NEW MISSION POLICY - NO MORE LUNCHES FOR MISSIONARIES AT DISTRICT MEETINGS.......SO SAD!

We've known it was coming but when it finally did we were very sad.  At transfer meeting this week it was announced that the senior couples were no longer to feed the missionaries lunch before district meetings.  We are not even to provide a treat for them after the meeting....no food prepared for them at all. The nuts and candies we keep on the coffee table are still okay, according to Pres. Borders. We have been told that this is a policy coming from the mission department in Salt Lake. Our friends who were serving in Norway, until this last month, said their mission president also had put an end to their feeding the missionaries. We have certainly enjoyed feeding our missionaries, but we will be obedient.  We are so glad we have had 13 months of being able to do spoil our district missionaries a little. 

Table all ready for our guests.

Chicken Parmesan over angel hair

was the main course.....

Elder Genys' favorite

Our president did say we could have missionaries into our home to help build relationships in the ward or with new members or investigators. We jumped right on that suggestion. On Sunday, we had Raymond,(a friend from France), Manoko (an new member who speaks French), and Elders Genys and Denkers (who work with the French speaking investigators) over for dinner. We have been wanting to have Raymond over for dinner since we met him several months ago while he was waiting for his family to join him in Moscow.

Elder Denkers, Raymond, Manoko, and Elder Genys

This Sunday seemed like a good time to do it as his family is back in France for a few weeks. He has been invaluable to the elders in the International ward by sitting in on lessons to translate for French speaking investigators. It was a great evening.....dinner, then a new member discussion with Manoko, translated by Raymond, of course. 

We got a kick out of Elder Genys.  When Paul put on

his apron before eating, Genys wanted one too. 

They were both sure they would get tomato sauce on their white shirts.  The only other apron we have was the one I received from Sister Tolbert's mom last week. 

Looking cute, Elder!

It is not as if the cooking let up too much this week, though. A few of the senior couples agreed to feed the incoming missionaries on Tuesday at the mission office. Sister Borders usually makes this meal but she is in America for a daughter's wedding. We did a chicken pasta salad, vegetables and dip, rolls, and brownies. Paul traveled up to the mission office with me to help, for which I was very grateful. I hate traveling on the metro alone for that long of a trip...1 hour. The new missionaries had come directly from the airport after a long flight from America. They were all so excited to finally be in Russia, though a little tired. They will be a great addition to the mission as we lost 8 missionaries who returned home this week, having completed their missions.

The new elders and sisters....fresh from their 6 week MTC experience

Sister Miller, Sister King, Emaline, and Marsilene

Wednesday was transfer day.  Before the meeting I baked cookies for English group and experimented with a barbecue pork for another lunch up at the mission office in a couple of weeks. At noon, Sisters King and Miller brought Emaline, an investigator, and Marsilene, a ward member, over for a discussion. It was a wonderful discussion as Emaline could accept everything about the plan of salvation and Jesus Christ. We were so impressed with Sister King. She was one of the sisters going home and yet she was working right up to the 2:00 transfer meeting.  An amazing missionary.

Elder Marks and Sister Hunter

getting ready to bear their

last testimony as missionaries

Transfer meeting was great. We said good bye to three of our very special missionaries....Sister Hunter and Elder Marks...and of course, Sister King.  Sister King never served in our district but we saw her more often then we did our own sisters as she was always bringing her investigators to our home. The testimonies of all the outgoing missionaries were very touching. They were all tremendous missionaries and will be missed. Thank goodness for new elders and sisters coming in to replace them. We are becoming a very young mission, but these young men and women are really stepping it up to keep our mission successful.

With Sister King at our home on her last day

We love Elder Marks

Sister Hunter will be missed

Paul found this notation from Sister King on his calendar

when he turned to the next day's cartoon.  It says,

"End of the world....Sister Hunter goes home!"

These missionaries love their missions and have a hard time leaving.

Wednesday night, we attended the last of our eight week long English group. We will begin again mid September and that will be our last set of English group meetings before we go home. That's hard to believe. We have come to really enjoy these Wednesday nights with our Russian friends.....and several have truly become dear friends.

The rest of the week included an apartment check for our sisters, a skype meeting with the International district leader, senior council, administering another English Proficiency Test, a district meetings (without food), game night, a skype discussion, and looking for green peppers!  Regarding green peppers......they are in short supply. We have been looking for them because we need them for the meal we are fixing next Saturday for the Institute opening.  We checked all the local stores around us with no luck. Saturday we decided to check a large market that specializes in fruits and vegetables but still had no luck. That afternoon, we got a call from Elder Pierson who told us he had found green peppers in a store up north. He bought 10 for us. Thank you Elder Pierson.


We think the embargo is taking its toll on the supply of vegetables. We haven't found broccoli or iceberg lettuce for at least two weeks now. Saturday, we found one head of iceberg lettuce at the little renok across the street from us and paid 250 rubles for it (about $8.00). It is the most cherished item in our refrigerator right now.

We were glad that our landlady's

friend, Frank, could come with

the repair man as he speaks

English and could interpret what

the repairman was saying.

Saturday morning was the discussion on Skype. It was with an investigator that lives way outside the city. The elders were teaching about the word of wisdom so once again Paul was able to bear his testimony about observing the word of wisdom. Then, after shopping for green peppers, the air conditioner repair man came by and fixed our unit....just in time for the cooler weather. It's supposed to be in the 60's all next week. At least it is ready for the couple who is replacing us. They will need it during the summer months, for sure.  Just as the repair man was finishing up, Sasha came by our apartment to talk about Pathway.  He has been on the fence as to whether he could do it. We were glad when he decided to apply and now has a date to take the English test. We are getting so close to our 10 minimum but the deadline in almost here.


We have had some miracles as we have tried to form a new cohort for this semester of Pathway. Sasha was sitting on the couch in the foyer waiting for his church to start. I started talking to him because he spoke great English. I felt impressed to ask him if he would be interested in taking Pathway. He said he was but hadn't known who to contact. We have had two missionaries email us, out of the blue, expressing interest, as well as a girl returning from living in America. We keep praying and the Lord keeps hearing. Sunday we attended the International Ward so we could announce our YSA Institute opening social and push Pathway and our English Institute class. By the end of the meeting block, Paul had two more potential students make appointments to apply to Pathway. Hopefully it will all work out. We have plenty of applicants but now they just have to pass the English test and register. We'll keep praying.

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

Our street being dug up

We think there must be a big push to repave the streets in Moscow. Everywhere we walk around our apartment, the roads are under construction. They started on ours this week.  Now that it's done it looks great as does the main street a block away from us. They have done a marvelous job improving that whole area.....wide sidewalks, one way road, street lights, and newly painted fronts on most of the buildings. It is so much nicer to walk down that street than it used to be.  Someone said they are getting ready for the World Cup to be held here in 2018....that's what you could say is planning ahead.

Note how wide the sidewalk is that

these people are dancing on.  It

used to be less than half as wide.

 

As we walked the new and improved street the other day, we noticed large white tents along the street and wondered for what they were going to be used. As we were coming back from game night on Friday, we heard music coming from that direction and walked over to check it out. There was a group of dancers and singers in some kind of native dress.  We were not sure what country or region they were representing but we did enjoy watching them perform for a few minutes.

We returned to that same street the next day thinking we could see more dancing. The tents were down but ping pong tables were being put up everywhere.  As we monitored the days activities, we heard music and announcements coming from around our metro stop. There were lots of people playing ping pong and eating Baskin and Robbins ice cream.  We later found out that it was a ping pong street tournament with a couple of world ping pong champions signing autographs and playing ping pong with the people.  It looked like lots of fun and continued into Sunday. Obviously the newly completed street was closed off to traffic and the road became a walking plaza for the many people milling about.  Saturday evening, we sat on a bench in a nearby park and enjoyed just talking and watching people pass by.

The beautiful new street and sidewalks. 

Quite an improvement.

What we could see as we

sat in the park close to our home

THE END OF ANOTHER WEEK.

TIRED BUT HAPPY!