December 25

We are finally in Mongolia.  We arrived Christmas Eve. It was a 5 hour flight from Hong Kong.  Honolulu and Hong Kong were a balmy 73 degrees but when we arrived here it was ZERO!  It looks like what you see in the movies about Siberia--the buildings, streets and stores.  The traffic is like 7000 snakes all moving together, sort of, in the same direction.  It is unbelievable that anyone gets anywhere without a mishap.  We were picked up and taken to the Mission President's home and had a nice Christmas Eve dinner with his cute family--5 kids 11yrs to 1 years old.  We then were introduced to our apartment--it is very nice and warm. The walls are two feet thick made of solid concrete.  

Christmas Day we did a service project with the young missionaries and visited poor people in yurts--giving their children a small gift bag and then sang Silent Night in Mongolian:) we then had a nice Christmas program and dinner with all the missionaries--65 Elders and Sisters.  

We are 15 hrs ahead of mountain standard time.  We haven't been able to email or text since leaving Hawaii.  Our internet should be working later today or at least in a couple days.  

We had a wonderful time in Hong Kong--received training, ate all kinds of Oriental food, went to the temple and saw the laser light show down at the harbor.  The couple missionaries treated us wonderfully! We think there are more high rise bldgs in HongKong than in the entire USA.  The traffic in Hong Kong was way busy but it wasn't crazy like Mongolia. 

The smog in Mongolia is horrendous--it's like living in a coal smoke stack--we wear masks when we're out and about.  The apt and church bldg have air filters constantly running to purify the air.  We also have a water filter hooked to our faucet and we aren't supposed to drink any water unless it's filtered or bottled.  

There's one other couple here--the mission Dr--Elder and Sister Sutphin--they are helping us find our way around and they've only been here 7 weeks.  Everyone has treated us wonderfully.  

First post as missionaries

We have been going to classes all week and we are learning some amazing things about this wonderful church.  We have been eating our meals in the Mother of all Cafeteria's.  They prepare approximately 50,000 meals a week.  The food is excellent.  We also saw the Mother of all laundry mats, 240 washers and dryers all running at the same time with elders and sisters waiting for their turn.  There are several couples going to SLC to work in the Family History Library just like Grandma Maynes did.  The Spirit is powerful here.  The senior missionaries are going all over the world.  We heard an incredible talk Elder Bednar gave at a Christmas Devotional at the MTC called "The Character of Christ."  He said Christ always turns outward to help others and we usually turn inward and demand things our way. It was very insightful and inspiring.  We leave for Laie, Hawaii Friday and spend a week where Grandma and Grandpa Christensen served, then to Hong Kong on Dec. 19th, and then on to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on Dec. 24th.  We went home on Friday night and winterized the house Saturday.  We are now back at the MTC.  We spent most of our time last week on "Preach My Gospel," and this next week we will be learning about our Welfare & Humanitarian responsibilities.

We love you all and pray for you everyday,

Grandma and Grandpa Maynes

     (Elder and Sister Maynes)