ANOTHER GREAT WEEK IN MOSCOW, RUSSIA

Our third Saturday in Moscow was spent sight seeing, again.  We take Saturdays as our P-day (preparation day) and want to take advantage of the wonderful weather to see all we can before the cold winter sets in. Our adventure was to Kolomenskoe and the Wooden Palace.  It is a former royal estate just a little southwest of Moscow.  It overlooks the steep banks of the Moscow River.  The estate includes a reconstructed wooden palace which was just recently finished. It was rebuilt from a detailed model preserved from the 1700's.  The palace is at the far end of a large park, of which we walked the entire length of and back.  Along the way, we visited 3 cathedrals, the cabin of Peter the Great, a graveyard, and the estate's stables.

Above - The wooded palace from afar.

Below - a close up of the palace. 

 Our camera doesn't show its magnificent beauty

nor the intricacy of the workmanship.

The original place had 250 room and a maze of intricate corridors. 

It became famed for its fanciful, fairytale roofs.

The entrance room where we stopped to put on booties

to cover our shoes

A place of worship within

the walls of the palace.

Intricate mosiac structures, like this one, were

found in most rooms.  These were used to heat the

 individual rooms in the cold winters.

Lots of golds and reds were used through out the

rooms in the palace

    

In the basement there was a bath house

complete with a private sauna.

Our walk around the estate included over 200 stairs going down a gully and back up.

On our return trip to the palace, we traversed a second set of stairs, up and down again.

We certainly got our exercise for the day

This church is still being used.  In fact, we

observed a funeral in progress while we

were there

The Ascension church built in 1532 of white

stone to commemorate the birth of the future

heir to the throne, Ivan the Terrible

The three
cathedrals

we saw along our walk

This church is also still in use today.

The women must cover their heads before entering.

Peter the Great's cabin.  This was moved onto the

estate as a way to preserve it

Some of the ancient graves in an

old graveyard we walked through.

This Cinderella type coach was in the stable area 

of the estate.  It is probably used for bridal parties.

We saw many bridal photo shoots taking place

around the park.  Our princess loving granddaughters 

would love to ride in this carriage.

After a wonderful day touring, we decided to return to our neighborhood for a late lunch.  We went to a Mexican restaurant just across the street from where we live.  I think we found Moscow's answer to Cafe Rio ( a popular Mexican restaurant in Utah).  It is a Mexican grill type eatery where you select what you want on your salad or in your burrito.   The servers could understand English which made the ordering process much easier than usual.

The chicken salad. 

We'll definitely go there again

Sunday was an interesting day at church.  It was Fast and Testimony meeting.  The spirit was so strong until toward the end when a man went up to the pulpit and began telling us his conversion story to the Orthodox church.  He then started telling us how our church couldn't be a true church.  It was interesting how the spirit totally left the room as he spoke.  Everyone in the congregation was nice to the man, who at the end of church was outside handing out pamphlets for his church.  Interesting experience especially because we had an investigator sitting next to us whom I had called and invited to come.  

Sunday was also a busy day.  After church, we traveled on the metro to the apartment of one of our young single adult leaders for a council meeting.  It was a 'break the fast' meal of chicken or spiced hamburger wraps.  Delicious after of day of fasting.  The meeting was probably typical of young singles.....Lots of good ideas but little evidence of anyone carrying out the plans.  We were to have a sports night for family home evening the next night.  The committee chair was in attendance via Skype and reported that no plans had been finalized.  We were told  to meet at a certain metro station at 7:00 for an activity and left the meeting wondering what would happen the next night.



The ride to the Metro station where we were all to meet on Monday was right in the middle of rush hour.  As we left our apartment, we saw this mass of humanity heading toward the metro station.  We joined them and were literally pushed through the doors and toward the escalator.  As we got onto the train, we kept being pushed closer and closer together until Paul and I were literally nose to nose, and still more people were trying to squeeze through the doors before they shut. All we could do was laugh. Luckily the amount of people diminished after about 4 stops.  We were pleasantly surprised when lots of young singles showed up for the activity, including 3 investigators and an equal amount of missionary companionships.  The only problem was that it was a downpour outside, so instead of heading outside to a nearby park, we all boarded the metro again and headed back to the same station where we had gotten on earlier.  The activity would now be held at the central building in the institute room. How the word got out we don't know, but several more people showed up there, as well, and we had a very successful, relatively well planned activity.  There was even food served and a couple of fun games played.  

Sister Hawkins and Sister Carver walking

in the rain from the metro station to

the central building.

Our Young Single Adult  president

This young man was baptized the following Saturday

The evening turned out to be a real success and those who attended didn't even know of the last minute plans.

Tuesday brought another district meeting to our home with our Elders and Sisters. Despite the work, this is becoming our favorite day of the week......a spiritual highlight.  For lunch, we served chicken enchiladas, chips and fresh homemade salsa, vegetables, guacamole dip, and fruit.....thanks to all my glorious finds at the local market.

 It would be one of our elder's birthday next Tuesday but we would be in a Zone conference, so I made Hostess cupcakes for him.  They were a big hit.

Elder Moe, in the center, about ready to blow out his candle.

He was transferred Thursday to another district so we were

glad we celebrated his birthday before he left.

Our district leader is quite an amazing teacher.  Surprisingly he is a relatively young Elder, having been out only about 5 months.  He must spend lots of time in preparation for his lessons as they are very organized and well presented.  We always feel the spirit very strongly during them.  We love our elders and sisters.

Our district leader, Elder Hermison,  is in the center.  He and his companion,

Elder Melchor, met us at their metro station to take us to their apartment

for our quarterly check of their apartment.  It was clean but we found out

they are living without an oven and a toaster.  We'll have to see what we

can do about that.

We have seen lots of little miracles in our lives since we've been here.  We are involved in the Pathway program almost everyday trying to make sure our potential students take the English Proficiency Test and apply to the program.  We are on a deadline of August 21st to get all students tested and at least to the application stage of the admittance process.  We were in need of a CD in order to administer the test. It had been taken to another mission in Russia so a test could be given to a potential student who is on a mission there.  We asked for it to be sent to us as we needed it before Thursday.  Miraculously it arrived first thing Monday morning, taking only a couple of days to get to us.  A miracle, as the Russian mail is notoriously slow.

Also, we have been fasting and praying for enough students to have a full group this fall. Thursday, we were planning on testing 3 people and 5 showed up to take the test. Sunday, a new convert came up to me and expressed interest in the program. We tested her, along with a young man, on Tuesday.  Tonight, at English group, another lady came up to us and said she wanted to be a part of Pathway.  We are testing her tomorrow afternoon.  We needed 2 more students and it looks like we may have 8.  All of the ones we've tested so far have passed and are in the application process.  Definitely an answer to prayer.

Every Wednesday we are involved in what is called English Group.  People who want to learn English can come to our meetings where they can attend one of three groups, each a different level of English ability.  We are responsible for the group that knows English and wants to practice their skills through conversation.  We knew we needed to be to the sign up meeting, Wednesday, but had no idea we needed to come prepared with some kind of a get acquainted activity for our group.  As we were walking up the stairs to the room where we were to conduct the class, I said a little prayer asking for an idea for an activity.  Almost immediately I knew what we could do.  We ended up with 17 in our group.  We got to know everyone and everyone seemed to have a great time.  There was lots of smiles and laughter.  One of the girls in our group, said she hadn't wanted to come but did because her friend wanted her to.  By the end of the evening, she didn't want to leave as she felt such a warm and loving spirit there.  A good night.


Not a miracle, but Wednesday we found pizza....right in the mall close to our apartment.  We were in heaven as it tasted marvelous.  So good that the next night we picked up a whole one to take to our weekly Senior Council where the senior couples meet for a bring your own dinner and lesson night.  It's always fun to meet and visit with the other old people serving here in Moscow.

Friday we went to the apartment of another senior couple (the Burgners) for dinner with two other couples, then hurried back to attend a game night at the institute room.  This is a weekly time for the young singles to just hang out, visit, and play games.  There were only a few there this week, but it gave them a place to be together with friends.  


Saturday we were planning to visit Victory Park for our P-day activity, but Friday night we got a call from our Sisters telling us of a baptism of a young single adult scheduled for Saturday afternoon.  We excused ourselves from the planned outing and instead, baked cookies in the morning to take to the baptism that afternoon.

We took 5 dozen cookies with us to the baptism

Notice the container in the middle....the cookies are all gone.

They disappeared really fast.

Our two sisters and the young man, Arseme. who was baptized.

Many young single adults were there to support him.  In fact, they gave the

talks and the prayers, played the piano, led the music and even

did the baptizing.  

As we were walking to the metro from the baptism, we met up with this gentleman.  He had conducted the baptism and was also on his way home. We got to know him in the 15 minute walk to the metro and the 20 minute ride on the train.  We were so impressed with his testimony and dedication to the gospel. His name is Sergei.  

Saturday night we went to the movies......mission style.   We downloaded a movie, popped some microwave popcorn, poured us some pop and thoroughly enjoyed 
our make shift movie theater.

We even had surround sound as we hooked the computer up to

some speakers in our apartment.  Not quite our theater room at home

but it was a movie experience, none the less.

You'll laugh when you hear what we watched.  Paul is really into old, classical musicals so we watched 'Guys and Dolls' with Frank Sinatra and Marlin Brando.  It was entertaining.  Next time we'll have to try a newer release.

A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT LIFE IN RUSSIA

Capitalism is alive and well in Moscow.  We were amazed as we walked up to this mall.  Have you ever seen a mall like this in the states.  

The inside of the mall was equally as impressive.........lots of stores and 
a gigantic food court.

That's an H & M store 

The entrance to the food court

 

The food court......most any kind of food you would want

Paul felt silly
sitting in this
fairy tale area
but did it for me.




















We had come up to this mall because of the large super market within the mall.  Much to our dismay, it was closed for remodeling.  We did go into the major department store here, called Stockman's, and I found that they sell the face cream I use.



The other day we looked out our apartment window to the mall that is close to our home.  We saw these men washing windows.  No thought of safety here.  
There is obviously no OSHA in Russia.

Everywhere we walk there is construction going on, especially remodeling the older buildings in our area.  It is required that during the construction phase, a screen is hung to conceal the mess of the work being done.  It's interesting that this one almost looks like a completed building, windows and all.

One night this week, I was having one of my sleepless nights.  It was around 2 a.m. and I kept hearing a strange sound.  I first thought it was Paul snoring but soon realized the sound was coming from outside.  I went to our living room window, opened it and found out immediately the cause of the loud noise.  I looked down and there was a full team of men working on the road outside our apartment. They were jack hammering (hence the loud sound I heard) and bringing in truck loads of asphalt to repave the road.  There was no thought given to noise levels in the middle of the night and that people may be trying to sleep.

This is the best picture I could get in the middle of the night,

hanging out our window in my nightgown.

OUR WEEKS SEEM TO BE FLYING BY AS WE ARE BEING KEPT VERY BUSY.  WE WAKE UP EACH MORNING LOOKING FORWARD TO THE ADVENTURES THE NEW DAY MAY BRING.

MOVED IN AND LOVING EVERYTHING ABOUT OUR MISSION

Our apartment building -

fourth floor

We've been into our apartment almost two weeks now, and it is already feeling like home.  The day the Pierson's left, we moved from our temporary apartment in a pretty upscale part of town to our apartment right downtown Moscow.  From recessed ceilings, crystal chandeliers, and white leather furniture to our Ikea furnished flat.  It's all pretty simple but we wouldn't trade where we live with any of the other couples.  We are just a three minute walk to the central building where we seem to be more often then not, especially at night when the young singles have their activities, firesides, game nights and institute classes.  We are right in the middle of everything that happens in Moscow.

Our permanent apartment's living room

Our temporary apartment

Our rather large kitchen.  The table will seat 8 and there's adequate counter space for preparation,.

A pleasant surprise.

By Saturday night, we were all settled in with pictures of our family hanging on the walls. Now our apartment really felt like home.

Paul eating the first meal cooked in our new kitchen. 

Scrambled eggs was about all I could manage by Friday night.

On Saturday morning, we were off with two

Outside the walls of the Kremlin

other couples and two elders to do some

sight seeing in this beautiful city.  We all 

met at a nearby station in the metro and 

walked right up and out to the Kremlin.  

We decided to buy tickets to see the Armoury

which is a historical museum within the 

walls of the Kremlin.  There were so many 

gorgeous things displayed - crowns filled with 

precious gems, suits of armor, and luxurious 

carriages and gowns.  The opulent riches 

we saw were amazing - gold dishes of every 

shape and kind, huge scripture cases inlaid 

with jewels, and glorious icons of biblical scenes. There was even a display a some magnificent faberge eggs

The Grand Palace from afar

We only paid for a tour of the armoury so we didn't see anything else inside the Kremlin except the Grand Palace. We understand you have to have a special invitation to go inside; but we will go back to see and tour the many cathedrals within the walls of the Kremlin.

Walking to the Red Square, we passed

this eternal flame complete with 

standing guards

The two office elders in

our district.

This is Goom Department Store (spelled RYM  in Russian) in the Red Square.

It's a notoriously expensive store in a mall of equally upscale stores.

The Russian Historical Museum at one end of Red Square

The pinnacle of Russian architecture

SAINT BASIL'S CATHEDRAL

We kept pinching ourselves as we walked closer to this magnificent building asking if we could really be here in Moscow seeing this symbol of Russia.  It got more beautiful as we got closer.  The inside was equally as breathtaking with it's Christian icons and intricately painted walls.

Such a day we will never forget!

          Sunday, Paul spoke in church through an interpreter, except at the end when he bore his testimony in Russian.  We know the Bishop's invitation to speak was an answer to our prayers.  We were in need of a few more students to apply to the Pathway program in order for us to begin a new group (cohort) through BYU Idaho. Two students who are already registered moved to Moscow, specifically, to begin Pathway so we felt a real need to gather more students.  We needed a total of 10 students to begin a new group and we only had 8 in the application/registration process.  When the Bishop called, he asked Paul to introduce us and to talk about our responsibilities in the Church Education Program (CES).  This was a great way to introduce the Pathway program and let the members know we were still in the English testing mode and they could still take the test and apply to the program. The Pathway program is a BYU Idaho sponsored program where students, here in Moscow, can establish residency at BYUI by attending a year in an Academic Start program.  They earn 15 college credits by taking online classes for 3 semesters. Every Thursday, they attend our English institute class and stay for a gathering meeting to discuss the online learning of the week.  When they complete this first year, they can continue with their education with online classes until they have attained the degree they desire. The cost is greatly reduced for them and they can earn an associate or bachelor degree.   All the classes online are in English, hence, the English Proficiency Exam is a prerequisite to joining Pathway.  After the meeting we had three people approach us with interest in starting the program.  It's a good start.  We have until August 21 to get 10 students to apply.  Just a little pressure.

This is where Paul spends a lot of his time....in our office at home

on the computer.  He has had to learn the Pathway program fast

because of the application deadline facing us.  

Our ward is really special.  It's a very young ward.  Our Bishop is probably in his 20's and the stake president is 31.  The young singles hold many leadership positions and are the backbone to all the wards and branches in the stake.  We are excited about the ward's zeal for missionary work and the good examples they are to the world outside.  The primary children sang in church and there was a total of 5 children. We're thinking that some families are on vacation as this is the time they travel to their daccha's (Small homes on small plots of ground given to families decades ago to farm).  It's a way for them to get away from the busy and pressured life here in the city. What we have learned is that the church is true all around the world.  It was exciting to hear the same Sunday School and Relief Society/Priesthood lessons given here as were being presented back home.   

We had a district meeting at our home this week.  We love these days, even though it is a lot of work for me in the kitchen.  I served spaghetti and noodles, Olive Garden salad and breadsticks.  I was up half the night on Monday making the breadsticks as I was afraid to leave them till Tuesday morning, having not used my oven before for any serious baking.  It all turned out great.  The Elders and Sisters were blown away
with the dessert......a cookie pizza.

This was all that was left of 4 cookie pizzas.....GONE!

This week I finally found time to cook a full meal. Our schedule is such that we are gone most evenings before dinner so our eating schedule is a little off.  Often we are eating fruit and cheese late at night, instead of dinner. Maybe with all the walking we do and our eating schedule we'll loose a few pounds.

Baked chicken with Bernnaise sauce (brought from home),

broccoli and fruit.  Pretty simple but really good.

One of our responsibilities every quarter is to check the apartments of the Elders and Sisters in our district.  We make sure they are clean and organized, that they have sufficient cleaning supplies as well as a two week supply of food in case of emergency.  We even have to check their area book to make sure they are keeping it up to date.  Of course, I decided to make cookies and take with us for the Elders and Sisters.  Probably not a good tradition to start but it's so fun to see the excitement on their faces when I pull them out of my bag after we check their apartment.  

We checked Elder Mark's and Moe's apartment this week and found they only had the typical Russian type broom to clean with.  These brooms are used everywhere in public places to keep the areas clean.  Elder Marks had made borsh the night before and insisted we take some home with us.  We took it home, blended it up (there were big chunks of lots of interesting things in it), heated it and ate it for our lunch. It was surprisingly good.

Elder Moe and Marks

The broom of Russia

Beet red soup or borsh

A church on the way to our

neighborhood Mcdonald's

We have learned to appreciate the simple things in life here in Russia like

    ........Bells ringing several times a day from the many churches in our neighborhood.

Taken from our living room window.

A little church right by our central

building

....feeding the pigeons at our kitchen window. They will follow the breadcrumbs right into our kitchen if we are not careful.

...... listening to music as we have no television.  We brought a remote speaker that picks up the music from our Ipad so we can hear beautiful music where ever we are in our apartment.

...... and watching BYU sports on our Ipad when we are relaxing at home.

We have also decided we will never take some things for granted ever again, like.........

  
     WASHING MACHINES that can do more than one large towel at a time (but at least we have a washing machine, right?).......

       and a CLOTHES DRYER.......we have a fan and a drying rack.

     and AUTOMOBILES.  We have sore feet from all the walking we have to do.  Thank goodness for the metro system.  We are becoming quite proficient at getting around on it. Also with a car at home, you can go to the grocery store, buy whatever you want in whatever large quantity you need, roll a grocery cart to your car, put the groceries in your trunk and drive home.  Not so here......This is our method of getting groceries home to our apartment.

We are so glad we bought this pull cart.

A life saver.

Taking a break at the metro station,

from the heavy loads we were carrying

     and DISHWASHERS.   Thank goodness for Paul.  He's our number 1 dishwasher just as he was in Utah.

   
    and CREAM OF CHICKEN SOUP.  I had to make it from scratch the other day to use in a favorite recipe.

     and QUALITY CAKE DECORATING TUBES.  Last week, I was so excited to find an inexpensive cake decorating kit at Ashwan's.  It was only a few dollars but I thought it would work.  I was filling Hostess cupcakes and on the first squeeze the whole tube split apart.  Thank goodness for duct tape.

     and FULL SIZED, WORKING ELEVATORS.  We live on the fourth floor and twice now, in a week, our tiny elevator has not been working. Going up the stairs isn't too bad unless we are carrying groceries, which we usually are.  We have been caught in the doors several time as they, like the subway doors, close very quickly. Also, as soon as the doors close, the light inside goes off.  If we haven't pushed our floor button, we have to use the braille method to find and push it.  Interesting experience.

  
    and GARBAGE DISPOSALS.  We take several trips to the trash bins across the street so as not to have stinky garbage in the kitchen.

   and STOVE FANS THAT ARE RECESSED.  Paul is continually hitting his head on the stove fan as it sticks out several inches beyond the stove.  It is at a height that my head clears it but Paul's does not.  It is also right by the kitchen sink so as Paul reaches for dishes on the counter, his head often gets in the way of the fan.  OUCH!

      and GROCERY STORES WITH AN ABUNDANCE OF PRODUCTS.  We have two little grocery stores by us and we get so excited when we find what we want and what we are used to finding easily in the states....ie: corn tortilla shells.  We found these the other day and couldn't wait to have tacos for dinner.

Ohhh!  So good

For district meeting this week, I wanted to make a Mexican type dinner but I needed to find fresh salsa ingredients.  That was a trick as all the labels are in Russian.  I looked up the word for cilantro on Google Translate and went rummaging through all the packaged fresh herbs till I found it.  As I was walking out of the small produce sections, I just happened to noticed a long, thin green pepper.  Yeah, it was a hot pepper similar to a serano pepper.  I could now make fresh homemade salsa.  I even found tortilla chips and ripe avocado in the same store.  Such of find!  Oh the little things that bring such great pleasure.

  
     and, last, BEING ABLE TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE PEOPLE AROUND US.  When we got this call, we were surprised because we had requested an English speaking mission. We talked to the CES area supervisor about the language and his comment was....'no problem, everybody speaks English.'  NOT!  These shirts were made for us by Andrea for Father's day before we left.  We haven't had the nerve to wear them but often think of their message.  It is frustrating to want to communicate and not being able to, especially ordering food in a restaurant. 

BUT......

WE WOULDN'T TRADE THIS EXPERIENCE FOR ANYTHING.  

WE ARE LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF OUR MISSION ADVENTURE.