FOOD PRICES RISING - SOME FOOD ITEMS BECOMING SCARCE

Stocked up on peanut

butter as we think this

will be in short supply too.

We have come to the conclusion that it probably is a good thing we are no longer feeding our missionaries at district meeting. Food prices are rising but the more difficult thing is the disappearing food supply of certain items, ie: cheeses, butter, green and red peppers, broccoli, lettuce, celery and many other things. Paul and I will be okay but it might become more and more difficult to make the meals we love to make for our elder and sisters. These last few months of our mission might become very interesting. We are hoping that the suppliers will find new sources of the foods that are under embargo from the west. 

With all that, we must share a couple of food miracles. Last week we reported about the miraculous find of the green peppers we needed for an upcoming dinner of Sloppy Joes for a YSA activity. Well, this week we needed celery for a mission leadership meeting for which we were planning to make barbecue pork sandwiches. We hadn't seen celery in the produce department for three weeks. In our morning prayers, I prayed that we would be able to find the food necessary to cook these two dinners. We walked into Ashan's and Paul immediately spotted celery. Of course, we bought what we would need and a little extra for ourselves.....and we haven't seen celery since. 

The next miracle happened when we went up to Metropolis Mall to find a barbecue sauce for the pork. I had experimented with a local brand and it tasted okay so we were up there to buy more.  We walked into Stockman's department store and right there, on the first shelf we passed, was Bulleye's Original barbecue sauce, straight from America. We have never seen that here before. That is the exact barbecue sauce the recipe calls for. We couldn't believe our eyes. It will be so much better than the local sauce we were coming up to the mall to buy....quite an amazing miracle.

Speaking of food, this week has been a marathon of food preparation......2 dinners in our home, 1 dinner for the young singles (food for 70), and snacks for a movie night, a baptism, and a dance. So much for less cooking. We'll begin with the two dinners.

Elder Stebbens, right, joined our district last week.  This

was the one and only meal we will be able to feed him.

Monday we talked to President Borders and he said he had not sent out a letter to the senior couples about not feeding the missionaries so we could continue feeding them until September 1. With that, and to make up for not feeding them at Friday's district meeting, we invited them to our home for potato soup after a zone training meeting on Tuesday. Of course, the missionaries were thrilled and we loved serving them one more time. President Borders, who was at the zone meeting, joined us for lunch in our apartment. It was nice for him to see how obedient and focused our missionaries are. The conversation before and during lunch was missionary centered and then everyone left within the hour to go back out on the streets. We are so proud of our district.

Chicken enchilada served for dinner.

Cream puffs for dessert.

Wednesday we had Elders Hoffman and St. Clare and their investigator, Dema, over for an early dinner.  Dema was being baptized on Saturday and we had not had a chance to get to know him. The elders wanted us to have a chance to tell Dema about the YSA program and institute. We invited him to come to the opening social for institute on Saturday and he agreed to come.  It will be so good for him to meet other church members who are his age and to see what a good time they have together.

Saturday evening was the dinner for 70 (prepared for 70-served about 55). It was for the YSA Institute opening social. We had spent Thursday at the store shopping and then on Friday, spent the morning making the Sloppy Joe meat mixture for Saturday. Because we are studying the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History, the theme for the event was a pioneer theme and so, for dinner, we went with a western type meal....it was either Sloppy Joes or chili or pulled pork. The YSA chose Sloppy Joes so that's what we made.  Saturday evening began with dinner. The Sloppy Joes were a big hit even though many had never tried them before. Potato chips, vegetables and dip, and watermelon wedges completed the buffet table.  We were so grateful for the Piersons and the Pollards for their help in setting up and serving the dinner.

Luba and our Stake President

The Map

After dinner, those in attendance were divided into 5 groups representing 5 different countries from which the early pioneer saints had immigrated. Each group was given a map to Salt Lake City, Utah with 6 stops along the way.  At each stop a pioneer type activity was completed. At one stop the group got to know each other while shaking cream into butter.  At another stop the group had to successfully get their whole group across a river with limited stepping stones. A pioneer quiz and a stick pulling contest were in two other stops and pioneer type races in a fifth.  Our stop was learning the Virginia Reel. We only had 10 minutes per group to teach it but most of the groups picked it up very quickly. Our dear Sasha (the newly called YSA president) stayed with us to interpret what we were saying and helped me demonstrate the dance steps. Paul was in charge of playing the music. The young people loved learning the Virginia Reel and, at the dance that followed the evening's activities, they performed it all together in two large groups. 
After all the 6 activities were completed, the groups returned to the multi-purpose room, representing Salt Lake City (note the rocky mountains in the background of the picture.) We were treated to a beautiful rendition of Come, Come Ye Saints sung in Russian by 4 talented young singles.  It set the perfect spirit for our coordinator's introduction to this year's course of study and a talk by our Stake President. The dance followed this. Lots of laughter and an abundance of smiles were evident throughout the evening. It was such a great event. We are so impressed with our young singles.  They really know how to pull off an fun activity with the whole committee working together to make it successful. 

The stick pull

One of 5 groups learning the

Virginia Reel

Sasha in her darling make-shift pioneer costume

Paul enjoying his job of playing the music

At the end of the evening before turning down the lights for a dance

Now for the snacks.......
We held a movie night at our senior council meeting on Thursday evening.  Paul and I were in charge of the evening and decided to show the movie, 'The Other Side of Heaven,' the story of Elder Groberg's mission experiences while serving in Tonga back in the late 50's. Of course, we couldn't have a movie night without popcorn and snacks. We did two different kinds of popcorn, cut up vegetables, and pop.  The evening was really a fun one....a good change from our usual format of listening to a speaker.  The movie helped us all appreciate where we have been called to serve our mission...no hurricanes, no rats that eat the bottoms of your feet, no starvation, or no extreme heat.  We came to the conclusion, as did Elder Groberg, that serving a mission means coming to love the people you serve no matter where that might be and that when we are called to go home it will be bittersweet.  

We celebrated Elder Burgener's birthday after the movie.

On Saturday morning we attended Dema's baptism. What a beautiful affair. Through translation, we truly felt the spirit of the talks and testimonies. Dema bore his testimony and talked about how he had never experienced such happiness as he did each time he was taught by the elders. A great day in his life.  There are always treats served after a baptism so that is where the second snack of the week came in. We took gooey rice krispie treats chucked full of M&M's and chocolate chips. They were gone in minutes. Our bishop especially enjoyed them.  

We had to race home to get things ready for the YSA Institute opening social and to frost the marshmallow brownies we had promised to bring for treats for the dance following the social. Artur was especially grateful we brought them as they are his favorite.

Believe it or not, there were other happenings during the week that did not involve food such as........on Tuesday

It was a busy day. After zone training and lunch with our district, Paul took off to go home teaching.  His favorite little boy, Timothy, was back from his grandma's home so Paul got a chance to be with him and his parents.  Timothy reminds us of our grandson, Nathan...about the same age, blondish hair and a darling smile.  Paul came home just in time for us to go to the church for our final meeting with the YSA council before the event on Saturday. We taught the committee the Virginia Reel so they would know how to do it before Saturday.  Most of them would be conducting other activities so they would not be able to learn it that night. As we left, we were pretty confident the evening on Saturday would be successful due to the efforts of great committee members.

Wednesday brought with it the incredible miracle of Velma.  She is from the Philippines and came to our home with the International sisters.  It was her first discussion and it was amazing. She said she had been praying that she might find the true church and then she met the sisters on the metro.  She said that she has been going to different churches every Sunday but always feels empty when she leaves. She asked if she could come to our church on Sunday, committed to read the Book of Mormon, and to be baptized as soon as she knew this was all true.  She said she felt so happy after the discussion....like her heart had been filled and was no longer empty. According to the sisters, she did go to church on Sunday and loved it.

Can you see the 'Y' on the tallest mountain?

These mountains are representing the Rocky

mountains in Utah.

We have been so impressed with the YSA committee. On both Thursday and Friday nights they were at the church working on decorations and rehearsing some musical numbers for Saturday. Such dedication.  We were there both nights for different reasons...Senior council on Thursday and game night on Friday. The sisters from Rechnoy Ward brought an investigator to game night. After working a puzzle for a little while, they asked if I would sit in on a discussion with them.  It is always our pleasure to be a part of a missionary discussion. It was a first discussion as the sisters had just met this young woman on the street. They taught her about the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon.  I was glad I was there as she asked a couple of questions I could answer a little better than the sisters. They were grateful.

Drawing a picture of the

Salt Lake Temple

Sasha and Masha

We were very glad when Sunday came around so we could go to church and come home and relax.....a little at least.

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

We see this man on his bicycle most every day. He rides around and around our metro station. That is a better job then walking around the metro station carrying advertisement boards strapped over your shoulders, hanging in both the front and the back. I think they call them sandwich boards and there are always many people doing that as a job.

We are in the middle of a remodel to the inside of our building.  It really needed to be updated.  They are painting walls and laying tile on the floor in the entryway.  It's a bit of a mess and our apartment is full a construction dust but it will be a good change when it is all done.

Now for Russia's mosquitoes....they have been a real pest this summer. In the heat, we had to keep our windows open (especially when our air conditioner wasn't working) so they would come into the apartment.  Paul was their target.  He got bit more often than I did. (Andrea even got a few when she was here.)  One night Paul was getting bitten so badly he decided to put aftershave all over his body to see if that would repel them. (We didn't have any mosquito repellent.)  He came back to bed reeking of aftershave and soon realized it attracted the mosquitoes instead of repelling them.  He was up quickly to take a shower in the middle of the night.  We have purchased some 'Off' mosquito repellent since then.  Hopefully the colder air outside will decrease their presence soon.

THAT'S IT FOR ANOTHER WEEK