Conference Here Too

Our Dear, Dear Family:

Yesterday and today we have enjoyed General Conference on DVD recorded in Salt Lake and sent to us. It has been a beautiful experience. I do not recall a Priesthood meeting that was more inspiring. Especially the talks by the First Presidency were exceptional. The senior couples and other English-speaking members here met at the mission home for the conference; and, last night we went together for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Between sessions today we had pot-luck. It was a good meal. But, most of all Conference lifted us up so very much.

Andrew called us this morning and told us of his week in Fremont. It was so good to hear his voice and to share that experience by telephone. As much as we love the work here, we do miss all of you very much and do miss both Springville and Fremont a lot.

Les, Tamar, Joshua, Amanda, and Aspen are going to Fremont this week to put the new windows in. The cost will be about $2,000. We hope that all of the family can contribute toward this amount. We can pay some, of course, but our expenses here are much more than we had anticipated.

Tamar called and we talked about Becki's situation. Thank you, Tamar, for you concern for her and help for her and us. And, Becki, keep in touch. In times like this, a good support system is critical.

The weather here so far is unbelievably warm. The mornings are barely down to freezing; the afternoons are in the high fifties. We know, though, that the cold is coming. Ulaanbaatar ordinarily does not get a lot of snow, the cold will be extreme.

Thursday afternoon one of the first college presidents I brought to Utah for training in 1996 unexpectedly walked into my office and talked for hours. He repeated told me how much he appreciates and how much he has used what we taught him in Utah and followed up in sessions here. I taught Steven Covey's "Seven Habits" the first time ever at his college in 1996. He wants me to teach them at his college again and also lecture to his graduate students. Most gratifying was his statement that because some of his graduates had been dishonest in their jobs, he had changed the emphasis in many of his classes, teaching honesty and ethics (based in part on Covey's book). I have also learned that the book I helped write on the U.S. higher education system is still the "bible" for the colleges and universities here; and the accreditation system I helped establish is functioning very well. This president was on the commission for five years and is an advisor for it now. Their members travel to the U.S. to meet with accreditation commissions there to improve their performance here.

We continue to find and begin the re-activation of returned missionaries. This is most pleasant and meaningful. I have to do a lot of follow-up and training because the branch leaders are not experienced enough yet to understand and fully appreciate what we are trying to do. And, then there is the Mongolian attitude of no urgency, no follow-up (generally speaking).

It seems our challenges with the government are quite well settled down. We have the visas for the next group of missionaries, who will arrive here in a couple of weeks and our Church registration seems solid now.

I bought a two- or three-month supply of potatoes, carrots, beets, and onions this week and have created a "root cellar" on our balcony with a large wooden box and lot of insulation. We also have a good supply of canned and dried foods inside the apartment. We even have a fair amount of filtered water we have stored in plastic one-liter grapefruit juice bottles we have enjoyed the juice from.

On Thursday night we enjoyed dinner at the apartment of Brother Richard Huei, a German brother who was baptized forty years ago and at one time even lived in Salt Lake. He found us here and has now received the Aaronic and Melchizidek Priesthood. He and his son are in Mongolia doing several kinds of business. He is an attorney and an international investment banker as well. I have thought for years of finding support to build low-cost housing here to sell to people who now live in gers on the outskirts of the city. In the winter, the coal they burn for heat buries the Ulaanbaatar valley in heavy smoke. Brother Huei is now moving ahead on this project and we reviewed his plans before dinner Thursday evening. His units will each have twenty apartments. The apartments will sell for about US$10,000. They will have solar heat and light. The walls will be built with a special concrete and styrofoam mixture that will be pressed in a German-made press. The blocks will resemble "lagos" and will fit very tightly and very very insulated.

Batayev, recently-retired chief of the Mongolia Police Academy, whom I trained in Utah in the late '90's, and who introduce us to the legal advisor to the Mongolian president, called Friday morning and said he was coming to pick us up at 1:30. He did not say for what, but when he came, he to us to the headquarters of a large congolomorate of companies he directs. They have meat-packing plants and other livestock product companies and also have the only food testing lab in Mongolia. We toured his lab with him. It was most impressive, almost like something we would see in the U.S. He then took us to his daughter's small hotel where we had an excellent late lunch.

Batayev is a very special man. I gave him a Book of Mormon when he was in Utah, and he has read it. He also told me that one night he was driving on a rough back-country road and picked up two young men who were trying to get home. He recognized them as our missionaries from their badges (I had introduced missionaries to him before). He took them to their apartment; and when he went to his car the next morning he found the Book of Mormon and a Church pamphlet in the back of his car. His good impression of he Church will continue to be very helpful to us here.

I visited the headquarters of the Ivanhoe Mines Company (a large Canadian company that manages a number of smaller mining companies in the Gobi Desert) to get permission to visit their site next weekend to meet with members of the Church who work there. Many of them are returned missionaries. I have communicated with them by e-mail; they are very anxious for us to visit them, and so are we.

Joshua and Kim continue to do very well. Josh is proving to be a very good teacher at the American School and enjoys it a lot. They are here now and will have dinner with Bother Huei, his fiancee, and us.

We love you. Please do write. And, please visit Mother. She is so very lonely. I do call her at least once a week, but she does need family visitors.

We love you.

Mother and Dad