AN EXTENDED VISA TRIP TO RIGA, LATVIA HIGHLIGHTED OUR WEEK

Riga is dotted with beautiful
parks and gardens like this one.

Every six months all missionaries have to leave the country in order to renew their migration papers. In January, we flew to Riga and returned that same day which is what all the young missionaries do. For this trip we decided to take an extra two days and actually visit the city of Riga and not just the airport. We are so glad we did as Riga is an absolutely beautiful city. 

A panoramic view of Riga's Old Town.

Paul and Dick Pierson talking with Elder Atkinson.
Elder Atkinson (next to the car) went to 
Pleasant Grove high school.  He
and Paul played basketball for Coach Crump and
 knew a lot of the same people.....small world.

We flew into Riga with the Piersons on Monday and spent the afternoon with the Atkinsons, the CES couple assigned to the Baltic States, living in Riga.  We had a wonderful visit with them and their coordinator, Onte. They are doing great work with the young singles in Riga and surrounding areas. Their apartment is huge (our whole apartment would fit in their living room and kitchen area) and is located just above the YSA center. The chapel for their church meetings is located in the building next door. Quite convenient.  This is the Atkinsons 4th mission.  We were in awe of their dedication to the Lord's work.  We ended the evening together with dinner at a local restaurant, The Lido.  This buffet type restaurant was highly recommended to us as it served authentic Latvian food.  My salmon was very good but Paul's pork and cheese dish was covered in onions....much to his dismay.

The side view of the oldest church
just outside the Atkinson's apartment

The front view of the oldest
church in Riga

This wash basin was in the lobby of the Lido Restaurant.
Interesting place to wash up before dinner.

Paul standing on Riga's
lock bridge which spans
the canal.

The next day was our day to see Riga. We started walking and came across a lovely park with the city canal running through it. We decided to take a boat ride around the canals of the city. There is a small canal which empties into a larger canal that divides the city. It was a delightful ride with a wonderful view of old town once we got out into the large canal.

Riga's answer to Venice, Italy's gondolas

Waiting for the canal ride to begin

Entering the large canal

Along the small canal

A walking tour of old town was next on our agenda. With map in hand, Paul led us to all the sights in old town....exquisite cathedrals, open air restaurants, and beautiful historical buildings. We ate lunch at an Italian restaurant and then found a frozen yogurt shop, YoYo's, for a late afternoon treat. As we were finishing our yogurt, we felt a few rain drops and, before we knew it, we were in a down pour.  When it stopped for a few minutes, we decided this would be a good time to catch the city tour bus to see the rest of the city in a covered vehicle.  We were glad we made that decision for as soon as we entered the bus the rains came down with a vengeance. We would have been thoroughly soaked had we decided to head back to our hotel. As it was, we got a great feel for the rest of the city outside of Old Town and, by the end of the tour, the rains had let up enough for us to walk home. Granted we were all a little wet by the time we reached our hotel, but not drenched. A fun day.

The Freedom Monument

A Russian Orthodox Cathedral

Some of the many outdoor cafes

The UNESCO seal honoring
Riga as a world historical sight
because of its Art Nouveau buildings
and wooden houses.

The historic Church of St. Peter

An example of the Art Nouveau  style
of architecture so prevalent in Riga

House of Blackheads - a concert hall first built in 1334.
Destroyed in WWII and rebuilt in 1990

The Three Brother - an example of the construction in
medieval age of Riga

Riga's Dome Cathedral

Powder Tower - the only

structure still standing of

the city's early fortification wall

Waiting for the doors to open

Wednesday, our flight didn't leave until 5 in the afternoon so we had some time to explore some more of the city. The Atkinsons had told us about a very sobering KGB building that conducted an English tour at 10:30 each day. Dick, Paul and I opted to go on that tour. Jeanie had no desire to see it so she went off on her own for the couple of hours we were gone. We were so taken by the magnitude of the pain and suffering these Latvians experienced under Soviet rule. It began in 1940 when the Russian troops invaded Latvia. They killed or imprisoned anyone who had been in the government or the military.  They also punished anyone who in any way, spoke out against the new regime. This was done under the guise of a Soviet law that said they could imprison and interrogate anyone who displayed behavior considered in opposition to the Soviet Regime.  We heard of an old lady who was imprisoned and tortured because she complained about the government confiscating her property. This continued until 1941 when Germany occupied Latvia. Then after the the war, Latvia again came under the rule of the Soviets.  At that time they again began imprisoning, torturing, and putting to death anyone in opposition to the regime. 

A monument on the side of the building honors those who were imprisoned here.

It reads: During the Soviet occupation the State Security Agency (KGB) tortured,

 killed and morally humiliated its victims in this building.

The conditions in the prison were inhumane. The prisoners were housed 35 to a cell meant for 6. They could not sleep during the day and at night the lights were turned on brighter. If you laid down to try and sleep they had to have their eyes facing the bright light. The reason...to sleep deprive their prisoners so they would be more likely to confess to the trumped up charges against them. Hot air was pumped into the cells so they lived in sauna like conditions and they were only allowed out of the cell once a day to go to the bathroom, once every 10 days for a shower, and once every 10 days to two weeks for a short walk in a confined courtyard. We wondered how anyone survived any of this. We were amazed that this confinement continued up into the 1990's when the Soviet Union fell.  We were told that after Stalin's death the punishment was not quite as severe though still feared. The building was called the 'house on the corner' because those summoned to the building entered a door that faced the corner of the street. Those who entered were often never heard of again. They were either killed, imprisoned, or deported to Siberia. Such sad times. Rightly so, the Latvian's cherish their freedom and worry about what their future holds.

The house on the corner

The inside courtyard where we

 waited for the tour to start

A typical  cell in which many prisoners were crammed

The peep hole where the guards could look into to make

sure the prisoners were obeying the rules while in their cells...

no sleeping during the day, no talking, and eyes toward the light when sleeping at night.

The cell door

The small courtyard  where prisoners

were allowed to walk every 10 days

In Riga, wooden houses are protected and can't be torn down.

This one has been restored and is in use.  Other are not being

used and are very run down but cannot be destroyed.

A great TexMex restaurant we found for lunch

The outside of our hotel was made of glass panels that have been

etched with the words of  Latvian folk songs.

Folk songs are treasured here.

This is an interesting statue.  There are four different figures

inside the wooden structure.  They come up one at a time

at different times throughout the day.

A towel and a bucket are now a 

permanent sight in our bedroom

When we got home from Riga, our home was extremely hot as the temperatures had been in the 90's while we were gone. We promptly turned on our little air conditioner unit in our bedroom to cool that room off so we could sleep comfortably.  Just as we were getting into bed, we heard the sound of dripping water.  When we turned on the light, we found that our air conditioner was leaking water in our bedroom instead of draining outside as it is supposed to do. We promptly turned it off....thank goodness for a fan that could blow right on us.

My konga pouch.  Paul's is

black and fastens on to his belt.

Thursday, we headed up to the mission office to get our papers updated.  As missionaries, we have to carry our passport on our person at all times. We do that in a konga pouch worn around our waists.  We are told never to give our passports to a police officer if we are stopped. Instead, the office has prepared a sheet of paper referred to a cop stopper. It is a copy of our passport and our migration card and should be enough to satisfy a police officers inquiry into our legality.  It is that migration card that has to be updated every six months for most of us. The mission office has to send in the papers we received at the airport and get an official migration card within one week of our returning to Moscow.... hence the trip to the mission office on Thursday.

Later that night we attended senior council. The Broadbents had the responsibility of the evening's activity.  They gave us a most insightful set of questions regarding scriptural accounts in the Book of Mormon. We had a competition between the men and women. The multiple choice questions got us really thinking. For example: What period of time took place between the destruction in the Americas and the appearance of Christ to the people there? Almost a year is the answer. We all thought it was 3 days and that He appeared right after they heard His voice. Not so, if you check the dates at the bottom of the pages in 3rd Nephi.

Friday, we made some plans for Todd and Kailee's visit, worked on a YSA video, and then went to game night.  We were grateful to be in an air conditioned room for the evening as it was very hot in our apartment and not a real comfortable place to be for very long.  With air conditioning only in our bedroom, the rest of the house stays mighty warm when the temperature get into the 90's with no breeze.


After fast and testimony meeting on Sunday, we enjoyed a quiet afternoon until early evening when 5 BYU students and 3 of their friends came to our apartment for pie. The BYU students have been here for several months on a study/work program from the university. Garrett and Jeff often came to our Institute class. I promised Jeff I would have everyone over for pie before they left for America. Sunday was the decided upon date as they all left the next day. We enjoyed their visit, though it was not without incident. When they arrived, they buzzed our apartment and we pressed the button to let them in. Several minutes past and no one came up to our apartment. It was then we got a call from Garrett telling us they were stuck in the elevator in our apartment. Luckily there is a button in the elevator to push for emergencies but it still left 5 of them stuck in our tiny elevator for over a half hour. They were very hot and sweaty by the time they finally got up to our apartment. They said they felt like they had been in a sauna. We all decided they needed one more thing to laugh about before leaving Russia. We thoroughly enjoyed their visit and they enjoyed the pie.  

Lemon Cream and Banana

Cream pies

Our special friend, Sasha, loved the

lemon cream pie....she said she was in

heaven eating it.

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

While we were waiting in the station for our express train to the airport, we noticed this vending machine. It contains a yellow plastic wrap product that is used to wrap traveler's luggage. For just under ten dollars, a man opens the machine, pulls our the end of the wrap and totally covers your luggage. We can't understand this. In America, aren't we told to be sure our suitcases are unlocked so they can be inspected, if needed? These wrapped pieces of luggage certainly could not be inspected very easily.  

Friday night when I couldn't sleep, I opened up Facebook and read a post from one of our Russian YSAs saying how he will miss the chili at Wendy's. This prompted me to look on line about the future of Wendy's in Russia. According to the the article, the eight Wendy's are all closing soon, if they haven't already. The article was entitled, "Russia too 'chili' for Wendy's". Great play on words.  Paul ate his last 39 ruble hamburger on Saturday when we ran up to Metropolis mall to do some shopping. 

ANOTHER AMAZING WEEK!!!!!

DINNER FOR 75 HUNGRY MISSIONARIES HEADS OUR WEEK

The room all set and awaiting

the hungry missionaries

A couple of weeks ago, Sister Borders, our mission president's wife, called and asked if I would plan a lunch for the Moscow missionaries to eat during the mission meeting with President Bennett of the Area Presidency. It was to be on Tuesday, the 22nd, and would be in place of our district meeting for the week. It was determined there would be about 75 to feed, but we both agreed that we should plan for 100. She said she would help but wanted me to plan what we would have and make food assignments to her and to the other senior couples. We decided to do the tried and tested soft tacos with refried beans and spiced hamburger. That meal is always a big hit with the missionaries and is relatively easy to pull off for a large group. Along with the tacos, we served watermelon wedges; and the senior couples brought brownies for dessert. Since she has access to a car, Sister Borders did the majority of the shopping which is the biggest headache when cooking for that size of a group. With no car, everything has to be carried from the stores by hand. We were grateful we only had to buy the tortillas, lettuce, and the ingredients for the beans. The food buffet consisted of both hard shells (75) and soft tortillas (115), a large crock pot of refried beans, two large crock pots of spiced hamburger, cheese (10 pounds), lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream and salsa.......and it was all eaten.  We had some mighty hungry missionaries and they were thrilled when we announced they could have seconds.....and thirds for some. We were so grateful for the senior couples who came to help us set up, serve and clean up. 

The senior sisters waiting to

start serving

The buffet line starting

with Sister Borders

Two of our favorite sisters - Sisters Shepherd and Taylor

with their plates full.

Elder Crawford and his family, who came to pick him up when

he was released from his mission a couple of weeks ago.

They dropped by the building just as we finished up lunch

to eat their own lunch before going out for more sight seeing.

The meal was great but the meeting with President Bennett was wonderful. The missionaries were challenged to contact more on their way to appointments and to issue more baptismal invitations to their investigators.  Everyone left with a renewed commitment to work a little harder to help hasten the Lord's work here in Russia. These missionaries are such choice young men and young women and only want to serve the Lord.

We had a great experience right after the mission meeting.  Elder Eliason and Elder Melchor asked if we would sit in on a discussion with Damian.  He had called the AP's the night before asking where he could find the church. They gave him directions and he walked in just as our meeting was getting over. He was very eager to learn about our church. It seems he has spent the last 5 years in New Zealand and loved the church he was attending there.  He said the people were happy even in the face of much hardship. Upon returning to Moscow, he didn't like what he found in the churches here as everyone seemed sad. He was talking with a friend who had met with the missionaries some time ago. This friend just happened to have the missionaries' phone number on a card in his wallet and gave it to Damian, telling him that he may like what our church could offer him. He called that number and got the AP's the night before. As we met, Damian kept saying that God must have directed him here. We think so, too. Miracle one is that the friend still had the phone number in his wallet. Miracle two is that he dropped by the church just as our meeting was dismissing. The discussion went very well.  He readily accepted a Book of Mormon and committed to read it and pray about it. He loved the idea of how, in our church, families are number one.  He loves his little boy and and wants him to be brought up as a kind and loving Christian.  We were so glad we had the opportunity of meeting with him.

The completed pizzas for Thursday night

Wednesday was a lesson prep day and a day to bake the crusts for three kinds of pizzas - a vegetable pizza, a fruit pizza and two cookie pizzas.  This was in preparation for our celebration of the end of our Institute and Pathway semesters.  In the evening, I went to English group while Paul served as a proctor for a former Pathway student, Konstantin, as he took an exam from BYU Idaho. Konstantin is working hard in his on line schooling and was just called to be the Branch President of the University Branch.  Paul was glad he could help.

Our third semester English cohort.

From left to right:Margarita, Vladimir, Andrey, Lada,

 Sasha, Vlad, Lyudmila, and Victoria.

Thursday was another milestone - our third semester of Institute and Pathway is over. Our 8 students in the English class completed their year of Pathway and are now ready to matriculate into the regular courses offered at BYU-Idaho as they pursue a college degree. We will miss them terribly as we have been with this particular group since we arrived a year ago. The whole class got A's in English writing and that was because they were so willing to help each other improve their skills. Everyone enjoyed the pizzas we brought to celebrate the semester's end.  We won't start up again until into September.

After class, Lada came to our home to visit with us for an hour before her train left for Ryazan. Her mom lives there so she was going for a visit to take care of some business. She was taking the midnight train as she had to be there for an appointment in the morning. We could not allow her to hang out at the train station for an hour and a half so we insisted she come and spend the time at our home. She was excited to come and we had a wonderful visit. She shared her story with us. Her mom was married for only six months to her Dad, whom Lada never knew. Her mom, then, married a childhood sweetheart.  When Lada was about 6 years old, her new dad was killed. They have never found out what happened. He just didn't return home from work one day and, several months later, they found record of his death (cause of death unknown), and his burial (by the government).  No one ever even tried to contact them as was the way things were done then.  Her mom has dedicated her whole life to raising Lada and her little brother.  We love Lada....and her mom


Friday was a strange day.  We had no study deadlines, no missionaries scheduled to come over for a discussion, and no activities with our young singles as they are all at a conference.  We felt a little out of it with nothing pressing that had to be done. We filled our day by cleaning out our office, throwing away lesson materials we won't use again, and organizing materials on all our shelves. The bathrooms also got a thorough cleaning. This is the beginning of a Spring cleaning of our whole apartment. It will be nice to have a little time to focus on that. 
In the afternoon, we decide to travel to Arbat street to see if the Wendy's there still had the Baja salad. We were so surprised to see that Wendy's on Arbat street was not there anymore. That happens a lot in Moscow......businesses come and go but we were surprised that a Wendy's had gone out of business.  We ended up at Shake Shack (much to my delight) for a hamburger. After lunch, we just had to try the new Tutti Fruiti shop that opened up across the street from Shake Shack.  Yummy frozen yogurt....a new taste for Russians, we think.  As we were eating our yogurt, we watched this man and his snake cause quite an excitement for the people passing by.  A little creepy but the children were enthralled.

It was back to Ismylova market for a few more gifts on Saturday. We feel pressured to buy as many as was can before Todd and Kailee arrive.  While we were at Evonne's booth we ran into the Hays.  They were buying a Matruska doll for themselves.  We walked out with them after making our purchases and went to KFC for lunch together. They have it real rough....in August they will be taking a trip to Rome, Italy for some training in Self Reliance which falls under their responsibilities. We sure wish we could tag along....but then we were able to go to Turkey so we can't complain.

Dennis and Clarine Hays

We ended our afternoon by beginning to study for the new course we will be teaching in Institute come September 4. We are excited to be teaching the Doctrine and Covenants course of study. We have loved our in-depth study of the Book of Mormon and look forward to doing the same kind of thorough study of the Doctrine and Covenants. Our concern is that our Russian counterpart teacher will be teaching the same lesson (in Russian) on Tuesday that we will be teaching in English on Thursday. We wonder if anyone will come to a class taught in English when they can hear the same lesson taught in their native language.  We will see.....it could be an interesting semester.

Here are the ones who were baptized and those who baptized them.

The brother on the end on the right is Peirro, who

was baptized only a few weeks ago, and is now

ready to baptize his friend.

We attended a triple baptism on Sunday at the International ward. They are baptizing like crazy. The background of many of these people, from Africa especially, is Christian so they readily accept our Christ centered doctrine. In Russia, for many decades, there was an attempt to wipe out any form of Christianity so many of the Russian people here have no background founded in Christ unless they were taught in their homes. Religious worship was forbidden in the Soviet times. 


The baptism we especially went down to see was Neen's. He has been in our home for a couple of discussions and has attended our English group in the past. He is a wonderful young man. We just learned on Sunday that he had never prayed until he met the missionaries.  When trying to explain what happens when he prays now, he said it is like I am outside in the sunshine even though I am in my dark room. Right on!  It was a truly international baptism.....the opening prayer was in Spanish, the talk in English, one baptism in French, one in English, and one in Spanish.  The closing prayer was in French. Quite a special experience.  Neen is so excited about the great change that has come into his life.

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

Thursday, we heard of another interesting superstition....this one about pregnant women.  We ran into Dorina, a girl from our ward who is pregnant.  I commented on how beautiful she looked and that she made a darling expectant mom.  She was thrilled when I told her.  She then told us of the Russian thinking that if the child a woman is carrying is a girl she will steal the mom's beauty.  If it is a boy, he will steal the mom's intelligence.  Dorina is carrying a girl so was thrilled that her beauty hadn't been stolen yet.  Interesting.  Dorina was surprised when I told her I had never heard of that idea before in America.

We have noticed that most everywhere we go we see metal fences and curbing painted yellow and green. We wonder if the city gets a deal on yellow and green paint or if there is some significance to the colors.

.....AND SO WE HAVE THE END OF ANOTHER WEEK AND

OF ANOTHER SEMESTER OF INSTITUTE AND PATHWAY......