We Love the Internet!!

We have been working on a project for quite a while now and thought it was time to share.

The people of Mongolia sometimes seem to be caught between a rock and a hard place. Universities and Colleges here are not as robust as we find elsewhere, like in the States. They are improving but still have some catching up to do. So, many companies located here in the capitol city of Ulaanbaatar ask for a college degree from a foreign university in order to qualify for their best jobs. But it is very difficult for most here to be able to handle that kind of expense. Particularly when a young family is involved. Sometimes, fathers have left their families to secure the needed degree, something we worry much about.

Then, a couple of months ago, Brigham Young University - Hawaii campus announced the offering of new online classes which students could register for and take over the internet. What a tremendous blessing! Students can actually complete up to three years of college over the internet. The final year they must spend on campus. But that is much better than four years!

Interest was high here, as one might expect. We knew the tremendous benefit this could be and tried to pass the word around. We would learn later that Mongolia would account for 50% of all enrollments in the entire Asia area! The numbers were small this first semester, but we out did all the rest combined!

As we tried to work through how we might make these classes most accessible for students here, we felt it might be worthwhile to look into creating a computer lab in our Church office building. The majority do not have internet in their homes and must use internet cafes. That can be problematic as fees mount for the degree of usage that would likely be required for online college courses. And, there would likely be times when internet cafes were not available at all for a period of time – like now, when they are all shut down due to the flu pandemic - or even be over crowded, etc.

Or initial plan was to crowd three or four serviceable computers into our assistant/translators office, if we could find a couple of people to donate them. And we actually made progress in that direction.

Then President Andersen suggested that BYU-Hawaii might have some suggestions or even be able to provide at least some help. I had my doubts, but figured we didn't really have anything to loose by asking. So, we called Brother Sudlow, the Assistant Dean of Admissions (whom we had worked with on other things). He was not aware of any assistance they could offer but suggested that I call the newly hired administrator over the online program. It would have been easy, at that point, to feel passed off and to just sort of let it drop. But we decided to call.

Actually, we emailed and exchanged Skype names with him and then ‘Skyped’ each other – audio only. Brother Michael Griffiths is his name. I explained the situation here and what we were trying to do and asked if he had any suggestions. He responded that, for some reason, Mongolia had been on his mind, of late. Then he said something like, ‘What if we donate enough used computers for your lab?’ I don’t think he heard me fall off my chair!! Trying to keep my voice somewhat calm, I said something like, 'That would be absolutely wonderful if BYU could do something like that!' What he, of course, could not see, was me dancing around the room and waving my hands in the air (remember, it was an audio only skype)!! We were very fortunate, indeed, that the college just happened to be cycling through a new batch of computers to replace slightly older ones.

The next obstacle we had to over come was how to get them here. Brother Griffiths was talking of eight to ten computers and history suggested that Mongolia would almost certainly try to bill us for significant customs fees, insisting that we intended to resell them, as they usually assert under similar circumstances. In an attempt to avoid that, I emailed him a sample donation statement and suggested he have one completed to bring with him – which he did.

Arrangements were made and he was to come to Mongolia himself with the computers. The plan was that once he arrived, we would travel with him to a couple of outlying areas where we could hold firesides in which he would speak about this new online program as well as meet as many as he could of the few currently enrolled students. Then we would return to ‘the big city’ and do the same here.

The time finally arrived and we were excited to meet Brother Griffiths at the airport. His plane would arrive at 9:30 pm and we were also worried, wondering if we might be stuck all night at the airport, should we, indeed, have customs problems as he tried to bring all those computers into the country. And to complicate matters we, of course, were not allowed into that part of the airport and would just have to wait for him near the main lobby doors as we hoped everything went well for him inside.

We could watch on cameras as passengers disembarked from the plane and also as they picked up their luggage. Then we watched first hand as they started streaming out of the claim area to met . . . whoever. We waited as more and more people retrieved their suitcases, met their party and left the airport.

Then we saw this American looking guy (well, sort of – he's actually British!) and he beamed as he saw us! That had to be him! At least he made it through! That had to be a good sign! We introduced ourselves, spoke about how his trip was and finally got around to asking about the computers.

But this is getting a bit lengthy for a blog post, so we’ll finish next time!

(Don’t you just hate that!)
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VISA's and the Swine Flu

Still no VISA’s but there might be a light at the end of the tunnel, finally. More things have happened that seem to have two perspectives. Sort of the ‘clouds with a silver lining’ idea.

A little over a week ago, our mission doctor and his wife finally returned home. They had extended a couple of times in an effort to continue medical care coverage for our missionaries. But, one person can only do so much and, finally giving in to pressure from home, they returned to the states.

So, the area presidency temporarily transferred a couple who had been serving in Hong Kong, reassigning them here in Mongolia. Elder and Sister Whitman arrived later on the same day that Elder/Doctor and Sister Anderson left. Sister Whitman is a nurse. And a really good one, too! She has been doing wonderfully in helping here -- at all hours of the day and night!

Elder Whitman is a lawyer. In fact, he has been a law professor and has helped with several law programs at universities in the states, not the least of which was his role in helping to launch the law school at Brigham Young University a number of years ago.

And guess what President Andersen (our mission President) assigned Elder Whitman to work on? VISA’s, of course, and he has jumped in with both feet! After working on it for a week, he seems to feel that there might be something that could be worked out. Good news!

Then, Sister Caldwell and I felt that we ought to mention the problem to one of the groups to whom we teach English; a group of local court judges. One of those judges was surprised to learn that we were having trouble. And his response was encouraging. He thought he might be able to put in a good word or two for us and had some ideas about things we might do. He has now been working with Elder Whitman as they work out a proposal which will be presented to the Mongolian Government soon and which could not only ease the current difficulty, but might hopefully revamp our current arrangement with Mongolia and eliminate the problem entirely.

Keep your fingers crossed!

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The swine flu has hit here pretty hard, now. No sick missionaries, that we know of, but Mongolia has the dubious distinction of being second place among nations for the quickest spread of this pandemic illness.
This is us in surgical masks, a common sight here now-a-days as people try to avoid the flu.

All public meetings have been canceled for an indefinite period. Which means we can not hold church services, baptisms, conferences, reporting and planning meetings, workshops, etc. Right now, we have an estimated 40 to 50 people waiting to be baptized who can not have that opportunity until the situation changes. We are concerned about that and the possible difficulties in retaining those individuals and others. In addition, it now becomes difficult, of course, for us to receive that weekly rejuvenation and opportunity to renew covenants during Sacrament Meeting. But the Lord is in charge and He can influence and control where we can not. So we will do what we can and leave the rest in His hands.

So where’s the silver lining in this one? Sister Caldwell and I are now getting caught up on things which we had gotten way behind in! And we might even find a few minutes here and there to rest a bit – maybe! And with us being shorthanded in the senior missionary department, the timing seems rather nice! Just as long as it doesn’t last too long, that is! We’d rather be busy and accomplishing something than sitting around wondering what to do and worrying about all the lost time.

In the meantime, Dominos anyone?
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Swine Flu

Just sort of a quick update. Swine flu has hit here and they are shutting things down some. In two towns north of here (Darkhan and Erdenet) no meetings are allowed, so church is out of the question, for a while.

Here in UB where we live, meetings must be concluded and dismissed no later than 9:00 pm (apparently the flu only comes out after that??) and no one under 16 years of age can attend public meetings. Haven't heard how that is affecting schools, yet.

We are very glad that they have sent a couple here from Hong Kong to replace our mission doctor who just returned home after finishing his mission. He had extended twice trying to wait for the next doctor to arrive, but still no go on VISA's. So this Hong Kong couple is here for a maximum of 90 days (a 90 VISA is pretty much automatic here). Their name is Whitman and they are wonderful. She is a nurse and he is a lawyer. He is working on the VISA problem while she tries to keep us healthy.

Life goes on. Sort of.
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Your LDS Neighborgood.com

There is a fun and relatively new website for LDS members and those who share similar ideals. It called Your LDS Neighborhood. Somehow they learned of our blog and thought our recent post about Zuun Khaara was worth sharing. So, we have been featured in their latest newsletter!

Just in case your interested, here's a link to that Newsletter.

Who'd have figured we'd be published!!
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One Year Ago Today!

One year ago today, on Oct. 27, 2008, we left our home in Magna, Utah and drove to the MTC in Provo. It is difficult to believe that a full year has already gone by! So much has happened! But we have only been able to include a small part of our experiences here in this blog. We are grateful to friends and family who have supported and prayed for us. It is much appreciated.

Additional note: The senior couples who are left in Ulaanbaatar are struggling to keep up. We are down from seven couples to only three, right now. Others have been called to replace the ones who have returned home but continue to wait for Mongolia to approve their VISA's. The country apparently feels we have exceeded our quota and refuses to issue additional VISA's. There are currently three couples and 13 young missionaries on hold in the U.S., right now. The young missionaries have been reassigned to other missions in the states.

Please remember our little corner of the world in your prayers tonight!

And thanks for all of your love and support!

Elder and Sister Caldwell
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Zuun Kharaa

About 175 km (130 miles) to the north of Ulaanbaatar (where we are assigned), there is a small town called Zuun Kharaa. It is where Mongolia produces vodka.

But there is a branch of the Church there. It has been there for some time, now. However, this is one of the areas where, as we mentioned previously, we are having trouble obtaining permission to continue using the building where the branch meets. The local government has been threatening to deny our license renewal application there.

More interference from the adversary? Maybe. But then again, maybe not.

Here in Mongolia, we have often found that it is expected for us to do something or provide something for an area before they will grant such things as this needed license. In the states, we look with disfavor on such practices. Here, it is just the way things are done. So, the mission began to look for some need in Zuun Kharaa that the Church might be able to fill. Things we would likely do anyway, if we were aware of the need.

Somewhere along the way, we found that none of the residents in a large ger district(gers are the small canvas homes the nomadic people here live in) in Zuun Kharaa had a proper, dependable or safe water supply. Thousands of them! Each family had simply hand dug shallow and indequate wells six or maybe eight feet deep -- in the same small space where their livestock was kept and often right next to the family outhouse. Not surprisingly, associated sickness and disease has been the result. Doctors have been doing the best they can to treat the people when then become ill, but it is a difficult and frustrating problem.

If you have followed our posts, you know that providing wells is one of the things the Church does here through Deseret International Charities. Professional wells with electric pumps and a nice looking well house, like the one pictured here. So the couple in charge of that sort of work (the Lasson's) went to work in Zuun Kharaa.

They proposed to the Area Presidency that Desert International Charities provide a proper well for these folks. When the Presidency read their report of conditions in Zuun Kharaa, they told the Lasson's that there was some extra money in the area office and suggested that perhaps we ought to drill more than one.

The idea was discussed with the government there and their interest in our proposal to dig wells was immediately obvious. In fact, to say that they were REALLY interested would be an understatement. The area was surveyed, possibilities discussed and the decision made that the Church could provide not one, but four wells. When Elder and Sister Lasson told the governor of that ger district, he grabbed Elder Lasson in a big bear hug and just held him tight.

Now it's time to go to work. It is hoped that all four wells can be drilled before the ground becomes so frozen that drilling won't be possible and might, therefore, have to be put off until next spring. When finished, we hope we might be able to witness as the wells are opened and people begin to use them.

But that isn't the end of the story. Another problem surfaced in Zuun Kharaa while the idea of providing wells were being looked at. It seems that there has been a high rate of infant deaths there as a result of inadequate care when babies are born. Doctors are frustrated and Psychologists, too, have been kept fairly busy counseling with the doctors who are experiencing feelings of inadequacy resulting from their perceived personal failure to prevent those new born deaths.

But providing wells is not the only way the Church can help. The Humanitarian arm of the Church has often brought in physicians from the States to provide training for doctors on such things as how to care for newborns (i.e. neonatal care)and has even been able to provide needed medical supplies and equipment for that care on occasion. The Church is about to have that opportunity one more time.

It is interesting to contemplate that if Zuun Kharaa had not threatened to deny our church license renewal, we likely would have remained in ignorance of their problems and the difficult circumstances there would have continued unrecognized and unabated for a much longer period of time. Now, needed help will be provided and odds are that the Church will receive it's needed license renewal, as well.

The Lord works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform.

Don't you wish you could be here?
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