Po Nien (Felipe) Chou - Voice of the Saints in Mongolia

Foreword

Odgerel Ochirjav

Odgerel Ochirjav was the first stake president in Mongolia.

W hen I first read of the early pioneers and Saints in the book Church History in the Fulness of Times in 2006, I was impressed to begin collecting information on how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established in my country, Mongolia, and to preserve the history of the early Mongolian Saints for future generations. At that time, I foresaw in my mind our children and their children reading their forebears history and receiving a renewal of faith as I had from reading the history of the early Church pioneers. However, I did not know how and where to start except to gather pictures and information of events that I knew and was a part of since I joined the Church.

I was baptized exactly two years after Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated Mongolia on 4 April 1993 for the preaching of the gospel, and, like those joining the Church at that time, we were rooted in the communist soil of religion is an opium. So learning about the Church meant first learning about religion and Christianity. These were the religious discussions we had never encountered before, which, along with the knowledge of religion, helped to lay the foundation of the Church in Mongolia by providing us with hope for this mortal life and the eternal life in the hereafter. Struggles from a regime change (from communism to democracy) were subsidized by the new hope received by early members of the Church who had enthusiastically embraced the truth. This hope helped to allow them to move forward despite societys skepticism of their rapid conversion from no religion to a foreign gospel amid all the chaotic socioeconomic changes our country faced during the 1990s.

Odgerel Ochirjav and Ariunchimeg (or Ariuna) Tserenjav and their children in Mongolia. Courtesy of Odgerel Ochirjav and Ariuna Tserenjav.

It was these rapid changes made in the life of these new members that I was blessed to witness over the last twenty-five years in Mongolia and that I desired to preserve for our future generations and for my dear wife, Ariunchimeg Tserenjav, who was also an early convert to the church. She supported my desire to start compiling records of Mongolian Church history with the hope that we would also hand down our own stories to our children and renew their faith just as the history of early pioneers has inspired other Saints.

I believe that our Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways as long as we are doing our part in prayer and deed. When my wife and I first met Po Nien (Felipe) Chou during a Church Educational System convention in November 2016 in Taipei, Taiwan, little did we know that our prayers would be answered to preserve the history of the Church in Mongolia. Felipes kind offer to help me publish news articles in Church publications about the Mongolian Saints was the start of this answer. After working on an article about our SION choirs participation in Mongolias Got Talent , published in the Liahona in 2017, Felipe and his dear wife, Petra, kindly agreed to help with my long-desired goal. Thus came the start of this project to write the history of the Church in Mongolia, a result of the long and hard work that they volunteered to offer.

From left to right, Odgerel Ochirjav (first stake president in Mongolia) and his wife, Ariunchimeg (or Ariuna) Tserenjav, with Petra Chou and Po Nien (Felipe) Chou, 21 June 2018, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Courtesy of Po Nien (Felipe) Chou and Petra Chou.

In June 2018, my wife and I had the special blessing of hosting Felipe and Petra in our home during their weeklong trip to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Their sole purpose was to lay the foundation for this project by interviewing Mongolian Saints to learn of their faith and conversion from their firsthand experiences. It was a great privilege to see both Brother and Sister Chou work tirelessly in partnership and show such a big interest in our peoples stories. And though we spoke different languages, I felt that we were all united in speaking the same language of love for the gospel.

Po Nien (Felipe) Chou and Petra Chou during their research trip in Mongolia, June 2018. Courtesy of Po Nien (Felipe) Chou and Petra Chou.

Throughout this project, I learned a great deal about the principles of service and dedication from the Chous, and their selfless sacrifice helped me understand how to minister in holier and higher ways. Spending hundreds and hundreds of their precious hours and personal means to search through pages of historical records and interview those who contributed to the Church establishment in Mongolia, the Chous brought a miracle to the Saints in Mongolia with their fine work. Anyone who reads Voice of the Saints in Mongolia will learn not only of the history of the Church there but also of the members, missionaries, and leaders there, and their legacy of faith in the true gospel of Jesus Christ. It is my hope that readers faith will be renewed to move forward and continue their own legacy of faith on the covenant path that leads to eternal life so that one day in heaven, we will all celebrate the history of the kingdom of God on earth.