A RUSSIAN CIRCUS - A SPECTACULAR EVENT IN MOSCOW

As a group of senior couples, we attended a Russian circus this week.  Circuses are a big thing here in Moscow.  There are two, a new one and old one, that run most of the year.  The one we attended was the new one and was almost sold out. The people in attendance were extremely enthusiastic about what they were seeing. We loved it too.  We hadn't been to a circus since we were little children so this was a very fun thing to do. The show was done excellently. Some of the acts reminded us of a Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil type show.....lots of acrobatic moves and use of ropes suspended from the ceiling on which were performed amazing feats. Of course there were the jugglers, clowns and horsemanship acts, as well. One of our favorite acts was with the lions and tigers.  Two men worked with as many as 6 tigers and 2 lions at one time in the ring. Two of the tigers were white tigers and the male lion was also beautifully white. They jumped through hoops and over bars, stood on their hind legs, and many other things. Such of fun evening.  The pictures will do a better job of explaining what we saw than we can.

A group of jump ropers. 

At one time there were men standing

three high on shoulders jumping the ropes.  

Such precision on the bars

This group is getting ready to toss the girl up onto the shoulders 

of the man standing on the one man's shoulders

This was an incredible act.  These two men were balancing as this contraption

circled around with the individual cages spinning as the men walked.  They juggled 

and jumped rope while balancing on the tops of the circling and spinning cages.

This picture didn't take well but there are seven dancers

hanging from the bar suspended from the ceiling.

These riders did some amazing tricks from their horses.  At one time they brought out wagons pulled by horses from which jugglers tossed pins across the ring to each other.

The man on the bottom of the teeter totter will be flipped onto

the shoulders of the man standing on the bottom man's shoulders.

Twice men on stilts were tossed into the air from the teeter totters,

did a flip in the air, and landed upright on their stilts.  One was on

a single stilt like a Pogo stick.  Incredible.

And then there were the lions and tigers.

Sitting up on command

Getting ready to jump through his second hoop

No explanation needed.  Cats will be cats.

Here is the beautiful white lion.  He jumped, with his

trainer on his back, to the other metal circle.

And the finale of an almost 3 hour show.

Very entertaining.

This circus was on Saturday at the end of a pretty uneventful week, especially compared to last week. Our usual study and preparation for three lessons - Institute, seminary, and English - took up the majority of our day times.  Paul spent some time working on our taxes.  He was so excited when he could finally download turbo tax. Of course, he started organizing our financial information immediately.  He is in his element when he is into finance and accounting. 

Monday night we went to our stake family home evening with the young singles.  It was a Christmas theme so, after a spiritual thought, they made cards to send to all the missionaries serving in the field from our stake. The usual open faced sandwiches were served and as always we brought homemade cookies. At Paul's suggestion, we took strawberry jello cookies, frosted and decorated with green sprinkles and M&M's. They were a big hit and the 50 plus cookies were gone within minutes.



District meeting was Tuesday as usual. Guess what we served?  Chili!  I wanted the elders and sisters to taste the chili over chips so we did a repeat of the YSA 'break the fast meal' on Sunday. I typed up the recipe to share with the missionaries because it is one they can make in less than 20 minutes for a quick and easy and delicious meal. They loved it.  Elder Simmons had had a birthday during the previous week so we put a candle on his cream puff and sang happy birthday.  Paul was asked to give the spiritual thought for our meeting.  The day before we had seen a video on Facebook entitled 'Christmas Mission.'  It has many good lessons for young missionaries in the field so we showed it to the district.  It got us all into the Christmas spirit and was very effective in showing ways to share the gospel.

Later that afternoon, the Assistants to the President came by for their lunch.  They were involved working on transfers with the President and couldn't get away in time for our district meeting.  They called and asked if we could save it for them so we did.  We were so glad they felt comfortable enough to ask and that they like our meals enough to make a special trip to our apartment to eat.  Actually, they had a teaching appointment at the Central Building afterward so it worked out perfectly for them.  That night was our first night home in over two weeks.  It was a nice change. We watched a movie to relax.

English group was well attended.  We had the largest turn out in our conversation group that we've ever had, 27.  We talked about problem solving and played a guessing game with them.  They seem to like this new format, especially the refreshments afterwards.  We took a batch of 3 layered brownies and a loaf of pumpkin bread.  Every week, the Russians stay and eat until the refreshments are all gone.  It is giving the elders and sisters lots of time to get to know them and find out if they are interested in being taught the gospel.

We took a different approach with our Institute lesson on Thursday.  The lesson was on Elder Ballard's conference talk entitled "Trust in the Lord."  It was centered around missionary work and how the work is so much more effective when the members are involved. We introduced the talk and then showed the "Christmas Mission" video.  We used it as a teaching tool to brainstorm ways, we as members, can be more effective as missionaries.  It went well.

Afterwards our weekly gathering meetings for Pathway was held.  I ended up having to help teach the English class.  Our lead student was unable to come and his replacement hadn't had much time to prepare.  They were writing letters using adjective phrases.  The activity was Mad Libs, using adjective phrases with who, that, and which.  Very few of the students even knew what a Mad Lib was so it was a good thing I was there to tell them and to conduct the activity.  The resulting letter turned out pretty funny.



Friday, after a few hours of study, we taught Isaac his home study seminary lesson and then went to game night. Saturday we found a Christmas tree up above our closet cabinet in our bedroom. Of course, I had to put it up immediately. We couldn't decorate it, though, because we had to buy different lights. The ones in the decoration box were blinkers where half the stings blinks off at one time. Most annoying. We'll have a finished product next week once we can get to a store. It'll be nice to have a bit of Christmas in our apartment.

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHTS

The other day we needed to buy some more laundry detergent.  At the store we picked up a bag of Tide and brought it home.  I was getting ready to do a wash and noticed that the package looked a little different from the one we had just finished. Using Google translate, I typed in some of the words on the package and found out we had purchased a Tide that was just for soaking.  In fact, it warned not to use it in a washing machine.  Go figure...never heard of a Tide like that in America. Oh, the joys of not knowing the language.  Shopping is really interesting because we can't read labels.  We are grateful when there is a picture on the package.  At least then we kind of know what we are buying. Although the other day I bought a can of what I thought was tomato sauce and it turned out to be whole tomatoes.  

Flowers are a big thing in Russia as we see people carrying them around all the time.  We've noticed these flowers are usually carried upside down instead of right side up. We don't really know why but we thought it interesting.

In our bathroom in our apartment, we have a heated towel rack.  We have noticed them in many other apartments here too. They help to dry the towels out quicker and it is really nice to have a warm towel to use on a cold night. Humid places in the U.S. could use some of these.

THAT'S IT FOR ANOTHER WEEK. 

AS OF TODAY WE HAVE BEEN ON OUR MISSION 5 MONTHS

AMAZING!