We have had water dripping from the upstairs apartment into ours occasionally since we moved in, but this week it got really bad. We came home on Wednesday night after English group and noticed a puddle of water in the toilet area of the bathroom. It was dripping down the walls and through the metal slats of the ceiling. We put buckets in the room to catch it and after about an hour it stopped. Friday morning I went into the bathtub area and could hear dripping from upstairs onto the metal ceiling. It sounded like I was in a rainstorm as the drips were many. Soon we noticed the water coming down the walls in several places. It then began dripping into the bathtub and also on my head as I was trying to put on my make up. Our indoor 'rainstorm' lasted about two hours. Paul took down part of the dropped ceiling, poured out the excess water that had gathered on the slats, and that's when he noticed the ceiling above the bathroom area was wet and moldy. YUK! We didn't know exactly what to do as we can't communicate with the people upstairs to tell them of the problem. We emailed our landlord, who is living in Australia, and she got back to us with the name of a man who speaks English and Russian. Luckily, he could come by in the afternoon and assess the problem. He tried knocking on the door upstairs but no one answered. He said he would write a letter in Russian that we could hang on their door explaining the problem. Paul spent the afternoon cleaning up the area and putting the ceiling back together while I sat in on one of two missionary discussions that afternoon. By Saturday morning we had the letter printed and taped onto their door. Since they got word about the water problem we have only heard a few drips onto the ceiling but nothing has come through. Everyday is a worry, though, as we wonder when the next flood will come.
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Drip, drip drip.....
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Ceiling torn apart
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So much for our water issue....now for the week.
We attended another marvelous fireside with Sister Lawrence. She was as amazing as always as she spoke to us about justification and sanctification. We're so grateful for her studying and insight that she is willing to share. We are aware of our inadequacies and want to be better so we can know our lives have been sanctified by God.
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Cafe Rio Salad complete
with corn strips on top
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At District meeting on Tuesday we welcomed 3 new missionaries to our district. It will be fun to get to know them and love them. We served Cafe Rio Pork salads. They loved them.
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Our new Sister Taylor (right) with Sister Hunter
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Elder Beauchemin (right), the new Assistant to the President
with Elder Friar. These two were MTC companions and
are enjoying being together again.
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| Elder Welch (left) in joining Elder Eliason in the office. |
We noticed that a couple of the elders were in short sleeve shirts and no suit coats when they came to our home for district meeting. Paul has been anxious to retire his long sleeve shirts but hadn't received word that it was approved yet. The elders told us the President has sent out notice just the day before and Paul was delighted. Last year the approval didn't come until June and the elders were dying in their long sleeve shirts and coats.
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| The very next day, Paul excitedly donned his short sleeve shirt. |
We began a new semester of Institute and Pathway on Thursday. We taught about Korihor and the Zoramites and their antichrist philosophies. It was interesting to find comparisons in today's world. Mormon saw our day and knew what we would need to combat Satan and his forces. That is why we read of these things in the Book of Mormon. We concluded our lesson with Alma's advice as to how to fight against these antichrist philosophies....humility, faith, prayer, and believing in the power of the Atonement. A pretty powerful lesson.
Our Pathway is taking on a new look this semester. Because of local laws regarding teaching without licenses, we have to be very careful that we are only in a discussion mode, not a teaching mode. That's what Pathway is all about....discussing with each other their online learning for the week. So there will be no question, we are now sitting in a circle with the discussion leader sitting also. Paul and I were the discussion leaders this week and it worked out quite well. It was very informal and rather fun to be in an intimate circle. I am facilitating the English cohort and Paul is doing Math again. We are so impressed with the dedication of these young singles. They all hold down jobs and some go to school, yet they find time to do their online studies through BYU Idaho. WOW!
After our 'rainstorm' on Friday morning, we went out to inspect an apartment of one of our elder companionships. We also had two missionary discussions in our apartment. The second one was with a man from Vietnam named Neen. We immediately recognized him from our English group on Wednesday night. He speaks relatively good English so the discussion was in English. It was his first but he was very receptive. Just as they were ending their discussion, our seminary student, Isaac, arrived for our class with him. Game night followed that lesson. Busy day, for sure.
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These Russian dancers were performing
as part of the festivities
taking place on Arbat street .
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We attended a seminary/institute teacher training meeting for 3 hours on Saturday. Our director put it on. He reviewed some of the things we had learned in the MTC about teaching. It was good to be reminded so we can check our teaching methods to see if we are in compliance with the manual. After the meeting, we opted to go to Shake Shack for lunch for one of their delicious hamburgers. There was some kind of a celebration going on. We think it might be in connection with the upcoming May 1st holiday. There were booths set up, as there were at Christmas time, for vendors to sell their food and wares.
The rest of the day and into the evening was spent baking. We needed to have refreshments for a baptism, a dinner and a fireside...as well as treats for our elders when we inspect their apartments on Monday.
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Spaghetti was served for
the YSA council dinner
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We didn't have a spare minute on Sunday. After our Sacrament meeting, we came home, picked up treats for a baptism, jumped on the metro, traveled the 25 minutes to the metro stop, and walked the 15 minutes to the church. As we arrived, we were greeted by two sister missionaries who told us the baptism had been canceled until a later date. We turned around and went back home to get ready for a dinner we were hosting for our young single adult council. They are a new council and wanted to have a small party after a short meeting. We were glad they wanted to hold it in our apartment. This was followed by a YSA fireside with our new stake president and his wife. We were so impressed with his message to the youth as well as his method of presentation. He will have such a powerful effect on the lives of these young people as he wants to spend time with them in this format often. He and his wife are perfect examples of what they should strive to be like.
As the council left our apartment they gave us this envelop. It said to open when we get homesick for our family at home. We opened it the next day to find this sweet note expressing their love for us. So very thoughtful....we love these young singles here in Moscow and will miss them when we have to say good bye. They have become our family away from home.
LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT
The pigeons are back at our window so it must be Spring. We have missed not having pigeons at our window each morning during the Winter. They are back in force. Everywhere you walk in Moscow there are pigeons all around. We had heard some superstitions about pigeons and wanted to make sure they were true so I did some research. I couldn't find any reference to what we had heard but did find out that the bride and groom release pigeons into the air after their wedding ceremony. Often the bride's pigeon has a pink ribbon tied around its neck and the groom's pigeon has a blue one. The tradition is that whichever bird rises higher indicates the gender of their first child. Pigeons are also used in religious ceremonies, especially on Lady Day. This is the day celebrated as the day Gabriel announced to Mary that she would be the mother of the Son of God. On this day, white pigeons are released into the air by the priests, signifying the Holy Spirit and the Good News.
As we inspected our elders apartments this week we have noticed several signs they have hanging in their apartments. We just had to take pictures of them.
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Loved this one!
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This is on the door so the missionaries will see it as they leave.
We think they change the word in white
depending on what their goal is for the week.
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Russians love their holidays and they have a lot of them. There are two back to back holidays this month. In Russia, they don't celebrate Mother's day but do have a labor day (May 1st) which is stretched into a 4 day vacation from work. This is followed by a May 9th holiday which is the day when the big military parades take place in and around the Red Square. Supposedly, this is a really big holiday where much patriotism is shown.
ANOTHER GREAT WEEK....WATER AND ALL!
This is the day of much patriotism and pride in this country for its citizens. We were especially impressed with the reverence in which the veterans of World War II are held. Many of them wear their medal adorned uniforms and walk around in public places on this day. People come up to them, shake their hands, and present them with flowers. It was a wonderful sight to see. Another way of honoring the veterans of all wars was the wearing of orange and black ribbons. We couldn't figure out if you had to be a veteran to wear one, but many people were wearing them on this day. The orange and black ribbon signifies something about being a brave warrior. When we were in the room of the Kremlin Palace designed for the honoring of the country's soldiers, we noticed the benches were done in the same orange and black stripe. 
Of course the best thing was talking with each of our children. That is always a joy. In lieu of having family over to celebrate, we invited six of our missionaries over for a buffet of ham and fold over rolls, mustard sauce, a fruit salad, a potato salad, vegetables and dip and chips. We wanted it to be an all American, typical Mother's day fare. These six were skyping home at 4, 5, 6 and 8 Sunday evening so we decided to set up the buffet at 7 for them all to enjoy. It was fun to talk with them after they had talked with their families. They were so excited to have had that opportunity. Missionaries skyping home at our apartment actually started Saturday at 4 when the International sisters came to our apartment. The East Zone leaders then came at 8:30 Sunday morning. We are glad we could help them get in contact with family.
Wednesday was English group and Thursday was Institute and Gathering. Our lesson was on Alma's counsel to his sons. We used the late Dean Conrad's 'Satan's Ball Court' concept. He always talked about staying out of Satan's ball court by living the standards of the church. We used that same idea as we discussed Alma's advice to his son Corianton on how to avoid Satan's temptations. We think it was effective.
Canned applesauce is hard to find so this week I made my own. I wanted to make an applesauce cake so I peeled, sliced, cooked and blended the apples for a pretty good applesauce. It doesn't compare to applesauce made with Utah apples but it made a good applesauce cake.
