ONE MORE BUSY WEEK HAS COME AND GONE......

There were no "once in a life-time" tour to report about, but it has been another great week -  and a very busy one.  Once again, we have been gone every night and had commitments during most of the days.  Busy is good.

Sunday was our regular day at church.  What made this one special was listening to Lada, a member of about 6 weeks, present an amazing lesson to the Gospel Principles class.  It was on the Gathering of Israel, not an easy topic for seasoned teachers.  She was incredible. Her understanding of the gospel was evident in her presentation, but what was most special was the spirit we all felt as she taught. When we talked to her afterwards she said she had never felt the spirit direct her as it did during that lesson. She had to translate President Border's conversion story into Russian as he told it to the class in English. She said she had never translated before, yet she was able to do it. She is quickly learning what service in the gospel is all about.

Looking for winter boots was the job for Monday.  We went to the Metropolis mall but didn't have much success.  We did, though, have a yummy lunch.  Elder and Sister Hays had been wanting to try a Mexican restaurant that is located at that mall so we met them there that afternoon. We had a delightful lunch - not Mexican food as we know it in America, but very tasty.  We loved getting to know the Hayes a little better and sharing lunch with them. We decided we now have to try an American Steakhouse that we discovered a couple of days ago in our neighborhood.  We are all craving a good steak.

Later that night was family home evening in our home.  Again it was a fun evening and was good for the less active member who was there with our missionaries and some young single adults. He asked for a blessing at the end of the evening in which Paul participated. Refreshments were cookie pizzas....always a big hit.




Tuesday was our district meeting which, of course, means cooking lunch for the elders and sisters.  We love having them in our home and feeding them as much food as they can eat.  We served a rigatoni type dish along with Olive Garden salad and breadsticks.  It was a big hit. That evening we gave another English test to four more potential Pathway students.  We've now given the test to 11 people. Hopefully they will all apply and register.

The Texas sheet cake.  We knew we would

never eat it all so we took it to institute

the next night and gave it to all who were

there on time.  They loved the treat.

Wednesday morning we went to the apartment of Elders Marx and Bass.  We needed to do our quarterly apartment check.  As always, we took cookies.  They had a return treat for us....a Texas sheet cake.  They were involved in baking a couple of them for refreshments for English group that night and baked a small one for us.  So very thoughtful of them.  We have come to love these two like our very own sons....well maybe grandsons.  

At English group we discussed families and their importance.  One of the things the group looks forward to is Paul's idioms.  Each week he finds 5 or 6 idioms that go along with our discussion topic....ie: blood is thicker than water, bend over backwards, apple of my eye, bite your tongue.  The people eagerly write them all down so they can use them as they speak English. After the discussion and activity time, we had the assignment to do the story.  I told about our family reunion in Klammoth Falls, Oregon in 2012.  I told them about our Mission Impossible theme and some of the things we did throughout the week.  We talked about how the family learned to work together to complete many difficult tasks.  My conclusion was that at the end of the week we came to realize that, as long as we had each other, we could do anything and so we changed the theme to Mission Possible.  At the end of the story, the whole group started clapping.  I think they liked it.

Our Institute lesson, on Thursday, was on the talk by President Eyring entitled 'Come Unto Me.'  The premise was that Christ is always there for us.  All we need to do is knock or ask and he will be there for us.  We talked about prayer, scripture study, obedience and lifting the burdens of others as being things we could do to invite Christ to come closer to us. We included two videos, a song and many personal experiences to supplement the message. We felt it was an effective lesson.

We took these cookies to the YSA fireside and they got rave

reviews.  It must be the cream cheese frosting.

Friday was a day of baking for me as Paul worked on the computer learning about the home study seminary program.  The pumpkin puree I made last week needed to be used.  We now have, in our freezer, two pumpkin pies and two loaves of pumpkin bread.  On the counter, ready for a fireside on Sunday, are pumpkin cookies frosted with cream cheese frosting.  

Paul was studying about the home study seminary program because we had an appointment to meet Justin Sanders at 4 o'clock Friday afternoon.  He is the student from America to whom we will be teaching a seminary lesson once a week.  It is such a small world when we are a part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Justin, we found out, is from Rathdrum, Idaho.  His dad is Justin Sanders, son of Roger and Pam Sanders of Spokane.  His mother is the daughter of Mike and Alicia Matoon, also of Spokane.  We know both of his grandparents very well. He is over here studying with the Bolshoi Ballet academy. Quite an honor for a boy of 15. We are thrilled to be able to help him in his quest to study the Book of Mormon in seminary while he is here. We will meet him every Friday afternoon at 4 at our apartment to go over his assignments and teach him a lesson on some of the key points he will have studied.  It will be good to get in and study the Book of Mormon once again.

We can't imagine a water slide

in the middles of winter.  We have

to wait to see what this is.

Saturday morning Paul and I walked to the bank to pay a bill. Afterwards we decided to take a walk to get some donuts at Krispie Kremes. It's close to the Red Square and about a 15 minute walk, but we knew the exercise would be good. When we got to Red Square we were amazed at all the activity happening there.  It was obvious they were getting ready, not only for Christmas, but for some big event.  They were putting up a two story merry go round, what looked like a water slide, as well as an ice skating rink. They were also constructing some booth like structures.  Our curiosity got the better of us so when we got home we did some research.  Come to find out, they are preparing for the famed Strasbourg Christmas Market to come to the Red Square.  We found out this is a 500 year old market usually held in France and is the most famous of all European Christmas markets.  It will be here December 24 to the 7th of January.  We'll visit it for sure.  

Our walk took longer than expected.  We had to walk through the Goom department store because of construction outside. We were glad we did as they have decorated for Christmas. It was extravagantly done.  Of course, we had to stop and take many pictures.  

 These manikins, dressed in period clothing, were standing down the entire center of one of the aisles of the mall. As we walked along you could identify most of the decades the clothes represented.

How styles have changed over the years.

The very high end store

TSUM

We detoured to another department store called TSUM.  It is a four story store with very high priced items in it.  Even the grocery store in the basement had food items priced way higher than we would ever pay....about $3 for a can of Dr. Pepper and close to $20 for a bottle of barbecue sauce. We had heard about this store and thought that, as long as we were out and about, we would walk a few more blocks to see it.  Now that we've been there we have no need to go back, that's for sure.

Yes, we finally did get our donuts, but what was going to be a 30 minute walk turned into a 2 1/2 hour one.  Good exercise. 


Saturday night we boarded the metro to go down south to the University branch for a party. Nastia, our friend who was recently baptized, was performing a Tango and we wanted to support her.  It was a celebration of all the babushkas (grandmothers) in the ward.  They did a march down memory lane beginning with the launch of the Russian spaceship in the 60's.  They had songs from many of the decades including the Beatles. They also featured dances like the twist and the bunny hop. At the end, all the grandmothers paraded out to take a bow.  Such a fun party even though we didn't understand a word.  We were glad we had made the effort to go.

The two sister missionaries assigned to this branch ready to party

The branch president (in the brown jacket) and a Russian recording

artist from the branch singing a Beatles song.  It was the

only thing we understood all evening as they sang it in English.

Honoring all the grandmas

Nastia with her partner.  They danced well together.

She was so nervous as he is a professional dancer and she is not.

We had to take a picture with her, too.  She is one of our favorite people.

SPOTLIGHT OF LIFE IN RUSSIA

Without a belt these levis will slip

right off him

Our spotlight will feature Paul this week.  He has lost 20 pounds without even trying. He says it's because things don't taste the same here, but it's more from our crazy eating schedule.  We always have breakfast, but usually have a late lunch before we leave for the evening and maybe a snack of apples and cheese at night after we get home. We'll have to buy him new suits if he loses any more weight.

He is also our second spotlight.  It is getting colder and he has yet to wear a coat over his suit.  The other day we were walking home from our gathering and one of the students accused him of being a penguin.  People look at him awfully strange as he walks around in a suit jacket only.  We met our landlady by the metro the other day and she thought he was crazy not to have a coat on. He says he would rather be a little cold on the short walk to the metro than to roast while riding the metro or inside the buildings.  

Here in Russia, people bundle up according to the calendar rather than the weather. In October, before it was even very cold, they were wearing coats and scarves. We do wonder if their body thermometers are set differently than ours.  

Out walking Saturday, we came to realize that the wonderment of Christmas is universal. We saw these children, with their mother, looking at this Christmas window display.  They were probably anticipating the candy and presents that would be delivered to them on their Christmas eve by Grandfather Frost....the Russian's answer to Santa.

IT'S THANKSGIVING TIME AND WE ARE THANKFUL TO BE HERE

SERVING THIS MISSION.  IT IS SUCH A BLESSING IN OUR LIVES.