Weekly Update

Our Dear Family:

We celebrated our 49th wedding anniversary with lunch together at the Ukraine Restaurant and dinner with President and Sister Andersen. Most of the day, however, we were very busy with our work.

We would hope all of our children could be here in Mongolia on August 28th next year to help us celebrate our golden wedding anniversary. We will start saving now and will pay for one ticket for each couple if you can pay for the other. I have checked fares this month, a most airlines are flying round-trip Salt Lake City - Ulaanbaatar for $1168. If you can plan ten days or so, we can arrange some very good experiences for you. Please let us know what you think.

President Anderson came to my office this past week and asked if we liked our apartment or if we would like to move. The other senior couples live in much older, darker apartments with no view except the buildings around them. I think I told you our apartment is new and we are on the ninth floor with an elevator and a huge bay window overlooking downtown Ulaanbaatar. We have one bedroom, a modern bathroom, and a large kitchen, sitting area, and dining area. Needless to say, I told President Anderson we would prefer to stay here. He agreed that we should.

With Joshua's help we finally have wireless internet on my laptop. We bought a very small internet modem made in Korea called G-Mobile that will pick up internet anywhere in Mongolia and installed it yesterday. It is good to have internet in the apartment so that we can take better care of personal correspondence.

Both of us spent the week organizing our assigned duties. It seems that the things we are to do have been quite neglected in the past. It would be easier if we knew the local leaders and had more support with things that will otherwise take too long to learn. Linda does have part-time help in the Family History Center; I am trying to get secretarial and translation help in my office.

We continue to see old friends and it is very pleasant for us. This week we went to lunch with Batayev, former chief of the police academy and now a partner in a business firm, and with Uyanga, who worked as assistant to the former chairman of parliament who helped us with our livestock project. We have also talked to several others on the telephone.

The senior couples here have gotten together the past two Saturday nights and played games and had a good meal. We do have a ping pong table and pool table in the basement area of the Church headquarters building. Last night we had a new member of the group, a woman from BYU here on a Fulbright Scholarship.

I am amazed at the construction here in Ulaanbaatar. Without turning my head, I can see through our by window thirteen huge construction cranes; and looking 180 degrees, there are twenty-two. Also, there are many more buildings under construction by Chinese companies that are building the old Chinese way with pine poles for supports and a lift on the side of the building to haul construction materials to where they are working.

Several of our friends are coming to Church with us, including Bolormaa, whom I have known for ten years and has been in Utah several times. I hope her husband comes with her today.

I am getting closer to having a listing of all missionaries called here in Mongolia. When this is completed, hopefully this week, I will have it translated and send a list of missionaries called from each of the twenty branches to the branch presidents and ask them to report on what they know about these missionaries. Then I plan to meet with each of them and teach them what should be done to find lost missionaries, keep them active, and utilize their abilities in the branch. It will be a big job.

Please call or visit Mother as often as you can. I call her once a week. Last night her only two complaints were her almost total lack of sight now and her lack of visitors and telephone calls.

We love you.

Mother and Dad