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