I will probably be writing shorter letters for a week or two. I am back to "hunt and peck" now since I fell today and broke my left arm quite badly between the elbow and my shoulder. I have a plaster of paris cast from my wrist to my shoulder.
Dad
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
We Love You!
Our Dear Family:
It has been very special talking with some of you on Skype this week. We will continue to call as we can.
Linda has been in the apartment all week and is finally much better tonight. She will go to her office for half the day tomorrow. Her work in Family History has not slowed down, however. Her three assistants have kept her programs going well. I have made basic preparations to begin teaching American History and Culture at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology on Wednesday of this week. I found some useful materials at the U.S.Consulate room at the Ulaanbaatar Public Library. Their collection is painfully sparse, however, so I will rely very much on my own memory and the internet.
Our January group returned on Friday from their Temple Trip to Hong Kong. You must be able to imagine how much a blessing this is for them. One sister who returned from her mission to Ohio a couple of weeks before the trip came to my office as soon as she got off the train to tell me how wonderful it was. Maybe I did mention before that I am organizing temple trips for returned missionaries in June and November.
Again this week returned missionaries were in and out of my office every day. Several of them have been inactive and are responding to my weekly e-mail letters and the encouragement of branch presidents and other returned missionaries. This is one of the real blessings in my work.
We have decided to celebrate our fiftieth wedding anniversary after we return home so every one in the family can be with us. We are working out travel details for those who want to come here this summer.
It is exciting and a great blessing to watch the leaders and members grow in strength and faith in Khan-Uul Branch, the branch we are assigned to help. The attendance at meetings grows some every Sunday. Tsegmed still comes every Sunday and sits with me.
When I first attended this branch more than ten years ago, it was small and very disorganized. So much has happened since then.
I have taught Linda's Tuesday and Thursday night English class while she has been ill. Three people have been baptized from this class and it is easy to see that many more are preparing to join the Church. Last Thursday night I gave each student a page with "What is a Good Life?" typed in large letters across the top. I asked all of them to write their feelings and then had some stand and read what they had written. I also collected all of the papers. It was very heart warming to read and hear their words. We teach them English, but of course it has some Gospel content. Every student wrote such things as family, good marriage, love, concern for others, service, good education--almost like they are Church members already.
Josh and Kim spent the afternoon with us again today. They are in a different branch and are the Gospel Doctrine teachers for a class for non-Mongolian speakers. It is good to have time with them.
We love you. Our prayers are with you always.
Love, Mother and Dad
It has been very special talking with some of you on Skype this week. We will continue to call as we can.
Linda has been in the apartment all week and is finally much better tonight. She will go to her office for half the day tomorrow. Her work in Family History has not slowed down, however. Her three assistants have kept her programs going well. I have made basic preparations to begin teaching American History and Culture at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology on Wednesday of this week. I found some useful materials at the U.S.Consulate room at the Ulaanbaatar Public Library. Their collection is painfully sparse, however, so I will rely very much on my own memory and the internet.
Our January group returned on Friday from their Temple Trip to Hong Kong. You must be able to imagine how much a blessing this is for them. One sister who returned from her mission to Ohio a couple of weeks before the trip came to my office as soon as she got off the train to tell me how wonderful it was. Maybe I did mention before that I am organizing temple trips for returned missionaries in June and November.
Again this week returned missionaries were in and out of my office every day. Several of them have been inactive and are responding to my weekly e-mail letters and the encouragement of branch presidents and other returned missionaries. This is one of the real blessings in my work.
We have decided to celebrate our fiftieth wedding anniversary after we return home so every one in the family can be with us. We are working out travel details for those who want to come here this summer.
It is exciting and a great blessing to watch the leaders and members grow in strength and faith in Khan-Uul Branch, the branch we are assigned to help. The attendance at meetings grows some every Sunday. Tsegmed still comes every Sunday and sits with me.
When I first attended this branch more than ten years ago, it was small and very disorganized. So much has happened since then.
I have taught Linda's Tuesday and Thursday night English class while she has been ill. Three people have been baptized from this class and it is easy to see that many more are preparing to join the Church. Last Thursday night I gave each student a page with "What is a Good Life?" typed in large letters across the top. I asked all of them to write their feelings and then had some stand and read what they had written. I also collected all of the papers. It was very heart warming to read and hear their words. We teach them English, but of course it has some Gospel content. Every student wrote such things as family, good marriage, love, concern for others, service, good education--almost like they are Church members already.
Josh and Kim spent the afternoon with us again today. They are in a different branch and are the Gospel Doctrine teachers for a class for non-Mongolian speakers. It is good to have time with them.
We love you. Our prayers are with you always.
Love, Mother and Dad
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Weekly Report - January 19 2009
Our Dear, Dear Family:
The weeks are slipping by, not too quickly, but slipping. It is not easy, but we are grateful to be here.
This week has been unusually warm. At this time of the year it is supposed to be forty below and we have had a week with temperatures thirty below and above. The flu seems to be everywhere, though. I am just about over it; Linda has been in the apartment for five days without leaving due to a bad case of flu. I guess the cold, the very dirty air, and flu germs we have no immunity against have ganged up on us.
Monday night of this week we went to Odnyam's inauguration as president of one of four chapters of the Junior Chamber International here in Ulaanbaatar. It was an impressive event with an appropriate ceremony and a good meal. I was most impressed with the members of the chapter: mostly young men and women with their own businesses or working for a major corporation. I am hoping Odnyam can work with me in finding jobs for our members through the four chapters in Ulaanbaatar and two out-lying cities.
One of the best experiences I have had here was on Saturday afternoon. The Church was invited by the Bha'i Faith group here to attend a conference. As public affairs director I went with two of our council to the meeting. It was sponsored by the World Bank and hosted by Bha'i. We were the only Christian representatives there and there were representatives of Buddhism, Islam, Shintoism, Bha'i, and the International Foundation for the Preservation of Religion. The occasion was World Religion Day, which is celebrated the third weekend in January. Each group offered a prayer. I prayed on behalf of the Christians. Each prayer was much the same: for love, peace, brotherly kindness, world understanding, etc. Also one woman read a prayer on behalf of Judaism; another read a prayer on behalf of Hinduism. There were about 100 people in attendance. The spirit of the whole event was exceptionally peaceful and friendly.
Our meetings in Khan-Uul branch were very well today. I was especially pleased that two previously inactive returned missionaries I have met over the past month came at my invitation. One was a brother who has been working in Korea; the other was a happy, special sister that the other returned missionaries call "Super Sara." She is one of the happiest most positive people I have ever met. She was late for Sacrament meeting but came to me right after the closing prayer and said: "I'm here and the branch president has asked me to be a Sunday School teacher." My returned missionary reactivation brings good experiences like this every week. Too, since my calling as Sunday School president last month, I have gotten the Sunday School organized and going very smoothly. I have good people to work with; the Sunday School secretary is a returned missionary sister who was in the MTC when I served there.
"
We are in the process of preparing a Church program called "Family Enrichment" for implementation here. It is basically a family home evening program without directly tieing Church identity into it. I hope other will agree with my idea of having a public fireside at the Church to introduce it with TV and newspaper reporters invited.
Elder Nelson will be here on February 16th and 17th. We are renting a huge hall for his meeting with the Church members. We are also working to arrange for him to meet with the President of Mongolia. The advisor to the president on religious affairs is a good friend of mine. He will make this happen if at all possible.
Linda had planned a training for branch Family History consultants yesterday; but since she was ill and could not go, her three assistants did the training based on what she has taught them. Their report back to us was excellent.
Joshua and Kimberly spent the afternoon with us today and we had a good meal together and a lot of time to talk. Joshua also got Skype set up on my computer, so we hope to call you more often. If any of you have Skype, please let us know.
I hope you remember Joshua's birthday on February 4th. I gave him his present tonight, a nice del (the long Mongolian robe) with a bright orange sash. But before that, Aspen's birthday is on 22nd and Becki's on the 28th.
We miss all of you so very much. We love you and pray for you always.
Love, Dad and Mother
The weeks are slipping by, not too quickly, but slipping. It is not easy, but we are grateful to be here.
This week has been unusually warm. At this time of the year it is supposed to be forty below and we have had a week with temperatures thirty below and above. The flu seems to be everywhere, though. I am just about over it; Linda has been in the apartment for five days without leaving due to a bad case of flu. I guess the cold, the very dirty air, and flu germs we have no immunity against have ganged up on us.
Monday night of this week we went to Odnyam's inauguration as president of one of four chapters of the Junior Chamber International here in Ulaanbaatar. It was an impressive event with an appropriate ceremony and a good meal. I was most impressed with the members of the chapter: mostly young men and women with their own businesses or working for a major corporation. I am hoping Odnyam can work with me in finding jobs for our members through the four chapters in Ulaanbaatar and two out-lying cities.
One of the best experiences I have had here was on Saturday afternoon. The Church was invited by the Bha'i Faith group here to attend a conference. As public affairs director I went with two of our council to the meeting. It was sponsored by the World Bank and hosted by Bha'i. We were the only Christian representatives there and there were representatives of Buddhism, Islam, Shintoism, Bha'i, and the International Foundation for the Preservation of Religion. The occasion was World Religion Day, which is celebrated the third weekend in January. Each group offered a prayer. I prayed on behalf of the Christians. Each prayer was much the same: for love, peace, brotherly kindness, world understanding, etc. Also one woman read a prayer on behalf of Judaism; another read a prayer on behalf of Hinduism. There were about 100 people in attendance. The spirit of the whole event was exceptionally peaceful and friendly.
Our meetings in Khan-Uul branch were very well today. I was especially pleased that two previously inactive returned missionaries I have met over the past month came at my invitation. One was a brother who has been working in Korea; the other was a happy, special sister that the other returned missionaries call "Super Sara." She is one of the happiest most positive people I have ever met. She was late for Sacrament meeting but came to me right after the closing prayer and said: "I'm here and the branch president has asked me to be a Sunday School teacher." My returned missionary reactivation brings good experiences like this every week. Too, since my calling as Sunday School president last month, I have gotten the Sunday School organized and going very smoothly. I have good people to work with; the Sunday School secretary is a returned missionary sister who was in the MTC when I served there.
"
We are in the process of preparing a Church program called "Family Enrichment" for implementation here. It is basically a family home evening program without directly tieing Church identity into it. I hope other will agree with my idea of having a public fireside at the Church to introduce it with TV and newspaper reporters invited.
Elder Nelson will be here on February 16th and 17th. We are renting a huge hall for his meeting with the Church members. We are also working to arrange for him to meet with the President of Mongolia. The advisor to the president on religious affairs is a good friend of mine. He will make this happen if at all possible.
Linda had planned a training for branch Family History consultants yesterday; but since she was ill and could not go, her three assistants did the training based on what she has taught them. Their report back to us was excellent.
Joshua and Kimberly spent the afternoon with us today and we had a good meal together and a lot of time to talk. Joshua also got Skype set up on my computer, so we hope to call you more often. If any of you have Skype, please let us know.
I hope you remember Joshua's birthday on February 4th. I gave him his present tonight, a nice del (the long Mongolian robe) with a bright orange sash. But before that, Aspen's birthday is on 22nd and Becki's on the 28th.
We miss all of you so very much. We love you and pray for you always.
Love, Dad and Mother
Sunday, January 11, 2009
January 12 2009
Our Dear, Dear Family:
It was wonderful talking with so many of you this week. It does, however, make us a bit homesick hearing your voices and not being able to see you and talk with you longer.
The past week has not been too good for me: the flu I caught over two months ago just keeps hanging on. Finally, on Thursday I just could not get going, so I stayed in the apartment and did not go out at all until this morning (Monday). Linda came to the apartment late morning on Thursday with President Andersen and Elder Andersen, our mission doctor. They gave me a blessing and later Linda brought home an antibiotic that Dr.Andersen prescribed. I felt good enough to come to the office this morning and have been quite busy. I do not know, though, if I will make it through the whole day.
Linda and her three staff members put together a fireside for last night about tribes in Mongolia. Each person does belong to a specific tribe, must most Mongolians do not know their tribe name. Knowing their tribe name will help immensely with their family history since all Mongolians take their father's given name as their surname: so no continuity in surnames. Linda learned about this a month or two ago and found a book with all of the tribes and their locations. She also visited the National Archives and Civil Records Office for more help. Hundreds of members and non-members came to the fireside last night. It was a total success. I am truly proud of what she has done with this project and with all she is doing in family history. The Family History director for Asia even came up from Hong Kong for the fireside.
The days I was in the office last week I spent mostly with the returned missionary project. We are making good progress in finding and re-activating missionaries but still have a long way to go. I have gotten reports from all of the branch presidents in Mongolia, from active returned missionaries, from BYU-Hawaii, and from BYU-Provo. No one has fully accurate records, including the Mission. This will be a continued effort for me throughout our entire mission.
The weather continues to be unseasonably warm with morning temperatures thirty below or so, and afternoons getting up to zero.
We love you. Thank you for the letters you write to us.
Love, Mother and Dad
It was wonderful talking with so many of you this week. It does, however, make us a bit homesick hearing your voices and not being able to see you and talk with you longer.
The past week has not been too good for me: the flu I caught over two months ago just keeps hanging on. Finally, on Thursday I just could not get going, so I stayed in the apartment and did not go out at all until this morning (Monday). Linda came to the apartment late morning on Thursday with President Andersen and Elder Andersen, our mission doctor. They gave me a blessing and later Linda brought home an antibiotic that Dr.Andersen prescribed. I felt good enough to come to the office this morning and have been quite busy. I do not know, though, if I will make it through the whole day.
Linda and her three staff members put together a fireside for last night about tribes in Mongolia. Each person does belong to a specific tribe, must most Mongolians do not know their tribe name. Knowing their tribe name will help immensely with their family history since all Mongolians take their father's given name as their surname: so no continuity in surnames. Linda learned about this a month or two ago and found a book with all of the tribes and their locations. She also visited the National Archives and Civil Records Office for more help. Hundreds of members and non-members came to the fireside last night. It was a total success. I am truly proud of what she has done with this project and with all she is doing in family history. The Family History director for Asia even came up from Hong Kong for the fireside.
The days I was in the office last week I spent mostly with the returned missionary project. We are making good progress in finding and re-activating missionaries but still have a long way to go. I have gotten reports from all of the branch presidents in Mongolia, from active returned missionaries, from BYU-Hawaii, and from BYU-Provo. No one has fully accurate records, including the Mission. This will be a continued effort for me throughout our entire mission.
The weather continues to be unseasonably warm with morning temperatures thirty below or so, and afternoons getting up to zero.
We love you. Thank you for the letters you write to us.
Love, Mother and Dad
Happy New Year
Our Dear, Dear Family:
We love you and miss you so very much. Every day we wish we could be with you and still be serving here. We know this is where we should be right now; but being away from you is hard.
We had dinner with Josh and Kim tonight at their apartment. We attend Church meetings at different buildings, so they came by taxi to our building after the meetings and then we went on to their school. It was a very pleasant evening with them. Their school and apartment are at the base of the mountains south of Ulaanbaatar; we are in the center of the city. They are off the usual taxi route, so we called Odnyam and he called a taxi to pick us up.
Our branch president, Tsog, is a returned missionary from Russia (probably about six years ago) and is a very good man and a very good leader. I am enjoying working with him and we build up Khan-Uul Branch. I think I wrote earlier about his asking me to serve as Sunday School President. We chose two counselors and a secretary to work with me. The secretary, Ariuka, I first met when we went to the big copper mine, Oyu Tolgoi. She is a returned missionary and I knew her in the MTC. Since neither of the counselors speaks English, she will be very important to us. One counselor is just being reactivated; the other is a fairly new convert and almost totally deaf (we are seeking fast offering funds to buy hearing aids for him). Both of them are committed to learn and help strengthen the Sunday School. We had our first meeting today and also made some big strides in improving the Sunday School in the branch. This seems somewhat new here. The district president is in our branch and he told me today that they do not have a district Sunday School presidency. Training and example are important parts of our responsibilities. Also, today Linda learned that one of the two Family History consultants she has been training in the branch has gotten a visa to move to Sweden to be with a sister there. She told President Tsog and within minutes he had called another woman (who even speaks English) to work with Linda.
There was a lot of partying and fireworks here for the new year. We stayed at home at watched the fireworks from our picture window. Work at the headquarters building slowed down as well since many of the employees, many of whom I work with in my assignments, were on vacation for one or two weeks.
My work has been slowed down this week and it will take a while to get back up to full efficiency. Zula, who has been my secretary since I arrived here, left for Utah on Wednesday. She has wanted to get into the BYU nursing school since she returned from her mission four years ago. She could not, however, pass the English tests with a high enough score to be admitted to BYU or another college. So, I helped her get into a real good English school in Salt Lake owned, operated, and taught by an Armenian woman whom I hired at UVSC. Zula should be able to get into BYU for fall semester. This is the first visa for English study in the U.S. I have been able to help a student get. I wrote a letter to the consulate explaining her desire to get a RN degree and then come back and work with others to improve nursing in Mongolia. She was told by the interviewing officer that more medical people should study abroad; and he issued her visa immediately. This put everything in high gear: she got her visa on Monday, we got the last available ticket on Tuesday, and she left on Wednesday. Now I starting over with a new secretary.
The new secretary is also a returned Utah Provo Mission Sister and is the wife of President Tsog. She is very good but it will take a while to train her and get her fully involved in my RM search and activation program.
The weather is still warm by Mongolian standards, actual temperatures being minus twenty to minus 35. If the sun shines and the wind does not blow out of Siberia, it is not bad at all. The pollution is very bad, especially in the morning and evening. We wear surgical masks when we walk very much outside. When we go to the office at the same time, we walk together. If I leave early, rather than Linda chancing a fall, she comes by taxi (only about $1 ride). Two of the senior sisters fell on the ice this past week: President Andersen's wife badly sprained one of her knees; Sister Caldwell (she and her husband arrive only about a month ago) broke her arm quite badly between her elbow and shoulder. We are careful on the slippery sidewalks; Linda has warm boots with deep rubber cleats.
Our apartment continues to be warm and comfortable. We cook good meals at home (most American products are available here at rather high prices) and we eat out occasionally for lunch. There is a Chinese restaurant, a fast-food Chicken cafe, an Indian restaurant, an almost American restaurant, and a Ukrainian restaurant within minutes of our building. Some days we will take sandwiches for lunch; some days we will have ramen noodles.
We get tired by the end of a long day; but we are in good health.
We love you. We appreciate your letters so very much.
Love, Dad and Mother
We love you and miss you so very much. Every day we wish we could be with you and still be serving here. We know this is where we should be right now; but being away from you is hard.
We had dinner with Josh and Kim tonight at their apartment. We attend Church meetings at different buildings, so they came by taxi to our building after the meetings and then we went on to their school. It was a very pleasant evening with them. Their school and apartment are at the base of the mountains south of Ulaanbaatar; we are in the center of the city. They are off the usual taxi route, so we called Odnyam and he called a taxi to pick us up.
Our branch president, Tsog, is a returned missionary from Russia (probably about six years ago) and is a very good man and a very good leader. I am enjoying working with him and we build up Khan-Uul Branch. I think I wrote earlier about his asking me to serve as Sunday School President. We chose two counselors and a secretary to work with me. The secretary, Ariuka, I first met when we went to the big copper mine, Oyu Tolgoi. She is a returned missionary and I knew her in the MTC. Since neither of the counselors speaks English, she will be very important to us. One counselor is just being reactivated; the other is a fairly new convert and almost totally deaf (we are seeking fast offering funds to buy hearing aids for him). Both of them are committed to learn and help strengthen the Sunday School. We had our first meeting today and also made some big strides in improving the Sunday School in the branch. This seems somewhat new here. The district president is in our branch and he told me today that they do not have a district Sunday School presidency. Training and example are important parts of our responsibilities. Also, today Linda learned that one of the two Family History consultants she has been training in the branch has gotten a visa to move to Sweden to be with a sister there. She told President Tsog and within minutes he had called another woman (who even speaks English) to work with Linda.
There was a lot of partying and fireworks here for the new year. We stayed at home at watched the fireworks from our picture window. Work at the headquarters building slowed down as well since many of the employees, many of whom I work with in my assignments, were on vacation for one or two weeks.
My work has been slowed down this week and it will take a while to get back up to full efficiency. Zula, who has been my secretary since I arrived here, left for Utah on Wednesday. She has wanted to get into the BYU nursing school since she returned from her mission four years ago. She could not, however, pass the English tests with a high enough score to be admitted to BYU or another college. So, I helped her get into a real good English school in Salt Lake owned, operated, and taught by an Armenian woman whom I hired at UVSC. Zula should be able to get into BYU for fall semester. This is the first visa for English study in the U.S. I have been able to help a student get. I wrote a letter to the consulate explaining her desire to get a RN degree and then come back and work with others to improve nursing in Mongolia. She was told by the interviewing officer that more medical people should study abroad; and he issued her visa immediately. This put everything in high gear: she got her visa on Monday, we got the last available ticket on Tuesday, and she left on Wednesday. Now I starting over with a new secretary.
The new secretary is also a returned Utah Provo Mission Sister and is the wife of President Tsog. She is very good but it will take a while to train her and get her fully involved in my RM search and activation program.
The weather is still warm by Mongolian standards, actual temperatures being minus twenty to minus 35. If the sun shines and the wind does not blow out of Siberia, it is not bad at all. The pollution is very bad, especially in the morning and evening. We wear surgical masks when we walk very much outside. When we go to the office at the same time, we walk together. If I leave early, rather than Linda chancing a fall, she comes by taxi (only about $1 ride). Two of the senior sisters fell on the ice this past week: President Andersen's wife badly sprained one of her knees; Sister Caldwell (she and her husband arrive only about a month ago) broke her arm quite badly between her elbow and shoulder. We are careful on the slippery sidewalks; Linda has warm boots with deep rubber cleats.
Our apartment continues to be warm and comfortable. We cook good meals at home (most American products are available here at rather high prices) and we eat out occasionally for lunch. There is a Chinese restaurant, a fast-food Chicken cafe, an Indian restaurant, an almost American restaurant, and a Ukrainian restaurant within minutes of our building. Some days we will take sandwiches for lunch; some days we will have ramen noodles.
We get tired by the end of a long day; but we are in good health.
We love you. We appreciate your letters so very much.
Love, Dad and Mother
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
