Friday August 3 12:01 AM ET
Religion in the News
By MICHAEL KOHN, Associated Press Writer

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia (AP) - Shaun Rosemann and Drew Wallace call it
their ``portafont.''

The two young Mormon missionaries took along the plastic baptismal
font, the size of a large bathtub, when they went to rural Mongolia
looking for souls to save.

The clean-cut, blue-eyed pair are part of an influx of foreign
missionaries engaged in a struggle to win believers in this
traditionally Buddhist country of 2.4 million people.

For nearly a year, the two missionaries taught English by day and
held weekend services in a rented discotheque. They filled the
portafont and baptized dozens of new Mongolian Mormons by immersing
them in it.

``We had the services in the morning and when we left, the room
became a bar again,'' said Rosemann, who has moved back to the
Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator with Wallace to continue their
missionary work.

A decade has passed since the end of 70 years of officially atheist
communism, and today visiting preachers find a ready audience as
Mongolians search for spiritual meaning amid worsening poverty.

Seventeen U.S. Protestant mission boards have 60 workers in Mongolia,
according to the new ``Mission Handbook'' from the Billy Graham
Center at Wheaton College in Illinois. No U.S. Roman Catholic
missionaries are listed.

More traditional Mongolians complain that foreign missionaries
threaten their Buddhist traditions.

``We are worried that Mongolia will become a Christian country,''
said Jamynsharaviin Ganzorig, one of 800 monks at Gandan Monastery,
Mongolia's biggest.

Western churches help the poor in a society where communist-era
social services have collapsed.

``The missionaries give money and food to poor people and draw them
to their church,'' Ganzorig charged. ``Some missionaries are
generous, but most just want to get members. It is hard to tell how
many are real Christians, because many just go to church so they can
study abroad.''

But a native evangelical Protestant pastor, the Rev. Yadamdorjiin
Bold of the Crown of Love Church, calls Buddhism a scourge that his
homeland should discard.

``Buddhism makes people lose their motivation,'' said Bold, 26.
``Before Buddhism came we were fierce warriors and ruled many
countries.''

Many Mongolian Buddhists are disillusioned with a religion that has
monks chanting services in Tibetan, a tongue no ordinary believers
understand. Christian pastors, by contrast, preach in Mongolian.

Others have lost faith in monks who have a reputation for drinking
and ignoring their vows of celibacy.

``They recite scriptures as a business,'' said Adrian Feldman, an
Australian Buddhist monk who is trying to teach Mongolians their
forgotten traditional faith.

An exception is Betub Danjai Choinkhorlon Monastery, which maintains
strict discipline for its young class of about 35 monks. It was set
up by a former Indian ambassador in a two-story traditional building
with whitewashed walls and ornately painted wooden eaves.

Prime Minister Nambariin Enkhbayar has endorsed this and other
Buddhist projects, including a planned Buddhist TV station. ``In
order not to lose our identity we need to keep the Buddhist
traditions,'' he said.

Among the most active foreign workers are Mormons, members of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This distinct faith,
based in Salt Lake City, Utah, is now building a five-story center in
Ulan Bator.

``Satan's temptations are everywhere in Mongolia,'' said recent
convert Dolomjaviin Zogselmaa during a visit by Wallace and Rosemann
to the canvas tent where she lives in Ulan Bator.

``My family joined the church to avoid smoking, fighting and
drinking,'' she said.

Wallace, 21, from Dallas, and Rosemann, 20, of Salt Lake City, spend
their days visiting Mormon converts at home. Between visits, they
chat with taxi drivers and students, urging all to attend services at
their downtown tabernacle.

Dressed in neatly pressed black suits and wearing plastic name
badges, the missionaries attract curious questions. Mongolian law
does not allow them to speak about religion unless first asked.

``The reward is when you see a change in a person. You see a light
turn on and you know they found the love of God and Jesus Christ,''
said Rosemann.

The Mormons hold Sunday services next door to Feldman's Buddhist
center. New members are submerged in a blue tile tub each Friday,
adding to a congregation that has surpassed 2,000 members.

``Mongolia should become a Mormon country,'' said Sister Ankhtuya, a
former Buddhist nun who converted three years ago after seeing a
movie on Jesus' life.