ANOTHER BUSY WEEK IN MOSCOW

We attended our first zone conference of our mission this week.  What an inspirational day. The mission president challenged us to set high goals and gave us many ideas as to how to accomplish those goals.  We all went away even more excited to do the work we have been called to do.  For lunch, Subway sandwiches were ordered by the branch assigned to provide lunch.  When Sister Borders went into the kitchen area to check on lunch, she realized there were not enough sandwiches for the whole group.  She came and got me out of the meeting and we proceeded to unwrap each sandwich and cut them in half.  It was a feeding the 5000 moment - everyone got fed with 2 sandwiches left over.  I'm sure the missionaries, especially, went away a bit hungry as there was nothing else to supplement the sandwiches, not even potato chips.  Sister Borders sent the office elders to the store to buy cookies, Choco Pies to be exact.  They were a big hit.  After lunch, the missionaries sang 'Called to Serve' as a thank you for the ladies who brought the sandwiches.  At the close of their song, an elderly sister from the branch began to sing a song back to us. It was such a sweet gesture.

The sister who sang is in the center.  After her song, she said:  "May all you sisters find good husbands
and have lots of children."   And to the Elders she said, "May you all find good wives......
and by the way, my two daughters (pictured next to their mom) would make good wives...."

IT'S A SMALL WORLD

Since we have been here in Moscow, we have found so many connections to home, both Heber City and Spokane.  At zone conference, we met a senior couple serving in an area outside Moscow, but in our zone.  Their names were Elder (Steve) and Sister King. When a reference was made of him having played for Coach Jud Heathcote from West Valley High School in Spokane, we knew immediately that this was the son of Mitch and Ada King of Spokane.  Paul was Mitch and Ada's bishop and I taught Steve's younger sister, Leslie, in Young Women's years ago.  

Our mission president, President Borders and his wife, are also from Spokane.  One other connection to Spokane comes with the mission call of our Young Single Adult President, Artyom.  He will be serving a mission in the Spokane Washington Mission arriving in October.

Artyom is a dynamite leader and will be a fabulous missionary.
He speaks very good English  and loves the gospel.

Elder Naylor and Paul

Now for the Heber City connections.  We have met two elders whose grandparents served with us in the Provo temple....Elder Davison and Elder Naylor.  Before we left, Elder Naylor's grandfather gave Paul twenty dollars to give to his grandson when we saw him in Moscow. We met Elder Naylor on our very first day in Moscow.  He was street contacting at the metro station by our apartment.  We met Elder Davison (not pictured) at church a few days later.
                      
This elder, below, is new to our district as of a week ago. He is now serving in the office and is from Heber City.  He moved there about the time we did and attended high school in Heber.   We drove by his home every time we drove to the stake center.                                     

Elder Ricks

ONE MORE CONNECTION..........


Just this last Sunday at church, a gentleman came up to us and introduced himself as Chad Bonham. He said he was told about us being in Moscow by Kristina Leavitt, our daughter-in-law Kailiee's sister.  Kailee had told us about him and by coincidence he is in our exact ward. Small world for sure. We'll have him over for dinner sometime next week to get to know him.



Right after zone conference on Tuesday, we administered an English Proficiency test to a young man and an hour later gave another one to an investigator with a baptismal date later this month.  We didn't get home until almost 10:00 that night, but it was a good day.  We are grateful, though, that we don't have a long metro ride to get home when we are at the church so late.  We just have a very short walk to our apartment.




Wednesday was English group.  This time we knew we needed to come prepared so we spent time reviewing what our discussion with the class would be. We had 17 in our room but many of them were not ones who had attended the first week.  We discussed Fathers and again had a real fun time with our group.  At the end of 45 minutes we went down to the chapel where a story about Fathers was told.  At that point, the atmosphere was still pretty jovial but as our Elders and Sisters began to sing a song together the whole atmosphere changed.  They had definitely set a wonderful spiritual tone for the spiritual thought and prayer.  Another great night.



The joke at the Missionary Training Center in Provo was that if you were a CES (Church Education System) missionary, you would soon find that CES really stands for Cooking Every Second.  I am finding that to be so true.  I spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking. Thursday we were responsible for presenting a 45 minute lesson at our Senior Council night as well as providing refreshments.  It was lemon bars and peanut butter oatmeal bars that I baked that very day.

We hold these meeting in the high council room every Thursday evening

We decided to do our lesson on Pioneers in Russia.  I had been reading the July Liahona (the Ensign in Russia) and came across an article by M. Russell Ballard entitled Faith and Fortitude, Then and Now.  It spoke about the pioneers coming to Utah.  The caption under a picture caught my attention that said, "Any success we are having now is built upon the courage and shoulders of the humble heroes of the past."  That got me thinking about the Russians who must have sacrificed equally as much to join the church as did the Mormon pioneers in America.  We started to do some research and found several stories of true pioneers in Russia.  We shared those at senior council and then showed three video clips from Elder Todd Christofferson when he visited Moscow in 2012.   We used a quote from Joseph Smith when he referred to Russia as being attached to some of the most important things concerning the advancement and building up of the Kingdom of God in the last days.  We concluded with a couple of quotes from Elder Christofferson.  He said, "Eastern Europe is the frontier of the church and the Lord has a way of bringing together those who can provide a critical role in each moment of time."  He also said, "The Lord's spirit is brooding over this area and we will see things we could never have imagined."  Oh we are so grateful to be a part of this time here in Russia.

Every thing went well on this day, until we got home.  We immediately changed clothes and got into more comfortable attire.  Paul was sitting at his computer later that night when he got a Skype call from BYU Idaho.  (Their day is our night)  He answered it, forgetting how really comfortable he had gotten.  He looked at his image in the computer and realized he was sitting there talking to Vanessa from BYUI in his underwear.  Whoops!  He tried scrunching down so only his head showed but it was too late.  Luckily the connection was bad, so they hung up and Paul called her back on our phone.....not Skype.



Friday we didn't have a real commitment until 7:00 at night so after I did some cleaning of our apartment and ironing and Paul worked on Pathway, we took a walk.  We wanted to find out exactly where we are located so we started walking in the direction of the river.  We rounded a corner not far from our home, and this is what came into view.  We are only a 10 minute walk to Red Square. An amazing place to live...so much to do and see all withing walking distance.


Just over the bridge that crosses the Moscow river, we could see one of the walls of the Kremlin and then down the river, the Church of Christ the Savior.

We will be walking to this cathedral on another day as it is said to be
the most beautiful cathedral in Moscow.

Since we had already toured St. Basil's Cathedral we decided to check our RYM's (pronounced Goom's).  It is a massive mall in an very old and very ornate building on Red Square.  It houses all the high end, very expensive stores.  It was fun to walk through and see how the other half of society lives.  Yes, there is evidence of a lot of money in Moscow.

                                                                   

       This is the outside of rym's with it's beautifully manicured flower gardens.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Then there was the inside of the mall with the opulence and elegance of old Russia.

All the  aisles had artwork displayed - 

photographs of Russia scenes

Guess who we saw while walking around Red Square?  



Sponge Bob was also there but every time I tried to take a picture of him he would turn the other way.

We had to be to the institute room at 7:00 to open it up for game night.  We doubted anyone would come because most of our young singles were at an area conference held somewhere up north.  I met the missionary sisters for an investigator discussion while Paul worked hard on a puzzle.  Paul has come to realize that puzzles can be addicting.



This is the golden investigator I had the privilege of meeting with for a discussion.  She is being baptized on Saturday, the 31st.  She is also one of the ones we tested for Pathway and is in the application process.  A beautiful lady.

Lada told us of a miracle in her life.  She loves drinking tea but had

given it up once she learned about the Word of Wisdom.  One night,

it was late and she was tired and craving her tea.  She decided

 that if she drank green tea which she doesn't really like, it wouldn't 

be so bad because she wouldn't enjoy it as much.  She reached into her

cupboard 

for a package of green tea.  She read the label and found it was

herbal 

tea (ok to drink since it contains no tea).  She does not remember having 

bought 

that kind of tea but there it was in her cupboard.  She drank it and loved 

it.  Now she can have her herbal tea when she craves her tea.

Saturday was a P-day so a group of senior couples decided to go to Gorky Park.  It's a park that is in the process of being remodeled but has been around since the 1955. You will notice the hammer and cycle on the pillar of the massive gates, evidencing the communist rule of the day.  It is a beautiful park where Russian go to play.  There were so many things to do and ways to just relax.  

Giant beanbags were everywhere for people to lie on as were different kinds of lounge chairs all over the park. There were paddle boats, sand volleyball, ping pong, aerobic dancing, and much more to do.   

Of course the fountains and flowers added much to the beauty of the park

It was great day until we decided to go to a restaurant for a late lunch.  We were all seated and given a menu.  We ordered our food and about a half hour later the food started coming out.  At our table four out of six of us got our food. At the other table 3 of 6 got their food. About twenty minutes later, Paul's food was brought to our table and two from the other table were served. Another twenty minutes passed before  the last plate was brought to our table.  One of the elders at the other table never did get his food, after almost an hour and a half.  Obviously it is not understood that service is important to the success of the restaurant.  I don't think we will be going there again.  We understand that this is how it is in a lot of the eateries here. You also have to ask to have your bill brought to the table as it is considered rude if a waiter brings the bill without you indicating you were ready to leave and want it.


As if we hadn't done enough walking during the day, Paul and I decided to take another walk in our neighborhood to find a 50's diner we had heard about.

We ordered a shake to share between us.  The shake wasn't very big
 and Paul claimed half of it was whipped cream.  The cost - $10.00.
Pretty spendy but a fun experience. 

ANOTHER SPOTLIGHT ABOUT THINGS WE'VE NOTICED ABOUT MOSCOW

We've have noticed a shortage of parking in our area.  Lots of cars driving on the streets but few places to park.  This is how the Russians solve the problem.

Double parking is common.  Notice the car in taking up the
whole lane of a two way street.

Cars park on the sidewalks all the time so pedestrians have to
walk in the street.

And then when you can't find a place to park........
just squeeze in any which way.

Some day, I'll capture on camera the traffic jams happening all the time on the street just outside our apartment.  When cars are parked on both sides of the street, the street becomes very narrow, only wide enough for one car.  Often two cars meet head on and invariably one has to back up and out of the way for the other to pass. Often this doesn't happen until many horns are honked and sometimes some words are exchanged between drivers. We don't know what they are saying but the tone suggests the words are not so nice.  Interesting.

Life in Moscow is becoming the norm for us now after almost a month.  We find so many interesting things about living here and wouldn't trade this experience for anything else.....WE ARE STILL LOVING OUR ADVENTURE.