Yay, mail from America! :D

This totally made my day. I went to the local internet bar to print out a handout I had made for my students to teach tomorrow and to my dismay my flash drive totally didn't work anymore and had random folders with shady names. How embarassing! Lol. I'm used to viruses on my flash drive since I have to go to a net bar for internet but it never did this to my flash drive before... Anyway I had to go home to retreive the file and possibly reformat the drive.

As I waited for my computer to disinfect the drive, I heard a knock on the door. It was the mail lady! She's very old and nice. There are no mailboxes here prbly since sending things by mail is not very common. She had a small packaged envelope with my name on it. My first letter I've received in Mongolia! It's from my middle school friend Vy. I thoroughly enjoyed the snail mail, hand-written letter, and surprise! It came with a beautiful journal (my current one is just about to finish! :)) and two stunning pictures, one of the beach that I never get to see anymore. Needless to say, this totally made my day :D. Thanks, Vy!!

A short video I made on Thursday after it snowed :D

Pictures

I thought the brothers in the first picture were really cute, wearing matching green and yellow clothes and holding hands.  Next two pictures are of the sidewalk getting torn up. PTL, the sidewalk was so uneven, making it really hard to walk on, especially on rainy days :D.  It's funny because as they are tearing up the sidewalk, pedestrians are just walking all over the dirt.  Last pictures are an exhibit of really cool structures that the architecture majors at SHUTIS (Science and Tech University) created.  Aren't they awesome?? I thought it was cool :D.

Pictures

A view from outside our kitchen and some of our daily life :)

Work Visas

PTL! Chloe and my work visa are well underway and should be ready for the “next step” by Thursday. The “next step” is that we both need to exit the country and get our visa in a Mongolian embassy. This takes us halfway through the process. Then after further paperwork processing, we will finally receive our work permit and residence card. Lorin and Taurus are already on the last stage. However, the visa that we receive is a single-entry (which means once you enter the country, you cannot leave and come back in). This is a problem because we often need to exit the country, whether for our summer VSET program or whatever other trip we need to make (usually to China). As of right now, we’re not sure if Taurus and Chloe (the non-Americans) will be able to change their visa to multiple-entry but it seems that Americans are able to do so. Please continue to pray for this process as it is very confusing, complicated, and time-consuming.

Mei’s visa also has issues because she also needs to exit the country to get her visa in a Mongolian embassy but our closest and least expensive country to travel to would be China. She cannot enter China because she was escorted out of the country in 2008 for sharing the good news on a university campus. We are in the process of trying to see if we can secure a visa into China for the express purpose of her getting her Mongolia visa (confusing, huh?). Anyway, every step of the way is uncertain so please pray that somehow the doors would open and Mei would be able to enter into China to get her Mongolian visa.

Thanks for all your prayers thus far! Mei, Lorin and Taurus already started their first week of teaching at School 23 and Chloe and I will be teaching at School 50 sometime this week. It’s exciting to see God opening the doors for us to meet all these high schoolers! We are still praying and hoping for a strong ministry among the high schoolers so this is just the beginning.

My 'Hood

random pictures near my 'hood haha. The last picture is High School 50, the school I will be doing part-time teaching at starting mid-April. It's a 5 minute walk from our place.

Photo Update!

<- University fellowship (left) || Sunday Church (below)

Celebrating Tsagaan Sar; Cooking with the Team; The key growing sisters in our church!