OUR RUSSIAN FRIEND BECOMES THE HIGHLIGHT OF OUR WEEK

Every week we wonder what we will find to talk about in our next blog post.  We often wonder if anything will happen over and above the routine things we do each week.  So far we have not been disappointed since being in Moscow.  


This week's highlight came on Friday evening when Daniel came to our home. We first met Daniel when Elders Melchor and Beals brought him over to our apartment for a visit a couple of weeks ago. We had told him how much we wanted to find a video or book on the history of the metro system. It has fascinated us and we have been curious how it was designed and built. Before Daniel left that night, he said he would try and find a video for us to download. This week Daniel came to our English group on Wednesday and told us he had found a video for us, but it was in Russian. He said, if we would like, he could translate it for us as we watched it. We set a date for Friday at 5 to meet him at our metro station and bring him to our home to watch the video. We were amazed that he followed through with his commitment and even more amazed at the preparation he went through before he met with us. The video was a 2 hour presentation. He knew we only had about an hour and a half as we had to go to game night at 7. He took the time, during his busy week, to review the video and record where he could fast forward non essential information. He brought two pages of notes of what he wanted to show us on the video. We were blown away, not only with the content of the video, but by Daniel's effort on our behalf.  We can't even imagine how much time he must have spent doing this for us. He is a student, holds a job, and lives an hour and half outside the city.  We have come to realize that when a Russian becomes your friend he/she is willing to do anything for you.  We truly feel Daniel is our friend.  All we had to offer him, at the end of our time together, was some fudge dream bars. You would have thought we had given him the world. He was so appreciative. We love these beautiful people. 

Just a note: We hope that soon one of our blog posts will be devoted to the Moscow Metro...we are still collecting pictures of some of the magnificent stations.

Desserts ready to be served

Saturday night was a special night as well. Our senior council met at a Mexican restaurant by our home to have dinner together before the Saturday session of our stake conference.  The food was good and the company was even better. The testimonies born and the messages given at the conference session were wonderful. The theme was Member Missionary unity - working together to bring the good news of the gospel into the lives of friends and family. Through a great talk and a couple of videos, President Malm, of the area presidency, gave everyone some good ways to get involved with the missionaries in this great work.  We are grateful to be a part of this effort here in Moscow.  After the conference session, we invited all the senior couples to come to our home for a piece of pie. We knew it would be crowded but we are all used to that as we all live in rather small apartments.  I made a banana cream and lemon cream pie as well as a mud pie for the occasion.  All 22 of us gathered in our tiny apartment and ate and visited.  It was so fun to all be together, even as crammed in as we were.  We all decided this would be a semi annual affair after each Saturday night conference session.  Our apartment is the perfect location - a 5 minute walk from where conference is held.

The group before the last 7 arrived

After dessert some fun conversations

took place. There was another group

 talking in the kitchen.

Now for the week......... Monday was our regular shopping day at Ashan's.  When we got home, two of our elders called and needed to use our computers to email home. It was a holiday in Moscow so all the city libraries, where they usually email, were closed.  When they came, we were taken back a bit as they were in their p-day clothes.  This is the first time we've seen them in anything but a shirt and tie. We had to take a picture of them working in our office.  Of course, we had cookies for them before they left.

Family Home Evening that night was our monthly Young Single Adult one held at the Central building.  The theme was being grateful. One of the activities was to go around the room with everyone saying something for which they were thankful, using the Russian alphabet. The first person said something that began with an A, then the next person had to say something that began with a B (or whatever the Russian letter in their alphabet comes after the A). When it came to us it was the letter T. We responded 'together forever'..... in English, of course. We are grateful not only to be missionary companions but to be forever companions because of the gospel and temple ordinances.

We did our lesson prep on Tuesday instead of having our usual district lunch and meeting. Immigration visa trips for the mission were scheduled for Tuesday. Every 6 months of our missions, we all have to leave the country for a short time. This is the only way to renew immigration papers which are good for 6 months. Our district leader had to make the trip this Tuesday.  He flew to Riga, Latvia in the morning and flew back to Moscow later that evening. The young missionaries are required to stay in the airport in Riga so it makes for a long and often boring day for them. We all have to do it, though. Our immigration trip will happen in January.  

Elders Simmons, Merrill, and Davison.

Elder Davison's grandparents worked with us in

the Provo temple.  His grandpa recently passed away.

District meeting was held Wednesday instead. It was a little different as we had so many new elders and one new sister join us. We only had five of eleven missionaries who remained in our district after transfers. We served taco soup and all the trimmings. We quickly realized that this group does not eat like our last group did. We had a lot of soup left over.  Luckily we could send some home with a couple of our companionships for a meal during the week.  They were very appreciative.

Sisters Tolbert and Simmons.  Sister Simmons replaced Sister Hawkins

Elders Crawford and  Jewkes.  Elder Jewkes replaced

Elder Ebling as the new AP

That night was our first English group under the new program.  We only had a 20 minute discussion and then the sisters conducted an activity for 30 minutes. We soon realized that with our conversational group a 30 minute activity was way too long. They want more discussion to practice their English. We will make that change next week. The refreshments at the end of the evening were a good idea. Many people stayed and visited with the missionaries and all seemed to enjoy the treats.


At senior council, the Storm's presented a slide show of their 23 month mission. They have served as humanitarian missionaries and are leaving to go home this week. They have done such a good work in helping hospitals, rest homes and orphanages obtain much needed equipment and training. What a rewarding service they have rendered. They will be missed.

Yummy Oreo brownies with frosting

made with non gritty powdered sugar.

Our Institute lesson went well as did our gatherings. We concluded our lesson on how to study the general conference talks by handing out Oreo brownies.  The week before, one of the students had brought us a bag of powdered sugar from America. We wanted to make something with it to share with our class.  Of course, we had to come up with a connection to the lesson. Here it is.....Watching General Conference is like a brownie without the icing.  It is wonderful and tasty.
But when we study the talks of the apostles in the conference issue of the Liahona (Ensign), it is like putting icing on the conference. It becomes even sweeter to our lives as we better understand and apply the counsel given to us. Maybe a stretch, but the students sure got it.....and loved the frosted brownies, too.

In the 3rd semester group for gathering, we flew airplanes.  The student's assignment was to describe how to make a paper airplane.  For such a simple action, it is very hard to write a description of how to do it. During the lesson, the students got to fly the airplanes they constructed based on the written directions of their fellow classmates.  A fun activity.  

Making the airplanes according to

as student's directions

All ready to see whose will fly the

farthest

Better hide behind the white board because here they come.

That brings us back to Friday and our special visit with Daniel. 
It's been another great week In Russia.

LIFE IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

We have been walking past this Spiderman balloon for months. I finally decided to take a picture of it this week.  I did and was promptly told, by a security guard, that there was no picture taking allowed in the mall.

Taken from out our

kitchen window

That brings us to our next spotlight...security guards are every where here in Moscow. Almost every store has a guard, even our little grocery store. Most apartment buildings (except ours) and most business building have guards. They are all over in the metros and walking the corridors in all of the malls.  Outside our apartment, we often see security guards from the buildings behind us, some of which have no occupants in them, yet.  The guard's uniforms change based on where they are guarding.  As they move up into the higher class malls, the guards uniforms become more formal and less conspicuous. In the very high end malls, the guards wear classy suits and ties with head sets discretely attached to their ears.  We didn't dare take a picture of them at Goom after almost losing our camera to a guard in the little, lower class mall by us.  Having so many security personnel keeps the unemployment rate pretty low.  In fact, we have been told they only have a 1% unemployment rate here.

Always one and sometimes two guards stand here

at our local grocery store.

It is amazing how much a package from home can brighten our day here in Moscow. We needed some more vitamins and fish oil so we had Todd assemble a box and send it. Even though we knew exactly what was in the box, we still couldn't wait for it to get here. Simple things bring so much pleasure.

Elder Marx brought the package to us

from the mission office.

Some much needed supplies

Another thing brightened our week....actually it brightened our kitchen.  We realized that 4 of eight light bulbs in our kitchen had gone out.  We took a special trip to a store that sells light bulbs, put them in and then.....there was light! It is amazing how much difference it makes to have a well lit apartment on the many dark and cloudy days here.

ANOTHER WEEK OF WONDERFUL EVENTS 
THAT ALSO BROUGHT LIGHT INTO OUR LIVES.