Saying Goodbye & Trip to Ulaanbaatar

I want to keep things in order, to fit our mission. The Internet (turned out to be our modem), went down just before Tsagaan Sar. The city closed down for 10 days - that is how long the holiday lasts. Then we received word that we would have to leave, we weren't sure we would be able to come back. So the blog and the emails came to a halt. I was able to find a Internet cafe, and borrowed a computer some of the time, to do a little emailing. We had to clean out our apartment, take everything with us, so we packed up, once more and took everything to the city. That is why we mailed some packages home, we weren't sure we would be back.

We are now back in Choibalsan, computer up and running (I'm thrilled!!)

Now I can catch up with things!

At church we were asked to bear our testimonies and say good-bye, there were 4 of us, Elders' Naisbitt and Willoughby and us. When the members found out we were leaving, they quickly planned 3 little parties. I'll bet we took 50 pictures. Everybody, everybody, wanted their picture with us! It really was a compliment, but you can only cry so many tears and smile so many times. I think I was dazed by the time we crawled into bed that night!
This first picture is of the Branch Presidency - Bro. Bimbajaw (clerk and translator for us), Bro. Monkbyer (1st counselor), Branch Pres Erkenbaatar (he's 28 years old), he is a good President, and Dad.

These 4 young men are 4 of our favorite young men, Monktoshig, Batogsue, Monkchider and Bayersahen. (spelling I'm guessing) Three of them are new members and the 4th was baptized while we were gone to Korea. They come over to our house quite often, to eat some candy, try to talk to us, and just hang-out. They were over last night, when we got back. Bayersahen is the one who gave me the prayer shawl at Tsagaan Sar. They all 4, tell us all the time, "I am a future missionary".

The Primary had a little program for us, all 7 of them! They sang, "Book of Mormon Stories" for us, and we took pictures. The lady on the far right is the President - she is the cutest lady, and sings beautifully. The one in the back, in black, is in her late 60's or 70's, she just cried when she heard we were going, and hugged and hugged me.

This is what the road looked like most of the way, from Choibalsan to Ulaanbaatar, (2/3 of it is dirt road). It was a snowy day and hard to see where you are going. I only saw 2 road signs, until we got closer to the city. In this picture we had just done a 360! It was so scary, I saw my life flashing before my eyes for all 30 seconds! The driver was Pres. Batbold, he is the 2nd counselor in the Mission Presidency, and an amazing guy, we really like him. If he was on the wrong path, and there was several, he seemed to know and would back up (thank goodness for 4-wheel drive) and turn over to another path. If one path was filled with snowdrifts, which was quite often, he would just make a path, it's all pretty flat. He normally makes this drive in 9-10 hours, but this day it took 13! We were exhausted when we finally got to the Mission Offices!

When we saw these camels, Pres. Batbold shifted the car into 4-wheel drive and drove us over to them, so we could get some pictures, this is a "camel-car" he said!

These are for the grand kids, I tried to tell if they were smiling, I couldn't tell, but they sure stared at us!

It was snowing so the picture is a little hazy. All the camels in Mongolia are owned by somebody, there are no wild camels.

We are so grateful for each of you and want you to know that we felt of your prayers and thoughts!

WE LOVE EACH OF YOU!!