Our Mission to Russia: THREE THANKSGIVING DINNERS TO REPORT

Thanksgiving is alive and well....even in Moscow, Russia. We have seen several posts from our Russian young singles wishing each other a Happy Thanksgiving, having Thanksgiving parties with lots of food, and expressing thanks for their blessings. And we thought it was only in America. On Thursday, we taught institute and at the end of our lesson paid tribute to America's Thanksgiving by showing a Mormon Message called, 'The Spirit of Thanksgiving.' We then talked about how every country should have their own day of Thanksgiving, not to celebrate the Pilgrims, but to pay tribute to God for their many blessings. Obviously, here in Russia some are starting to do just that. Also that night, we expressed our thanks for the opportunity we have had to serve this mission here and to teach them each week. I totally lost it and could hardly express my feelings about having to leaving these wonderful young singles whom we have come to love so deeply.

As for the three Thanksgiving dinners....

Our Thanksgiving table all set and

ready to serve dinner

We held the first one on Tuesday with our district. They decided to hold it in conjunction with a zone training so those who live an hour away would only have to make the trip to this area once, instead of Tuesday for Zone training and Thursday for dinner. We appreciated that decision as it made it much easier for us to be ready to teach institute Thursday evening. We invited President and Sister Borders to come join us, which they did. We had a great time eating and visiting for the three hours allotted for the celebration of Thanksgiving. We served cordon bleu, baked potatoes, vegetables, jello salad, rolls, and of course, pumpkin, chocolate and apple pies. We loved being with our elders and sisters in a dinner setting as we have missed not feeding them every week at district meetings as we used to do.

The elders and sisters enjoying each other in the kitchen.

They called it the 'kids' table.

We had President and Sister Borders all to ourselves

at the 'adult' table. We enjoyed our visit with them.

Most of the sisters were able to sit at the beautiful dining room table

The senior couples all got together Friday night for another Thanksgiving dinner. It was a dinner with all the trimmings of a turkey dinner - dressing, yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, salads, rolls, and desserts - without the turkey. Several chickens had been baked in place of turkey which is hard to find and grossly expensive here. We love getting together and eating and visiting as a group of senior couples so we appreciated the Burgeners for opening up their apartment to us. It was nice, for the sisters, to be able to sit at an actual dining room table. Very few Russian apartments have that luxury. The men, though, had to eat on their laps. We were thankful that all of us could be together one more time before two of us leave for home. (The Burgeners leave the week before we do.)

Here are the men eating on their laps but enjoying the food just the same.

The third dinner wasn't one we ate but one the BYU students, who were here on an internship, put together. On Thursday, several of them, including a couple of their Russian friends, came to the Central Building and had a Thanksgiving dinner. They too had all the trimmings of a turkey dinner without the turkey. Their turkey was substituted with two buckets of Kentucky Fried chicken. Good choice! They seemed to have had a good time. We loved the fact that they planned it so several of them could attend our Institute class after their dinner.

Most of the other happenings of the week seemed to be connected to these dinners....shopping, baking rolls, making cordon bleus (Paul pounded out the chicken breasts while I stuffed and coated them), and making more rolls for Friday (a total of 128 rolls made and only about 20 left over from the two meals). We also made pumpkin shaped sugar cookies to give to our Institute students on Thursday in recognition of Thanksgiving.

On Wednesday, we got hair cuts in the afternoon and then went to English group. We have such a good time at English group where Paul has a way of keeping everyone smiling with his comments and his many idioms. After the class, one of the participants came up and asked Paul what his profession had been. Paul told him he had spent his career as an accountant. The man looked puzzled and then commented, "you don't teach like as accountant." This brother is a member of our ward and has heard Paul teach in High Priest quorum as well as in English group. He has observed Paul's wonderful way of teaching with humor as well as with the spirit.

Our lesson was on

'Establishing Zion.'

Thursday, we taught Institute even though the Pathway gatherings were not being held due to Thanksgiving in America. We were thrilled that 13 students still made the trip to the central building to participate in our lesson. We rewarded them with the iced sugar cookies, pictured above.

Saturday was a lower key day. We had the morning and early afternoon pretty much free. We read our lesson material for Institute, answered emails and assembled Christmas gifts for our elders and sisters. We decided to give them each a mug with a bag of homemade hot cocoa mix, marshmallows, oreo cookies, and several packets of herbal teas. That should keep them warm on the cold Russian nights and, hopefully, it will warm their hearts as well, when they think about us loving them and missing them when we are home.

Some of the young women and their leader singing

'I Walk by Faith.'

Saturday afternoon we were invited to come and speak to the Stake Young Women at their YW in Excellence activity. We were asked to speak about the importance of both secular and spiritual education. This was a perfect fit as we have served these past 17 months working with our young singles in both facets of their education - secular with Pathway, spiritual with Institute. We gave them lots of personal examples of education from our lives and challenged them to take advantage of every opportunity to learn in school and in church through seminary and, eventually, Institute. It was so fun to see that young women are the same all over the world. During the program they recited the YW theme and sang 'I Walk By Faith.' It was amazing to hear these done in Russian.

Stanislav, Dmitry and their parents

Sunday evening, we invited the Dolgov family over to our home for lemon cream pie. After they had so graciously invited us into their home a few weeks ago, we felt we needed to have them in our home before we left. The boys speak English quite well and the parents speak very little but we found things to talk about and enjoyed each other's company. They loved the pie and herbal tea which we served. Sister Dolgov brought me a pair of earrings and a handmade scarf that she had crocheted herself. We are amazed, as always, at how giving these Russian people are.

We began experiencing some 'lasts' this week. Besides celebrating our last Thanksgiving in Russia, we had our last hair cuts and we finished the last puzzle we will have time to complete. This puzzle was the first one we did when we arrived and now is also the last one we will do. As the next two weeks pass we will experience many more lasts as we wrap up our mission in Moscow.

The first and the last puzzle

we did while here

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

We were amazed when we passed this sign in one of the windows in a store in Metropolis Mall on Friday. Not only is Thanksgiving starting to be recognized here but also Black Friday. When we asked someone about it they said they were familiar with that term as the day to begin shopping for the holidays......even in Russia.

It is tradition in Russia that you never show up to a person's home for a meal without bringing something to give the host. Usually one brings chocolates or flowers or a cake type dessert. We have been the recipient of many such gifts. This also explains the gifts from the Dolgovs and the box of juice from Raymond when he came to dinner with the elders and an investigator a few weeks ago. It is a nice tradition.

Construction here is a slow process. We have passed this site many times as we have walked to Red Square. It has looked like this since we came. We see workman here every time we pass but cannot detect much, if any, progress. We are assuming that someday a building will be constructed on top of this hole. It is prime property as it is right by the river and very close to Red Square.

There are many ways our missionaries try to keep warm. All of them have warm coats, gloves, and boots. They always wrap their necks, and sometimes their faces, with wool scarves. Most of the times, they don hats. We loved how these two favorite missionaries keep their ears warm.... we especially loved the knitted flower on the knitted headband.