Good afternoon to you all. I want to let you know that after a month without hot water they turned it on yesterday. To be totally honest with you i am a bit disappointed that it is back on. I know Teresa is happy that it is back on, but really hot water is not a big deal for us. After 3 weeks of not having hot water I taught myself how to wash my hair & the rest of my body with "only 2 litres of hot water." It was very confusing that other missionaries were apologizing for us not having hot water. I still don't understand why they were.
Most Mongol's don't have any running water at all. They have to walk 2-5km to the local well/pump house to get their cold water & if they want hot water they have to boil it over their (coal/dung/wood) stove. I know that this is the major reason why i feel somewhat disappointed with the hot water coming on. I was able to identify more with the average Mongol. God has taught me so much during simply not having hot water. What I think are needs are really not needs & that when they are gone it is a challenge at first, but as time goes on you realize they were not needs (Matt 6:31).
Please continue to pray for Teresa & Bridge possibly having a solution for her.
Mongolian language is going well for Teresa & I. I was feeling really discouraged earlier in the week with how little I am able to communicate with local Mongol's outside of asking direct questions & giving answers (shopping for food, taxi's, etc...) I really want to start communicating (relationally) with local Mongol's, but can't. I asked Болт one of my language instructors after 2.5 months of монгол хэл хэчээл (Mongolian language classes) I should be able to understand. His reply encouraged me. He said that I should only be able to understand 1-2% of conversations. The more you learn about the Mongolian language the more you realize how hard it is. There are multiply cases, 8 to be exact, each case has 5 or more endings & there are a many exceptions. It is just hard.
There are many times when Mongol's laugh at Teresa & I because we totally choose the wrong word or mess up the pronunciation when talking to people. It is a great humbling exercise & we have learned to laugh at ourselves & each other. But there is one thing that Mongol's always do after they laugh at our mess-ups. Almost all of them sincerely thank us for trying & wanting to learn their language. Many of them question why a western family would want to learn their language & why we would choose to live in their country. This with your prayers encourages us to continue working through this difficult language so that we can serve these people more actively in the future.