November 5, 2012

We visited my favorite Sister Svetlana this Sunday. Elder Peterson and the missionaries administered the Sacrament to her. She is 86 years old and has many stories to tell. One of the stories she shared tonight was about when she was a teacher. She taught children many, many years ago during the Soviet Era. The teachers were instructed to tell their pupils that there was not a God. Sister Svetlana could never say that, so instead she said nothing. Her story, like many others', testifies of the light of Christ that is in all of us and that when we hear truth, that light is lit within us and will want to burn brighter as we open our hearts and minds to the truth. She met the missionaries and was baptized just 13 years ago. Even though she is unable to come to church most of the time, her testimony remains strong. There is always a spirit of love in her home.

I celebrated an enjoyable birthday on Saturday. We went out to dinner which was very nice. I had my eye on a restaurant near our home that we pass by routinely on the bus. It looked clean, casual and usually had people inside eating. So we tried it out, and it was actually very good. We ordered things on the menu according to what words we could recognize. Elder Peterson had soup and a chicken dish. I had a salad and pasta with vegetables. It was quite tasty and affordable. The dessert was good, too. I had cheesecake and Elder Peterson had something similar to a frozen Mounds bar. He recognized the word "coconut" on the menu and figured no matter what it was, if it was coconut it would be good, and he was right! It's funny how the word traveled around the zone that "The Peterson's went out on a date tonight":) What can I say...the perks of being a senior missionary couple:) Our district leader baked me a cake and brought it to district meeting on Thursday. It was delicious! They had even decorated it with frosting flowers and wrote Happy Birthday on it. Impressive! And I was also able to enjoy some delicious pumpkin waffles for breakfast, compliments of all our kids who sent me Trader Joe's pumpkin mix in the mail.

Sister Peterson's birthday cake

Sister Peterson, Elder Long (the cake chef), Elder Hangen (the cake scribe)

The district singing Happy Birthday

Sister Peterson's birthday dinner salad

We visited a member family Wednesday night, shared our spiritual thought and played General Conference Bingo. They had fixed us dinner which was so nice of them; it was our second dinner of the day. We never plan on the members feeding us, but sometimes we are pleasantly surprised. Sister Looba knows of Elder Peterson's sweet tooth, and sent us home with handfuls of candy. He thought that was particularly awesome because he actually got candy on Halloween!

We watched the church video called, "The Mediator," for our YSA Family Home Evening this week. It is from the Book of Mormon seminary video series and is narrated by President Packer. It tells a story of a man who is unable to pay a debt, is subsequently thrown in jail, but then has a friend who pays his debt for him and he is freed. The story is a good analogy of Christ's merciful atonement. We had three key investigators come so that was good. Then our game was the brown paper bag game. You put a paper bag on the ground and have to pick it up with your teeth without using your hands and no other part of your body besides your feet can touch the ground. It was pretty crazy watching some of these limber people succeed as the paper bag was cut lower and lower to the ground. In fact, the bag ended up as a flat piece of paper on the floor, and there were two people who were still able to pick it up--one of our investigators, as well as Elder Glavatsky. It was crazy!

 

Family Home Evening activity - The last two "contestants" picking up the flat paper bag off the floor.  "Look, mom, no hands!"

The Komsomolski RS sisters organized an activity to teach me how to make Russian pies. I went early to learn how to make the dough from one of the sisters and then the rest of the sisters came and helped assemble the pies. Piroshkis are the smaller pies, about the size of an egg roll, and you can stuff them with anything you want. Typically, they use cabbage; or mashed potatoes with onion; or hard-boiled eggs, green onions and dill; or jam; or I brought apple bits with cinnamon and sugar. Pirogs are larger pies, and plyooshka are similar to a cinnamon roll but in the shape of a pretzel. After the pies are filled, you fry them in sunflower oil. We made enough dough for an army and everyone went home with leftovers. It was very touching to me that they would take the time to help me learn about one of their traditions.

Paulina, Rada, Tamara, Alena

Some of my Relief Society Friends

Nastia, Alena, Ludmila

Alena, Tamara, Larisa

Today was our first teacher development class. We have spent a couple of weeks prayerfully putting together two meaningful teacher classes from the entire "Teaching, No Greater Call" manual. The course is intended to be a 12-week class, but we only have two classes. Needless to say, we have tried to focus on what we see the greatest needs to be and hope they are able to take something from what we teach and incorporate it into their lessons. We had eight people attend the class so we were encouraged by that. As always, the time goes by too quickly when we have to take into account translation time.

It snowed on our way to church today. Didn't last long--just long enough to get us wet. I guess it's inevitable--snow, that is. The forest is in its ugly stage right now. The trees are bare, the leaves on the ground are brown, and the foliage is wilted. It has been interesting to notice the metamorphosis of the forest throughout the seasons. People have already started hanging the bird feeders.

We are saddened to hear about the devastating Sandy hurricane in the Eastern States. It is the headline news in Russia, too! Our hearts go out to all who have had their lives put into shambles.

Our nephew entered the MTC this week on his way to Frankfurt, Germany, and our niece is submitting her mission papers in the next couple of weeks. We are so proud of them and know they will find the same joy we have in serving the Lord. Our son had a baptism this last week and 14 investigators at church on Sunday! Way to go, Elder Brent! The church is true, and the Lord is hastening His work!