The Baháʼí Faith in Mongolia dates back only to the 1980s and 1990s, as prior to that point Mongolia's Communist anti-religious stance impeded the spread of the religion to that country. The first Baháʼí arrived in Mongolia in 1988, and the religion established a foothold there, later establishing a Local Spiritual Assembly in that nation. In 1994, the Baháʼís elected their first National Spiritual Assembly. Though the Association of Religion Data Archives estimated only some 50 Baháʼís in 2005 more than 1,700 Mongolian Baháʼís turned out for a regional conference in 2009. Early phase In July 1989 Sean Hinton became the first Baháʼí to reside in Mongolia. He was named a Knight of Baháʼu'lláh, and his was the last name to be entered on the Roll of Honor placed at the Shrine of Baháʼu'lláh. The first Mongolian, Ms. Oyundelger, joined the religion later in 1989. Hinton was trained in Baroque Flute and Conducting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Having conceived of the possibility of becoming a Knight of Baháʼu'lláh as a university student, he learned that Mongolia was one of the few countries not yet "opened" to the Baháʼí Faith. He won a scholarship from the British Council to study Mongolian flute music, and obtained a Mongolian residence visa. Arriving in December 1988, he remained in Ulaanbaatar one year, at one point guiding Ruhiyyih Khanum during her visit. Oyundelger, then 22, was a private English language student of Hinton's who gradually learned of his religion and embraced it just before his departure. After obtaining a master's degree in ethnomusicology from Cambridge University, Hinton returned to Mongolia—initially to the Mongolian Altai—and ultimately lived there for six years, abandoning an ethnomusicology doctorate. In recognition of his services to the country, he was appointed Honorary Consul-General of Mongolia - the sole representative in Australia for the Mongolian government. In the late summer of 1992, Semira Manaseki, a British Baháʼí youth, and 2 youth members of the Marion Jack Teaching Project who were working mostly within Russia at the time, came to Mongolia to participate in a concerted effort to share the Baháʼí Faith with a wider range of Mongolians. After a concerted two-month effort, there were new Baháʼí communities in Darhkan and Erdennet, effectively tripling the size and location of the community at the time, which had been based solely out of Ulanbaatar. Members of the project stayed