January 11, 2012 from Ken

Being in Russian is still a new experience. The sights, smells, language, culture is so different. I have traveled a good deal through my career but was not ready for this. Speaking the language where we are is a necessity. It is rare to find anybody who can speak any English. It stretches us daily and we are trying to get better. We keep our sense of humor and make daily mistakes. Yesterday my wife asked for milk (or so she thought). The person was confused because she was asking for “cat milk.” They didn’t know if you could get milk from a cat. Everyone around was laughing. We finally figured it out.

New years day after we had dinner with a family in Novie Gorod (New City) the father asked if I would pray to bring the new year in. I thought I was asking if he minded if I stood up to do this. Evidently I told everyone to stand up in what we call the “command form” of language. The all stood made a circle held hands and then I prayed. It actually worked out great. More unity and a great spirit. Of course, I sound like a three-year old speaking, but they don’t seem to care as long as we are trying.

It is dark until 10:00AM and then again at 4:30PM. This is taking some getting used to.

We have been busy helping with the local church branches (congregations) here. They have a District President over all three congregations and a Branch President over each separate city. I have been helping to set the vision for 2012 with goals and objectives for each city. We began presenting this to each branch yesterday. They are new at running a church organization, and I am helping with a good deal of training. The people here are doing a wonderful job!

The people are very converted to Jesus Christ. To give you an example, we have a blind man (captain in army who lost his sight in a bomb blast) who comes every week, studies his lesson, and provides service to our city. He is a real inspiration to me. He is humble and in many respects sees better than I do. Those who are teaching others are very young in the gospel. Last week I helped a recent convert of three months with his Sunday School lesson. He is teaching gospel doctrine to others who have been church members for several years. His testimony of Jesus Christ is growing, but as he prepares each lesson, he is introduced to several new concepts that he has to decide to accept before he can get up and share them as truth. He will be a future leader in the church here. We need more like him!

The fishing on the Volga River is very good. Daily I walk through town and look at the catches. All kinds of fish. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to eat fish due to the heavy metal content.

We are starting a young adult program and putting together activities for them. We have a student council of four right now but plan to grow that number to 15 by year’s end. We had our first activity last week at our home. It was a lot of fun. One of them speaks a little English; that helps significantly.

We love you!

 New year’s feast with Brat Vageek and family.  Armenian delight.  Wonderful family who showed us such a good time.

 P-Day hike into the forest

 Branch members and our English tutor on Saturday mornings

 Oshpkov family from Stari Gorod (Old City)