A long month

This has been the month to celebrate Tsagaan Sar (White or New Moon).  It could rival Christmas at home with cleaning, cooking, shopping and in all ways preparing for the celebration.  It follows the lunar calendar and signifies the end of a hard winter.  Bituun is the day before the New Moon and is spent cleaning the whole home (which is often a Ger) and then everyone eating until past full.  It is thought that if you are hungry when Tsagaan Sar starts, you will be hungry all year!

Cal in his deel and great fur hat,
with his new friend!!

The first day of Tsagaan Sar begins with the men climbing a nearby mountain in time to greet the sun and follow some of their other traditions.  Cal, along with some of the other missionaries, made the climb up Chingelti Mountain and had a fantastic time.  When they left, the computer said it was -35C, feeling like -43C.  He wore his new Deel (a long mongolian coat) and was not cold.  He commented that it certainly did cut down his stride length!!  They joined some others around a fire and got great shots of the sun coming up over the valley.  The smoke from the Gers made a surreal picture.

On their way down they saw a little girl outside her Ger and went to see if they could take a picture.  The rest of her family came out all dressed in their traditional clothes, were happy to have some photos taken and then invited them in for a real Tsagaan Sar meal.  It was a once in a lifetime chance for a camera happy Canadian!!

The man of the house cutting off some pieces of mutton from the whole sheep.
Their Ger was all decorated for the holiday.

That night we were able to go with some of the missionaries on the bus about 45 minutes from UB to visit one of the families in our Branch.  Visiting there, we discovered that it was the family of a girl suffering from Epilepsy who we had been trying to find.  There are no coincidences!!  We really are blessed as missionaries.  We left the Ger and headed to the highway to catch a bus back to UB.  Someone then told us that there were no more buses because they quit early on Tsagaan Sar.  It was about 8:15, dark and -35C.  There we were, 9 of us standing on the edge of the highway.  No taxis were coming until finally one, but the elders turned down his offer for a ride for some of us because he wanted 2000 tugs ($1.50 Cdn) each and they thought that was too much!    After about 25 minutes we noticed a few of the missionaries huddled in a group and praying.  Within 5 minutes here came a "meeker".  That is a 12 passenger little van with a few extra benches.  They have no hesitations to pile in as many people as are willing to try and just charge 1000 tugs.  In we went and had our first ride in a "meeker", 23 of us for a 45 minute ride!!  We felt blessed because it was cold!!

When we got back to our apartment, the whole day seemed to be unreal. It is hard to imagine we are really here in "Outer Mongolia", climbing a mountain at sunrise, visiting in two different Gers, eating "buuz" and other traditional food, finding someone we had been looking for, standing on the highway in the dark almost freezing to death and riding in a meeker!!

The missionaries put on a great talent show for the second day of Tsagaan Sar - it was amazing how much ability there is in this group of missionaries.  At least three of the American Elders are gifted pianists (keep practicing all you grandsons!!).  The Mongolians did several traditional songs and dances, they had a big fan dance and spelled out LDS, and even President Clark gave a rendition of "I tot I taw a Puddy Tat".  One of the funniest was Sister England's ballad of "Sly Sam".  It was funny in English but the funny part was watching  Elder Stranski try to translate it into Mongolian - I think it lost a bit in the translation!!

Some of the mountain climbers a bit better dressed

We had several invitations to go to different homes for the holiday.  One was to visit Sister Ichinkhand, one of the first members in Mongolia.  She is now ninety and each year invites all the Senior couples to her apartment for dinner.  She was one who helped translate the Book of Mormon into Mongolian.  She is the Matriarch of 4 generations of members of the Church.  Her Grandson is the Stake President.  Her friend Puji helped  us to communicate!  At each house we were served mutton, salads (always potato and sometimes others), rice pudding, and of course many "buuz".  They are steamed dumpling things - flour dough with meat inside - mutton or beef usually and some fat and a bit of spice.  Some of the missionaries claimed to have eaten over 150 during the week and several paid the price by being sick!!   Where ever you go there is always a bowl of candy ready to be eaten.

We have had more computer issues, thus the delay in reporting but things are looking up and we bought a new Sony one.  Apple is not very common in Mongolia!! (so not much servicing available!)

Life is good and All is Well