FIDDLER ON THE ROOF - A FUN WAY TO BEGIN OUR WEEK

Most of our district before the show

Our district planned a cultural night at the beginning of transfer week.  The elders and sisters wanted to have one more night of Russian cultural together before two of them left to go home and another two were sent to other areas. How fitting that we went to see Fiddler on the Roof in a little theater here.  The musical itself is set in Russia and, of course, the script and music were all in Russian.  We didn't understand what was being said but knew the plot enough to know what was going on. Of course, the music was familiar and we knew most of those words. We were amazed how much our elders and sisters enjoyed it....they laughed at all the punch lines so they must have understood what was being said.  It was such a fun night.  

After the show...still missing our two office elders.  They took off

before everyone got together to take this picture

Before the show, we all met at our metro station and decided to go to a local Ukrainian restaurant.  It is one Paul and I have passed many times. We have noticed it because there is always an Ukrainian dressed barker outside calling people to come into the restaurant. All 13 of us tried to squeeze into an alcove in the back of the restaurant but the sisters and ourselves ended up sitting at our own table.  Paul and I had had a late lunch so Paul only ordered a vegetable salad and I ordered chicken soup....very safe food choices.  The elders, on the other hand, got a variety a food items including one that, when it was served, we all about died. It was a pig's leg, we think. Two elders had ordered it together. One elder said it was good once he got down through the fat and into the meat but the other elder didn't like it at all.  It is always as experience when you order food here....one never knows exactly what will come to your table.  

The alcove we tried to fit into but couldn't, especially when

a recently baptized young man came to say good bye to Elder Melchor

and decided to stay for dinner

Two of our favorite sisters

Our two elders trying to find the meat

amidst all the fat on their pig's leg

Because of transfers, our apartment became a place to drop off suitcases.  By Tuesday night we had about 10 bags here, waiting to be picked up by those who were leaving Moscow for areas farther away.  We are in a very convenient location so it is easy to pick up bags before or after transfer meeting as that takes place at the Central Building.  

Only half of the bags left in our apartment for a couple of days

Transfer day was a day of emotions. Paul and I love to go to these meetings as those who have just arrived in the mission field introduce themselves and those leaving to go home bear their testimonies.  The spirit is always so strong as these seasoned missionaries testify of the importance of the work here and of Jesus Christ. They often speak of miracles they have experienced during their missions. This meeting didn't disappoint.  We had three of our former district members leaving to go home, so it was a very tender meeting for us.  At the closing of the hour long meeting, the eleven going home were asked to come up front and sing 'God Be With You Til We Meet Again'.  A little challenging for some of them as their emotions were right on the surface.  Most missionaries do not want to leave here as they have come to loved the work and the people. 

Taken in our apartment at district meeting.  These are three of

the four missionaries we are losing...These two elders are going

to areas outside Moscow while Sister Hawkins is going home.

Boy will they be missed.

After the transfer meeting, we had the privilege of having our own Elder Ebling eat one last meal with us before he leaves for home.  We had planned a special lunch for our district meeting the day before (one that Elder Ebling had requested - teriyaki chicken and fried rice).  At the last minute, he called and said he and his companion would not be able to make lunch. We arranged for him to come the next day to have his own special lunch.  He brought the other elder who was going home as well as our own Elder Melchor.  Elder Melchor had a couple of hours before his train was leaving for his new area.  It was wonderful that we could visit this one last time.......and that they ate all the left over food from the day before. At district meeting, we had planned for 12 and only 8 were able to come. The office elders and AP's  were super busy with all the new missionaries coming in that day. 

A side note for all you seniors out there:  The elder who came to lunch with Elder Ebling said he had been in a district that had a senior couple only once in his whole mission.  That is so sad, as these elders and sisters so appreciate what we can bring to their missionary efforts and to their lives.  There is such a need for senior couples in all the missions, but especially in Russia.

We attended the sign up night for our new English group on Wednesday night.  Our friend Sergey was there.  We had met him in our last English group and after the eight weeks of English discussions, he started coming to our institute class on Thursday nights.  He is a bit old for that class but we haven't been able to tell him not to come, as he seems really interested in what we are teaching.  We were so glad to see him talking with a couple of missionaries for most of the evening during sign ups. Come to find out, he has been having the missionary discussions with them and has attended church occasionally.  We have set up a time to have him and these two missionaries over for dinner next Sunday.  Hopefully it will all come to pass and be a successful evening.


Our Thursdays are always filled with lesson preparation, senior council, Institute and Pathway gathering.  Because it was Halloween, our senior council played a family feud game instead of having a lesson.  It was fun as we tried to guess the most commonly mentioned LDS songs, scriptures, Book of Mormon kings, family home evening activities, etc.  It got a little heated at time but all in a feeling of fun and friendship.

At Institute, we taught about the importance of General Conference and how to get the most out of listening to it. The lesson went really well with lots of participation from the students. We love it when we feel the spirit directing our preparation and our delivery. My gathering session was a little unique as we had one of our students attend the meeting via Skype.  She was home with two bad knees awaiting some surgery, so we set up Skype with her.  It was an interesting experience but it seemed to work well for her and didn't interrupt the class at all.  There is such a good feeling in our gatherings.  We love being a part of them with our students.

This is one of Inessa's classmates

trying to edit Inessa's writing

 assignment via Skype.

The new addition to our class -

The computer with Inessa on Skype

doing her writing assignment with the class

After class, Vlad played a piano piece for us.  He is a concert

pianist who has won many competitions and performed professionally

here in Russioa.  He was amazing.  

This had been a little harder week for both of us, as I haven't been feeling well....a really bad cold.  We kept a low profile, staying at home whenever we could this week.  By the end of Friday, Paul was going stir crazy.  It's a good thing we are not under the same stipulation of being together 24/7 as are the young elders and sisters. Paul could at least run some errands to the church and the bank by himself to get him out of the apartment.

Sister Childer and their 3 Young Single Adult leaders

Saturday, we cleaned the apartment in preparation of having a couple over to our home on Sunday.  The Childers are from the Samara mission in Russia and attended the YSA leadership training in St. Petersburg on Saturday.  They took a night train, with their YSA leaders, from St. Petersburg to Moscow, arriving around 5:30 am on Sunday. They wanted to shower and clean up before going to church at the Central Building.  Sunday afternoon they would board the train again for another 13 hour ride home.  Again our apartment is very convenient to the Central building so they had called and ask if they could use our apartment.  Of course, we said yes. I had offered to feed them breakfast but they said they would pick up something at the train station before coming to our apartment. They also said it would be just the two of them as their YSA's would shower at the church. On Sunday, early morning (6:45), we got a call to ask if their 3 YSAs could come with them to shower (there were no showers at the church). They also asked if we could fix them a little breakfast as there was nothing open at the station.  Of course, we said yes to all their requests. Thankfully, we had done a little shopping the day before and could throw together french toast, bacon and juice while they showered.  We did have a nice visit with the Childer's.  It was good to get to know them.

One of the Young Singles broke our shower head while he was

showering.  Here Paul is trying to improvise something to get us by

until we can get a new shower head.  He got a little wet in the doing.

When the Childers left, the doorbell rang and it was the Piersons.  They brought us some homemade chicken soup, guaranteed to make me get better.  So nice and thoughtful of them.  It did taste good after church today.

SPOTLIGHTS FROM OUR LIFE IN RUSSIA

Last Sunday at church, a sister gave me an apple.  It was between classes and we were sitting by an investigator named Karina.  She is a karate expert and has won many karate titles here in Russia.  When she saw the apple, she said she could cut it in half.  Little did we know she meant she could split it in half with her finger. By hitting her finger with her fist, the apple split right in half.  We should have never doubted her as she had told us earlier that she has split boards and cement blocks with her hand and foot. Quite the lady. Hopefully, her baptismal date will be kept.

We have posted pictures of the many magnificent malls here in Moscow.  This is a mall but it is all underground.  It is located just outside the Kremlin wall and Red Square.  It is two stories underground and as you can see the top of it is a bridge to the street. Amazing.

Note it only comes in a half of loaf.  

When we went to check our elder's apartment, they gave us this loaf of American bread. We had complained that we couldn't find any good bread for sandwiches and they told us about this kind of bread that was available.  They bought us this to show us what it was like.  It is surprisingly fresh......probably because it has preservatives in it like our breads do at home.  Russian breads have none in them.

It is even wrapped in plastic

for sanitation

At the Ukrainian restaurant, the restrooms were very nice complete with soothing music piped in.  I had to take a picture of this child's seat hanging on the wall of one of the stalls.  When have you ever seen such a thing provided in a public restroom?