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