Our trip to Khovd.  It was a business trip and not a pleasure trip so we did not do any sightseeing.  President Clark and Tom spent most of the day in meetings and interviews all the time we were there.  But it was a nice trip and we are glad we went.

 This is Khovd from the air.  It is about a 3 hour flight from Ulaanbaatar.  The weather was beautiful here.  In fact it was warmer here than when we returned to UB and this is up north.

This was the hotel we stayed at in Khovd.  President and Sister Clark had stayed here before and liked it better than the other one they had tried.  And it is only two blocks from the chapel.

 This was our room.  It was the second one they showed us.  It was nicer than the first one so we took it.  The bed was so hard it reminded me of camping with a sleeping bag on the ground and no mat!!  There was that little fridge on a nightstand but not hotplate or microwave to heat things up.  But we did okay.

Sorry but I do not know how to rotate the pictures, but the top one was our bathroom.  No toilet paper but we did have a shower.  The first morning it was luke warm but the second day it was hotter.  It was only a little more than a trickle but it did the job.  The bottom one was the bathroom in the first room we saw.  The shower was part of the bathroom with the drain in the center of the floor and the spray nozzle attached to the wall.  It was the reason we chose the second room. 

This was the scenery from our room windows.  The top one was our bedroom window and the bottom was the livingroom window.  Those men would mix the cement and then pour it into a large metal container which the crane would then lift to the top of the building that they are building.  They work seven days a week and live on the job site in gers.

Sunday after church we went to Branch President Gankhuyag's home for dinner.  He was showing us his chickens.  He gets about 10 eggs a day from them.  He also had about 10 young chicks too.  His wife made us some traditional Mongolian food and watermelons and Crenshaw melons that they had grown themselves.  Pres. Gankhuyag remembers every missionary that has ever served in Khovd since 1994.  We had a very enjoyable time visiting his family.

 Out side his home we could see snow on the mountains to the north.  Snow in August!! But not close enough to make it cold there.

The Elders gave us some watermelons.  They say Khovd is famous for three things--wind, mosquitos, and watermelon.  We did not have any wind, Tom and Iggy (one of our translators) was bitten by a mosquito on the last day, but we did enjoy the watermelons.  And when we were flying back, people were bringing back large bags full of watermelons to sell in the city.  They are very expensive to by in the city.

 We had district conference with the missionaries on Monday.  Elder Tugsbaatar is the district leader and did the paintings behind our heads for our discussion.  He served in Nalaikh so we knew him from there.  His companion, Elder Enkhtaivan, is from Nalaikh and is our Mongolian missionary son.  He hugs us every time he sees us and gave me a bear hug because I brought him some cookies to share with his companion.

This Sister also served in Nalaikh and just left there last week and came to Khovd.  I also brought her cookies to share with her companion who was with President Clark when we took this picture with Sister Clark.

The Elders were welcoming all to come into the church building.  In their hands were the leftovers from the lunch we had together at Nomads.  It will feed them for the rest of the day, I think!!

This was our flight out of Khovd.  Our little plane had one propeller on each wing and about 48 seats inside attended by one hostess.  But on this short flight they feed us piroski, Oreos, and a drink.  I have been on flights where you have ups and downs but never where the plane actually fishtailed when in the winds landing both coming and going!  But it was a good flight both ways.

As we were leaving Khovd and headed back to Ulaanbaatar we saw several lakes.  The first one was quite large and we were still gaining altitude when we saw it just past these mountains.  The second one was also quite large showing that there is lots of water here in Mongolia.