FUN TIMES, REWARDING TIMES, AND SCARY TIMES - ALL IN ONE WEEK IN RUSSIA

They probably say you haven't lived in Russia until you've experienced rush hour traffic on the metro, gone shopping in the outdoor reenaks, and had the police pound on your door in the middle of the night.  As of this week, we've experienced two of the three..... Rush hour traffic and the police pounding on our door in the middle of the night.

HERE IS OUR TALE OF TERROR

 At about three in the morning, last Tuesday, we were awakened by our door bell ringing, followed by someone knocking on our door. Figuring someone had the wrong apartment, we ignored it.  About 20 minutes later it started again.  This time the pounding was much more intense.  I looked out the peep hole in our door and saw a little old lady.  She finally turned and went down the stairs.  I continued looking out the peep hole and noticed a man come out of the stairwell moments later and follow her downstairs.  Our first thought was that this had been a scam to try and get into our apartment to rob us.  By this time sleep was out of the question, at least for me, so I decided to read out in our living room.  Just as I was getting confident that all was well again, I was startled with the constant ringing of our doorbell along with a fierce pounding on our door.  Paul even woke up to that amount of racket.  We could hear someone yelling at us in Russian.  We went to the door (vowing not to open it as that is what we had been counseled to do) and saw two policemen in the hallway. I started dialing the emergency number we had been given as Paul started saying, "I don't understand," in Russian.  In English, we heard, "Open the door."  Paul responded in English saying, "What do you want?" They kept saying, "Open the door." I hung up when no one answered my phone call and then remembered the sister I was calling from the mission office speaks very little English and couldn't have understood our dilemma anyway.  Both Paul and I were saying silent prayers to know what to do when we heard, in very plain English, "There is a water leak downstairs and they need to check your apartment."  We had had a water leak just 4 days before in our apartment, coming from the apartment upstairs, so we knew the complaint could be legitimate. At that point, we opened the door. Two burly policemen, complete with what looked liked AK47's strapped across their chest, pushed their way into our apartment. We kept saying we have no water running but they still had to check our bathroom area. I asked who it was that had spoken English.  The young man who came into our home with the policemen said he had. We told him about the leak we had had just 4 days earlier and that it had come from upstairs.  With that they apologized and everyone, including the old lady who had remained out in the hallway, left.  What a night.

I still couldn't sleep so around 5:30 in the morning, I decided to get up and start preparations for our district meeting lunch that day.  I started cooking the apple pie I had made earlier and making the filling for a banana cream pie.  When I went to clean the dishes, I realized our water had been turned off. So much for any food preparation.  I went back to bed and finally feel asleep. About 7, Paul got up and discovered we did have cold water, just no hot water.  That would make fixing lunch possible so soon after that I was back in the kitchen making orange rolls to go along with the chicken and the broccoli we would be serving.  Just before our missionaries came for our meeting, the hot water came back on.  This is what came out of our faucets.

After letting the water run in all of our faucets for several minutes,

the water turned clear again.  We are so grateful we have filtered 

water for drinking in our apartment.

We were able to pull off lunch even after our terrifying night.  We enjoyed our sisters and elders and our meeting was wonderful, as always.  We were a bit tired, though.





We need to jump back to Saturday now............
        Paul and I were about ready to settle into another night at the movies, mission style, when our phone rang.  It was a member of our Bishopric asking me if I was ready to speak in sacrament meeting on Sunday.  I didn't know anything about it.  He clarified the topic I was to speak on and I said I would come prepared.  Thankfully the subject was CES, most especially to talk about the importance of attending seminary and institute.  All during the movie I kept thinking about what I could say.  I went on line after the movie and the first thing I saw on lds.org was a video of President Monson speaking on the importance of attending seminary.  I based my talk on what he said in that video.  I was so glad I felt impressed to check that web site.

Our YSA leaders

My talk on Sunday was well received, even through an interpreter.  Immediately after our block of meetings, we went upstairs for a leadership meeting with our Young Single Adult council.  Lots of plans were discussed for the next couple of months.


We had a few minutes before a YSA fireside started so Paul and I sat down and finished the puzzle we had been working on for about a month.  It was a 1000 piece puzzle and many young adults had contributed to its completion over that time.

The fireside that followed was wonderful.  Our mission president and his wife, President and Sister Borders, spoke about missionary work.  They are so darling and gave great talks. What happened afterward was amazing.  The YSA council had been talking about having a missionary week where the YSA's would be paired up into companionships and try to live a missionary's schedule for a week.  They would get up at 6:30 in the morning, exercise, get dressed, eat, have individual and companionship scripture study, and then, during the day, complete at least one missionary related activity.  We wondered if their extravagant plans would ever really come about.  Sure enough they did, complete with companionships established and mission calls issued.  

One of several young men and women receiving their mission calls.

After the meeting two of these boys

came to our apartment for some

cookies.  We had a enjoyable visit

with them until 9:00.  They had to

leave then in order to make their

new missionary curfew of 9:30 pm

These young adults were so excited to receive a call for a chance to  serve a mission for a week. 

Monday started out with our weekly shop at Ashan's.  We came home and I decided I needed to experiment making refried beans for the Mexican dinner we would be cooking for a Saturday YSA activity. Not able to find pinto beans, I bought some small pink beans available here.  I was told they should work just fine.  I soaked them, cooked them, and divided them into two pans - one for chili and one for refried beans.  I seasoned both pans of bean just the way I do at home. Then I tasted the chili.  I could hardly swallow them.  I kept adding spices and sugar and ketsup to try to make them taste better but nothing worked so I started working on the pan of refried beans.  I seasoned them, mashed them and tasted them.  This time I about vomited when I tasted them.  They were awful.  I finally tasted an individual bean and found the bean to be extremely bitter.  So much for my plans for having chili and refried beans in my freezer.  It all went down the toilet, literally.  My first cooking failure in Russia.  This was followed by our wonderful early morning experience with the police banging on our door.  A most interesting 12 hour period in our adventure here in Russia.




Wednesday brought English group again and this time, I was kissed on the hand and we were given an apple. We had another lively discussion on Leaders.  Paul told two stories, one about a great leader in his life and the other about a not so great boss he once had. We compared leadership qualities of both men.  We concluded with the story of geese and how they function as a group and again pulled out leadership characteristics learned from them.  After we dismissed our group to go downstairs for the whole group meeting, an older gentleman came up to me, took my hand, and kissed it. Later another gentleman gave us an apple.  Oh, the rewards of being here.  


Thursday we started preparations for the Mexican dinner for 70 young single adults for Saturday.  Our first job was to go shopping for the food.  This took two trips to Ashan's, Thursday and Friday, as we can only carry that which we can get in our bob cart and in our hands.  

Our Friday shopping

Our Thursday shopping

Part of the afternoon was spent frying hamburger. It is a good thing I brought a great big bag of taco seasoning with me from America as you cannot find it here.

For some reason I packed this whole bag filled with Taco

Seasoning.  Now I know why....soft tacos for 70.

It was senior council again on Thursday night.  We had a wonderful speaker who told us of his many missionary experiences while serving in the special forces in Iraq.  It is quite incredible how the Lord puts people into the paths of those who can teach the gospel to them....even on an isolated base in Iraq.  A new couple joined us that night. We have been waiting the arrival of the Hays, a couple from Bakersfield, California. They know my Dad and Mom and are good friends with my sister and her husband, Deon and Gary, and my step sister and her husband, Kathy and Kurt.  Another small world connection.

The Hays from Bakersfield, California.  They will be serving

in the Perpetual Education and Self Reliance Office.

We came away from council with a valuable item - one I've been looking for all over Moscow, A KITCHEN TIMER.  The timer on our stove is not reliable so I have to sit right in the kitchen when I'm baking and watch what is in the oven.  One of the couples leaving at the end of the month closed down their apartment and brought items they no longer needed.  One was this timer. I was so excited....even for such a little thing.  It makes baking much easier.

Friday, after our second trip to Ashan's, we shopped at our local Atak grocery store and took that food to the church.  We took several more trips to the church to put the previously purchased food in the kitchen.  While there, we decided the kitchen area needed cleaning so we spent an hour or so washing dishes, wiping down counter tops and mopping floors.  By the time we left, the area was clean and table and chairs were set the way they needed to be in order to seat 70 people for dinner.

At game night Friday, the YSA council was there busy making decorations for the Institute Opening Activity scheduled for the next night.  

While the YSA council worked others played games.

Paul and I started another puzzle.  We're addicted to puzzles.

Saturday finally arrived and was, for sure, one of the busiest days we've had since we arrived.  We had to do some last minute shopping for watermelon and juice, get it over to the church, then go to a baptism at the South building.  It takes an hour on the metro to get there.  We met the Pierson's and went together to the South building.  Our walk to the building was doubled in length as we left the metro station going the wrong way and walked several blocks before we figured out we were going the wrong direction.  We retraced our steps and finally made it to the building with one minute to spare.  The baptism was beautiful and included a musical number by our district missionaries.  Wow, did it ever set a beautiful spirit for the baptism that followed. 

Lada was so excited to finally be a member of the 
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.  

Our incredible sister missionaries, Sister Hawkins and Sister Carver

with Lada before her baptism

After her baptism, Lada was literally glowing.

By 4:00, we were back at the central building to begin preparations for the dinner for 70 young single adults.  We had two other couples there to help us so, in no time, we had the tables set, the lettuce and tomatoes cut up, cheese grated, and meat and beans heated. Yes, I had beans. A few weeks ago, I had found a package of pinto beans from America in our two week food storage here at the apartment.  I was hoping the beans I could buy here would work but they were nasty.  It killed me to use these pinto beans all up for this dinner, but you can't have soft tacos without re-fried beans.  Such a sacrifice.

While we were preparing dinner, the YSA's were in the chapel area participating in a program introducing the course of study for the institute year, the Book of Mormon.  Part of the program was the presentation of skits depicting heroes of the Book of Mormon. They were so clever.........and funny.

Samuel the Lamanite

Alma and King Limoni

We couldn't understand what they were saying because, of course, they were speaking in Russian; but we knew the stories well enough to recognize what they were acting out.

Tahir and Artur just having fun.

Taco Bell is missing a bet here in Russia.

These young people love

Mexican food.

By 7:30 they were lined up ready to eat.     

There were some happy young adults when they saw what we had for them to eat.  They loved the soft tacos and watermelon and adored the brownie sundaes we served for dessert.

 We came home exhausted, but well rewarded by the thank yous and expressions of love we received from these wonderful young adults.

 LIFE IN RUSSIA WEEKLY SPOTLIGHT

Here's the typical traffic jam.  This was taken right outside our apartment building. 

Lots of horns were being honked and you can see the man out of his car.

talking to another driver.  Wonder what he was saying.

Being on a mission, means being with your companion 24/7.  We love that, but it even means Paul goes grocery shopping with me. That has taken some getting used to. He often questions what I am buying and just this week was sure I was buying way too much food for this YSA dinner.  I had to ask him how many dinners he had prepared for 70 people in the past. The answer was none.

Only on a mission in a foreign country would you save your ziplock bags.  Good quality ones are a premium here, so the ones I brought from home get reused as often as possible.

Last, we think we have a friend.  Almost every day this bird comes to our window for food.  He is the only one who doesn't hesitate to come right through the bars onto the window sill in our kitchen looking for food.

ONCE AGAIN AT THE END OF ANOTHER WEEK, WE ARE SO GRATEFUL TO BE HERE IN MOSCOW.  IT IS AMAZING HOW THE LORD KNOWS WHERE AND 

HOW YOU SHOULD SERVE. 

 THIS MISSION IS SO PERFECT FOR US.