We arrived in our city last Friday afternoon the 14th. It was a very busy weekend. We unpacked a little bit but were invited to dinner with one of the key couples in the Branch of the Church. They served smoked fish, Swedish Meatballs, relishes, sausages, and slaw, which is standard here.

 

 

 

 

Saturday morning we started cleaning the apartment. It is about 900 square feet with a large kitchen and eating area.  We have a king sized bed, a big surprise, a nice living room and a study area.

 

We received a call our sponsor wanted to meet us right away because she was leaving for Japan the next day.  We hurriedly cleaned up and dressed in Sunday clothes to meet her.  She runs an orphanage with 40 children. We were amazed at what we discovered.  This is not a place where they baby sit these kids until they are old enough to leave.  They are like a large, strong family. They take turns cooking the meals, cleaning, etc., but mostly they are in classed for math, science, art, sewing, music, dance and performing.  They were leaving the next day for Japan for the 11th year in a row for two weeks touring and performing in 13 cities to sold out concerts. They put on a mini show for us that was amazing.  They designed their traditional costumes and sewed them.  They made pieces of art, and other memorabilia to sell at the performances. The money they earn helps them build more additions to the campus of building they have.  They sing, dance, play multiple instruments, do contortions and more.  And we are going to teach these talented kids English.  We hope we are up to the challenge.

 

That afternoon we rushed over to the District Conference Leadership Meeting. This included attendees from all 6 branches in the District. Two of the units are two hours away, the other two are about three hours away. There are two Branches in the city.  Debbie and I then met with the District President so he could get to know us.  An hour later we had the adult evening session of conference, which was packed.  Afterward the District President wanted to see me and called me to be his Second Counselor.  The Mission President and his wife took us to dinner at a very nice restaurant.

 

Sunday morning was the final session of District Conference where I was sustained. Debbie bore her testimony, then I spoke and bore my testimony in Mongolian.  We were greeted after each meeting by so many people to welcome us. The Mongolian people are warm and loving. We feel like family already.

 

We spent the rest of this past week cleaning the apartment, walking all over the city, shopping for groceries which is a real challenge. Every item takes ten minutes to figure out what it is.  Is this shampoo or conditioner! It this dish soap or laundry soap.  We made a menu for the week and then a shopping list.  We have discovered they have very few of the things we typically eat. Once in a while we will find and American food item, but the price is about 2 to 5 times the US price.

We have walked a long way and up a high hill to this Buddha. Recently they have had an army of street  sweepers out cleaning the streets.  They all use this cheap corn broom, a strange looking wheelbarrow, a shovel and a vest.  They even walk down the center of the highway sweeping the middle with cars racing by. Crazy!!

 

Today is Saturday and we were invited to a wedding reception. The daughter of the Branch President married an American she met at the MTC.  They were married in the Hong Kong  Temple.  It was fun with LOTS of food. Karaoke is huge over here. In their culture they are very open and love to perform.  I even got up and sang an Elvis song for their wedding "Can't Help Falling in Love with You".

 

We hired an interpreter who will be moving back here from UB next week.  We really need her to get started in meeting with less actives and others.  We are  going to have fun. The Lord is really blessing us.  It is wonderful to spend so much time with Debbie. I also have time to read training manuals, books and scriptures.

 

Our love to all of you. No need to worry about us. It is extremely safe here.

We can't believe we have been in Mongolia one week now! Actually the days have been very long and very busy. We go to bed exhausted each night and we do sleep well, so that is a blessing. We arrived on Monday, June 10th. The trip went well, although the 12 hour flight from L.A. to Beijing was a little long. Yikes!

We will add a picture later of our arrival at the Ghengis Khan Airport.  This is the Ghenggis Kaahn Hotel next to the Church Office Building in Ulaanbaatar (Called UB).

As soon as we arrived we were taken to Zaisin Hill Monument, a WWII War Memorial.  Just over 20 years ago Elder Neal A. Maxwell dedicated this country for missionary work to begin on this hill. A few weeks ago over 300 people gathered to celebrate the event by praying, singing hymns, guest speakers and a reading of the Dedicatory Prayer.  A great spirit resides there for Mongolians and missionaries. 

This other picture is a view of UB from Zaisin Hill. Over 1.5 million people live here. There are buildings under construction everywhere.











We are settled into our apartment. We were pleasantly surprised at the nice accommodations. It is a good sized apartment. We will post pictures later. The only bad thing is that we are on the 3rd floor and our windows overlook a busy shopping, restaurant, pub and karaoke area. So it is busy all day and evening. Between the karaoke music, all the honking of horns and tire screeching it can be rather noisy.

One thing we should explain is that the roads and traffic are horrible and the drivers are terrible! It is amazing. It is a total free-for-all. On a two lane road, don't be surprised if there are 3 lanes of cars on one side. We were in a vehicle where the road was under construction.
Well the traffic was starting to jam up so our driver along with other drivers decided to take the lane that was freshly grated! You just can't imagine. The drivers are all so aggressive. I guess you have to be. Cars come within inches of each other trying to beat the other cars out. Now imagine that along with all the buses and trucks that are trying to get around the city. It is not so bad in our city as in the capital.




Dan was called and sustained by the Mission President as the Second Counselor in the District Presidency this past weekend.  We will be working with the six Branch Presidencies and other leaders in the District and traveling a lot. Two branches are in the old part of our city and two in the new area.  One branch is two hours North at the Russian border.  Two are hours West and one about two hours South. 



We met our sponsor Saturday who runs the orphanage where we will be teaching English.  It is an amazing place.  More on this later too.

We have almost completed our three weeks of training here at the Missionary Training Center (MTC).  Two weeks ago we finished the classroom training and student teaching. We were required to teach foreign language missionaries who are trying to learn English.  It was really hard but we succeeded and received our teaching certification. We had the privilege of teaching 3 Sisters and 3 Elders. The Elders left for their mission before we got their pictures.












 



Last week we spent four days immersed in learning Mongolian with four different tutors. Chris Finut, Ryan Jolley, Brad Warner and Bothlorma (a native Mongolian). The experience was wonderful and really helped us learn a lot.  We also met with the younger missionaries preparing to go to Mongolia. We joined them on culture day where they dressed in some of the local garb, discussed traditions, difference in cultures and do's and don'ts.




This week we are being trained on Preach My Gospel helping to understand more effective ways to communicate with those interested in learning more about Christ Church.  We will finish up Friday and fly to Mongolia Saturday evening.  We will travel to Los Angeles, then to Beijing China and on to Ulaanbaatar the capital. We are extremely excited and ready to go to serve the Lord and the people of Mongolia.  Here is the standard MTC pictures of us pointing to the country where we have been called to serve.

 
Today we also attended the Provo Temple. The flowers and grounds were beautiful.