Weekly Update - "To The North"

Our Dear, Dear Family:

I am writing this letter to you rather late tonight from the Kiwi Hotel in Darkhan, a city north of Ulaanbaatar.

We left Ulaanbaatar early Friday morning (Linda, Kim, Josh, and I). I was assigned by the mission president to conduct a re-convened disciplinary council for two returned missionaries in Darkhan and then to visit all five branches in the Darkhan District to implement my returned missionary search and re-activation program.

Yesterday, Friday, we drove to the Zuunhara Branch, the last thirty kilometers being on very rough dirt roads. Zuunhara is a city of about 25,000 people with branch membership being about 250 people. They rent an old hospital building there and are renovating it into a very nice chapel. The branch president is a Mongolian missionary. There are one non-Mongolian and two non-Mongolian Sisters serving there. We returned back to the main highway and drove on to about five miles from the Russian border to the Selenge Branch in the city of Sukhbaatar. Again, the branch president is an outstanding Mongolian missionary. There we met a senior couple and several American missionaries. I went over the RM program with the branch president; we delivered mail; and Linda discussed family history. Sukhbaatar is in the mountains and we saw some very beautiful scenery. We also got snowed a bit.

We returned back to Darkhan and the Kiwi Hotel last night and then I convened the disciplinary councils. Both went well. The district president, President Zorigt, is a very fine man; the branch president, President Chukka, was in my branch at the MTC. There are two branches in Darkhan; we had the council in the first branch.

It snowed during the night, and we drove the three hours to Erdenet on very slick roads. There I went over the RM program with the very strong branch president, an older man who works at the big copper mine there. We had lunch with Elder and Sister Hodges who were in the MTC with us. Erdenet is the carpet-weaving center of Mongolia. Kim bought a beautify 9 x 12 rug for their apartment. We bought a smaller one for ours. Erdenet has a beautiful red brick chapel.

Back in Darkhan, we had dinner at the Texas Steak House with Zenemedeer, and old friend from the University here whom I trained in Utah, and his wife.

Tomorrow we will go to sacrament meeting in Darkhan 2nd Branch and then return to Ulaanbaatar.

On Wednesday night of this week, we invited Tsegmed and Tuya to our apartment for dinner. They are the two artists whom we brought to Utah when Tsegmed was injured and we got free critical medical treatment for him. I asked Tsegmed to paint a picture for me similar to red one in our basement but without the lines in the sky. He did paint one, about four feet by five feet. It is framed in a gold frame. The painting itself shows a man on horseback on a ledge overlooking a valley somewhat like monument valley with a magnificent red and orange sunset.

Also this week I met another old friend, Idevkten. I helped his daughter study at UVSC. She graduated, went to BYU where she was baptized, and now works in New York. We also brought his son who had a serious cleft palate and hare lip. We found doctors and dentists to help him. He is back in Ulaanbaatar now, is married, and has a baby. Idevkten will be named Deputy Minister for The Environment and Tourist this coming week. Dawagiv, past chief of the Police Academy, whom I also trained in Utah, brought us five kinds of wheat to try for cereal and cooking. We tried one on Friday morning; it was delicious.

The Ulaanbaatar weather is still not too cold. Perhaps this winter will not be as cold as anticipated.

Both of us are doing well. Linda has enjoyed this trip very much. She seems quite rested tonight.

We love you.
Love, Dad