Our first Sunday in Mongolia

Please tell the police that they were last seen wandering the streets of Darkhan (pronounced Darhon) looking like very cold deer in the headlights. They were bundled up like foreigners with black overcoats that looked like they were going to a Broadway show in New York rather than walking the streets of Mongolia. The man wears a white shirt and tie and a hat that looks like he is trying to pass himself off as a Russian and the lady just looks like a classy Mongolian.
Well, we have moved into out apartment in Darkhan. We were told that they had an apartment reserved for us but we couldn't get into it until July so we would be in a "tiny apartment" until then. We would have a couch that would pull out and be our bed for the next 6 months. Deni and I both pictured a small one room studio with a bathroom down the hall. When we got to see it we were both pleasantly surprised. It has a large kitchen/ dining area and a nice bedroom with a "modular couch" that moves the pieces around to make into a bed. We leave it put together as a bed and it works great. It is like sleeping on a rock but we are so grateful just to have a bed to sleep on. There is a nice small bathroom with a shower and a washing machine. We tried to wash a load of clothes last night for the first time and learned a few lessons.
1. Don't try to learn how to use a new type of equipment in the dark with a flashlight and a magnifying glass and a translation dictionary.
2. Don't start a load of wash at 10:00 on a Saturday night when it takes 2 hours to do a load.
The washing machine is a brand new front loader that will hold about 2 sheets at a time and goes through cycle after cycle. We couldn't figure out what it was doing most of the time but it was interesting to watch. It would sit for a while and then turn the load around once then sit for a while again. I guess it is fluffing the load and moving the soap around or something. When the spin cycle started we thought it was going to dance right out of the bathroom or go through the floor. We were both holding onto it and we were sure the downstairs neighbors would come knock on our door any minute.
We arrived here on Friday evening and got ourselves set up before meeting the other senior missionary couple serving in Darkan. Elder and Sister Fredley have been here all alone since January. They already had most everything figured out so we just follow them around. Yesterday they took us to watch their English class that they teach (which we will be doing soon) and then we went to the Black Market and spent most of the day going from stall to stall and seeing every kind of product known to man. Part of the market is outdoors and I can't believe those poor people can stand it outside in -20 all day 7 days a week. They were selling everything from nails to animals to shoes to soap and flour. Anything liquid, like vegetable oil, was frozen solid. I was freezing after just a few minutes of looking and had to hurry inside to buy from those vendors who could afford to get a place inside.
Since we had a new apartment we needed about everything. The mission provided a lot of essentials but we still needed to set up housekeeping. We needed TP, towels, soap, dish soap, etc, etc. We opened a new set of sheets the first night in our new bed and wanted to wash them but they wouldn't have dried so we slept on them and then washed them last night anyway and slept without sheets. The dryer is an aluminium frame that we set up on the living room near the radiator. They were dry when we got up this morning. The heat is hot water provided by the city and since we are on the 5th floor I think much of the heat has been sucked out of it by the time that it gets to us. The heaters have no thermostats so they just pump as much heat as it can give. If you are too cool there isn't much that you can do about it but bundle up and maybe it will get warmer. If your home is too hot just open a window. It is interesting to see houses with the windows open when it is -20 (which is what it has been here most of the time).
It is a big job just to get ready to go outside which we have done about 10 times a day already. You have to really bundle up and I am learning to do a better job of it. At first, my face would freeze while the rest of me was too warm. Now that I am figureing it out I can be pretty balanced warm. My face and ears still get cold but my earmuffs hurt my ears (pushing on my glasses) and I just tried wearing the ski mask. It really worked good. I will be wearing it from now on when I don't need my hair to look great after.
We are having a mission district Christmas Party on Christmas day at the New Darkhan Chapel. We will miss our family but we know that we are where we are supposed to be.
I know that I write too much detail but I will use this for my journal after we get home so just enjoy the detail and know that we are loving what we are about. I will put more pictures next time.