Goodbye Murun!

We had to pack up our whole apartment again to prepare to move to Choibalsan.  Batbold and Jiggur drove from UB to pick up our stuff and they had a terrible time. The roads were so bad with deep snow that they got stuck 3 times and had to dig out the Landcruiser every time!  They got there much later than anticipated, but we were glad the actually made it safely.  I guess the snow was so deep that the vehicle would high center and they would dig the snow out from under the car!

Anyway, we had everything packed and ready for them to take when they finally got here. It takes a lot of stuff for two missionaries to live!  We were surprised at how much stuff we had!  Some of it was English and some was church, but it was still lots of stuff!

 We are lucky we got to fly to UB while Batbold and Jiggur braved the roads back!  They actually didn't get all our stuff in the car.  They left our microwave, dish drainer, fan, vacuum and ironing board.  Guess there just wasn't room enough for everything!

We weren't really all that messy and could have cleaned the apartment ourselves, but Bayarsaikhan had asked us for some money a week earlier so we knew she was in need.  We asked her to come clean so we could pay her.  She did a great job on the kitchen and bathroom--my two least favorite cleaning jobs!

And then our sweet landlady came over to tell us goodbye and brought us going away gifts.  They really are very sweet people and were great landlords.  She's the one who sent over hot water and hoshuur for us when the water and power were out for four days last summer.

The rest of the story on Batbold and Jiggur's trip back to UB.  The roads were terrible again and they got stuck 5 times.  Several times they were pulled out, but one time was so bad and it was late at night so they just pulled out our bedding and pillows and slept in the car.  They finally flagged a bus and sent our suitcases and some other things on the bus.  They got tired of unpacking everything every time they got stuck.  It was a pretty awful trip, but, again, they made it safely back to UB with most of our stuff and the suitcases and other things sent by bus were also there waiting for us.

Our experiences in Murun were so amazing.  It will be hard to match that the rest of our mission and was a great way to get us started on the mission!  We will never forget our experiences there with the wonderful people we came to love!