DINNER FOR 75 HUNGRY MISSIONARIES HEADS OUR WEEK

The room all set and awaiting

the hungry missionaries

A couple of weeks ago, Sister Borders, our mission president's wife, called and asked if I would plan a lunch for the Moscow missionaries to eat during the mission meeting with President Bennett of the Area Presidency. It was to be on Tuesday, the 22nd, and would be in place of our district meeting for the week. It was determined there would be about 75 to feed, but we both agreed that we should plan for 100. She said she would help but wanted me to plan what we would have and make food assignments to her and to the other senior couples. We decided to do the tried and tested soft tacos with refried beans and spiced hamburger. That meal is always a big hit with the missionaries and is relatively easy to pull off for a large group. Along with the tacos, we served watermelon wedges; and the senior couples brought brownies for dessert. Since she has access to a car, Sister Borders did the majority of the shopping which is the biggest headache when cooking for that size of a group. With no car, everything has to be carried from the stores by hand. We were grateful we only had to buy the tortillas, lettuce, and the ingredients for the beans. The food buffet consisted of both hard shells (75) and soft tortillas (115), a large crock pot of refried beans, two large crock pots of spiced hamburger, cheese (10 pounds), lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream and salsa.......and it was all eaten.  We had some mighty hungry missionaries and they were thrilled when we announced they could have seconds.....and thirds for some. We were so grateful for the senior couples who came to help us set up, serve and clean up. 

The senior sisters waiting to

start serving

The buffet line starting

with Sister Borders

Two of our favorite sisters - Sisters Shepherd and Taylor

with their plates full.

Elder Crawford and his family, who came to pick him up when

he was released from his mission a couple of weeks ago.

They dropped by the building just as we finished up lunch

to eat their own lunch before going out for more sight seeing.

The meal was great but the meeting with President Bennett was wonderful. The missionaries were challenged to contact more on their way to appointments and to issue more baptismal invitations to their investigators.  Everyone left with a renewed commitment to work a little harder to help hasten the Lord's work here in Russia. These missionaries are such choice young men and young women and only want to serve the Lord.

We had a great experience right after the mission meeting.  Elder Eliason and Elder Melchor asked if we would sit in on a discussion with Damian.  He had called the AP's the night before asking where he could find the church. They gave him directions and he walked in just as our meeting was getting over. He was very eager to learn about our church. It seems he has spent the last 5 years in New Zealand and loved the church he was attending there.  He said the people were happy even in the face of much hardship. Upon returning to Moscow, he didn't like what he found in the churches here as everyone seemed sad. He was talking with a friend who had met with the missionaries some time ago. This friend just happened to have the missionaries' phone number on a card in his wallet and gave it to Damian, telling him that he may like what our church could offer him. He called that number and got the AP's the night before. As we met, Damian kept saying that God must have directed him here. We think so, too. Miracle one is that the friend still had the phone number in his wallet. Miracle two is that he dropped by the church just as our meeting was dismissing. The discussion went very well.  He readily accepted a Book of Mormon and committed to read it and pray about it. He loved the idea of how, in our church, families are number one.  He loves his little boy and and wants him to be brought up as a kind and loving Christian.  We were so glad we had the opportunity of meeting with him.

The completed pizzas for Thursday night

Wednesday was a lesson prep day and a day to bake the crusts for three kinds of pizzas - a vegetable pizza, a fruit pizza and two cookie pizzas.  This was in preparation for our celebration of the end of our Institute and Pathway semesters.  In the evening, I went to English group while Paul served as a proctor for a former Pathway student, Konstantin, as he took an exam from BYU Idaho. Konstantin is working hard in his on line schooling and was just called to be the Branch President of the University Branch.  Paul was glad he could help.

Our third semester English cohort.

From left to right:Margarita, Vladimir, Andrey, Lada,

 Sasha, Vlad, Lyudmila, and Victoria.

Thursday was another milestone - our third semester of Institute and Pathway is over. Our 8 students in the English class completed their year of Pathway and are now ready to matriculate into the regular courses offered at BYU-Idaho as they pursue a college degree. We will miss them terribly as we have been with this particular group since we arrived a year ago. The whole class got A's in English writing and that was because they were so willing to help each other improve their skills. Everyone enjoyed the pizzas we brought to celebrate the semester's end.  We won't start up again until into September.

After class, Lada came to our home to visit with us for an hour before her train left for Ryazan. Her mom lives there so she was going for a visit to take care of some business. She was taking the midnight train as she had to be there for an appointment in the morning. We could not allow her to hang out at the train station for an hour and a half so we insisted she come and spend the time at our home. She was excited to come and we had a wonderful visit. She shared her story with us. Her mom was married for only six months to her Dad, whom Lada never knew. Her mom, then, married a childhood sweetheart.  When Lada was about 6 years old, her new dad was killed. They have never found out what happened. He just didn't return home from work one day and, several months later, they found record of his death (cause of death unknown), and his burial (by the government).  No one ever even tried to contact them as was the way things were done then.  Her mom has dedicated her whole life to raising Lada and her little brother.  We love Lada....and her mom


Friday was a strange day.  We had no study deadlines, no missionaries scheduled to come over for a discussion, and no activities with our young singles as they are all at a conference.  We felt a little out of it with nothing pressing that had to be done. We filled our day by cleaning out our office, throwing away lesson materials we won't use again, and organizing materials on all our shelves. The bathrooms also got a thorough cleaning. This is the beginning of a Spring cleaning of our whole apartment. It will be nice to have a little time to focus on that. 
In the afternoon, we decide to travel to Arbat street to see if the Wendy's there still had the Baja salad. We were so surprised to see that Wendy's on Arbat street was not there anymore. That happens a lot in Moscow......businesses come and go but we were surprised that a Wendy's had gone out of business.  We ended up at Shake Shack (much to my delight) for a hamburger. After lunch, we just had to try the new Tutti Fruiti shop that opened up across the street from Shake Shack.  Yummy frozen yogurt....a new taste for Russians, we think.  As we were eating our yogurt, we watched this man and his snake cause quite an excitement for the people passing by.  A little creepy but the children were enthralled.

It was back to Ismylova market for a few more gifts on Saturday. We feel pressured to buy as many as was can before Todd and Kailee arrive.  While we were at Evonne's booth we ran into the Hays.  They were buying a Matruska doll for themselves.  We walked out with them after making our purchases and went to KFC for lunch together. They have it real rough....in August they will be taking a trip to Rome, Italy for some training in Self Reliance which falls under their responsibilities. We sure wish we could tag along....but then we were able to go to Turkey so we can't complain.

Dennis and Clarine Hays

We ended our afternoon by beginning to study for the new course we will be teaching in Institute come September 4. We are excited to be teaching the Doctrine and Covenants course of study. We have loved our in-depth study of the Book of Mormon and look forward to doing the same kind of thorough study of the Doctrine and Covenants. Our concern is that our Russian counterpart teacher will be teaching the same lesson (in Russian) on Tuesday that we will be teaching in English on Thursday. We wonder if anyone will come to a class taught in English when they can hear the same lesson taught in their native language.  We will see.....it could be an interesting semester.

Here are the ones who were baptized and those who baptized them.

The brother on the end on the right is Peirro, who

was baptized only a few weeks ago, and is now

ready to baptize his friend.

We attended a triple baptism on Sunday at the International ward. They are baptizing like crazy. The background of many of these people, from Africa especially, is Christian so they readily accept our Christ centered doctrine. In Russia, for many decades, there was an attempt to wipe out any form of Christianity so many of the Russian people here have no background founded in Christ unless they were taught in their homes. Religious worship was forbidden in the Soviet times. 


The baptism we especially went down to see was Neen's. He has been in our home for a couple of discussions and has attended our English group in the past. He is a wonderful young man. We just learned on Sunday that he had never prayed until he met the missionaries.  When trying to explain what happens when he prays now, he said it is like I am outside in the sunshine even though I am in my dark room. Right on!  It was a truly international baptism.....the opening prayer was in Spanish, the talk in English, one baptism in French, one in English, and one in Spanish.  The closing prayer was in French. Quite a special experience.  Neen is so excited about the great change that has come into his life.

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

Thursday, we heard of another interesting superstition....this one about pregnant women.  We ran into Dorina, a girl from our ward who is pregnant.  I commented on how beautiful she looked and that she made a darling expectant mom.  She was thrilled when I told her.  She then told us of the Russian thinking that if the child a woman is carrying is a girl she will steal the mom's beauty.  If it is a boy, he will steal the mom's intelligence.  Dorina is carrying a girl so was thrilled that her beauty hadn't been stolen yet.  Interesting.  Dorina was surprised when I told her I had never heard of that idea before in America.

We have noticed that most everywhere we go we see metal fences and curbing painted yellow and green. We wonder if the city gets a deal on yellow and green paint or if there is some significance to the colors.

.....AND SO WE HAVE THE END OF ANOTHER WEEK AND

OF ANOTHER SEMESTER OF INSTITUTE AND PATHWAY......