The Fredleys in Mongolia

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.