Mapleton to Mongolia: Hello Darkhan!

Although we thought we would end our mission in Erdenet, it didn't happen that way. There were some issues with the Hill's sponsor in Darkhan and they needed to transfer somewhere else, so they went to Erdenet and we came to Darkhan! It was kind of a surprise and we loved the short time we spent in Erdenet. We also loved the last 5 months in Darkhan. This is graffiti on a wall just outside our apartment. The missionaries are Sister Mathews and Sister Altentsetseg. The graffiti says "Darkhan" and I went past it several times before I recognized it!

There is a very nice chapel in Darkhan. It's a bit out of the way and a ways from our apartment, but we didn't mind the walk. There was activity here almost any day of the week, it seemed!

The first people we met were President Bayarjav (Baji) and his sweet wife, Suuvda. It was in February. We went out to meet some of the members of the branch and hiked over the hill to Habitat, the name of the housing subdivision. It was a nice little hike--a bit cold, but we made it. The hill was a little steep for the amount of snow and ice, but we made it OK.

The view from the top of the hill was pretty awesome. We love the way Mongolians put such colorful roofs on their houses!

We sure grew to love these wonderful people. They love the gospel, the people and are wonderful missionaries to all. And they are always so very happy!

The first time we visited their house, Suuvda was boiling a sheep's head for dinner!

This is the nice garden and the little gazebo outside our apartment building. We were on the 5th floor and so got our exercise the many times a day we were in and out.

The Mongolian money is all paper and comes in what seems like huge denominations--1,000, 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000 tugrugs. But the exchange rate was about 1491 tugs to the dollar when we first got here and then 1875 when we left. When we paid our rent, the stack of paper made it seem like we were paying a ton of money. I think this picture is the amount of money we paid in Darkhan, which was $900 American for three months.

These are pictures from our 5th story window. We had no balcony in this apartment, which we did miss.

It was so interesting to see the animals and the other activity just outside our apartment.

We did see some beautiful sunsets from that window.

Urban view of New Darkhan. (Old Darkhan in the background)

Rural life in the countryside around Darkhan.

A mosaic on the end of an old apartment building. On the right is a new 13-story high rise apartment. It was the highest building in Mongolia at the time it was built.

The theater where we attended several cultural events with Elder and Sister Fredley.

A performance of school children on a recorder type instrument.

A Mongolian traditional dance with traditional costumes.

One of three Buddhist monasteries in town

Shopping. There was more of a variety in the shops in Darkhan than we had previously. We never went into any of these stores, but it was interesting to see their names.

The International Market generally had a good selection of fruit and vegetables.

There are a number of high end store in the Deeds Department Store. In Mongolian, it was written DUD, but we didn't want to call it Duds!

This is the closest store to Costco that we found.

LaNice in her last fitting for her deel.

Not so modern delivery service!

Car problem? No problem, Just turn it over in the road and make the repairs!

Darkhan town center had an amazing splash pad that came on during the warm months. Here it is still pretty early and most people didn't get in to cool off, but came just to watch the spectacular water display set to music.