I have finished my work for today and am waiting for Linda to finish her English class in about fifteen minutes, so I thought I would write and tell you some of the more mundane and daily things I have not really written before:
Our apartment is small: we have the entrance which has the hangers for our heavy coats and hats and doors to the small bathroom and small bedroom. This hallway opens into the one room that is our kitchen, sitting room, and dining room. It is about ten feet wide and twenty feet long. The west end of this room is all a bay window and looks out over the center of Ulaanbaatar City. As you saw in the pictures we sent, the room is adequately furnished. We do have an old TV with channels mostly in Mongolian. Those in English are geared to a Russian and Australian audience.
Our bedroom has two beds that were made up when we arrived with a plywood mattress covered by a sheet and a comforter. We have since added high quality air mattresses (the only soft mattresses in the country) and pairs of sheets. We both brought our own pillows. The beds are pushed together with about one foot on either side. There is a closet about eighteen inches from the foot of the beds. It has enough space to hang only very basic clothing. There are a few small storage areas on the side and the too and two small drawers on the bottom. We have stored our suitcases on top of the closet and at the head of our beds. It is adequate for sleeping in, so we have no real complaint.
We do have an automatic washer which is in our small bathroom. It works quite well, but is filled with water direct from the outside water line which is not very clean (we have three filters for our drinking water and when we change them, they are very dirty). Our refrigerator and stove are very small. We cannot get a regular sheet cake pan in the oven. We do have a small microwave.
Starting the day with a bath is a bit time-consuming: we do get heated water from the main line from the power plant, but it is never hot enough for a good bath, so we heat water in a two-quart electric water heater while I check my laptop for new e-mails, news, and weather. I usually cook breakfast and eat it while I am at the computer. I usually let Linda sleep longer, and she often comes to the office after I do.
We walk the half mile to the office, and now our walking is on very slippery sidewalks (it has snowed the last two nights and we will probably not see clear sidewalks again until March). If Linda comes later now, I insist she comes by taxi.
We usually bring sandwiches or something we can carry in a small plastic container for lunch and eat in my office. Occasionally we will eat our lunch at a nearby restaurant. Within five minutes of our building we have an Indian restaurant, a European/Mongolian restaurant, a Ukrainian restaurant, a Chinese restaurant, a restaurant in the large Chinggis Khaan Hotel, and numerous small cafes we prefer not to enter.
Linda teaches an English class each Tuesday and Thursday and does not finish until about 7:30, and I always have enough work to keep me busy until then. We preside at a family home evening for three branches once in three weeks; the other Mondays I attend a returned missionary fireside. On these nights we get home at about 9:00 p.m. So, we have Wednesday and Friday nights to be at home and are occasionally invited out by friends.
We can buy almost any food we want here. It is imported and more expensive than in Utah. Needless to say, we do not buy Chinese milk anymore. One Mongolian company produces good pasteurized milk, but the taste is not quite what we are accustomed to.
We do have a housekeeper: we have hired one of the two female custodians at the headquarters building to come once a week after work. She cleans our apartment in about three or four hours. We pay her about $50 per month.
Occasionally we help people who are badly in need of food or clothing; but, we have to watch carefully for scams.
The traffic is terrible and pedestrians have no rights at all, so we have to be extremely careful in crossing a street, even when we have a green light and a policeman trying to control traffic.
With the colder weather, the air in the Ulaanbaatar basin is horrible, mostly due to people living in thousands of gers around the city trying to keep warm burning coal and anything else they can find to feed their fires. On bad days we wear surgical masks to and from the office.
We are not yet fully settled in--too many things are different; too many things are unpredictable.
Being here, though, is what we want right now; and the work and the people may it very much worthwhile.
We love you.
Love, Dad
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Catching up on Posts from Grandpa/Grandma Jackson
Thanksgiving Week
Our Dear Family:
Our e-mail address is: malanjackson@gmail.com. Our letters to the family have gone mostly unanswered. It is lonely here and we miss all of you so very much. We would like very much to know how you are doing , what is happening in your family, about school, about work, about your health, about your time together, about the fun things you do, and so on. Please write to us. We loved the telephone call from Tamar this week.
We did celebrate Thanksgiving here on Wednesday, and it was a quite a different experience: the six senior couples here in Ulaanbaatar prepared lunch on Wednesday for a total of 110 people, including the 90+ missionaries serving in the city. We did quite well considering the fact that there are no turkeys in Mongolia (someone said they saw a few for sale at an important market for $20 per pound). We had chunks of chicken in gravy over reconstituted potatoes, pumpkin cake, imported cranberry sauce, fresh imported peppers and tomatoes, rolls, and home-made stuffing. The missionaries loved it; some went back for as many as four re-fills. It was good, but just not like being with our family.
We still struggle with the approach to Church activity here by too many of the members. Dependability in Church matters is very unpredictable with too many of them; and being on time for meetings and appointments is not a priority. The Mongolian culture is so very different; and as Elder Oaks once wrote, "It takes three generations for the Church to settle in." We are getting used to it; Linda lets it bother her more than I do.
My returned missionary search is improving as the branch presidents better understand the need to re-activate these people and respond my repeated reminders. We are having some good successes in re-activating a few, but it is not easy for them or for us.
Linda works hard on her family history research and instruction, but again the lack of dedication of some of the people who she has called to help her is a bit discouraging.
We had a fun experience on Thursday: Bat-Ulzii, who I took to Utah in the mid-nineties to study, and who is an inactive Church member, invited us to one of his restaurants for lunch. He was thrilled to learn that we are here since I did help him a lot as a young student. He and his brother started with a food import business that is very successful and now have three restaurants and will open the fourth in March. The name of their restaurants is "Altai Mongolian Barbecue." He learned the idea in Utah and thought there should be Mongolian barbecue restaurants in Mongolia. The restaurants are first class; the food is much better than the Mongolian barbecue in Utah. And his restaurant signs and ads show the statement "Since 1203." He said Chinggis Khan and his warriors barbecued meat on the inside of their metal shields, so Mongolian barbecue began from that time.
The Mongolian legislature has not yet passed a viable mining law, so many of the foreign companies that have invested hundreds of millions of dollars here and pulling out. This will have quite a negative effect on the economy. Returned missionaries who have worked at these mines come to my office often to see if I can suggest possible work for them. I am able to help some of them; and we do have a senior couple here in charge of LDS Employment Services, so they are helping as well.
One couple we have gotten to know well from the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine visit we made have been laid off and came to my office early last week to see if I could help them. But, on Friday they came in and said that another member of the Church here is flying to Hong Kong on business tomorrow and offered to pay their airfare to take their young son with them and be sealed in the Hong Kong Temple.
As you can imagine, they are elated. They had been saving money to go by train in June.
Last night we had dinner with a young woman who assisted us with our livestock project in 2000. She also visited us in Utah and is now married. They have just bought a new apartment near the mountain on the south city of the city, not too far from where Josh and Kim teach. We had a wonderful dinner, but mostly were amazed at the size and beauty of their apartment. It has three bedrooms and a modern kitchen. The interior finish work is as good as anything back home. Their parking is under the building in a heated parking area. The owner of the building has a second one nearby. The two have forty-five apartments and only four are sold. This city is way over-built but the construction goes on.
Linda still gets tired easily, but we are in good health. The weather is getting colder: mornings have been about zero degrees Fahrenheit but the forecast for this week is for some snow and temperatures down to seventeen degrees below.
We love you. Please do write to us.
Mother and Dad
Week Fifteen Already
Our Dear Family:
It hardly seems possible that we have been in Mongolia for almost four months. Times seems to pass slowly only when we think of all of you and how much we miss you. We love you so very much.
With Joshua's help I sent a few photos to you earlier this evening. These should give you some idea of our life here and prove that we are still alive. Not only are we alive, but we are doing quite well. We have been busy this past week; but it has been a good week and we have not gotten too tired.
We appreciated talking with Mother and Tamar. It is good to get news from home first-hand. We spoke with Mother just after she had returned from Aunt Marjorie's funeral. She said it was a good funeral and she was not tired even after the long day traveling to Richfield, going to the funeral and then the cemetery and then riding back to Orem. She said that she still gets lonesome but is very grateful for those of you who visit her. She sleeps well and said that she has no pain at all.
Linda's family history work keeps her very busy, and the assistant she has trained have been very helpful. Now, however, they want to change to something else. I do hope they stay with her so that she can get the work done and not have to train new people.
Tomorrow morning will be my last English class with the judges in the district court. The new couple, Elder and Sister Caldwell, who
arrived a week ago will take the class and I will begin teaching seminars and teachers at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology, the university I have worked most closely with since 1995.
The last senior Elder assigned to try to find and reactivate returned missionaries, who returned home a month ago, told me that he gave up looking for them after a few months because it was just too frustrating. I can understand the even better now: my secretary and I are finding long-lost missionaries quite regularly, but reactivation is a real challenge and the process and difficult and tedious. It is worth all of the challenge, though, and I will probably be doing it right up until the time we come home. Too, the branch leaders upon whom I must depend to help find the returned missionaries just do not seem to sense the need to go out and find the lost ones.
I continue to see and enjoy the company of close friends I have made over the past fifteen years. Last night we had dinner at the home of Sodnomdorj and Yanjin. They are especially close to us, and it was pleasant being with them.
Joshua and Kimberly came to our apartment after their church meetings and we had dinner and enjoyed a long visit. They are doing well but do get frustrated with the behavior of other foreign teachers at their school.
Each day gets a little colder now. Yesterday and today were especially cold. We are grateful for our warm apartment and our warm clothing.
We love you and miss you so very much.
Love, Grandpa and Grandma Jackson
Update on Mongolian life for the Jacksons
My dearest Children and Cherished Siblings,
How great it is to get a weekly letter from some of you. I will try to be as diligent also. It is go good to know how and what all of you are doing. It sounds from your letters, that all of your family, including youselves, are extremely busy in worthwhile things.
We have had a busy week ourselves, and the next week of Thanksgiving, will be even more so. I canceled both my Tuesday and Thursday evening classes to help prepare for all the Mongolian missionaries in the Ulaanbaatar area (99). All of the sisters are helping. I am to make 2 large batches of dressing, a pumpkin cake, and buy 8 dozen couisants. Today I cut all of the bread so it could dry out by Wednesday (the day we are serving the missionaries) and cut and cooked the onion and celery. I'll put it together Wednesday morning and bake it at the church. My little 2-burner stove is too small for a regular dripper-size cake pan. Sister Anderson our Mission Mother had a training meeting in Hong Kong and brought home canned pumpkin and cranberry sauce. One of the English-speaking members, who has a private plane, brought 2 turkeys to Mongolia. They are going to roast them and chunk the meat and put it in chicken gravey to serve over instant potatoes. We'll have dressisng, cranaberry sauce, and many other goodies for the missionaries.
I am feeling well and working hard at genealogy. I have good assistants who come into the center and help the mongolian members transfer their Mongolian information to English PAF.
Dad goes on a walk-about every Saturday morning to the big black market called the "Zaa", which is a nice walk for him and he really enjoys it. I usually stay at home to do the washing and cooking for the week. It is too cold now for me to walk that far. It is below 0 most of the time now. Dad loves it! Oh, it will get much colder, about 40 degrees below 0 Fahrenheit.
Our apartment is lovely and nice and warm, in fact, we've even have had to turn the temperature down!
Our daily 1/2 mile to the Service Center, where our offices are, takes me about 25 minutes. Dad will walk with me when it gets icy. Next week it is supposed to snow Tuesday and Wednesday and after the people pack down the snow, it will be icy the rest of the winter. Our clothes are very warm and comfortable, that is not a problem. We sure pile on the layers, though.
We are so grateful that all of our family spent time together cleaning up the yards. Thank you so much. It is great to hear of all of you doing things together!
We want to express our love to all of you and tell you how proud we are of each one of you! We certainly do miss all of you!!! But, the work we are doing here is very important!
Take good care of yourselves.
Love Eternally, Your Mother, Sister Linda Lou Jackson
Message from a Re-Activated German Brother Here
Dear loved ones,
As you well know, we are getting closer to my birthday. Every year there is a celebration in my honor and I think that this year the celebration will be repeated. During this time there are many people shopping for gifts, there are many radio announcements, TV commercials, and in every part of the world everyone is talking that my birthday is getting closer and closer.
It is really very nice to know, that at least once a year, some people think of me. As you know, the celebration of my birthday began many years ago. At first people seemed to understand and be thankful of all that I did for them, but in these times, no one seems to know the reason for the celebration. Family and friends get together and have a lot of fun, but they don't know the meaning of the celebration.
I remember that last year there was a great feast in my honor. The dinner table was full of delicious foods, pastries, fruits, assorted nuts and chocolates. The decorations were exquisite and there were many, many beautifully wrapped gifts. But, do you want to know something? I wasn't invited. I was the guest of honor and they didn't remember to send me an invitation. The party was for me, but when that great day came, I was left outside, they closed the door in my face .... and I wanted to be with them and share their table.
In truth, that didn't surprise me because in the last few years all close their doors to me. Since I wasn't invited, I decided to enter the party without making any noise. I went in and stood in a corner. They were all drinking; there were some who were drunk and telling jokes and laughing at everything. They were having a grand time. To top it all, this big fat man all dressed in red wearing a long white beard entered the room yelling Ho-Ho-Ho! He seemed drunk. He sat on the sofa and all the children ran to him, saying: "Santa Claus, Santa Claus" .. as if the party were in his honor!
At 12 Midnight all the people began to hug each other; I extended my arms waiting for someone to hug me and ... do you know .... no one hugged me. Suddenly they all began to share gifts. They opened them one by one with great expectation. When all had been opened, I looked to see if, maybe, there was one for me.
What would you feel if on your birthday everybody shared gifts and you did not get one? I then understood that I was unwanted at that party and quietly left.
Every year it gets worse. People only remember to eat and drink, the gifts, the parties and nobody remembers me. I would like this Christmas that you allow me to enter into your life. I would like that you recognize the fact that almost two thousand years ago I came to this world to give my life for you, on the cross, to save you. Today, I only want that you believe this with all your heart.
I want to share something with you. As many didn't invite me to their party, I will have my own celebration, a grandiose party that no one has ever imagined, a spectacular party.
I'm still making the final arrangements. Today I am sending out many invitations and there is an invitation for you. I want to know if you wish to attend and I will make a reservation for you and write your name with golden letters in my great guest book. Only those on the guest list will be invited to the party. Those who don't answer the invitation will be left outside. Be prepared because when all is ready you will be part of my great party.
See you soon.
I Love you!
Jesus
P.S.
Please share this message with your loved ones, before Christmas.
Our Dear Family:
Our e-mail address is: malanjackson@gmail.com. Our letters to the family have gone mostly unanswered. It is lonely here and we miss all of you so very much. We would like very much to know how you are doing , what is happening in your family, about school, about work, about your health, about your time together, about the fun things you do, and so on. Please write to us. We loved the telephone call from Tamar this week.
We did celebrate Thanksgiving here on Wednesday, and it was a quite a different experience: the six senior couples here in Ulaanbaatar prepared lunch on Wednesday for a total of 110 people, including the 90+ missionaries serving in the city. We did quite well considering the fact that there are no turkeys in Mongolia (someone said they saw a few for sale at an important market for $20 per pound). We had chunks of chicken in gravy over reconstituted potatoes, pumpkin cake, imported cranberry sauce, fresh imported peppers and tomatoes, rolls, and home-made stuffing. The missionaries loved it; some went back for as many as four re-fills. It was good, but just not like being with our family.
We still struggle with the approach to Church activity here by too many of the members. Dependability in Church matters is very unpredictable with too many of them; and being on time for meetings and appointments is not a priority. The Mongolian culture is so very different; and as Elder Oaks once wrote, "It takes three generations for the Church to settle in." We are getting used to it; Linda lets it bother her more than I do.
My returned missionary search is improving as the branch presidents better understand the need to re-activate these people and respond my repeated reminders. We are having some good successes in re-activating a few, but it is not easy for them or for us.
Linda works hard on her family history research and instruction, but again the lack of dedication of some of the people who she has called to help her is a bit discouraging.
We had a fun experience on Thursday: Bat-Ulzii, who I took to Utah in the mid-nineties to study, and who is an inactive Church member, invited us to one of his restaurants for lunch. He was thrilled to learn that we are here since I did help him a lot as a young student. He and his brother started with a food import business that is very successful and now have three restaurants and will open the fourth in March. The name of their restaurants is "Altai Mongolian Barbecue." He learned the idea in Utah and thought there should be Mongolian barbecue restaurants in Mongolia. The restaurants are first class; the food is much better than the Mongolian barbecue in Utah. And his restaurant signs and ads show the statement "Since 1203." He said Chinggis Khan and his warriors barbecued meat on the inside of their metal shields, so Mongolian barbecue began from that time.
The Mongolian legislature has not yet passed a viable mining law, so many of the foreign companies that have invested hundreds of millions of dollars here and pulling out. This will have quite a negative effect on the economy. Returned missionaries who have worked at these mines come to my office often to see if I can suggest possible work for them. I am able to help some of them; and we do have a senior couple here in charge of LDS Employment Services, so they are helping as well.
One couple we have gotten to know well from the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine visit we made have been laid off and came to my office early last week to see if I could help them. But, on Friday they came in and said that another member of the Church here is flying to Hong Kong on business tomorrow and offered to pay their airfare to take their young son with them and be sealed in the Hong Kong Temple.
As you can imagine, they are elated. They had been saving money to go by train in June.
Last night we had dinner with a young woman who assisted us with our livestock project in 2000. She also visited us in Utah and is now married. They have just bought a new apartment near the mountain on the south city of the city, not too far from where Josh and Kim teach. We had a wonderful dinner, but mostly were amazed at the size and beauty of their apartment. It has three bedrooms and a modern kitchen. The interior finish work is as good as anything back home. Their parking is under the building in a heated parking area. The owner of the building has a second one nearby. The two have forty-five apartments and only four are sold. This city is way over-built but the construction goes on.
Linda still gets tired easily, but we are in good health. The weather is getting colder: mornings have been about zero degrees Fahrenheit but the forecast for this week is for some snow and temperatures down to seventeen degrees below.
We love you. Please do write to us.
Mother and Dad
Week Fifteen Already
Our Dear Family:
It hardly seems possible that we have been in Mongolia for almost four months. Times seems to pass slowly only when we think of all of you and how much we miss you. We love you so very much.
With Joshua's help I sent a few photos to you earlier this evening. These should give you some idea of our life here and prove that we are still alive. Not only are we alive, but we are doing quite well. We have been busy this past week; but it has been a good week and we have not gotten too tired.
We appreciated talking with Mother and Tamar. It is good to get news from home first-hand. We spoke with Mother just after she had returned from Aunt Marjorie's funeral. She said it was a good funeral and she was not tired even after the long day traveling to Richfield, going to the funeral and then the cemetery and then riding back to Orem. She said that she still gets lonesome but is very grateful for those of you who visit her. She sleeps well and said that she has no pain at all.
Linda's family history work keeps her very busy, and the assistant she has trained have been very helpful. Now, however, they want to change to something else. I do hope they stay with her so that she can get the work done and not have to train new people.
Tomorrow morning will be my last English class with the judges in the district court. The new couple, Elder and Sister Caldwell, who
arrived a week ago will take the class and I will begin teaching seminars and teachers at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology, the university I have worked most closely with since 1995.
The last senior Elder assigned to try to find and reactivate returned missionaries, who returned home a month ago, told me that he gave up looking for them after a few months because it was just too frustrating. I can understand the even better now: my secretary and I are finding long-lost missionaries quite regularly, but reactivation is a real challenge and the process and difficult and tedious. It is worth all of the challenge, though, and I will probably be doing it right up until the time we come home. Too, the branch leaders upon whom I must depend to help find the returned missionaries just do not seem to sense the need to go out and find the lost ones.
I continue to see and enjoy the company of close friends I have made over the past fifteen years. Last night we had dinner at the home of Sodnomdorj and Yanjin. They are especially close to us, and it was pleasant being with them.
Joshua and Kimberly came to our apartment after their church meetings and we had dinner and enjoyed a long visit. They are doing well but do get frustrated with the behavior of other foreign teachers at their school.
Each day gets a little colder now. Yesterday and today were especially cold. We are grateful for our warm apartment and our warm clothing.
We love you and miss you so very much.
Love, Grandpa and Grandma Jackson
Update on Mongolian life for the Jacksons
My dearest Children and Cherished Siblings,
How great it is to get a weekly letter from some of you. I will try to be as diligent also. It is go good to know how and what all of you are doing. It sounds from your letters, that all of your family, including youselves, are extremely busy in worthwhile things.
We have had a busy week ourselves, and the next week of Thanksgiving, will be even more so. I canceled both my Tuesday and Thursday evening classes to help prepare for all the Mongolian missionaries in the Ulaanbaatar area (99). All of the sisters are helping. I am to make 2 large batches of dressing, a pumpkin cake, and buy 8 dozen couisants. Today I cut all of the bread so it could dry out by Wednesday (the day we are serving the missionaries) and cut and cooked the onion and celery. I'll put it together Wednesday morning and bake it at the church. My little 2-burner stove is too small for a regular dripper-size cake pan. Sister Anderson our Mission Mother had a training meeting in Hong Kong and brought home canned pumpkin and cranberry sauce. One of the English-speaking members, who has a private plane, brought 2 turkeys to Mongolia. They are going to roast them and chunk the meat and put it in chicken gravey to serve over instant potatoes. We'll have dressisng, cranaberry sauce, and many other goodies for the missionaries.
I am feeling well and working hard at genealogy. I have good assistants who come into the center and help the mongolian members transfer their Mongolian information to English PAF.
Dad goes on a walk-about every Saturday morning to the big black market called the "Zaa", which is a nice walk for him and he really enjoys it. I usually stay at home to do the washing and cooking for the week. It is too cold now for me to walk that far. It is below 0 most of the time now. Dad loves it! Oh, it will get much colder, about 40 degrees below 0 Fahrenheit.
Our apartment is lovely and nice and warm, in fact, we've even have had to turn the temperature down!
Our daily 1/2 mile to the Service Center, where our offices are, takes me about 25 minutes. Dad will walk with me when it gets icy. Next week it is supposed to snow Tuesday and Wednesday and after the people pack down the snow, it will be icy the rest of the winter. Our clothes are very warm and comfortable, that is not a problem. We sure pile on the layers, though.
We are so grateful that all of our family spent time together cleaning up the yards. Thank you so much. It is great to hear of all of you doing things together!
We want to express our love to all of you and tell you how proud we are of each one of you! We certainly do miss all of you!!! But, the work we are doing here is very important!
Take good care of yourselves.
Love Eternally, Your Mother, Sister Linda Lou Jackson
Message from a Re-Activated German Brother Here
Dear loved ones,
As you well know, we are getting closer to my birthday. Every year there is a celebration in my honor and I think that this year the celebration will be repeated. During this time there are many people shopping for gifts, there are many radio announcements, TV commercials, and in every part of the world everyone is talking that my birthday is getting closer and closer.
It is really very nice to know, that at least once a year, some people think of me. As you know, the celebration of my birthday began many years ago. At first people seemed to understand and be thankful of all that I did for them, but in these times, no one seems to know the reason for the celebration. Family and friends get together and have a lot of fun, but they don't know the meaning of the celebration.
I remember that last year there was a great feast in my honor. The dinner table was full of delicious foods, pastries, fruits, assorted nuts and chocolates. The decorations were exquisite and there were many, many beautifully wrapped gifts. But, do you want to know something? I wasn't invited. I was the guest of honor and they didn't remember to send me an invitation. The party was for me, but when that great day came, I was left outside, they closed the door in my face .... and I wanted to be with them and share their table.
In truth, that didn't surprise me because in the last few years all close their doors to me. Since I wasn't invited, I decided to enter the party without making any noise. I went in and stood in a corner. They were all drinking; there were some who were drunk and telling jokes and laughing at everything. They were having a grand time. To top it all, this big fat man all dressed in red wearing a long white beard entered the room yelling Ho-Ho-Ho! He seemed drunk. He sat on the sofa and all the children ran to him, saying: "Santa Claus, Santa Claus" .. as if the party were in his honor!
At 12 Midnight all the people began to hug each other; I extended my arms waiting for someone to hug me and ... do you know .... no one hugged me. Suddenly they all began to share gifts. They opened them one by one with great expectation. When all had been opened, I looked to see if, maybe, there was one for me.
What would you feel if on your birthday everybody shared gifts and you did not get one? I then understood that I was unwanted at that party and quietly left.
Every year it gets worse. People only remember to eat and drink, the gifts, the parties and nobody remembers me. I would like this Christmas that you allow me to enter into your life. I would like that you recognize the fact that almost two thousand years ago I came to this world to give my life for you, on the cross, to save you. Today, I only want that you believe this with all your heart.
I want to share something with you. As many didn't invite me to their party, I will have my own celebration, a grandiose party that no one has ever imagined, a spectacular party.
I'm still making the final arrangements. Today I am sending out many invitations and there is an invitation for you. I want to know if you wish to attend and I will make a reservation for you and write your name with golden letters in my great guest book. Only those on the guest list will be invited to the party. Those who don't answer the invitation will be left outside. Be prepared because when all is ready you will be part of my great party.
See you soon.
I Love you!
Jesus
P.S.
Please share this message with your loved ones, before Christmas.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
The Blessings God has Promised You (Letter to Returned Mongolia Missionaries)
Our Dear Returned Missionaries:
Always remember how much we love and respect you. You are Children of God and He, too, is very concerned about you. We are pleased that so many of you are still fully active in the Church; we pray for those of you who may be less active now and do hope that you will come back to your Savior and the Church soon.
Especially, I thank those of you who wrote to me during the past week. It is so very good to hear from you. I hope that more of you write this week. Some of you sent e-mails this week with e-mail addresses for returned missionaries that we did not have in our records. Thank you very much. We do ask that all of you send us e-mail addresses of returned missionaries that you correspond with. We still lack more than 300 e-mail addresses for our returned Mongolian missionaries. Please help us.
The Lord's work continues to go well in Mongolia but will go much better when all of the returned missionaries come back to activity and accept leadership and teaching responsibility in the branches and districts. The Lord love you and needs you.
I have recently been assigned by President Andersen to attend and be an adviser to Khan-Uul Branch. It is good to see a returned missionary, President Tsog, serving so well there. However, he needs a lot of help in all of the organizations in the branch. I will work with him to strengthen the returned missionaries there. Also, we contact all of the branch presidents in Mongolia each week to encourage them to find and strengthen returned missionaries in their branches. We are making progress, but we need your help both in always being fully active and serving in your branch or ward and in helping us find and strengthen other missionaries.
I have thought a lot about two scriptures this week that remind us of our blessings in the Gospel and our responsibility to our fellow-members. The first is Doctrine and Covenants 76:5-10. Please read this. It tell us of the blessings God has prepared for us, and in verses five and six, the Lord says: "...I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and truth unto the end. Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their glory." The second is, Mosiah 3:8-10.
Here, Alma tells his people before their baptism what being baptized really means. Please read this and note especially our duties to help our fellow-members in verse 9.
Please write soon. We love you. May God bless you always.
Elder Malan Jackson
Always remember how much we love and respect you. You are Children of God and He, too, is very concerned about you. We are pleased that so many of you are still fully active in the Church; we pray for those of you who may be less active now and do hope that you will come back to your Savior and the Church soon.
Especially, I thank those of you who wrote to me during the past week. It is so very good to hear from you. I hope that more of you write this week. Some of you sent e-mails this week with e-mail addresses for returned missionaries that we did not have in our records. Thank you very much. We do ask that all of you send us e-mail addresses of returned missionaries that you correspond with. We still lack more than 300 e-mail addresses for our returned Mongolian missionaries. Please help us.
The Lord's work continues to go well in Mongolia but will go much better when all of the returned missionaries come back to activity and accept leadership and teaching responsibility in the branches and districts. The Lord love you and needs you.
I have recently been assigned by President Andersen to attend and be an adviser to Khan-Uul Branch. It is good to see a returned missionary, President Tsog, serving so well there. However, he needs a lot of help in all of the organizations in the branch. I will work with him to strengthen the returned missionaries there. Also, we contact all of the branch presidents in Mongolia each week to encourage them to find and strengthen returned missionaries in their branches. We are making progress, but we need your help both in always being fully active and serving in your branch or ward and in helping us find and strengthen other missionaries.
I have thought a lot about two scriptures this week that remind us of our blessings in the Gospel and our responsibility to our fellow-members. The first is Doctrine and Covenants 76:5-10. Please read this. It tell us of the blessings God has prepared for us, and in verses five and six, the Lord says: "...I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and truth unto the end. Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their glory." The second is, Mosiah 3:8-10.
Here, Alma tells his people before their baptism what being baptized really means. Please read this and note especially our duties to help our fellow-members in verse 9.
Please write soon. We love you. May God bless you always.
Elder Malan Jackson
Sunday, November 16, 2008
A Garage Sale in Mongolia?
Our Dear Family:
We just returned from our meetings at the Khan-Uul Branch. They were very good. Linda and I both spoke, she on families and family history and I about how blessed we are to be members of the Church and our responsibility to help our brothers and sisters who are less-active or need help in other ways. From the scriptures I read Ephesians 3:19-21, Doctrine and Covenants 76:5-10, and Mosiah 18:7-10. Our words seemed to stir some souls in the congregation.
Both Tsegmed and Erica were at the meeting with us. Tsegmed is the artist I brought to Utah for training (he was then President of the Mongolian University of Culture) and then back again after he feel into a canyon and suffered brain trauma; we brought Erica to Utah to study, and just after she graduated from UVSC cancer developed in her brain. We arranged for brain surgery, but after the second time, the doctors said they could do no more. We brought her back with us when we came to Mongolia. She seems to be doing better now, despite her need for seizure and pain medications from the U.S.
After our meeting we saw a very precious young woman whom we brought to Utah to study when she was seventeen years old. When she graduated from UVSC, we lost track of her until we saw her on Temple Square wearing a missionary nameplate. She had gone from UVSC to BYU-Idaho and was baptized and called on a mission there. She is a bright light in her branch here.
We are now preparing dinner for the new senior couple, the Caldwells from Magna, who arrived here this week. Josh and Kim will join us also. We are roasting a chicken and will also have cooked beets, carrot salad, Mongolian meat-filled bao-tzu called boz, and whipped potatoes with chicken gravy (I actually found a electric hand beater this week. It was made in Turkey and is very good quality). We will have bottled peaches for dessert.
On Thursday of this week, we attended a zone conference (there are three zones in Ulaanbaatar and conferences were held on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday). I spoke about our missionary search program and asked the missionaries to strengthen their help in this effort--actually I gave the same speech in all three conferences. Being there brought good memories, especially since President Andersen referred often to his mission in Taiwan with us.
I have finally gotten agreement from both BYU-Hawaii and the Mongolian University of Science and Technology that they will meet in the spring and work out a cooperative arrangement between them. President Wheelwright at BYU-H was one of President Andersen's professors at Harvard; all of the people I am working with at the university here were in my training groups in Utah. They have not had English teachers from the Church, so I will start teaching there soon.
I have located quite a few missing missionaries this week: one of them walked into my office on Monday and asked if I was Elder Jackson. Another missionary had forwarded my weekly e-mail to him. He was converted in the Czech Republic while attending University there and called on a mission from there. He served in Roseville California and then came back to Mongolia for a few months. For the past five years he has been in Korea working in a hotel. He is anxious to be active here; too, I introduced him to the front desk manager at the Chinggis Khan Hotel (a returned missionary) and he will probably get a job there.
On Thursday morning Bat-Ulzii came to my office to see me while I was out with Jargal, the missionary from Korea. He left his number so I called him. He said he had heard I was here and wanted very much to see me. He was in my branch at the MTC. He now owns two "Mongolian Barbecues" here, patterned after the ones he saw in Utah. He wants to treat us to dinner but will be out of town this week. We will get together next week.
Yes, a garage sale in Mongolia. When we attended the election party in the clubhouse of Star Apartment, where most of the embassy personnel and wealthy business people live, I picked up a flyer advertising a garage sale yesterday. Being somewhat of an expert on garage sales, I went about an hour early and with my honorary consul ID was allowed into the compound without waiting for the 2:00 p.m. start time. I did get some good things we need, and even a copy of Porter Rockwell: A Biography. I have one at home, but it will be fun to read in this one occasionally here. I had what I wanted when they let the crowd in at 2:00. I looked out the window and thought for sure Chinggis Khan with his horde was bearing down on us. A crowd of Mongolians were truly rushing the door. I got out of the way just in time to save my neck and my treasures, but the horde were soon shoving, elbowing, kicking, and crushing the tables. I made my way to the door and walked back to our apartment, picking up our blue bucket filled with six liters of fresh milk on the way. Our elevator has been out of order for four days, so I quite wore myself out climbing the nine flights of stairs to our apartment.
It continues to cool down almost daily now. This morning it was a few degrees below zero. We hardly notice it with our warm coats on, and fortunately the little bit of snow that has fallen is melted.
We love you.
Love,
Mother and Dad
We just returned from our meetings at the Khan-Uul Branch. They were very good. Linda and I both spoke, she on families and family history and I about how blessed we are to be members of the Church and our responsibility to help our brothers and sisters who are less-active or need help in other ways. From the scriptures I read Ephesians 3:19-21, Doctrine and Covenants 76:5-10, and Mosiah 18:7-10. Our words seemed to stir some souls in the congregation.
Both Tsegmed and Erica were at the meeting with us. Tsegmed is the artist I brought to Utah for training (he was then President of the Mongolian University of Culture) and then back again after he feel into a canyon and suffered brain trauma; we brought Erica to Utah to study, and just after she graduated from UVSC cancer developed in her brain. We arranged for brain surgery, but after the second time, the doctors said they could do no more. We brought her back with us when we came to Mongolia. She seems to be doing better now, despite her need for seizure and pain medications from the U.S.
After our meeting we saw a very precious young woman whom we brought to Utah to study when she was seventeen years old. When she graduated from UVSC, we lost track of her until we saw her on Temple Square wearing a missionary nameplate. She had gone from UVSC to BYU-Idaho and was baptized and called on a mission there. She is a bright light in her branch here.
We are now preparing dinner for the new senior couple, the Caldwells from Magna, who arrived here this week. Josh and Kim will join us also. We are roasting a chicken and will also have cooked beets, carrot salad, Mongolian meat-filled bao-tzu called boz, and whipped potatoes with chicken gravy (I actually found a electric hand beater this week. It was made in Turkey and is very good quality). We will have bottled peaches for dessert.
On Thursday of this week, we attended a zone conference (there are three zones in Ulaanbaatar and conferences were held on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday). I spoke about our missionary search program and asked the missionaries to strengthen their help in this effort--actually I gave the same speech in all three conferences. Being there brought good memories, especially since President Andersen referred often to his mission in Taiwan with us.
I have finally gotten agreement from both BYU-Hawaii and the Mongolian University of Science and Technology that they will meet in the spring and work out a cooperative arrangement between them. President Wheelwright at BYU-H was one of President Andersen's professors at Harvard; all of the people I am working with at the university here were in my training groups in Utah. They have not had English teachers from the Church, so I will start teaching there soon.
I have located quite a few missing missionaries this week: one of them walked into my office on Monday and asked if I was Elder Jackson. Another missionary had forwarded my weekly e-mail to him. He was converted in the Czech Republic while attending University there and called on a mission from there. He served in Roseville California and then came back to Mongolia for a few months. For the past five years he has been in Korea working in a hotel. He is anxious to be active here; too, I introduced him to the front desk manager at the Chinggis Khan Hotel (a returned missionary) and he will probably get a job there.
On Thursday morning Bat-Ulzii came to my office to see me while I was out with Jargal, the missionary from Korea. He left his number so I called him. He said he had heard I was here and wanted very much to see me. He was in my branch at the MTC. He now owns two "Mongolian Barbecues" here, patterned after the ones he saw in Utah. He wants to treat us to dinner but will be out of town this week. We will get together next week.
Yes, a garage sale in Mongolia. When we attended the election party in the clubhouse of Star Apartment, where most of the embassy personnel and wealthy business people live, I picked up a flyer advertising a garage sale yesterday. Being somewhat of an expert on garage sales, I went about an hour early and with my honorary consul ID was allowed into the compound without waiting for the 2:00 p.m. start time. I did get some good things we need, and even a copy of Porter Rockwell: A Biography. I have one at home, but it will be fun to read in this one occasionally here. I had what I wanted when they let the crowd in at 2:00. I looked out the window and thought for sure Chinggis Khan with his horde was bearing down on us. A crowd of Mongolians were truly rushing the door. I got out of the way just in time to save my neck and my treasures, but the horde were soon shoving, elbowing, kicking, and crushing the tables. I made my way to the door and walked back to our apartment, picking up our blue bucket filled with six liters of fresh milk on the way. Our elevator has been out of order for four days, so I quite wore myself out climbing the nine flights of stairs to our apartment.
It continues to cool down almost daily now. This morning it was a few degrees below zero. We hardly notice it with our warm coats on, and fortunately the little bit of snow that has fallen is melted.
We love you.
Love,
Mother and Dad
Monday, November 10, 2008
Changes Always; Family is Constant, We Love You
Our Dear, Dear Family:
Today we attended the branch that President Andersen assigned to us last week. The branch president and his wife are both returned missionaries and they have fairly good attendance at their meetings. However, the branch president is carrying most of the load in the branch. His two counselors need training; he has no Elder's quorum president, no Relief Society president, no Sunday School president, no home teachers, and very few visiting teachers. His members just do not seem to accept the fact that they, too, have responsibility for the functioning of the branch. He had no end of questions and no translated handbooks. We will be doing a lot of training; and he asked me to be Sunday School president. He asked Linda to help with family history, Relief Society, and primary. Also, he asked both of us to speak in Sacrament Meeting next Sunday. With everything else we are doing, this will make us almost too busy.
I spent most of this past week working on our returned missionary project. Unfortunately, I am not getting the help from the branches in the mission that I must have. I will call of the branch presidents again, and this time I will ask that they report by the end of November on each missionary called from their branch. My secretary has typed up all of the information we have received and I reviewed it, only to find that not only have not received much information but that some of the RM names have been dropped from our master list. I can see now that I will work on this project every day I am here and there will still be a lot to do. I have considered every possible reason I can think of for member inactivity and still cannot understand why even returned missionaries can forget their mission activity and the testimony they bore so many times in their mission field. I will stay with it; it will take a lot of work and a lot of prayer.
I talked with BYU-Hawaii President Wheelwright on the telephone on Thursday to discuss their interest in relationships with higher education in Mongolia. They have had some exchanges with the Medical University here, but this institution is not a good fit for them.
He had a lot of questions that I could answer because of my work with the colleges and universities here and said that by spring he would like me to help them set things up with the Mongolian University of Science and Technology, the university I have worked most closely with over the past twelve years. They have implemented the things I taught the university presidents I had in Utah best of all the colleges and universities here.
We were invited to an election night party by the American Embassy and watched the returns on several television sets. I was surprised at the large number of Americans there; and almost without exception they were Obama supporters. We have found, too, the the people here who are aware of American politics are very pleased with Obama's victory.
Thank you, Tamar, for calling us. It was wonderful talking with you. Also, I called James this morning and we had a fun talk. Thanks to each of you, too, who has written to us. Our e-mail's are very important to us.
The weather is still warm for this time of the year, and our friends tell us it is most unusual. Morning temperatures have not quite dropped to zero; and the days are always sunny. The few snow showers we have had melted the day we had them.
We had dinner last night with Josh and Kim in their apartment at the American School of Ulaanbaatar. The school is at the base of the mountains just south of Ulaanbaatar. This area has built up just over the past few years and is very popular because it is above the coal smoke in the Ulaanbaatar basin.
Odnyam and his wife picked us up after dinner since taxis do not ordinarily show up out there at night. They hope to go to the U.S. for two or three months (she is pregnant and would like to have her child born in California). Odnyam has a multiple-entry visa; she will apply for her visa in the morning (Monday).
Tsegmed (the artist I brought to Utah for medical treatment and who was baptized there together with his wife, Tuya) came to Sacrament meeting with us again today. He has been inactive since he returned to Mongolia, but coming to Church with us seems to be re-kindling his testimony.
We are waiting now for Sodnomdorj, his wife Yanjin, and two of their children to join us for dinner. I trained Sodnomdorj in Utah when he was president of one of the universities here; Yanjin lived with us for several months while she learned English.
AT 8:00 tonight I will go to the mission office to set apart Elder Taylor. He is the son of Sumkhuu and Chimgee, two of the very first group of people I met here in 1993. I am not quite sure how he got the name Taylor; and his little brother's English name is Robert.
Linda and I had quick lunch at the Chinese restaurant near our offices and were very pleased to meet a former ambassador to the U.S., Choinhor, and his wife. We hosted them in Utah and worked closely with him in the Mongolian Embassy in Washington. It was a very pleasant occasion.
We are both in good health but tired. We are just going to have to take more time to do all of things we have been assigned. Slow down, I guess if possible.
We love you.
Today we attended the branch that President Andersen assigned to us last week. The branch president and his wife are both returned missionaries and they have fairly good attendance at their meetings. However, the branch president is carrying most of the load in the branch. His two counselors need training; he has no Elder's quorum president, no Relief Society president, no Sunday School president, no home teachers, and very few visiting teachers. His members just do not seem to accept the fact that they, too, have responsibility for the functioning of the branch. He had no end of questions and no translated handbooks. We will be doing a lot of training; and he asked me to be Sunday School president. He asked Linda to help with family history, Relief Society, and primary. Also, he asked both of us to speak in Sacrament Meeting next Sunday. With everything else we are doing, this will make us almost too busy.
I spent most of this past week working on our returned missionary project. Unfortunately, I am not getting the help from the branches in the mission that I must have. I will call of the branch presidents again, and this time I will ask that they report by the end of November on each missionary called from their branch. My secretary has typed up all of the information we have received and I reviewed it, only to find that not only have not received much information but that some of the RM names have been dropped from our master list. I can see now that I will work on this project every day I am here and there will still be a lot to do. I have considered every possible reason I can think of for member inactivity and still cannot understand why even returned missionaries can forget their mission activity and the testimony they bore so many times in their mission field. I will stay with it; it will take a lot of work and a lot of prayer.
I talked with BYU-Hawaii President Wheelwright on the telephone on Thursday to discuss their interest in relationships with higher education in Mongolia. They have had some exchanges with the Medical University here, but this institution is not a good fit for them.
He had a lot of questions that I could answer because of my work with the colleges and universities here and said that by spring he would like me to help them set things up with the Mongolian University of Science and Technology, the university I have worked most closely with over the past twelve years. They have implemented the things I taught the university presidents I had in Utah best of all the colleges and universities here.
We were invited to an election night party by the American Embassy and watched the returns on several television sets. I was surprised at the large number of Americans there; and almost without exception they were Obama supporters. We have found, too, the the people here who are aware of American politics are very pleased with Obama's victory.
Thank you, Tamar, for calling us. It was wonderful talking with you. Also, I called James this morning and we had a fun talk. Thanks to each of you, too, who has written to us. Our e-mail's are very important to us.
The weather is still warm for this time of the year, and our friends tell us it is most unusual. Morning temperatures have not quite dropped to zero; and the days are always sunny. The few snow showers we have had melted the day we had them.
We had dinner last night with Josh and Kim in their apartment at the American School of Ulaanbaatar. The school is at the base of the mountains just south of Ulaanbaatar. This area has built up just over the past few years and is very popular because it is above the coal smoke in the Ulaanbaatar basin.
Odnyam and his wife picked us up after dinner since taxis do not ordinarily show up out there at night. They hope to go to the U.S. for two or three months (she is pregnant and would like to have her child born in California). Odnyam has a multiple-entry visa; she will apply for her visa in the morning (Monday).
Tsegmed (the artist I brought to Utah for medical treatment and who was baptized there together with his wife, Tuya) came to Sacrament meeting with us again today. He has been inactive since he returned to Mongolia, but coming to Church with us seems to be re-kindling his testimony.
We are waiting now for Sodnomdorj, his wife Yanjin, and two of their children to join us for dinner. I trained Sodnomdorj in Utah when he was president of one of the universities here; Yanjin lived with us for several months while she learned English.
AT 8:00 tonight I will go to the mission office to set apart Elder Taylor. He is the son of Sumkhuu and Chimgee, two of the very first group of people I met here in 1993. I am not quite sure how he got the name Taylor; and his little brother's English name is Robert.
Linda and I had quick lunch at the Chinese restaurant near our offices and were very pleased to meet a former ambassador to the U.S., Choinhor, and his wife. We hosted them in Utah and worked closely with him in the Mongolian Embassy in Washington. It was a very pleasant occasion.
We are both in good health but tired. We are just going to have to take more time to do all of things we have been assigned. Slow down, I guess if possible.
We love you.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
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
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
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