-----A GRANDDAUGHTER'S BAPTISM AND A BYU FOOTBALL GAME---------------------------------- WHAT COULD BE BETTER!---------------------------

The highlight of our week was the baptism of our granddaughter, Julia. We were invited, so we attended....via Google Hangout. We are so grateful for modern technology that allowed us to be present at Julia's baptism even though we were a half a world away. We were even able to say the opening and closing prayers from Russia.  

What a wonderful day for our sweet Julia.  We are so proud of you, Julia, for the decision you made on this special day

The BYU football season started three weeks ago and for the first time this year the game was rebroadcast on BYU television on Friday morning this week. Paul could watch it in its entirety and he was in heaven. Much to his dismay, but to my delight, he saw the score before the replay began. He doesn't like to see the score before he watches a game but I was grateful he had. Because of the flow of the game, Paul would have been so distraught and probably would have done a lot of yelling at the TV had he not known the game's outcome. The cougars let down their defenses at the end of the first and second halves to let the score diminish to only an 8 point lead. Paul loves BYU football and is so glad they are 3 and 0 this year. 

The rest of the week was filled with the usual things like shopping, studying, and lesson preparation. We also had a couple of discussions in our home that had a common theme to them.  Amazingly, both sets of elders were suggesting to their investigators that they postpone the dates of their baptisms.  That sounds strange but with Elders Shepherd and Jepsen, they felt like Abel needed a little more time to come to a better understanding of the commitment he was making.  Elders Hoffman and Jones (on splits with St. Clair and Stebbins) felt like they wouldn't have enough time to teach Olig everything they would want to teach him unless they met everyday between now and his baptismal date scheduled for the 27th. We really appreciated the fact that these elders were into the investigator's needs rather then their own baptismal statistics.  Hopefully Olig and Abel will be ready sometime in October.  

Tuesday was district meeting as usual. The sisters came with a large, bright red umbrella. I asked them if they expected rain on this very sun shiny day and they said no but that they needed to return the umbrella to a couple in our ward who had lent it to them. A few days earlier, they got caught, unprepared, in a rainstorm as they were leaving this couple's apartment.  Can you guess that the couple are newlyweds....first hint - a heart shaped umbrella. Darling.


That night we went to an early dinner with the Ropers.  We met them at our metro stop and took them to our favorite pizza place here in our neighborhood - Pronto Pizza.  We had a delightful visit and upon  hearing their story, we realized that our lives have been easy compared to the trials they have faced.  They are so dedicated to be out here on a mission. 

We have a threesome in the office for a while now, 

Elder Ortega, Elder Junes, and Elder Stebbins.

They loved the cookies we brought - pumpkin chocolate chip.

We found frozen pumpkin pieces at the store this week so

I had to experiment with it.

Wednesday we traveled on the metro for an hour in order to check the apartment of our office elders. The last time we were there (last quarter) the apartment was not clean at all. We were pleasantly pleased when we enter the apartment this time to find it spotless.  A different set of elders makes all the difference in how apartments are kept. Later that day our sisters came over to use our computer.  They had presented a power point at MLC last week and now had to tweak it in order to present it to zone conferences in a couple of weeks.  They wanted to get started on it as they knew it was going to take them a several hours before it would be complete.  They returned Sunday afternoon after church for another work session....3 more hours.


Thursday was senior council and our institute lesson. At senior council we watched a talk that Tad Callister gave at a CES broadcast earlier this year. It was entitled 'What is the Blueprint for Christ's Church?'  It is a fantastic talk where Elder Callister outlines the church that Christ established when he walked the earth. He shows how our church today parallels, in every way, Christ's ancient church.  Quite a testimony builder. It was interesting that later that night both Paul and I realized we had had the same impression while listening to the talk...that we needed to send a copy of it to a friend who is struggling with her testimony.  When we got home, Paul immediately found it online in Russian and downloaded it.  We will make sure our friend gets it right away.

Our institute lesson was focused on the first 65 verses of Joseph Smith's history. We entitled it, 'Lessons Learned Through the Restoration.' In those 65 verses we found 14 important principles to discuss. We would read the verse and have the students find which principle applied to the verse. We then discussed each principle as to why it was important and how it could applied to their lives. We felt the spirit was there in the classroom. Attending our class for the past two weeks is a non member who is investigating the church. His name is Renat. He is so dedicated. Every week he comes dressed in a suit and tie and is so eager to participate in class. We told him he already looked like a missionary and he said that someday he hopes he can be one. He is to be baptized at the end of the month.....a choice young man.


Friday afternoon, we met two couples who had just flown into Russia to begin their missions. The Pierson's picked them up at the airport and brought them to our home so we could meet them and then go to lunch together.  The couple's names were Elder and Sister Lowe and Elder and Sister Shumway. They were both called to a CES mission like Paul and me, so the Piersons wanted them to be able to ask questions of us about our responsibilities. The Lowes are staying in the Moscow Mission and will reside in Nichney, a city to the north of Moscow.  The Shumways boarded another plane later Friday night to fly 8 more hours to the Novosibirsk (Siberia) Mission.  We were impressed with their excitement to be here and to begin serving. We had lunch and then walked them to Red Square. We stopped on the bridge just across from the Kremlin to take the picture below. At that point Paul and I left them as we had a missionary discussion scheduled in our home. We loved their continual taking of pictures as we walked. It reminded us of ourselves when we first arrived and everything was so new and so different. This may be the only time these couples will get to see Moscow, so it was good the Piersons could spend time exploring with them in downtown Moscow.

Next to us are the Piersons then the Shumways then the Lowes

Saturday, we woke up not feeling real energetic. We both just wanted to crawl back into bed. We had probably pushed too hard during the week. We stayed inside for the morning, but the day was such a beautiful day, we decided to take a walk. Can you believe we walked back to Red Square...this time to have lunch and buy a some Krispie Cream donuts. It felt good to get out and walk in the beautiful sunshine. 

Note the red orange lacing up the back and

the red orange under netting.  The

groom is carrying her red orange shoes.

 Along the way we saw some fun things like this bride.  We had never seen a dress quite like hers...a beige with red orange trim.  As is the tradition of Russian brides, after their marriage ceremony they take pictures at lots of historical sites.

A strange looking mini van

Check out it rear design

We also went into the GUM department store to see the fall displays - old cars and a watermelon filled fountain

Usually this is a beautiful fountain of water.

For the Fall it is filled with watermelons.

They were selling cups of watermelon pieces 

(about 5 small pieces in each container)

for about $1. 30.  That's making lots of money on each watermelon.

And that was our week...........very rewarding.  We love being missionaries.

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

All above the elevator used

 to be exposed wires. They

have all been covered up.

A very nice change, too.

We think the workers have finally finished the painting and sprucing up of our apartment building. It has made quite an improvement in the looks of it, especially in the entryway.....tile instead of an old rubber mat over concrete and new paint make so much difference. Now, we just hope someone has been assigned to keep it clean.  Already there has been paint tracked in on the tile floor and it has yet to be cleaned up.  

The Shumways  intently watching
as the artist creates his masterpiece

When we were with the two new couples walking to Red Square we came across this artist.  He was painting St. Basil and the Kremlin, a popular subject for many artists. We were all intrigued watching him paint one of our favorite sites in Moscow.

On Sunday, Paul had kind of lost his voice due to the cold he was just getting over. His friend, Vladimir, came up to him and told him he probably lost his voice because he drank too much cold water.  Their traditions about anything cold run deep within our Russian friends.  We had a good laugh with him.

HEAD COLDS ARE GONE....BUT COLDER WEATHER IS HERE