October 20-27 2013 A visit from Elder and Sister Lasson, Our Asia Area Welfare Supervisors

This week we had Elder and Sister Lasson here from Hong Kong. They are our Asia Area Welfare Specialists and are our supervisors.  They served in Mongolia from 2009-2011 doing the same calling as we now are doing.  They know a whole lot of people and we visited with some of their old contacts to see how those projects are doing and to see if there are some future contacts possible with these people.

Elder and Sister Lasson, Muugii and Sister and Elder Nay

We visited some of their well projects and they were still operating well

We also visited the Child Welfare Center of UB which is operated by the Police Department.  They pick up children that are living on the streets and either try to get them back with family members or put them in different centers located around UB.  They only stay in this facility for around 3 days.  They are looking to expand this facility to not only help children but to help families who may be homeless or need help in abusive situations.  DIC helped them several years ago with the purchase of a large refrigerator, blankets and kitchen cook appliances.

The man who is in charge has a huge heart, full of love for these children and is great friends with the Lassons.

 We met with Batbaatar who is over the water dump stations for Ulaanbaatar.

The Lassons were also great friends with him and did five dump stations with him.  We tried to get some answers from him about what UB's policy now is in regard to water.  He says they want to pipe in water to all of the Dump stations, they have new directors and want to move away from driving delivery trucks.

We have approval for one dumpstation in Chingeltai area.  I guess we will proceed with that one, we wanted to make sure that they would deliver water to it.

This is Dr.Munkhzaya.  He worked with the vision project with the Lassons and is working with our vision project now.  DIC paid for his training in India to do retinal surgery.  We are providing supplies for continued retinal surgery and hopefully his hospital will get the required equipment.  He has been operating at a private hospital instead of the public one.  The private one has been good enough to let him operate there.

We went to Darkhan to see one of our latest projects.  Sun Child Orphanage.  They needed a new fridge, theirs was no longer working and  other cooking equipment which also was not working.  We were very impressed with this orphanage.  They have 40 children; 20 boys and 20 girls ages 8- 16 (They stay here until they graduate from Secondary School).They had 10 graduate last year and all 10 received scholarships.

The operator/owner of this orphanage knows the importance of training the children in life skills and also training them in the arts.  They give the children music lessons, dance lessons, art lessons,whatever they excel in. They are sponsored by a group in Japan which pays for them to bring 20 of their children over to Japan in the summer and they then tour Japan giving performances.  The money they earn from these tours goes to financing the orphanage.  

Elder and Sister Fredley are missionaries in Darkhan and were sponsored by this orphanage to be able to get into Mongolia.  The Fredley's teach English here and they were thoroughly impressed with this organization. They were the ones who referred them to us.  The Fredley's have been an invaluable resource in managing this project since we are so far away from it. (4 hrs travel time in good conditions)\

 The orphanage was well maintained.  It had four buildings and a spacious yard.

 One of the boys dorms

 The Fredley's translator Nyamod and the owner of the orphanage.

They are explaining that when the children come here to live, they get to have a doll (like the ones hanging

in the background.  The write what their dream is on the doll. Some of their dreams included: "To be a good father", to be president or to get a good job. Very touching.

 Elder Fredley and one of the children

 They are painting some of the rooms in anticipation of the turnover ceremony we will do soon.

Notice it is the children doing the work. 

This orphanage believes the children need to know how to work. So the children 

work in the garden, cook the food, wash their cloths, clean etc.  Plus 

they go to school, learn english and take music or art lessons.

The owner says that the children are happier if they have something

to do.  She used to have a problem with children fighting, now they are happier 

when they are learning, working and growing.

What a great plan!

 We bought them a new washer also.  Theirs was broken and with

40 children, they needed someway to wash their clothes.

They also had running water in the facility which greatly helps.

 Children making dinner

 Elder Fredley and the new soup pot and cook table

 Dough making machine

 Girls Dormitory,  They are all princesses!

 Sister Fredley and a friend

 Study Hall

 Music Room

 Some of the children's art.  We couldn't resist and bought some.

Sewing Class.  The older girls sew the costumes for their performances.

They also sew special orders to help raise money for the orphanage.

Scripture of the week,  (I love this scripture)

Helaman 5:12  12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Another week in Mongolia October 14-19 2013

This week we were in office trying to get paper work right and trying to understand the Water Company's policy on the building of new Dump Stations.  They have told us that they do not want any more dump stations built higher on the mountain.  They do not want to encourage more people moving up there and that it is hard to get water to the dump stations.  They will not approve any more dump stations and it would not work with out their approval because they have to bring the water up to those stations.  They want to move to piped in water stations and want to focus their resources on that.  We understand their concerns, they just need to communicate with the local governments their policy so we don't look like the bad guys for not doing the dump stations.  Here is what a dump station looks like with the water truck delivering the water.

 Most dump stations hold 5000-7000 liters of water and get one to two shipments of water per day.

We also see people standing in line to get water.  I am so blessed to be able to turn on the tap

and have filtered water come out of it.

This week we were also blessed to be able to visit a members home and to celebrate the 25th birthday of her son who is handicapped and can not get out of the home. Dagma has been a member for six years and her Son (I can't spell the name) also.  The communication was hard for we do not speak Mongolian and She doesn't speak English, and the English speaking Elder we had with us has only been out 6 weeks and doesn't really understand either.  But there was a great spirit in that humble Ger.

Gers are only one room, with a wood burning stove in the middle.  They are sitting on the couch/bed.

Dagma outside her ger. They had built a wood enclosure around the entrance to the ger to help keep out some of the cold.

It feels colder now in UB. You see the coal smoke rising from the gers, and smell the coal smoke all of the time.  The air quality is going down and we will probably should start to wear face masks.  

 Smoke rising from the gers. which means it is getting colder.

Up above the city.  It is a relatively  clear day.  But look at the haze in the background. We live in the haze

What is really sad, is it gets quite stuffy in our apartment and you feel like you could really use some fresh air, but there is no fresh air!

As it gets colder the list of the things I am grateful for grows and includes:

Hats, scarfs, coats, gloves, tights and boots.

Also a heated apartment and building to work in and that our office is only a seven minute walk.

 Alvin is modeling the face mask that the Mission Doctor issued to the missionaries to wear when the pollution gets really bad.  Kind of looks like a duck bill.

Have a great week!  One that is filled with the warmth that the love of the Savior Brings!

Scripture for the week: 1 Nephi 11:25  And it came to pass that I beheld that the rod of iron, which my father had seen, was the word of God, which led to the fountain of living waters, or to the tree of life; which waters are a representation of the love of God; and I also beheld that the tree of life was a representation of the love of God.

Wheelchair Visits and Conference

This week we had the wheelchair specialists Kim and Gaye Brown come and visit us here in Mongolia.  They are short term specialists (have had this calling for almost 4 years) and are over the distribution and training for wheelchairs for the LDS charities in the Asia area.  We visited with the Mongolia National Rehab and Mongolia Social Welfare, the partners we had for the last distribution.  They determined that both agencies need more training in assessing and putting wheelchair users in the right wheelchair so that we do not do damage to them.  We will probably partner with them in the future.  Hopefully it will run smoother next time.

 Meeting with National Rehab The Head lady is Danika the person over wheelchairs is Urna

 Looking at one of the wheelchairs National Rehab had set up for display. 

 It was not put together correctly, so that kind of told us that they needed more training.

 Here Brother and Sister Brown are showing the National Rehab Assessment Perso

some of the things that she needs to know about our wheelchairs.

 Brother and Sister Brown. Altaikuu of Social Services  and us.

Meeting with Gandboldt of the Ministry of Population and 

General Conference

We watched General Conference on October 12, 13, 2013

They wait a week to show it in Mongolia so that it is all translated in Mongolian and  also because of the time difference. Elder Nay and I still watched it in English though.They had a room for us native English Speakers to watch conference. It would be kind of silly to watch it in Mongolian and have to have a translator.

I really loved watching conference with the Sisters and the Elders.  There was such a great spirit in the room. was really touched by the speakers.  I loved Elder Uchdorf's talk, inviting everyone back into the fold.

He said we respect everyone's right to choose.  And expect others to honor our choices as well. 

But we invite you to come unto Christ, Come back into his fold. If you once were a member but have doubts, that is normal.Pray for Guidance and Forgiveness. You can change paths, you can be forgiven, (We all need to be forgiven, none of us are perfect)

The Atonement of Jesus Christ makes it possible to be forgiven and to come back. 

Remember to "Doubt your Doubts before you Doubt your Faith!"

 Elder Stanley, Elder Clement, Elder Odd, Elder Higgs

 English Speaking Session of Conference

 Sister Ackley eating a treat between sessions

It seems that all of the Elders that are from the US are over 6 Feet Tall and most of them are blonde.

I think the Lord wants them to stand out in a crowd. 

And they do.  Even without being able to wear name tags in public

they all have a great glow about them!

Here are some of the Senior Missionaries that we serve with:

 Elder and Sister Linford they work with the Returned Missionaries and Single Adults

 Sister And Elder Wood, the office couple

 Sister and Elder Farmer, Family History

 Sister and Elder Gardner, Welfare couple and English Couple

Sister and Elder England, PEF

 Sister and Elder Stewart, the mission doctor and Temple

The senior missionaries and the Benson Family after Conference

It also went from Autumn to Winter in one day.

Have a Great Week!

Scripture for the week:  What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.