October 26, 2007 - Email/Mail Rules & Info

Wow! I got lots of mail today, and therefore I don’t have much time to write. Speaking of getting mail from people, here’s me, Sister Johnson, trying to be more obedient to the mission rules and asking for your help. Technically I am only allowed to receive email from and write to immediate family members. If you would like to forward something through the lovely Ann Johnson (a.k.a. “Mom”) you may reach her at this address: mailto:annx.johnson@archpoint.net [note: remove x in email address; added to avoid spiders getting my email address] As occasion permits I am allowed to send little messages to you all through her as well (hence the large weekly email addressed to everyone).

There are absolutely no restrictions on the snail mail, however, and that is usually preferred because it makes my district leader red in the face when all the mail is addressed to me. You can also send me letters through the Church’s pouch service, which just got a little bit complicated actually because of people trying to sneak photos and cash and food. Here is the most recent news on pouch:

The Church provides mail service to countries where other mail service may not be reliable. Each country regulates this service differently, and the Church must comply with these regulations in order to avoid fines and cessation of this service. To prevent possible discontinuation of pouch mail service, only the following items may be sent through the pouch beginning November 1, 2007:
-Postcards
-Letters that are single sheet, folded into three panels, and taped at the top only. Letters sent in any other manner will be returned to the sender.

The address for any pouch is as follows:
Sister Cheryl Johnson
Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

Thank you for your cooperation.

If you want to send a letter or a package or anything more substantial than a single sheet of paper, you CAN rely on the regular Mongolian postal service to get it here (Alan, this is answering your question right here). The trick is that the mail service won’t get it any further than the mission office, but then that’s where the Missionary Mail Service begins. Every week we get mail from the mission office that is addressed to members in our branch, and we drop it by their house when we’re in the area. For example, if you wanted to send something to a young guy named Starlight, or Odgerel, as we like to write it over here, you would just address it to him and write Sukhbaatar Branch and then the mission office’s physical address. [The address is in the header of this blog.] Then it's just regular mail business with the stamps and money and boxes and stuff and it’ll get here.