See you all soon!

We have been extremely busy these last weeks.  We had two wheel chair repair specialists come for 4 days and provide training for the National Wheel Chair Users Association.  They are both wheel chair users themselves.  They did a superb job! We have been trying to finish up a lot of other projects and get things in good order for the new couple.  We taught our last English class Friday.  We had 50 students in attendance.  We will miss them.  We have been going to ceremonies and graduations.  They treat us like we were Royalty and we know it is not us but the Church and Deseret International Charities.  We have some meetings this week with some government agencies and then off in the wild blue yonder and the USA.  We fly into SLC on Friday, May 26th at 3:40 United Arlines. 

Time Flys

We had our English Conference this week.  We had 300 teachers, administrators, and government officials in attendance.  We had 4 professors from all the BYU schools as guest lecturers.  The conference took most of our week, then we took a quick trip to the Gobi Desert to investigate a water request, and then our wheelchair trainers arrived for the training this next week.  

Last Friday the wheelchairs arrived from China--we got 10 YSA Mongolians and 10 Missionaries to help unload them at 5:00 AM. It took about an hour and a half, then we took them to a late breakfast:)

We rode the train all night from the Gobi to UB.  We had a sleeping compartment and we were able to sleep most of the night.  The train made 30 stops during the night on its way to UB.  In the Gobi we were in the worst wind dust strorm we have ever experienced.  

Grandpa was interviewed 2 different times by the news media in conjunction with the English Conference.  Several people told us they saw him on TV.  They told him he looked a lot younger on TV than he does in real life:)  We will attach some pictures.  We have three more weeks and a lot to do.  It will be nice to get home and see everyone and take care of our place.

Traditional

One day this week we went with a Traditional Mongolian Doctor on his home visits to elderly patients. The hospitals and doctors do not keep records of their patients.  Each patient has a little book 5 1/2" x 8" and the doctor writes out a very short explanation of the visit, diagnosis, and prescribed treatment.  The patient is then responsible to keep their own book for future doctor visits.  Diagnosis and prescribed treatments are very interesting.  They take a portable electrocardiogram, labortory, and ultrasound and do all that right at home: blood, urine, pictures, etc.  Some practices are really good and some are questionable. We visited one lady that was 103, wow!  That's unusual for Mongolia.

It is warm enough now that a light jacket will do most days and things are starting to show a little green. 

Cold Cold Cold

It turned cold again, just like it does at home.  It is just colder than home--winter coats, scarfs and hats.  Dad would love it in Mongolia and so would you.  He would have loved it because you can build anything you want, any way you want, and you can scrounge and get most things very cheap.  You would love it because you can get all kinds of cloth, all colors, in large or small quantities, very cheap.  Our 600 wheelchairs arrived and cleared customs - clearing customs is a huge miracle.  We will unload them Monday and the wheelchair training team will arrive the 8th of May.  I think I told you about a family that had a fire in their geir; one daughter died and the other one was severly burned.  The churrch is flying her to Minnisota to undergo some special surgeries.  They could not get a notary to sign the authorization; they tried three.  We had made friends with a notory because we do so many contracts.  I thought she would help us and sure enough she signed the documents when I explained the little girl was a member of our church and needed special care that was not availble in Mongolia.  So, this little girl will be on her way to the states very quickly.  The church is amazing, the way it helps so many people in need.  We feel blessed to have a small part in the huge wonderful effort.

Khovd

This week we hit water.  We were in Darvi, Khovd Province, the far West end of Mongolia.  It was a 2 1/2 hour flight and then another 210 kilometer drive.  We saw lots of sheep, goats, kids, and lambs on our way.  We also saw lots of camels.  Our driver brought food so we lunched along the road: pickels, dried horse, fish, and goose stew.  We arrived about noon, when the driller had just finished drilling. As the well driller started to pump air down the shaft, wow, what a sight, as water came shooting up, it was a gusher.
We have finished another well/water station.  We have one more to get finished before we come home.
We loved conference--so many good messages.
See pictures of the well rig with water shooting up and all over; also camels.

Coming Home Date

Hello,

We have a shortage of teachers that can teach in our Church Bldgs right now, so this week we taught 3 nights.  It's fun to get to know the people who come--we average about 40-50 people each night.  Most of them really want to learn how to speak English better so they enjoy our classes--we do conversation and they get to practice a lot. Regularly, someone who is attending our English classes, gets baptized, so we know it's a very good thing to teach in our Church bldgs. They feel something different and special and often stay after and ask questions.  

We visited 7 huge green houses this last week.  They are specially designed for the Mongolian climate.  They grow strawberries, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes.

It's finally starting to get warmer--we hit 45 this week, for three days.  It was great to take off the coats, at least for a while:)

We got our official coming home date---May 26th.  See you soon:)

Zuunkharaa

When we went to Zuunkharaa to inspect DIC's water projects we met with the city Governor (mayor).  He had serveral officials there to meet us and to give us requests for help.  We then went to one oganization after another hearing their request and seeing their facilities.  When it was all over we had 17 requests.  They were all in great need.  We now have the unpleasant task of selecting one or two projects and turning the other requests down.  This is very painful for us.  We had requests from the Hosiptal, Library, Drug-Rehabilatation, Water Department, High School, Kindergarten, City Offices, City Parks, Road Department, neighboring bags and amigs (sections of the city).  The governor treated us to a nice meal and we have agreed to do at least one of the projects that was requested.  

We received 2 missionaries from America this week, the first in 5 months because of visa challenges.  They spent 4 months in the Logan Utah Mission.  No other news. We have a lot going on the next 3 months.  

We love this Gospel.  It blesses lives.

pictures:

cows

horses

me & dad by a geir in museum

me and cute girls--don't get too close:)