Enkhtsetseg Mamaljav

“When I was a child, a fire broke out in our flat and my father died of asphyxiation in that accident. I was shocked. My father was the backbone of the family and after his death we faced numerous hardships. Mother was left homeless with four children to raise alone. We started moving from place to place and sometimes spent nights just outside if weather was warm. When we were hungry, I picked leftover food from garbages. It was not easy to survive and I learned a lot from this hardship. Now, I tend to compare other problems with that period of my life and toughen up thinking I survived that and can get over this.

I became a member of the church at the age of starting seminary classes, which was the right choice in pivotal moment of my life. The classes started at the sun rise, which looked fabulous in the Eastern province. The seminary children used to watch this beautiful scene daily. Although, there were drunkards and stray dogs that often chased us in dark mornings, it became my fond memory later in life after I relocated to Darkhan. To this day, we are good friends, possibly because we got over a lot together. We used to pick one another up from their homes to protect ourselves as much as we could and meanwhile, we learned a lot from one another. For instance, choosing the right friends, as it helps you meet new people or let people who match with your personality be around you, especially when you live in a new place….

Next, I learned to stick to my values. If I hadn’t been perseverant about going to seminary, I would not stay in the church to this day.

Lastly, I learned the ability to understand, love, and accept others as they are. The first time I went abroad was going to Hong Kong after marrying to my husband. Until I saw the different country in 2016, I used to be pessimistic about Mongolia and often thought to myself why the people were so poor and hostile to one another. Then, after living in Hong Kong for 10 days, and visiting the immaculately clean temple. I wanted to live in the beautiful luxurious place longer, but during the flight back to Mongolia, I looked out the window and saw another beautiful place. I begun to see the other side of my livelihood and the country as well and felt proud to be a Mongolian. Later, I could see the hardships of my country from a mother’s perspective after becoming a mother.

I serve my society through the church. I help malnourished children and women and girls. While working with two organizations in 2020, I was exposed to even worse social issues. One of organizations worked with children of alcoholics. I could not help myself blaming the society I was born in and wondered why the young generation pay the price of their parents’ mistakes; they can’t get an education, they can’t eat proper food? I saw this was one of the obstacles for their development. I have seen also parenting resources are limited for both the Mongolian education system and adults equally. I want to do something to fill this gap in future and I hope to achieve it in the reality.

I am the only active Christian in my family. My mother and sister are inactive, but they agree with the doctrine. My in-laws live in the countryside and follow Mongolian traditions, which I find difficult. My father-in-law used to deny Christianity and he is slowly getting better. After marriage, a daughter-in-law is supposed to offer first cup of tea to the spirits and the fire. On Lunar New Year, the locals have a ritual called “sun worship” and I had to participate. It seemed the people were worshiping something artificial, so I said to my father-in-law that doing this would not mean we were worshipping. He said, “Of course, our heritage is important,” and the doctrine teaches us not to be critical or against them. Now my in-laws have a relative understanding of our religion.