Shopping at the Zaak

A Visit to the Black Market.

How about boy's jackets?

Prior to our trips to the YSA conference, we went shopping at the Black Market in UB for rain boots and a few other times. This time we took our camera.

Before you arrive, there are rows and rows of merchants with car trunks open

Fabrics for traditional clothes

The market is misnamed. There is no underground or illegal selling of stolen or misappropriated items. It is immense and has anything and everything you can imagine for sale. It does have a deserved reputation for pickpockets.

We bought suit material here

The market was a lot less crowded than on a Saturday. There were fewer stalls, especially in the fabric area. Here are some photos give you a visual idea of what the market is, how big and varied it is, and how colorful and different it is to the eyes of foreign visitors.

Looking for tennis shoes?

Sunglasses?

An outdoor furniture store

How about stoves and stovepipes for a ger (felt covered home)?

Vegetables and fruits on the way out.

Local shipping

Our last English class

Bonus blog - our English class ends.

Our class ends - sweet students

Seasons in Mongolia. Sunday was rainy. This is the wettest summer on record in Mongolia. It’s been raining two or three times a week for most of the summer. It’s not exactly Seattle but by Mongolian standards it’s been cool and wet summer.  The rivers going through Ulaanbaatar are as big as they have ever been.  The evenings are turning cool.

The Countryside is lush and green. This weather is great for the livestock industry, which besides tourism and mining, is the number one income producer in Mongolia. When tourist season ends, we hope to find a few bargains with cashmere. That is one product that is not cheap in Mongolia.

Gardening near Choibalsan

Summers in the countryside. Our trip to the Young Single Adult Conference will take us to Selenge. We will leave by train at 8:30 pm and ride all night until we get to our destination near Shaaman.  This trip will take us to the farming section of Mongolia near the Russian border. Most of the vegetables and wheat grown in Mongolia come from the Darkhan area.

In the summer, a lot of Mongolians visit their parents and other relatives in the countryside or go to their country homes. Business, government and even the church can be a little disjointed in the summer because so many people take their vacations then.

Cashmere in the making

Parents in Ulaanbaatar often send their children to live with their grandparents during the summer. The kids love it, get involved with herding animals and form tight bonds with their grandparents. The school year starts Sept. 1.  Most English teaching stops during the summer but resumes in full force with the school year.

Trip to a mining town. On Sunday, we will also be visiting the mining town of Erdenet. There is a large copper mine there built by the Russians and Mongolians as a joint venture. The Russians have left since Mongolia once communism fell in 1992. Our daughter Tawny spent the first 6 months of her mission in Erdenent. There are two branches of the church in Erdenet. We will be visiting and speaking in both Branches on Sunday. Then we will have another all night train ride back to Ulaanbaatar on Monday.

Inquiries about the church. On Sunday I had a chance to visit with an Australian man who visited our Branch on Sunday. His interpreter is a member of the church and he must have expressed an interest in attending our services. I sat next to him in Sunday School class and talked to him about the Book of Mormon.

On Saturday a woman spoke to us in English. She had lived in Alameda, California for 10 years. She wanted information on how to find our church on Sunday. We shared her contact information with the Assistants to the President.

Our last class. Monday we taught our last English class to the young teenagers and their parents and relatives who visited the class. We had singing, games, and  reviewed some of their vocabulary and grammar.  Darlene cut up lemons and made lemonade in front of them. She was just like a TV cooking chef/hostess explaining in English every step she was taking. The students learned “cut”, "squezing", “pouring”, "stirring",“sugar”, and other key words and verb tenses in the process. She brought chocolate chips cookies which quickly disappeared into appreciative stomachs during the party we had after class.

Galmaa making her presentation

The students  made presentations about themselves in English and also described in English aspects of Mongolian culture using a powerpoint presentation. About half of the students dressed in traditional clothes. Afterward they introduced their parents, siblings and visitors to us in English. Some of the students and parents brought us gifts.

Cultural presentation by Enkgerel, Ehkjin, and Mohkjin

The students hugged and kissed us and said they would miss us. It was so sweet and touching. We grew attached to our class during the three weeks we taught them. Our sponsor sat through the whole class, took pictures and was also supportive and appreciative. Afterward we visited about the arrangements for our next class with the employees which will begin Thursday, Sept. 7.

Class paying attention - mostly

We spent the rest of the day getting ready for our trip including the talks and presentations we will make at the YSA Conference and in Erdenet. By the time we return, this information will be off the front burner so we thought we would publish it early.

Just when we think we've seen it all

When we think we’ve seen it all, we haven’t.

Missionary transfer meeting held every six weeks

Once every six weeks, there is a missionary transfer meeting at the Bayanzurgk chapel. All the incoming missionaries and outgoing missionaries are asked to bear their testimonies. We gave our testimonies, Darlene gave hers in Mongolian.

The Missionary transfer meeting was a spiritual feast. It was like entering the MTC in Provo and seeing an  army of dedicated young men and women from all around the world coming together to serve the Lord. It is a visual testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.


We felt the same way as we saw the packed chapel in a celebration of missionary work – the friends and family of the missionaries coming together to listen to the testimonies of newly called elders and sisters and from those completing their missionary service. The excitement in the room was palpable.

Big crowd - Big smiles

The incoming and outgoing missionaries bore their testimonies and sang a muscial number. This meeting was broadcast to all the chapels in Mongolia.
 
Afterward we watched and participated in the expressions of joy and communion in the chapel and in the hallways as companions and converts, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters embraced and engaged each other in love and appreciation. What a crush of loving humanity. No farewell or homecoming can match what we saw that night.

Martins, Clarks and ourselves - released missionaries behind us

There are currently 46 Mongolian missionaries, 16 Senior missionaries from the United States and 13 young Elders and Sisters. There are 4 Elders waiting for visas to enter Mongolia. We know and love them and know what a trial it must be to have their mission to Mongolia being delayed and delayed.


Sukhbaatar Branch members in attendance - we are the ones with white hair

Meeting our daughter’s converts. Our daughter’s converts and one of her former companions (Narantseteg) sought us out to connect with their own past missionary conversions and experiences. Tawny made friends here and we are here to see the fruits of her work. What an experience.


Tawny's converts, Mandulhai and her mother, Enhktuya - Mandulhai is currently serving a mission.

We continued that same experience the next evening with a dinner with Pujee, her mother, Naranchimeg and her brother Dagvadorj. Along with their oldest brother, they had a family musical performing group when they were children.

There are two missionaries from that family (Ulzika and Dagvadorj) that are serving  or have served and Pujee will serve once she finishes college this April. What an ultra-talented family and what leaders! That family alone would more than justify our daughter’s service.

Naranchimeg, her husband, and two children, Pujee and Dagvadorj

We contributed in the Branch on Sunday though the language is a challenge and probably will be for quite some time. Darlene helped Odgerel (he and his wife and daughter are front left center in Suhkbaatar Branch photo), our interpreter at church, who is preparing for a temple sealing, work out some problems with his father’s name and other family names in order to take them to the temple.

Young Single Adult Conference planning committee.  We attended a planning meeting for this event scheduled on Aug 21-25.  They are counting on Darlene and myself to give the young adults gospel based expert advice about relationships and courtship.  We are going to give one presentation to the young men on dating and another one to the whole group on commitment and confidence in choosing a mate. There will be one other Senior couple, the Hunts, attending the conference.

At the conclusion of the conference, we go from the YSA camp to Erdenet by taxi. Then on Sunday we will be doing some training in Family History and speaking in church. That evening we will be taking another all night train ride back to Ulaanbaatar arriving at 7:00 am in the morning. The next blog will probably be posted sometime after Aug. 27.  


Cranes and construction are all around the Ulaanbaatar skyline - I wish we could say the same for the roads.

English Teaching. We are preparing for out last class with the young people we are teaching. We are going to learn some countryside vocabulary (animals), review our work, play games, and sing songs.

The last half hour they are going to talk about themselves in front of their parents. We are going to have a party, make lemonade from lemons and sugar, and Darlene will bring chocolate chip cookies.

The students will dress in traditional clothes, describe the symbles on the Mongolian flag, talk about Mongolian food, and muscial instruments. It should be a lot of fun.

Shopping and being fitted for a suit. We had another big shopping outing on Friday to set us up for the next two or three weeks. Darlene went shopping on Saturday with Sister Richardson to get a few more things while I went with Elder Richardson to the airport. He was the driver in charge of taking Pres. Clark and his wife, the Shrobes and two interpreters to the airport to fly to Khovd.

On the way back both Elder Richardson and myself were fitted to our new suits that are being tailored. The Richardsons came over for Egg Fuo Yung and chocolate chips cookies. Great way to end a Saturday!

Dinner at the Bull. One of the highlights of the week was the dinner we had with Biamba, his wife, Ehkbayar and 4 year old daughter, Nimjin. Biamba trained with our son in St. Louis and we had hosted him and two of his collegues at a Mongolian Barbeque and a basketball game at St. Louis University. They also came to our daughter's (Tawny) home where they fixed us a Mongolian dinner. 


Biamba, Ehkbayar and Nimjin

They went all out to show us a great evening. They met us and drove us to the Bull, a Chinese Hot Pot restaurant. We had a private room. A Hot Pot meal is like a BBQ meal where you select your meats, sauces, spices and other vegetables. A Bunson Burner is lit next to your plate and you put whatever ingredients you choose into a soup pot on top of the flame.


Meats and other ingredients for a Hot Pot meal

It was like a buffet soup you make yourself with whatever combination of ingredients you choose. It was good! Very good!

Ehkbayar was meeting Americans for the very first time. That was amazing to me. I wonder how many other people only know Americans from looking at us on the street.

She had been studying English on her own and enjoyed practicing with us. She spoke very well. She is a customs official for the Mongolian government. What a neat and friendly couple!

Their four year old Nimjin had been learning English. She was astonished at meeting Caucasions and having them speak and sing to her in her favorite English children's songs. She overcame her shyness and was fascinated by the whole experience.

Biamba drove us home after the meal. He offered to be our chauffer on a drive to Khovd next summer. He is from Khovd and he genuinely want us to plan on us asking him.

Family History. Our work with Family History moves ahead. We were able to Skype this week with Elder Speidel, our trainer at the Family History Mission is Salt Lake City. He trained us on Family Tree which will be coming out in September.

We are still waiting on a meeting with the head of the National Archives. We hope it will happen before our YSA conference. One unexpected treat  was discovering that "Ukraine Nara" - of one the tireless family history leaders in Mongolia - was also the artist whose work we saw displayed in the Church History Museum.

The Lord's Simple Service - Narachimeg Tsend



Patrons looking at Nara's art

Nara was one of the first sister missionaries called to serve in the Ukraine. She is called "Ukraine Nara" because of all the other Nara's in the church.

As I sat pondering - Vicki Lynn Walker. One of our favorites at the Church History Museum gallery

What a great mission!

Suhkbaatar - hero of the 1921 revolution - Independence for Mongolia

Church on Sunday. Sunday we had fast and testimony meeting followed by Sunday School classes, Relief Society and Priesthood meetings. These were quality meetings except our understanding of most of it was minimal. We do get translations but a lot get lost in translation.

Stepping out of class, it seemed like there were a number of unsupervised children who weren’t in classes or their teachers hadn’t shown up. I will pay more attention to this in the future. The parents are quite reverent but some of the children are allowed to roam free without much guidance. It is not something we are used to.

We had a wild ride home in a taxi (private driver). The driver seemed intent on showing us how adept he was at maneuvering in traffic. It wasn’t a pleasant ride even if he did shave 5 minutes off the ride. I don’t know about the other drivers and pedestrians but he certainly had us on edge.   

Aspiring warrior

Monthly Family home evening with Senior couples. Our evening concluded with a wonderful Family Home Evening with the Mission President and his wife, the senior couples and two guest couples, the Asian Area doctor and his wife visiting from Hong Kong and a former Mission President Anderson and his wife, also visiting from Hong Kong. We each took a part of the lesson. It was a spiritual feast – the topic was prayer and some remarkable stories were shared.  

President Clark had lost his brother the day before and we could tell he had been grieving. He  experienced his loss amid all of his other responsibilities. I lost a brother when I was on my mission to Central America so I could identify with him.

President Faust, when we visited Rapid City as an Apostle, was asked what he would say to a brother in the church who aspired to be a mission president. After a long deliberation, President Faust’s reply was, “Tell him he needs to see a psychiatrist.”

Training webinar. We had a great orientation webinar from Steve Tsai on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. It helped bring our mission into focus. The Area Presidency determined a major effort to increase family history and temple work in Thailand, Indonesia and Mongolia. They have called senior couples to all three of these countries to spearhead the work.

They have set the following goals for each of the countries: 1) a 10 % increase in temple names being submitted to the temple, 2) each member complete a four generation pedigree chart, and 3) involve the youth and young adults in Family History work –  having a personal experience with their own name submissions, using their computer literacy, and assist other members with Family History work.

Within these goals, we can unleash tremendous energy to move the work forward. This plays to the strength of the Church in Mongolia, the dynamic youth and young adults who have embraced the gospel with so much faith and humility. I envision Mongolia being even more of a beacon light to the nations by taking this next step in the Gospel, embracing the saving ordinances of the temple for themselves and their kindred dead.

Teaching English. During the summer we are teaching the children of the employees of Teleco Mongolia (the landline phone company for Mongolia/cable TV), our sponsoring company that enables us to get a visa. In September we switch over to teaching the employees.

Teleco Mongolia on Suhkbaatar Square

Our English class is going well but it takes a lot of preparation time. We teach two hours day, three days a week. We enjoy the children but it divides our focus. I guess that is everyone’s dilemma. Our class is growing. Every class we seem to be adding two or three new students. Evidently the word is out that we are pretty good teachers. Darlene is a natural teacher and I contribute some comic relief.

English class at Teleco Mongolia

We walk a mile and a half coming and going so we are getting our exercise. It takes about 30 minutes each way. It is a little more challenging when it is raining and we are packing all our teaching supplies and an umbrella. Traffic is so congested that we make better time than the buses and cars going along the same route. If we took a taxi, who knows when we would arrive? On foot the journey is predictable even if it is raining. In the dead of winter, it may be another story.  

A night of food, song and dance. After class on Wednesday, we met Doc. Martin and his wife, and the visiting Doctor and his wife from Hong Kong for dinner at a Thai Restaurant right across from where we teach on Suhkbaatar Square. We went to the Cultural Hall for a Mongolian musical song and dance program. The tickets were $20 each so it wasn’t cheap. I would compare it to the Ballet Folklorico in Mexico City.

Cultural Arts Venue

Patrons had to pay an extra $25 for the privilege of taking pictures which we declined. No pictures, sorry! - except in the lobby.



Plain Jane and flashy friend

We had an evening of traditional dance, Buddhist dancing and chanting, Throat Singing, Operatic Singing, long songs (sung to the animals on the steppes), short songs, contortionist performance (unreal), traditional fiddle playing and the Mongolian National Orchestra in concert.

This program is only offered during the summer when tourists visit Mongolia. The almost capacity audience was a mixture of tourists and Mongolians. We enjoyed it thoroughly and hope to go again before our mission is over.  

The Dancing God - who is next?

This week I was measured for a new suit by a seamstress. We bought the material last week at the Zaak. One more fitting and then I will have a tailored new suit for about $85. What a great mission!

Family History Training. On Saturday, we presented talks at a monthly Family History Consultants meeting for the West Stake and the East District. Darlene also furnished the banana bread (a big hit) after the meeting. We are making progress on our assignments. We shared the goals and plans for the coming year.

Before the meeting Darlene worked one-on-one with Pujee, our daughter’s convert from 12 years ago, to help her enter her family records on New Family Search. We are invited to her family’s home for dinner this coming Monday.

Shopping for bananas, butter, and flour

A wild, crazy dinner and evening out. Speaking of dinner, we were invited to a member’s home on Saturday night. The food was sumptuous and lavish. We were served Harem, a drink of water, hot milk and salt. It was tasty. Sunjidmaa and her two sons, Batsukh and Gansukh were there along with Sudjimaa’s sister, Ganchimeg. Darlene spoke Russian throughout the evening while I sputtered a little Mongolian.

Our hosts and all the food

One of her sons has just graduated from an alternative medical program in Inner Mongolia where he had been studying Chinese Acupuncture and chiropractic massage for five years. Darlene volunteered herself to see what it was all about. She was prepared for needles but the blood drawing at the end was a little unsettling. My wife is one gutsy lady – we experience Mongolia to the hilt. My massage treatment was tamer but quite satisfying.

So far so good!

Ya betcha!

The evening ended up with a game of sheep ankle bone flipping, a national pastime game. We learned the rules and could feel the light-hearted competition between the sisters. When all the bones turn up a certain way, the first person to grab them gets them. When hands meet in the middle trying to capture the bones, the resulting injuries are described as “cat’s claws.”  

A cross between Yatzee, marbles and dice

They gave us the ankle bones afterwards, a box of candy and the rest of our dinner to take home. They then got a taxi for us, went with us and paid for our trip home (and theirs). What hospitality! What a mission!  

National Parliament on Suhkbaatar Square

Up in lights

Up in lights on Times Square

Prudential recruited me to be a part of their Dayone retirement campaign. Our daughter Tassa Barney took this photograph. Prudential took a picture of it when it ran on Times Square on July 3 as we were arriving in Mongolia.

Family History plans. This week has been significant. We worked on a Family History budget with Nasanbold (the UB Family History Center Director) on Thursday night with the help of October as a translator.

We worked through many of the impediments that have been prickly in the past. We submitted this budget to Steve Tsai (the Patron Services Coordinator for the Asia Area based in Taiwan) on Friday. The budget plan outlines our vision of our role in training and furthering the work in Mongolia during 2013.

The budget reflects parallel paths of authority while setting the stage for cooperation. It also follows established priesthood accountability for budgeting and auditing budgets. It is great to have this in place at the outset of our mission instead of having to struggle to define our roles as we go.

One of our daughter's former missionary companions, Narantseteg, is the Family History Director in Erdenet so we will be getting to know her well. 

Our plan is to extend our training to the Darkhan District which includes Family History Centers in Erdenet and Darkhan, and preparing Murun, Khovd, and Choibalsan for Family History Centers. It is a 4 hour drive to Darkhan, an 8 hour drive to Erdenet, a 12 hour drive to Choibalasan, a 14 hour drive to Murun, and a 3 day trip to Khovd.

Khovd is located where the map shows Dund-Us. Moron is pronounced Murun.

There are two new computers and a printer being added to create a second center in the Darkhan District. We were pleased with the interest being shown in Murun in Family History and the official approval of the Erdenet FH Center.

The Mongolian Flag

We didn't have to wait long for training opportunities to emerge. We going to be going to Erdenet on Aug. 26 – 27, a stop in Bulgan (between Erdenet and Murun) on Aug. 28 and training in Murun on Aug. 28-29. We are going with the Richardsons who will be checking on the staus of their Humanitarian Projects in the same locations. It will be a great trip with some company. We will have an interpreter in Murun waiting for us when we arrive.

Lake Holvsgol, close to Murun

We probably will be training in Darkhan during Sept. or Oct. before the weather gets cold and travel difficult. Choilbalsan and Khovd will have to wait until next year.

Training at last. We hit it off well via Skype with Bro. Steve Tsai, our trainer for Family History work we are doing in Mongolia. He will be helpful to us. He will be coming to Mongolia in early September. Next week, he has scheduled two 2 hour webinars with four new couples in Asia that have Country Adviser roles (Mongolia, Taiwan, Indonesia and Thailand) for this coming week. We'll get the orientation we've been waiting for.

Records acquisition. We feel we have an opportunity to have a major break through in records acquisition. We are waiting to hear from Danny Chin. He knows the score on what the issues are and the history of what has happened in the past. We have stressed the urgency of doing something now while a brother with great connections with the National Archives is still in Mongolia. He is scheduled to go to BYU Hawaii in September.

After we finally connected with Steve Tsai, it turns out he has been incredibly busy "putting out fires". He has huge responsibilities and his inbox (emails and otherwise) makes me exhausted just to look at it. He was happy, bright, friendly and very accessible. I am sure Bro. Chin will turn out to be the same way but it would be nice to begin a dialogue with him.

But who is the guy on the right?

I attended a Republican Primary debate in Sioux City, Iowa. This picture was taken from an image recorded on a flat screen TV.

Teaching English. Our English class has started out well. We are teaching teenage children of the Teleco-Mongolia telecommunication company during August. Our teaching of the employees will begin in early September. The administrators have been friendly and supportive. It looks like it is going to be a good relationship.

We had 15 students the first class and 11 for the second. The young teens are delightful. Darlene has put together our English syllabus for the month of August. She is ultra prepared and has been putting in a ton of work getting ready. Teleco Mongolia will be getting their money’s worth and then some.

Sukhbaatar Branch. We belong to a great branch. It seems like a loving and dedicated group of people. Not quite enough men but the ones that are there are impressive. The sisters are really special. The branch seems to be a solid unit. It doesn't have far to go to become a ward - if the rest of the units are this good - it won't be long. I think Darlene’s callings will be in the music area.

Trip to the Black Market. We love the senior couples. What a dedicated and friendly group of Saints who have been called here! We feel quite at home with support and fun to add to the pleasure of being connected to the great people we have to serve.

Four of the five couples assigned to Ulaanbaatar went together to the Black Market. The market has a reputation for pick pockets so we didn’t take our camera along. Next time we go, we'll take a camera. It was the hottest day of the year in UB. Mid-80s. We spent two hours at the black market and then went out to eat at a BBQ Chicken restaurant.

The Zaak (Mongolian word for market) was huge. The fabric section goes on forever. It has anything and everything, all with different vendors. It was as big as three or four football stadiums – one gigantic flea market but a lot classier. We bought material for a suit but didn’t find the crock pot we wanted. On the way home we picked one up at a store we had checked out earlier.

Sister Clark (Mission President’s wife) helped us out with two winter coats that previous senior couples left behind. She has a mini-storehouse of winter coats to meet needs of the missionaries.

That was significant. The coats looked sharp and are plenty warm. It saved us a lot of time and money.

Which will it be - lamb, mutton, beef, pork or horse?

On Thursday, we had Elders Neuberger and Robbins over for dinner along with October who stayed with us after work to interpret for us and Nasanbold later that evening. We had a beef stew, cole slaw, a tomato and cucumber salad and banana bread for dessert.

Elder Neuberger, Elder Robbins, October, and myself

Elder Neuberger is from St. Louis. We met his parents in St. Louis. We enjoyed hosting him and his companion. They loved the meal (Elder Neuberger has a reputation for having a good appetite). He probably loves every meal.

Chinggis Khan statue with 9 Khans and banners on entrance