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.