Update - Again!

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We have made some limited progress on VISAs!

President and Sister Andersen had some key government officials come to dinner at their home one night last week and the evening was, apparently, quite productive. Those officials were very helpful and explained why we were having difficulty. It seems that the original agreement between Deseret International Charities (DIC) and the government of Mongolia, did not include our activities as a religious organization. The government, however, is well aware of our religious nature and apparently has decided that they will no longer ignore the discrepancy.

So, we need to refile and amend our original agreement. That will take more than just a day or two and we will need to be patient. But it will be taken care of as quickly as possible.

However, those same officials told President Andersen that he could immediately bring the senior couples here who have been waiting, some for several months. They can apparently be temporarily covered under the same provision as visitors who do not need to have a VISA for up to 90 days. I presume that since the seniors work directly under DIC and are not considered proselyting missionaries, those officials were ok with doing so (though that is just my opinion). Then, within that 90 day period, things can be formally changed and properly approved.

In any event, three senior couples should be on their way within a few days, now, and we are really looking forward to their arrival!! Even though it could prove to be a bit interesting to orient and settle all three at once! We will simply be thrilled to have them here to help with the work!

And, of course, we hope that the young Elders and Sisters will not need to be kept waiting too much longer, either!

Swine Flu. We are also anticipating an end to the quarantine this coming week and are busily preparing, anticipating that we will finally be able to once again have baptisms next Friday and Church on Sunday. Yaaaaayyyyy!
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Thanksgiving!

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Well, we did it. Feed 112 missionaries and two nonmembers for Thanksgiving! And did it in 12 minutes! Not bad considering the VERY limited resources and equipment available to us. A million thanks to the the couples who worked so hard to bring it all together, especially considering we only had about half as many couples this year to accomplish it all! It was much work but it was even more fun!

We also had good help from a couple of the Elders we recruited to help out. This is Elder Wright who was obviously our Maitre d' extraordinaire!

We had Pork Roast (amazingly like turkey, believe it or not -- actually had missionaries who thought it was turkey!), dressing, potatoes and gravy, peas and carrots, rolls, and jello fruit salad. Don't think anyone went away hungry!

In fact, we had a few leftovers. Never thought we'd see that with missionaries!


For dessert, the missionaries were given a cupcake, frosting, pretzels, candy a cookie and other sundry items with which to make a turkey -- or at least a reasonable facsimile! They really had a fun time with it and were amazingly creative, as you can see!

Look closely at the first picture. It is of a daddy turkey and a mommy turkey and a baby egg turkey! The little sign in front of them says, "Just Married!" We told you they were creative!

The second picture is of Elder Whittle and his wonderful turkey creativity. Way to go Elder Whittle!

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Hey, did anyone know that President Andersen could juggle!
Ought not to be too surprising, I guess, with all the stuff he always has to 'juggle' in the mission!

Updates

Swine Flu
Well, the swine flu continues, as does the associated quarantine. So, we have been holding Sacrament Service in our apartment, for the seniors and a couple of members who are here with other assignments -- like the American Embassy. It has been kind
of nice, actually. Different than we are used to, of course. But it reminds me of when I grew up as a young man. A branch of the Church was formed in our area and dad was the Branch President.

Dad and I would go early on Sunday morning to the local Grange Hall where we had arranged to hold Church meetings until we could find a more permanent home. The two of us would sweep out the cigarette buts and empty beer bottles from community parties of the night before, air the room out and set up chairs before Church was due to start. And before you knew it, we had a church! It was a good experience for a young man such as myself. The Lord was there with us as we prepared to serve the sacrament and to learn about the Gospel.

Now, we don't have quite the same problems in our apartment (shame on those of you who jumped to the wrong conclusion!) but the Spirit is very much the same. The Lord smiles on those who are determined to do all they can to follow His counsel, renew convenants, teach each other and to remain strong in the Gospel.

This has been a time to be remembered in many ways.

VISAs
Well, we still have not been able to clear the problem but we have seen some positive movement. They did finally clear a VISA for a recently called sister missionary (well, kind of recently called!) to serve in Czechoslovakia. She received her call almost five months ago but should be able to finally leave with in a short time.

We still are waiting for a promised letter from the Ministry of Education which would verify that our missionaries are, indeed, qualified to teach English here. He promises to have it soon, so we are holding our breath. That letter will finally clear the way for more missionaries to arrive.

Keep offering those prayers in our behalf!
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We Love the Internet!! (conclusion)

Guess we'd better finish the story before we get lynched!

As mentioned, we finally greeted Brother Griffiths as he made his way through the airport. We weren't seeing what we had expected by way of boxes, etc. in which computers might be transported. So (not having been through this process before, ourselves) we figured they might still be making their way through customs and we would need to pick them up somewhere.

But finally we asked him how it went with the computers. And he said, "Great! They're all right here in my bags!" He had packed them all in his luggage, only needing to pay for one extra (though rather large) suitcase! They didn't even bother to ask him his name. Just checked him through without even saying 'goodbye'! And he had twelve computers (not the eight or ten we had expected, remember) -- six laptops and six desktops (minus the monitors for the desktops)! Twelve of them!

We were ecstatic!

We dropped the computers at the office, separating out his personal belongings and then accompanied him to his hotel, the Chengiss Khan which was conveniently right next to the Church building.

The next few days were hectic as we traveled a great distance, held firesides, meetings and even managed to combine it all with our usual workshops (which the outlying areas do not get much of = we taught our workshops while he was meeting with people). It was tiring, but very productive.

Back in the big city, we made ready for what we knew would likely be the biggest crowds, of course. And we were not to be disappointed. The chapel was full to standing room only. There is a large amount of interest in all this!

Before he had to leave, we managed to squeeze in a shopping trip to purchase a few odds and ends for the lab and then we sent Brother Griffiths back to Hawaii.

Just a few days after he left, remodeling began downstairs near our own office, as rooms were switched around and refinished to make way for the new computer lab all of this excitement was for, to begin with. We had to be very creative to make it all work, for space is already a big premium in that building. We had proposed a solution, but had doubts that all of which had been requested, could really happen. Oh ye of little faith. It all did!

So, the downstairs kitchen (see the first picture above) became a new office for the Stake President/Church Education System Manager (President Odgerel for those of you who have been following our blog -- see the 'under construction picture and the final outcome in pictures two and three).

The Returned Missionary department (where they have been tracking down Returned Mongolian Missionaries who had sort of gotten lost around the world, many of whom needed help coming back to church) moved to President Odgerel's old office.

The kitchen moved to a much smaller room which had housed the senior missionary library (not quite finished, yet), and the old Returned Missionary office (the largest of the rooms) became the new computer lab/senior library (see the last picture -- also not quite finished).

I think I got that all straight. Each room was refinished as they went and it is really nice! The only ones not getting a nice newly redone office is . . . us! Oh. well!

But the work continues. We had to find a way to monitor things adequately as lab use began. So we contacted a firm in Utah called Lanschool. We had used their product a lot in schools in the Granite District. They agreed to donate their software to us! With it, we are able to view all lab workstations from a remote admin computer, record any site they visit on the internet, assume control of their computer at anytime, thus being able to illustrate how something is done (or to kick them off if they have done something they shouldn't!), restrict where they go on the internet, if we need, and more. It is really a great tool! Thanks, Lanschool!

But now we need to see if we can find licenses for Microsoft Office so students can adequately complete and submit their home work to BYU-H. So I emailed Microsoft and TechSoup (Microsofts partner for donations) but haven't seemed to get much of anywhere with either of them. But just last week, I received an email from a man in Minnesota, I think. He said that my email to Microsoft had somehow been directed to him by mistake. He expressed his appreciation for the work we were doing here and then said that he had forwarded our email to a group he thought might be able to help us with the needed Microsoft Office licenses! Me thinks there was no 'mistake' here. Hopefully we will soon see results from that. We'll let you know.

And through all of this, the Service Center here in the mission (you know, the ones who run all the finances and the day to day operations of the Church here) have been fantastic! They seemed to readily see the potential value of all of this, as well, and have done whatever they could to make certain things happened from their end -- like finding a way to fund all of the needed remodeling and then make it happen. And we mean fast! Thanks a bunch all you wonderful SC people!

Now we just have to figure out how we can pay an individual to manage the lab without causing tax problems. But the SC insists they will find a way! At this point what I need the most a just a little more patience! It's been a long road but worth every step!

We'll post a couple more pictures when everything is completely finished so you can see the end results!

And that's the rest of the story (well, so far!)!
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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!

Page 2.

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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