Sain uu,

Hey guys! I hope the farewell party has died down a little bit and it's been a good day all around. How was Brayden's farewell? Let me know how it was Brayd (Hint... hint)! This has been a nice week in that we've been in the city for a week, not to mention the Conference weekend on top of it. Earlier this week we had a few reports and things to get done in the office and then spent the weekend watching conference reports and teaching lessons in between. We found a golden new family! That was the crowning point of the week! Last night we met with Brother Ganbold, his wife and son; they are friends of our new member and we taught them about the restoration.

This week more than anything I've been grateful for missionary work. We found a copy of the world report and watched a few of the Mongolian highlights and for the thousandth time I stand in awe that I am assigned to be apart of this great work here in Mongolia! With only 8 months left I'm not prepared for the thought of returning. This place feels like home. Traveling lately has helped me realize that, every time we get back into UB's city limits it feels like driving back into Utah County did before my mission. I've had the unique opportunity to have worked in Ulaanbaatar my entire mission, in different areas as to see the different sides of this city. I hope that we can all come back to UB at some later date so you can see it for yourselves. By the way, I included some flashback pictures from Elder Verdusco's camera, I was able to get them from him today. They're all of my time in Khailaast: the first one you'll see is Elder Verdusco in I in red metal box. That is a broken down car we stayed in during one of those big rainstorms that Khailaast had.


The second is Elder Batsaikhan and I after he spent 5 minutes chucking barbs at my back (he was super pleased with himself), at a family home evening with Brother Mugii and Sister Battsetseg (our mission office financial clerk).


The next 2 pictures were taken on a district activity we had on preparation day going to the Zaisan monument (The Elder I'm with is my old Zone Leader Elder Mungunsukh).

So we're off to Khovd! This Wednesday morning we leave early with President Batbold, Brother Batzorigt (the Sukhbaatar Branch President) and will arrive in Khovd Thursday night. The first 500 km is paved road and the next 1000 is all countryside roads, so we'll sleep at a hotel or on the road Wednesday night and should make it in Thursday late. I know I didn't write a ton about the Murun conference, but these outlying countryside branches are part of the mission district and so we are conducting these conferences as a way to train the branch leaders how to strengthen their young men/women programs. It's an all day conference so we spend most of our day at the church translating, running activities, and everything in between! It will be a great opportunity and it will continue to bless the incredible youth in these branches. Then after that we will be welcoming 8 new foreign Elders to the mission (for us, foreign is your domestic!) right on transfer weekends. Some big changes are coming up as they all will need trainers and they, like my MTC group, are coming in with English sponsors and must stay in UB. This all should be happening in the end of October and I'll be keeping you in touch. Let me know what ends up happening with the family trip this weekend, word on the street is it's kind of a surprise ya? Man I loved getting the family pictures! Especially Kendyl, Andraya, and Mom look beautiful! The boys.... yax uu dee? I love you guys!

Elder Jolley

P.S. My email next week may not come at the normal time.... I'll try my best to get it out on Monday.Sain uu,