SUNSHINE ALL WEEK AND A DR. ZHIVAGO MOMENT...WHAT MORE COULD WE WANT?

All week the sun has been shining here in Moscow. To have a week of sunshine has been very rare during the winter. It is fitting that it happened this week as it is Blini Week, formally known as Maslenitsa Week. It is a week long celebration where much feasting takes place, especially on blinis. A blini is a large, thin, round pancake eaten when stuffed with meats or fruits and jams. It is said to represent the sun because of its shape and its warmth hot off the griddle. The Russians celebrate Blini Week in preparation for the first day of Spring which is March 1. There are booths selling blinis as well as hanging straw dolls. These dolls are effigies of Lady Maslenitsa who symbolizes winter. They tell us that these dolls are burned on Sunday, the last day of the celebration, in order to chase away winter. We hope this all means that Spring is really on its way.  We must record a little tender mercy from the Lord. After Church on Sunday, we talked about jumping on the metro and going to Red Square to see the straw dolls before they were burned.  I really wanted a picture of one for this blog. For no known reason in particular, we decided to go straight home instead. The next day we read that there had been over 10,000 demonstrators at Red Square on Sunday.  We were so glad we were inspired to stay home.

Pretty much like Dr. Zhivago....only this was taken

in front of a picture canvas at the campsite.

On the troika (or horse drawn sleigh)

Our Doctor Zhivago moment came Saturday when a group of senior couples traveled to the city of Sergei Posad to spend the day. After an hour and a half van ride, we arrived at a lady's home where we were greeted with a stack of blinis to eat with jam (very appropriate for blini week). She hurried us out the door to our van so we could drive into the nearby woods for a troika (horse drawn sleigh) ride (also a common tradition for blini week). There, we were met with two sleighs and lots of snow. After piling into the sleighs and adjusting the blanket to keep warm, the horses pulled us through the woods to a special campsite. Here we enjoyed roasting sausages (much like an American hot dog) while getting warm around a campfire.  We each took turns sliding down a hill on a tube and, then, several of us tried our hand at sawing a log, using a two man saw. Before we left to return to the lady's home for dinner, we were taken on a longer ride in the troikas.  At one time we came to a wide open, snow covered field. We could just picture what it would have been like in the Dr. Zhivago movie to take off speeding in the sleigh across that open space (hence the Dr. Zhivago moment).  Sadly we didn't take off at break neck speed there but on the return trip the drivers sped up the horses for a fun ride back into the campsite. 

Roasted hot dogs....even in Russia

Down he goes!

Success...we sawed it off with a two man saw.

Trying to knock each other off the plank

The Dr. Zhivago moment

The stack of small blinis for breakfast

Back at the lady's home we were treated to an authentic Russian dinner of cold cut meats and cheeses, borsh soup and pork stew.  It was all very tasty. After dinner, the lady gave us a brief historical sketch of the city and the beautiful monastery complex in the town.  

The borsh which is beet soup

The pork stew

Of course, before returning to Moscow, we toured the monastery grounds with its many beautiful cathedrals. This is the place where the first monastery was built in Russia. It is said that the Russian Orthodox religion grew out of this city. We entered one cathedral where the founder of the monastery is buried. His casket was made of many tons of silver. Most beautiful and very sacred to the true Russian Orthodox. This city is considered the home of the Orthodox Church and out of respect for this, there are no missionaries sent to proselyte in this city.

The famous blue domed cathedral

The original cathedral on the monastery grounds where

the founder is buried

Other highlights of our week were two missionary discussions, one on Monday and one on Tuesday.  Monday evening, the International Ward elders brought over Hardy. He is from Madagascar and speaks 4 languages - Russian, English, French, and the native language of Madagascar. He is here going to school.  We were impressed with the discussion the elders gave and even more impressed with their 100% obedience. When the discussion was over it was a little after 9 in the evening.  The elder's curfew is 9:30 and so they passed up our offer of cookies to be home on time.

Tuesday, after our district meeting, was one of the best discussions of which we have been privileged to be a part.  This was Nastia's first discussion with the sisters and it was a picture perfect first discussion.  The spirit was so strong as testimonies were born of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Nastia even shed a few tears at the end of the discussion. We hope she will remember what she felt and want to learn more. She did commit to read the Book of Mormon and to meet with the sisters again. She has been in our prayers.



Back to Monday - Monday's shopping brought about two great finds - an attachment for our vacuum cleaner and Russia's answer to jello. We have a horrible vacuum cleaner that doesn't pick up much of anything on our carpet. We decided to buy a new attachment to see if that would help the suction strength. It's not like at home, but much better than the old one. We also found a stiff broom which is so much nicer than the one we have been using.

Cookies made from the Russian version of Jello

We had heard that Russia had a jello type product so at the store we found something that looked like it could be a type of gelatin. (Thank goodness for pictures on packages as we can't read the labels.) With what we purchased, I made jello cookies and they tasted almost like the ones made with jello from home.  A good find.


Tuesday was district meeting.  We served chicken and broccoli and orange rolls with cream puffs for dessert. We had to serve something we could send home with our sisters because they were fasting that day as part of our zone's month long fast. (Our turn came again on Wednesday at 6 pm.) Before anyone was served, we set aside food for the sisters to take home so they could eat after 6. They really appreciated having food ready for them at the end of their fast.

Sasha giving this restaurant worker

information about English group

and the missionaries phone number.

Wednesday, we took Sasha to Shake Shack again.  He is so good to help us out by meeting Paul at our landlord's bank and depositing our rent in her account.  While at Shake Shack, we had a missionary opportunity. One of the workers came up to us to ask us how we liked the food. He said it in very broken English. Sasha took it upon himself to tell him about our English group discussions and to give him the address and the phone number of Elders Davis and Braun. We wished we would have had an English group prig (handout) to give to him. We will take one to him as soon as the new ones are ready for the next 8 week cycle of lessons.  


At English group that night I was visiting with a regular attender, Kate.  She was telling me about Women's Day coming up on March 8th and how everyone buys flowers for the women in their lives. I mentioned to her that Paul was not a big flower giver and her comment was, "How does anyone survive without flowers."  At the end of the evening she immediately came up to Paul to persuade him that he needed to buy me flowers for the following Saturday.  

We had to say good bye to Sister Pope, a favorite sister missionary,

who has been working with us in our discussion group

each Wednesday for the past 2 months.  She will be

going home before our next English group. 

We will miss her.

Our board display to help students

understand more fully the meaning of the allegory.

Thursday was our Institute/Pathway gathering night. We taught the Olive tree allegory. We were so grateful for a church video that did a wonderful job helping to visualize each visit of the master to the trees and helping us all realize the time period when each visit took place. We all have a much greater understanding of that allegory now. One of the students came up to us afterwards and said, "In Russia we have a saying that when something is explained very well, it has been put on the shelf." She said we had put this allegory on the shelf for her.

After studying for our lesson with Isaac on Friday, we decided to go shopping and out to lunch. We went to a store that has always had flour tortillas and they didn't have any. We can't find them anywhere anymore which makes us very sad.  

After teaching seminary to Isaac, we went to game night.  We had an investigator there who should be baptized soon. We love the opportunity to get to know investigators from other districts too.

This then brings us back to Saturday and our Troika ride.  A great week again.

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

As we walk to the metro we pass several planter boxes along the walk way and around the metro building. They are filled with colored pieces of bark. Our supervisor, Misha, says it is for color spots during the winter.  It will be interesting to see if annuals are planted in the boxes this summer. We hope flowers will be planted as it will make the area very beautiful.

Often as we walk, we find people playing instruments and sometimes singing.  We have seen (and heard) a group of five playing jazz complete with a portable piano, a man playing bag pipes, and this man playing a trombone...to name just a few.  We were touched by this group who were singing. At least two of them were blind.  We only wish we would have had some coins to give them but Paul never carries them in his pocket.