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