A Mission Full of Firsts!

Great to hear from Ali and Josh (see comments in the last post)! Thanks you guys!


A few days ago, we had our senior couples Christmas Dinner and what was described to us as a traditional Christmas Dinner. We returned to the same restaurant where we had our party for the entire mission yesterday (see last post). I guess we just didn't understand whose tradition they were referring to! Here are some pictures. Picture one is of the first course. Yup! Sushi! We have had sushi before. Not something we have much interest in, though it doesn't really taste bad. But give us meat and potatoes anytime!

The second is of a Rice/Mushroom casserole. We hate mushrooms! But, picking out the mushrooms, it tasted fairly good. Both dishes Christmas firsts for us! But we were waiting for the promised "turkey and all the trimmings!" The turkey came. Along with mashed potatoes and gravy. And they were VERY tasty. But where's the hot bread, stuffing, yams, cranberries, etc.? But it really was good. Even though the ladies were served all the white meat while the guys were served drumsticks. But the guys scored pretty well in the end. The white meat servings were rather large and the ladies couldn't eat it all. Can't let a good meal go to waste, you know!

Thought you might like an up-to-date picture of Sister Caldwell. She's been rather ill for a couple of days. Then, on our way to the office this morning, she fell on the ice and broke her arm! The first broken bone she has ever had! The medical facilities here are, well, antiquated, shall we say. But we do have a mission doctor (the only mission in Asia having it's own doctor - that should tell you something of the level of medical service here). He has learned where to go here for best treatment, depending on the problem. He took us to an old Russian Hospital building which is now occupied by a couple of private practice physicians. And it is old!

But the doctor was really nice - we liked him. And he really did quite a good job of fixing things up. Sister Caldwell is now in a plaster cast (not the fiberglass kind that is now used in the States) and our mission doctor has her on pain pills.

The break is in her upper arm. But it could have been much worse. She should heal fairly quickly but will have a fair amount of pain for a couple of days.

So, first time Sister Caldwell had ever been on an airplane was coming here. A couple of firsts for Christmas dinner and her first broken bone! The records are falling right and left -- and so is Sister Caldwell!

Other than that, we are really doing well in Mongolia!

We attended a Mission Christmas Devotional this morning. It was really pretty good. We had a couple of speakers and a couple of musical numbers. Then we watched a recording of the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.

One of the musical numbers was presented by two Mongolian Sister Missionaries -- twins in fact. They are good missionaries and are well liked around here. The song is a traditional Mongolian song about mothers (see the video). None of the seniors were able to understand any of the words, but we certainly felt the spirit of it. You will notice that the Sister on the left has some trouble getting through it. She actually had to stop a couple of times to gain her composure. She told us later that she really misses her mother. We can relate.

Also notice (if you look closely) that most of the young missionaries wore traditional Mongolian clothing. Unfortunately, no one told us that such would be the case. We wouldn't have minded getting some of that type of clothing and joining in!

After the devotional, they took us to lunch at a fancy restuarant owned by a member of the Church. He is from Germany, living in Mongolia and the restuarant is Italian! Go figure! But it is really a nice place and he gave us a good deal. In addition to the pastas and salads, we also had beef tongue and pig tongue! Yum! The dinner was really very good. Some of the seniors want to go bakc and order from the menu. That ought to make for a nice night out sometime.

After the meal, we had a talent show. It was really a hoot! We've included a couple of pictures showing some of the 'acts'. It was a nice day. But this evening we find ourselves missing our family. We have been to busy to think about it up 'til now and they don't celebrate Christmas much here anyway. But this evening our thoughts are back home. Let's see, 22 months, 2 days, 3 hours, . . .

Almost here!

Christmas is right around the corner, now!
Our District organized a choir for Christmas. You know, the equivalent of the Stake Choir thing! Or maybe not! They held a fireside on Sunday which we attended. This choir was really quite good! In fact, they were really good! They sang songs in both languages (English and Mongolian) and presented quite a program. It was so good, that we invited some people we met on our flight here from Seoul, to come to a Christmas open house the mission held which included a repeat of the choir presentation tonight. There names are Beaver and Rebecca Eller. These folks are here with another church (the Christian Ministry) and are trying to bring in and operate a small airplane here to help reach remote areas for different needs, such as emergency medical evacuations.

It has been rather challenging, apparently. The Mongolians have no concept of a private aircraft. It is either commercial or it doesn't exist. So these folks are needing to convince them of the concept, and then obtain permission to fly as a private enterprise. They would, of course, be the first private aircraft to fly here. But our church has an interest in this service for cases of emergency evac of people we associate with -- members and none members alike. So Sister Caldwell and I are sort of spearheading the effort to for form some sort of
cooperation with them (as if we didn't have enough to do!).

They did come to the concert, along with one other member of their group (see our picture together with them). It was a nice evening and we had a very enjoyable time visiting with them and introducing them to others in the mission, though, as it turns out, they had actually met some of our missionaries before! But no one knew what the Eller's purpose was in being here! We will need to keep in touch with them and hopefully work together here.

We also thought you might enjoy some pictures of our Christmasdecorations in the apartment, particularly of the Mongolian nativity we purchased. It's kind of nice around here. We were able to put the smaller nativities in other areas of the apartment so we had more decorations than just in one room.

Tomorrow we start three days of meetings, conferences and social get togethers. We'll let you know how that all turns out.

To answer Cindy's question under comments in the last post, we have no problem keeping the apartment warm. It is heated by steam from a central location in the city and we have no control over it -- can not adjust the temperature or nothin'! Often, it is too warm in here! I actually wrapped a blanket around the heater in the bedroom and partially open a window to cool it down enough to sleep at night. Go figure!

Brrrrrrrrrr!

We drove out to our Branch at Nalaikh this morning to participate
in a deep cleaning activity at their building. Here in Ulaanbaatar, the weather was cold but tolerable. But the further we drove towards Nalaikh, the worse it got! The picture kind of shows what we had to drive through to get there. But the picture is of the road before it got really bad. Before we arrived, visibility was really, really poor! So, the temperature was about 20 below, and the wind (at one point when we got out of the car and it literally almost blew us down) was about 50 to 60 mph. The wind chill had to be about 70 below! I thought I didn't need gloves for the 60 or 70 seconds I would be out, but I nearly got frostbite!

I've included a picture of us cleaning the chapel area. Not many showed up at the appointed start time. Just Melba, I and the Branch President (President Gonhoya). But the deeper cleaning was badly needed. By the time we had to go, several more branch members had arrived.

While there, President Gonhoya asked if I would accompany him to deliver some food commodities to a local family. I readily agreed. Just after we left the parking lot, a truck drove right through the intersection (not unusual here) and it was all I could do to swerve and miss him. I noticed his windows were totally fogged up and there was no way for him to see me. But the answer to that problem for the locals is to simply keep driving.

President Gonhoya suggested that he should drive 'cause things can be even worse here than in Ulaanbaatar. I soon found out that he was not referring so much to the near miss we had just had. These next pictures are of where he drove us! Trust me, the terrain was not as smooth at it looks in the picutes! Many who live in gers have no real roads to their homes!


We stopped at a ger and delivered the food. This family lives in a typical Mongolian ger and theirs was the first one I had ever been inside of. You'll likely be surprised just as I was! The ger was small, of course, but comfortably furnished and very warm. Note the TV AND the computer in the first picture! Interesting contrasts here! As warm as it was, the snow was not melted off the sheep skin roof. It is amazing how insulating sheep skin seems to be.

They always serve a hot milk mix to there guests. But hot is an understatement! I had to quickly don a glove and then set the cup down to avoid getting burned! I said a very polite thank you, but never tried to drink it.

The Sister Missionary at the stove is cooking a flour mixture that looks like tortillas. But they cut it in strips and use it in soup, something like noodles, but not really!

Then we returned to our apartment and hosted a missionary discussion with two young sisters who are investigating the Church. We said a few things which the Elders translated and then bore our testimonies. And we then fed them all a dinner of chips, salsa, tacos and cookies! They had never had tacos before, but seemed to really like them.

It was a very nice experience.

It's 2:00 am here in Ulaanbaatar. Not getting much sleep tonight so I thought I might as well get caught up a bit. Seem to have the stomach flu or something. Guess I'm the first one of us to get sick here in Mongolia. Lucky me! Not having much fun with it!

We put some Christmas decorations up in the basement by our office yesterday. We got an extra tree from the Service Department on the 3rd floor. First they gave us an old artificial tree they were going to throw out. The top section wea missing and it left something to be desired. But I removed a branch from the back of the tree and made a pretty passable top for it. And we started straightening the branches and makeing it look presentable. All it would have needed is some decorations.

But then, low and behold, the Service Dept. found the top section and wanted their tree back! But that still left them with an extra tree. So, I moaned and whined a bit (just a little, mind you) and they finally agreed to give us the somewhat smaller tree they were going to give to the guy in the office next to us. The two of us agreed that right there by our offices was the best place for it anyway and it worked out well. What's more, this tree came fully decorated! We'll take a picture and add it to the post asap.

The Brighter Side

We attended our assigned branch again today - the Nalaikh (pronounced Nal lock - sort of). I'm getting much more used to driving, now. Thinking I'm ok with it. Of course, the only time I have driven is on Sunday when there is merely about one fourth the regular weekday traffic. Better not get too confident, yet!

The picture is us with one of the older branch members dressed in traditional Mongolian attire. We like our branch and the members there but wish it wasn't quite so far. It's difficult to get to everything in the branch we would like to. And they gave us branch callings today, too. Melba is an unofficial member of the Primary Presidency (there were no openings) charged with getting the Primary to run properly. The Primary President often does not come. We think they are just not sure what they should be doing. I am the 1st (and only) Counselor in the Elders Presidency and have the same assignment - teach them what a quorum is and how it should function.

We also spoke in Sacrament Service today at the branch. We spoke of Christmas and families and the branch members really seemed to enjoy what we said. Mom did 1/2 of hers in Mongolian. The Branch President (one of those recently returned unmarried misisonary we've written about) was our interpreter for the rest. The missionaries all felt that he is easily the best at getting it right. It still is really challenging to not know the language. There is so much more we feel we could do to help them if we did.

We also came across this little ice skating rink during yesterday's shopping trip. The 'rink' is simply an area in the middle of town which is fenced off to keep the cars from driving on it! There is no special ice forming mechanism, just the ice that nature provides. But the people were having a lot of fun with it! But why would anyone want to find the coldest place in town to go frolicking in! Brrrrrrrrrrr!

And we thought we had better show you one of the nicer stores which they do have in Ulannbaatar. This is the State Department Store. Unlike what we have shown you in the past, this is a 'real store', several stories high, all run and operated by one owner -- no individual little shops as is so common here. They even have a curtained off room to try clothes on! This one is very much like the stores in the US. There are a couple of these kind of stores around but the majority remain the co-op type stores.
And they do have everything here; grocery section, restuarant, clothing, appliances, jewelry (obviously), art, electronics, etc. But it also tends to be a bit higher priced than the local version of the 'mom and pop' stores we have shown you.

Just thought you ought to know 'the whole story.' Things are not as bleak as we might have led you to believe! But we really liked the simpathy the previous pictures tended to generate!