The Countryside

Note: It is great to see others visiting the site! We originally started it for our family and thought perhaps a few of the ward members might occasionally visit. We are really surprised to see so many others leaving comments! Glad you can all visit, though we are curious about how most of you even found us!



We went out to the countryside yesterday. No, you don't understand. I mean, we REALLY went out to the countryside yesterday!

Two of the Mongolian brethren that we work with here in Ulaanbaatar wanted to take a couple of senior couples on a little trip away from the city. These two brethren own a tour company and are quite familiar with doing things such as this. Their intention was to have us experience what we might refer to as a trip 'out in the sticks' -- that is, far away from Mongolian city life as we have come to know it. They said they just wanted to show us around and let us see the 'real' Mongolia. Oh my! Maybe we 'bit off' more than we bargained for!

But first, along our route, we came across this shrine beside the road. It is apparently felt that it can bring good fortune when one stops, walks around the shrine three times and deposits a stone nearby. When a large truck drove by and honked his horn, our guides promptly explained that some are too lazy to stop, so they just honk as they drive by! However, they had to honk three times!

The roads were . . . well . . . interesting -- again! They were paved for the first part but were not nearly as good as those on our trip to Darkhan, Erdenet, etc.

We went about 40 kilometers south and east of Ulaanbaatar to a little town whose name escapes me. There we picked up a lawyer friend of theirs who was expecting us. It seems we were on our way to visit some of his family.

During the rest of our journey, we went from paved roads (well, sort of), to unpaved roads, to where is the road! When you get out far enough, the roads really aren't roads at all but just paths across open fields where the locals have driven in order to reach their gers. And when one path becomes a bit difficult (like after a storm), they just drive somewhere else, thus the multiple routes you can see in the photo.

We did finally arrive. These are photos of our host, his family and their ger. Note the solar panel right next to the ger. When we were invited into their home, we noticed a television and one light bulb. The solar panel is used to recharge a battery which in turn powers the tv and the light when needed. The contrasts are, indeed, striking as we see different parts of Mongolia.

Our host family, had quite a bunch of livestock, as well. He told us, in fact, that he had about 250 head total. Most were out of sight but we did see a few horses, a small herd of cows (kept close by for their milk), and one goat, which we were soon to learn was there for our benefit. We'll tell you more about the goat later. You're not going to want to miss this one! It is a story all by itself. Trust us!

The family was very nice and we enjoyed their willingness to share their life with us for a few minutes. That is the lady of the house in the picture and her husband seated just behind her. Those are traditional Mongolian Dells they are wearing.

When we asked, we were told that they get needed water from a well about 6 km away. That's about 4 miles. They pack in enough to last from 4 to 7 days, each trip. That would be difficult enough in the summer. We can't imagine doing that in the winter!

Next is a picture of Elder Caldwell taking a little ride. When he saw the horses, he couldn't resist! He grew up with horses and this was just a little journey back in time for him. 'You never forget how to ride a horse!' And yes, seniors are allowed to do such things while serving! It is, of course, a different story for the younger missionaries.

We will need to break this down into two or three different segments. We had a really great experience. And trust us, the best is yet to come!
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The Ulaanbaatar West Stake!

We have a stake! The Ulaanbaatar District has been divided and now forms the Ulaanbaatar Mongolia West Stake and the Ulaanbaatar East District.

It’s been an event filled weekend, as you might suppose. The forming of the first stake in Mongolia is finally a reality. There are now two districts, fourteen branches, 6 wards and one stake within the boundaries of the Ulaanbaatar mission. The members here are very excited about this new milestone in their history.

Elder Hallstrom (area President who will become a member of the Seventy’s Presidency in July) and Elder Chong (an area authority seventy) came to oversee the work. Both have been wonderful to have with us. We had two meetings on Saturday (a Priesthood Leadership Meeting at 4:00 pm and an adult meeting at 7:00 pm – just like back home!). Most of their remarks centered around the keys of presidency, of sustaining and releasing individual when changes in callings happen and of the differences between a stake and a district.

The Saturday meetings were held in the Bayanzurkh building. The chapel was filled for the leadership meeting and both the Chapel and the basement meeting area (where they had closed circuit tv) were packed for the adult meeting.

In the mission field, all Church members are under the jurisdiction of the Mission President. It is the Mission President who must interview all temple candidates and sign all temple recommends, along with the appropriate Branch President. But when a stake is formed, those members living within the Stake boundaries then are under the jurisdiction of the Stake President. He will now assume the responsibility for signing recommends, etc. It actually takes some of the burden from a Mission President.


We met at a community cultural center for Sunday’s session. The Church does not have a facility here large enough to hold even a quarter of the membership. With the organization of the new stake, there is also now a stake center in the planning stages and that will be a much needed addition, as well.

The center was full to capacity, as Elder Hallstrom rose to the pulpit and announced the organization of the stake. People had come from literally around the world to be part of this. We have about 20 past missionaries who have come from the United States who could not resist coming to see the fruits of their labors as this day unfolded. As we said in our last post, we leave our mark on this area and it leaves its mark on us.

Two members of the now past District Presidency became the new Stake Presidency. The second counselor does not live within the boundaries of the new stake and had to be released. President Odgerel (the past District President and the new Stake President), then, will become the first High Priest ever to be ordained in Mongolia. Bishops and High Council members will also then be ordained High Priests. As Elder Hallstrom added parenthetically, ‘this is the end of chapter one in Mongolia and the beginning of chapter two’.

The presidency of the new district is very young. The second counselor is not even married, yet, but they are wonderful brethren and will do a great job. As they bore their testimonies, the new District President became quite emotional – something not often seen in Mongolian men.

It is not unusual, apparently, for a second stake to follow not very long after the organization of the first. Therefore, part of the council given throughout the meetings was to strengthen the branches in the Ulaanbaatar East District in preparation for that second stake. We have little doubt that these people will soon have that second stake. Who knows, we might even still be around here when it happens!

During Sunday’s session, Elder Hallstrom referred us to the 1st section of the Doctrine and Covenants verse 30, telling us that we were seeing the fulfilling of that verse in this part of the world, in what was happening today. “And also those to whom these commandments were given, might have power to lay the foundation of this church, and to bring it forth out of obscurity and out of darkness . . .”

A Patriarch was not called today. Elder Hallstrom explained that it now became incumbent upon the new Stake Presidency to deliberate, pray and recommend an appropriate name to the First Presidency. But he also counseled that once one was called and set apart, the members here needed to be patient. It would be some time before one Patriarch would be able to give all in Mongolia who desired, a Patriarchal Blessing. We will anxiously await that milestone, as well.

The stone that rolls forth without hands is getting larger.
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The Time is at hand

After a two week delay, Mongolia will finally organize its first stake this weekend. In anticipation of that event, we thought we might share a little of the history of the Church here in Mongolia. This is a mini version, but we hope it will be of interest to you. Some of the details are taken from a book titled, "Mongolia, The Circle In The Clouds".

In 1991, Monte J. Brough arranged for volunteers from the Church to come to Mongolia in response to requests from the Mongolian government for humanitarian assistance. The Russians, after years of providing for every need, had just abandoned Mongolia and turned the country back to the its people. Elder Brough's agreements included providing the requested service and also that the volunteers would, in their free time, teach the doctrines of the Church to Mongolians who requested or desired to hear it. The Humanitarian service first requested was and still is the teaching of English. It was necessary if Mongolia was to participate in a world economy.

In September 1992, the first senior missionary couple arrived in Mongolia. They had no apartment waiting for them as did we and no one to "show them the ropes" here in Ulaanbaatar. And they were soon followed by five other senior couples. Apartments were located as they settled in for their first winter. It was cold and food was scarce. Sosor, an early local convert, cleaned their apartments and stood in lines to buy a head of cabbage, some potatoes, a loaf of bread and a few eggs for the couples. Some nights these first senior missionaries went to bed without having been fully satisfied by their evening's meal.

By August 1993, there were eight Mongolian members of the Church. And during that year, the first six single elders arrived. By May of 1994 there were 80 members of the Church. We now have close to 9000 members of the Church and nearly 200 missionaries serving in Mongolia, and the vast majority of the missionaries are now native Mongolians.

As we serve side by side with these incredible young people and as we invite them into our home where they teach their investigators and testify of the Gospel, it is so plain to see why Helaman called his young warriors his sons, "for they are worthy to be called sons." And we would add as Helaman did, "Never have I seen so great courage, nay, not amongst all the [mormons]." We have become very attached to some of these young warriors and now some of them are finishing their missions. It is difficult for us to see them leave.

Since that small beginning in 1991, many senior missionaries have come and gone. They have left their mark upon the people they have served and Mongolia has left its mark upon them. The membership has continued to grow from those early days. This weekend will mark the creation of the first stake here in Mongolia. There will now
be one stake, two districts and about 20 branches in 11 Church buiildings, all from those humble beginnings just a few years ago.

Often it is challenging to know what or how to teach these good people. The majority of them do not know who Jesus Christ is. They have no concept of heaven or a Heavenly Father. They do not understand that they are of the House of Israel. But they listen and accept anyway.

As they receive the blessing of a stake, they will also be privileged to have a patriarch. To this point, only missionaries serving in foreign countries and a few other members have been blessed to have a patriarchal blessing. But you might be interested to know that among these choice people, their lineage has been declared as belonging to every one of the twelve tribes of Israel. (Ether 13:11 "...and they are they who were scattered and gathered in from the four quarters of the earth, and from the north countries, and are partakers of the fulfilling of the covenant which God made with their father, Abraham"). We sometimes feel that we are "living the scriptures", seeing prophecy come to pass.

When Elder Nelson was here in February, one of the missionaries asked how they should teach about God. He told them to start with what they already knew, as Ammon did with King Lamoni. That pattern is a good one. And in keeping with his pattern, the most important vision to maintain while serving in Mongolia is that of service. We are very literally following the "Ammon" model for building the Church in Mongolia. "We have come to live and serve for a time...."

May we continue to be as successful as he was.
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Darkhan-Erdenet Conclusion

Finally getting around to finishing the report of our trip north. We've gotten rather busy with some new and significant projects we have taken on. We'll tell you more of those later.

Amy asked about the length of our trip and where the towns we visited were located. Thought those were good questions and decided to include this little map so you could get an idea of where we were.

From Ulaanbaatar to Darkhan is about 223 k almost straight north - about 150 miles for you non-metric speakers. Then, from Darkhan to Sukhbaatar is about another 98 k (65 miles). Refer to the previous entries for a schedule of when we traveled to which city. In case your wondering, yes, we were only a couple of miles south of the Russian border at this point. And even if we would have had time to go see it (which we didn't), we would have likely had second thoughts about it. The last senior couple to go visit the Russian border (about a year ago) made the mistake of taking a picture and were arrested and thrown in jail!

You may also notice on the map that they have not included the silent 'k' in the spelling of those towns.

Once we returned to Darkhan, it was then 180 k (120 miles) west to Erdenet.

The challenges of driving 'out in the countryside' were . . . interesting. Often and sometimes unexpectedly we would come around a corner or over a hill to find livestock alongside or on the road.

Sometimes, the road just sort of disappeared. It wasn't too bad when you could see far enough ahead to see there was a problem or when one of these cute little signs seemed to warn you of impending doom (These gave us a real chuckle! But it took us a while to connect the sign to the idea of 'missing road ahead'). But other times we had no warning of any kind and it was 'hang on to your hat' and grit your teeth! On several occasions, the road turned into a cavernous hole big enough to swallow a small car.

This picture shows several sections of missing road in the distance. They are worse than they look in the picture (trust me!), but are still some of the 'milder' missing sections we came across. We were glad we were in an SUV!

Have we mentioned that we now consider it a privilege to pay high gasoline taxes in the states?!

Other sections of road gave us a headache as we sort of 'vibrated' our way across them, particularly an old 15 kilometer section of Russian concrete which looked like it hadn't seen any maintenance or repair since it was created some 40 years ago! But despite this rather gloomy portrayal we have provided, most of the road as actually fairly good and we always seemed to arrive safely and on time.

Along the way we would come across a variety of religious shrines and markers. Unfortunately, we didn't really have time to stop and take a closer look. It was drive here and teach there as fast as we could make it happen.

Next time we will plan a bit differently and make it a somewhat more leisurely trip.

Opps! Last part of our Hong Kong Trip

I just realized that we did not quite finish our report of our trip to Hong Kong. Too much going on here to remember all of it!

During our little excursion to the south end of Hong Kong Island , we also visited a place called Aberdeen(see map posted April 24th) . Aberdeen is a sea port and was fascinating! We marveled at the conglomeration of ships in that little harbor (the larger ships were further out). If you look closely, you will probably figure out that people not only work on those boats, but many live on them, as well!



The various Sampans were the most fascinating -- including the one we were riding on! That's Elder and Sister Gibbons (our area supervisors who serve in Hong Kong) with us on the front our our little Sampan.

We often think of the blessings we receive through our service here. Being able to see parts of the world we had only seen in movies is just the icing on the cake.

After our little excursion around the bay, we just had to have a sea food dinner! One always is taking something of a risk eating out at a place that we are not familiar with. But we did pretty good. Dinner wasn't bad at all, though it didn't measure up to Johnny's On the Dock, Fisherman's Wharf or anything else in the US!

The large 'shrimp' we like to eat in the states we know is not really shrimp at all, but prawns. But I bet you've never seen one served this way! Hmmmmm good! Just makes your mouth water, doesn't it?! Want some Amy?!

Good to hear from you Rod. It's fun to see comments from folks we've temporarily left behind. It doesn't even matter what you say; it's our way of feeling connected. Kind of like our version of 'letters from home'! Thanks, all for not forgetting about us!
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Darkhan-Erdenet Continued

We saw many new things as we journeyed from one city to the next. Our first target as we continued north from the interesting rest stop before described (see post dated May 16th) was a city called Darkhan. This gentleman seemed to be guarding the way to the city.

It's likely difficult for you to get a perspective of size but he is probably about three stories tall and seemed to be made of materials which might be commonly used in construction.

After staying the first night in the Kiwi Hotel (let's just say it was not the best place we have seen even though the food at the restaurant was, in fact, quite good, despite taking them over an hour to get it to us), we switched to this room at the Comfort Hotel. Quite nice, as you can see. We got a really good deal on this particular room because it was about the last one they had left. [We probably shouldn't have shown you this. Now you won't feel sorry for us!)


Once settled in our room, we went to eat at their restaurant. This room is where they seated us! There was an in the wall TV and a nice big window overlooking the area. We ate at that nice little table . . . and it didn't take them an hour to bring us a really nice dinner!

We ended up taking three helpers with us. Sitting next to Sister Caldwell is Zola who just wanted to come along and help our translator with the work to be done. Next is Miigaa, our translator, who did most of the teaching. Next to her is Tsolmon who lives in Erdenet and wanted to visit his family. He was very helpful in carrying baggage and directing us to the church buildings and other areas unfamiliar to the rest of us.

The two girls stayed in a room which we provided and Tsolmon stayed with friends in the area.

By the way, no matter where you stay in Mongolia (our missionary apartments included!), the beds are pretty much rock hard. No box spring and mattress sets here! Just what looks like a slightly padded box springs. Ouch! This was the only one we had seen which at least included a one inch foam pad on the bed. We stuffed a couple of spare fluffy comforters (which are kept in the room), under the bottom sheet and it really wasn't to bad! [Now do you feel sorry for us again?!]

As we continued even further north at the appointed time, we saw a temporary change in scenery. Trees! Not very many, mind you, but trees,none-the-less. It was really nice and a bit refreshing even if it didn't last very long.

Unfortunately, the landscape returned to the rather bleak and dry rolling hills we have seen so much of in Mongolia before we reached Erdenet, our next destination. But we understand that further west it becomes very picturesque for miles on end. If we are fortunate, we may be called on t0 provide some instruction in those areas, as well.

The horse drawn cart shown below is becoming a frequent sight as we travel from place to place, now that warmer weather has arrived. Sometimes the carts are loaded with a variety of goods. Other times there is what looks to be an entire family bunched on that rather small but serviceable conveyance. We assume that this is the only form of transportation some of them have.


We'll conclude our trip next time.