CHRISTMAS IN OCTOBER

This week, the other two packages from my teacher friends in Spokane arrived.  It was like Christmas in October.  The anticipation was so great we didn't even make it home before we opened them up.  We pick all mail up at the Central Building where our institute office is and that is where we opened the packages. It was as fun and exciting as opening presents on Christmas morning. Inside we found more brown sugar, some much needed spices, more pinto beans, large ziplock bags and 2 Costco size bags of CHOCOLATE CHIPS!!! Of course I had to go home and immediately make congo bars again...this time with real chocolate chips from America.  I took them to institute the next night for a treat and they were gone immediately.

Oh the anticipation!  

.....and the wonderful items inside the packages.

The other reason it seemed like Christmas was that we bought ourselves an early Christmas gift.....A 26 inch flat screen TV.  We've been talking about it for weeks and finally went out Saturday and bought it.  It's just the right size to fit perfectly on an end table. We can easily hook it up to our computer in the adjoining office so we can watch anything we can download from the computer. We are so excited now to watch a movie but, our week coming up is so busy, we wonder if we will find an evening to do it. Paul will for sure watch the replay of the BYU/Houston football game which will be Tuesday morning.  I'll be cooking for district meeting and he'll be watching football.  

Getting it home via the metro was no easy trick.

Gratefully the instructions were in English.

And here it is all set up.  It even has a built in DVD player.

This week was a little different format than usual as it was a zone conference week. This meant no district meeting for which to cook dinner. Instead, we did an apartment check of our sister's apartment and spent many hours at the beginning of the week preparing our lesson for institute on Thursday.  We knew we needed to have all preparation done by Wednesday as Thursday would be filled with zone meeting and senior council.  There would be no time left on Thursday for any last minute work on our lesson so it was all done, as planned, by Wednesday afternoon.

Wednesday evening, we had an appointment with Elder Melchor and Elder Beals,  who were to bring an investigator over for a discussion. They were all supposed to come by 6:00. At six, we got a call that they wouldn't be there until 7. At 7:30, only the elders showed up. They had been figged (a missionary term for when someone doesn't keep an appointment). The young man had, at least, called and set another time to meet them so that was a positive. I had made a treat for our meeting so the elders got something good out of the evening. We were glad we had a chance to talk with these elders as one of them told us about how, in his last area, their district had held family home evenings every Monday night in their senior couple's home. They would invite a few ward members to come, as well as their investigators.  They would have a spiritual thought, an activity and refreshments. He said they had some great success doing that. We decided, then and there, that we too would open our home to our district for a similar weekly family home evening. We love being involved with the missionary work here and this is a perfect opportunity to help that effort.

Flu shots were administered at zone

conference.  I was enlisted to take the

temperatures of all the missionaries. 

The thermometer was one I just rolled

across their foreheads. 

How easy is that.

Zone conference on Thursday was inspiring and much of the time was spent on finding ways to get the members involved in missionary work. Paul announced a plan for the YSA to involve the missionaries, by districts, to help contact less active young singles. This is an activity planned for a Saturday in December. The elders and sisters were real excited about being involved in that way. After conference, we took another couple, Elder and Sister King, to our apartment to get settled. They stayed with us for a couple of days. They are working in Smolinsk, a city which is a five hour train ride from Moscow. They came to zone conference and wanted to stay and do some Christmas shopping as long as they were here in Moscow. We had a wonderful time visiting and getting to know them and their responsibilities in their calling. Their mission experiences are totally different from ours.  We are always amazed at how each mission call fits the mission couple perfectly.  Truly our calls are a result of inspiration.

Lunch at zone conference was delicious.

This is showing how a leader is weighed 

down with many responsibilities. 

We soon had two students come

 help hold up his arms, 

as did Aaron and Hur for Moses.

Thursday night was our Institute lesson and Pathway gathering, as usual.  Our lesson was on the quorum of the first presidency. Our focus was on the need for counselors to the President. We did the demonstration of Moses having to hold up his arms continually so the Israelite army would keep winning the battle. The scriptures tell us that Aaron and Hur came to the rescue as Moses was tiring. They helped him by holding up his arms.  Likewise is the president's need for support from his counselors. It was a good lesson.  Paul talked about the blessings that come when we heed what the counselors of the first presidency tell us. We concluded by giving them each a congo bar. We told them they couldn't eat them right away as we wanted them to anticipate the sweetness they would taste once they ate them.  Our tie to the lesson was that they should, likewise, anticipate the sweetness that would come from reading the conference talks of the First Presidency in the Liahona magazine next month.

Our Pathway students are very proud to be a a part of BYU...
.....Idaho, that is.

Friday night, we had the King's and 2 other couples to our home for dinner.  One of the couples brought chili and we provided the chips, cheese, salsa, guacomole, lettuce and tomatoes for a chili tostada type meal.  We served applesauce cake for dessert. It all tasted wonderful.  Paul and I had to leave for a YSA game night but the couples stayed at our home and visited until we got back at 10:00.  We were glad they felt comfortable enough to stay, even after we had to leave.


Saturday, I had baked cinnamon rolls for breakfast but the Kings decided they needed to leave early so didn't want breakfast.  Wondering what to do with a dozen cinnamon rolls, we were glad when, Elder Marks and Elder Bass came over to use our computer.  They were thrilled to help eat them.


Later that night, we went to a YSA activity at the Central Building.  It was a 80's dance activity.  It started out with a quick round of speed dating to get everyone acquainted with each other. Then the dance began. Everyone had been given a label with a picture of some part of a banana split on it - a bowl, spoon, ice cream, bananas, chocolate and strawberry toppings, whipped cream and nuts. The idea was to dance with enough different people to be able to fill in the dance card with these banana split items. Once they had their card filled out, they could come get a banana split at the refreshment table.  Paul and I were in charge of dishing up the banana splits based on what they had marked on their dance card.  It was a fun activity. After the dance, they had a little program dedicated to Oxanna, who is leaving on her mission in a week. They paid tribute to her in the form of a song and a group picture. We have come to the conclusion that young singles are the same anywhere in the world. They are also the same now as they were when we worked with them in a young singles ward 15 years ago. 

The dance floor before things really got started.

Alona and Masha decked out in 80's fashion

The institute director and his wife

The dance card used to earn a

 banana split

One of the group pictures taken.  Oxanna is in the yellow.

OUR WEEKLY SPOTLIGHT ON LIFE IN RUSSIA

This week we have had a three day Indian Summer......beautiful blue skies and warmer weather.  We loved the change for a short moment.  It's cold enough now to snow if there was any precipitation.

Taken from our kitchen window.

The other day, we walked outside and were greeted by this group of people, standing across the street and looking up at our apartment building.  We wondered what they were looking at but couldn't ever figure it out.  Maybe it was some kind of class or tour group looking at different buildings and their architecture styles. After a couple of minutes they all left in a group. Strange.

Necessity is the mother of all invention, especially in Russia.  Monday I needed to make some frosting for some Jello cookies. I had made them to take to the sisters when we checked their apartment. I thought maybe if I put the gritty powdered sugar in the blender and blended it up a bit, it might be less gritty and a little more powdery. It worked....after a fashion. Then just yesterday, I needed some finely grated Parmesan cheese like we can get in jars in America. Here we can only find Parmesan cheese in blocks.  I grated some up and then put it in the blender..... and I had finely grated Parmesan cheese.  It worked perfectly for the herb rolls I was making for district meeting. Thank goodness for a blender.

 ANOTHER FABULOUS WEEK PASSED AND GONE.  

IT'LL BE CHRISTMAS BEFORE WE KNOW IT.

GENERAL CONFERENCE......THE HIGHLIGHT OF OUR WEEK

What a wonderful weekend we just experienced.  We watched all 5 sessions of General Conference with 50 or so of our elders and sisters.  Because of the time necessary to translate it into Russian, General Conference was broadcast a week late, October 12 and 13. Paul had downloaded all the sessions and set everything up in the institute room so we could all watch it together, in English.  President Borders felt the missionaries would get more out of the conference if they listened to it in their native language. We were grateful to watch it with them as they bring such a wonderful spirit with them where ever they are.  The messages were so powerful and came with such great counsel by which to set our lives.  We are so grateful to have a prophet of God, Thomas Monson, on earth to help us know our Father's will for us. We are grateful for his message as well as those of all the apostles.  

Between the morning and afternoon session on Sunday, Elder Ricks

invited our district to come to the kitchen for some homemade

cinnamon rolls.  He had made them from scratch the night before.

They were delicious!  We have such a great district.

Saturday late afternoon, while the men watched Priesthood, the sisters gathered in another room to watch the General Relief Society Broadcast.  Paul had set up another projector system so we could watch it on a large screen, too.  A couple of tender mercies took place to make it all possible.  We were told President Borders would bring a DVD with all the conference sessions on it recorded in English.  Paul had planned to use that DVD to show the Relief Society meeting.  During the hour break between the Saturday morning and afternoon sessions, he decided to make sure the DVD had the Relief Society meeting recorded on it.  He found out it did, but on a prompting, decided to click start and watch it for a minute.  He soon discovered it was the Russian version of the meeting.  The elders had given the president the wrong copy.  We were so grateful Paul checked out the DVD when he did as it gave him time to download the Relief Society meeting during the next two hour session. Had he checked it any later, it would not have been ready to show when it was needed.  The other tender mercy came when Paul was prompted to come back to make sure all was still okay with the women's broadcast.  Just before he come into the room something happened to the download and the screen went grey.  He was right there when he was needed to fix it. Just a loose connection but the women would not have known what to do, that's for sure.

To make the weekend perfect, we had the privilege of opening our home, Saturday night, for our two sisters to have a movie night with Nastia, their newly baptized friend.  We watched Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Restoration.  After the movie,the sisters gave Nastia a brief lessons on the importance of having a living prophet on the earth today.  Of course, food was involved, too.....a banana cream pie to end the night.  It was a bittersweet evening as Nastia has moved.  She will no longer be in our ward, though still in Moscow.  We hope she will keep in touch with us.

The other highlight of the week was receiving news that a package had arrived for us from the United States.  We picked it up at the Central Building and couldn't wait to get it home to find out what was inside.  My sweet teacher friends from Spokane had told me they were sending three packages to us with things we couldn't get here.  We have been anticipating their arrival.  One of three...that's good for Russia.  The others will get here but one never knows exactly when.




The first thing we saw when we opened the box was a big Costco sized package of brown sugar.  YEAH!!!! Now cookies will be the right texture.

Pinto beans from America.  Now I can make decent

refried beans for Mexican dishes.

How excited we were to also find corn syrup, worcestershire sauce, and lots and lots of sandwich sized ziplock bags. (You don't realize how often you use that size bag until you don't have any.  I think I have used at least one, if not  two, everyday since they arrived,) We love the purple shopping bag, too.  It's already been put into use several times carrying all the groceries we have to buy.

Now for the week.....

Last Sunday was fast and testimony meeting.  It's alway touching to hear the testimonies born of the truthfulness of the gospel any where in the world.  After sacrament meeting, we attended the Gospel Essentials class with all the other missionaries.  The lesson was taught by Lada, the sister who was baptized only three weeks prior. (Here is Moscow, you are put to work immediately in the wards.) She did a wonderful job teaching about eternal marriage and she isn't even married.  She motivated lots of good discussion.  We were asked, by another investigator whom we have come to love, how we have been able to stay married for 48 years. (In Russia, the divorce rate is very high.)  Paul's advice was to say 'yes dear' often.  After church, we were invited to attend a meeting to help plan a ward activity. This activity is to be one where ward members can bring their non member friends and is a coordinated effort by the ward and our district missionaries.  It is planned for the first week of November but the committee still were set on a Halloween type party. Halloween is not a big deal here in Moscow so they wanted to introduce the ward to this American tradition.  There will be several activities including a photo booth and pumpkin carving.....and a dinner.  Guess who is in charge of the dinner for 50 to 70? We are!  Chili, hot dogs and buns (if we can find them), vegetables, chips and dessert. All we need to make it complete is homemade root beer but we don't even want to attempt that here.


Monday, we attended a YSA family home evening.  These are always on the first Monday of the month.  The theme was 'Be as a little child.'  After a spiritual thought, a game was played using cartoon super heroes.  Everything was done in Russian so we didn't know exactly what was going on.  Two groups decided on their favorite heroes and then wrote riddles about them for the other group to guess the answers....we think. After refreshments, they watched Winnie the Pooh.....in Russian!  It sure was strange to hear Russian coming from Winnie's mouth.  We found out later that Russia has their own Winnie the Pooh. He doesn't look or sound anything like ours, but the Russians love him.

Tuesday was district meeting as always.  We decided to serve potato soup, a recipe I found in the mission cookbook.  It is delicious. We thought it would be a good one for the elders and sisters to taste so maybe they would fix it for themselves.  It is a quick meal taking only 20 minutes to make....except when making it for 12. Elders Marks and Bass came early to help us with our Russian but I was running late so had to enlist their help in the kitchen....hence the apron on Elder Bass.




Wednesday, after making the final plans for our Institute lesson, we went on an adventure to try and find an electronic reenak (market).  Paul had been there the third day we were in Moscow and was determined to find it.  We needed to buy an 8 GB thumb drive so we could download all the conference sessions.  He was sure it was on the grey line of the Metro which meant we would go on the green line, then on the brown line and then on the grey line.  He was sure the reenak was on either the first, second or third stop up the grey line. We tried all three and, of course, we found it on the first stop of the grey line but that was the third stop we tried.  The reenak stretched for miles, it seemed.  All the stores had mostly the same wares to sell....lots of phones, Ipads and laptops.  We did find what we needed after walking a long, long way.  

That night two sisters from our ward and our two sister missionaries came over to make visiting teaching handouts for the ward sisters.  We glued copies of each visiting teacher's assignment on pieces of card stock and attached a refrigerator magnet to it. Visiting teaching is a real problem here as the sisters have to travel long distances on public transportation to make their visits.  I appreciated these sister's efforts to try and motivate the sisters to do better.


Thursday was our Institute lesson and Pathway gathering.  Before we teach, we always go to our Senior council meeting.  Our mental health specialist came to talk with us about the new 5 step program to help missionaries better prepare and cope with the rigors of day to day work in the mission field.  What an inspired and needed program now, especially with the missionary age being lowered.  

Our Institute lesson went really well.  We will have to remember, though, that English is our student's second language.  When breaking them into groups and having them read scriptures, we must give them more time than we have been planning.  The student's favorite part of the lesson was a game to try and guess the seniority order of the apostles. We had two teams competing and they really got into it.  Fun!

We are always grateful for Fridays. We can relax after our Institute lesson, for a minute, but we do always try to read the next week's lesson on that day so we can think about it all weekend.  Since we were going to be involved in watching conference all day Saturday, we decided to meet another couple for a mini p-day. We both wanted to check out another reenak....the Izmaylova Market. This one was a souvenir market where we found good prices on every kind of Russian souvenir one would want to buy....especially the stacking dolls. We were especially looking for Russian hats for the winter....but more likely for our costume box when we get home.  The market was set up in what used to be an amusement park, hence the castle look coming in.  We think there would have been more shops opened had we gone on the weekend, but we got a feel for what is available when we want to buy souvenirs for the family when we go home.  

These are the shops.  Rows and rows of them in this open air market.

Our silly hats.....very Russian and very warm.

Friday was also our game night at the Institute room.  We only had a few students come, but it was a lively affair.  Three of those who came are BYU intern students taking Russian classes at Moscow University.  They will be here until December.  They introduced us to a new game on the pool table, using only the black and white balls. You must hit the black one with the white one before the black one quits moving. The only catch is that you must hit it from the opposite end of the table from where the black ball is located and you must do it in turn with the other players.  We were running around the pool table each time our turn came up trying to complete the task. It got a little wild as we also tried to knock the black ball into a pocket so the person following us would get a letter. When you have enough letters to spell a specific word, you are out of the game.  I won the first game but I think the young single adults were taking it easy on me.

A really fun game!

OUR LIFE IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

Food is a big part of any activity with the YSA's.  They always assign food whenever they plan an activity. We are coming to realize that food to them means open faced sandwiches with mayonnaise, a slice of lunch meat, a piece of cheese and a few slices of cucumbers. We think they do this because they are easy and the YSA's need nourishment rather than lots of sweets. They usually come straight from work to our activities and are starving.  Of course, cookies are also always set out too so we always bring something yummy and homemade to add to the spread.

In Russia, the people are really working hard.  They are doing some renovating of our metro station, including the walking area around the building. When they first started this project we thought it would take months, but because they work around the clock it is getting done very quickly.  The cement blocks that are being used are also being laid on the street leading to the metro, creating a plaza type effect.  It will be really nice when it is completed.  Meanwhile, we can hear the cement saws buzzing late into the night, in fact, all night if we weren't sleeping. 

The work being done around the metro station.

Cement blocks being laid on this street creating a

pleasant way to walk to the metro. 

Watching movies is becoming a once a week happening here in our apartment. We enjoy just relaxing in front of a movie we've either downloaded or brought from home. Our little laptop screen is a bit smaller than our movie screen at home, but it works. We do have speakers we hook up so we can hear easily....not surround sound but at least sound.  We are considering buying a flat screen television and connecting it to our laptop with an HDMI cord strung through the wall into our office. It would make these movie sessions a little easier to set up and the larger screen would be an added benefit.  Just thinking......

THAT'S IT FOR ANOTHER WEEK.

SO FROM RUSSIA, WE SAY GOOD BYE FOR NOW.

WARMTH IN OUR APARTMENT AND WARMTH IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE

We came home on Sunday night to a warm apartment.  Hurray!!! It was the first night in several we didn't have to use our extra blanket or walk around in our apartment bundled up in sweatshirts.  All was great for a couple of days but now we are way too hot. The other night we came home to an apartment that was roasting.  Since we have no controls over the temperature in our apartment, we just opened windows to cool things off a bit.  We had heard, before we got here, that the Russians keep their apartments and offices very warm.....now we know that is a fact.  If that is the hardest thing we have to adjust to this winter, we will be just fine.

Every Sunday, we are more and more impressed with the dedication of our YSA leaders.  On the Sundays we have council meetings, they stay at church all day.  They come to their block meetings (some of which start at 10 am) and don't go home till after our council meetings (which often go till 8 or 9 pm).  Most of them live over and hour's metro ride away so to go home and back is not feasible.  

Our weekdays are falling into somewhat of a routine by now.  Mondays are shopping days. Tuesdays are district meeting days.  Wednesday are study and prep days and Thursdays are final prepping and teaching institute days.  It's a manageable schedule and is very rewarding.  Of course, young single activities and English group fill some of those nights as well as our Friday nights.  

A simple highlight of the week was finding a few things we hadn't been able to find. Another senior senior sister knew we were all asking about Worcestershire sauce and when she found a rare shipment at an exclusive store, she emailed us all.  We went right out and bought two bottles.  Another find was corn tortillas. We'd found flour ones and hard corn ones but not soft corn ones.  These are a corn and wheat tortilla but they should do just fine. We can now look forward to having some enchiladas.  We also found canned greed beans and marshmallows.  Oh, the excitement we feel in finding such common place items in America.

At our district meeting on Tuesday we welcomed two new elders and one new sister. We are again amazed how easily change comes for these dedicated missionaries. None of them missed a beat this week, even with new companions. Our new district leader did a fine job, too, presenting an inspiring lesson.  The subject was on the importance of working with ward members in their efforts to increase the work. He and his companion presented a plan to increase member support of missionary work. It included a weekly sign up sheet where members can volunteer to go on splits with the missionaries, set up home teaching visits with the elders, or sit in on a missionary discussion with an investigator.  Their enthusiasm for this new approach was contagious. We also watched several church produced videos that showed the results of member involvement.  A great meeting.

Elder Simmons is now

working in the office with

Elder Ricks

Elder Beals is new to our

district.  Both these elders

are great pianists

Our meal - Cafe Rio type soft tacos.  The missionaries

couldn't get enough of them.  They ate everything we had.

Sister Tolbert joined Sister Hawkins as the training sister in our mission.

Sister Hawkins will be going home at the end of the month.  So sad.

This week we got a surprise envelope in the mail.  It was this big sign with our name on it on which the Beehive girls of our in ward in Heber wrote us sweet messages of encouragement and thanks.  A picture was included.  These girls are the ones that graduated from Primary while I was working in the Primary and are such sweet young women.  Thank you.

So thoughtful

Our institute room all set up and ready to go. 

Students arrive at 6:45 and we teach until 8:00. 

Paul is setting up for a video presentation.

Our institute lesson was on the President of the Church and how he is the living prophet and holds all the keys of the Priesthood necessary to move the church forward. We talked about the many marvelous things each president of the Church, through revelation, has set in place.  These things are the work of the Lord in these last days to prepare us for His coming.  We love our class and the spirit contained therein.  An interesting bit of information.....in the last three weeks, we have had three people from our English group come to our institute.  They are not members of the church and the doctrine we taught was probably a bit deep for them.  Hopefully they not only felt welcomed, but felt the spirit.

President and Sister Borders and

their lovely home.

Midweek, we were thrilled to get a call from Sister Borders, our mission president's wife, who asked us to come to dinner with them. They were finally taking a P-day (the first one since they arrived 4 months ago) and wanted to spend the last part of it with us. We were honored. On Friday, late afternoon, we met President Borders at the mission office and he took us to their lovely home.  How fun it was to actually ride in a car and be in an actual home, not an apartment. Their development reminded us of Kentucky because of all it's red brick homes.  They were actually duplexes and triplexes, but were very spacious and nice. It is a gated community where a lot of international business executives live.  Our Area Presidency also lives in this complex. There is a restaurant on the grounds as well as tennis courts, a large swimming pool, a work out facility, hair salon, grocery store, and a bowling alley.  Too bad President and Sister Borders are too busy to take advantage of all the amenities.  We did go to their restaurant for dinner, though, and it was wonderful....the best meal we've had in a restaurant since we've been here.  It was so fun to visit and get to know this wonderful couple.  We are in awe of what they are expected to do and how well they are doing it.  He not only is the mission president, responsible for all the missionaries, but is also the stake president for all the little branches outside of the Moscow stake. He is traveling a lot with that responsibility alone.  Luckily, he has two counselors who are Russian and live outside of Moscow who can help him. Such a wonderful evening spent with amazing people.

The restaurant in the Border's complex. 

Wonderful atmosphere....wonderful food.

Two other things happened this week.  English group ended. It is an eight week course and then we take a 4 week break so the elders and sisters can encourage different people to come. The course will be changing when we start up again.  We will miss our Wednesday discussions for the next month as we love our conversation group.  Many of them wanted to know the exact date we would be starting again. We are glad they want to come back.  We have come to love our regular attendees. The other thing that happened this week was that our elevator got stuck. Luckily, we were not in it at the time.  When it came up to our floor, so we could go down, the doors wouldn't close.  They stayed opened for the next several hours until someone got it working again.  Meanwhile it was 4 flights of stairs, with groceries in hand.  Ugh!

And finally it was P-day.  We spent the morning doing some of the things we needed to catch up on, but by 3 o'clock we were ready to play. We met 3 other couples at our metro station and walked to the largest cathedral in Russia.  It is called the Cathedral of Christ our Savior and is very impressive.  We were fortunate to be able to go inside and view a ceremony conducted by the Russian Orthodox Priests.  They sang and chanted beautifully and the people around us were very much engaged in their worship. We were grateful that the Russian people still believe in a supreme being and His Son, Jesus Christ.  After decades of the government trying to stamp out all forms of worship, including tearing down this magnificent church (which now has been restored), it is amazing that there is any form of religion left.  

The group at dinner. 

A great Italian restaurant

After walking through the cathedral, we took a short metro ride to the Bolshoi theater. Close by be found a wonderful Italian restaurant where we ate dinner and visited while we waited for the Light Fest to begin.  This is a week long happening where four different venues feature a light show.  The lights are shown onto a historic building (in our case the Bolshoi) to create beautiful patterns and scenes, all done to music. The presentation lasted about a half hour and would be repeated many times that evening.  It was spectacular and it left us all wondering how it was done so effectively.  At times it looked like the building was crumbling and shaking.  Other times it looked like it was flooded with water and then on fire.  Often lights were used to create magnificent designs on the building and play scenes across its face. Absolutely amazing.  We were so glad someone told about this week long celebration of light.

The Famous Bolshoi Ballet Theater before dark

As the light show began, the whole face of the theater lite up with

colorful designs all done in lights.

As the performance continued there were ballerinas

dancing across the face of the building.

Several times whole scenes were illuminated onto the theater

Part of the show included those horses coming alive as

well as all the mythical characters depicted in stone 

on the face of the building.  Of course it was all an illusion

created with light and very effective.

SPOTLIGHT OF LIFE IN RUSSIA

It finally happened.  We have been talking about the traffic and the speed with which the drivers go down the street in front of our apartment.  Well, the other day, we were walking to the church and saw this.  How it happened we do not know, but it took until the next day to remove the car from off the sidewalk.

We have to share a funny thing about paying our electric bill this month.  We walked to the bank where the teller will pay the bill for us.  We walked into the bank and, like in America, just got in line behind a person being helped at one of the teller windows.  When that customer was done we stepped up to the window and handed the teller our bill and Paul said, in broken Russian, "Pay bill, please."  The teller hesitated and tried to tell us something which we could not understand, of course. We began hearing some commotion from some people in the bank as the teller motioned for another bank employee to come over to us.  Paul tried to take the bill back but the teller wouldn't let him have it.  The employee handed her a piece of paper with a number on it and the teller proceeded to pay our bill for us.  We left the bank and then realized the people in the bank had all taken numbers and we had cut in front of all of them.  Oh, the advantages of not understanding the language.  We really did feel terrible and will know next time to take a number.  The only problem with that is that we will not know when our number is called as we don't know how to say all the numbers in Russian.

When we can't find something here in Russia, we figure out a way to make it or do without.  This week, when we were shopping for our district meeting lunch, we needed flour tortillas.  The store where we were shopping always has flour tortillas, except for that day. When I got home I decided it was a good time to experiment with making homemade ones.  They are a lot of work but the elders and sisters loved them.  They were the first to be eaten over the store bought ones I found at another store later that day.

In Moscow, seeing limousines is common place but have you ever seen a pink one. Check out the black one, too.  Whole wedding parties can be driven in limos this size.

ABOUT THE SPECIAL WARMTH WE FEEL HERE IN RUSSIA

In the title of this week's blog, we mentioned the warmth of the people.  We have felt it since the first day we arrived.  Within the first week, we had a little girl come up to us and hand Paul his credit card that had accidentally fallen out of his wallet.  We were so very grateful for this little girl. On the metro, I am often offered a seat by some young man when there are none available.  The other day Paul was even offered a seat by a younger man.  It must be that our age is showing.  We do appreciate this show of warmth.

Within our senior couple group, we feel so much love and warmth among us.  Paul and I have been invited to dinner by so many of the couples and have loved getting to know them.  Each couple has so much to give and are so willing to give it all.  We also take care of each other....ie: the Worcestershire sauce of this week and being told about the light festival.  

We feel love and warmth from our young singles who include us in all their activities and make us feel important in their lives.  Our missionaries are so wonderful to involve us with their investigators and to make us feel very loved.  

WE FEEL SO VERY BLESSED TO BE HERE AT THIS TIME, 

SERVING THE PEOPLE OF MOSCOW.