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.