ANOTHER GREAT WEEK IN MOSCOW, RUSSIA

Our third Saturday in Moscow was spent sight seeing, again.  We take Saturdays as our P-day (preparation day) and want to take advantage of the wonderful weather to see all we can before the cold winter sets in. Our adventure was to Kolomenskoe and the Wooden Palace.  It is a former royal estate just a little southwest of Moscow.  It overlooks the steep banks of the Moscow River.  The estate includes a reconstructed wooden palace which was just recently finished. It was rebuilt from a detailed model preserved from the 1700's.  The palace is at the far end of a large park, of which we walked the entire length of and back.  Along the way, we visited 3 cathedrals, the cabin of Peter the Great, a graveyard, and the estate's stables.

Above - The wooded palace from afar.

Below - a close up of the palace. 

 Our camera doesn't show its magnificent beauty

nor the intricacy of the workmanship.

The original place had 250 room and a maze of intricate corridors. 

It became famed for its fanciful, fairytale roofs.

The entrance room where we stopped to put on booties

to cover our shoes

A place of worship within

the walls of the palace.

Intricate mosiac structures, like this one, were

found in most rooms.  These were used to heat the

 individual rooms in the cold winters.

Lots of golds and reds were used through out the

rooms in the palace

    

In the basement there was a bath house

complete with a private sauna.

Our walk around the estate included over 200 stairs going down a gully and back up.

On our return trip to the palace, we traversed a second set of stairs, up and down again.

We certainly got our exercise for the day

This church is still being used.  In fact, we

observed a funeral in progress while we

were there

The Ascension church built in 1532 of white

stone to commemorate the birth of the future

heir to the throne, Ivan the Terrible

The three
cathedrals

we saw along our walk

This church is also still in use today.

The women must cover their heads before entering.

Peter the Great's cabin.  This was moved onto the

estate as a way to preserve it

Some of the ancient graves in an

old graveyard we walked through.

This Cinderella type coach was in the stable area 

of the estate.  It is probably used for bridal parties.

We saw many bridal photo shoots taking place

around the park.  Our princess loving granddaughters 

would love to ride in this carriage.

After a wonderful day touring, we decided to return to our neighborhood for a late lunch.  We went to a Mexican restaurant just across the street from where we live.  I think we found Moscow's answer to Cafe Rio ( a popular Mexican restaurant in Utah).  It is a Mexican grill type eatery where you select what you want on your salad or in your burrito.   The servers could understand English which made the ordering process much easier than usual.

The chicken salad. 

We'll definitely go there again

Sunday was an interesting day at church.  It was Fast and Testimony meeting.  The spirit was so strong until toward the end when a man went up to the pulpit and began telling us his conversion story to the Orthodox church.  He then started telling us how our church couldn't be a true church.  It was interesting how the spirit totally left the room as he spoke.  Everyone in the congregation was nice to the man, who at the end of church was outside handing out pamphlets for his church.  Interesting experience especially because we had an investigator sitting next to us whom I had called and invited to come.  

Sunday was also a busy day.  After church, we traveled on the metro to the apartment of one of our young single adult leaders for a council meeting.  It was a 'break the fast' meal of chicken or spiced hamburger wraps.  Delicious after of day of fasting.  The meeting was probably typical of young singles.....Lots of good ideas but little evidence of anyone carrying out the plans.  We were to have a sports night for family home evening the next night.  The committee chair was in attendance via Skype and reported that no plans had been finalized.  We were told  to meet at a certain metro station at 7:00 for an activity and left the meeting wondering what would happen the next night.



The ride to the Metro station where we were all to meet on Monday was right in the middle of rush hour.  As we left our apartment, we saw this mass of humanity heading toward the metro station.  We joined them and were literally pushed through the doors and toward the escalator.  As we got onto the train, we kept being pushed closer and closer together until Paul and I were literally nose to nose, and still more people were trying to squeeze through the doors before they shut. All we could do was laugh. Luckily the amount of people diminished after about 4 stops.  We were pleasantly surprised when lots of young singles showed up for the activity, including 3 investigators and an equal amount of missionary companionships.  The only problem was that it was a downpour outside, so instead of heading outside to a nearby park, we all boarded the metro again and headed back to the same station where we had gotten on earlier.  The activity would now be held at the central building in the institute room. How the word got out we don't know, but several more people showed up there, as well, and we had a very successful, relatively well planned activity.  There was even food served and a couple of fun games played.  

Sister Hawkins and Sister Carver walking

in the rain from the metro station to

the central building.

Our Young Single Adult  president

This young man was baptized the following Saturday

The evening turned out to be a real success and those who attended didn't even know of the last minute plans.

Tuesday brought another district meeting to our home with our Elders and Sisters. Despite the work, this is becoming our favorite day of the week......a spiritual highlight.  For lunch, we served chicken enchiladas, chips and fresh homemade salsa, vegetables, guacamole dip, and fruit.....thanks to all my glorious finds at the local market.

 It would be one of our elder's birthday next Tuesday but we would be in a Zone conference, so I made Hostess cupcakes for him.  They were a big hit.

Elder Moe, in the center, about ready to blow out his candle.

He was transferred Thursday to another district so we were

glad we celebrated his birthday before he left.

Our district leader is quite an amazing teacher.  Surprisingly he is a relatively young Elder, having been out only about 5 months.  He must spend lots of time in preparation for his lessons as they are very organized and well presented.  We always feel the spirit very strongly during them.  We love our elders and sisters.

Our district leader, Elder Hermison,  is in the center.  He and his companion,

Elder Melchor, met us at their metro station to take us to their apartment

for our quarterly check of their apartment.  It was clean but we found out

they are living without an oven and a toaster.  We'll have to see what we

can do about that.

We have seen lots of little miracles in our lives since we've been here.  We are involved in the Pathway program almost everyday trying to make sure our potential students take the English Proficiency Test and apply to the program.  We are on a deadline of August 21st to get all students tested and at least to the application stage of the admittance process.  We were in need of a CD in order to administer the test. It had been taken to another mission in Russia so a test could be given to a potential student who is on a mission there.  We asked for it to be sent to us as we needed it before Thursday.  Miraculously it arrived first thing Monday morning, taking only a couple of days to get to us.  A miracle, as the Russian mail is notoriously slow.

Also, we have been fasting and praying for enough students to have a full group this fall. Thursday, we were planning on testing 3 people and 5 showed up to take the test. Sunday, a new convert came up to me and expressed interest in the program. We tested her, along with a young man, on Tuesday.  Tonight, at English group, another lady came up to us and said she wanted to be a part of Pathway.  We are testing her tomorrow afternoon.  We needed 2 more students and it looks like we may have 8.  All of the ones we've tested so far have passed and are in the application process.  Definitely an answer to prayer.

Every Wednesday we are involved in what is called English Group.  People who want to learn English can come to our meetings where they can attend one of three groups, each a different level of English ability.  We are responsible for the group that knows English and wants to practice their skills through conversation.  We knew we needed to be to the sign up meeting, Wednesday, but had no idea we needed to come prepared with some kind of a get acquainted activity for our group.  As we were walking up the stairs to the room where we were to conduct the class, I said a little prayer asking for an idea for an activity.  Almost immediately I knew what we could do.  We ended up with 17 in our group.  We got to know everyone and everyone seemed to have a great time.  There was lots of smiles and laughter.  One of the girls in our group, said she hadn't wanted to come but did because her friend wanted her to.  By the end of the evening, she didn't want to leave as she felt such a warm and loving spirit there.  A good night.


Not a miracle, but Wednesday we found pizza....right in the mall close to our apartment.  We were in heaven as it tasted marvelous.  So good that the next night we picked up a whole one to take to our weekly Senior Council where the senior couples meet for a bring your own dinner and lesson night.  It's always fun to meet and visit with the other old people serving here in Moscow.

Friday we went to the apartment of another senior couple (the Burgners) for dinner with two other couples, then hurried back to attend a game night at the institute room.  This is a weekly time for the young singles to just hang out, visit, and play games.  There were only a few there this week, but it gave them a place to be together with friends.  


Saturday we were planning to visit Victory Park for our P-day activity, but Friday night we got a call from our Sisters telling us of a baptism of a young single adult scheduled for Saturday afternoon.  We excused ourselves from the planned outing and instead, baked cookies in the morning to take to the baptism that afternoon.

We took 5 dozen cookies with us to the baptism

Notice the container in the middle....the cookies are all gone.

They disappeared really fast.

Our two sisters and the young man, Arseme. who was baptized.

Many young single adults were there to support him.  In fact, they gave the

talks and the prayers, played the piano, led the music and even

did the baptizing.  

As we were walking to the metro from the baptism, we met up with this gentleman.  He had conducted the baptism and was also on his way home. We got to know him in the 15 minute walk to the metro and the 20 minute ride on the train.  We were so impressed with his testimony and dedication to the gospel. His name is Sergei.  

Saturday night we went to the movies......mission style.   We downloaded a movie, popped some microwave popcorn, poured us some pop and thoroughly enjoyed 
our make shift movie theater.

We even had surround sound as we hooked the computer up to

some speakers in our apartment.  Not quite our theater room at home

but it was a movie experience, none the less.

You'll laugh when you hear what we watched.  Paul is really into old, classical musicals so we watched 'Guys and Dolls' with Frank Sinatra and Marlin Brando.  It was entertaining.  Next time we'll have to try a newer release.

A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT LIFE IN RUSSIA

Capitalism is alive and well in Moscow.  We were amazed as we walked up to this mall.  Have you ever seen a mall like this in the states.  

The inside of the mall was equally as impressive.........lots of stores and 
a gigantic food court.

That's an H & M store 

The entrance to the food court

 

The food court......most any kind of food you would want

Paul felt silly
sitting in this
fairy tale area
but did it for me.




















We had come up to this mall because of the large super market within the mall.  Much to our dismay, it was closed for remodeling.  We did go into the major department store here, called Stockman's, and I found that they sell the face cream I use.



The other day we looked out our apartment window to the mall that is close to our home.  We saw these men washing windows.  No thought of safety here.  
There is obviously no OSHA in Russia.

Everywhere we walk there is construction going on, especially remodeling the older buildings in our area.  It is required that during the construction phase, a screen is hung to conceal the mess of the work being done.  It's interesting that this one almost looks like a completed building, windows and all.

One night this week, I was having one of my sleepless nights.  It was around 2 a.m. and I kept hearing a strange sound.  I first thought it was Paul snoring but soon realized the sound was coming from outside.  I went to our living room window, opened it and found out immediately the cause of the loud noise.  I looked down and there was a full team of men working on the road outside our apartment. They were jack hammering (hence the loud sound I heard) and bringing in truck loads of asphalt to repave the road.  There was no thought given to noise levels in the middle of the night and that people may be trying to sleep.

This is the best picture I could get in the middle of the night,

hanging out our window in my nightgown.

OUR WEEKS SEEM TO BE FLYING BY AS WE ARE BEING KEPT VERY BUSY.  WE WAKE UP EACH MORNING LOOKING FORWARD TO THE ADVENTURES THE NEW DAY MAY BRING.