GOOD BYE RUSSIA.....HELLO HOME AND FAMILY

We are writing this last post in the comforts of our home in Heber City.  It seems so strange yet so familiar.  We love being home, especially in time for Christmas, but we already miss our mission in Moscow.  It was hectic getting to this point and is still a wild ride as we try to adjust to life as it was before our mission.

We'll begin with Monday. We rose real early to meet the Jensen's at the Sokol metro station.  We needed to have them to the church service center by 8:30 in the morning. The Jensens are on a three month visa plan and so they have to have a second passport to leave and re-enter Russia every three months.  We met with someone at the service center who would take their passports to the U.S. embassy to get the second passport application started.  When that was complete, we jumped on a bus to take us to the mission office so the Jensens could get all their immigration papers in order.  It was also a time for the office people to train them as to mission policy and procedure.  They ended their time in the mission office with a visit with the mission president.  From there we jumped on the metro to take the Jensens to Ashan's to show them the best store for large grocery purchases.  It was then home for dinner.  We had invited the Goodells, the area CES senior couple, to come so the two couples could have a chance to get to know each other. We served spaghetti,using a sauce we had frozen earlier so it was an easy dinner to fix.  Soon after dinner everyone left as the Jensen's were wiped out.
Tuesday was our last full day for training so we packed a lot into the day.  It was the time to make sure they understood all about the Pathway program which they would be facilitating. Sister Jensen took copious notes which was a good thing because Elder Jensens back was bothering him so he laid down on the couch and quickly fell asleep. Oh, how we remember how tired we were the first week we arrived.  



In the late afternoon we took them to the Metropolis Mall so they could get a first hand look at Stockman's, the grocery store that specializes in many American imports.....a must place to know about. We had a quick dinner at Shake Shack and then it was back home so the Jensen's could rest before going to an 8:30 YSA planning meeting at the church. We accompanied them to the church but left before the meeting started as we had to get started packing.  Before we left, the young singles presented us with a wooden box into which they had put pictures and notes from many of them.....a priceless gift.  Our coordinator's wife gave us a suitcase cover so whenever we travel people will know we had spent some time in Russia. Don't know if we will ever use it but it was a thoughtful gift.

The precious box of messages and pictures and the very Russian suitcase cover.

It was then home to pack....ugh!  That 50 pound limit meant leaving behind lots of things as we had to have room for our gifts from Russia.

Wednesday morning was cleaning time, although we had done most of it prior to the Jensens coming. I couldn't sleep Tuesday night so I was up cleaning the oven in the middle of the night which was a good thing because the Jensen arrived much earlier than expected Wednesday morning. We shared our last lunch in Russia with the Jensen at Glow Subs after which we said our goodbyes. As the Jensen's left, I looked at Paul and said, "We're done!"....and started immediately to cry.  It is hard to leave that which we have come to love doing.  We walked to the church to await our ride with President and Sister Borders to their home where we would be spending the night. There was a zone conference taking place and, at the end, we were asked to bear our testimonies once again and more tears were shed, of course.

We admire this special couple.

They work so hard.

After a two hour drive through Moscow, we arrived at the President's home. The traffic was horrible. After the first hour in the car, we were only a 15 minute walk from our apartment. We were so glad we did not have to drive in Moscow. The President and his wife took us to dinner at the restaurant in their development and then, after a short visit, we were ready to go to bed.  We needed to be up bright and early to make it to the airport.  







Thursday, after breakfast with the Borders, the mission driver took us to the airport. It was all pretty uneventful, which is a good thing when dealing with foreign travel. We boarded the plane, flew to New York, had a 5 hour layover and, after three gate changes, finally boarded our plane for Salt Lake City. We arrived at 11:30 at night and were surprised to see all our Utah family there to greet us. They had flowers for me, chocolate covered fruit for Paul, and a sign welcoming home Grandma and Grandpa.  It was thrilling to see them all standing there after being away from them for 18 months. After lots of hugs and kisses, and collecting our bags,Todd and Kailee drove us to their new home to spend the night. We wanted to drive into Heber Valley in the light of day as well as see Todd and Kailee's new home in Pleasant Grove.

The driver just left us outside the airport

in the cold wind and rain so Paul had to

find luggage carts for all our bags.

Bags inside,  marked, and ready to be checked.

The Welcoming Committee - our whole Utah family!

Happy to to home!

Friday, we were up bright and early to travel the canyon up to our home in Heber. It was such a surreal experience to be driving again and seeing all the things that were so familiar to us.  It was like the 18 months had only been a few days as we drove into our neighborhood and back home.  We did, though, have to remind ourselves how to do certain things like change the car radio from AM to FM and work the heat/air conditioning in the car.  Strange how things that we did automatically before we left were now a challenge, having not done them for a year and a half. Our neighborhood had changed a bit with several new homes having been built while we were gone. As we drove into our driveway, we were glad to be back. When we walked into our home, we immediately remembered why we loved living here.  We felt right at home.  The rest of the day was spent unpacking and getting reacquainted with our old way of life. We were so grateful for Todd and Kailee and how well they kept up our home.  It was just as we had left it.  As we were unpacking, we had a welcomed visit from our bishop, Bishop Baird. He sat and visited with us for over an hour, us talking about our mission and him bringing us up to date on the ward. 

We ate out for both lunch and dinner, going to the places we have craved the most....Subway for lunch (there were Subways in Russia but they used cabbage instead of lettuce and the sandwiches didn't taste the same.) and Cafe Rio for dinner (there were Mexican restaurants in Russia too, but there is no taste like Cafe Rio's sweet pork anywhere in the world.)

We arrived home just in time for the start of two of our grandson's basketball seasons and a baptism of another grandson. We spent Saturday at two basketball games - one in the morning for Braydon and one in the evening for Jaron. It was just like old times to be in the gym cheering them on.  So fun.  

Gavin and his older brother Taylor

The baptism was a special event.  Gavin was not baptized when he was 8 because of circumstances in his family. He had been taking the missionary discussions for several months and decided to be baptized on the Saturday after our arrival home. He was baptized by his older brother, Taylor. Jaron was advanced to the office of a teacher and Braydon was ordained a deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood. This was all such an answer to many prayers, and a mission blessing. We have been praying for this family for 18 months to become active in the church and that had happened.  So thankful.





Sunday, we attended church in our home ward. We received a wonderful welcome from all our ward friends. Most were unaware that we were coming home, so it was a surprise to many of them when we walked into the chapel. We had our missionary badges on as we had not been released yet. Immediately following sacrament meeting, we met with the Stake President who released us after a short visit about our mission. It was strange to take off those badges and know you wouldn't put them on again.  A little sad.  

A friend from another ward came out into the foyer when she saw us to tell us something special.  She thanked us for our mission service and for this blog. She said she and her husband lived their dream mission through us by reading our blog faithfully each week.  She and her husband love Russia and longed to serve a mission there but health will prevent them from serving outside the United States. Our blog became very important to them.  We were touched.  Later, in the afternoon, we had our family up for a pot roast dinner...something we had been craving for 18 months. In Russia, the beef roasts were not worth buying as they were very tough, no matter how long you cooked them.  We were so tired by the end of the day, but happy to be home.

And thus ends our mission and our mission blog.  A bittersweet experience to say good bye to Russia and our mission.  It has been a glorious 18 months serving the Lord and spreading His wonderful message to His children in Moscow.  We will forever be grateful for that time in our lives.

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

The last spotlight of our life in Russia must be about the metro system, one of the largest in the world and truly the most spectacular. It was built to be 'the people's palace' and as we visited many of the stations it was easy to see why it was aptly named. During the Soviet era, it became one of Stalin's shining achievements.  It was seen as a way to showcase the ideals of socialism. In fact, all of the decor had to represent the way of life the government wanted the people to believe Soviet life was like.  Most of the stations depict the 1917 Revolution, national defense, or the 'Soviet way of life." Many kinds of marble, in varying designs, were used in the stations as were stone mosaics, stained glass pictures, statues, and extravagant lighting fixtures.  Each station is different and many are art masterpieces.  According to statistics, more people ride the Moscow Metro than the New York Subway and the London Underground combined. It is estimated that close to 8 million people ride the Metro each weekday. We believe that as we experienced rush hour many times.

One of several ceiling mosaics

AS WE SAY GOOD BYE TO RUSSIA,
WE THANK YOU FOR SHARING OUR MISSION WITH US.

OUR NEXT TO THE LAST WEEK....IN THE BOOKS!

We are now in the midst of experiencing many 'lasts' here in Russia as our mission comes to an end.....our last shopping trip to Ashan's, our last English exam for Pathway, our last missionary discussion, our last transfer meeting, our last English group, our last lesson for Institute, our last Pathway gathering, our last district meeting, our last game night, our last baptism, and our last trip to Red Square. That about sums up our week as most everything we did was our last time to do it. 

Monday, we had pretty much to ourselves to prepare our lesson, organize a few more things in our apartment and shop. After shopping, we met Sasha for lunch at TGI Friday's, as we always do, to thank him for his service to us. We wanted to take him to TGI Friday's so he could taste their delicious ribs but he opted to have a hamburger. When Paul gave him one of his ribs to taste, Sasha was sad he hadn't taken our suggestion and ordered them.  We had a good visit and will miss Sasha a lot.

These elders dropped suitcases off at our apartment Tuesday

night.  This was them crowed in our little elevator playing

some sort of  'touch' game.  I was in the elevator with them

so it was very crowded and they still played the game.....

boys will be boys, even on their missions.

Tuesday, we were involved in administering the PELP test for Pathway. It is the English exam that potential students have to pass before they can start the Pathway program. Paul gave the test to 4 potential students but only 2 passed. It looks unlikely that we will be able to have a new cohort start in January. We are wondering if the situation with the ruble is discouraging potential students. It still only costs $40 a credit hour but to make up that amount in rubles, it costs them almost twice as much as it did a year ago. (Special note:  Just today we got word that the price of each credit in Russia has been reduced to $23. We had some excited students but it came out too late for a new cohort this winter.)

We came to the church early for the test so I could sit in on a missionary discussion with Elders Caulderwood and Eliason and,their investigator, Jacob. Katerina, a young single who just returned home from her mission, also came early for the test. We invited her be a part of the discussion.  Because of a back issue, Jacob stood for the whole 45 minute discussion but seemed very interested in what was being said. The whole discussion was done in Russian but, even though I couldn't understand all that was said, I could feel the spirit that was present.  Katerina added much to the success of that meeting. Jacob wanted to meet again which is always a good sign after a first discussion.

Elder Johnson, on the left, and Hermanson, on the right,

left for home on Friday.

Wednesday was transfer meeting. We said good bye to several very special missionaries with whom we have come to love.  Elders Johnson, Hermanson, Shepherd, Howard, and Sister Miller all left for home the next day. Along with the 8 young missionaries who were leaving, we were asked to bear our testimonies also. It was a hard thing to do but we both held it together without too many tears.  Paul was amazed that I didn't break down and bawl like a baby. We were grateful we had the opportunity to express, not only our testimonies of the gospel, but our great love for the missionaries and our young single adults. Good byes are so hard. A note about our mission: 8 missionaries left but only 3 came in. There will be no more coming for several months and many will be leaving in the next two transfers.  This mission will go from 120+ missionaries to 84 in the next few months.  A big challenge!

Elder Shepherd will be missed.  We will always remember him for eating

our cookies all in one bite.

Elder St. Clair had been our district leader for the past two transfers

and was wonderful.  He had only been a member of the Church for a year before

coming out on his mission.  He will be serving as the 1st counselor to the Branch

President in his new area.  We will miss him, too.

After transfer meeting, we went to lunch with the Ropers. They have become dear friends so it was good to be with them before we leave. We came home, prepared our presentation for English, and then returned to the church for our last English group. We presented the discussion part of the evening. It went well but the best part of the night was when our friend, Olig, came in and presented us with a refrigerator magnet.  He said he hoped that being home in America would be filled with blue skies and sunshine just like over Moscow in the picture on the magnet. So sweet...a sincere gift of friendship.  He has been one of our favorite, regular participants. After taking a picture with him, he said, "OK, I am going to leave now because I am going to cry."  We will always remember him.

A most meaningful gift from Olig

Saying good-bye to Olig and Karina

Thursday turned out to be a busy day.  Besides doing the last preparations for our last Institute lesson, we had 4 elders come by to skype a district leader's training meeting, during which the International sisters brought Caddice by for a discussion.  We had never met Caddice but we were glad we had the opportunity to get to know her. She is darling and has such a sweet spirit about her. She has a desire to do only what Jesus would want her to do.  This would be our last missionary discussion.

Sister Grover, Caddice, and Sister Biorn

Our Institute class.....so sad not to teach them again

We taught our last Institute on Thursday. In our lesson, we discussed the importance of being parents and of preparing themselves now so they would be the kind of parents that God would have them be. Between Institute and Pathway, we had a pizza party. We usually do this at the end of each semester but because it was our last time with our students, we decided to do it a week early.  After our last Gathering meetings, we took pictures, hugged everyone, and said our sad good byes. We were touched by the cards that were given to us. Sweet Irena gave us a darling Christmas decoration which we will cherish.  We will think of her each Christmas when we set it out.

Our Life Skills Cohort

Our graduating English Cohort

At Roper's for breakfast

Friday was a first....the first time we met with the Jensens, the couple taking our place. They flew in on Thursday night. Because we were teaching Institute, we couldn't pick them up at the airport so the Goodells did so.  They took them to the Roper's apartment where the Jensens will stay until we leave. Friday, we met the Jensens at the Ropers for breakfast. Elder Roper cooked us all omelets which were delicious. We then brought the Jensens to our apartment and visited for a few minutes before our elders and sisters started arriving for district meeting. After the meeting, there was only time to show them the local grocery store and to fix dinner before it was time to go to game night....our last and the Jensen's first.  We were glad that several young singles came to play some games, although we left early to get the Jensen's back home to the Ropers. 'Jet lag' began to set in with them soon after we arrived at game night.  

The Jensens and their new district

We attended the 100th baptism in our mission this year on Saturday.  This was quite historic as there have never been that many baptisms in one year before. We were there because we wanted to show the Jensens how to get to the South Building where baptisms are held. We timed our arrival so they could see an actual baptism. We were glad we could be there even though we did not know the man who was baptized. He will be a member of the Podolsk branch. That particular branch had not had a baptism for years and in three months they will have three.  The Lord is working miracles there.

Another first happened on our walk back to the metro from the baptism. We were walking on the sidewalk when a large bus came by, going really fast, hit a puddle, and sprayed muddy water all over Paul and Elder Jensen.  Paul was especially drenched from his shoulders to his feet. Paul and Elder Jensen were walking on the outside, closest to the street so they got the worst of it, although Sister Jensen and I got sprayed a bit. We brushed it off as much as we could but Paul's coat was a terrible mess. It had snowed for about three days but on Saturday it was melting so the streets were full of puddles. Instead of sanding the streets after it snows, they put down dirt which makes the melted snow turn to mud...hence the mud covered coat.  It took a bit of scrubbing but we were able to get it pretty clean when we finally got home that night.

Misha and his outgoing and

 incoming senior couples

After the baptism, we went immediately to a Seminary/Institute training session with Misha, our director. We were grateful everyone in attendance spoke English so Misha could do this training in English rather than having it translated for us. We could participate so much easier that way. After the three hour training meeting, Misha treated us all to dinner at Pronto Pizza. The Jensens and ourselves then jumped on the metro to go to Red Square and experience Christmas in Moscow for our last time. Of course, it was beautiful....all done in a circus theme, including the large Christmas tree and many ice sculptures. Even Gum's department store was decorated with the circus motif.

Saying good bye to this magical Red Square

Sunday was a special day. It was our last Sacrament meeting and happened to be a fast and testimony meeting. Of course, we bore our testimonies (with the help of interpreters) and experienced many sweet good byes. The most touching was from Andrey. He taught the gospel principles class and, at the end, talked about coming to our home for one of his missionary discussions.  He talked about feeling the spirit so strongly that he was sure he could give up his much beloved black tea immediately. We will never forget that experience either. We will miss him and his sweet daughter. 

Our wonderful and caring district.

We will miss not being with these young missionaries.

After church, we continued training the Jensens by taking them through each rooms of our apartment and showing them what was there. We had invited Misha and his wife, Sveta, for a mid afternoon dinner. Just as we were about to sit down for dinner, the doma (house) phone rang. It was the elders and sisters in our district. They came to sing us a special hymn and give us a good bye note from each of them. I cried, of course.  Goodbyes were delayed until Zone Conferences as we will see them again on Tuesday. Dinner was good and we all had a great time visiting until it was time to get the Jensens home. They are still in jet lag mode.

Misha and Paul were caught sitting exactly the same way.

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

Near to our apartment is a canal that runs close to the river. In doing some research we found out that it was built in order to make Moscow a sea port. Stalin wanted Moscow to become a vital shipping center so had a dream of connecting the Moscow river to all the major rivers which flow to the Baltic Sea. It required a deep canal to be dug 80 miles long. Of course, it was done with 'slave' labor and many gave their lives for his dream.  Cruise ships now use it to connect Moscow with St. Petersburg.





Missionary mothers are beginning to send Christmas packages to their missionaries. The packages are loved by the elders and sisters. Elder Jepson showed us what his mother had created to make his Christmas a special one. Evidently she sent several gifts, along with wrapping paper, to the home of a member in the International ward. The member wrapped the gifts and gave them to Elder Jepson. He was sent these darling stockings into which he is to put the gifts. That is one creative mother! 

ONLY ONE MORE POST...THE END IS COMING

POLICE AT OUR DOOR AGAIN!!!!

About three weeks after arriving in Moscow, we had the police pounding on our door in the middle of the night. This week, two weeks before we leave, the police were at our door once again.  At least this time, it was in the afternoon.  But even then it is a scary thing to open your door to a policeman.  He didn't speak any English but finally said 'passport.'  We got out our cop stoppers (a copy of our passports - you never want to hand the police your actual passport) and Paul gave his to the policeman. He looked at it and then started going on about something else. It was all in Russian so we had no idea what more he wanted.  The only thing we could do, at this point, was to call Luba at the mission office. She is our emergency contact in situations like this. The only problem is that she doesn't speak any English either.  To Luba on the phone, Paul said the Russian equivalent of Elder and Sister Millar - POLICE....and handed the phone to the policeman. Luba must have understood what might be happening as she talked to him for several minutes. Finally, the policeman handed the phone back to us, said 'spaceeba.' (the Russian thank you) and left.  All the time he was at the door, I was saying a prayer that we would be safe and not hauled off to the police station, as has been known to happen to a few missionaries. We really don't know what the visit was all about but we found out we needed to take a copy of our lease to the guard at the church building for the policeman to pick up the next morning. We think there must have been a complaint about our elders and sisters knocking on doors in our building on their way to our apartment. The tenants obviously are well aware that Mormon missionaries live in apartment 13, so when younger missionaries started knocking on their doors they connected us to them. We live in a small apartment building with only 24 apartments in the whole building. More than likely some tenants were contacted duplicate times and didn't like that.  We have put out the word not to contact in this building anymore as we don't want to get evicted or cause any problems for the new couple coming.

The rest of the week was wonderful. It started out on Monday with an incredible evening spent with the sisters and Lada. It was an evening of many miracles. The first miracle was that the sisters were impressed on Sunday to ask if Lada could meet with us.  Miracle two was that it was the only evening, all week, that we were available to have them in our home. When Lada arrived she had just found out that the bank, with whom she had interviewed, could not hire her due to the board's decision not to expand hiring. She has been out of work for several months and so she was very sad. To have this meeting scheduled so we could lift her spirits was another miracle.  The fourth miracle happened when the sister presented a well prepared message for Lada. The spirit was so strong and the message was just what Lada needed to help her. Miracle number five....this evening would be the last we would be able to be with Lada in our home as, on Saturday, she would be moving home to Ryazan to live with her Mom until she finds employment. The Lord knew we all needed to be together on this night.

These sisters love Lada as much as we do.

After the spiritual thought, we taught Lada how to "slam" with hot chocolate. The sisters couldn't find the right kind of cookies so they bought Kit Kats and they worked just fine.  Lada loved the hot chocolate as well as the Kit Kats. We, then, sang Christmas carols and watched the new LDS Christmas video, 'The Gift.' Before everyone left, Paul was able to give Lada a special blessing. It was the perfect ending to a very meaningful evening. When we spoke to Lada later in the week, she said she would always remember this evening as one of the most special nights in her life. It definitely will be a highlight experience of our mission.

Saying good bye, with Lada all

decked out in her mink coat. 

Tuesday morning was spent in preparing our lesson and deep cleaning our apartment. Paul was so good to get up and dust above the kitchen cabinets and vacuum the window screens.  That afternoon we jumped on the metro to go to the mission office for district meeting. Half of our district had gone on their visa trips and wouldn't be back from the airport until around 4 in the afternoon. To meet at the mission office was the most convenient place for them all. We wanted to present them with their Christmas gifts and attend this last meeting before all the changes of transfer week took place. After the meeting, we had planned to meet Sasha at TGI Fridays to treat him to dinner before we left but he called, at the last minute, and said he couldn't get away from work. Because we had both been thinking all day about the Jack Daniel ribs we were going to order, we decided to go ahead and have dinner there alone.  So Yummy!!!

Elder Stebbing in the Christmas spirit

On Wednesday, while I typed the outline for our Institute lesson, Paul washed down all the walls of the apartment. We are determined that this apartment will look very clean when we leave. That evening we attended our next to the last English group.  We are so impressed with the Goodells.  They are the senior couple who replaced our area CES couple, the PIersons.  Because several of the CES couples in East Europe Area take part in an English group, they wanted to see what it is all about....especially with the new gospel curriculum. Our discussion went very well so it was a good sample for them to observe.

Elder St. Clair, Alexander, and Elder Folkman

Thursday was the big day with the police coming.  He arrived at our door just after a discussion with our Elders and Alexander who is scheduled to be baptized at the end of the month.  He is a great young man whom we hope to get involved in the young singles' program. We are sad we will not be there for his baptism.

Getting ready for our

presentation

We were in charge of the presentation for our senior council meeting on Thursday night.  We talked about our mission and the different thing in which we have been involved. We shared some stories including our two visits by the police.  We also shared the many joys we have felt as we have worked with our missionaries and our young singles.  To give the other senior couples an idea of the kinds of things the young singles have been doing, we showed a slide show of some of the pictures we have taken at each activity for the past 17 months.  We are convinced that we have been serving in the choicest assignment possible for a senior couple.  We are so grateful for the experiences that have been ours and the many wonderful friendships we have developed with these young singles and missionaries.

We raced upstairs, at the completion of our presentation, to teach Institute.  We took a different approach to our lesson this week and showed videos for each concept we were teaching.  It was all under the heading of 'The Lord Requires the Heart and a Willing Mind.'  Our scripture block suggested 5 principles that require our whole heart and our willing mind in order to live them completely - paying tithing, not idling our time away, developing our talents, having reverence for the Lord's name, and forgiving others. The Goodells attended our class and seemed to enjoy our lesson and being with our wonderful students.  We followed Institute with our Pathway gatherings, getting home around 10 PM after a very busy, but fulfilling day.

Friday started out to be a slow day so we went to Red Square to find a gift for our friend, Karina, to let her know how much we love her and will miss her.  We found the perfect bear (a bear often represents Russia) who is holding a heart..... Russia will always hold our heart because of the many special friends we have made, like Karina. 
We came home to 2 sets of missionaries needing to use our computers and the International sisters bringing Caddice over for a discussion.  We hadn't seen Caddice for months so it was super to be with her one more time.  So much for a slow day.

Sister Grover, Sister Miller and Caddice

This was our last discussion with these two wonderful sisters.

Sister Miller went home and Sister Grover was transferred to a different district.

Luba on the left and Lilia on the right

We ended our day with a YSA activity at the Institute room.  There were about 25 in attendance.  After a spiritual thought and a "get to know you" game, four young singles did an improvisation skit.  We don't know what was said but the young singles were laughing real hard. After refreshments, we showed them the YSA slide show of the past 17 months. Everyone seemed to enjoy seeing themselves on the screen. We were glad that Lilia showed up so we could say good bye to her. She is a non-member who we met in English group and who has kind of adopted us as her 'Mormon' grandparents. We love her a lot and pray that someday she will join the Church.

Recently returned missionary Katarina (lt)

with Denis and Irena.

They are enjoying the rice krispie treats 

and marshmallow brownies we made.

Such a wonderful group of young singles

After Saturday night's stake conference meeting, we went out to dinner with the Hays and Goodells.  We wanted to visit with the Hays one more time before we left as we won't see them again until they come home in February. We ate at a Mexican restaurant we had been to before and the food was as good as we had remembered it. The Goodells appreciated knowing where a good restaurant was located as they haven't found any they have enjoyed since they arrived a month ago.

Sunday morning, we attended another session of Stake Conference.  As we arrived we noticed a group of young girls smiling and waving at us. When we got closer to them we realized they were some of the girls who were at last Saturday's Evening in Excellence where we had spoken.  It was like we were their best friends. So sweet.

At conference Olya, a new convert from our ward, spoke.  She is 17 and has only been a member for about 8 months, but she spoke like a life long member. She has such a strong testimony, just like her father, Andrey.  We were very glad there was a stake conference just before we leave Moscow as we were able to see many of our former Pathway students which we would not ordinarily see because they live in other wards or branches.

Alona in yellow, Luba in red 

cutting yellow and red 

vegetables, respectively

That evening the YSA council came to our home for dinner and a planning meeting. We loved having them in our home one last time before we leave.  We served Hawaiian haystacks with each of them bringing one of the toppings to add to the rice and chicken and sauces we provided.  These young singles had never had such a dish and they loved it, many of them coming back for seconds. As they were eating, we heard the comment, 'We are in heaven.'  We said good bye to many of them but will see a couple of them again before we leave, so we delayed our goodbyes to them until later.

All of us together for the last time.

We will miss these very creative and responsible young singles.

This week, we continued experiencing many lasts....our last YSA activity, YSA council planning meeting, and our last stake conference in Moscow......and hopefully the last time the police will show up at our door.

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

We were out walking one afternoon and passed a cafe we had passed many times.  It is called Woody's cafe.  Until this day we had no idea it was named after Woody Woodpecker, but apparently there is some connection as we saw this Woody costume outside the restaurant.

Moscow is a city filled with churches.  There must be one every few blocks.  They are all Russian Orthodox churches and come in all sizes and colors.  We've seen red, blue, pink, green, and white ones....massive ones and very small ones. They all have the domed roofs and most have bells towers.

Just a few of the churches

we have seen

Under construction but still beautiful

Moscow also is a city filled with parks and every park has a statue and usually a fountain in it.  We have seen some exquisite ones as we have traveled the city. The people really appreciate having so many parks and they take advantage of them all year round.  It is the one thing they can do to get out of their little apartments and get some fresh air.

Pictures never do justice to the beauty we have seen in the many fountain and statures we have seen

  

AND THUS ENDS ANOTHER WEEK...

ONE WEEK CLOSER TO THE END OF A GLORIOUS EXPEREINCE