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