START WITH A RIVER CRUISE AND END WITH A SPECIAL BAPTISM ..................... AND YOU HAVE ANOTHER WONDERFUL WEEK ...................

Once again we have had a wonderful week.  It all started on Monday. After studying and shopping, we took the metro to Gorky Park where we met the Hays and two couples with whom they used to work. The two couples were visiting the Hays and seeing the sites of Moscow. First, on their agenda, was a river cruise on the Moscow River. It is a wonderful way to get a glimpse of Moscow, giving the passengers spectacular views of many of the famous sites of Moscow. We joined them as we had never experienced the cruise and it was on our list of things to do before we leave. It was a two and a half hour cruise and very much worth the time and money. We enjoyed getting to know the other two couples, too.

Inside the boat

A special lemonade - green?

On the river

A statue sitting

along the river.

One of four of the 'Seven Sister' buildings we saw

River view of the Christ Our Savior cathedral

Paul enjoying the sites and

the cool breeze.  It was mighty

warm inside the boat.

Looking at the wall of the Kremlin

The Grand Kremlin Palace 

The tops of two of the four cathedrals

inside the walls of the Kremlin

Dessert - cookie pizzas

Taco salad lunch

Tuesday was district meeting. We welcomed three new elders. It is such a small world in the church. One of the new elders, Elder Johnson, is a native of Heber City. In fact, he is a good friend with our next door neighbor, Parker Davis. They played basketball together and Parker's Dad, our friend Mitch, coached them in summer ball. Elder Johnson is our new assistant to the president. We are totally impressed with his abilities and spirit. We are also impressed with our new district leader, Elder Hoffman. He has only been in the mission field since October and speaks Russian well enough already to translate for us at church. He was a district leader before joining us, plays the piano and has an incredibly beautiful singing voice. We look forward to getting to know Elder Jones, too. He is now working in the office with Elder Welch. We are amazed how quickly these missionaries become friends. As we listened to the conversation before and after lunch, one would have thought these 8 missionaries had been friends forever. 

Elder Johnson

Elder Jones

Elder Hoffman on the left 

Wednesday was a perfect missionary day. It went like this - prepping our lesson for Institute, getting ready for Pathway, and then studying the scriptures for Friday's seminary lesson with Isaac. This was followed by the International ward sisters coming by to Skype with an investigator and the international ward elders bringing Justin over for a discussion. After a quick dinner, our elders, Hoffman and Knight, dropped by to talk about some ward stats. The day ended with us completing the YSA newsletter, working on Pathway, and finishing our studies for Isaac.....and we never left the house.  A very productive and good day.

Justin and Elders Burton and Shepherd.

Chris Hopkinson, on the left, is a high school senior

out with the missionaries for the day.

At senior council, on Thursday, Brother Belnap, who is head of the legal department here, talked to us about a unique experience he had living in the New York City Stake. He was the stake president at the time the Manhattan temple was being planned and built. He had to keep the secret, even from his wife, that the brethren were considering a temple in Manhattan for over a year. A most interesting story. We always have to leave senior council early to teach our institute class so we didn't get to hear the whole story, but what we heard helped us understand the process of the brethren in determining temple sites.  

Our institute lesson was from 3 Nephi and the coming of Christ to the Americas after His resurrection. We talked about all the destruction before his coming because of the wickedness of the people and then about his glorious coming. As we played the song 'We Heard Him Come', Paul read the account of his coming down from heaven. It was quite effective.  In fact, one of our students, Margarita, came up afterwards and said, "When you teach, it is like the Savior is right here in the room with us."  We told her that was the greatest compliment she could give us because that meant that we had invited the spirit into the classroom to be the teacher....our goal for every lesson.

Friday was a fun day. In the morning the international sisters came by to Skype with Gessell, a new member.  When they left we hurried off for a lunch with the Jensen's, a couple on vacation here from Arizona. We met them Sunday at church and hit it off instantly.  We told them about serving here in Moscow and our assignment responsibilities. They said they had been thinking it was about time for them to start considering serving a mission. We encouraged them to do so and, if they wanted, we could let the powers to be here know they were interesting in taking our place when we leave in January. We exchanged emails and Thursday night they contacted us and wanted to meet for lunch. We talked some more at lunch about serving a mission in Moscow. They said they would keep in touch with us.  Wouldn't that be incredible if they truly replaced us. We are so afraid we won't have someone to take over our responsibilities with the young single adults when we leave. That would be so sad as we do feel like we are needed here.

This is where we need to put in a plug for senior couples to serve in Russia. Many are called to serve here but many refuse.  We are in desperate need of couples in the Russia Moscow mission. Seven couples are leaving by the end of the summer and only two will be replaced. That is so sad for the missionaries and the saints here.  If you are thinking about serving a mission....think about the wonderful opportunity of serving here with these wonderful people. A mission is a life altering experience - we have always had a testimony of our Savior and His gospel, but never before have we felt His influence in our lives so completely. As we taught our seminary student this week, our feelings were put into words we have tried to express. Mormon is lamenting what the Nephites could have had if they had remained faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He said the Nephites could have been 'clasped in the arms of their Savior'. We have felt 'clasped in His arms' for the 11 months we have been serving this mission. It's an incredible feeling.

Now for the end of our week........

Ira and Timur.  The flowers

were from Timur.

Saturday morning, we had the privilege of attending a very special baptism. The beautiful sister's name is Ira and she is the wife of a member of our ward.  He was Muslim but joined the church a few years back. His wife, a Muslim, started taking the lessons a few weeks ago and readily accepted all she was taught. She does not speak Russian, only her native tongue of Uzbek. The sisters would teach in Russian and her husband would translate so she could understand the gospel message. Her baptism was amazing. Mohammad, a young single adult who is also a converted Muslim, gave the talk on baptism. He would first say a sentence in Russian and then say it in her language so she could understand what he was saying. Her husband's cousin, Timur, baptized her. He was in our Pathway program and it was his cousin's father that introduced him to the gospel. The elders sang hymns while the participants were changing and the sisters gave a combined talk on confirmation. After the bishop's welcome, her husband and Timur bore their testimonies. Such a spiritual experience. Sunday, Ira was confirmed. The bishop said the confirmation prayer in Russian and the husband translated it for Ira, again so she would know the blessings promised her. A special experience, for sure.

Our elders singing after the baptism

Doing the Chicken Dance

Besides the baptism on Saturday, we also went to a ward couple's party in the late afternoon. It was a dance and was very well planned. One of our young singles was the DJ and another one was the director of activities. Beside introducing many different kinds of dances for us to do (ie the Charleston, the chicken, etc,), he had us playing a fun dance game. We had to dance with a DVD case held between us in some location on our bodies. He would call out head and we would dance with the case held between our heads. Each part of the body was called out (arms, hips, chests, etc.) until all had dropped the DVD case but one couple. We were disqualified on the back to back position. It was fun. 

Blowing beans

through a straw to

hit a target on the wall.

This YSA returned

from his mission

to England yesterday

We left the dance early to go home and change for a YSA activity. At the last minute it was changed from being at a park to the institute room due to rain. There were 35 to 40 in attendance and all seemed to have a good time.  The night was an Olympic sports theme so the group was divided into two teams.  Each team had to decide a country name, flag, language, and anthem. After presenting their countries they competed in a couple of team relay type games to determine a winner. They ended the evening singing songs with their favorite guitar player. A good evening but we were tired when we finally got home for dinner at 10:30 at night.

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

Interesting art work

More art?

From the back windows of our apartment, we overlook three buildings.  We have come to discover that it is an art type community. One building is a dance studio, one is a music hall where many concerts are performed on weekends, and one is an art studio which opens its door for exhibitions occasionally. It is interesting to watch the many people coming and going from these buildings. These buildings have the same address as our apartment building. Too often someone trying to find our apartment building goes back to those buildings first.

People waiting outside during an intermission at a Friday night concert

We have mentioned the pigeons on our window sill before. We have made an interesting observation lately. The pigeon who lands on our sill first and begins to eat the crumbs we have put out becomes very protective of the area, chasing off other pigeons that lands anywhere close by. The pigeon, though, does not seem to feel threatened by a smaller bird. Often they eat side by side.

AND THAT DOES IT FOR ANOTHER WEEK