Happy New Year

Our Dear Family:

Happy New Year! We pray that 2009 will bring all of you health, happiness, and prosperity. And, for Cameron, a wonderful experience in the MTC and a great mission.

This week has been busy with mostly mission meetings. We had a mission conference on Wednesday, transmission of he First Presidency Fireside on Thursday morning and lunch and entertainment by very talented missionaries in the afternoon. Friday we had a senior missionary conference in the morning and a celebration with the faculty and students of a college I helped set up here in 1994.

I played Santa Claus on Tuesday. I wish you could have been here to enjoy it with me. The president of our branch, Khan-Uul, and his wife went with me to five families. Four of them live in tiny houses in the slum area, the other lives in a ger. One was a single mother with a tiny baby who lives in the ger with her handicapped father. We bought a one and one-half ton truck full of coal and shared it with the families. We also took one hundred pounds of flour, twenty-five pounds of rice, and five quarts of milk to each family. For the children we bought clothing and toys, and formula for the little baby. One of the tiny houses, a single room, was built of warped plywood only.

Tuesday night a beautiful district choir presented a Christmas concert in our headquarters building. We had a VIP reception just before the concert and most of the people who attended were people in government whom I have befriended over the past fifteen years, including two former ambassadors to the U.S. and their wives. Gonchidorj could not come so Ariuna (who stayed with us in Orem for many months) came in his place.

Yesterday, Odnyam took Josh and me to the black market shopping. Josh bought some very nice, very warm high boots and warm gloves for him and Kim. I bought a large piece of high density foam, four inches thick, for Linda. We have been sleeping on deluxe air mattresses which I enjoy very much. She moves too much during the night and felt she was not resting well on the air mattress. I cut the foam to fit her bed, slid the bed next to the wall, and put the other half of the foam between our beds. Hopefully this will keep her from sliding her mattress off the bed.

I bought two very nice antiques: a burnished bronze bull with intricate brass decorations on it, and a bronze vase with a phoenix forming each side. They are perhaps hundreds of years old; and with tourists almost non-existent in the winter here, they were inexpensive.

We spent the afternoon at our branch Christmas party. It was almost like Christmas in Fremont when I was a child: Santa Claus (one of the Elders) with his huge bag of gifts (food and drinks), songs by over twenty Primary children in beautiful clothing, and numbers by other age groups. It was very pleasant.

Odnyam and his wife's sister (who is home from Germany for the holidays) took Josh, Kim, Linda, and I to a Korean restaurant for dinner. We were served by Andrew's favorite waitress. She speaks some English and does remember serving Andrew there.

Our Sabbath has been very pleasant. There is a sweet spirit in Khan-Uul branch.

We had light snow most of the day yesterday. This layer of snow on top of the ice already on the sidewalks makes walking a bit dangerous.

Josh and Kim have stayed with us in our apartment most of the week. There have been water problems in their apartment complex which should have been repaired before yesterday. The job was not finished last night, so they stayed over until today. They will go home later today. Hopefully the water problems will be taken care of.

We love you. We pray for you always.

Love, Mother and Dad