A winter "vacation" in Mongolia

Not every winter day is filled with Mongolian drama

Our winter vacation in Mongolia. We are enjoying unpressured time right now. We learned our next English teaching assignment doesn’t start until mid-February. Our sponsor did ask me to proof his English on a telecommunication proposal - taking about 10 hours of my time.

Life is sure different without preparing lesson plans and teaching. It truly feels like a vacation. At the wrong time of the year. :(

Memories of summertime fun

The weather vacillates between 5 or 6 F above zero during the day to the mid-20s below zero at night.

Life is good!

The smoke in the air, especially at night, is unrelenting. We certainly don’t feel like doing anything extra outdoors. It is cold but bearable – even the animals seem OK with it.

I was able to finish the 90 day Book of Mormon reading challenge 16 days early. Darlene is on schedule to finish by the end of the month. We are organizing our computer files and leaving a historical record and training materials for the next missionaries that replace us.

It can be a little frosty

The mission president has involved me in a couple of writing projects and also gave me a special assignment to help train missionaries on how to resolve conflict within their companionships.

Another goal during our break is to put together a presentation on our mission for our family and church members when we return from Mongolia.


 

There are a lot of things to think about and way too many pictures to choose from to tell our story. Right now I have more time to write the blog but not many pictures to illustrate it.

The sun is setting on our mission

Family History in UB. We are training PuuJee, the Family History  Country Adviser for Mongolia, on Saturdays to take our place when we leave and be a bridge in Family History until the next senior couple arrives. She is helping Darlene teach Family History Consultants on how to scan, edit, and put photos and stories on Family Tree. 

We are going to be doing some training in Darkhan and Erdenet in the next few weeks to boost the work there. PuuJee will join us on one of those trips.

Ourselves and PuuJee

The UB Family History Center is planning a major Family History devotional on January 26 in advance of the Tsaagan Sar national holiday. It is an ideal time for family members to gather family genealogical and stories during all the family visits and get-togethers during the holiday.

Darlene is working out some access problems with the Family Search helpline and is in communication with the Family Search hierarchy in Salt Lake about her experiences. If you know her, you know she says what she thinks and isn’t afraid to confront problems. The emails are flowing back and forth between Salt Lake and Mongolia. 

National Archives. We are in communication with the National Archives about the Family Search records preservation contract and also my role in doing a Wiki article on Mongolian family names and genealogy. Still no official news on where we are at – but no negative news either.

PuuJee is the contact person with them and she nurses the process along. We understand the Ministry of Justice is reviewing the contract and these things take time. Once they finish, there will probably need to be some negotiations with what they see as concerns.  All vibes are good so far.


Ger frame inside a store - selling Tsaagan Sar décor and clothes

Tsaagan Sar. Tsaagan Sar begins Jan. 31. Already we feel the rush and excitement of the holiday as people prepare food and their homes for all the guests they will receive. We already have four invitations for visits and that list will grow. 

The night before the lunar new year is called Bituun. This year Bituun is on Friday night Jan. 31. The immediate family has a big meal together and the next day the company arrives. People are either going somewhere to visit or entertaining visitors beginning Saturday, Feb. 1. Sunday will be like celebrating Christmas Day on a Sunday in the US. Local church leaders are meeting this week to decide how to shorten the 3 hour block schedule that day.

The country takes a whole week as work holidays the first week of the Lunar New Year. Most visits are made during the first week of Tsaagan Sar.

The visits continue all during February until all family obligations are met. If the parents or grandparents live in some other part of Mongolia, this means winter travel for family members as they go to honor and be with them.
  

Here is a link to get a description of Tsaagan Sar. It is like a week long Thanksgiving holiday – the main holiday of the year besides their national celebration of Naadam in July.
www.infomongolia.com/ct/ci/3348

Greeting the Lunar New Year

 

Deel portraits, Benson Missionary Reunion, Smoke, Ice Sculptures

Portraits in traditional clothes. With our vacation from English teaching, we were able to put the finishing touches on our deel outfits.

We will have a different background photo-shopped behind us

Darlene sewed a dark blue band on my black hat to match my deel. We have a great photographer who gave us our proofs after our portrait sitting.

She now is attending free English classes at the church.

We are wearing king and queen hats. I was taught how to hold my hand.

Three more senior couples are going to get their portraits done by her in the near future.

Returned missionaries Gillen and Naef on the screen from BYU-Idaho

Benson missionary reunion. Pres. Benson arranged for a reunion for all returned missionaries that left the mission since he started last July.

Some of the Mongolian returned missionaries attending pictured with the Bensons

The American missionaries gathered in two locations in the United States and two in Mongolia. All that multiple Skyping worked!

The Mongolian returned missionaries were invited to a Saturday morning breakfast prior to the formal Skyping.

Sisters Linford, Farmer, and Nay serving breakfast burritos

Each missionary told about their post mission activities. Most of the missionaries gave their life updates in both English and Mongolian while a couple of the Mongolian missionaries needed help with English translation (for the benefit of the senior couples invited to the breakfast).

Sister Benson is in the foreground

Pres. Benson plans on another reunion at General Conference time and the same thereafter.

Sister England with Sis. Benson, Mary Ann, Isabel, and Tommy

It was fun to see our old compatriots and see that life is moving on for them.

Another temple trip. Munkh-Od (a returned missionary from the Salt Lake South Mission) and his fiancé are part of a January temple trip to the Hong Kong temple.

Munkh-Od and his fiancé are on the far right, the Englands are on the far left (almost). The tour manager is nicknamed "Teddy Bear". Guess which one he is.

The Englands are accompanying this group. Darlene helped a few of the members get their family names ready to take to the temple. 

Going over last minute details prior to the trip

We really bonded with our group of Mongolian Saints who went with us to the Hong Kong Temple in September. There are four planned temple excursions a year to the Hong Kong temple.

Ulziika with an older couple going to the temple to be sealed

Weather in Mongolia. What do they call -36 F in Chicago? A national disaster. What do they call -36 F in Mongolia? January.

Smokey view looking across the street at the Chinggis Khan Hotel

We’ve had a week of -30 F or lower all week in Mongolia. There is no wind to speak of. Thank goodness!

...And looking one block south toward the church

What is bad is the amount of smoke in the air.


Ice sculptures at the Sky. The Sky is an upscale shopping center in back of the Chinggis Khan Hotel.

Every winter they put up an Ice Town for kids to come and enjoy.

Here are a few of the sculptures as viewed in daylight. I am waiting for a smog-free night to show the sculptures lit up. With the temps the way they are, I may have to wait a while.  

  



Guess who?



Based on the weather, Santa will be around longer than we will

 

Family visits, winter scenes and a less hectic schedule

Ariuna in front of her greenhouse

Family visits: We received invitations from two members to come to their homes for a visit. We knew these members from our Hong Kong temple trip and also from the Sukhbaatar Branch.  We were treated to gracious and generous Mongolian hospitality.

Traditionally dressed passengers waiting for their bus

For one of the visits, we took a bus to the end of the line, then walked a mile up the road before we came to the member’s ger. 

End of the bus line looking back toward the city
 The weather was cooperative for this kind of an outing. We had a fun, leisurely visit and walked back to the bus stop to start our journey home.

An interlocking seven ger complex - a rarity in Mongolia - one owner 

We had an hour break between visits and to regain our appetite. Then we went to the church where a member picked us up in her car and drove us to our second visit.  We would have had great difficulty finding their home without her help.  She took us home after our visit.   

Our two visits in one afternoon and evening was a preview of a much more intensive schedule of visits and food during upcoming the Mongolian lunar New Year holiday of Tsaagan Sar.

We knew (I should say Darlene) enough Mongolian that we could make these visits on our own without the need for a translator. We got along just fine. In one home, a daughter spoke fair English while in other home, we made do.

We were treated to a hot milk and salt drink to warm us. The hosts don’t eat with the guests but serve them. They either eat before or after the visit. 

Finely chopped and beautifully served - with hot milk

The food is presented in an artistic manner with a lot of detailed cutting and chopping going into the salads. 

Buyandelger and her handiwork

 Here are some photos from our visits.

Ariuna and two of her two daughters in front of her ger

Ariuna raises chickens on her property

Nomin-Erderne, Ariuna, Darlene, and Suvd-Erdene

Buyandelger, two daughters on the back row and two granddaughters next to her.

Enjoying dinnertime conversation

Winter scenes: The winter weather by Mongolian standards has been mild. There is a sameness to the weather here in contrast to the Dakotas and Missouri where we have lived. 

There isn’t a lot of snow or wind. No blizzards. Just everyday cold weather – generally below zero but this week the temps rose to above zero for most of the week.
   
We’ve been getting a light dusting of snow – just enough to make surfaces slippery and not much more. The heaviest snowfall we experienced in Mongolia was last April when three of our daughters visited us in Mongolia.

Mongolia when it snows

I’ve read a lot about tough winters in Mongolia where heavy snows and cold temperatures have devastated the animal herds in the countryside. Fortunately for Mongolia, there has been no reprise of that kind of weather in the past few years.   

Store selling bags of coal

The pollution from smoke from coal burning fires and heating is more an issue than the actual cold temps – at least this year 

Chinggis Khan's family tree

Family History work.  We love this work and the people with whom we help, plan and associate. 

Training family History Consultants on how to load photos on Family Tree

The UB Family History Center is planning a combined Stake-District family history devotional  on January 19th. It was a pleasure to see them own the planning process. All we have to do is to take assignments from them. 

UB Family History Center leaders planning a devotional/fireside

Today in Fast and Testimony meeting, the Bishop called on Darlene and me to give our testimonies.  Darlene had been working on testimony in Mongolian for a month and was she ready! She waved off her interpreter and spoke for about 5 minutes from the pulpit. 

English teaching on hold.  Our sponsor asked us to teach at a telecommunication Institute where our assignment will be to have conversational English with Mongolian faculty who teach English to their students. 

The school is on a holiday break as are other colleges and universities. It is unclear when our actual start up time will be.  

We are enjoying our break and holiday. Last year we worked hard right up to the holidays and then we were zapped with health problems. 

We’ve already participated in a few end- of- the- year events that we missed completely last year. I got sick on Christmas day 2012 and didn't have much New Year's cheer.

This year we rang out the old and rang in the new