PIZZA, PRESENTS, AND PLANES

With cold weather setting in and more snow on the ground than we've had the whole winter, this week was spent a little closer to home....no big sight seeing adventures or major activities.  It was, though, a week of pizzas, presents and planes......  

Pizza crusts cooked and ready

to be topped

For district meeting lunch, we decided to try something we hadn't done here yet - making homemade pizzas. I have a really good pizza crust recipe and knew we could get all the toppings we would need.  The trick was how to cook pizza for 10 in our one little oven.  Early Tuesday morning I got up and started making the pizza crusts, cooking them one at a time. Of course these pizza crusts were much smaller that we would make at home as the largest pan we can get in our oven is less than 15 inches wide.  I figured if I cooked all the crusts ahead of time then, when everyone arrived for lunch and the meeting, we could layer them with cheeses and toppings and then only have to cook them long enough to melt the cheese. We felt like it was Millar's pizzeria as we assembled, cooked, and ate eight very tasty pizzas.  The elders and sisters loved every pizza concoction we put out - Hawaiian, all meat, pepperoni and green peppers (for Paul, of course), sausage and olives, and vegetable.  It was a fun lunch especially accompanied with green salad and pop.

What was left of 8 pizzas

This is how you have to buy

pepperoni in Moscow

Our district.  This will probably be the last meeting where

we will all be together as transfers are next week.  The

office elders and APs may be involved with the

new missionaries coming in next Tuesday.

Now for the presents.  Russians love to give presents.  If they come to your home for dinner they always bring something. Twice now we have been given boxes of Russian candy as we have entertained Russian friends in our home.  The present this week caught us totally by surprise. We attended the first of a new eight week English group. One of our regulars, Kate, was in attendance. She is a beautiful young women who speaks incredibly good English. She came up to us, opened her purse, and pulled out a box of wafer cakes.  When she presented them to us as a gift we were so surprised.  After the meeting, we again thanked her for the most thoughtful gift and she said, "you two are such a perfect couple." We are not perfect by a long way but it was a sweet thing for her to say.  In her eyes, though, we might seem perfect because she sees us always together, happy, and often laughing and holding hands. In Russia, you do not see older couples showing much affection toward each other.  Very seldom do they hold hands and we've never seen them smiling at each other or laughing together. In fact, we get a lot of looks on the metro when we laugh together or even smile at each other. 

Waiting outside the Metro station for it to open.

It was mighty cold so we both stood

 by the cracks between the doors

where warm air was flowing out.

The big experience, though, was about the planes. It was our time to take our visa immigration trip. All foreigners living here in Russia have to leave the country every 6 months to renew their immigration papers. Friday we took our trip, via an airplane, out of the country to Riga, Latvia. We have never been to the airport or left the country on our own, so we were a little nervous. Usually senior couples do this trip with other seasoned elders or sisters, but we had no one scheduled to accompany us. Luckily the office elders sensed our concern and arranged for Elders Calderwood and Folkman to meet us at the train station, board the train to the airport with us, and get us through the airport to passport control. We were go grateful to have them with us, at least that far into our adventure. We had to be at the train station to catch the 6:30 am express train, so that meant being up and dressed and at the metro station by 5:30. Our flight left Moscow at 8:45 and took a little less than 2 hours. When we landed in Riga, we easily found a TGI Friday's and ordered a much needed breakfast. We had about a 2 hour layover before flying back to Moscow.  During the return flight we began our studies for our weekly institute lesson. We were grateful when our return flight landed in Moscow and we could board the express train back to the metro station. At that time we decided to take the metro up to the mission office, a little less than an hour's ride, and then make the 15 minute walk. The office personnel needed copies of our new immigration cards so they could complete a new registration form for us. When all was said and done, we did not return to our apartment until after 6:30 that night. Paul, then, left for game night at the institute room while I stayed home to bake goodies for a Saturday YSA activity.  A long, nerve racking, and tiring day.  One we were glad was over. 

Paul buying our train tickets.

The monitor screen

was in Russian so the

elders stepped in and helped.

So glad these two elders were

with us until we got to

passport control

On the train heading to the airport - a half hour ride

At TGI Fridays for breakfast

The train....finally back in Moscow after a long day.

Note: Paul came home from game night and found that the BYU basketball game with San Francisco was being replayed. He decided to relax in front of the television and watch it, making it a good way for him to end a very hard day (He knew BYU had won the game).  I went to bed.

So much for our PIZZA, PRESENT, AND PLANES.......and then there was the rest of our week.

Sam with Emmanuel and Festus.  Festus, on the left

did the baptizing.  He often attends our Institute class.

Sunday, we had the privilege of attending three more baptisms. One was a friend of Emmanuel who was baptized last week. His name is Sam and he is a very intelligent and sharp young man.  We wanted to be there in order to invite him to our Young Single Adult activities and our Institute class.  We also wanted to support one of Emmanuel's friends. The other baptisms were a man and wife here from Pakistan. We didn't know them but we could sense that they are a wonderful young family who love the gospel of Jesus Christ. The International Ward elders and sisters are teaching and baptizing like crazy.  We think they have another couple of baptisms again this coming Sunday. It's a wonderful thing to see the gospel spreading here in Moscow.

By the time we got home from the baptisms and decided to prepare dinner, we were tired and hungry. Ham slices and mac and cheese (from a box) was the dinner of choice. I don't think I have ever served mac and cheese for a Sunday dinner - ever. It was easy and quick and even tasted good.  Such is life in Russia.

Getting ready for a new game of UNO

Monday brought family home evening once again. This week Natalia, from America, brought her niece, Tamara. We wanted to get her involved with some young singles as well as the sister missionaries. Sasha, from our ward, also came. It was a small group but the perfect size for another few games of UNO. Natalia and Tamara had never played the game and loved it. We served banana bread and frosted apple cookies for refreshments. Tamara had never tasted banana bread before. I had to give her the recipe before she left so she could make it for her family this week. Often, what is a common place food for us in America is such a surprise to people over here. Of course, some of their food is a complete surprise to us, too.  At family home evening, we found out that Monday was another holiday - Happy Old New Year. We never did understand Sasha's explanation of what the holiday meant.  Russians love to celebrate, especially with fireworks, so we heard lots of fireworks this night too.  Luckily, not into the early morning hours as we did on New Year's eve.

Refreshments for the past few weeks have had to have something the

elders and sisters could eat and still live their sacrifice......

hence the fruits and banana bread.

We had to laugh when we saw Elder Davis's worn out suit jacket lining.

It's a good thing he is going home next transfer.

Tuesday evening, after district meeting and lunch, we sat in on two missionary discussions with Elders Davis and Bass.  These were most interesting.  The first was a man from northern Siberia. He had long, graying hair and a kind of oriental look about him. He is an actor, artist, and writer living here in Moscow and a most interesting man.  We couldn't figure out if he was definitely interested in the gospel or just wanted to practice his English. The second discussion was with a man who listened very intently to the Plan of Salvation lesson and our testimonies and then said, "now can I tell you what I believe?"  He then preceded to tell us his theory of man and the spirit world and lots of other things the elders couldn't even understand, let alone explain to us. It was like he wanted to convert us to his way of thinking. Definitely not a golden contact.

After a day of study and preparation for Institute, we attended the first English group of the eight week series. We followed the new program outline with Paul and I discussing the vocabulary words then conducting an activity with the group in which they had to use the words. We then broke into small groups of 5 or 6 and each set of missionaries got their group speaking English using some conversational questions. A story followed, then a video, spiritual thought and prayer. It was a good evening and we think everyone enjoyed the changes. Our responsibilities vary now, each week and preparation will not take the time as it has in the past. That's a good thing.

It was haircut day on Thursday.  Gohar, our hair dresser, came to our house and, as always, did a great job. We have bragged about her so much that another sister senior missionary wanted her to cut her hair.  Brother and Sister Roper came to our apartment just as Gohar was finishing us.  She then got her hair cut.  All this was done before senior council night and our Institute lesson and Pathway gathering. I fixed dinner for all of us before we left for senior council. 

As always, we look forward to Thursday nights and teaching our institute class. It is fun to team teach and we love it when we feel the spirit directing what we say and do. The lesson focused on Lehi's and Nephi's visions of the tree of life.  We stressed the importance of coming unto Christ and partaking of the blessings of His atonement as the dream so vividly depicts.

Friday was our trip to Riga and Saturday was a day to recover from our day of little sleep and much stress.  A little studying, a little shopping, and lunch at MacDonald's was the doings of the day. That evening, though, we stepped back into the missionary role to attend a young singles activity. They called it a Guitar Night.  We listened to three young men play the guitars and sing for a while. Then, Masha, one of our young single leaders, joined in playing her guitar as everyone sang along, using words put up on a screen. It was a fun evening with about 50 in attendance, including 3 investigators and three sets of elders and sisters. We love it when the missionaries bring their investigators to our activities. It is a wonderful way for them to get to know other young people and see them having good, clean fun. Refreshments and a dance followed the singing to close out the evening. That's when the elders and sisters had to leave, of course.

Elders Browning and Beauchemin with Sasha and Artur.

Elder Browning (blue tie) goes home next Thursday.

WE KNOW WE'VE ADJUSTED TO LIFE IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

We know we've adjusted to life in Russia when.......

.......the blender becomes a best friend. Not only have I had to use it to blend brown and powdered sugars but Parmesan cheese as well.  Then, this Saturday, I had to use it to make tomato sauce. There was no tomato sauce in our little local store, only boxes of chopped tomatoes. After blending them up and straining them through a sieve, we had tomato sauce.

.......when we just pay the price of things we buy in rubles and don't think about how much we are really paying in US dollars.  This is still hard for Paul as everything is much more expensive than at home.  Apples and tomatoes are up to almost 3 dollars a kilogram.  A box of tomatoes (about the same size as a small can at home) is over 2 dollars a box and if it has been seasoned with basil it's 5 dollars. 

.....when cutting off the burnt edges of a pan of brownies or bar cookies becomes the norm. Our gas oven has a mind of its own. If I don't check it every few minutes while baking, it automatically heats up to 400 degrees.  Oh, the joys of cooking.

A map of Moscow's intricate metro system

.....when we don't worry about getting lost in the metro system anymore.  Paul has become quite an expert in getting us around where we need to go. Of course, he always brings a map with him if we are going somewhere we haven't been.

ANOTHER WEEK GONE.

IT'S AMAZING HOW FAST FRIDAYS COME AROUND.