UPDATE FROM ERIK!!!

This morning I logged on to my email and there was an email from Erik! I didn't believe it, so I logged off and then logged back on, and low and behold, THERE WAS AN EMAIL!!! I am just so excited! I'll post the email below so that you all know what he's been up to (...sound like there hasn't been much work going on, but I'm glad they are having fun anyway, and are safe!)...

Hey Baby! I wish you were on chat right now, but I know it's 5:30am. I've been thinking about you all the time, and I really wish you were able to be here with me!! Thank you so much for the addresses, and you are correct that I didn't scroll down further to see the second email since it had the same subject line. We've been having a ton of fun, though a bit less "service" than I had anticipated. We arrived in UB (Ulaan Baatar, as they call it here) Thursday evening and Friday morning we spent some time at a neighborhood family clinic. It was neat to see, but it was quite difficult because our translator doesn't actually speak English very well. He is a 21 year old university student. There is another 14 year old girl with us and she speaks English pretty well, but she doesn't speak much Mongolian. We didn't do a whole lot at the clinic, and then we went to a "ger area" - gers are the little huts or yurts (Russian name) - and played a pick-up game of soccer with some kids. I also taught them how to play butt's up, of course. :) On Saturday we went to a childrens "tent camp" for the day and I thought we were going to be helping out more, but we just ended up participating, which was OK, too. Lead by example, right? It was a lot of fun staying overnight and we climbed up a nearby hill on Sunday, which was also good. Our "team" - The White Giants - also competed in crazy olympics, and that was a lot of fun. Today we were supposed to go to a sort of orphanage type place, but that was cancelled and we were lined up to go to a children's prison instead. Well, that was also cancelled. So instead we went to the medical school here and toured around and we also saw a museum and a Russian monument since the Russians helped the Mongolians during WWII. Not much internet time, but I wish that I could call you. Nobody seems to know how to do that, though. I do have the worst possible news ever.... I LOST THE JOURNAL!!! I am still so sad and upset and angry about that! I'm so sorry, and it's sucked because I've wanted to show everyone my family!!! I took it out the first night to show our roommates at the hostel who were from Singapore, and on the plane to Mongolia I was going to write in it and I couldn't find it anywhere! I started keeping a different journal, so that's good, but I know you worked so hard on that, so I'm sooooo sorry! That's a big reason I wanted to get on the internet, too, so I could print a few pictures from Facebook. I love you and I'm glad to hear you are feeling better, and I hope Maida's better, too. Good luck with the Garage Sale!
Love you!!!!!
- Your crazy husband.
p.s. If you get a chance, not a big deal, since I'm not even certain I will be able to send them from here, but if you get a chance, can you find the addresses to Duluth Clinic West (Dr. Hieb), North Memorial Ambulance in Park Rapids, Micah, and Jon Falkowski. I actually might have Micah's in an email somewhere, but if you have it, great!
Love you!!!