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.

Flat Stanley's Mongolian Adventure - Part I

Flat Stanley is visiting a Buddhist Monastery by our house. We have seen several of these Monasteries in Choibalsan, the Buddhist Religion is the main religion in Mongolia. We got permission to take this picture. I hope we can get more this summer. This statue is a favorite we have seen it in pictures and now, as statue. An elephant, monkey, rabbit and bird, they represent cooperation and helping. The animals wanted some fruit that was too high to reach by themselves. They worked together and helped each other and was able to pick the fruit and eat it.

This is a "Choibalsan City" sign, written in the Old Mongolian language. Some of the kids in school still learn this way of writing. This sign is in the center of the park. The blue-roofed building in the background is the Wrestling Palace. They have all kinds of events there, concerts and wrestling matches during holidays, dance competitions, and community dances on Saturday night, we can hear the music at our house, which is about 4 blocks away.

Stanley wanted a ride on the horse, Papa Richard had to hold him on. They use these horses and carts to deliver things to people. This horse was carrying some chairs on his cart. Papa Richard gave the driver a piece of candy for letting us take a picture.

Russian Dolls - they nest together. Stanley is standing on the tinest one. This statue is at the other end of town by a neighborhood called "Schmoo" (not sure of spelling). It is "Russian Town", a neighborhood built by the Russians during World War II. We go down this way twice a week to teach English at the Red Cross. (Next week we will take Stanley to English class)

This is Nadanguaa, (Her name means "Cutest Sun"). All the Mongolian names have meaning. And she is a little cutie! She is 3 years old and dressed in a Child's Summer Mongolian Deel. (pronounced Dell). She is the Branch President's little daughter and the sweetheart of the Choibalsan Branch.

Wrapping up the Babies

Baby ready to go! He has a space just big enough to breath and open his eyes! They are secure, tight and can be carried easily. This reminded me of how an Indian mother would wrap up her baby. It is quite a process and when they are through, like the picture above, you could hold the baby with one hand and he would not bend. I held one of the babies while they were wrapping up the other, it was as stiff as a board and fell asleep while waiting.

I got the pictures mixed up, this is actually the final tieing, they use a piece of cloth to tie it up.

This is the final wrapping, it is done carefully and every fold is smoothed out. If I would have wrapped up my babies as they do, I think I would have met some resistance and some loud protesting! There is quite an audience whenever the babies come to church.

This is actually the second wrapping, he has a light receiving blanket under this one, to cover his head. I couldn't get my camera out fast enough to catch the first wrapping. They tuck in his arms and wrap them up tight.

The mother is holding the other baby, her name is Bolormaa, she was baptized. She had the twins about 4 months ago, she has 5 children - all boys. BolorErdene, on the end, is her sister, she is a member. Elder Gurrachaa baptized her, Elder Altansukh, holding a little boy, yes boy, is sure cute with the kids, he is always helping. One of the sisters leaned over to me and whispered "Mongol Baby", I thought, "Oh yes, I'm holding a Mongolian baby!" And it is just as cute as American babies,

But, not as cute as my babies were or my sweet, grandchildren!! Sorry, everyone else!

We're so grateful for the experiences we are having!

So grateful to be on a Mission!

And so grateful for our knowledge of a loving Heavenly Father and of His wonderful son,

our Savior, Jesus Christ!

We Love each of You, our Family and Friends,

so very much and miss you all a lot!