NEW YEARS IN MONGOLIA

The weather is cold but the people are so warm. We are having a great experience working with the wonderful people of Darkhan. Last week we attended their "Christmas" party at the chapel. Santa came but he just walked around for a few minutes and then left. Apparently, they don't have a Santa and they don't really know who he is. They want to try to be like America so they try to bring Santa in but they really don't know what to do with him.
On Sunday evening we were invited to an orphanage that the other senior couple have been working with. Our church donated a new commercial cooler, a new bread maker, a commercial soup maker, and other kitchen equipment. A few months ago they had a big celebration with government officials and the media for the acceptance of the donation. The senior couple teach English at the orphanage and have come to love the missionaries but they know nothing about our church. On Sunday night they put on a special New Years Celebration and we were the special guests. They had several performances including dancing, singing, comedy, and contorshinism. After the performances they presented us with several gifts and awards including a nice bottle of Champagne. We couldn't decide whether to accept it or not but we (four seniors and two junior missionary translators) decided that it would be rude to refuse a gift so we would just be grateful for the gift. We thought we could just give it to someone else but when we got home and discussed it we decided that wouldn't be such a great idea either. "Look what the Mormon missionaries gave us" would't be such a great message of abstaining from alcohol.
After the presentations we were led into a hall where all the students and guests were served dinner. The main course was a wonderful potato salad that was some of the best we have ever eaten. They eat a lot of potatoes here and they are really good. We also had pickles (which they make at the orphanage and sell for income) and a kind of baloney that was pretty good. The long tables were decorated with bowls of fruit, fruit juice and lots of candy. The candy was wrapped little pieces and I thought the that it would be like the cheap Brachs that we have at home but then I unwrapped one and found it to be delicious. After the meal they brought out beautifully decorated large cakes for each table and we ate cake and candy and fruit and juice till we were ready to burst. So much for our diets. They eat lots of sweets and carbs here and we thought we wouldn't like the food and could lose weight while we were in Mongolia. Oh well. "When in Rome....". Maybe tomorrow we will start our diet.
We have been outside of the city a few times to visit some of the members. They live in either very small homes (one or two rooms) or in a ger (like a yurt). All of the properties have a 6 foot fence around it and a gate that you do not enter until invited. The properties are fairly large and in the summer will have a large garden. They do have electricity but no plumbing. They are heated by a stove in the center of the room with either wood or coal. They are sweet humble people who are trying hard to improve themselves and their environment.
We are blessed to be able to work with these good people to help them grow and progress. Our primary assignment is to teach English which will help them to get better jobs and improve their position. We are so grateful for this opportunity.
The Lord bless each of you in this new year. May we all be grateful for the blessings of this life in whatever circumstances we are in.

This is the meat market in Darkhan. No refrigeration.

 Deni buying meat.

These are some of the children performing at the orphanage.

CHRISTMAS IN MONGOLIA

The Mongolian's don't really celebrate Christmas. Even the sincere Christians don't understand Christmas very well. They do have Christmas trees and ornaments and presents but it is for their  New Years celebration and Christmas day is just like any other day.
That being said, today was one of the best Christmas days we have ever enjoyed. We started early this morning when the other senior couple and Deni and I walked to the church building about 1 mile away at about 6 AM. It was dark and about 20 below zero F and everything was frosty. We dressed warm and had many layers. We are starting to learn how to layer but it still takes us 10 minutes to get ready to walk out the door. We took our flashlights and walked out into the frost. When we arrived at 6:30 about 14 young people and their 2 teachers were already there for early morning seminary as they are every weekday morning. It is Christmas day but they have school just like any other day. They were so cute, dressed up for class and ready to learn. Besides the lessons that their teachers taught, we had the opportunity to bear witness of the love of our Heavenly Father and the love that we felt for them. They are just good kids.
We were back to our apartment by 8:30 in time to get some supplies for a Christmas party at the Old Darkhan chapel. (Deni and I are the missionaries for the New Darhan chapel but we get to visit and enjoy both branches in Darkhan.) We started cooking for the afternoon party as soon as we got to the church. The missionaries from all over the area came to Darkhan for our Christmas party. We had about 33 missionaries. The Fredleys (the other senior couple that work in Darkhan) and we made all kinds of food and treats . We had some traditional Mongolian dishes and we tried to make some American Christmas dishes. Elder Fredley made some mashed potatoes (the potatoes here are delicious) but we can't get decent butter or cream so he tried yogurt and their interesting butter and they had the flavor that our American pallet isn't used to. We were asked to bring a small gift to the party, We were told that it was to be a 3-5,000 tuge ($1.80-3.00) but some of the Mongolians either didn't understand or couldn't afford it. We played the game where everyone gets a number and then picks one of the presents and can keep it or steal someone else's. They had never played that game before and they laughed and really enjoyed it. (The next day I heard one of them say how blessed they were that everyone got what they really needed) They are such sweet and humble people and as we get to know them we love them.
The 3 senior couples did a 12 Days of Christmas skit which was quite a hit. In Mongolia they sing most of our Christmas songs but they had never heard that one and they really got a kick out of it.
Overall, we had a wonderful 1st Christmas in Mongolia and we really felt the true spirit of Christmas. Our love to you and yours as we celebrate the birth and life of our Savior.

This was the 6:30 am every morning seminary class that we walked to in the dark this morning.

                                        This is our version of the 12 days of Christmas

Our first Sunday in Mongolia

Please tell the police that they were last seen wandering the streets of Darkhan (pronounced Darhon) looking like very cold deer in the headlights. They were bundled up like foreigners with black overcoats that looked like they were going to a Broadway show in New York rather than walking the streets of Mongolia. The man wears a white shirt and tie and a hat that looks like he is trying to pass himself off as a Russian and the lady just looks like a classy Mongolian.
Well, we have moved into out apartment in Darkhan. We were told that they had an apartment reserved for us but we couldn't get into it until July so we would be in a "tiny apartment" until then. We would have a couch that would pull out and be our bed for the next 6 months. Deni and I both pictured a small one room studio with a bathroom down the hall. When we got to see it we were both pleasantly surprised. It has a large kitchen/ dining area and a nice bedroom with a "modular couch" that moves the pieces around to make into a bed. We leave it put together as a bed and it works great. It is like sleeping on a rock but we are so grateful just to have a bed to sleep on. There is a nice small bathroom with a shower and a washing machine. We tried to wash a load of clothes last night for the first time and learned a few lessons.
1. Don't try to learn how to use a new type of equipment in the dark with a flashlight and a magnifying glass and a translation dictionary.
2. Don't start a load of wash at 10:00 on a Saturday night when it takes 2 hours to do a load.
The washing machine is a brand new front loader that will hold about 2 sheets at a time and goes through cycle after cycle. We couldn't figure out what it was doing most of the time but it was interesting to watch. It would sit for a while and then turn the load around once then sit for a while again. I guess it is fluffing the load and moving the soap around or something. When the spin cycle started we thought it was going to dance right out of the bathroom or go through the floor. We were both holding onto it and we were sure the downstairs neighbors would come knock on our door any minute.
We arrived here on Friday evening and got ourselves set up before meeting the other senior missionary couple serving in Darkan. Elder and Sister Fredley have been here all alone since January. They already had most everything figured out so we just follow them around. Yesterday they took us to watch their English class that they teach (which we will be doing soon) and then we went to the Black Market and spent most of the day going from stall to stall and seeing every kind of product known to man. Part of the market is outdoors and I can't believe those poor people can stand it outside in -20 all day 7 days a week. They were selling everything from nails to animals to shoes to soap and flour. Anything liquid, like vegetable oil, was frozen solid. I was freezing after just a few minutes of looking and had to hurry inside to buy from those vendors who could afford to get a place inside.
Since we had a new apartment we needed about everything. The mission provided a lot of essentials but we still needed to set up housekeeping. We needed TP, towels, soap, dish soap, etc, etc. We opened a new set of sheets the first night in our new bed and wanted to wash them but they wouldn't have dried so we slept on them and then washed them last night anyway and slept without sheets. The dryer is an aluminium frame that we set up on the living room near the radiator. They were dry when we got up this morning. The heat is hot water provided by the city and since we are on the 5th floor I think much of the heat has been sucked out of it by the time that it gets to us. The heaters have no thermostats so they just pump as much heat as it can give. If you are too cool there isn't much that you can do about it but bundle up and maybe it will get warmer. If your home is too hot just open a window. It is interesting to see houses with the windows open when it is -20 (which is what it has been here most of the time).
It is a big job just to get ready to go outside which we have done about 10 times a day already. You have to really bundle up and I am learning to do a better job of it. At first, my face would freeze while the rest of me was too warm. Now that I am figureing it out I can be pretty balanced warm. My face and ears still get cold but my earmuffs hurt my ears (pushing on my glasses) and I just tried wearing the ski mask. It really worked good. I will be wearing it from now on when I don't need my hair to look great after.
We are having a mission district Christmas Party on Christmas day at the New Darkhan Chapel. We will miss our family but we know that we are where we are supposed to be.
I know that I write too much detail but I will use this for my journal after we get home so just enjoy the detail and know that we are loving what we are about. I will put more pictures next time.

Jet-Lag

We are in Mongolia and are almost over our jet-lag. We left Salt Lake on Saturday 12/14/13 and flew to Los Angeles where we spent 6 hours with Deni's sister Robin before we flew out at midnight. We flew all night and landed in Seoul, Korea at 6 AM on Monday morning. We were in Seoul till 1 PM and then on the tarmac for a few more hours. Seoul was the nicest airport either of us were ever in. They offered FREE tours of the city of 1hr, 2, 3 4 or 5 hours. We were going to take one of the tours but we had over 100 pounds of "carry on" luggage that we were hauling around the airport and airports don't allow any luggage left at the airport anymore. They don't have lockers or any other way to leave them and we weren't going to haul them around the city. Instead we took advantage of the "cultural experience" and we took a FREE lesson on making a silk coin purse. We then took advantage of the FREE automatic chair massage, we lounged in the FREE lounge chairs, watched the FREE TV, and took a nap on the FREE resting lounges. It was a pleasure to have a nice long layover in Seoul, Korea.
We arrived in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia at about 5 PM on Monday evening. We had to go through immigration and customs and then get our 200 pounds of bags to take out with our 100 pounds of carry on. We were the last ones out of the terminal and the mission assistant was there waiting. He had been there most of the day since he had to take some missionaries to the airport earlier in the day and thought it would be better to wait until we got in about 2:30. Our flight was delayed and then we took forever getting out. When we walked out of the terminal Deni started to cough and our eyes started to water. It smelled like something dirty was burning. Turns out that they burn coal for heating the cities water and all the homes and the cars all burn dirty fuel so the air is filthy. We loaded our heavy luggage into the car and headed for the city and the mission home about 6:30. It is only about 45 miles but the traffic is amazing and it took us about 1 1/2 hours to get to the city.
We got in and met with the mission president and his family of 4 children and his wife. They had waited dinner till we got there and had a great meal of beef stew that was delicious. We had tried not to sleep much so we could get accustomed to the time difference as quickly as possible and we fell into bed as quickly as we could. We died as soon as our heads hit the pillow.
On Tuesday morning I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. We had breakfast at 7:30 in President Benson's apartment with his family. (He had to leave earlier for a week in the field so we haven't seen him all week.) We were taken around and introduced to the other missionaries in the office as well as the building staff. The mission home is right in the middle of the city and right on a busy main street. Everyone was so excited to have us here and we are excited to be here.
We were told that we had some government paperwork to be done so we couldn't be taken to our home area until Friday but we were put up in a nice dorm and had the week to get adjusted to the time change and to the country. Each night a couple had agreed to take us to dinner and get to know us. The first night we went with the Wood's and the mission doctor and his wife, the Stewart's. We went to a nice restaurant and had delicious salad and a fancy pizza. We were really surprised at how good the food was.
On Wednesday the Wood's took us to the bank to take out 800,000 tugriks (they call them toogs) (the max the ATM will allow withdrawn) which is about $450. Inflation keeps driving their money down and they have bills of 1 toog which is $.0006 and a 100 toog bill is 60 cents. It is so hard to go into a store and see that a bag of almonds is $30,000 (which is still about $20.00) but we are trying to adjust. After the bank we went to a few stores (Pictures attached I hope) and were surprised at how expensive their food is. They have ANYTHING that you would want but most things are more expensive than at home. They have a lot of Costco Kirkland brand items and we will be able to stock our shelves just like at home BUT we will have to pay for it.  Another couple said that when they first got here they weren't going to pay those prices but then they got hungry so they just stopped looking at the prices.
Deni needed to get a hairdryer so we went to a very nice department store and found one for $39,000. She pointed to the sign and the girl went to get the dryer. I took out and gave her two $20,000 bills. She shook her head and showed me the register. She charged $59,000 for the dryer. Deni said No and turned to show her the sign above the sample dryer but the sign was gone. We didn't buy the dryer.
Wednesday we had a delicious dinner at the Ney's apartment. She made Indian tacos and they were really good. The most amazing thing is how good the food is. It isn't processed so it is really fresh and good.We learned more about the way the missionaries live and what they do.
Today we drove about an hour out to the Genghis Khan memorial with Elder and Sister Wood and Elder and Sister Linford. It should have taken 2 hours but Elder Wood thinks he is a race car driver and he doesn't let a little thing like cars and pedestrians stand in his way. We completely went off the road once when we passed a car that was already passing another car on a 2 lane highway going about 60MPH. We stopped along the way and had our pictures taken with an eagle, a vulture, and some reindeer.The weather warmed up to about -15 and it was a really exciting day. The monument was truly amazing. The pictures don't nearly do it justice.
After we returned from our adventure at the monument we were shuttled off to the government immigration office for fingerprints and paperwork. Apparently we passed because we are being taken to Darkhan tomorrow morning to move into our own apartment. We are told that we have a temporary apartment for about 6 months that is so small that it couldn't have a bed and a couch so it only has a pull out couch. We will update you on how it is once we have moved in.

This is my first Blog. We are currently in The MTC in Provo, Utah and will leave for Mongolia on Saturday, Dec 14th and will arrive in Ulaanbattar Mongolia on Monday, Dec 16th after traveling through Korea. I will try hard to keep up the blog and would appreciate feedback.