Here and there and almost everywhere

These last 10 days have been SUPER BUSY.

We have had a self reliant specialist visiting from Salt Lake City, Elder Squires. He came to Mongolia to evaluate past garden projects that DIC has sponsored and to also teach the Districts, Stake, Ward and Branch counsels about using the Lord's Storehouse to help the poor and the needy in their branches.

In the past, DIC has come up with the food projects, (garden supplies, seeds, water jugs, pumps, greenhouses, tools, and small animals) and the DIC couple has managed it. Elder Squires tried to teach these priesthood brethren and sisters of the branch councils that they need to see to the needs of their members that are poor and needy, and come up with a solution that they can manage.  They first use the Lord's Storehouse that is in the branch.  The Lord's storehouse consists of the resources that are in that branch which may include their own members, their knowledge, maybe someone has extra seed they can share etc.  If they do not have enough in their own Lord's storehouse to do a project for the poor and needy then they can call on the church's Lord's storehouse. That means they can come to DIC with their ideas, and how they are going to manage their project, then DIC will help write up the project and submit it for approval.  DIC does not manage it, the local leaders do.  We do not come up with an idea, the local leaders do.  The project is not for everyone in the branch, just the poor and needy that the Branch President has identified. 

Poor and Needy is someone who is not meeting the basic needs of survival for their family. (This project is for food)  Elder Squires knows that they will need some help, so he is willing to come back and help guide them through the process.  It still will still be their project run by the local priesthood.

We held training's and evaluations of gardens in Murun, Baganur, Nalaikh, Darkhan and of course Ulaanbaatar.  There were many in attendance and they seemed to understand what was being taught. It will be up to them if they want to use this tool in their branches and wards.

It was a lot of travel and a lot of 12 - 16 hour days.

I felt bad for our translator,  But we could not do it without her.  Muugii is Great!

Here are some of the pictures of where we went.

We first flew to Murun,  It is a 1 1/2 hour flight or a 3 day drive.  

I was glad we flew, even though we had to stay 2 nights because of flight schedules.

While in Murun we went north to one of the largest lakes in Mongolia, Khuvsgul Lake

It was beautiful, all of the leaves are turning yellow, 

including the Larch tree which is a pine tree.

 Elder Nay getting a picture of one of the local yak herds and herder.

I love the solar panel and satellite dish on this ger which was out in the middle of nowhere.

All of the gardens have basically been harvested.  

This was some cabbage that was growing in Murun.

 Mongolians are so generous.

If you come to their home, they always want to feed you and share what they have

even when they do not have much.

We love these people!

The Murun Branch had a harvest festival while we were there.

Everyone brought something that they had harvested or preserved.

They make wonderful pickles and canned carrot salad, beet salad, cabbage salad.

It was very impressive.

We then flew back to UB and then drove 2 hours to Baganuur.

These people were also very humble, and willing to do whatever the Lord may ask of them.

On the way back from Baganur we stopped at the Chinggis Statue to take a few pictures

We then went to Nalaikh and did a training there. 

Unfortunately, no pictures turned out for Nalaikh.

They are still great obedient people.

We also visited and did training in Ulaanbaatar.  

Here are a few pictures.

 Chinbaatar is a great gardener and has been a resource and trainer

for his branch, 

 Ukraine Nara also is a wonderful gardener and always willing to share

her knowledge and resources with others.

All of these gardens were done on their own this year with no help from DIC

We call the wonderful lady the Goose lady.  She started last year with the help of DIC and has been able to keep both her chicken and geese flock growing.

She has earned enough money to help buy her children clothing for school.

We then traveled to Darkhan to do training and see projects there as well.

 Sister Fredley serves in Darkhan with her husband.

They are very loving and serve with all of their heart there in that wonderful city.

 This was one of the families we visited.  The father was not home.

His wife has left him, the two 5 year olds were home alone while

the father was at work.  They were behind a locked fence. You can see the garden

in the background.  We asked if they had had something to eat, they said yes, but we gave them

our travel treats over the fence anyway,  They were happy to have it.

The second day in Darkhan, we woke up to snow, wind and cold

 But we continued on with the tour.

This lady's garden was awesome!

She does not have a husband but still manages to plant and harvest

a wonderful garden.

 This is her rainwater collection to use in her garden.

This is her stack garden.  She had cucumbers growing out of the side

of this 55 gallon drum.  Very impressive

She had underground storage under her kitchen floor.  

She had shelves built into the sides and then a pit to store her vegetables.

It was great to see how the past training has helped these saints and that they are using their training to keep gardening to provide for some of their needs.

Some of them have become experts and are helping their family and branch members.

It has been a good week.

Scripture for the week: Galatians 6:7  ... for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap...And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Hong Kong Temple Trip

Sacrifice, Service and Gratitude

 We have been so impressed with the humility, obedience, service and sacrifice of this great group of Saints.  They have gotten up early and stayed up late so that they could get their work done.  They have labored out of love both for the living and the dead and it has humbled our hearts to have had the opportunity to share this experience with them.  They have attended at least 3 endowment sessions a day, besides doing the baptism, confirmations and initiatory work.  Their hard work resulted in 605 ordinances being performed by their ancestors.

 Mongolian Saints that came on this trip came from every stage of life.  First there was Baatarkhuu and Taivan who are expecting their first baby in November.  They are so sweet and so in love.  Baatarkhuu is a very thoughtful husband, looking after and serving his pregnant wife.  Taivan was insistent that that they go the temple BEFORE the baby was born.  They have seen too many times, families putting off going to the temple and then having to wait a lot of years to go to the temple because of the difficulty of taking their children to the temple.  Baatarkhuu and Taivan were so cute when they were sealed.  They were the only couple that gave a full lip kiss over the altar.  To see their faces as they looked in the mirror after they were sealed said it all.  They radiated with love.  They radiated with love this whole trip.  They have helped watch out for Sukhbaatar, and the children of Davaatogtokh and Munguntuya.  They had a whole packet of family names that they have served.  Taiwan told of gathering family names for 3 years and also visiting family to get more names.  They had set the goal this year to have a baby, and to go to the temple.  They had to spend a lot of money on her graduation, and wondered if they could make it to the temple, but they made it.  We have been blessed in watching their faithfulness and desire to get the work done for their ancestors.  Taivan testified that even though she was not feeling well at the patron housing, she would go to the temple and would be okay.  She amazed us as she attended at least 3 sessions a day, being big, pregnant and uncomfortable she still felt the need to do this work.

The next family was Davaatogtokh and Muguntuya and their sons Aiden Temmuulen (5 years old), and Mason Bayasgalan (2 years old).  Muguntuya is the translator for the Fredley’s in Darkhan.  This family also glows with the love of the Savior.  All of the live ordinances were done on Tuesday, and the temple was only open for half a day.  The saints arrived early, and the temple workers were so helpful in trying to explain the procedures and what was going to happen.  When it was time for the sealings, the youngest, Mason had been crying for 45 minutes.  Nurjan (17 years old, daughter of Raikan) had been tending the boys but when it came to have someone change his clothes, he would have nothing to do with it and would not allow anyone to touch him. They finally got his mother to come, but then Mason would not let his mother leave him.  (She would need to leave him for a little while so she could get sealed to her husband.)  It was decided to do the other sealings first and to do this family last.  Finally he settled down and Muguntuya was able to come in to get sealed and then the sons were brought in.  The couple kneeled at the altar, Aiden walked right up and kneeled at the altar and a temple worker was able to hold Mason at the altar and he too willingly put his hand on his parent’s hands and held it there throughout the ceremony.  There was a wonderful feeling of peace, calm and love and we know that Heavenly Father had sent his spirit to comfort this child.  Again, watching the faces of this family as they gazed into Eternity was wonderful.  Another special sealing took place on Saturday, as Davaatogtokh and Muguntuya were able to stand in for his parents and get them sealed and then to have Davaatogtokh be sealed to his parents.  They too testified of the importance of this work and how the spirit of Elijah has driven them to find their ancestors.  They were originally going to go in May to the temple and were a little disappointed, but the Lord has his reasons.  They were able to get a family book that had a lot of information in it and they were able to prepare a lot of names to take to the temple.  A lot of these ordinances that were done were their names.

The next family was the Raikan Family from Darkhan.  The parents names are Raikan and Khandaa. This family has young adult children.  Ainur is a recently returned missionary with an amazing testimony and speaks very good English.  Elder Yernuur is now serving in the Mongolian mission and we are so grateful that President Benson allowed him to come on this trip to get sealed to his family and do work for his family. Yernuur spent most of one morning doing initiatory work for all of the names that had been baptized and confirmed.  He sacrificed his lunch time and then returned to the temple to do endowments.   Nurjan is 17 years old and did an amazing amount of service this week by watching Davaatogtokh’s children while their parents went to the temple.  There are not a lot of teenagers around that would spend their week in Hong Kong babysitting.  She is awesome.  She bore a wonderful testimony on Sunday, she will make a great missionary. Nurjan did do most of the baptisms for the women that needed to be done.  This was done in two different sessions.  This family was the first to be sealed, and again watching their faces as they stood and gazed into the mirrors said it all. They probably stood there for 5 minutes and were engraving the moment into their hearts.  It was beautiful.

 We had a slightly older sister come also, Sister Oyun from, Enktaven. She is a widow and has two daughters.  One of her daughters has married a returned missionary.   She also was a wonderful saint and helped with Sukhbaatar.  She made sure he was eating, helped him when we went on trips, and went into the prayer circle with him.  Like all of the saints, she served the others.  She bore her testimony also of feeling the need and desire to go to the temple.  She has had this desire for over 5 years and at times felt that she would never be able to go. She was worried about collecting the correct information about her ancestors and was in despair about this, but she dreamed a dream of President Monson and he was comforting her in her dream and telling her that everything would work out.  She was inspired to open a savings account and just put a little money in each week to save for the temple Finally she was surprised at how much she had saved, it was enough to go on this temple trip. Also she was able to collect the correct information so that she could submit the temple work for her ancestors.

Last but definitely not the least is Sukhbaatar.  Sukhbaatar is 71 years old and has been a member for about 2 years.  You will see Sukhbaatar daily at the Bayansurkh building humbly and quietly picking up garbage around the building. He doesn’t have any family of his own, but lives with another family.  He had been saving his money for several years, even before he became a member, but someone needed money to go to school and he gave them all of it.  It looked like he would not be able to go on this trip, but the Lord did provide and through the generosity of others he was able to go.  He has touched many people by his humble presence and service in the temple.  Temple President Wong was so impressed with him and his humility.  President Wong made sure that Sukhbaatar was understanding what was going on.  They gave him a headset even when the session was in Mongolian and turned it to the highest volume setting because he is very hard of hearing.  They took him through the veil last so that they could close the door to the Celestial room and the temple worker could then speak loudly and not disturb other patrons.  They also allowed one of the other Mongolian brethren to be with him to help him through the veil. Sukhbaatar was always the first to hold open the doors and try to help where ever he could.  On Saturday, we again felt a wonderful spirit when Sukhbaatar was able to be sealed to his parents.  Sometimes words just do not express the feelings of our heart and this was one of those times. It was a great experience to be at the temple with him and many people commented on the spirit that he brought with him and they were touched to be able to attend a session with him

 President Wong was so attentive to the Mongolian saints.  He wanted to do whatever he could so they could understand what was going on.  He arranged two special Mongolian temple sessions just for the Mongolian Saints.  In these sessions he came in to do the prayer circle and had it translated into Mongolian so the saints could understand and fully participate in that ordinance.  His attention and love to us was humbling.  He had a special meeting with the saints before one of these sessions explaining that everyone is important and that they will do whatever it takes so all can understand and hear what is going on.  He testified that if they listened with the spirit that they would understand, and I testify that that is the case.  By his inspired actions he showed that our Heavenly Father is mindful of each of us and our needs.  We were very grateful for him being so in tune with the spirit.

These saints did an amazing amount of work even with the temple closing early on the Tuesday we were here.  In total 605 ordinances were performed with 145 sealings being done on Saturday which took over four hours to do.  We appreciate the service of Elder and Sister Wilson and their help to the Mongolian Saints in learning how to pronounce the Mongolian names. 

We are grateful to have been here with the Saints and to see their love of the gospel and their Savior and their willingness to keep their covenants.  They are amazing and have strengthened our testimony of this wonderful work.

Scripture for the week: Moses 1:39 For behold, this is my work and my glory - to bring to pass immortality and eternal life of man.