Nalaikh

We thought you might enjoy a few pictures of the Branch we are assigned to and what the city is like. Nalaikh is a mining town about 40 kilometers from where we live in Ulaanbaatar.

The first picture is a warning to drivers along the road to Nalaikh. The inscription says something like, "Speed kills."

The second, is of a cow obviously wrapped in a blanket.
We have been fascinated by the inclination of some local farmers to use this method to keep their cattle warm. On the other hand, we can certainly understand. It is a bit on the chilly side here! Not all farmers choose to thusly protect there livestock, but many do.

This is a picture of a typical ger district. There are many such districts both in Nalaikh and in Ulaanbaatar. People are given the land free but must fence in there ground as a condition of ownership. Many then build some sort of structure on the ground, as well. Some are homes, some are just out buildings. The wooden homes are only occupied in the summer. It is much easier to heat a small ger in the winter, than the larger wooden structures.

The next picture is of the Nalaikh Branch Building, probably one of the nicer buildings in town. Notice the bars on all the windows. But that's not unusual, anymore. All the buildings in our Stake in Magna have them as well. There is a brick structure by the front gate which is also visible. We haven't asked about that but the property is enclosed by a fence and we assume the structure can be used as some sort of guard station.

And this is the Branch President -- President Gankhuyag -- a young, single Elder who finished a full time mission about four months ago. He is a really good young man but is scheduled to leave in April to attend BYU Hawaii.

The next picture is of Nalaikh's main street. Those building are actually mostly businesses and there are quite a few along the street there. They are just not what we are used to. No nice parking lots nor 'typical' store fronts. Just buildings that have businesses inside. Ulaanbaatar has a more US typical city structure.

The last picture is of Elder Caldwell and the newly baptized member we have mentioned to some of you. His name is Ganaa. He has been a wonderful addition to the branch and there are many of his friends who are now investigating the Church.

We are really puzzled!

We attended a puzzle museum in town today. It is actually a private museum run by a puzzle master from Ulaanbaatar. He must really be a wiz! The puzzles this guy has created are phenomenal. Everything from little brain teasers to very, VERY large chess sets that are also puzzles (i.e. each piece, the board and the table can all come apart in large puzzle pieces). It would have filled a small room about 10-12 feet square. He has made thousands of chess sets and many were on display but we could not take pictures of any of them.

The puzzleman (don't know his name) has won the world puzzle making championship (yah, I know -- I didn't know there was such a thing either), five times and took second once. Very impressive.

Unfortunately, there were only a couple of things they would allow us to take pictures of.

The 'man' Elder Caldwell is standing next to is also made of puzzle pieces. The dinosaur was in the background of that picture so I enlarged it so you could at least see that. It is also made of about a dozen or so pieces.

They had a couple of small brain teaser type puzzles with which they challenged us. "If you can put this back together in ten minutes, we'll give you $10,000!"


The gentleman stretches a point sometimes but the gers are included because they have a lot of wood in them and do come apart and are put back together again. Hey, it is a private museum and he can do whatever he wants with it!











As you can see, gers can be quite ornate inside. The only thing they really lack (aside from very much space) is indoor plumbing. And they do, sometimes put them on a large cart without breaking them down and move them around, using oxen to move them. Kind of like our camping trailers ('cept we do have indoor plumgin' in 'em)!

Pictures!

We finally received the last of the Christmas stuff! Boy did Christmas last a long time this year! Or was it last year? Anyway . . .

It's a good thing this one arrived late. As it was, Grandma sat down, looked through the book and had a good old cry! Then she got the visiting doctor's wife crying, too! Grandma's!

This is really a cool picture book! Great pictures and great job of putting it all together. We're goin' haf'ta keep this one!

We have such wonderful, smart, intelligent, thoughtful and creative children! Why, they must all take after their . . .

And they lived happily ever after!

We recently attended a wedding here in Ulaanbaatar (‘recently’ being a relative term – it was prior to Sister Caldwell’s accident). Weddings here can be (as one might expect) a bit different than we are used to. We are accustomed to the reception being held on the same day as the wedding, in the majority of cases. However, some even in the states have departed from that custom and will hold a reception as much as a week or two following the wedding itself.

Here in Mongolia, the bride and groom can hold a formal reception as much as one year after the wedding. That custom evolved due to the difficult financial struggles witnessed so much here. If the couple can not afford a nice reception when they are married, they often postpone it while money is saved sufficient to pay for one. Going into debt for a reception is rare here. Perhaps we could learn a bit from our Mongolian brothers and sisters!

As you can see from the pictures, it is a rather nice affair. This is, once again, the chapel in the building where our office is. All of the podium furnishings are removable, as well as the chairs and other furnishings. The area where the repeat of the wedding vows was performed, is the area we refer to as the stand or the podium. The Elder performing the ceremony is President Clark, 2nd Counselor in the mission presidency. He and Sister Clark have done much to help Sister Caldwell and I through our little broken bone ordeal.

This was a very nice evening, though we missed part of it as a result of obligations we had downstairs by our office. But they were kind enough to save us a nice serving of the evening meal and we enjoyed the portion of the festivities we were present for.

And you might note that the traditional sheep’s head was also present as part of the meal provided for the evening.

Just a quick update to let you know how we are doing.
Sister Caldwell is having a really good week this week. Why, she even got herself dressed (see pic)! That only took an hour, but it was a big accomplishment. She has also learned to make homemade tortillas with one hand. She has read 7 books and is working on Jesus The Christ by Talmage. She should be healed by the time she finishes that one--because it is so long! She still hasn't been back to the office, yet, because she hasn't a warm enough coat to be able to walk over there, but she does go and help teach English twice a week at the National Archives. We have a driver that picks us up in front of the apartment. Tonight, we start teaching the head judges for Ulaanbaatar. That should be interesting!

Elder Caldwell has had to take on some new roles, and since he is always in a suit, we had to find him an apron! What do you think? We couldn't resist the little kittens! He has been a tremendous help around the house. He is a great cook and even cleans up after himself. He keeps saying though that maybe he could get a "break" from all the work too some day! I don't think our family could deal with another one right now.

A Grateful Heart

I woke up this morning at 5:00 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. Within a few minutes I found myself crying. Not because I didn't get my cast off yesterday, and not because I was in pain. Actually, I found myself thinking about the opening scene of "It's A Wonderful Life", a depiction of the heavens with some voices wanting to know who all those prayers were flooding heaven for? And I thought of all of you, on both sides of this earth sending up prayers in my behalf. I wanted to somehow thank everyone, and this seemed the way to reach the most people!

A mischevious young friend of ours (who turned out to be a wonderful stake president)commented on one of our blogs that this arm seemed to be the most popular topic on the internet! Well your concern, expressed in many ways, serious and other ways, has made this a much easier challenge to bear. I love you all and thank you for your concern. We have heard from friends we haven't seen for years. We've seen grandchildren on short videos, heard of, and felt, countless prayers, fasting, advice, and heart felt concern from family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. We know we were not sent to "Outer Mongolia" and forgotten.

And not to be out-shinned by the internet, our seniors here in Mongolia have stepped in and been a loving and helping "family". We have the best of heaven and earth watching over us, and we are truly grateful. Paraphrasing the words of Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol": God bless (you), everyone!

I wanted to share a little about my medical care here. Wednesday I went back to see my doctor, translator by my side. Here in Mongolia, you don't make appointments--you wait! When we arrived, the "waiting room" was FULL. My translator had me take off my jacket and my shoes and put on some plastic shoes. They don't want germs in the office. She grabbed (literally) a nurse and told her I needed to go first because I had a broken arm. We were escorted right in--to where the doctor was slurping noodles! He is so nice. He greeted me with a big smile, and took me to his patient room. He has been taking English lessons from our mission doctor and he was going to do this appointment in English! I may be his only English speaking patient. He asked me where I was from and if I had any pain (related questions). Then he told me my face looked better! Oh, the magic of Mongolian medicine! He did get through the appointment without the help of my translator and he was so pleased. He turned to his astounded nurse and said, "She missionary", obviously pleased he was helping the work along. X-rays and a cast: $30; a kind doctor: priceless!

It just doesn't get much better! Thanks to all of you!!

Sister Caldwell
Ulaanbaatar, "Outer Mongolia"