The Perks of Being 6'4"

On the way to John's and my apartment from the Dean's, we always pass a park with some play equipment and a good sized basketball court.  For the past week or so, with temperatures finally getting up into the high teens and twenties, I've seen some high school aged guys playing basketball in the afternoon.  I've wanted to play every time I walk by, and today, I finally asked them if I could.  It was around fifteen degrees outside, but with the sun, it wasn't terrible.  They were all pretty short, so when I came up, they were fascinated with me.  We started playing some three-on-three.  The team that won stayed on the court and played the other team, so my team played the whole time.  They were pretty fascinated when I dunked, and I think that we all had a lot of fun.  I was able to speak some Mongolian and when I left, they all said "see ya!".  It was a good opportunity to get out and exercise, plus I think it opened a really great door.  Hopefully, I will be able to invite them to church some time.

Tsagaan Sar, Day 3

NO VISITS!!!  Today, the Dean's only visited one family, but John and I did not go with them.  I slept in later than I have in a long time and talked to my parents in the morning.  After that, I was able to just stay in our hole-in-the-wall apartment, read my Bible, pray, and do a little cleaning.  Around seven o'clock in the evening, John and I went to an Indian restaurant since the Dean's were out visiting someone.  The food was great as usual!  So, that's my pretty uneventful day 3 of Tsagaan Sar.

Tsagaan Sar, Day 2

Today, the Dean's, Pattersons, John, and I visited two different Mongolian homes.  The first house we went to was that of Ganperuv and his family.  We had a pretty good time there.  After I took my coat off, the very first thing I saw was a big old cooked sheep- head, tongue, esophagus and all.  I was a little worried because it seemed like I saw more fat than meat.  Then there's the whole fact of this neckless head staring at me while I eat the rest of its body..... I really wasn't looking forward to eating that.  But fortuantely they brought out some buzz (I never though I'd be happy to see that) and potato salad.  So we ate and ate and ate.  Then after a few hours, we headed over to Bigay's family's house.  There we ate more buzz, but they had quite a few pastries that were very good.  So my first Tsagaan Sar visits weren't as bad as I was expecting them to be.  I guess I'll see in a few hours how my stomach held out...  I was able to take quite a few pictures today and I will be putting them on my shutterfly right after I finish this.  The address is on the right hand side of my blog.

Tsagaan Sar, Day 1

Today is the first day of the Mongolian New Year, Tsagaan Sar.  Traditionally, Mongolians will go and worship their gods or sacred trees early in the morning on the first day.  The church generally has a prayer meeting every Wednesday, so taking those two things into account, Pastor Dean decided to have the prayer meeting in the morning.  He set the time for 7:00 a.m. and announced it in church this past Sunday.  Well, John and I went to a missionary's house last night for dinner.  We had a great time, but didn't get to bed until just before 1:00 a.m.  I set my alarm and John set his at 6:20 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. respectively.  We woke up at 7:40.  So I haven't had a very good start to Tsagaan Sar, but I'm sure it'll get better... I hope.  Please pray for all of us.  We will be eating so much buzz and other Mongolian foods it's not even funny.  I really don't mind the food, but this holiday generally doesn't bode well for foreigners and their stomach health.  It's a really interesting holiday though, because more than any other time of the year, this is when the older Mongolian traditions come out in abundance.  I'm really anxiously looking forward to this next week!

Mongolian Culture

For the White Month celebration, our language school gave us tickets to a famous Mongolian opera.  This opera is the most famous opera written by the most famous Mongolian composer.  So yeah, it's kind of famous.  Well, I hate operas and I speak very little Mongolian.  Have you ever been listening to an opera, think it's in another language, tune it out, but then find out ten minutes later that it's actually English, but you just can't understand it?  Well, that's me.  So I really wasn't looking forward to going to this, but we figured that it would be an interesting experience so we went.  I was impressed.  I really enjoyed myself.  Granted, the theater was made for Mongolia sized people, not 6'5" Americans, so my legs were really squished.  Other than that though, it was well performed.  The singing was much better than I expected, and the instrumental pieces were very enjoyable.  So, I guess I like operas now.  I never though I'd say that.

Comments

Hey everybody.  I realized that  I accidentally had my blog set up that only registered blogger could comment.  I just changed it so that anyone can now.

Thank You Pattersons!

Yesterday, the Pattersons got home around six o'clock in the evening.  John and I came over to help them carry all their luggage up the stairs.  They were pulling some stuff out for Pastor Dean that he asked them to bring for him from the U.S.  Then came that wonderful moment.  He pulled out of his suit case a bag.  I couldn't believe it.  It was a McDonald's bag!  He had brought John and I back some cheeseburgers from the Korean aiport's McDonald's.  I was so excited.  I couldn't believe how good McDonald's could taste!

Mr. Clean

Wow, what a day! Today is the day that the Patterson's get back, so John and I took the day off of school. I woke up this morning around six and was cleaning there house by 7:20. No, we didn't procrastinate until the day of, but we still had some last minute things to do before we moved out of there. So I did some cleaning and washed the rest of the dishes. Pastor Dean got to our house at 8:30 to pick us up and help us move back to our old apartment. I went downstairs to open up the garage for him to pick up Bro. Patterson's car. We got into the garage, and the front left tire was totally and completely flat. So, we tried to change the tire, but couldn't find the jack. After about twenty minutes of searching, we finally found it, but then it took a while longer to figure out how it works. We finally got the tire changed, but by then Pastor Dean had another appointment, so we went to the Dean's house to wash the sheets to the Patterson's bed. After he dropped us off there, we went grocery shopping for the Dean's. Immediately after our return, I went to our apartment to clean it and unpack my stuff. It was a pit of despair. It took me about two hours to clean and unpack. Then back to the Dean's I went. Which brings me up to right now. I'm blogging, waiting for Mrs. Dean to finish making dinner for the Patterson's dinner. After it's done, John and i are going back over to the Patterson's to drop off dinner and help them bring all there luggage up the four flights of stairs. After that, we'll go back to the Dean's for dinner and then I'll sleep like a baby tonight. Wow, what a day!

The Three Dollar Rolex

Pastor Dean, John, and I were walking to the Black Market last Thursday to pick up some things, but on our way, we noticed that a large department store had opened. We stopped by to check it out, and it had everything we were looking for, but inside. That meant less time in the cold, so we were pretty happy about that. As we were wondering about, we noticed a watch vendor. We were looking at some of the watches when Pastor Dean found a Rolex. It was 4,000...... tugrugs. That's about three dollars and fifteen cents. Apparently with the economy the way it is, Rolex has finally dropped its prices. I knew it was fake, but it was just too tempting, so I bought it. When I got home and was looking at it, I noticed something pretty interesting. It has three smaller dials on the bottom for various things, but the hands on those don't move. So every day I've had the watch, it's told me that it's September the18th. But I'm not too disappointed since it was only three bucks. The fun part will be getting it back into the U.S. United States Customs Office, please be kind to me.

House Fires and Such

It's quite the title I know. But since John updates his blog so much more often than I, you've probably already heard the story... but I'm going to tell it anyway. Last Tuesday, Mr. and Mrs. Dean went to another missionary's house to have a meeting, so it was just the kids, John, and I. Pastor Dean told us that Charissa could handle everything if we wanted to go home, so around seven thirty, we were going to head out. But for whatever reason, we decided to stay a little longer. Early that night, Elsie (their youngest daughter) was playing around in the kitchen. Neither John nor I thought anything of it, and we just kept on doing whatever it was we were doing. Well, she stopped playing and got in the bath. She got out a while later and we were all sitting around in the living room, when John asked if there was steam from the bath floating in the kitchen. That's when we saw the orange, flickering glow on the kitchen wall behind the counter. Just as John was asking who lit a candle over there, we realized what it was. Elsie had plugged in a heating coil and left it there getting hotter and hotter. Eventually it lit a large box of stickers on fire and we had ourselves a good one and a half square foot fire.... in the kitchen. That was a little exciting to say the least. We didn't know of any fire extinguishers, so I began to fill up a pitcher with water. Meanwhile, John was contemplating trying to pat it out with his hands. Fortunately, before that idea came to fruition, he found an already full pitcher of water and put it out. So that was quite the Tuesday night. Praise the Lord that John and I didn't leave earlier, because poor Charissa wouldn't have had any idea what to do. Then the very next morning, God showed Himself just as strong in a very different, but equally amazing way. At school during the break, Alfredo (our Italian classmate), John, and I started talking about religion. He doesn't really know what he believes other than that everyone should accept what everyone else believes. We had a great opportunity to share the Gospel with him, but as we were just getting started, the break ended. Alfredo knows English very well, so that's what we were talking in. Once the break ended though, I knew that if we didn't start talking in Mongolian, she'd move on to the lesson. So I started trying to talk to him in Mongolian. Now, I struggle with this language. No doubt about it. But God was so good! Words were coming out of my mouth that I didn't even know I knew! He gave me an incredible opportunity to witness and and incredible ability with the language. And another great thing is that the teacher was listening intently to the whole conversation, looking for any mistakes in our speaking, so she heard it too. God really provides when we just look to Him instead of relying on our own strength.

Language Test

Today we had our third language test.  We have now finished the first book, and tomorrow we'll probably be moving on to the second one.  Yesterday was a day of review for that test, but neither John or I got much from it.  We were practicing for the speaking section, and apparently it wasn't very interesting to our teacher.  We had whole subjects to talk about, so each student was talking for about five minutes straight.  While we were talking, our teacher started playing with whatever she could get her hands on.  She started taking apart her pens and whiteboard markers, which was entertaining, but not nearly as much as what was to come.  She then took the power cord off of a CD player and started playing with that.  She wrapped it around her neck and started pretending like she was strangling herself.  Then she started twirling it around and hit herself in the face.  What she didn't know was that the whole class was staring at her and laughing at her.  What she really didn't know is that I was video taping the whole thing with my camera carefully hidden under the table.  It was great.  Unfortunately, since we were preoccupied, we didn't study much, and the test was really hard today.  But we got through it and were able to leave an hour and a half early today since we finished the test.

"Beautiful" Language.....

My teachers keep telling me how beautiful the Mongolian language is. They tell me it is a logical language that just rolls off the tongue. Well, I'm not convinced. Our teachers are teaching us Mongolian, but we're also teaching them English at the same time. It's a good deal with mutual benefits, we just need to figure out some reimbursement plan.... Anyway, we are going through a curriculum put out by our school. Half the time, we go through some books, and the other half, the teachers just tell us what they think should be learned first. We learn more vocabulary and conversation from the teacher, but the in-depth grammar we get from the book. It really is a good system, but I must come back to the claim that it is a simple language. More times than John and I can count, we will have read a section in our book and understood it pretty well, then our teacher will completely and totally contradict it. At first it was extrememly frustrating, because I felt like no matter what I did, it was the other way around. John and I have come to a point though, in which we thouroughly enjoy it. We have one teacher on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. We have a different teacher on Tuesdays and Thursdays. For the past week, John and I have been asking the same question to each of them everyday. They say the exact opposite thing. I'm not talking about a little contradiction or pronunciation. I'm talking about flat out, no doubt about it, contradicting each other. Well, after we made ourselves thouroughly confused, we finally told one of the teachers that the other one said the opposite thing and asked her which one was right. Our teacher replied, "Yes, she's a Boriad [a region just south of Russia], I'm from Ulan Bator. I'm right. She's wrong." Ohhhhhhhhhh. Now I understand. Yes, we have gotten some pretty funny stories from our language classes, but no doubt about it, learning Mongolian is one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. There have been so many times where I've just wanted to give up, but there's been one consistent thing through it all. One thing in which there are no "exceptions" that I "must memorize." One thing that I know no matter how impossible this language may seem, I can rely on. And that rock that has been there from far before even the confounding of languages. God has been such a present help in a time of need. I am continually amazed at the help He provides when I think all is hopeless. No doubt trials and hardships come, but He has a perfect plan in all of them and never abandons me. I know that I have all sorts of people reading my blog (sorry I don't keep up with it like I should) and a large majority are friends and family who have already placed their faith in Christ, but let me just write for a little to those of you who have not. Many of you realize that this is an incredible experience to see the world and get a new perspective. Though that is true, and I feel like I have already matured so much, that is not the main reason I'm here. Many years ago, I came to the realization that I was a sinner in desperate need of help. We all have done wrong things in our life. Some more than others, but the fact is, that in the presence of an Almighty God, even the kindest, most wonderful people around us fall desperately short. The Apostle Paul in the book of Philippians says that he was blameless in all matters of the law, but just two verses later, he says that he counts them all but loss. No matter how hard any of us try, we cannot gain entrance into Heaven, the home of a perfect, Holy God. I believe with all my heart that the Bible is the Word of God, and that when the Bible says that we cannot be saved through works (Ephesians 2:9), than there is nothing I can do to be saved in my own strength. I am here because I realize what Christ sacrificed for my sins on the cross. I realize that I have been given the greatest gift ever given, and I realize that it is my responsibility to share that with others. It seems somewhat foolish to have gone thousands of miles away though when I haven't even told my unsaved friends and family about it. So there it is. I'm sure that it may sound ridiculous to some people, but I have seen firsthand the way God works, and I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to be able to trust in the Almighty Creater of the Universe for every problem!

NEW PICTURES!!!!!

Hello to all.  I've been having a hard time uploading pictures to my blog for whatever reason, so I created a new website specifically for pictures.  The address is kwmarshman.shutterfly.com.  This post will be up for a while, but I will also put this link on the side of this blog.

T'was the Week Before New Year's

This past Wednesday (New Year's Eve) the church held a joint English/Mongolian fellowship.  In preparation for that, the church's cleaning crew (i.e. John and I) cleaned up the church on Tuesday.  The fellowship went very well.  We had all sorts of different food ranging from buzz to home made oatmeal cream pies.  That night, John and I were talking to a missionary friend of ours.  He said that the following morning, he was going to climb a mountain somehwere around here so he could say that the first thing he did in 2009 was climb a mountain.  Well, John and I thought it was a great idea and figured "why not."  So we got up New Year's Day morning and went over to our friend Michael's house.  We started walking and flagged over a taxi cab.  He asked us where we wanted to go and we said "a big mountain."  Well, about twenty minutes we arrived at our destination.  We really didn't know the name of where we were and hardly new where we were, but wherever it was, we were there.  We started climbing and soon realized that being a little under a mile above sea level makes climbing harder than it is in Oregon, but we pressed on.  There were times when we were in the sun and shedding layers left and right, and then there were times in which I lost all feeling in both of my hands.  After about two hours of climbing, we stopped and started a fire.  Michael had brought a package of bacon, so we found a thin rock and cooked some bacon over our fire.  It was without a doubt the best bacon I've ever had in my life.  After eating our bacon and putting out the fire, we found the highest point we could find and headed out for that.  We finally got to the tip of the mountain and the view was absolutely amazing.  We took some pictures and started to head back down when I remembered one more thing.  I had brought a glass coke bottle to christen the the mountain we climbed up.  So in light of the delicious bacon we had, we all decided to name it Bacon Ridge.  When we finally got home, we were pretty exhausted, but we can now say that the first thing we did in 2009 was climb a mountain in Mongolia.