine USS Cod. A veteran (and champion) of many sea battles, the Cod is the only sub from that era which is still in original condition. And it was really fascinating to walk through the old boat. We feel better, now, about living in our VERY roomy RV for six months! Boy is it cramped in there!

That's Elder Caldwell as he exited the sub. It was fun seeing things we had only seen before in movies.

Again, we will show more pics (some of the inside) in subsequent posts.

We had a good time. Tomorrow, we go back to work at Grandpa Johnson's place. That will be fun, too!

A Wonderful Visit

2011-06-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

Julie, Dean, Lindsie, DJ, Jarod and Karen (Dean's mother) came to visit us here in Kirtland! And they arrived on Father's Day! What a great Father's Day gift. And we had an awesome visit! Busy, but awesome!

We were able to show them pretty much everything there is to see in the way of Church historic sites, plus a few extra places thrown in for good measure. First, we went to Lake Erie and ate lunch at this pavilion in a little park not too far from where we serve.

It was raining but the kids still managed to get in the lake!

Then we went on up the coast to Fairport Harbor Museum and Lighthouse (also on Lake Erie) where members of the Church arrived from the east coast and England. It is also where missionaries left from to go and serve -- like all of the Twelve Apostles!
Sister Caldwell (aka Mom and Grandma - you know who we're talking about) actually went all the way up the lighthouse and out on to the platform! And we didn't get a picture! Rats!

The next day we went out to grandpa Johnson's farm, ate lunch there and then took the tour through the home. It was great! It is a special place in Church history which also happens to be a special place to our family, too. Three generations of grandchildren were there that day visiting his farm (Mike, Julie and the grandchildren).

It is such a beautiful place and has a special feeling to it. We really enjoy being able to help take care of the farm as part of our duties.

And the kids finally did get more of an 'official' swim in Lake Erie on Tuesday!

But then we all had to say goodbye on Wednesday morning. Didnt' get any pictures of that. Some things just aren't worth remembering.

It was nice while it lasted!

Kirtland and Mongolia

2011-06-12T10:24:00.000-07:00

I, Elder Caldwell, spoke in Sacrament meeting today in the Chardon Branch - the branch we are assigned to attend. It is about 8 miles or so from where our trailer is located.

After the meeting was over, I noticed a couple sort of making a very determined 'beeline' for the front of the chapel, obviously heading in my direction. Seeing them, I just sort of thought, 'Well, they liked the talk and were coming to say thanks.' We still don't know people very well in the branch and so it wasn't surprising that I didn't know who they were.

They reached the stand, walked up to me when I had finished a short conversation with another member, and said (to my shock and surprise), "Sain baino uu!" It took me a minute to realize what I had just heard before I managed to stammer out an appropriate replay.

It seems they were not members of the branch at all. They were just stopping there to attend church on their way to Cumorah, Palmyra, etc. And they had served in Mongolia just before us! They are the Baileys and were the English Department couple before the Hitchmough's, whom we were very good friends with. We actually remembered people mentioning them while we were there.

We talked for 30 minutes or more about all the people we knew there and how was so and so doing, etc. But then we both had to be on our way to other responsibilities.

It's a small world, indeed!

Flash Back

2011-06-10T13:15:00.000-07:00

We know we are in a different mission, now, but we couldn't resist sharing about Elder Hollands recent visit to Mongolia.

Click on the link.

http://lds.org/church/news/elder-holland-instructs-mongolian-saints-missionaries?lang=eng&cid=facebook-shared

Heart Attack!

2011-06-08T16:35:00.000-07:00

When we came home today, we found the Sisters had given us a "heart attack". Last Sunday they talked us into meeting them at Sister Davis' house on Tuesday to help her with some yard work. Sister Davis is a 78 year old widow. She is a very sweet lady, so we agreed---despite the fact that yard work is what we do all day long, every day! We agreed to meet them at 7:00. We were on time, they arrived at 8:15! There were four of us, and we pretty much had the weeds pulled by the time they arrived! I think they were a little embarrassed. They did help put the weeds in the bags, as they continued to apologize and tell us how much they appreciated us! How can you get upset with sister missionaries? They are so cute!

Now here is an interesting side note: We have been asked to talk in Church Sunday. The topic: Finding Joy through Loving Service! We will find the bright side of all this (by Sunday).

We had one of those HOT and MUGGY days today. They tell us it will get worse in July and August. You all may need to pray for us that we will make it through this. I think if Marcia made it through wearing a long, long-sleeved dress, then there must be hope for us.

We have started leading tours through the sites on Sundays. We had to read an entire book and then come up with our own presentation that lasts an hour and a half. We have really enjoyed leading groups around though. We have many opportunities to share our testimony as we go around. This past week we had a couple that is not a member of our Church in our group. They seemed very interested and it was a neat experience to share testimony about prophets and about some of the sacred experiences that happened here in Kirtland. Working an extra shift on Sunday kind of makes for a long week, but we really look forward to it. Kind of makes all the hard work in the heat worthwhile. Plus, we get to stop and point out that we are with the group the keeps the grounds looking so beautiful.

Water, Water Everywhere!

2011-06-05T11:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (i.e. Saturday) when Sister Caldwell and I went to Kirtland to clean things in preparation for all of that days visitors, I found a river of water running down from the hill above us, through the lawn and washing right against the foundation of the sawmill.

A big city water main had broken and was providing the flow. I quickly made a phone call to the Director and another senior and I set about trying to divert the flow away from the sawmill. We had to hand dig a trench down the hill leading to the mill and direct the flow around it. We're too old for that kind of exertion!

Then we spent much of the rest of the morning, cleaning things out of the water wheel race way and re-establishing walk ways so it could remain part of the tour for visitors. Sister Caldwell had to do the rest of the morning cleaning by herself and that wasn't easy either!

But it could have been worse. We know that the break happened at about 7 am, so it was only about an hour before I discovered it. If it had broken at midnight or something, it would likely have washed away at least some of the foundation and we would not have a usable sawmill anymore! As it was, there might be one pillar for which we may have to re-pour a footing but that's it.

What a morning!

Misc.

2011-05-29T19:06:00.000-07:00

There is a place called Holden Arboretum near where we live. It is something along the lines of Thanksgiving Point. Well, sort of.

This place is 3400 acres big. Not kidding; 3400 acres! And it is full of trees and shrubs. They have sectioned it off and have groupings of different types of tress. You know, this is the Linden collection and this is the Spruce collection and this is the Crab Apple collection, etc. Except that each ‘collection’ is probably an acre or two in size.

It is really something! There are paths but only through a small portion of it.

And we went to visit the Azalea and Rhododendron area the other day. It was gorgeous! The Azalea’s were at their peak but the Rhododendron’s were just getting started.

The stump Sister Caldwell is standing next to, was a 150 year old Maple tree that fell down a couple of years ago. Local artists have carved figures into the exposed root/trunk portions and it really looks neat!

We also got a chance to go see Lake Erie. Like Lake Michigan,
it looks more like a sea than a lake. Pretty awesome!

Flowers Planted!!

2011-05-24T16:35:00.000-07:00

Well, we did it! All of the flowers are planted! And we couldn't have asked for better weather. The sky was overcast, but it was warm and there was no rain!

We started at 6:00 am Monday morning. As you can see, we had a lot of good help! Some of the seniors assigned to site hosting were there as well as all of the young Sister missionaries. They were awesome! We had a breakfast muffin treat in front of the Facilities Management office which we work out of and then started digging in the dirt.The site missionaries had to leave when time came to welcome visitors for the day, but they did a terrific job while they were there.

Sunday it rained in the morning but was a nice weather day for the rest of the day so things had a chance to dry out a bit. Then Monday morning stayed dry and we didn't have to dig in the mud. We prayed hard for that! It started to sprinkle just as we finished planting the last of the flowers.

And you can see the end result! It is beautiful! That's the visitor's center in the background.

We had them all planted by about lunch time. Last year they spent a day and a half to get it all done.

The picture to the left is the door of the visitors center. Those were much larger plants, obviously and are very impressive; impatiens, if you are wondering.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) Sister Caldwell and I get to drive out to Grandpa Johnson's farm and plant flowers out there. That should be a real treat for us. We might get some help from the young Sister missionaries assigned out there or we may just be on our own. We'll see!

Oh, and today (Tuesday) it rained a bit in the morning but was gorgeous this afternoon. We'll post about where we went today in our next post.

Ahhhh! Spring!

2011-05-22T18:03:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to show some of the beauty we do have here. Not only are there a lot of trees around here, but there are a much larger variety of them than we see in Utah.

This is what used to be the main street of old Kirtland. The paved surface was the old dirt road that lead right through town. The historic sites are on both sides of that street, though they are obstructed by the beautiful trees lining part of that street.

We've had to walk down that street multiple times each day, staring at those beautiful trees. The work can sometimes be difficult but the perks are tremendous!

Flowers!

2011-05-20T15:14:00.000-07:00

Today, a big truck pulled into the Maintenance Yard. We spent the next 30 minutes or so unloading these flowers. Over two hundred flats -- but whose counting!!

Guess what we will be doing come Monday morning. At 6 o'clock am. And all the rest of the day, too!

But the historic sites are sure going to be gorgeous when we are done!

Look closely at the pictures. That back trailer is a double decker. And both trailers are large to begin with.

Took these pics with our new 'Droid!

Will post some pics of the aftermath!

Historic Kirtland - Part 2

2011-05-19T16:45:00.000-07:00

We finally have a new phone and a steady, dependable internet connection! Thanks Julie and Dean for helping us so much with this!

But now we have a lot of catching up to do, so, our intention is to post every couple of days for a while. And first on the list, Historic Kirtland - Part 2.

There is much that is special about Kirtland.

Kirtland is the one and only place where the Church owns an original structure in which appeared together Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. That structure is not, of course, the Kirtland Temple. The Father and Son did appear there but we don’t own that. However, the Father and Son actually appeared here in Kirtland together, four times. We have no record of a place where the Father and Son appeared more times. Ever. And one of those times was in the School of the Prophets on the upper floor of the Whitney Store. The Church does own that structure and we help care for it. This is a picture of that room - the School of the Prophets room.

Our ancestor, Luke Johnson, was one of 24 invited to attend there. He missed the first session, being out of town serving a mission. We assume that he attended the remaining classes.

We held a meeting there with Brother Anderson (Mr. Kirtland). It was a very special opportunity and we felt the Spirit there very strongly. Not only did the Father and the Son appear here together, but the Savior appeared here multiple times in addition to that appearance.

The 88th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants refers to that room as “the house of God”, “the house of the Lord”, and “mine house” and also describes ordinances which were to be administered there. In other words, that room was considered as a temple for a limited time and for limited purposes. A very special room, indeed.

But, the most special place, of course, is the temple, despite the fact that we do not own it,. What a unique and wonderful place!

It was also impressed upon us the joy that was felt when the Temple building itself was completed and then dedicated in 1836. We figure that it had been approximately 1400 to 1500 years since there had been a temple on the earth – fourteen to fifteen hundred years! That’s a long time. It is no wonder that Heavenly Father and His Son were very pleased and that the angels shouted with joy, when a Temple - the Kirtland Temple - could once again be found on the earth.

And many manifestations were experienced when that temple was dedicated. Many saw and heard marvelous things and the event has often been compared to the Day of Pentecost written of in the New Testament.

Brother Anderson helped us understand that the Spirit can still be felt there, and we did.

And the Community of Christ Church does a good job of caring for that old building. We have a good relationship with them and work together on many things.

President Sorensen (the Mission President here) was with us and shared his feelings about serving here. And there doesn’t seem to be a better way to say it. “Sometimes I have to pinch myself and say, ‘Hey, you get to be a missionary here!’”.

Historic Kirtland - Part 1

2011-05-13T11:16:00.000-07:00

Posted this once, but it stayed for one day and then disappeared! ????

Had to get online today at the FM office as part of our responsibilities in order to order sprinkler parts. So, prepared this post last night to upload while I was at it. Still working on resolving our personal phone and internet access problem.

We are having a wonderful experience here in Kirtland. We are coming to think of Kirtland as the cradle of the Church. Much transpired here to build and strengthen that new organization (as we very briefly touched upon in our May 5th post).

Wednesday of this week, we spent much of the morning with Karl Anderson. Brother Anderson wrote a book called, “Joseph Smith’s Kirtland”, having been asked to do so by the Church. Brother Anderson has served as a Stake President, a Regional Representative and is currently a Patriarch. He was wonderful and we really enjoyed our time with him. He is the one in the middle of the picture between the two Sister Missionaries.

We began in the Kirtland Temple with him and the director of the Community of Christ Visitors Center (Ron) as our guides. The Community of Christ is, of course, the current owner of the temple here. And Ron was wonderful and very cordial. Needless to say, our time in that temple was as wonderful as it likely sounds to you as we try to write of it here. It is a temple and we felt the spirit there very much.

Brother Anderson shook hands with all of us as we stood inside the temple in what was called the outer court (we might call it a foyer). Then, Ron (our Community of Christ guide) spoke. He started but then went over to the stairs so he could climb up them a ways. He said he wanted to see us all better. Brother Anderson scoffed and said, “They aren’t worth it, Ron. I’ve already seen them all!”

Brother Anderson is extremely knowledgeable, not only about the history of the area, but also about the Lord’s dealings with this area and the early members who lived here, who built the temple and who lived and worked in the historic sites we are caring for. And we learned many things from him about this place and how special it is.

As the saints were forced out of Kirtland in the late 1830's, the Lord apparently placed a scourge on the ‘inhabitants of Kirtland’ (D & C 124:83). Writing of that scourge, Hyrum Smith (the Prophet’s brother) wrote: “Thus saith the Lord, . . . [Kirtland] shall . . . be scourged with a sore scourge; yet your children may posses [Kirtland] . . But not until many years shall pass away; . . . and then I [the Lord] will send forth [brother Anderson suggest we insert our names at this point] and build up Kirtland, and it shall be polished and refined according to my word. (Emphasis added: History of the Church 4: 443-44)

Part of that scourge may have been that Kirtland would not prosper after the saints were driven out, and it did not. But the major and more important portion of the ‘scourge’ was likely that it would be left without a Prophet or the Gospel.

In 1840 after the saints had all left Kirtland, Joseph Smith said, “[Kirtland] will yet see good and glorious days.” (History of the Church 4:226) Then, the night before his martyrdom, he found himself in vision. Says he, “[I] was back in Kirtland, Ohio . . . and was contemplating how it might be recovered from the curse upon it.” (History of the Church 6:609) He apparently considered it a future event as he contemplated this during the final hours of his life.

Earlier, Joseph also said, “ . . . that it [the Kirtland Stake] would be one of the principle ones in Zion . . . and its inhabitants should be the posterity of those now composing that city.” (Quoted in a letter by Joseph Young Sr. To Lewis Harvey, November 16, 1880)

In 1979, Elder Benson (then President of the Quorum of the Twelve) came to Kirtland by assignment to dedicate the new Stake Center here - something the Twelve do not usually do today and did not usually do then, either. But he came. Karl Anderson was the Stake President. Elder Benson asked President Anderson if the scourge spoken of in the 124th section, had ever been lifted. President Anderson answered that he did not think so. Elder Benson asked if President Anderson thought he should lift that scourge during his dedication of the building. President said he thought that would be great. So he did so.

At the time, the Church owned virtually none of the historic sites in Kirtland itself and was not a strong presence here. That is changing. And the part of section 124 verse 83 which reads “. . . I the Lord, will build up Kirtland, . . .” is now happening. And we feel very privileged to be a part of it.

We will try to write more about our time with Brother Anderson in Part 2. Presuming we can come up with another Internet connection again!

Happy Mother's Day!!

2011-05-07T17:28:00.000-07:00

I prepared this post off line then waited for a connection which we found somewhere close to our RV but is only available on and off. Hope it finishes uploading while the connection is still available.

Had a terrific day today. We were able to take care of things for our trailer and get things ready for Mothers Day. And the weather was fabulous! A brief shower early this morning and then sunny and warm the rest of the day, with temps in the 60's! It was great!

The first picture is of what we call our RV patio. It was part of my present to Melba for Mother’s Day. She really likes it. And our RV is really working great! It is just right for what we need and is very comfortable. Really nice!

The second is of the cards and flowers she received for Mother’s Day - mostly from family but also one from the young Sister missionaries here. If the pictures upload, that is.

Hope you all have a wonderful Mother’s Day!

Androids and Water Don't Mix!

2011-05-05T09:51:00.000-07:00

Having a difficult time blogging, facebooking, etc. since I dumped our brand new Android phone in the creek a week or so ago. Everything on it works fine except it won't attach to the internet or make/receive phone calls. Details. Have to do what I can when I can find an internet connection somewhere.

This is already proving to be a very educational experience. There is much about Kirtland we did not know -- or at least did not tumble to. Kirtland played a much larger part in the beginnings of the Church than we understood. The organization of the Church (i.e. Wards, Staked, First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve, Priesthood Quorums, Bishops, etc.) were all begun here. The first Quorum of Twelve were called here and then sent on missions. Zions Camp marched from Kirtland and the Law of Consecretion was first attempted here. And many other things.

We will try to post again soon and include some pictures. Hopefully, we will get out own internet access back again soon and will have a much easier time of this.

Our First Look

2011-04-29T16:25:00.000-07:00

We started getting oriented today. The senior missionaries here are great and we are sure to enjoy our experience here. This feels like a very special place!!

Some of the things we had recently learned about Kirtland, have been confirmed and expanded on. Kirtland was a place very special in the development of the Church and Gospel in our time. More things happened here than anywhere else, even more than Nauvoo. In Nauvoo's prime, it rivaled Chicago for the largest city in Illinois. In Kirtland's prime it rivaled Cincinnati for the largest city in Ohio. We'll try to list more of those things as we learn more fully about them.

These first two pictures are of the Whitney Store. Newell K. Whitney was a special man in Church history. He owned most of the businesses in Kirtland and made it all available to the Church. The stock is all a re-creation, but is taken from ledgers kept by Brother Whitney and is, therefore, an authentic representation of what he had.

The second of the two pictures is of the upper level of the store where Joseph taught the brethren about the Gospel and other things -- the School of the Prophets. Here the Lord appeared to them on one occasion.

There was a scourge on Kirtland referred to in the Doctrine and Covenants (124:83). That scouraged was lifted only a few years ago by President Benson. Since then, the presence of the Church has been steadily expanding and the area has prospered.

They have told us here that no one comes to Kirtland unless called by Joseph to do so. Hmmm.

The last picture is of the ashery, another one of Brother Whitney's businesses. Ashes were processed here to be used in making soap and other things. It was a very profitable trade, in those days. Pictured is the final product called Pearl Ash. It is this product that was sent to other areas to be used in producing soap and the other items.

One last thing. We had been told that they had some sprinkler/watering problems before we arrived. They have been apparently trying to resolve them for some time and have been quite excited that we might bring the ability to resolve those issues. And, having learned a little of those concerns, we believe we just might be able to help.

We will also be helping to prepare the flower beds for a big flower planting party on May 21st.

Louise, our sort of supervisor, said that all of the new arrivals have come with talents and abilities which are specifically needed here. She insisted that we were sent here in answer to prayer. And she was sure of it because she was the one who had been doing the praying!

Now we are doing a bit of praying of our own, that they will not be disappointed!

Soggy in Kirtland

2011-04-29T05:46:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it. Kirtland is beautiful even without very many leaves on trees yet. Won't be doing
much landscaping for a while. Too wet!

Lake Michigan

2011-04-27T16:38:00.000-07:00

Well, we have had quite an adventure getting here, but here we are at the Sea of Michigan -- we mean, Lake Michigan! It is really big!

A short recap of our journey.

Things have gone quite well -- except for yesterday (Tuesday). The brief version is that a piece of the trailer frame where one of the trailer springs attach, failed. Broke off entirely and left the spring just sitting against the I-beam. A man drove by and noticed it, flagged us down, and told us what he saw. We went and looked but he had to show me what he was talking about. I still couldn't see it. Can't begin to tell you how he did. Was not readily apparent to me. But the axle had, in fact, moved about three inches forward making it out of alignment.

Had he not stopped us, I suppose it's possible that eventually the undercarriage might have completely failed causing who knows what.

The he said he knew of a place 20 miles down the road that fixed semi-trailers and he thought they might help. They did and three hours later we were on the road again.

We kind of figure the guy who stopped us was not there by accident nor coincidence. Someone is watching out for us and we know who it is.

The second shot is of the place we stayed at the first night out. It's called Lake Ogallala, Nebraska, and was not quite what we expected. But it was pleasant enough and we weren't there very long.

We'll post a picture of our second nights stay when I figure out how to get it off this new cell phone! It was a really nice little place.

And we are, of course, 'roughing' it while we are out here far from home in our little RV. With our cell phone. And our internet anywhere connection. And our microwave oven. And our Kindle. Oh, and we are watching our 23 inch plasma TV right now.

Don't you feel sorry for us?

D-Day (Departure Day!

2011-04-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

Well, it's a day early, but we really pushed, got things ready and are leaving a day early. That way we will miss Monday night/Tuesday mornings storm.

Here are a couple of pictures of our last day spent with the 1st Grade Class at Wright Elementary. Our daughter Julie is the teacher and we have been volunteering for most of this school year. We help them with reading mostly. But we also get to help with the parties!!

This is us at a Thanksgiving Point outing. We visited Farm Country and learned all about farm animals! We had a great time!

We will certainly miss them all but are also excited about our new opportunity to help!

Wishing Us Well!

2011-04-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

These are pictures of a group we went to Nauvoo with several years ago. They organized this little get together to send us on our way to Kirtland. Some of them have been to Kirtland and shared lots of good information and pictures with us. We had a ball! It's had to beat good friendships!

We will likely 'recognize' much of the area when we arrive on Friday, April 29th. We have studied, looked at pictures, read on the internet and talked to several who have been there.

It is getting closer by the day, now. We just hope that spring will actually come before we leave and we won't find it necessary to drive 1800 miles through a bunch of storms! Right now, that seems entirely possible, the way the weather has been going!

Here We Go Again!

2011-04-08T13:28:00.000-07:00

We are excited about a new and different opportunity to serve. Much different than our experience in Mongolia!

We have been asked to serve a shorter six month mission in Kirtland, Ohio, helping with landscaping and other facilities needs in general as they arise. And it seems to fit as one of those things that are well suited just for us. We were licensed landscape contractors a few years ago, so this is right up our alley, so to speak.

We plan to leave on Tuesday, April 26th. That gives us just over two weeks to finish getting ready. But preparations are so much different, this time! We are asked to live in our own RV for this mission, so we bought a travel trailer that would be better suited for living in for an extended period than the one we already had. And our truck was only a six cylinder, so we had to buy a slightly more powerful one. Both were used units, but should provide what we need.

We actually were thinking about upgrading anyway, so that our little camping jaunts would be more pleasant. This just gave us the nudge we needed to really do it!

We are looking forward to this serve opportunity. But it has the added attraction of having been the home of some of our ancestors.

John Johnson home

John Johnson is Elder Caldwell's great, great, great, great-grandfather. And it was in his home (pictured at right) that Joseph Smith, Jr. lived for nearly a year, from September 1831 to September 1832. And two of John's sons (Luke and Lyman - Luke is Elder Caldwell's great great great-grandfather) were members of the first Quorum of the Twelve Apostles formed in these latter-days.

And in speaking with them back in Ohio, we were told that we would actually be working on the old Johnson farm, as part of what we do!

The farm is actually in Hiram, about 35 miles south and east of Kirtland.

But we have never been back there! So this will be a wonderful experience, we think.

Welcome, Sister Orkhon!!

2010-09-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

We had the wonderful and fun privilege of meeting Sister Orkhon (Onon's sister) at the airport on Tuesday afternoon. And, since the MTC told us it was too late in the day to actually process her into the MTC (though she certainly could have stayed there), we decided to keep her until Wednesday morning! We had a blast!

First, we took her to the Conference Center and a Brother Dubois took us on a special tour. And guess what? He had actually visited Ulaanbaatar a few years back! Go figure!

Then we went to the Salt Lake Temple and Sister Orkhon did baptisms for the dead. She kept repeat, "My dream has come true!"

After the temple, we took her to dinner at the Lion House. You know, the home that Brigham Young used to live in. It has been converted to a museum and restuarant. Dinner was wonderful!

Finally, we went to our home where she stayed for the night. The next morning we finally (and somewhat begrudgingly!) took her to Provo and let her start her mission!

She will be a VERY good missionary! And we think her brother helped her learn even better English than when we were still in Mongolia!
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Home Sweet Home!

2010-09-22T14:03:00.000-07:00

It is . . . strange being home, in some ways. It is good, of course. But we miss things in Mongolia, too. Somehow, though very busy, things seemed a bit simpler there.

But we are moving ahead here and have started working in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. That, too, is different than the years we worked in the Salt Lake Temple. And we feel really guilty, sometimes, to have half a dozen temples within easy reach, knowing our Mongolian friends would give much just to have one within a days journey. Hopefully, it will not be too much longer . . .

Neil Diamond

2010-08-24T08:43:00.000-07:00

'Nough said!!
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The End of a Great Experience

2010-08-24T05:49:00.000-07:00

We have spent much of the day saying goodbye's, it seems. Then we had a surprise farewell party sprung on us this afternoon. Everyone in the mission offices came to wish us well and to say goodbye.

Then, tonight we attended an addiction recovery class which is directed by our good friends, Elder and Sister Powell. It is humbling to see these good people who want so badly to be free of their difficult problem as they come together to help each other.

At 9:45 tomorrow morning, we will meet with President Mecham for a moment to kneel in pray before we depart. Then, he will drive us to the airport and we will be on our way shortly there after. Then, at about 7:45 that same night, we will be reunited with our family. Only an 8 hour trip (not counting the 13 hours or so we gain enroute)!

See some of ya' tomorrow! The rest of ya' will have to wait a couple of days!
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Almost Time To Go

2010-08-22T07:06:00.000-07:00

Been an interesting couple of days. Been saying a lot of goodbyes.

Saturday night, we attended our farewell party from the senior couples. It was a fun night with a great potluch dinner. And we played a couple of games -- something the seniors enjoy doing. One was a Mongolian ankle bone game and the other as a game called 'Dork'. Sister Caldwell won one of the ankle bone games and I won the Dork game (keep your comments to yourself, ya' all!)!

Then today, we bid a final farewell to our Nalaikh Branch. The first picture is of Sister Caldwell as all her Primary bid her a goodbye. She has grown to love those children and they her, as well. She will be missed there.

Then they held a little going away part for us. They moved all of the chairs over along the wall (this is one of those phase one buildings where the large area serves as Chapel, Cultural Hall, etc.) sang a few songs, read a poem or two and then gave us these wonderful gifts shown in the picture.

This seemed to sort of make it a bit more final for us. We left feeling a bit more empty, as we headed back to Ulaanbaatar and our apartment. We had been able to sort of ignore the going end to our experience, what with all the work it has been taking to get things ready for us to go. But today . . .

Only two and a half days now before we will be on that outbound airplane. We are going to miss much, not the least of which will be the missionaries (old and young) we have worked with, cried with, laughed with, fed and grown to love.

But we haven't lost sight of the good things, either. We are really anxious to see our children, grandchildren, freinds and neighbors. It will be good to see them again.

We will arrive Wednesday night and they already have us scheduled to speak in our ward on Sunday.

Boy, they don't give a body much time to rest in this Church!!
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A Bit Melancholy

2010-08-18T04:34:00.000-07:00

We are feeling a bit melancholy lately. Everyday seems to bring a new "last" - our last Staff Meeting, our last English Class, our last shopping trip, etc.

We also attended our final farewell dinner and fireside. The dinner is held in the mission presidents home (top floor of the mission home) followed by the fireside in the Chapel. Ours comes a week early, being combined with that of four Elders whose mission ends today (Wednesday). Those four, the Mission President, his wife and ourselves are in the picture.

The picture was taken just after dinner in President and Sister Mecham's appartment. Each of these four Elders means something special to us. Starting on the back left is President Mecham. Then Elder Stephenson and Elder Sherwood whom we were in the MTC with in Provo in 2008. We have known them a long time and they are excellent Elders, both finishing their missions by by helping in the office.

Next is Elder Onon. We attended the Hong Kong Temple with his mother and sister. He had been serving in the Ogden Utah Mission, but one of those who was asked to return to Mongolia to help here as he finished his misison. He speaks excellent English (the reason we needed him) and has been a terrific help here. Oh, and his sister is the one who will begin serving a mission next month. In the Ogden Utah Mission !

Elder Batbold is on the end. He had been serving in the Singapore Mission. While there, he learned Chinese and, with the help of his companion, taught himself English while he was at it! His twin sister is Batchimeg who served a mission in Australia at the same time that our good friends Dave and Robyn Osborn did. It's a small world! Their father and Batchimeg's baby are also in the picture. If you look closely Dave and Robyn you might be able to see that their father is wearing a Shedaisy hat!

We are really anxious to return home to see our family. But we wish we didn't have to say goodbye to all of our wonderful new friends here!

Missionary Call

2010-08-10T16:43:00.000-07:00

More than a year ago, I think we mentioned that young men and young women often receive misison calls here but, being the only member of the Church in their family, have no one to share it with. That is a common situation here. Most of the young people who join the Church in Mongolia are pioneers in their own right. The Church is very new here and they are the first to join in their home.

But they are very committed and dedicated and serve well, whatever mission they are called to.

This is another of those new missionaries. She is a very sweet young lady and invited us to join with her as she opened her mission call. It was really fun to watch her excitement! She will be serving here in Mongolia and was thrilled with that opportunity.

We are going to miss these wonderful people here!

Gardening in Mongolia

2010-08-05T17:29:00.000-07:00

Despite the lack of any gardening space of our own, we have managed to get out hands in the dirt a little bit while here, anyway. This Impatien is one of several plants Sister Caldwell has managed to grow inside. It doesn't get very many blossoms but it is down right exciting when it does! And as you might be able to see, the plant is quite healthy and a really good looking plant all by itself.

Then, we even managed to grow cucumbers this year! We set a pot out on our little patio on our third floor apartment and have managed to keep this lone little cucumber plant alive.

The picture to the left is of our first cucumber and it was sooooo good! Tough to beat straight out of the garden. Not quite as good a garden as we hear about from our children but hey, it's something!

Now the second cucumber is nearing maturity and we are anxious to pick and eat it!

But, alas, two will be our limit. We will be gone before another one can set and ripen!

The kids tell us they have planted a couple of things in our garden at home for us and we are anxious to take a look! Not long now!
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Transfers

2010-07-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago, the Church allowed us to bring six Mongolian Elders who had been serving in other areas of the world (mostly the U.S.), back to Mongolia to finish their missions. The lack of American missionaries was leaving strapped for translators and making it very difficult for the mission office and the seniors to be able to function.

This is a picture of one of those Elders (Elder Onon), his mother and his sister. And, yes, Elder Onon is completely Mongolian! He had been serving in the Ogden, Utah area when he was brought back to finish his mission here. He is a terrific Elder and we consider him to be a good friend.

His mother and sister were two of those who were part of the Hong Kong Temple group we traveled and attended the temple with. So we have felt sort of close to the family.

There is one more thing. Elder Onon's sister has been called to serve a mission and will leave in September. Any guesses where she will be serving? No? Ogden, Utah -- the very plcce Elder Onon had been serving until recalled to Mongolia!
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Potpourri 2

2010-07-25T07:18:00.000-07:00

Thought you might like to see some interesting things here in Mongolia.

The first picture is a bit of a twist on 'Give me fries and a hot dog, please!" Look closely. Can you see it? Yup! That's a hot dog on a stick with bits of French Fries stuck to the outside! Why didn't we think of that?!

Then there are Potato Chips. They're not what we are used to seeing in the States and we avoided them for the first many months of our mission. After all, Paprika Potato Chips! But they are virtually the only potato chip in town so we finally gave in and bought a bag. They are really good! Really!

And last, a picture of how we usually must purchase carrots here. Trust us, those ugly looking dark things are carrots! And believe it or not, they, too, are really quite good. They just don't bother to wash them before they bring them to market.

Just thought you'd like to know!

It's a Small, Small World!

2010-07-23T06:23:00.000-07:00

The first couple to arrive in this mission after we did were Elder and Sister Stevens. That was about 16 months ago. We met them in the Church parking lot as they arrived. I took one look at him and asked, "You're from Californian, right?" He said yes. And I said something like, 'Well, there's a guy in Utah that looks a lot like you and his name is Stevens, too!' He said, 'That's Stan, my identical twin brother!' Stan Stevens was one of our neighbors for several years. He and I served in the scouts together.

Then, we learned a few days ago that we have a new couple coming in September -- Elder and Sister Ford. Just out of curiosity, I asked our mission President if he knew Elder Ford's first name. He didn't, but sent me an email a bit later with the details. His full name is Blaine Ford and they are from Layton.

I served with an Elder Blaine Ford some 45 years ago in the Western States Mission. The last I had heard, he lived somewhere just north of Salt Lake. I think Layton qualifies. I emailed this 'new' Elder Ford yesterday just to see if there was any chance he is the same one. He answered a few minutes ago indicating that he is, indeed, the same one with whom I served so many years ago.

Go figure!
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Zuun Kharaa

2010-07-18T02:45:00.000-07:00

Last fall, we posted a little bit about a place to the north and east of here called Zuun Kharaa. Just as a reminder, here is a recap of some of what we posted.

Many families in Zuun Kharaa live in a typical Mongolian ger on a piece of property a couple of hundred feet or so square. Each is fenced as required by law and many families raise farm animals, gardens, children, etc. all on their little piece of property. However, in some parts of that city (a really pleasant little city, by the way), the only access people had to drinking water (notice the past tense used here) was to dig a relatively shallow and open water well by hand, on their little piece of property. Right next to the animals -- and the outhouse. It doesn't take much imagination to picutre the result.

Fortunately, the Church was able to have four deep water wells drilled last fall. Each would provide a common well of fresh water which the residents could come to and get water from But it wasn't until this spring that the pumps and well houses could be completed and the water made available. Three of the four wells were dedicated and opened two or three weeks ago. Last week, several of us had the privilege of traveling to Zuun Kharaa to witness the dedication of the fourth one.

That dedication had been scheduled twice before, only to be canceled because of heavy rains. We were scheduled to travel up there last Thursday. Wednesday night, we had another down pour.

It was questionable whether or not we should go this time, too, because of all the rain. But the couple in charge of those things (Elder and Sister Lasson) felt that this really needed to be done. So, we left first thing Thursday morning. It was still raining. A lot. Again!

When we arrived, Zuun Kharaa was a mess. We felt like we were in Venice, Italy! Water everywhere! We began to wonder if we could reach the wells at all. But, we had a Toyota Land Cruiser so on we pushed. But in some places we kept checking the floorboards to see if any water was getting into the car!

Each of the wells had been located on the property of one of those ger families who would also manage the water station. In exchange, they would receive free water and perhaps some income from selling the water to others. Now, don't be too concerned. The 'fee' for the water is a staggering 2 Tugriks per liter (1380 Tugriks equals one U.S. dollar and a liter is just over one quart). That means a five gallon container would cost almost 3 cents! But it is enough to pay the electricity, provide for long term maintenance and allow a small stipend for the operator.

Despite some remaining question about continuing with the well opening, the Lasson's pushed ahead. We soon learned there were reasons why it was felt needful to push on. It seems that the well operater for well #4 had not yet opened the well, believing that the opening ceremonies were necessary, first. That was actually not the case. And, we also learned that the recent rains had completely contaminated the already questionable hand dug wells, leaving many with no real source of water.

Above is a picture of one of those wells.

So, we held a well grand opening ! And we had a good old time! We had candy, bottled drinks and even a ribbon cutting! Oh, and fresh, pure drinking water, too! A good little group gathered round for the festivities and we made some new friends that day! There was even a drawing for some water containers and one cart!

We'll post more about this special little town next time.

4th of July Celebration

2010-07-08T06:41:00.000-07:00

Thought you might like to see a few pictures of our 4th of July celebration. We were on the committee who planned and carried out the whole shindig and it really was quite a good party! Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Brots, potato salad, drinks, etc.

One of the senior couples told us they thought it was just like a good old back home 4th! And it made them very homesick!

The best part of the whole thing was the childrens parade which helped open the whole thing. Sister Caldwell was in charge of that and the kids had a blast! Love the balloon hat.

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And the Marine color guard leading the way was a nice touch, too! We had the Marine band there playing for nearly all the party!! They had their Pop Rock Band and the Dixie Land Band there (bet most of you didn't even know the Marines had such groups, did ya'!). The whole orchestra was supposed to be there, too, but half of them got hold of some bad food the night before!

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A couple of our missionaries helped do some of the cooking. They did a great job!

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Oh, we can't forget the desert baking contest. This one took honors for the best looking. Didn't taste bad, either!

And the weather cooperated very well, too. upper 70's, low 80's maybe. And a few clouds to keep sunburns away!

It was a fun but very busy day.

Out With the Old, In With the New

2010-07-05T16:44:00.000-07:00

We have a new Mission President!

On June 30th, we bid a fond farewell to President and Sister Andersen. Such changes are unavoidable, we know, but we will miss them.

They leave behind a great legacy of service and sacrifice. He was the right man, at the right time and in the right place. That can be said of all mission presidents -- including the new one.

We will have many cherished memories of their service here and of our opportunity to share some of it with them. They have touched many lives and will be missed.

The new mission president and his wife (President and Sister Mecham) arrived on June 29th. Yes, that time is a bit unusual, as far as we know. Most commonly changes in mission presidents takes place on July 1st.

We are thrilled to welcome the Mechams and have already witnessed the Spirit strengthen and mold them as they begin their service here. We already can see the wonderful leadership they will, in their turn, provide here.

We will only have two months to get to know them and work with them before it becomes our turn to leave. That brings an interesting mix of feelings.

Be Strong Part 3

2010-06-27T02:32:00.000-07:00

We really need to do some serious posting! Too many things happening lately. Senior Outing, President and Sister Andersen about ready to depart, President and Sister Mecham about ready to arrive. Wow!

But first, the youth conference.

This is a picture of their arrival. They were transported by buses, which stopped down the road a couple of blocks, leaving the kids to walk into the camp itself. After the mornings' instruction (see previous post), they arrived here at about noon or there abouts.

Again, there was about 400 of them or a few more. And they were very well organized, orderly and well behaved.

After getting settled in and particpating in a talent show that evening, it came time for lights out. These kids really know how to have a camp. There was no need for adults to remain on alert through the night trying to be certain the young men and women stayed where they belonged. They simply did what they should and all had a restful nights sleep.

The next morning, they were all up early (on their own), studying the scriptures wherever they could find a spot.

The next day was full of fun and instruction, with several sites selected through which they rotated for the individual instruction/fun that was organized in each.

And they had a wonderful time! There was a fireside Friday night and then a dance. Sister Caldwell and I (along with a few riders) left after the fireside to return to our apartment in UB. They wouldn't let us stay, insisting that we were too old and they didn't have room anyway!

We hear they stayed up a bit late this night. They all knew that it all was drawing to an end and they did not want to waste a minute of it!

But, indeed, all good things must come to an end and Saturday morning was that time. So, after spending much of the morning making baby quilts, they returned to UB.

And remember, some of them then had to climb on buses and spend as long as three more days on bumpy, rough dirt roads, getting home!

We hope they will remember this experience as long and as fondly as we will!
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Be Strong Part 2

2010-06-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

When the day of the youth conference arrived (Thursday, June 17th -- see previous post), we went over to the Church early, to help provide breakfast and a sack lunch for the some of the kids (the ones who had needed to travel in from the countryside) before they left. We arrived at a little past six o'clock. Thought we might find things still a bit quiet, there.

Wrong!

The kids who had traveled in from the countryside, had stayed overnight in the mission offices, sleeping anywhere they could find a piece of floor big enough to through out a blanket or two.

As you can see from the pictures, when we arrived that morning, the kids where already up and were cleaning the church building!! We were astonished! They really did a job on that place, too! They had a fireside at the building a bit later,

cleaned everything up, and packed there belongings before leaving. You can see them all in their youth conference T-Shirts waiting for the fireside to start.

This is the scripture upon which the conference was based. "Be strong and of a good courage" (Joshua 1:9)

Finally, we sent them off to camp. It was about an hour to an hour and a half ride on buses to get them there. Half of the drive was getting through to the other side of the city. Then they hit the bad dirt 'roads'. And that's after the three day ride some of them had just getting to the city! But we never heard a complaint.

We were unable to go with them that first day, being obligated to teach English. But we did go up for the day on Friday. When we reached the camp (and part of the drive was on some of the worst 'roads' we have seen here), we found a very unexpected surprise. It was in the middle of some heavily tree'd forest! We had no idea there was that kind of forest anywhere near Ulaanbaatar.

This last picture shows the camp where they stayed. It was really a pretty nice place. Similar to Mill Hollow (a public school system in the Salt Lake City area), but actually nicer in some ways. Not perfect, but it more than did the job for us.

We share more of the actual conference in the next post.

Be Strong!!

2010-06-19T17:59:00.001-07:00

This is going to take a couple of different posts, but we have a lot to share.

This last week, Elder and Sister Cook visited with us here in the Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar mission. Elder Cook was the first mission president here, beginning in 1994. At first, he wasn't the mission president because there was no mission, yet. But that quickly changed and the Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar mission was born.

His wife, Sister Cook, is the 1st Counselor in the General Young Womens' Presidency. The two of them brought a lot of wonderful instruction with them, which they provided while they renewed long time friendships and visited with many members here whom they have come to love over the years.

Elder Cook was the one who found and brought several key people into the mission and whom are very much still an important part of the mission today. One of those is Batbold (pictured). Elder Cook needed someone who knew the area (they certainly didn't at first!), had a car and could drive them around town.

So, he went out on the street and watched cars as they drove by, hoping to flag someone down who looked like the right one for the job. You need to understand that this is how you get around here. You just hold your hand out, indicating that you need a taxi. Usually, an actual taxi of some sort stops. But often, just somebody passing by who could use a couple of bucks, stops and temporarily becomes a taxi.

As he watched, he saw a van driving by and thought, 'That's just the kind of vehicle we need!', and he held out his had. The man stopped and off they went, looking around the city.

The gentleman's name was Batbold. They managed to communicate enough that Elder Cook let him know he needed him again the next day. And the next day. And the next day after that! But finally Batbold said, 'I can't drive for you anymore.' Elder Cook asked,'Why not?', to which Batbold answered, 'This isn't my car!'

Elder Cook felt that Batbold was needed by the Lord here and told him that it was ok, they needed him to do other things for them. Batbold has been working for the Church every since. He is the 2nd Counselor in the Mission Presidency and handles all of the physical needs for us missionaries. Such things as making sure we all have apartments to live in and that everything is kept working as it should in those apartments.

Batbold is a wonderful man, well loved and respected by everyone in the mission. In fact, the mission would likely about fall apart with out him. He travels throughout all of Mongolia, taking care of problems and making certain everything is in good order.

While Elder and Sister Cook were here, we had Youth Conference. It was three days long, running Thursday thru Saturday, June 17, 18 and 19. And what a youth conference it was!!

This was a nation wide youth conference and the youth were brought in from all over Mongolia. That in and of itself was a monumental task. If you have been following this blog or are familiar with Mongolia, you will know that roads here are not exactly what we are used to in the States. We've included a couple of reminders of what most roads are like here.

One of the branches sent 41 youth across these roads, on a bus! Yup! A big old bus like the Greyhounds we find in the states. It is absolutely amazing where they take those buses!

And understand that this wasn't just a couple of hours of riding for those 41 youth. It took them three days none stop (night and day) to get here. Then, they spent three days camping at youth conference, climbed right back on those buses the afternoon that the conference ended, and headed back to Khovd, where their homes are! Hundreds of kilometers (oh, we mean miles) each way!

We don't ever want to hear American youth complain about some silly little 8 hour drive on freeways to get to a youth camp, again. It will fall on deaf ears!

These kids are unbelieveable. We were able to spend part of the conference with them and to help out a bit. It was a remarkable experience. We'll tell you more about it in the next post.

Childrens Center Service

2010-06-11T17:36:00.000-07:00

We recently had the opportunity to volunteer at a children's center which is trying to reopen. This is something like a daycare in the States, except that some children will live here much of the year. And the children will range in age from quite young, to 11 or 12 years old, or perhaps even older.

This center is located in the middle of a large ger district (i.e. a residential area composed of gers and shanty's which are typical here).

We help one of the members here get the job as manager of this childrens center (Naraa) and she invited us to come and help get the flower beds ready and seeds planted. Naraa recently graduated from college here in what we would referr to as one of the Social Sciences. The lady who owns the center walked into our office one day and told us she was looking for a manager for a children's center. We immediately thought of Naraa.

And we had no sooner mentioned her name than she also came walking into our office! The lady hired Naraa on the spot!

When Naraa asked us if we could help, she didn't exactly have to twist any arms! Sister Caldwell, of course, was ecstatic that she could dig in the dirt again and plant some flowers! It's been a while since we have worked a flower bed!

Two senior couples along with one set of young missionaries went to help out.

We had a good time and accomplished a lot, despite an obnoxious wind blowing part of the time.

We especially liked all of the fun paintings on the walls in the compound!

Had to throw in this last picture. This is a section of wall along the back of the complound. It is fairly typical here to see a wide mix of fence types. Sometimes they just use whatever they have to get the job done!

Our Trip North Continued

2010-06-01T17:55:00.000-07:00

During our out of town trip (see previous post), we saw some interesting things and visited some interesting places.

We were amazed to see miles and miles (oh, excuse me, kilometers and kilometers) of wheat fields, like the one pictured here. Mongolia does produce most of its' own flour needs, now, and is pushing to bring that to 100%.

Then we came across a herd of camels. As you will probably notice, they are rapidly loosing their winter coats, trading them in for summer attire. This big old guy seemed to be the 'King' of the group.

And finally, we drove the extra 15 or 20 kilometers from our northern most stop (Sukhbaarar City), to the Russian border. This is the guard station through which we had to pass, after already having obtained needed permits at a border patrol office in Sukhbaatar City. The road was gated at this point and the guard had to review our papers before he would let us through.

We were told that we were standing in Russia as we took this group picture. Elder and Sister Powell (a couple we have become quite close friends with and who traveled from Ulaanbaatar with us on this trip) are standing on our left (your right) and Elder and Sister Anderson (the senior couple assigned to Sukhbaatar City) are on our right (your left). That is more of Russia in the background.

On the map, you can see the red circle noting the area where we were (click on the picture to get a larger view). The river in the background of our group picture, is the Selenge River, which empties into Baikal Lake in Russia.

So now Sister Caldwell and I have been in Mongolia, Hong Kong China, Korea and Russia. Who'd a thunk!!
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Wet Paint!!

2010-05-29T18:08:00.000-07:00

We just recently learned that the sign in this first picture, means 'Wet Paint'. We do learn a little bit of Mongolian when the occasion demands it. Why do you care, you ask? Read on.

We have been out of town for a few days and, in fact, still are at this posting, traveling with Elder and Sister Powell. We are traveling to three separate cities in the northern part of Mongolia, doing some training, testing and instructing. Things have gone pretty well and we have accomplished much. With the exception of one 'little' glitch, that is.

As we visited one of those three towns (Erdenet), we 'divided and conquered' for a bit. Sister Caldwell and I got things going at the Church building while the Powells checked on English instruction and sponsors. However, when they returned, Elder Powell said something like, "Boy, I wish I understood Mongolian!", turned his back side to us and lifted his coat. What we saw, you can also plainly see in picture number two!! He had sat down right in front of the sign, having no clue what it said! Someone did came along and rattled off a bunch of Mongolian to him, to which he pleasantly responded, 'Hi, how are ya'!"

A bit later, we had a couple of minutes of extra time and returned to 'the scene of the crime.' We found many people (all of whom could very readily read that sign) sitting on those same benches. We managed to talk Elder Powell (he was very hesitant at first) into lifting his coat so that they could see what the dumb Americans had done! We thought they might get a good laugh at our expense. Well, ok. At Elder Powells expense, at least.

But their reaction was a bit unexpected. When they saw Elder Powells trousers, they immediately looked very shocked, quickly jumped up off the bench and began checking their own clothing! They were certain they had 'sat in it' themselves!

Surprised, we hurriedly made some hopefully appropriate apologies and explanations (which none of them, of course, likely understood anyway) and quickly walked away. Once out of sight, we couldn't stop laughing!!

That was just one experience from this trip which turned out pretty good! We'll share more of our little excursion in the next few posts. Like maybe our visit to Russia.

In fact, we have much to share and are a bit behind. We'll try to catch up this week, if we can.
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Teaching English

2010-05-28T15:45:00.000-07:00

As a result of the changes made in application of immigration laws (see prior posts), we will only be able to teach English for the organization which sponsors us. Our sponsor is now the Changiss Khan Hotel, just down from the Church office building and across the street from our apartment complex. A convenient location, indeed!

Unfortunately, we are no longer able to teach at the two places at which we have been teaching since we arrived over a year and a half ago – the National Archives and the Sukhbaatar Court Judges. We had enjoyed teaching there and will miss the friendships we had formed with many of those students.

We will spend about the same amount of hours at our new assignment with less travel time (that was sometimes a significant problem at the old locations – too many traffic snarls here) but more in class time. And there will be a lot more students. We taught only 12 or so students total at the old locations. We had 55 at our first class at the hotel.

But there are some nice perks at the hotel, too. The Operations Director and the Registration Director are both Returned Missionaries and the General Manager is an American (Sam Sallam) we have come to know through other dealings with him. He also is familiar with the Church and has a son who used to be an active member.

Between the three of them, they have insisted that we eat dinner there after class every day. That’s four days a week! And this is an upbeat, very nice establishment! At least one of the nicest in town, if not the nicest.

Thought you might like to see where we ate our first meal there. The sacrifices we have to make! This was actually a lunch after we held our first, level testing class. From now on, it looks like we will be eating dinner.

We’ll see if we will be able to stick with it every time we teach. But it will be nice, at least once in a while!! We’ll let you know how it goes, from time to time.

While we were there, they brought in a group of children from a nearby orphanage and feed them lunch in another part of the hotel. You’ve got to understand that these little Mongolian kids are just wonderful! Much cuter than the American kids (with the exception of our grandchildren, of course!).

They were sure excited!

Goodbye!!

2010-05-26T16:59:00.000-07:00

A couple days ago, we had to say goodbye to nearly all of the American Missionaires still left in Mongolia. It was a sad day. Seniors tend to get pretty close to some of the 'hometown' missionaries.

About half of them will be returning home, their missions having come to a close. The other half have been assigned to other missions for the remainder of their mission service. They had mixed feelings, wishing they could remain in Mongolia, but happy to be a serve somewhere. The half reassigned were those we had come to know while in the Provo MTC. Before all of the troubles hit, we had thought we might be traveling home with them in August.

The video is of those missionaries singing "Called To Serve" in Mongolia while also signing the song using Mongolian sign language. Most learn to sign while here, as well, due to the large numbers of deaf people there are.

Not many foreign missionaries left here, now. We did hear, however, that there will be 4 new Americans coming in July or August. That would be the first new foreign missionaries in a very long time.

Baptized at 99

2010-05-20T23:58:00.000-07:00

We have already included a post about this 99 year old new member. But we thought you might enjoy an article about her as recently published in the Church News. Follow the link below.

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/59354/Baptized-at-age-99-in-Mongolia.html

Monglian Choir Festival at YouTube

2010-05-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

All of the choir festival numbers can now be viewed online at You Tube. Just go to You Tube and search for "Mongolian Choir Festival" or follow this link.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mongolia+choir+festival&aq=f

We Can Stay!

2010-05-19T16:05:00.000-07:00

Our paperwork finally worked out and we have a sponsor! So, we can stay in Mongolia!

We will be teaching across the street from where we live, at the Chengiss Khan Hotel - about the nicest hotel in the city. We know the manager there fairly well and this should work out quite well for us. They will hit their busy season now and don't want as much teaching hours as they likely would in the winter, so it will be an easier summer than it might have been.

We also hear tell of rumors that they may try to bring in three or four new foreign missionaries again!

Keep your fingers crossed!
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Dust Storm

2010-05-15T05:46:00.000-07:00

We have always heard about the terrible winds and dust storms in Mongolia, but had never really seen one here in the capital city (we did see one near Erdenet during a trip there earlier this year). We do see a lot of wind and it does carry dust with it. And it can be a bit irritating to try to walk in. But we usually don't get the really bad ones we had only heard about. That is, until a couple of days ago.

This one was just outside the city as we were driving back into it.

Here are some pictures.

The first one is of the approaching storm. The next two are of us in the middle of it (inside a car, of course - we try not to be out and unprotected when these dust storms come along!).

Needless to say, things have a tendency to get a bit dusty as a result of these storms. We tape our windows around the edges to help keep the dust out, but at least some still finds its' way into the apartment.

So, we sometimes do a lot of dusting!

Some of the people here tell us they don't like spring. Too much wind and dust!
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Ski Resort

2010-05-11T16:07:00.000-07:00

Thought it might be interesting to let you see a picture of what is left of the new and only snow skiing resort in Mongolia. This is just outside the capital city of Ulaanbaarar, to the east.

We thought about posting a picture when there was lots of snow, but you couldn't really tell it was there from this distance. Now, all that is left is the compacted ski runs and it stands out really well.

They even have the runs very well lit at night, during the winter months.

We hear it is pretty pricey to ski there! They also have a restaurant at the base of the runs -- or so we are told.
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Garden Time!

2010-05-09T07:38:00.000-07:00

Can't believe it but Spring is really here! The forecast for Wednesday is . . . 80 degrees! That's 28 degrees warmer than the forecast for our home town of Magna, Utah! Go figure!

And, it's time to get gardens in here. The Church is once again helping the members here be able to plant vegetables. This year, we are buying lots of seeds, seed potatoes, gardening implements and even materials for small greenhouses for several families in each branch.

This is a picture of the type of greenhouse envisioned. This one was from 2009 and is one that a member built on his own.

And, we have published a book which provides a significant amount of information on how to grow a vegetable garden.

One of the new focuses of the Church here in Mongolia this year, is food production. We want to help these families become self sufficient. We were surprised to learn that some families were able to make some of their produce from 2009, last all winter long! It seems that families who have a small shanty type structure as a home (a step above a ger), dug root cellars below their homes and put a trap door in their living room floor! And they still have some produce from last year that is still in very good condition! Amazing.
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Closing Ceremonies

2010-05-01T17:18:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update on our NRT Training (see previous post).

This is the Closing Ceremonies for the second of two very successful training sessions held this week. This was also the larger of the two groups.

We've learned, now, that the training here carries a particular distinction. Though also held in many other nations, it usually only reaches a relatively small portion of the total population of doctors. Here in Mongolia, every Neonatal Specialist in the country attended this training, as far as we know. All of them. 100%

As a result, during his closing remarks, Dr. Preece suggested that if all of the NRT Specialists now do their part in training nurses and assistants, that there is the potential for Mongolia to move from a country troubled with infant mortality, to one of the safest of countries in which to have a baby. Quite a step up, wouldn't you say?

Each of the participants received a bag like the one pictured, full of training materials and medical equipment.

This is where at least some of your donation dollars have been used. Feels good, doesn't it.
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Is There a Doctor in the House?

2010-04-28T17:31:00.000-07:00

We have had a lot of doctors in our office building this week. This was the week scheduled for NRT (Neo-Natal Resuscitation) training. NRT specialists from all over Mongolia were invited to participate in free training in the process of treating newborns who have difficulty immediately after birth.

Interestingly, all of the NRT doctors here are female, as are the majority of doctors. Medicine is socialized here and the pay is quite low. In fact, low paid teachers make more money here than doctors. It can be a difficult profession to survive in.

It seems that there has been significant difficulty here, with newborns not surviving the birth process. We reported here earlier that a number of doctors themselves sought counseling after losing a few newborns they felt they should have been able to save. That is easier to understand once we learned that those same doctors are all mothers, themselves.

They would perform autopsies on those infants and discover most of them had collapsed lungs - something fairly easily corrected in the States. But they have had neither the training nor the equipment to deal with those situations here.

So, the Church brought in Doctor Cornish (an Area Seventy) and Doctor Preece (that is Dr Preece teaching through a translator in the first photo - Dr./Elder Cornish is sitting with his back to the camera) to provide the needed training, and donated 500 small resuscitators for the locals to use. The NRT Specialists will now return to their hospitals and train others.

As we watched part of that training, it became apparent that one of the first things that needed to be done was to help them unlearn what they had been doing and then learn and practice newer techniques which have been proven to save many such newborns.

You can see the small resuscitators and the specially altered dolls used in the training, sitting on this table.

Comments could be heard along the lines of, ‘This is the best NRT training we have ever had.’ And we couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like for those same doctors when they use their new training and save their first newborn because of it.

How thankful we are to be able to witness the wonderful things that are happening here.

Side Note: Sister Caldwell and I had the added privilege to sit with Elder/Dr Cornish for dinner Monday night. What a treat that was! He shared some wonderful Gospel things with us and we felt very fortunate to have that opportunity.
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New Missionaries

2010-04-23T05:44:00.000-07:00

Today has been a bit out of the ordinary. Well, at least part of it has.

Five Elders from Mongolia who had been serving in the States and one more who had been serving in Japan, returned here to finish their missions. This is one remedy that our Mission President has come up with to help with the problem of a sudden and unexpected lack of American missionaries (see previous posts). Of course, he didn't manage that all on his own. The Church endorsed the idea and did the actual reassigning.

All six speak excellent English and will be a real asset to the mission and to the Church here.

We have spoken with all of them and they are excellent young men! We are very inpressed. One in particular was special to us; Elder Onon. He does not look Mongolian, at all - light hair, green eyes, fair complexion. And VERY American mannerisms and language, now. But that is not what made him special to us.

It took us part of the day, but we soon learned that his mother and sister were two of the group we went to the Hong Kong Temple with for the first time, in March/April of 2009 (there are no surname's here which would have triggered us to that when we met him)! Not only that, but he had been serving in the Utah Ogden Mission. Sister Caldwell was raised in Ogden and most of her family is still there. In addition to that, his sister just received her mission call to day and she will be serving in . . . drum roll please . . . the Utah Ogden Mission!

More of the Lord's tender mercies!

Elder Onon translated for us tonight as we attended the weekly baptism. He is a young man who is very easy to like!

And we ought to tell you about baptisms here. Those baptized, change out of their wet clothing quickly and then rejoin the congregation back in the Chapel. We all sing songs while we wait for them. Once they have all returned, they bear their testimonies. Yes, brand new members stand in front of the congregation and tell us they know the Gospel is true. And the Chapel was filled to capacity! And somehow, their testimonies are extra special.

Don't you wish you could be here sometimes?!
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The Hills Are Alive . . .

2010-04-22T03:07:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday, April 17, 2010, the Church held a choir festival in Mongolia. It was really something!

The idea was ‘hatched’ about four or five months ago by President Andersen. But no one really had any idea it would become what it did when time came to perform.
Most anticipated small choirs from each branch (maybe 15 to 20 tops). But when festival time arrived, a total of 650 choir members performed from 18 branches! That’s an average of slightly more than 36 in each choir! I never saw a ward choir that large in our home stake in Utah. One Branch choir had 50 members in it!

Oh, did you noticed in the pictures the matching dress? That was something else not anticipated and certainly not requested. The members here really got into this whole idea of a choir festival!

The mission rented the large ‘pink’ theater just south of Sukhbaatar Square - for those of you who have been here, it is the one next to the Irish Pub and where the National Academy of Dance performs. A dress rehearsal was held beginning at 11:00 am that morning, closely followed by the official performance at 1:00 (ok, they didn’t actually start ‘til 1:30).

But the performance was nearly flawless! And the singing was actually very, very good (something else we don’t usually see in our Ward choirs back home!).

And the theater seating was nearly full to capacity as the 1:00 performance started. All three levels of seats (the main floor and two balcony's!

Elder and Sister Lasson (mostly Sister Lasson, really – it was her assignment) organized and orchestrated the festival – no small matter, in view of the much larger than anticipated participation. She had to continually adjust for larger than planned choir sizes.

The finale consisted of two numbers by all choirs combined (a feat in and of itself, with choir members filling the stage and standing in the isles). They sang “The Spirit of God” and “The Mongolian National Anthem”. It was quite moving, as you might be able to guess.

Oh, and we must mention one choir in particular. A very recently opened missionary area called Bulgan has just five Church members. But they participated with a 20 member choir! Yup, that means five members and 15 investigators!

All of the senior couples helped 'direct traffic', helped with the choirs between numbers and assisted in other ways where we could. But the really hard work had already been done.

Now, remember. This is an all Mongolian choir in this video. Few, if any, of them can speak more than a dozen or so words of English. This song is also not in the limited hymn book they have available here. But they learned it and are singing it -- in English. Most of the numbers were done in Mongolian but a couple of choirs did sing one song in English.

One last thing. The whole performance was recorded using the high quality recording equipment available at the theater. And the mission has now decided that it would be a good idea to make copies available on CD to every member home. You see, it would be the first and only church music available to these good members in their own language. At least most of it is in their own language! Some thing else we sort of take for granted in the States.

This was really a special event and one not soon to be forgotten.

Kudos to the choirs, the Lassons and others for a job well done!
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Our Homeless Shelter

2010-04-19T06:10:00.000-07:00

There have been a number of difficulties which we have been reporting on here in our blog. Well, we have also had some difficulties with the homeless shelter in Nalaikh -- the one for which we have asked to serve as project managers for a Humanitarian Project approved by the Church to help them. It seems there have developed some significant conflicts between the owner and the manager there. So, we have had to back away from that project, hoping that it will soon be resolved, allowing us to continue our relationship with them.

But all is not lost. Our initial contact and association with a number of those living there, was not lost entirely. A few of them continued to come to Church services on Sunday and wanted the missionary lessons, too.

Last Friday night, one of the 21 one baptisms we spoke of in our last post, was one of our new friends from the shelter -- Naraanbaatar.

Naraanbaatar (the one in the middle in this picture) was one of the first people we met during our initial visits there. He speaks a bit of English and we found that to be useful on more than one of our visits there. He is a good guy and we were thrilled to see him accept the Gospel and to watch the change that we can see in him.

Not only that, but it was his birthday Sunday. So, we decided to make a cake and have a little birthday party for him after Sacrament Meetings (you know, the only meeting we are currently allowed to have on Sunday in many buildings). He was thrilled!

We hope we will yet have the opportunity to see that same change in others at the shelter. The Gospel can provide so much hope for people -- especially those who have had so much reason to loose hope during a tough time in their lives.
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The Saga Continues

2010-04-16T06:25:00.000-07:00

We have managed to get ourselves into another pickle!

We have learned that Mongolia is requiring things a bit differently than we thought. It has to do with church buildings.

For most churches, every congregation and building tends to be a separate entity without a lot of correlation between them. So, Mongolia requires registration for each individual church unit. Weeellll, we thought that registering our main office building would cover all of our units organized under the jurisdiction of that particular office. After all, we are not separate units but are very much part of a single organization, all teaching the same, etc. So we were covered, right?

Not so much!

So, now we find ourselves in bad straights. We have been told that we can no longer use those other buildings until they are properly registered. The trouble is, the government committee having that responsibility will not meet again to consider registrations until June! Ouch!

They have relented (again) and are allowing us to hold Sacrament meetings on Sunday, but that is all. No full block, no seminary, no mutual, no baptism, etc. Bummer!

But, we are doing the best we can. Most baptisms will be held in the one main office building (the only building properly registered - the Bayanzurkh Building for those of you are are familiar with the mission). Alternative sites are being sought for Seminary. That's an important one. And the rest . . . . we'll let you know as we find alternatives!

And tonight is Friday night so we held the weekly baptisms all in this one building. All 21 of them! At least all except those in the countryside. Their buildings are registered and in good shape, so they are ok.

So, the work goes on. It will be interesting to look back at this in a few years and see what the perspective is. Probably a bit different than the one folks might be inclined to have right now.
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Conference Weekend

2010-04-11T03:03:00.000-07:00

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For most of Asia, and more specifically, for us here in Mongolia, this was General Conference weekend. It is available to us live via the Internet or satellite, but the time difference is simply too great for us to be able to watch it then. So, we generally watch it on the weekend following the actual conference.

It is translated into Mongolian (and many other languages, of course) as it happens and is received over the satellite system, recorded and then burned to DVD. The English version is also recorded and stored on DVD at the same time.

Then, the senior couple missionaries all join together in President and Sister Andersen's apartment (5th or top floor of the Church building here) to share in the experience as we watch each session. Our time table (as they refer to schedules here) is, however, a bit different. Saturday's first session begins at the traditional 10:00 am. But the second session is begun at 1:00 pm, closely followed by the Priesthood session at 3:15 pm.

And, as the brethren all watch the Priesthood Session, the sister's are busily making homemade cinnamon rolls for all to enjoy at the end of the session! Yum!! (Sister Caldwell out did herself this time!)

Sunday's sessions are held similarly with the first session at 10:00 am and the last session at 1:00 pm. The seniors all bring potluck stuff on Sunday and we have lunch together.

The young missionaries and other members of the Church listen to Conference downstairs in the Chapel, at the same time. The young American Missionaries, however, do get to hear it in their native language in another room in the building.

And, as always seems to be the case, Conference was uplifting, enjoyable and very edifying. We try to single out favorite speakers, but it is difficult. So very much of good instruction and counsel is given that it is sometimes difficult to absorb it all. So, it is wonderful to be able to download the sessions and watch them again. Including the Priesthood session, which began being included in the downloads at about the time we entered the mission field.

And then we can also read and study them even more thoroughly in the Liahona (we don't get the Ensign here much).

Actually, the sessions are now available within a few hours after each session since the launching of the Church's new beta website (beta.lds.org). That means that anyone, anywhere in the world, can see recordings of conference sessions within hours of their occurrence. What a marvelous thing the internet can be.

We marvel at the organization and operation of the Church. There is not another worldwide organization that we are aware of, that is able to maintain the consistency of instruction and the unity of operation as does the Church. We have come half way around the world and find the Church the same here as in Utah, even despite the relatively young age of the Church and it's members here. Such adds testimony and validity to our assertion of who is at the head of this Church and as to whose Church it is.

Some things we remember from Conference sessions, include (of course) President Monsons' remarks about how he and Sister Monson met and the development of their relationship. Funny! Oh, and how many of you noticed his comment about Mongolia in those same opening remarks? We also liked President Uchtdorfs' counsel that without love and compassion, we are like clouds without rain or trees without root. Simple and simply profound.

There were many others, like Elder Packers' and Elder Morinos' talks. And then there was Elder Hales and and Elder Hollands talks and . . . well, you get the picture. Maybe we'll share more of what we liked later.
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Score!

2010-04-06T07:53:00.000-07:00

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Our son Jason is going to love this one! We have a 'food DI' in Mongolia (inside joke)!

Some enterprising soul here, corralled a shipment of 'Freight Damaged' food from the states, set it up in a temporary location in downtown, stacked it in boxes two thirds of the way to the ceiling in a small room and, presto, a new American Food Store! We picked up a few things we haven't seen since leaving the States!

Like a bottle of jalapeno peppers (went right to the apartment and had some nachos - yum!), some Kraft Thousand Island salad dressing, a can of Baked Beans, a box of Grape Nuts (Sister Caldwell's favorite) and a few other assorted items! And at very reasonable prices, to boot!

All the seniors went and we had a ball! Doesn't take much to make kids and old folks who are half way around the world from home, happy!

And we don't know what other surprises may lie hidden in boxes further down in those stacks. I dug through to a few but could only get about half way down a couple of the stacks! Guess we'll have to make another trip next week to see what good stuff gets unburied!
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Potpourri

2010-04-03T17:37:00.000-07:00

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Political Rally Tomorrow

There is another political rally scheduled for tomorrow. The last such rally (summer of 2008) saw a building burned down and other troubles.

This one has been labeled a "Peace Rally" at Sukhbaatar Square. But it has been organized by groups who apparently want to oust the current Parliament. We think we will stay as far away from this one as we can, despite it's claim as a peaceful rally.

Winter

Winter continues is miserable hold and we are really hoping for a turn in things soon. It flirts just enough with Spring to make us want it all the more and then sort of sneaks back.

Missionaries

At first, we were informed that the young missionaries would all have to leave by the middle of June. Then it looked like they would all have to leave by April 22nd - a bit earlier than expected. Now we have learned that the latest date is May 25th and we are really happy about that! That gives one group the opportunity to fully complete their missions before being required to leave. And the rest of the Americans have now received their reassignments to other missions effective on the May date.

Those reassignments have missionaries going to new mission areas from one end of the States to the other. It's kind of an unsettled time for many of them, who would, of course, prefer to finish their missions here in Mongolia. But, we know the Lord will bring good from all of this and it will be exciting to see how it all works out.
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Hurray!

2010-03-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

It actually reached 46 degrees Fahrenheit today! We never thought 46 could feel so good!

We even went for a walk after church. People were out everywhere! It has been a long, LONG time since we were actually able to enjoy being outside. Five months since we were above freezing!

And you should have seen the snow and ice melting! It's almost all gone now, except for a few spots that the sun can't quite reach. But even they are melting.

No more walking on ice!

"We're havin' a heat wave, a tropical heat wave . . ."
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Suvdaa

2010-03-22T16:25:00.000-07:00

We debated a bit about whether or not to create this particular post. It is a hard story to hear. In some ways, it is an even harder one to tell. But it is also typical of a small segment of the society here. A diminishing segment thankfully.

Suvdaa is an eleven year old girl. She lives in Nalaikh. Those of you who have followed our blog will recall that Nalaikh is about 35 km outside of the capital city of Ulaanbaatar where we live and it is where Sister Caldwell and I are assigned to help a branch of the Church. It is where we attend and serve as much as we can.

Nalaikh has been hit especially hard with unemployment as a result of the shutdown of much of the coal mining industry there. Suvdaa has been a victim of that and other difficult circumstances.

As mentioned, Suvdaa is eleven years old. But she has been the head of her household and a major 'bread winner' for several years. And she has had more to deal with than we would hope any adult would ever have to face.

The Church first became aware of her through a documentary, when she was ten years old.

When the documentary was made, Suvdaa had a mother, a younger brother, an older sister and a grandfather all living together. Her father is an absentee father.

Her mother became ill a couple of years ago and has been bed ridden every since. The illness left her with no muscle tone and she looked like she was nothing but skin and bone. It was an occasion which caused no small excitement for little brother, when she would be able to sit up for a few minutes.

The 13 year old sister had been given a bad dose of medicine when she was young and has been left mentally handicapped -- a fairly common occurrence here in years past. Her younger brother was six years old, then, and, of course, could not help much. Grandpa was 60 years old and in Mongolia, that generally is not a very robust age. Life is hard here.

Grandpa had a small job as a guard and was lucky to have that. But those jobs don't pay very well and his income was not enough. The vacant look in his face said a lot. He kept repeating that he felt very bad for Suvdaa but didn't know what else he could do.

Suvdaa took care of the home. She cooked and watched the children. She has been head of the household, even giving 'orders' to her grandpa, when necessary. And she walked 5 km each way in the dark many nights to take a bit of dinner to him where he worked. Then, she would often help him make his security rounds before finally retuning home. When asked if she would be going home to fix dinner on one particular night she said, 'Yes, I will fix some tea tonight.' That's all they had. And she started to cry.

Suvdaa's bed was a wooden plank about 10 inches wide, held about a foot off of the cold ground, with a pillow at one end. No blankets and no padding. They didn't have any for her. When asked if that was difficult to sleep on, she said she was usually sore when she got up in the morning.

Suvdaa and her grandpa would go to the coal mines and gather up whatever scraps of coal they could find. They would use some of it to heat their ger but she had to try to sell most of it to add to their meager budget.

She only had one set of clothing and a light coat and when asked if she would like some new clothes, she said that a couple of T-shirts would be nice. Her expectations haven't been very high.

She was asked what she would wish for if she could have three wishes. Her first wish was that her mother could walk. When asked about a second wish, she said she would really like to go to school. She couldn't think of anything else she wanted for her third wish.

Learning of Suvdaa and her situation literally broke our hearts. The Church offered to help, offering a wheelchair for her mother, for starters. But it was too late. Keep reading.

Thankfully, this story has a fairly happy ending -- sort of. Just a few months ago (about the time the Church offered to help), Suvdaa's mother passed away. She will miss her mother, of course, but she is happy that her mother's pain is over. And we know that Suvdaa's first wish has been granted. Her mother can walk again.

Suvdaa's second wish has also been granted. When their mother passed away and partly as a result of the documentary, the children were placed in a government facility. Suvdaa is now going to school.

And she has new clothes to wear.

There's more. Others have learned of Suvdaa. Enough donations have been made that Suvdaa will be able to go to college. She will be fine, now.

But there are more Suvdaa's out there. Knowing that sometimes makes it a bit difficult to slip into our warm and soft bed at night without feeling guilty. We are glad to be part of an effort which will help lift many of them out of their poverty and give them hope.
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All Senior Missionaries Have Returned!

2010-03-17T17:29:00.000-07:00

We now have all of our seniors back in the country! That's good news!

Some of those who had to leave, spent 10 days sleeping on the floor in Seoul, Korea. Boy are they glad to be back!

And what's more, Elder and Sister Clark returned for a second mission a couple of days ago, so things are looking up.

We all met with Area Authority Seventy, Elder Watson, last evening in President and Sister Andersen's home. President had us all tell him about ourselves and what we do as seniors here. We must admit that even we were a bit surprised at all the seniors are doing. We generally don't make it a practice to sit and list all we are doing with each other. It was something of an eye opener to do so.

But we would really like to talk to those in the MTC who told us that seniors get to take a nap every afternoon if they want. Hah!

But, alas, still no young proselyting missionary resolution. It looks like an all Mongolian missionary force is likely for the young ones. And that's not all bad! They do a great job and this is a real opportunity for them to grow and to serve.

One of the biggest challenges, though, will be finding adequate translation for the Mission President so that he can communicate with and individually interview that all Mongolian missionary force and speak with the membership here, as well.

But this work will continue, one way or another!
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The Other Side of . . . Mongolia

2010-03-12T18:04:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Elder and Sister Lasson, we had an opportunity last Wednesday evening to do something we had always wanted to do but never could get around to it - - or even figure out how, for that matter.

You see, there is a well known wrestling palace just to the south of the Mission Office building and only about a block away. Wrestling is a big deal here and people
take much pride in the champion quality wrestlers who compete from here. So, the Wrestling Palace is something of a landmark.

But they also hold a wide variety of other events in that building. Such things as concerts, rally's, meetings,etc. are common. And we've always wanted to attend one of the concerts (no, we did not attend a wrestling match!).

A week or two ago, someone the Lasson's had worked with in their capacity as Humanitarian Directors knocked on their door, wanting to know if they were interested in attending a concert at the Wrestling Palace. So, they asked the rest of the seniors (at least the ones who were still around) and we all decided to go -- all three couples, minus the Mission President who was unfortunately busy.

We didn't know exactly what the concert would be, but it sounded like it might be interesting. We were actually thinking it would be Mongolian music and theme.

Not quite!!

We learned after the fact that the concert actually had a dual purpose. It seems that a very well known entertainer here (Tomorbaatar - the guy in the brown suit pictured above is NOT him. You can see Tomorbaatar in the video below) had reached his 60th birthday and his wife was having a difficult time with an illness. So, the concert was to celebrate his birthday and to raise funds for his wife to obtain medical treatment.

The concert itself was something of an 'oldies' concert, so to speak. Tomorbaatar had been very popular a few years back and most people we asked knew him and would say, "Oh, he was popular when I was a kid!" Ahhh, just our kind of concert! And while he was not the only performer, he certainly was the 'headliner'.

But this was not to be what we would refer to as 'typical Mongolian music' though there were a few really beautiful traditional Mongolian songs performed. The theme, however, might best be loosely described as older generation international big band type music.

Here's a video sample of Tomorbaatar. We call this "Mongolia, Italian style!" As you can see, he is quite an entertainer. We're sorry for the poor quality video, but upload speeds here are a bit of a problem and we had to make the file as small as we could. If you look closely, you will be able to see some of his moves and antics. He was like that the whole show.

We really quite enjoyed the evening. And we got to see the inside of the Wrestling Palace in the bargain!
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Things are looking up!

2010-03-11T12:22:00.000-08:00

We have been told that two of the four couples which had to leave a little over one week ago, will return tomorrow! As we understand it, their paperwork all cleared and they have reserved seats on a return flight on Saturday, though we don't know what time, yet. So, of course, we are having a welcome home party for Elder and Sister Powell and Elder and Sister (Choibalsan) Anderson, Saturday night!

Elder and Sister Eliason and Elder and Sister Atkins should follow in a couple of days. That means we will likely be without a mission doctor (Elder Eliason) for about two weeks.

And what's more, Elder and Sister Clark arrived last night for their 'repeat engagement'. At least they were supposed to have. We haven't seen them, yet, but assume that they made it late last night.

Welcome back, all!

Now, if we can just work things out for the younger missionaries.
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Chile

2010-03-09T16:06:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, we included a post about the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. Information we had received from a senior couple there. We thought you might like to read a similar report from the Mission President and his wife in Chile.

This is a link to the original article in Meridian Magazine. It's worth reading.

http://www.ldsmag.com/churchupdate/100303chile.html
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Humanitarian Service Project

2010-03-08T05:28:00.000-08:00

We mentioned a while ago that we had been asked to oversee a Humanitarian Service Project. The proposal for that project was submitted some time ago, has been approved, and we have started the first part in what will likely be a lengthy effort.

The project centers around a homeless shelter in Nalaikh, the same city where the branch is located to which we were assigned after first arriving here. Many of you will be aware, by now, that Nalaikh is about 35 to 40 kilometers from where we live in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar.

Nalaikh was especially hard hit when most of the mining operations there closed. Many who had been employed there for years, suddenly found themselves unemployed. And jobs are not exactly easy to come by here. It has been a rather sad and difficult situation.

The lady responsible for the referred to shelter -- Erdenetsetseg (pronounced Erden setseg)-- began the project on her own last fall. She has used her own money to purchase an available building in Nalaikh and has continued to do her best to support and maintain that facility since, seeking donations and help wherever she can find them.

Approximately 80 men, women and children are currently staying in the shelter. And it is a heart rending sight to visit there, sometimes. One doesn't see a lot of hope in the eyes of those seeking refuge there. They are glad to have some place to be in out of the cold, but they would rather be able to be self sustaining and useful.

They come in all 'sizes', from laborers to trained computer technicians and engineers. And they need help, in a wide variety of ways.

So far we have been able to purchase two clothes washers, a heavy duty commercial sewing machine, yards and yards of material and individual toiletries. Those living in the shelter will be taught by Erdenetsetseg to use the sewing machine. Then they will make their own bedding and some of their own clothing. She will also teach them how to make bags which they can sell to grocery stores and elsewhere to be used by their customers. Erdenetsetseg believes in helping them earn their own way and seldom gives things to them. They have to make it for themselves or earn it.

We will yet purchase other equipment and supplies which they can also use to make things they still need (like tables and benches to sit on for meals - they don't have any right now) and to make their own way. We're sure there will be many future posts here about these efforts.

At their request, we will also teach a variety of things, such as honesty, personal hygiene, English, Addiction Recovery . . . and the Gospel. Erdenestesteg requested each of those things (we think she will be a fantastic Relief Society President some day if she ever joins the Church!) and we can think of no better way to lift and help them than that.

In our opinion, Erdenestesteg has a wonderful perspective of how to help those who are less fortunate and also what it takes for a people to lift themselves and regain lost happiness and satisfaction. She has been a joy to work with.

We have also felt a desire to help in other ways. To, for example, help them know that they are important to us and to others; that they are not forgotten and uncared for. We take every opportunity we can to visit them, to put our arms around them and help them feel good about themselves. They are our brothers and sisters, too.
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Bummer!

2010-03-02T18:18:00.000-08:00

Within the last couple of days, we have learned that 18 or so of our missionaries are going to have leave Mongolia sooner than expected. That includes 10 young missionaries and four senior couples. Bummer! It seems that their residence permit/registration has expired and Mongolia is no longer able to renew them.

An explanation is in order -- Readers Digest version.

Missionaries not only have to have a VISA to enter the country, we also are required to obtain a residence permit within a few days of arrival. Both are required -- one to enter the country for longer than 90 days and the other to actually live and remain here. The Church has not been able to obtain new VISA's for some time now. But all, including those of us with current VISA's, also must also obtain the referred to permit which is then good for a period of one year. That permit must then be renewed annually. Mongolia can not longer renew those permits under the current structure of the Church, here, and renewing or obtaining the is giving us the latest challenges to overcome.

When permits were renewed a while back for those who have been here a while, Mongolia would only renew them until June 5th. They hadn't fully decided, yet, what they were going to do and, therefore, renewed them for a shortened period of time. So, both new arrivals and old timers are facing this particular difficulty.

But, we have come to understand some things from a little different perspective over these last few days. Mongolia has, in fact, been very kind and generous to us for many years, making exception to laws which have been on their books for a long time. It seems that we have been far above our legally allowed quota, probably for many years. And now, Mongolia is expanding and growing at an increasing rate with much foreign interest in their rich mineral deposits. And they have a need to protect who and what they are, at the same time.

That is not unusual. The U.S. has had strict entry requirements for a long time, too. Most countries do. Those who do not, have often paid a price, some having lost most of their culture and much of their identity. Inner Mongolia (now part of northern China) is one of those.

We no longer disagree with what is being done. We are only sad that it has to be. The saddest of all, are those who must leave within the next few days and will finish their missions elsewhere.

The senior couples mentioned must leave, but, with Mongolia's help, it looks like a mutual acceptable and beneficial way has been found to allow them to return. We should know for certain within a couple of days, it looks like.

We also hope that a solution can be found for the younger missionaries so that they will be able to return within a fairly short time. The sisters, however, have been permanently reassigned to Washingtion, D.C. Their shorter time of service does not make it likely that they would be able to return.

Bummer!

Stop the World, I Want to Get Off!

2010-02-26T23:26:00.000-08:00

Things are happening here faster than we can tell you about them! Here's a couple of the latest.

Friday night, the Branch closest to where we live had a baptism. Nothing really unusual in that. They have baptisms pretty much every week. But this baptism was unusual, just the same.

The first to be baptized was a really cute 8 year old girl. That's still not unusual. All the kids here are the cutest you have ever seen and lots of them are baptised every month!

But the second person to be baptized, was this 99 year old grandmother. That's right, 99 years old! That is a record for Mongolia and we wonder what the record is for the entire Church!

Her family has been members for some time. But a while back, she told them she didn't want to stay home anymore on Sunday. She wanted to go to Church with them. So, she did!

It also seems that she had been having some dreams. In her dreams, her husband (who past away 30 years ago -- he was only 71 or so!) had appeared to her and he was all dressed in white. She said, "I want to go to church and if I see someone dressed all in white, I'm goin' to hang on to them!"

Well, she was soon the one dressed in white! She no longer has the use of her legs and had to be helped by two Elders as they went entered the font. They held her up, offered the baptismal prayer and then immersed her. But, not having any control of her legs, they floated to the surface! It only took a second attempt to succeed and she was thrilled.

"I don't have long left here and I want to leave prepared," she said.

This was one of THOSE baptisms, can you tell?

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Also on Friday night, KSL News in Utah ran a story on the difficult winter Mongolia is having. Bruce Lindsay of KSL is a neighbor to the couple now serving as the Humanitarian couple here -- Elder and Sister Lasson. Bruce phoned Elder Lasson and conducted an interview from half way around the world. It is a pretty accurate story. You can see it at this link:

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=9829662

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Thought you might get a kick out of this picture. We have seen this sort of thing in many countries. People try to use English words but don't really know what they mean.

Hair cut anyone?
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Tsagaan Sar

2010-02-21T01:40:00.000-08:00

We just finished celebrating Tsagaan Sar (literally, 'White Month'). The holiday is celebrated on the day in which a new moon appears in February -- the same as the Chinese New Year celebration. This year, it also happened to fall on Valentines Day, February 14th. Tsagaan Sar celebrates family and friends (with emphasis on family) as well as the beginning of Spring. Members of families may travel long distances in order to be with their family, as circumstances permit.

This year (us being 'old' veterans and all, now) we were invited to many homes to share in their celebration. Traditional Mongolian food is served such as rice, a large variety of dairy products which most of you would find . . . interesting, and buuz (pronounced more like boadz).

This first picture is with the Grandpa and Grandma from Naliakh Branch. They are the best! We were in their sons home, which used to be a small restaurant, at one time.

The second picture is of the Nalaikh missionaries at the same home. The first day of Tsagaan Sar, we visited homes with our missionaries. It was fun!

The third picture is in a more traditional ger. This is the home (ger) of what we call a "mini-missionary" who served in Nalaikh for a short time. That time included Tsagaan Sar. Mini-missionaries are members who are close to mission age, and are asked to 'fill in' temporarily as missionaries when there are not enough companions temporarily. Then we get a group of missionaries back from the MTC and the mini-missionary returns home.

As for the beginning of spring -- yah, right! Sort of hard to believe when the day before Tsagaan Sar, it was 34 F below zero! But this is our second winter here and we now believe them. Well, sort of. The day after Tsagaan Sar, the temperature did, in fact, start going up! And it has continued a very slow but steady improvement almost everyday since! Recently, we hit a balmy 20 degrees and the snow on darker colored surfaces actually has been melting! What a wonderfully warm day!

It will likely take a while for it to even reach the freezing mark, but it has been very tantalizing on some days.

And it is very needy. Livestock losses have hit the 2.3 million mark and are still rising. It will take Mongolia a few years to fully recover from this one.

Make a note

2010-02-18T05:56:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago today on Thursday, February 4, 2010, the first Patriarchal Blessing was given in Mongolia.

One down, and about 6000 more to go!

Haiti, Part 2

2010-02-15T16:21:00.000-08:00

The conclusion of our report about Haiti and the faith and resilience of those saints, as related by a senior couple there.

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Their lessons and talks were sophis- ticated and scripturally based, as if they had a library and computer at their fingertips to prepare instead of what ever they had been able to salvage, stacked at the side of the road.

Sacrament meeting began with strains of “Come, come ye Saints, no toil, nor labor fear, but with joy wend your way.” For most of us who come from other nations, we would be hard-pressed to find joy in impoverished and broken Haiti before the earthquake, let alone now, but they sang like they meant it, “Happy day, all is well.”

They prayed, “We are all thankful to be counted among the living. We are grateful to know of thy truth. There are many outside the walls of this church who do not have this truth to sustain them through the trials. We know we were kept alive because we have a mission to complete. Bless us all that we can be strong and take care of each other.”

We listened tearfully.

The sacrament was passed and each of the seven children sitting on the row next to us took not a single piece of bread but a scoop each. They are hungry.

Then we heard a talk, a surprising, enriching talk from France Nathalie Desir — so beautifully done.

She told the audience:

“For some of the adversity we face, we can place the weight on our own shoulders because we are not obeying God’s laws. That adversity we can control, but there are some kinds of adversity we can’t control like the earthquake. We didn’t do anything to attract it. We all had friends and families who were killed as a result of it. A lot of people are discouraged and have lost faith, but we as members of the Church now have a mission.

“We know why we have adversities. They are to make us stronger. We have the freedom to either let them overcome us or to make us strong. Just as we send little children to school, the Lord has sent us here for a school.

“Our big enemy is our pride that keeps us from loving our neighbor and obeying the commandments. Since January 12, we all have experienced sleeping outside. As I was lying in the courtyard looking up at the stars, I knew this was the time to manifest charity and mourn with those who mourn, give food to those who need food.

“We have a certain joy, and the joy is knowing these things are temporary. The trials we are given on earth are for us. The Lord knows everything we are going through and they are to augment our faith and bring us to God.”

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We came on a mission to teach and help others. We continue to marvel at how much people such as these, teach us, instead. Wow!

Haiti

2010-02-13T17:53:00.000-08:00

As one might expect, we suppose, senior missionaries from other areas sometimes share their experiences. We hear often from relatives serving in Thailand, for example.

Well, we recently heard from a couple serving in Haiti. They shared with the rest of us, some of the details surrounding the recent earthquakes there. We thought it was worth sharing.

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Much of Haiti lies in rubble. Collapsed roofs lie at angles, smashed against the floor below them. Cinder blocks slant in heaps along the roads. Some streets in Port-au-Prince look like old pictures of bombed-out Berlin after World War II. It’s a horror, an apocalypse.

Yet, amidst the shambles of this neighborhood, stands a jewel - the Croix-des-Mission and the LDS church. And sounding through the air is a hymn, "How Firm a Foundation."

It is a particularly well-chosen song in a land whose physical foundations could not stand the earth’s tremors, but whose Latter-day Saints have proven to be remarkably resilient. They know that though all but a handful have lost their homes, their foundation is in the gospel of Jesus Christ and that is firm.

Attending the 3-hour church block on Sunday felt remarkably normal to us. There were the Saints well dressed, many in crisp, white shirts that looked newly ironed. The deacons wore their white shirts and ties as they reverently passed the sacrament.

How can this be?
Without any homes left, they have been living on the street in hastily-assembled, makeshift shelters raised wherever they can find a level spot. The walls may be sheets hung over ropes or pieces of cardboard. Their beds are concrete or hard earth. Everything they owned — and that already wasn’t much — has been stripped from them by an initial quake that lasted about 45 seconds and then after shocks that continued for days.

Haiti, right now and for the foreseeable future, is a land 'sleeping out'. People fill the church’s courtyards at night, but instead of woe, they laugh and talk. And remember, their homes are shanties on the median strip between two lanes of riotous traffic.

We asked member after member, how can you be so beautifully groomed on Sunday, given what you have been through? Their answer? Yes, most everyone is now living in the street, and, yes, they are indeed dirty during the week, plagued by all the ills that befall a newly-made street person. But, they added, though they had no water clean enough to drink, they did have water clean enough to wash their clothes.

So, there they were singing about what really is their 'firm foundation' and looking like any other LDS congregation across the world — except that these saints are homeless.

Maybe someone forgot to tell them how miserable they are supposed to be.

More next time.

Snow!

2010-02-10T05:59:00.000-08:00

We know this is not going to look like much to many of you folks, but remember, we haven’t seen snow in any quantity in Ulaanbaatar since we arrived almost 1.5 years ago. But we had a snow storm a couple of days ago that was more than we had yet seen. It was probably only a couple of inches -- maybe three. It's almost impossible to tell because the wind was really blowing hard during the whole thing.

Because of the wind, most flat and open surfaces with blown most clean. But wherever there was a leeward spot, we ended up with drifts as deep as three or even four feet deep!

The first two pictures are the flower beds in front of our apartment. But right now, they are 'snow beds' shoveled pretty deep with that compacted snow.

And, as many of you would know, when snow is blown like that, those nice, big, fluffy flakes break down into really small granules and pack together really tight. And a snow shovel full of that ways three or four times as much as the fluffy kind!

Well, we had a lot of drifts. And most of it was removed by shovel! But we did also see the first snow plows put to use, as well!

At least, it all has been a first for us! And we hope it will be a last. The flat surfaces didn't manage to stay completely clean. You know, like the sidewalks and other places where we have to walk. And a half inch of ice is just as slippery to walk on as 2 inches of ice!

This last picture is the road side of the busiest street in town. There are piles like this all over.

And, of course, it will remain until the spring thaw -- about another month or so away. Temperatures of minus 35 at night and maybe 5 below during the day, don't do a lot to melt much snow!
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Seminary in Mongolia

2010-02-07T21:58:00.001-08:00

“I hope all of you who are eligible are attending seminary. This organization provides wonderful opportunities to learn the doctrines that will make you happy.” President Hinckley

President Odgerel (the Stake President and a full time CES/S&I employee - we have posted about him before) was quite shocked when early morning seminary was finally attempted here. The area authorities had encouraged him to do so, but he had resisted for a couple of years insisting that the kids would not be able to get up that early in the morning, fight the extreme cold in Mongolia and walk the sometimes significant distances to attend Seminary so early in the morning.

We understand! Public transportation here is not in operation much at that time of the morning and one could feel really guilty about asking our youth to go out in these extreme weather conditions to attend an early morning anything.

But he started feeling promptings and he finally decided to give it a go as school began last fall. And he couldn’t believe the response. In fact, he has been downright shocked to see numbers reach over 300 students in attendance at times!

The youth are really terrific here and want to learn about the Gospel. Our own youth in the Nalaikh Branch got up to bare testimony and talked about how they loved Seminary and how much better their school day is if they attend seminary first thing in the morning.

One story is told of the Branch in Khovd (i.e. quite isolated in the far western end of Mongolia). A couple of people are paid to always be on site and keep the boiler running in the Church building there, 24 hours a day, during the winter. It is VERY cold in Khovd!

One morning, a knock came at the church door. The boiler attendant opened the door to find two young men standing there in the dark. They asked if they could come in and he quickly invited them to do so. Then he asked what they were doing out so early. They told him they weren’t sure what time it was because they didn’t have an alarm or other clock in their ger (home). But they didn’t want to miss Seminary so they had woken up and decided to go ahead and make their way to the church building, just to be sure. They asked him what time it was.

It was 3:30 in the morning when they arrived! That's not a typo - it was 3:30 AM!

So they hung around for several hours until class actually began. We told you they wanted to learn about the Gospel and were thrilled with Seminary, but . . .
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Misc.

2010-02-03T05:41:00.001-08:00

Thought we might share a rather beautiful sky from Mongolia. But this is not a sunset, it's a sunrise. This was taken on a recent Sunday morning when Elder Caldwell had to start at our Nalaikh Branch fairly early one week. Sister Caldwell attended a branch closer to our apartment that morning.

On, we do have beautiful sunsets here, too.

This picture was taken in the Nalaikh Branch Presidents office. From left to right you can see President Enhkbayer (1st Counselor in the District Presidency), then President Sukhbat (Branch Presiden - seated behind the desk), Elder Caldwell (1st Counselor to President Sukhbat) and finally Elder Bodaine, who does a lot of translating for us. Elder Bodaine was in the Provo MTC at the same time as we were, is the Zone Leader in the Nalaikh Zone and a really great missionary.
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A Hard Winter

2010-01-27T06:41:00.000-08:00

This has been a tough winter in Mongolia.

Gratefully, we seemed to have been spared the worst of it here in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. But in the countryside, particularly in the western part of the nation, conditions have become so desperate that Mongolia has declared a state of emergency and has asked neighboring nations as well as the United Nations for assistance.

In some regions, the cold has been even worse than here where we are – and it has been a long cold winter here. But we haven’t had much snow where we are. In those same western regions, snowfall as reached 120 cm. That’s deep enough that livestock can not forage for food nor reach areas where food might normally be supplemented by herders. The result is that over 1,100,000 head of livestock have died. That leaves a number of herders without any livestock at all and many others with only part of their herds left. No livestock, no way to make a living.

And meat prices have already started to increase. That will likely continue.

And in many of those outlying areas, children come to small towns where they actually live in schools provided for them. It would be impossible for them to travel the 100 to 300 km back and forth from their prairie homes (i.e. gers) to schools and back.

Unfortunately, we have been told that the snowfall has also hindered train delivery of coal to several of those small towns. Apparently, boilers in those small schools (already in bad repair anyway) have frozen and burst leaving them without heat. Not a nice picture to think about.

We don’t know all of the details, we are sure, but things are rather difficult, at best. A significant break in the weather is not likely for about another month, so the situation will likely become more difficult. Thus the state of emergency declared by the government.

The Church, of course, is responding. What that response will be is not yet fully determined. It is likely that money will be donated in addition to whatever additional efforts might be made. The government here is much better equipped to know what is needed and to deliver it than we are.

Just the same, members here are stepping up as well. This Saturday there is a drive being held by the District here in Ulaanbaatar, to collect clothing and other needed items to help those in the countryside areas.

Visa’s

A quick (though tardy) update.

The Minister of Immigration did promise to have needed VISA’s approved. However, others in the system seem to continue to make the process as complicated and delayed as possible. VISA'a are no longer actually being denied, they just are not being processed.

Having done pretty much all we can, we are letting the Lord handle the particulars on this one. But our total missionary numbers are shrinking and we don’t have very many foreign missionaries left, now. And we remain concerned about being able to keep the new senior missionaries here. We can manage to keep them here about another 4.5 months before it becomes really critical.

Opps!

2010-01-18T05:44:00.000-08:00

In the last post I started out by saying that the temperature was going to get above freezing this week. We wish! What I really meant to say (type?) was that the temps were supposed to finally get above zero!

And it did. Today it was a balmy 20 degrees in the city. Felt pretty good, believe it or not.

But don't anyone get there hopes up. The high temp for Friday afternoon is forecast to be -30 F. That's right; 30 degrees below zero is supposed to be the high for the day!

We live on a bit of a hill and two days ago a pipe broke. Water ran down the road which accesses our apartments for about 48 hours. Can you imagine what water will do to a road in these temperatures (you don't have to because we have include some pictures, obviously)? There is about 6 inches of very uneven ice built up on the road, right now! That's frozen water you can see there not some sort of 'wave' effect! Remember, I said this is a hill, even though the picture doesn't show it. And it has a pretty good slope to it, too. One would think that running water would not freeze that much, but at these temps?!

This poor guy made the mistake of trying to drive across it. We did manage to push him out.
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Many are cold but few are frozen.

2010-01-15T18:22:00.000-08:00

We are supposed to get above freezing [opps! my mistake - not above freezing, above zero!] today! Yipee! First time in about a month.

We have had a few comments about the 'wonderful time' we seem to be having and even one comment about the 'terrific vacation' we are on. And we do admit that we tend to post all the really good stuff - of which there is a lot.

But just so you don't think this is all fun and games here, we will post a bit about some of the challenges we face from time to time, too. There are 'a few' difficulties we must face, too.

Like the weather. It has been a long hard winter so far this year. Quite a bit colder than we remember it being last year.

This is the INSIDE of the entry door of one of our church buildings. While this is not our Nalaikh Branch, it too is like this much of the winter.

It is really necessary for us to bundle up when we go out. Even just to walk the two or three blocks to the office.

We carried a live plant from out apartment to the office recently. About a four minute walk. The plant didn't make it. Easily froze to death in four minutes!

This is Elder Caldwell, ready to go out shopping again! Once inside a store, we, of course, have the opposite problem! He has to walk a bit farther this time so he has on sweat pants and an extra shirt under his suit.

Sometimes, getting produce home from the store is a challenge, seeing how we are on foot and all. The last time we bought leaf lettuce, part of it froze before we could get home! And that store is closer to us than the office!

Oh, and salt doesn't do much good here for trying to melt ice on the sidewalks. To cold!

But, count our blessings. No frostbite so far!

We thought you might also like to see what our windows look like during the worst of the cold. Don't see out much, as you can see. Kind of pretty sometimes, though! The more cooking we do, the more artistic things become.

These only last about a month and then melt again. But we'll enjoy them while they last.

So, is this a good thing or a hard thing? Depends on how you look at it!

Did we mention that we are really looking forward to Spring?

They're Havin' a Ball! - Part 2

2010-01-12T16:20:00.001-08:00

As mentioned in the last post, they had a live band for part of the Returned Missionary dance here. The leader of the band has an interesting story to tell.

Burt Enkhbold Badarch is the lead guitar player for the band (see picture). He is also a Bishop in one of our wards. He is the only member of the Church in the group. The other members of the band are, however, Christian in their belief, being members of the Baptist Church.

At first, the other band members would sort of give him a hard time about being a Mormon. But that didn't seem to last very long. They soon gained a lot of respect for this man who always seemed happy, calm and viewed life with a positive attitude. Now they readily admit that they view him as sort of their spiritual leader.

But, when he asked if they would be willing to play at the dance for a bunch of Mormon missionaries - free of charge - they were somewhat less than enthusiastic. Some what begrudgingly, they did agree to play four songs - and four songs only. That was ok because most of the music was to be recorded and played over a sound system anyway. The live band was just to give the evening a nice feel.

The night of the dance came and they made everything ready to play their four songs. The recorded music began first and everybody started dancing. And the band members were astonished at what they were seeing. Well, all but one, that is.

Here was a group of young people looking as though they were having the time of their lives. They were laughing, socializing with each other, dancing - and just plan having a good time! And, they were not even drinking or smoking or being particularly rowdy! And then the band started having fun, too!

Well, they played their four songs. And then they played four more songs. And after that they played a few more songs. About fifteen songs total, they say.

I don't know how many of those returned missionaries realized that they were still being missionaries that night.

Way to go!
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They're Havin' a Ball!

2010-01-10T05:30:00.001-08:00

The evening of New Year’s Day, we first attended a baptism at Nalaikh – the one in our last post. Once we were on the road again, we didn’t go straight home.

The Mongolian returned missionaries have what they call an RM Ball Dance every year on New Years Day. You must be a returned missionary or be married to one to attend. We didn’t know quite what to expect but felt that we should go. We missed last year because Sister Caldwell fell and broke her arm New Year’s Eve.

So, we went directly from the baptism to the dance. Thought we would just put in a supportive appearance and then head home. Most youth dance are something like watch everyone . . . well . . . watch everyone else. Boy were we in
for a shock!

First (as we learned later), they start out with a waltz. The couple that starts, dances for a few seconds and then each grab a new partner and continue dancing. A few seconds later, the four of them get new partners . . . and so on until everyone is dancing.

And these kids can dance! Look out BYU Ballroom Dance Team! These guys can boogy! The Lindy, Cha - Cha, Fox Trot, etc.! As we said, we were shocked! They were having a ‘ball’ (pun intended). This kids know how to have a good time! Dance contests, food, pictures, live band (we’ll tell you about them in the next post), entertainment (all from the RMs). It was a sight to behold!

We would never have dreamed that these kids could dance like this. No Mongolian music all evening. American, Latin American and more. Just great music to dance to.

It seems like there's a new surprise from these wonderful people almost everyday!
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A Special Baptism

2010-01-06T03:20:00.001-08:00

We attended what we would call a special baptism in our little Nailakh Branch.

First, a little bit of background.

In a recent zone conference, President Andersen asked all the missionaries in the audience who had a family member who had been baptized, was being taught the lessons or been reactivated since they began their missions, to stand up. Over half of the group stood up, including two senior couples. Then he added that, ‘Your families are blessed when you serve a mission and he challenged each missionary to find and help bring to the Gospel, members of families of the missionaries who are serving. He asked the 23 new missionaries to stand and asked how many of them were the only members in their families. Nine stood up.

A little side note. Three of those twenty three also had siblings currently serving missions. Not bad for a little country like Mongolia!

About seven months ago, we sent out another missionary from our little Branch – Elder Amarbayasgalan. He was called to serve right here in the Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Mission. And he’s really a good young man, but like so many others who serve from Mongolia, he is the only member of the Church in his family.

Make that was the only member from his family.

As we mentioned, the recent Nalaikh Branch Baptismal Service was a special one. Elder Amarbayasgalan and his companion (who are serving in Ulaanbaatar) traveled to Nalaikh for that baptism with President and Sister Andersen (we had to be there early for a meeting and to feed dinner to the missionaries serving there!). That young Elder then had the special privilege of baptizing his mother, his older brother and his younger sister. It was the first baptisms he had performed as a full time missionary.

This is a picture of he and his family. Elder Amarbayasgalan is the one dressed in white on the far left. The three who were baptized are on the far right. That’s President Andersen crouched down in front and Sister Andersen standing behind him.

In that referred to zone conference, President Andersen also mentioned that approximately 1% of the Church membership here in Mongolia were currently serving full time missions. Now let’s see. If 1% of the entire Church membership were serving full time missions . . . how good are you at math?

One will need to remember that sisters serve for 18 months not 24 and that there is a constant rotation of new missionaries and returning missionaries during a two year period, but the result is that there would be about 200,000 full time missionaries serving at any one time – about 4 times the number that are currently serving. Come on folks! Everybody else has a bit of catching up to do!
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Eight-year-old, Non-member Missionary

2010-01-04T03:25:00.000-08:00

We thought we would share another experience a couple of our missionaries had in teaching the Gospel.

They were approached by an individual on the street who wanted to know what church they represented (yup, the individual approached them, not the reverse). They explained who they were and this individual wanted to learn more. We don’t think he had to ask twice!

It took sometime but they finally were able to find the family at home. There is an eight year old boy in that family who let them know very quickly that he wanted to learn all he could. The missionaries gave the family some scriptures and this eight year old boy has been reading them every since.

And that’s not all. Everyday, he shares what he reads and learns with his family.

“And a little child shall led them.”

The Ding-A-Ling Choir

2009-12-31T21:59:00.000-08:00

As part of our Christmas Conferences, the Senior Missionaries formed a Bell Choir. President Andersen and his wife have a set of bells that their family has used for years.
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We played three numbers at the conference on Christmas Morning; “Good King Wenceslas", "Coventry Carol" and "Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel". We actually did a pretty good job! And it was kind of fun! Bells just seem to be an integral part of Christmas.We were surprised at how expensive the bells are. During one of our practice (video above), one of the choir members decided it would be fun to sort of toss his bell in the air and catch it at the end of the number. Both President and Sister Andersen simultaneously lunged for his bell as he did so! They apparently run $100 each and up!
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Missionary Work

2009-12-28T16:43:00.000-08:00

We had mission conferences during Christmas Time. And, as usual, they were quite good and we learned much.

During part of those conferences, several of the missionaries were invited to share some of their recent missionary experiences. You know, success stories and how it feels to be a missionary. One sister (Sister Mansfield) told of an experience her and her companion recently had.

As they were walking through a ger district (gers are little round portable homes like those that are called yurts in Russia - about 15 feet in diameter), they came across an elderly grandma carrying water from a common well to her ger (there is no running water in a ger). These wells can be a mile or more from any one ger. The man hauling water in this picture is fortune to have a cart. Many do not.

Jumping to her rescue, the sisters helped her carry the water the rest of the way to her ger.

Along the way, they talked. And soon they asked if she would like to learn about Jesus Christ. After all, they are missionaries. She said, ‘yes’.

It would be helpful, at this point, to mention that older people here in Mongolia are most often of a non-Christian belief and generally do not readily listen to the Gospel message. For years they were ruled first by China (with their Buddhism and Shinto beliefs) and then by Russia (which demanded a non-religious environment under socialism). We have learned much about what socialism can do to a people since coming to live here. It has been . . . well . . . eye opening, to say the least. We are grateful to have been spared that experience and admire these people for their resilience.

But, as a result, it's largely the young who readily accept the Gospel message here. Those who were not tainted by socialism. The older generation seems hardened and sometimes even made cynical by the old socialist regime which many of them spent half of their lives dealing with.

But not always.

Before reaching the ger, these sister missionaries were able to make an appointment for a return visit. The appointed time came and when they returned to the ger, they found grandma and her 75 year old husband waiting. Grandpa had no teeth -- but he did have a lot of questions. Both were anxious to learn and listened attentively.

They were invited to church and came that first Sunday. They were 10 minutes late but they came. It’s difficult for people in their 70's to walk to church. Especially when a cane is the only help they have.

They haven’t missed a meeting since.

Even during the recent quarantine, when there were no large gatherings allowed, grandma and grandpa would walk all the way to the meeting house anyway. The missionaries had anticipated things like this and would always wait at the building to help those who came find a member home where Sacrament Meeting was being held. Grandma and Grandpa always came. They wanted to learn more of this new religion they had found.

But worship services are not all they have been interested in. One just has to mention any other meeting or activity and grandma and grandpa will likely be there. We wonder how many members back home would be that faithful and determined. And few of them have to walk – with or without a cane.

Their baptism date is set for a week from this Friday. We think that is one baptism we would like to attend.
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Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T15:21:00.000-08:00

Just a really quick post to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and to thank our family for a really nice Christmas morning! Got up early to open the gifts they sent us. Wonderful family!

More details later!

But we've got to go. They've started us in meetings at 7:45 this Christmas morning! Go figure!