THE PIANO GUYS IN MOSCOW......SUCH A TREAT!

The performance hall

The Piano Guys in Moscow? Amazing, but yes......they put on a concert Monday night at the International Music Hall, one metro stop down from where we live. We were so excited when we heard they were coming to town and immediately bought tickets, along with 5 other couples. Four of the couples went to dinner at an Italian Restaurant before the performance and then walked to the music hall, anxiously awaiting the concert. It was pretty much a full house and a very enthusiastic crowd. They loved the few Russian words the Piano Guys interspersed into their dialogue but, mostly, the audience loved their music. The group has become popular, through their Youtube videos, even here in Russia.  When they would announce their next number, the audience would clap and cheer wildly. The language barrier was non existent because of the beautiful music they created. They were called back for three encores. On the second encore, John Schmidt mentioned that they had been afraid the people would not like their performance because they couldn't get their videos to work. The Piano Guys are such great musicians and showmen that their videos were not needed. On the third encore, John and Steve brought out the other two piano guys (one does the videos and the other writes a lot of the arrangements) so they could all play the piano using the piano strings, the piano keys, and the sides of the piano.  It was incredible. We came away from the evening feeling so happy and uplifted.  A marvelous evening.

The performance

The last of three curtain calls

The night before the performance (Sunday evening,) the Piano Guys came to the Central Building and put on a fireside.  It was so enjoyable. They played a few numbers but the best part was getting to know the four of them and feeling of their testimonies of the gospel.  They told us their story of how they came to be a group two years ago. It was obvious that they were brought together by God to bring a message of joy to the world through their musical creations.  

Most of the fireside was a question and answer format.

The young man at the mike is interpreting the Piano Guys answers for the audience.

Chicken Alfredo for lunch

Tuesday was another district meeting. We said good bye to two of our elders and our dear Sister Simmons as they would be transferred  the following day. Because of the schedule of the office elders, we met early at 11:00 am. We managed to get lunch ready by then and were thinking that with such an early start we would have most of the afternoon to get some things done. NOT! Right after district meeting, Elder Jewkes and Elder Friar asked if Dema could come over and watch some Mormon Messages. Dema has recently stopped coming to church and the elders wanted to help him feel the spirit again. They used Paul's computer in our office to show them and were there for a little over an hour, 2:45 to 4:00. During that time, they got a call from Evonne who wanted to meet with them so they asked if he could come to our home. Of course, we said yes. Dema stayed for that discussion which lasted till almost 6:00. So much for our afternoon to ourselves. We had served homemade Hostess cupcakes for dessert at lunch and had some left over. By the time everyone had left, very few of the original 32 were left.

The office elders brought packages for our sisters. 

It is amazing how much packages mean to our elders and sisters. 

Sister Hunter especially loved the homemade fudge she is holding.

It was a piece of fudge not bigger than the palm of her hand and cost

$12.00 to mail.  Expensive fudge but delicious.

We celebrated two birthdays with homemade Hostess cupcakes.

Elder Eliason brought his uke to

accompany our opening song.

Elder Davison is leaving our district.

So sad to see him leave.

We will miss Elder Jewkes (on the right) and Sister Simmons (next the Elder Jewkes)

Wednesday morning at 7:45, we opened our home to Elder Merrill to use our computer. He had to register for his classes at Utah State University at 8:00 Moscow time. Because they would be coming so early, we invited him and his companion, Elder Bugg, to join us for breakfast. It was Elder Bugg's last day in the mission field and we wanted to do something special for him. (He had served a couple of transfers in our district.) We served sourdough waffles with strawberries and whipped cream along with scrambled eggs. They went away full and happy. While we were cleaning up the dishes we got a call from Elder Naylor and Elder Caulderwood. They had traveled all night on the train from Voronezh and wanted to come to our apartment to use our shower to clean up. Of course, we said they could come right over. We were glad to see Elder Naylor one more time before he left for home the next day. (Elder Naylor is the grandson of a couple with whom we served in the Provo temple.) They brought a couple of friends with them and they all stayed at least an hour visiting. At 12:30, we attended transfer meeting. While there, we met the new elders and sister coming into our district, said our last good byes to our missionaries leaving the city, and enjoyed the testimonies of the two departing elders.  

Elder Naylor

Saying goodbye to Sister Simmons (right)

and hello to Sister Taylor (left)

After transfer meeting, we came home to another discussion with Piero who should be baptized on the 27th. We were a little distraught with the elders as they came totally unprepared with no lesson planned.  We ended up watching a video about Christ after Paul got on Elder Merrill's case a little....in private, of course.  Our day was capped off with English group...always a fun evening with our Russian friends.

Our board display

Because we are between semesters in Pathway, we didn't have an Institute class nor a Pathway gathering. We did, though, teach a lesson for our senior council. We usually have to leave early from those meetings each Thursday to teach institute so when the leader of our senior council found out we had a night off, he invited us to be the speakers.  We decided to have the council meet up in our institute room and presented the lesson we had taught to our students the previous week.  It was on missionary work and, with a little adaptation, it was perfect for these senior missionaries. Hopefully we all went away a little more committed to being more bold while here in Moscow.  We had them take some PRIGS (handouts about the church) with them so they would have them available to hand out when prompted.

Friday, we did more then talk the talk.  We walked the walk....we handed out our first English prig on the metro. I was sitting next to a young man who was reading a book. I just happened to notice that it was an English language book and he was studying it intently. Just before our metro stop, I handed him an English prig and mentioned that this would tell him about where he could practice his English.  He took the handout and put it in his book when he got off the metro. Maybe we'll see him on Wednesday.

Korina, in the red sweater, and her friends.

That afternoon Isaac, our seminary student, came over for our weekly lesson and then, later that evening, we attended our weekly game night in the institute room. There were more people there than usual as it was a kind of going away get together for Korina, who was leaving to go back to live in Ukraine.  She lost her work visa so she is going back home to her parents. We will miss her.

We finally completed this most difficult puzzle.

It was of Salt Lake City.

One of our favorite young singles, Masha, stayed around until it

 was finished. She is a puzzle whiz.

The first sign of Spring...yeah!

Spring is finally here....we even saw green on the trees this week. Saturday was such a beautiful day that after studying most of the morning, we went for a walk.  We decided to walk down to the next metro stop and check out the office supply store for magnet strips. We were unsuccessful finding what we were looking for but the long walk was invigorating. Along the way, we passed several Russian Orthodox churches and watched many people going into them to worship.  Even after all those years, when religion was banned under communism, these Russians still are a religious people.... especially on Easter.

Christ in the Garden 

Saturday evening, we attended the performance of the musical, The Garden, by Michael McClain. It was put on by a few members of our stake, with one of our young single adults in charge of the whole production. Several of our young singles were in the cast. It was beautifully done. We know for sure that two of the singers are professional singers and one other might be. We had listened to the English version of the music during the day so we knew what each song was about even though it was performed in Russian. The musical's message of Christ's healing power was so meaningful.....an incredible way to help us remember the importance of this Easter season and to feel the Easter spirit.

The whole cast

The eggs, the bell, and the bread

And then there was Easter Sunday....a day full of lots of love. After Sacrament meeting, our dear friend, Lada came bearing more gifts,again. (She had given us the ceramic bear last week.) This time she gave us an Easter bell, a special Russian traditional Easter bread, and a carton of onion dyed Easter eggs.  Each of these have an important meaning to Russians.  First the bells.....The many churches here ring their bells often but never have we heard so many as on Easter, starting at 12:20 am. Thank goodness for our white noise machine to help us sleep.  As for the bread....for about a week now, we have noticed tables of a bread type product set up along the streets. We wondered what they were selling and found out Sunday that it was a holy bread. Actually, it isn't holy until you buy it and take into the church so the Priest can sprinkle holy water over it and bless it. Then it is taken home and eaten as part of their Easter meal. We were warned that it didn't taste especially good. One person said it tasted like card board and another said it was like a real weak and very dry raisin bread.  When we tasted ours the next day, we decided it wasn't as bad as people has said, in fact, when we heated it in the microwave it wasn't half bad. Interestingly, the next day, we were given another loaf by some sisters who came over to email home. That particular one was not good at all. Now for the eggs. It is an old Russian tradition to dye eggs in boiled red onion skins. You boil the skins in water for several minutes. Once you let that mixture cool, you place the eggs into it and simmer it all for an hour or so. After the eggs are cooled and oiled, they look like bronze eggs....rather pretty.

The second loaf of bread given to us the next day.

We fed part of it to the pigeons and threw the rest away.

Later Sunday afternoon we traveled the hour on the metro to go to dinner at the Pierson's apartment. They had friends visiting from Arkansas and wanted us to meet them. The ham dinner was delicious and we thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the Toblers....hence the candy bars, for dessert.

LIFE IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

We are amazed how much brighter our attitudes are with warmer weather, green showing on the trees, and longer periods of light. As was mentioned, spring has sprung and the weather has been gorgeous...shirt sleeve weather even though many Russians are still donning their coats and scarves. As for the light...it is now light before 6 in the morning and stays light until about 9 at night. The days will continue to get longer for a few more months.  We love the light and the warmth.

Noticed this in the morning

By late afternoon it looked like this

Just outside our kitchen window we can see, what we think is, an art studio. They are always having exhibitions there and we often see people outside welding pieces of art. Well, Saturday, this art piece (?) caught our eye.  We watched it's progress all day long and, even when we passed it on our way to the church, we couldn't figure out what it was going to be.  We did notice wire forms being covered in what looks like paper mache off to the side of the building so we are thinking these may be going to be used on some sort of float for the May 1st holiday. Only a guess.

On our way to see the Piano Guys, we passed this bench and couldn't resist taking a picture of it. 

We couldn't get anyone of our party to also sit on the bench.

That would have made a much better picture.

THAT'S IT FOR THE WEEK.