Each week we wonder what will happen that will be interesting enough to include in our blog. This week it has been the Russian's celebration of International Women's Day, March 8. It is a really big deal here. It began at 5:00 on Friday, when offices closed, and extended through Monday, with Saturday, the 8th, being the exact holiday. The really amazing thing about this holiday is all the flowers purchased and given to women. On Friday, we went out walking in the afternoon and noticed that almost every woman we passed was carrying flowers of some kind, from single flowers to huge bouquets. A lot of men had bouquets of flowers, too, probably taking them to someone special. The sister missionaries said they were given many flowers from random people just because it's a holiday to celebrate all women. Yes, Paul bought me flowers, too  |
Even this little girl was carrying flowers
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To celebrate Women's Day, our ward combined with the Rechnoy ward to put on a special evening for the women. It was Saturday evening and started out with a short, but favorite 1980's Russian love movie. Then after refreshments (open faced sandwiches as always) were eaten, the brethren, including some of the elders, preformed several musical numbers. They also had a demonstration of Karate defense techniques, a few competition activities involving two teams of women, and a skit. It was such a fun evening....lots of smiles and lots of laughter.
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| Elder Eliason sang an original song |
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Rechnoy elders singing
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| Our own Elder Davison composed the selection he played. |
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| A really funny skit by two men about a married couple. |
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.....and our Elder Genys. Such talent. He needed a
grand piano to do his piece justice.
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The bishop was very proud
of his creation from one
of my recipes.....the three
layer brownies in the pan.
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On Sunday, the celebration continued at church. At the end of Relief Society, the men came in, each with a rose in hand to give to a sister in the ward. They then gathered in the front of the room and sang a song to us. They sang 'Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel.' We wondered if this particular song was the best choice to sing to a group of already hard working women, but it was really cute. They had added hand claps, foot stomps and ugh's during parts of the song. There were lots of smiles in the room for sure. The men also brought in lots of desserts for all to enjoy.  |
Our week began by taking Elder Davis and Elder Braun to Shake Shake. Elder Davis was going home on Thursday so we got special permission to take him and his companion out to lunch before he left. He had really wanted to try the hamburgers at Shake Shack and was thrilled when President Borders said we could take him this one time. They loved the food and we loved being with them. Elder Davis will be missed.
Tuesday's district meeting this week was a little different. Elder Davis requested a breakfast for his last district meeting lunch before going home. We fixed bacon and scrambled eggs, french toast with maple syrup, sourdough waffles with strawberries and whip cream, and juice. The elders and sisters loved it all and ate almost everything we had cooked. After lunch (or breakfast), the sisters surprised us with an original song written about each of the members of our district. It was so funny and so sweet. At the end of our meeting, we brought out a fruit pizza to celebrate Elder Braun's birthday. Just a note: As Elder Friar was dishing up his food he said, "I just love coming here." That's all the thanks we need.  |
The sisters singing their original song with their make shift uke.
It was made out of a box, a tube, and stretched rubber bands.
It was even in tune.
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This was a transfer week and we lost two of our elders...Elder Davis (going home) and Elder Genys (going out to Perova). We come to love the elders and sisters in our district and are always sad when transfers come around. These two elders will be missed.
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Elder Braun's birthday celebration
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Before our Institute lesson, we gathered as a senior council to watch some newly produced DVDs that will be used as missionary tools here in Eastern Europe. Most scenes were filmed right here in Moscow and featured many missionaries and stake members with whom we are familiar. Paul and I were even featured in the DVD about missionary work. Other subjects covered on separate DVDs were families, temples, and family history. Similar DVDs have been used for years as an introduction to the church, but they were all filmed in the US. It has been a dream of President Lawrence's to have DVDs available to which the local people could really relate. It was touching as we viewed Russian families in their apartments holding family home evenings and missionaries doing service and contacting in areas here in Moscow. These DVDs will be a great way to introduce the gospel to the people in Eastern Europe.
Friday was transfer day. Usually it is on Wednesday but the new elders and sisters didn't come in until Friday morning. We have felt bad for President Borders and the AP's as they have had to do transfers twice this month. About two week ago they received word that the visas for the incoming missionaries were not being issued so they were not going to be coming. With that information, transfers were decided and assignments made. Within two days of making all the calls regarding transfers, they received word that the new missionaries were coming after all. The President and the assistants had to start all over again making new transfer assignments. Doing transfers once every 6 weeks is hard enough so to have to have done them twice in less that a week's time must have been extremely difficult. Most of the work was done over the telephone as the President was at a mission president conference in Turkey.
Friday was our game night which was supposed to be a YSA evening to replace the family home evening we used to have on the first Monday of each month. We were very disappointed as there were only about 10 people in attendance, compared to 30 or so at last month's activity. We did have two investigators there, one of which came to church the following Sunday. Our YSA council is totally non functioning right now. We don't know exactly what to do as the new Stake Presidency has yet to call a committee to assist our new YSA President. Hopefully we can get it all resolved before too long.
Saturday afternoon, we had two missionary discussions in our home.....one right after the other. The first one was with a Michael from Ghana. We think he is really golden. He had been introduced to the church in Ghana but then moved to Moscow. When he found out the church was here in Moscow he contacted the missionaries. During the discussion he committed to read the Book of Mormon. In the prayer that he offered at the end of the meeting, he prayed that he would be able to understand what he read and that he would be able to continue to learn more about the church. He also was at church on Sunday...a good sign. The second discussion was rather short as it had to be done in French. Elder Merrill speaks a little French and his companion, Elder Bugg, speaks no French. It was an interesting experience.
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On Sunday, the elders were thrilled with our invitation
to come to our apartment and finish off the cake from
Saturday night's dinner.
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LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT
Living in Russia, we have come to accept that food items are going to be quite a bit more expensive. We just buy what we need, most of the time, like these strawberries. We needed them for the sourdough waffles on Tuesday so Paul went to a local fruit market (small store) and paid the equivalent of $14.00 for these two baskets of strawberries. They tasted wonderful on the waffles.
This picture was taken for our granddaughters to let them know that children all over the world love princesses...especially Disney princesses.
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This is a bounce house castle in a mall we
where we do our weekly shop.
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WE PASSED OUR 8TH MONTH MARK THIS WEEK...
ON WOMEN'S DAY TO BE EXACT.
HARD TO BELIEVE.
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