still hot!

 Its still HOT every day! Each day gets over 100 degrees, which is hard for this Alaskan to endure. I have survived so far, but some days I really feel worn out and exhausted from battling the heat. They tell me it doesn't last forever. One lady told me the other day at church, that they even seen 20 degree weather in the winter. That sounds wonderful! :) 

Classes are moving forward. We are learning a lot of new things in Phonetics. Some are easy for me and some not so easy. I have a hard time with learning different tones and saying them. The actual sounds are easier for me to produce. Hopefully with more practice, I'll get the hang of it. 

Culture class has been informative. One can not stress enough that a missionary needs to know much of the culture before 'forcing' new beliefs on the people. We read one story about a tribe in South America..... after a man's wife had a baby, he would lounge in his hammock for several days. The missionary kept pestering him, telling him he was lazy and needed to get to work. All the man would explain was that his wife had just a baby so he was staying in the hammock. He would lay there all day. After several days of the missionary bothering him about it, the man got up and went back to work. Later that week, the missionary heard that the mother of the new baby had killed her child. Appalled, he asked the villagers why she did so. It was a custom of their culture for the husband/father of the child to remain in his hammock for x amount of days after his wife had the baby - this signified it was his child. By getting up before the number of days was fulfilled, he was telling everyone it was not his child, though it really was. Rather than live with the shame of an illegitimate child, the mother killed the baby. This missionary did not try to learn the culture before trying to 'correct' it. Remember you may have the Truth of the Gospel, but they have a culture and way of life... you may be doing more harm than good, by simply coming in and sharing your culture/beliefs before first studying theirs.

For those of you who are curious about my living arrangements, here are a few pictures. I live on the right side of the duplex with another girl, Nicole. We have a nice little 3 bedroom place. We get along really well, which is a blessing, since we'll be living together for the next 9 months. :)