The Wheelchair

Batbold is the 2nd Counselor in the Mission Presidency and is also a full time employee of the Church, being charged with overseeing all of the apartments that must be rented and cared for for nearly 200 missionaries! He is a wonderful man and a truly great friend to many people. We had he and his wife over for dinner recently and he told us this story (actually he told us several stories; this is just one of them).

This past summer, he and his wife went to an area of Mongolia called Murin and nearby
Khovsgol Lake. It is about a two day trip to reach that area from here and much of it is, again, on roads that would more accurately be described as trails. But, they were on vacation and Khovsgol is one of the most beautiful areas of Mongolia, so they decided it would make a good vacation spot and be worth the trip.

They traveled down the outlet river a few kilometers from the lake itself. Batbold is a fisherman and thought that a bit of river fishing sounded fun. Finding a nice looking spot (there's no shortage of them there!), set up their tent and settled in for a couple of days of relaxation and enjoyment.
It wasn't long before Batbold thought it would be a good idea to walk a short distance to a nearby ger and get to know the family who lived there. These are a friendly sort of folk here and ger people especially welcome visitors most any time.

He found a somewhat older couple living there with there disabled grandson; nice folk who were very cordial and welcomed his visit. There was a wheelchair in the ger and Batbold thought it looked sort of familiar. He asked the family where they had been able to find a wheelchair in such a remote area. They told Batbold that a friend of theirs had a daughter who was disabled but she had passed away some time ago. It had been her wheelchair and the friend had offered it to them. All they could remember was, "It came from some 'latter day church' or something."

As he examined the wheelchair, he found an emblem on the back of it: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." The family could not read English and 'latter day church' was all they had remember of what their friend had told them.

When Batbold read the label, they asked, "Do you know anything about them?" He answered, "I work for that Church!"

The wheel chair was in pretty bad shape. Years of dragging it over the countryside had taken a toll. He had tools along so he did what he could to patch it up a little. But the young man had also outgrown the chair and his feet drug the ground. It was obvious that a new one was badly needed.

Batbold promised them that he would see what he could do to get a replacement. One that was in better shape and big enough to properly fit the young man. The family expressed their thanks but were obviously skeptical. Many people here will often promise things that they are not able to or even do not intend to really do.

Batbold returned home. Then, last October, President Andersen felt he needed to visit Murin to see how missionary work and the Church were doing. The entire mission Presidency made the trip, including (of course) Batbold. He got permission to take a new wheelchair along -- one of 750 we had recently received in our latest shipment (see previous post).

They reached Murin and when an opportunity presented itself, Batbold asked to be excused so that he could deliver the wheelchair. President Andersen, of course, agreed. He drove approximately 75 km to reach the area where he had found the family. But when he arrived, he found that they had moved in anticipation of the coming winter. That's what a nomadic people do. And that's why they have gers.

He was able to find one family still in the area and they knew where his missing family had gone. He drove the remaining 5 or 6 kilometers and found them, just as described. When they saw him coming, they were very surprised. 'We didn't think you would really come back!'

He said, "That's what we do in the Church. When we make a promise, we keep it."

He gave them the wheelchair, a Book of Mormon, a Liahona and a few other things and they were very grateful.

It has only been a few weeks since this occurred. We'll try to find out what has happened since and let you know.
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Elders and Sisters and Seniors . . . Oh, my!

Well, we returned 12 missionaries to their homes on Wednesday of last week; five local Mongolians and seven from the states. Good missionaries, all. But they had served well and their missions were complete, so we wished them, Bon Voyage.

Then, on Friday, we sent 24 new Mongolian missionaries off to begin their missions, and most of them will serve here in Mongolia. We had firesides for both groups, one on Tuesday and the other on Friday.

The new group had just returned from their training at the MTC in the Philippines. It was good to hear their testimonies and of their experience in the MTC and of their first visit to the temple. It brought back memories.

Two and a half years ago, there were 12 young men and 18 young women serving missions from Mongolia. Today, there are 72 young men and 54 young women serving in the Mongolia mission alone. And there are around 100 more serving in other countries. That’s amazing!

But, as you can likely figure, most of the referred to new missionaries have only been members of the Church for one or two years. And most are the only members in their families. Several of those had nonmember family members in attendance at their farewell fireside and were then sent off to their assigned missions/areas. Some of those missionaries shared their desire that their family might accept the Gospel and join the Church soon. All expressed their appreciation for the help and support that they had received, even from nonmember parents. There was a good Spirit there and it was an enjoyable evening.

Actually, most of the young people who are members of the Church here, do not have parents who are members. Therefore, the Church is the only place they can look to for support and guidance regarding such things as the Word of Wisdom, chastity and other things which tend to plague the youth today. That adds somewhat to their challenge of remaining true and faithful. But true and faithful is what they are, none-the-less.

It was interesting and strengthening to hear the depth and breadth of the testimonies from these new members and missionaries. They truly are house of Israel and much of good is yet to come from them and from Mongolia.

Oh, and our new seniors are sure terrific! It's wonderful to have them here!
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The Good, the Bad and the . . .

We have some good news and some bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?

Ok, first the bad news.

Our battle to get VISAs flowing again, took a turn for the worse. There was a meeting held with some government officials a few days ago which did not go well. It wasn't even close to ok. Voices were raised and they accused the Church of lying. It seems we are not the favorites with some of those officials, right now.

In fact, the concern for the moment may not so much be whether or not we can bring new proselyting missionaries to the mission, but whether or not the current ones will be able to stay. Ouch! Now, we don't think it will come to that but it is something of a concern, though thus far only a small one.

To help avoid that possibility, though, no foreign missionaries will be able to do ITLs for the foreseeable future. ITLs are 'Invitations To Learn'. Missionaries approach people on the street and ask them if they would like to learn about the Gospel. We never have been allowed to go door to door, but ITLs work pretty well. But, we do not want to risk 'upsetting the apple cart' any further so ITLs will only be done by local missionaries, for now.

Now the good news.

The Lord is still in charge.

Recently, local Church leaders had a wonderful idea. They asked all members to hand out a six question survey they had created which asked such questions as, "Would you like to know more about your family history?" or "If you knew that Jesus Christ had again talked to someone on this earth, would you want to know about it?"

The result was the gathering of over 3000 referrals from people responding that they would like to know more! So, at the same time that ITLs were significantly restricted, the missionaries were blessed with 3000+ member referrals! That should keep them busy for a while!

Our little Nalaikh Branch (the one Sister Caldwell and I are assigned to) received 900 of those referrals! It'll take them months to work through all of them! If 1 in 10 of those were to join the Church, we would probably need to split the branch!

One step back and two steps forward!
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It's Christmas Time!

We have a few thoughts and observations as we approach our second Christmas in Mongolia.

We did not see much Christmas in Mongolia last year with only a few late efforts to decorate at perhaps a half dozen places or so. We saw Christmas decorations for sale at the one really nice shopping center in our neighborhood and perhaps a couple of tall Christmas trees in front of the larger stores.

Aside from that, there did not seem to be much. This year is different!

It appears that they are adopting the idea of Christmas fairly quickly here. And, yes, since this is a mostly non-Christian country, it is largely a commercial observance, thus far. But if Brigham Young, when told on one occasion by Mormon detractors that he and all the Mormons would go to heck(?), can respond that it was just fine because we would just


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turn the devil out and make a heaven of it, then by golly we can take a commercial Christmas and make a proper observance of it!

Hey, it's better than Christmas being ignored! And the folks here need a bit more reason to be happy and do good things for each other, too!

So far, we have seen at least half a dozen of the big Christmas trees in front of commercial businesses and quite a lot of smaller trees inside stores. Some have quite an extensive display on the inside of their stories. One chain of medium sized grocery stores has decorated all of their stores. The painting of Santa in the window is of one of those stores.

And we have been wishing a 'Merry Christmas' to store clerks and many times they have actually smiled and attempted to return the greeting!

The increased Christmas presence (no pun intended!) has sort of been the talk of the mission.

One of our Nalaikh (i.e. the branch we are assigned to attend) missionaries recently told us of something he and some of his friends did for Christmas before he left on his mission. They decided they would make one of the common hot drinks here in Mongolia, go out on the street and give it to those who passed by, wishing them a Merry Christmas as they did so. Now remember, this is a non-Christian nation.

Well, they made preparations and 'set up shop', so to speak, and started handing out their hot drinks. The response they got was . . . interesting. As they tried to give people drinks, many said rather snippily something like, 'No, I don't want to buy a drink!' The youth would quickly explain that they weren't selling drinks, they were giving them away. Many could not understand. 'You want to GIVE me a drink? Why?' They would just tell them, 'Because it's Christmas!'

Some wanted to know what Church they were a part of. Most went away with a sudden smile on their face, warmed both from the drink and from the kindness that had been given them.

Maybe things like this are one of the biggest reasons Christmas is catching on here so fast!

Since Christmas is a time to remember and be grateful for things, we thought we'd mention a few that we are grateful for even though that may well prove to be a bit more difficult than it sounds. Words seem very inadequate, but we'll give it a try.

We are very deeply grateful for a loving family which has supported and taken care of us even though we are very far away. We have simply not really had to worry about 'things' back home because they have always jumped right in to make certain things like insurance, the cars, our home, taxes, etc. are all taken proper care of.

We are grateful for wonderful children and grandchildren who pray for us every day. We are grateful to be able to talk to them through the wonderful tool called the internet - and to be able to actually see them!

We are grateful for friends and neighbors who haven't forgotten us and who have also been watching things at the 'old homestead', too.

This list could get rather lengthy but we are grateful for at least one more thing. We are grateful for a child whose birthday we celebrate on the 25th of December. We are grateful for His life, His example, His trust, His guidance and His sacrifice. We are grateful that He has such wisdom that He could send us to a place where we not only can be useful in building His kingdom but to a place where we could do so much learning and growing ourselves, at the same time.

We are grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who watched His perfect Son, suffer and die for things we have done and will do. Parents tend to become upset when one of their children does something they should not have done (and likely should have known better in the first place), which then makes other members of the family struggle or suffer in some way. Perhaps we should remember that we are guilty of similar offenses but are loved anyway by a Heavenly Father and His Son - the one who had to pay such a heavy price for our mistakes.




And, as you can see from the accompanying pictures, we have gone a bit beyond last year ourselves as we have decorated our own apartment.

Part of that is due to our wonderful family who sent us a few Christmas gifts again this year. But this time they wrapped part of them and we have no idea what they are!

So we got a little tree and put them under the tree. Won't be the same as if we were back home, but Christmas manages to be special here, too -- in it's own way.

Merry Christmas, everyone!
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Elder and Sister Anderson

Hello Elder and Sister Anderson! Goodbye Elder and Sister Anderson!

This is Elder and Sister Anderson - another of the new couples we were so happy to welcome! They were SUPPOSED to stay here in Ulaanbaatar but President Andersen felt they were needed badly in the countryside and reassigned them to Choibalsan. How lucky can you get!

But we didn't hardly even get to know them. We were fortunate enough to have them over for dinner on Monday and they are super people! Choibalan's gain - our loss!


This is Choibalsan from the air. Everyone likes the countryside. All the young missionaries get really anxious to be assigned there and all the couples tell us how wonderful it is. Oh, there are a few challenges, like not having quite the selection of the American items available in the local stores. But we usually help with that and send out things to them whenever they request it.

Choibalsan is about an 11 hour drive almost directly east from here. And the first part is even on a road! The last two thirds you follow dirt trails -- using the Toyota Land Cruisers, of course! It is a fun drive! They could fly in, but President is going out there for a conference anyway, so they are riding with him.

But it is A LOT less hectic out there, not so much air pollution and they really get close to the people. Couples that get assigned to the countryside always tell us they wouldn't come to the 'big city' if you paid them!

This is the church building in Choibalsan.

No chance of us having that opportunity. We have the specific assignment to keep the employment center running, teach self-employment principles (a huge thing here the 'big city') and keep the online computer center running.

Rats!
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The Quarantine is Over!

We held regular church services today for the first time in five weeks! It was really very nice to be back with the members at the Nalaikh Branch and to serve with them again. And to hold regular church meetings. It seems like it has been ages!

And Elder and Sister Powell came with us. They are one of the new couples who did, indeed, successfully arrive yesterday! They are a very nice couple and we thoroughly enjoyed having them with us for the day. We also shared our dinner with them after church.

We had a social last night (i.e. Saturday) both to celebrate their arrival (and feed them dinner after a day and a half of airline food!) and to wish a fond farewell to the Whitman's who have done such a magnificent job in filling in for us while we were waiting for the Eliason's to arrive -- which they did yesterday, too. The third couple was the Anderson's and all are much welcomed and needed additions to our group.


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Did you notice the Christmas decorations for our party? We're one day closer to it than you are!

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What do you think of Sister Caldwell's spiffy new hat? It's her, don't you think?! She inherited it from Sister Whitman. Thanks a lot Sister Whitman!