Well, you all guest it. Our camping trip was a lot of fun & the full moon Saturday night was beautiful, but the cold air from Siberia came down. We had 60 km/h winds, the clouds came & snow/ice fell from the sky. We all were warm in our (friends) tent because our sleeping bags were rated for -8 Celsius. We only got cold when we had to get up & out of our sleeping bags. The temperature was (real feel) -15 Celsius & it felt that cold. All of our feet & fingers were very cold.
This year was the first time we slept in a tent & we agreed that next year when we do it again we are going back to a ger. The reason is that in a ger we each had our own beds & most important we can light a fire in the stove. It means that we will have to travel twice as far to get to the ger, but I think to be able to stay warm with a fire is worth the extra travel.
We are starting to get a little frustrated because for a week now we have lost/lose water (both hot & cold) from 10am to 11pm. It's a challenge because it has forced us to change our daily plans with the water schedule. In some ways it is funny. Those of you that know Teresa could just image her having to get up at 6am to get a hot shower before the hot water runs out. When push comes to shove we have to laugh at the no water situation because we would probably kill each other if we did not laugh at it.
Some days it is hard because God uses daily circumstance that are out of our control to force us to change our character so that we are more effective for him here. The really frustrating thing is that some days when I think I have had enough I don't know if it's because I am thick headed (have not learned what God is teaching me) or if the lesson has changed (God wants me to learn even more than I think) so my character becomes more like his. Either way some days are a real challenge here, but as long as we can laugh about it (in the end), enjoy the other great things here in Mongolia & help Mongolians in whatever ways we can things are good.