STARTING THE PACKING PROCESS............A SURREAL EXPEREINCE

Because things are getting so busy and will continue that way until we leave, we decided to start packing some of our things. Saturday, we filled one suitcase with summer clothes and gifts for the family and started filling another one with other things we will not need in the next three weeks. We were anxious to see how much we could get in the suitcase with the gifts and were pleasantly surprised that we had room for most all of our summer clothes. We were grateful we had borrowed a luggage scale from a senior couple as now we can be pretty exact in the weight of our bags before we get to the airport. We are having a hard time believing our mission is really coming to an end but beginning the packing process is making it a reality.  

Frozen pumpkin resulted in this pie

Saturday, we packed more than suitcases, as we also packed a lot of things into our day. In the morning, we studied for Institute and, as Paul was working on the computer, I baked pies for Thanksgiving dinner we will have with our district next week.  Last year, to make a pumpkin pie I had to find half of a pumpkin and bake it down so the pulp could be pureed for a pie. Much to my delight, this year, we found frozen pumpkin pieces so all I had to do was steam them for a short time and then puree them. Much easier. There is no such thing a canned pumpkin here.  

One last picture in front of St. Basil

When the pies were done, we walked to Red Square, possibly for the last time, at least until our replacements get here. We needed the exercise and wanted to take a couple more pictures there. After taking the pictures, we had lunch at our favorite pizza place and then went in search of some baking potatoes for the district dinner. The stores where we shop often don't have good potatoes but we figured the expensive Goom's grocery store would.....not! Their potatoes didn't look any better than the ones at our local little store. We ended up finding some decent bakers at the fruit stand across the street from us. Because turkeys are not real easy to find, and if you find them they are upwards to $50 for a very small one, we are going to do cordon bleu. A baked potato will be just right to side the chicken.

Our night ended with us getting dressed for a missionary discussion with the International elders. The elders waited at the metro for over an hour for their investigator who supposedly got lost and never came.  So sad.

Monday, our week started out with Paul tearing our kitchen faucet apart to try and find out how to fix a leak. He bought a package of o-rings at the store but they were all the wrong size. He ended up having to call a plummer. We think it must be time for us to leave as in the last few weeks we have had to replace the shower head, the shower curtain rod and now the kitchen faucet. The plumber finally fixed it on Wednesday evening. A whole new faucet had to be installed.

Tuesday, our district meeting was held up at the mission office but we decided not to go all the way up there for it.  We were glad we didn't when we found out that the whole meeting was doing different kinds of role plays (in Russian). Our district leader was very clever, though, when he said that the investigator in each role play had to assume a cartoon character. Everyone said that made the meeting very fun. We spent the time, at home, putting together a DVD of all the pictures we have taken of the YSA activities from the past 17 months.  We will show it to the senior council and our young singles before we leave.

Tateanna's apartment is on the ninth floor.

We loved the bright lime green walls on this floor

of the apartment building.

That evening, I went out visiting teaching. I traveled about 45 minutes up north on the metro, met the sisters and my teaching partner, Tamara, at the metro station. We then boarded a bus for another 10 minute ride, then a 5 minute walk to the apartment of the sister we were visiting. We had a wonderful visit and felt she was grateful that we had come.  She is experiencing some stress in her life and enjoyed talking to us about it. She is trying to sell their apartment, move her mother into a new apartment, and find new apartments for themselves and their divorced daughter. I was so grateful the sisters agreed to met us at the metro and take my partner and me to Tateanna's apartment. We would have had a really hard time finding it on our own, in a strange part of town, and in the dark. When I got home, I told Paul that I hated being out on the town without him. We are very seldom apart and we like it that way.

At English group, on Wednesday, we did the commitment part of the evening and left the participants with two idioms - Mind your P's and Q's and bet your bottom dollar. The Russians were fascinated by these as they are with all the idioms Paul brings to them. Our special karate friend, Karina, attends each week and this week she presented me with a beautiful, hand painted, lacquered glass case. It is so beautiful and depicts a famous Russian fairy tale. Russians are such a giving people.


Our Institute lesson this week was titled, "Be Not Deceived."  It covered D & C Section 50, specifically. We loved teaching this lesson. We used this 'road of life' to show how Satan tries to lure us from the Lord's high road toward eternal life and onto his low road toward destruction. Afterwards, one of the young men came up to Paul and said that he loves all our lessons but that this one was the best. He said he had felt the spirit the whole evening.  


We did two of the four apartment checks this week, one on Wednesday and the other one on Friday. The sisters were involved in their morning studies when we arrived at their apartment. Sister Shepherd was wearing her language study hat. She is such a cute missionary.

The word on the hat spells Russia.  

Packages from home are so important to the missionaries. 

We noticed these pictures and notes on the sister's apartment wall.

They were sent to Sister Peacock from home.

Also on Friday, we took Sasha out to lunch as we do each month as a thank you for helping us pay our rent. This time we went to a restaurant close by that we have been wanting to try. It is a 50's type diner, upstairs in our neighborhood mall. We were so glad we had waited to try it with Sasha because the menus were only in Russian and our waitress didn't speak English. Sasha could read the menu to us and then we could order the food. We had hamburgers and fries, of course.  We ended our day at game night where we visited the evening away with Maxim and Alexey, while working a puzzle.

When we questioned Sasha about his beard, he said

it was a no shave November for him and a couple of other young singles.

This is Elder Cox.  He is new to our district and

is working in the office with Elder Stebbing.

Saturday came and went as described above which brings us to Sunday.  After church, we had a nice surprise when our door bell rang and and found it was four of our elders. We had mentioned that we had baked pumpkin cookies so they came by to try them. They had attended ward choir practice after church and had 3 hours to wait for the start of another choir practice for a stake Christmas choir. These elders live an hour away so there was not time enough to go all the way home between practices.  They ate the cookies and then spent the rest of the 3 hours, in different rooms in our apartment, doing their companionship studying and planning. We had enough of our dinner left over to give each of them a small plate of Parmesan chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, and vegetables. They were very appreciative. They would not be home until almost 8 in the evening and hadn't eaten anything since before leaving for church at 8:30 in the morning. 

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

While walking to the metro from one of our apartment checks this week we noticed this school.  It caught our attention because of the way it was painted......pastel circles on the pinkish beige walls and pink, blue and yellow fencing all around the grounds.  It was so refreshing and in such contrast to the drab grey or tan apartment buildings all over Moscow.



At several of the restaurants where we have eaten, we have noticed these smoking water pipes.  They are real popular here. We think some kind of smoking product is put inside the pipe with heated water. The people inhale and then exhale....like smoking a cigarette.  The only problem is that it steams up that area of the restaurant.  There is a definite odor involved, too.

Resurrection Gate - a replicas of the

original gate to the Red Square.

,

The two pictures I wanted to take, on Saturday, were of Resurrection Gate situated at the entrance of Red Square. I had done some research and found that this gate was torn down by Stalin who wanted to make a wider entrance to Red Square for the Russian troops during their military parades.  The gate was reconstructed in the 90's. On one side is the Icon of St. George slaying the dragon.  He is the patron saint of Moscow. On the other side of the gate is a little church which contains an icon to which many miracles are attributed.  It is a miracle in itself that the church and the icon survived Stalin's massive destruction of any signs of Christianity.

The mosiac on the left represents St. George.

On the right is the tiny church of many miracles.

AND THUS WE ARE ONE WEEK CLOSER

TO LEAVING BEAUTIFUL MOSCOW

YSA CULINARY COOK OFF AND CONCERT TOPS THE WEEK

Once a month the YSA council holds a major activity, usually on the third Saturday. The one for November was held on Saturday and was a fantastic success with upwards to 60 in attendance. The evening consisted of a culinary cook off, followed by a concert with our YSA band (see advertising posters). At 5:30, the participants were divided into three cooking teams - one to assemble and cook the borscht soup, one to put together the chicken Caesar salad, and one to make brownies and a layered pudding dessert. As each team was putting the final preparations on their creations, a fun, get acquainted game was played. Dinner was then served and all enjoyed what had been prepared.  
It was then time to assemble in the chapel/multi-purpose room for a musical concert. A group of very talented young singles have put together a band - three guitarists, two of whom sing, a pianist, and a female soloist. They have been practicing together for a few months and put on a wonderful concert on this night. It was advertised so well that we had several people who were not young singles come just to listen to them. It was a great conclusion to a uniquely fun evening. Sadly, it was the last Saturday night young single activity with which we will be involved.  The next one is a service project two days after we leave for home.  We will be coming face to face with many "lasts" as we experience these next four weeks.

Cutting pork and vegetables for the Borscht

Making the chicken Caesar salad

Sampling the desserts

 The YSA

 band

called

    Henry's 

      Mustache.  

   (We do not know the  significance of the name.)

As for the rest of the week........

Monday presented a little excitement.  In the evening all the Moscow missionaries got a text saying there had been an explosion and everyone was to go home, close all their windows, and stay indoors until otherwise notified.  Of course, Paul immediately got on the computer to find out what was going on.  From the U.S. Embassy, he found that there had been an explosion at a chemical plant in east Moscow and there was concern about dangerous fumes circulating in the air. We immediately closed our windows and hoped that the stay indoor order would be lifted by morning.

Just starting the process of making Plov

We were glad the next morning that the travel ban had been lifted because the sisters were scheduled to come to our home for a Russian cooking class. Our special friend, Lada, had agreed to show us how to make Plov, a special rice dish. Lada started out by cooking the rice and draining it. Then she made a patty of sour cream, butter, and flour.  After pressing that into the bottom of a pan, she put the rice on top. Into this she added more butter and the spice, tumeric.  Once she covered the pan with a lid wrapped in a towel, we waited several minutes for the dough patty to cook. When it was ready, we enjoyed her creation. The patty got a little too done on the bottom (I didn't have the right kind of pan) and the rice was a little bland for our American tastes but, with a little salt, it was tasty. We added fruits and vegetables and a dinner roll to round out our lunch.  We had such a good time with Lada being the master chef.  After a spiritual thought and a short visit it was time to say good bye. 

The towel around the lid trick...to absorb the excess moisture of the cooking rice and pastry

The finished look after stirring the butter

and spices into the rice

Pastry on the bottom.  Spices and butter

put into holes made in the cooked rice.

Sister Downing, Lada, Sister Shepherd and me

Elder Denkers 

It was transfer meeting on Wednesday and we said good bye to our Elder Jones. We were also sad that Elder Denkers was transferred.  He had been serving in the International ward for the past few months and we have come to really love him. Sister Downing and Elder Kirdyapkin were also transferred, surprisingly, after only one transfer with us.  We will miss them, too.

Elders Hayes (lt) and Elder Hoffman (rt)

Transfers bring several of the elders and sisters in from the outlying areas of our mission.  It is a time when we get to reacquaint with elders and sisters who have been transferred from our district. One of these was Elder Hoffman who paid us a surprise visit Wednesday evening. He and his companion had missed their train back to Voronezh because the transfer meeting went over time, so they needed to print out new tickets for a trip back to their area the following morning.  We were so happy to see him.  He is a great missionary and he and his companion, Elder Hayes, will be dynamite as zone leaders in Voronezh.

Thursday was our senior council where we were introduced to a new couple, the Smiths. He is a direct descendant of Hyrum Smith and had a power point presentation of several amazing artifacts of which his family had been in possession.  Before coming on their mission, Elder Smith had turned them over to the church historical division to be used in the new church museum, scheduled to be opened soon.  

Our Institute lesson was on the signs of the second coming. We had Misha sitting in our class to observe our teaching. When we met the next day he was quite complimentary of our lesson and teaching style. He suggested we try to get the students to express their feelings a bit more.  We have given them opportunity to do so but have found they are reluctant to express themselves. Many are not real confident in their English language skills. We sometimes have a hard time even getting volunteers to read the scripture verses out loud.

Sister Peacock (rt) with Sister Shepherd

They love the peanut M&M's and the nuts we

put out for them each week.

We got to meet the new members of our district at district meeting on Friday. This will be a great district. We felt instant camaraderie with this group. They set some pretty healthy goals for this transfer but also made some commitments, individually and as a district, that should help them be successful. Our assistants will be in town all month so they will be able to work their area which will help with the attainment of the district goals, as well. 

Elder Folkman (rt) joined Elder St. Clair.

We were amazed as to how much weight Elder

Folkman has lost since coming on his mission.

He is looking really good.

Saturday, Paul watched the BYU basketball game, delayed of course, and then we went on a quest to find pillowcases. We want to leave new cases for our replacements as the ones we have been using just won't come real clean, even with bleach.  It is time to retire them. We found what we needed and returned home in time to make a quick trip to the church in response to a last minute call from our young singles president. It seems they needed baking pans, a crock pot, big bowls, a can opener, and dish soap. It is a good thing we live so close so we could help them out. Soon after this, it was time for the super successful YSA activity.

Sunday was church as usual. As soon as we got there the High Priest group leader came up to Paul and asked if he was ready to teach the priesthood class. Paul had said he would bring a short video to show but had not understood that he was to conduct the whole discussion. Something obvious was lost in translation.  He read the lesson quickly and was ready to teach the Priesthood lesson by the third hour.

Andrey and  his daughter, Olya

For Sunday School, we attend the Gospel Principles class with our missionaries and their investigators and new converts.  At the end of the lesson on the gathering of Israel, the teacher asked if anyone would share their story as to how they came into the Church. Andrey, who was baptized a year ago, stood and told the following story. It seems he served in the military with a younger man who was a member of the Church. He noticed that this man was different....didn't drink, smoke, use bad language, was always kind, etc. Upon inquiring as to what made him different, Andrey was first introduced to the gospel. They talked about it a lot and then they were reassigned. Several years later, Elder Jewkes was serving in the area where Andrey's friend lived.  He told Elder Jewkes about Andrey. Through a series of little miracles, Andrey was taught the gospel by Elder Jewkes via skype.  Andrey immediately accepted everything that was taught to him, even the word of wisdom (giving up black tea is hard for Russians).  We knew that story at the time of his baptism, but it was good to be reminded of the miracles that surround this missionary work.

And that's it for another week.

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

One of the missionaries was asked why they did not use their first names while on a mission instead of all being called Elder. We loved the elder's response.  He said that missionaries left their names at home so they wouldn't be focused on home but on being here and doing this great work. What a great explanation.

Medicines sold here

A little lesson in the Russian language.  Notice the two signs. They are pronounced apteka and apteeka. (The A and the O sound the same in this case.) 

Glasses are sold here

You want to go to the apteka when needing medicine and apteeka when needing glasses. We had to learn that one fast when my glasses broke and we needed to find a place to get them repaired.





We don't think we have mentioned that at the fast food restaurants, especially in the malls, you do not clear your own tray.  Many people are employed to do just that.  It is one of the ways Russia keeps their unemployment rate lower.  Usually these jobs go to Orientals or people from the 'Stanian' countries.

A GREAT WEEK!!!

OUR GOING HOME DATE IS FINALLY SET

Flight plans are made and upgraded seats purchased for our return trip home to America. Yes, it's finally settled...we will be leaving Moscow on the 18th of December. Monday, Paul called the mission travel department in Salt Lake to see if they had any information regarding the visas for our replacement couple.  He was told that, just that very day, they had received the invitation letter from Russia (one must have an invitation from Russia before a visa will be issued). Once the invitation has been sent, the visa process only takes a couple of weeks.  When Paul called and got the news that we would be going home in less than 6 weeks, our sweet sisters were in our apartment. We all hugged each other and cried (not Paul...he can't hug the sisters...but he has shed a few tears).  It will be so hard to leave. We love these people, this city, and being involved in the work of the Lord. We have been so blessed to be here and can't even get our minds around the fact that we will be home before Christmas. We can understand, now, why it is so hard for our young missionaries to leave their missions. It's not that we don't love our families and want to be home with them, but missions are an amazing experience that you hate to see come to an end. We will be forever grateful for this time in our lives. One has to experience it to truly understand what we are feeling.

Sister Downing, Anna, and Sister Shepherd

Left to right

Just before Paul called Salt Lake, we had a wonderful experience with our sisters and Anna.  She called the sisters and wanted to meet so they called us to see if they could all come to our home. Anna is the investigator who has a commitment problem, or a time management problem, or both. Several months ago, she was all set to be baptized but was two hours late for her own baptism. It was postponed and decided that she needed to show her depth of commitment by attending church a few more times. She would say she would come to an activity or to church but then she wouldn't show up or would be very late. Eventually, she dropped out of site......until Monday when she called the sisters. 

Anna is displaying a card she was given from

 Sister Taylor and a necklace given to her from Sister Hunter,

both former missionaries who have worked with Anna.

It was great to visit with her again. She really has a sweet spirit about her. As we were talking she referred to us as her 'Godparents' and said she wanted us to come to her party after she was baptized. We told her we would be leaving soon and challenged her to be baptized before we left.  Once again, she set a date to be baptized and committed to come to a YSA activity on Friday and church on Sunday. We were hoping she had changed but she didn't show up for either one. We are sad. 

Tuesday was a holiday in Russia and all the missionaries were told to stay off any means of public transportation. Our district meeting was postponed until Wednesday and we too, stayed close to home.  We began making lists of what we needed to do before we left and what we needed to teach our replacements during our week together. The count down has started, we're afraid.

Wednesday things picked right back up. Paul got up early to check the election results back home....5 a.m to be exact.  It became a great day when it was reported that the Republicans had taken control of the Senate (Paul has been following the polls for months, very concerned about voting day). Our sisters came over at 12:00 to skype with Olya before a district meeting.  At district meeting our district leader asked each of us to share our conversion stories and to bear our testimonies.  It was a tender meeting where we all felt the presence of the Spirit. 

At district meeting, our AP's brought everyone a special Russian drink. 
It is a carbonated flavored milk and is loved by the missionaries. 
 It was OK, but we wouldn't go out and buy it for ourselves.

After district meeting, we packed up two kinds of cookies and a banana cream pie. The cookies we dropped off in the kitchen at the Central Building for refreshments after English group.  The banana cream pie went with us to Misha and Sveta's home where we had dinner and a wonderful visit.  We had our first taste of plov, a Russian rice dish which we have heard so much about. It was delicious.  We had a great time and are grateful with the friendship we have developed with our coordinator and his wife.

A great couple!

This was a science experiment we used to

introduce the idea of laws and their importance

in nature and society..........this was

demonstrating Newton's first law of motion.

Thursday's Institute lesson was on the Law of Consecration.  It was a fun lesson to teach.  We talked about how we are preparing to live this celestial law as we pay our tithing and fast offering as well as contribute time and money to the welfare/humanitarian programs of the church.  Our students were amazed when we showed them a news broadcast special about the church welfare system including the bishop's storehouses and the half million square foot storage warehouse on welfare square.  They had no idea of the magnitude or scope of the welfare and humanitarian programs of the church.  It was fun to watch their reaction.  One of our students, Irena, came up to me after class to tell me she want to be just Paul and me when she gets married. Such kind words.

Pathway was interesting.  Paul's group only had two of the four students present.  The other two were out of town so they skyped into the lesson. Modern technology is amazing. Both of the students were hundreds of miles away...one as far away as Siberia.  My class was interesting, too. At the last minute, I ended up having to facilitate the discussion. The person who was to be the discussion leader informed me that she was having to quit the program until another semester so I had to quickly prepare a lesson. My part of the evening went all right, considering some real last minute preparation but most of the members did not come prepared.  Each week they are to bring 3 copies of their week's writing assignment. This week they were to come with an outline for a persuasive essay so the class members could review it and give some suggestions for improvement.  After some inquiry, I found that some of them hadn't even decided what their topic was yet. It was a misunderstanding about what was expected for the Gathering as they usually come prepared. Needless to say we dismissed a bit early.

Friday, we decided we needed to make a trial run to the Roper's apartment.  That is where our replacements will be staying for the week they are here before we leave. We will need to pick them up and take them back to the Roper's while they are here, so we needed to find out exactly how to get there.  Elder Roper met us at their metro stop and walked us to their apartment.  Because we were going to lunch together, they walked back to the metro with Paul and I in the lead to make sure we knew the way. We went one stop north on the metro to the new Shake Shack in the Metropolis Mall. We love visiting with the Roper's.  They are a great couple and we have much in common.

Friday night was our YSA night. It was a repeat of last month's spoof on the news.  We don't know why they would do the same thing again but it seemed to be fun for those in attendance. Sveta, Misha's wife, brought us 3 packages of Plov seasoning. I had told her I was wondering where to buy Plov seasoning and so she brought some to me. These Russian people are so kind and giving.  We love them.

We will miss the Peirsons. 

They have become good friends.

Saturday, we fixed dinner for the Piersons and their replacements, the Goodells. The Piersons picked up the Goodells at the airport on Friday afternoon and spent Saturday taking them around to show them how to shop and get around in Moscow.  They will continue to train them on Monday, then fly to Germany on Tuesday. They are taking a month to tour Europe and Israel before going home. We will miss them but the Goodells will fit right in and be wonderful too.  We had to chuckle when Sister Goodell said she had told everyone she would be willing to go anywhere but to Russia. When she opened their call she had to take back that statement really quick. We think the Lord has a sense of humor. We assured her that they would come to love their mission, even in Russia.

Sunday started out interesting. At 7:45, we got a call from our AP's asking us if they could come by and shower at our apartment before church.  They had taken an early morning flight from Voronezh and wouldn't have time to spend the hour on the metro it would take them to get to their apartment to clean up before our 10:00 church meeting.  We invited them over to shower and ended up feeding them a french toast and bacon breakfast before we all left for church.  We are grateful they feel comfortable enough with us to call us in times of need.

Elders Jones and Stebbing on the right

Elders Eliason and Calderwood on the left

Sunday afternoon, we served another dinner, this time for Elder Jones and his companion.  Elder Jones would be going home from his mission on Thursday of the next week.  We invited the AP's to come, too, since they were staying with Elders Jones and Stebbing for a few days. (The Piersons were living in the AP's apartment until they flew out on Tuesday.) The four elders went away full and happy. We will miss Elder Jones. He is such a quietly humble missionary, totally dedicated to the gospel.

We were tired by the end of Sunday night, but grateful for a meaningful and eventful week.

LIVING IN  RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

Russians have a stigma about putting things on the floor.  In English group a couple of weeks ago we handed out copies of The Living Christ.  We had a few left over so we put them in the middle of the floor so if anyone wanted one, who hadn't taken one, could get a copy.  Immediately a gentleman jumped up out of his seat and picked them up and gave them to a missionary.  The same thing happened when a hymn book was placed on the floor after the opening song was sung.  We think that putting something on the floor is a sign of disrespect to Russians. 

We saw our first sign of Christmas the other day.....this small decorated tree.  It is November but the Russians don't celebrate Christmas until January 7th so it seems a little early.  

We are feeling quite sorry for the Russian economy and the effect it must be having on the average person here.  The exchange rate when we came was around 32 rubles per dollar.  Today it is up to 47 rubles per dollar.  To put this in perspective-10,000 rubles in October of 2013 was equivalent to $311. Today 10,000 rubles is only worth $212.  It is a good rate of exchange for us, but for people like our landlord, it is not good.  We pay a certain number of rubles to her for our rent and that amount has decreased by $500 over the past few months. We wonder how these people are going to survive financially.

IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE THAT 5 WEEKS FROM THIS

POSTING WE WILL BE HOME IN UTAH

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA AND SLAMMING ALL IN ONE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT COULD BE BETTER?

The Cookie used to SLAM

For the first time since we arrived in Moscow, we slammed. It is a Russian missionary thing and we were just introduced to it. Our sisters asked us last week if we had ever slammed. We said, 'what is slamming?' They were appalled that none of our other missionaries over the last 16 months had introduced us to slamming. We quickly set a date to slam together. It happened on Tuesday morning when the sisters came over to take a Russian language test required of our missionaries every quarter. Once they completed their tests, I heated up water for hot chocolate and when it was ready, we slammed. You ask, 'what is slamming?' There is a special cookie in Russia which, if you bite a little section out of opposites sides of these round cookies, they act as a straw through which you can sip hot chocolate, milk, or tea. With hot chocolate the cookie gets warm and the chocolate begins to melt as you sip. At that point you eat the cookie and boy, is it yummy! Of course, we had to try it with two cookies each. We were so excited about slamming that we went out this week and purchased cookies to bring home so we can slam with our grandchildren.  A fun Russian missionary tradition.

Sister Shepherd

Sister Downing

     The sisters showing us how 

        to slam.

Paul doing the SLAM

Paul getting ready

So Yummy!!..... and So Messy!!

Can you believe that says

Phantom of the Opera?

That evening we were privileged to enjoy the stage production of Phantom of the Opera at a beautiful theater here. Of course, it was sung in Russian but that didn't even matter. The music is so incredible, no matter the language.  We have seen Phantom enough times to know the story line so we just sat back and enjoyed the music, the scenery, and the wonderful talents displayed in the singers. We went with three other senior couples and enjoyed their company at dinner before hand at TGI Friday's, close to the theater. A most enjoyable evening.

The beautiful theater

Other happenings of the week included baking gluten free cookies with Elders Shepherd and Jeppsen. Monday evening, the elders called and asked if I could help them bake gluten free cookies. They wanted to take some to a family in their ward but one of the children is gluten intolerant. I told them I would do some research and try to find a recipe. I couldn't believe how many different kinds of flour there are in gluten free recipes - coconut, almond, sorgham, millet, buckwheat, and tapioca starch flour, to name a few.  There were other ingredients I had never heard of....so out of my comfort zone. After checking to make sure chocolate chips, M&M's, oatmeal, and peanut butter were gluten free, we determined we could make monster cookies which calls for no flour at all. The cookies turned out great and the elders were thrilled to take two plates to the family and the third plate home for their district.  

Elder Jeppsen

Elder Shepherd

Wednesday was zone training at the Central building. At these meetings there is usually a chance for the elders and sisters to role play. This time we were involved. Elder St. Clair wanted his companion, Elder Kirdyapkin, to practice his English so he volunteered to role play with us. We roleplayed a couple who had stopped coming to church. The elders' job was to try to find out what our concerns where and why we were not attending church. They were to help us make commitments to overcome our problems so we would come back to church.  We wondered how much Elder Kirdyapkin really understood, but at least he tried to enter into the conversation. Good practice for him and fun for us. During the rest of the meeting, Elder Kirdyapkin was busy making folded swans. At our home it was swans out of candy wrappers.  This time he brought notebook paper for the job. It's got to be a bit boring to be in a meeting and not understand much of what is being said.  Oh wait a minute....we do that every Sunday when someone isn't available to translate for us.

The notebook paper swan.

(Notebook paper here has squares instead of lines)

Thursday, as always, was Institute/Gathering. Our lesson focused on the call to the early saints to 'gather' to Ohio. We discussed the reasons they were to gather and the instructions the Lord gave them as to how they should do this successfully. We talked about 'girding up our loins,' esteeming our brother as ourselves, being united, and taking care of the poor and the needy....all things we need to do today even though we are not called to gather into one place. It is our halfway mark of the semester so we took banana cookies as a treat for the students. They love it when we bring something for them to eat.

Friday night was a fun evening. Several of the senior couples gathered at the Roper's apartment for a chili feed and a couple of activities. It was our way of celebrating Halloween together.  The food was great and the company even better.  

The women in the kitchen,

of course.

The men visiting while

waiting for dinner

One of the activities was the donut on a string thing....

only this time blindfolded.

It was so funny to watch.

This has been a week of being 'figged.' We have had missionaries call and set up appointments for discussions at our home nine times during the week. Seven of them have not happened for one reason or another. We feel so bad for these elders and sisters who work so hard to set up teaching appointments with investigators, only to have the investigator cancel or just not show. It has to be discouraging. Maybe next week will be better.  

Elder Christensen, Baseel, and

Elder Denkers (left to right)

The two discussion that did happen were on Saturday afternoon and were fantastic discussions. Elders Holland and Grover, of the Rechnoy ward, brought two new contacts to our home. Ollig and Denise have been friends since college and are two really sharp young men. They are interested in speaking better English and learning about our religion. We had a wonderful time getting to know each other. We think the elders brought them over just so they could meet us. They are of young single adult age and were interested in our YSA activities, being surprised that they were free. We asked them to come to English group on Wednesday as well as our activity on Friday. Hopefully we will see them there. They each left with a Book of Mormon and a promise made to read it. We sure hope they become serious investigators as they would add so much to our YSA group.

The second discussion was with Baseel. He did not attend church last week as he had promised. He again promised he would go next week, when he returns from Ryazan. We stressed to him the importance of attending church.  We told him that once he came, he would want to be there every week because of the feeling he would have while there.  We will anxiously await Sunday, next week.




Earlier, Saturday afternoon, we finally took time to ride the Metro's brown line all the way around.  It runs in a circle crossing, thus connecting, all the other lines. They say this line has some of the most beautiful stations, and we have to agree after getting off at each stop to take pictures. This was our favorite station of the day.  Can you see why the metro is considered the 'palace for the people.' (We will do a blog entry on Moscow's metro system soon.)

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

For two weeks we had been watching the garbage pile up at the garbage drop off across the street from our apartment.  We don't know what the problem was but they weren't picking up the garbage. The pile kept growing larger and larger until it was actually out into the street.  One afternoon this week it was finally picked up.  We were beginning to worry.

This was taken several days before the garbage was actually picked up

so you can imagine how much garbage was there by the time it was picked up....

literally to the top of the shed and out in the street even farther.

Several times since we have been here, we have had people knocking at our door or ringing the doorbell, usually because of water leakage somewhere down below us. Once again, this week, our doorbell rang late at night. We had just returned from Phantom of the Opera, about 11:00 pm.  We have been instructed to never open our door to anyone we don't know so I looked out our peep hole to see who it was. I saw two pretty scruffy looking men and a lady. After several rings, and at Paul's insistence, (I wanted them to think no one was home) we asked, through the locked door, if anyone spoke English. Luckily, the lady did and told us there was a problem with water leaking in the apartment down below us. We tried to tell her, through the door, that we had no water leakage in our apartment but she insisted that the two men needed to check the pipes in our apartment. We let them in and they found no leaks.  We told them the water problems of the past have always originated in the apartment above us. The next day we heard someone working upstairs on the pipes so hopefully the problem will be solved once and for all. That would be a good thing for our replacements.

STILL LOVING OUR MISSION WITH

ANOTHER FUN AND PRODUCTIVE WEEK BEHIND US