"Building-Ends" in Choibalsan

Most of Choibalsan was built by the Russians in the 1980's. These buildings are near to our apartment. This is an apartment building next to ours. I'm not really sure what it says, and neither do the Mongolians, it is Mongolian and Russian writing. They have to do with the Mere Space Station, and Mongolia and Russia working together to go into space.

This building was built in 1981, the year Jenny was born. "Inter-Cosmic" again is a space term, meaning going into space together. They look modern, but they are not, maybe what American buildings would have looked like in the 1930's.

Built in 1980. Russian hammer and sickle. Mongolia's symbol on it's flag. The Mongolian symbol is interesting. I will start at the top of the symbol and say what they are. The star at the top represents Russia, it is no longer part of the flag/symbol. The little oval is actually a flame, which represents family, home and future. Circle and half circle are the sun and moon, representing the universe and everlasting existence. Two downward arrows, a warning to enemies and a willingness to defend their country. Two horizontal bars, honesty. Two vertical bars, strength and unity together. Circle in middle (ying-yang) but is two fish who never close their eyes representing vigilance, reason and wisdom.

This is on the end of a school. "Togetherness" The children go to the same school all 12 years of their schooling. They are named: "School Number One", "School Number Two", and so on... Everyone is in their last week of school and some are leaving to go back to the Countryside to be with their families, for the summer.

We love each of you!

Have a fun summer vacation!

Love

Grandma and Grandpa

May in Choibalsan

We have some fun news...These two pictures were taken at the Baptisms of the last two weeks. OtgunErdene is the lady with her family. Bazerguud is a returned missionary in the Branch, he did the baptism. Confirmations take place in Church the next day, and she ask Dad to confirm her, everyone was surprised, including Dad! He gave a nice blessing, with Elder Onon translating.

The two young people, here were baptized on Saturday. They are Borelthmaa, the girl standing next to Sister Mandkhai, she is about 14 years old, her sister is a member of the church. Erenenbayar, standing next to me, is a young man that has been in our home a couple of times and had lessons. He is 17 or18 years old. He comes to our English classes. He is from the Countryside, going to the trade school here in town. He has had a hard life and is very quiet, but such a cute young man! The two on the floor are Gansuu, and Elder Gurragchaa. They did the baptisms. They also ask Dad to do the confirmations, the next day, and again there was a giggle that went through the audience when Dad said, "Me?" He did gave some nice blessings, though and Elder Onon translated, again.

Elder Smith left Choibalsan... We will miss him, he was a good missionary. He was so good to help us with the computer and to take us along when they made visits, it is fun to go with the missionaries, the Church members love their missionaries! All the American missionaries will be flying out of Mongolia on Tuesday morning. They will be missed and we as Senior couples are having to step up and do alot more of the English teaching.

These last two pictures are courtesy of Elder Smith, he shared them with me, I forgot my camera... The first flowers! We were out in the country all of us were so excited to see flowers! One of the Elders told us that the middle of May is still a little chilly and no signs of Spring, but by the end of May it is fully green and the trees are all leafed out, that is proving true! These pictures were taken last week

Another picture from the country. The sunsets and sunrises have been so beautiful! No mountains and I think the dust in the air make for pretty scenes. We've decided that Choibalsan is in the middle of one great, big, huge, giant sand pile, sometimes called "The Gobi Dessert"! And when the wind blows, which is all the time, it makes for lots of dusty eyes and ears!

Our internet has been down about four days...again,

and when that happens we feel so homesick!

It is so good to connect with all of you and to be able to share with you

our experiences and thoughts when they are fresh on our minds!

The day our internet went down we received a letter from

my Mom and Dad, it made me feel a little homesick, also!

But, it was good to hear from them and to see their handwriting,

thanks for writing and I Love You Mom and Dad!

We are so proud of you, our family, and We Love You!

Love Mom and Dad

I just thought I would let everyone know that Ashlee's grandpa passed away this past Sunday morning. The funeral was today, everything was beautiful. He had Alzheimer's the past eight years or so. Hope everyone is doing well and recuperating nicely. Anybody can come visit any time. Is is getting up into the 90's now so pool parties are common.

26.2 Miles, 4 Very Sore Quads, and Blisters Too Numerous to Count

A day that will live on in injury.  On Saturday May 15, 2010 in Boise, Idaho, Trisha and I ran our first, and hopefully not last (talk to us next week about it) marathon.  (Trisha ran, I kind of did the ugly fish-flop, dog with rabies meander; however, we both made it over the finish line.)  And we did it without throwing up and/or peeing on ourselves, which is more than some runners could say.   Naturally, for the past month Boise had great cold running weather; a couple of days before the race, the weather turned uncomfortably hot.  The last half of the race, the temperatures were in the eighties ... not so fun.  Needless to say, the idea of sneaking into the hotel where Jody and Eldon and Jenny were staying for a nice swim and a 44 ounce mango slurpee helped encourage us to the end.  At the finish line, it was great to have "Team Anderson" cheering us on.  What a great accomplishment!  Jody and Tama say they are going to do it next year, and anyone else who wants to join in the fun.  Yes!  Anyway, here are a few photos and our stats.  Thanks Ovoo and Emaa for all the words of encouragement, we missed you, but are glad you are in Mongolia experiencing your own marathon of sorts.  Here are our stats:  

                      Trisha Anderson 125 overall, 42 in age group ... 4:31:01.9

                      Loren W. Anderson 36 overall, 8 in age group ... 3:32:08.7. 

Sunday Afternoon Visits

This street is on the way to the Ger District. People have fences around their yards. You knock on the fence gate and they come see who it is before you even enter the yard. You can see a ger behind the fence, to the left of the boy. Many of them live in one-room block, brick or wood houses, like the one to the far left.


This is Tagooch, she is 71 years old and such a cute and faithful member. She was baptized 4 years ago and has been to the Hong Kong Temple. She comes most every Sunday, to Relief Society on Wednesdays and helps clean the Church. She lives about a 30 minute walk from the Church. We walked through streets like the ones in the above picture and to her Ger, about a 40-45 minute walk. She has 2 cows she is raising. The shed is off the the right of the picture. She takes them out to graze every morning and goes and fetches them every night.

Her Ger has a dirt floor, bed, stove (pipe is on my left), a cupboard and some hay for her cows, she burns the cow pies for fuel! A couple of years ago her Ger burnt down, she lost everything, the Church helped her get a new one. She has some of her family that living next to her, so she has some help.

We made a second visit out to the other end of town. They call this area "Blue Town" because so many of the little, brick houses are painted blue. These pipes are water pipes. They are wrapped up and seem to do OK, even through the winter. You can see the kids walking on them and we have climbed over them more than once. They place these steps every so often, they are made of rebar, and I hold on very carefully!

These are some of the little kids we were visiting. The little girl in the black dress was electrocuted last Thurs, she is so lucky to be alive! The current went into her left arm, by her wrist and out the right side of her neck, you can't see any of the wounds in the picture. Dad and the Missionaries gave her a blessing. She is about 5 years old. The little girl on the left side is her little sister, she is about 2 years old. The little boy in the center is a cousin, they made sure I knew, that he was a boy! He is a year old, and here with his Mother, the parents sister, from the Countryside, "a long ways away". They were excited to have his picture taken because this is the first time it has been taken, so we made some copies to take to them.

We are realizing how blessed we are, it doesn't take much to be truly happy!

We have the Gospel and we live in a blessed land!

Jesus Christ and our families are really the only true source of happiness we need!
We Love all of You!!

Happy Mother's Day from Mongolia

To All the Daughter's, Mother's, Sister's and Women in Our Lives:

To all of our cute daughters and daughters-in-laws, whom we consider our daughters!

We are so very thankful for you, so grateful for your goodness!

Thankyou for being such cute Mother's, Sister's, Daughters and Aunts!

And especially for being such good examples to our wonderful grandchildren and to each other!

To My Own Sweet Mother:

I are so grateful for your wonderful example!

I appreciate your faith and confidence in us and in our family!

You are always so positive and complimentry.

Like the 2,000 Strippling Warriors we have been taught and we know of our Mother's/Grandmother's faith and love!

Thankyou for your testimony in Jesus Christ and His gospel and your example of living it!

WE ALL LOVE AND HONOR YOU!

HAVE A HAPPY DAY!

Flat Stanley's Mongolian Adventure Part - 2

The missionaries welcomed Elder Stanley! In Mongolia if they need an extra missionary for a day, or up to 6 weeks, they call a Mini Missionary. Elder Stanley helped for a couple of minutes! Elder Smith is from Utah, he leaves in a couple of weeks, he is being reassigned to North Carolina to finish his mission, Papa Richard and Elder Onon. Elder Onon is Mongolian, the first one we have seen with light hair and green eyes! He was serving in Ogden, Utah and was called back to Mongolia to help the mission, and us. He will finish his mission here in Choibalsan. They are all good missionaries.

We went for a walk to find a Ger and let Stanley visit. This Ger is about a 5 minute walk from our apartment. This little family was sitting just outside and we ask to take their picture. The little baby is waving to Ethan and all the school kids! The Gers are not very big, it would probably fit into your classroom. But, they are very warm. The white square thing you see in the door is a fireplace/stove. They have single beds along the outside walls and they sit on stools like the one the girl is sitting on. They go to a water building and get water in big barrels and push them on a cart, back to their Gers. And they use an outhouse, like at Willow Creek. They bath their babies is little, plastic tubs.

This is a picture of the Choibalsan City Library. I'm sorry I don't know who the Statue is. The two girls in front with Stanley are Church members. The short one is 17 years old, her name is Zalthbaa, she won the competition in English speaking from all the High Schools in Choibalsan. She is in Ulanbaatar right now at a competition for all of Mongolia High Schools. She translates for me at Church.

Stanley found one of the first little signs of spring, green grass in all of Choibalsan! We were excited!

These little kids were playing on the playground outside of our apartment. The always say "Hello" to us and giggle when we say "Hello" back. They were good to hold Stanley while we took their picture. And they liked the piece of candy Papa Richard gave to them. Mongolian children love to have their pictures taken! And they have such cute smiles, too!

We couldn't find anyone who had live camels. It is still a little early for them, they are still out on the grasslands in the Countryside (that is what they call the farmlands - Countryside). This camel was on a playground at a Kindergarten and the cart is attached to him . Stanley thought he was cool! He is the cutest camel we have seen in Choibalsan!

It has taken a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, but we are please to say that after months of toil Dad's Christmas cactus is still alive and is even blooming (in May, no less). Oh, and Joshua's doing well, too.