We have been busy here. I wish we could spend a bit more time in the Branches, but I admit I like going from one to the other as it does not get old on us. The members are coming along, and we are getting to know them well. We still spend a lot of time working with the District President and his auxiliaries. I gave a lesson yesterday on Believing Christ. It was a fun lesson. I hope it didn’t go over the heads of a few who were there. Next week mom and I speak in church again and will need to polish up our Russian for the talk.
Had a great lesson with a young man who has graduated college and seems well adjusted (future leader type). Elders showed him a video about the Book of Mormon. I had a driving impression to talk about Enos. This person had not prayed nor had he read the Book of Mormon for them. The spirit was strong. We discussed Enos along with a similar experience of mine. It was a very candid conversation. He said he felt warm inside when asked about what he was feeling. He promised to read Enos. He said the closing prayer without any hesitation. Elders said he talked with them the next day and had read Enos. We will see where it goes from here.
We are hoping to see some growth in our Old City Branch. It only has a couple of Priesthood holders and could likely get consolidated into other branches. They do have many grandmothers and we decided to do a monthly FHE for them at our place. We will get that organized, and I hope that gives them something to look forward to on a certain day. We have been trying to visit a couple of the grandmothers, babushkas, each week. This week we visited an 86-year old, Sister Svetlana, who we enjoyed getting to know and will definitely go back and see. She lives alone in her apartment and is as spry as can be. She has many stories to tell of her teaching days during World War II. Fortunately, we had our friends with us to help translate, but we could actually understand some of what she was saying. She even scolded our friends for correcting our Russian when we spoke saying that she could understand us just fine. No wonder we like her so much! Not really, she just has a great spirit about her and was very loving.
District meetings every Friday keep us in touch with our missionaries. They are lots of fun to be around. It has been a delight watching one in particular come out of his shell and become a solid missionary.
We love working with the youth. We do FHE for them twice a month. We are also helping the newly-formed student council become established here. We may decide to go to Moscow with them for a conference in the summer. They are great kids. A few are preparing to go on missions this summer. We have been helping them get ready and making sure all papers are proceeding forward.
We set up a FHE with three families on Monday night, two of them with a non-member or less active member. We received a phone call at the last minute and the FHE fell through. We were kind of bummed but went to our backup plan and made an appointment with a person who we met on a bus and went to McDonalds to talk with him. Not a lot happened with him, but when we were walking home, we passed a family on the sidewalk. I felt impressed to go back and talk with the dad. He was a really nice person and we talked for about 15 minutes—in Russian only!--as we walked. Afterwards we exchanged phone numbers and said we would like to get to know them better. A couple of hours after we got home, he called us. It is very difficult to communicate in Russian over the phone, much harder than in person. We survived though, and we are setting up a meeting with our missionaries and us to get to know them better. It was a blast. We prayed that we would find someone that night for the missionaries to teach, and we know this family is an answer to that prayer.
We have met with one of the branch presidents at his “Photo Salon.” He works long hours every day, and it has been difficult finding a convenient time to meet with him and his family, so we decided to go to him. It was actually a good thing because I have been wanting to get some pictures printed to put up around the house. His 8-year old daughter is always there because she goes there after school so we have gotten to know her too. So now we have made a connection with President Klimov, as well as brought our family into our apartment in living color!
One last comment because it was a day in history!!! Monday the sun was out, it was upwards of 40 degrees and we actually went to the store without our heavy coats! We thought we had made it through the winter—until it snowed again on Tuesday!
March 12, 2012
Our highlight this week was definitely Zone Conference. We were together with nine other companionships and President and Sister Sartori on Thursday and Friday. We met in the Komsomolski building which is one of the branches in our district so it was just a short bus ride away. We start at 9 in the morning and finish around 5 in the evening. It’s a long day of sitting, but it is good to feel the spirit of these fine sisters and elders and to hear counsel from President and Sister Sartori. As part of the missionaries’ training, role plays are an important part to practice what we’ve been “preached.” It gives us an opportunity to see the missionaries in action and to practice our teaching and contacting skills as well because we are included in the role plays. We realize the HUGE importance of impactful teaching in missionary work. We are so much more effective missionaries if we are better teachers. We appreciate the opportunity given to prospective missionaries in our own home ward to teach. It is vital! President Sartori gave wonderful instruction on the Atonement and on personal revelation and also gave a demonstration on proper shoe shining techniques. He emphasized the importance of looking like representatives of Christ in the way we dress and in our personal appearance. The missionaries prefer to save their rubles and cut their own hair and President wants them to pay attention to appropriate haircuts—even if they are self done! Of course, another highlight of the conference was lunch: KFC one day and pizza the next – it was a treat! The last portion of the conference is testimony meeting. Our first two days in Russia were spent at a Zone Conference three months ago, and I noticed an interesting occurrence identical to our conference this week. Missionaries who bear their testimonies every day are emotionally bearing their testimonies in a manner much different than they do with investigators. I haven’t exactly put my finger on it, but I think part of it might be because they have a chance to personally reflect on their testimonies and how their mission call affects who they are becoming. A mission truly does give us opportunities that cannot be experienced any other way. We learn how to submit our will to the Lord and to rely on Him for everything we do and say. It is that reliance on Him that motivates us to teach others how they, too, can have help in their lives through Jesus Christ. It is a great work, and we love being missionaries!
We had another holiday this week—Women’s Day! Which means flowers and more chocolates for women! Russians do love their chocolate! What’s not to love! The Komsomolski branch had a party that we dropped into after Zone Conference on Thursday. The men prepared the food which was mighty delicious. The brother in charge was Brother Vageeg who is the same family who had us over for the Armenian feast on New Year’s Eve, so you can believe the food was tremendous and plentiful. They made pork chops with some kind of barbeque sauce on it that was delicious. You eat with your fingers which was somewhat problematic for Elder Peterson because he has a weak front tooth and isn’t supposed to bite into anything that would put stress on it so he had to be creative in his eating technique. Then they put on a karaoke DVD and people were singing Russian love songs. It is very spirited music, much of which is accompanied by accordion. Each of the women was given a box of chocolates.
Elder Peterson has worked very hard this week on a talk he gave in Sacrament Meeting Sunday about the Book of Mormon in his life. He gave the first half by himself in Russian and then had someone help him translate a couple of stories and then finished with his testimony in Russian. He did a great job and really invited the Spirit to the meeting. He told about his dad giving him a small Book of Mormon when he went away to college for the first time. Through the influence of good roommates and the Spirit, he began to read it. As the book itself promises, after reading and praying to know if it’s true, you can receive an answer through the Holy Ghost. He put the promise to the test and received a confirmation of its truthfulness which lead him to serve his first mission in the Montana Billings Mission. He also told of giving our sons the names of Book of Mormon prophets, Nephi and Lehi. Just as Helaman explained to his sons with the same names in the Book of Mormon, their names were to remind them to follow Jesus Christ. When they thought about their names, they would remember their heritage of prophets named Nephi and Lehi who had gone before them and lived lives of faith and righteousness. We are thankful for our stalwart sons who have lived up to their names and who continue the legacy either with their own sons or in the mission field. We also love our daughters who live similar lives of devotion and commitment.
Sister Peterson played a beautiful piano solo that brought the spirit to all present. She has such a passion and touch for music that all can feel her interpretation and are inspired. Her talents are really appreciated here. It is a great bridge for her as she learns the language. She also looked really great today. Her hair is getting longer and she says she is not cutting it until she gets home…we will see.
We enjoyed our walk in the forest this week. The sun felt good while we walked on newly fallen snow in mere 10 below Celsius. We stopped to watch woodpeckers fly from tree to tree and peck for whatever they could. There were many kids sledding down hills and even a couple taking wedding photos (with coats nearby!) It is all evidence of a loving God who cares about us through His creations. We have been admonished to take note of the positive things about our surroundings and the things we love about being here. After all, everything is about attitude, right?!
March 6, 2012
We're currently waiting for our new district leader to come over and meet with us. The zone leaders were transferred to New City and one of the members from New City, Elder Malloy, is coming here to Old City with a new companion and district leader, Elder Ceimers. He is from Latvia, speaks Latvian, Russian and English. He has been a member of the church for about a year and a half and makes the comment that he will have been on a mission longer than he will have been a member of the church. That’s pretty amazing! Sister Ostapchuk completed her mission and went home to Ukraine; she is the sister who, for some reason, I connected with right from the beginning. I will miss her. It was hard saying goodbye knowing that we might never see each other again. Thank heavens for email - we will each get a chance to practice our Russian and English!
We were able to go to Samara Friday and spend the evening with President Sartori and his wife. It was an enjoyable ride from Old City to Samara - lots of trees, little villages, and varied architecture compared to Old City's view of apartment buildings that are all the same. When we traveled from Samara to Toliatti when we first arrived in Russia, it was dark so this was the first time we were able to see the landscape in the daytime and it was quite pretty. President and Sister Sartori were able to give us some additional leadership training information and helpful websites that are now available in Russian. Elder Peterson also spent some time with President regarding generating new ways to find and retain investigators. It was nice to be in the Mission Home. I brought my piano books with me and played the piano for close to an hour in their apartment. The Mission Home has another apartment adjacent to it, but one of the mission counselors was staying there so Elder Peterson and I stayed with President and Sister Sartori. I marvel at their devotion and dedication to keep up with everything. Sister Sartori was trying to manage the move of her 97-year old mother into an Assisted Living accommodation in Utah via fax and email since she is the POA along with all of her mission responsibilities along with hosting us. I’m sure they have people to dinner several times a week; that would do me in!
We had to hustle back in time to do some training for the Young Single Adult councils from Toliatti, Samara, and Saratov. It is amazing to see the Russian future leaders of the church here; they are awesome, devoted people! They are all wanting to plan a conference that would gather many of them from the different zones to associate with each other. We are hoping to help make that happen. We had lunch together afterwards that had been prepared by Sister Kozmenin. Her husband is the Mission Counselor over CES. She is into healthy eating so we had all kinds of interesting foods to try!
We continue to meet with Svetlana each week. She has a testimony of the church but wants to take time to make sure she makes the right decision to be baptized. She has been meeting with the missionaries for close to five months now. Last week we talked about Enos and prayer. This week we are talking about Samuel the Lamanite's prophecy of Christ's birth leading into His appearance to the Nephites in America. Last week she told me I was one of her two friends--that's a step in the right direction! She plays the piano so we have that in common. She likes to choose the hymn we sing at every meeting; she’s a very good sight reader; she is able to tell what the songs sound like just from reading the notes without hearing the music. Hopefully, she will stay for all of church this Sunday since we will be attending at the branch where she lives. Dad is speaking in Sacrament Meeting, and I will be playing the piano. We'll see if anyone shows up! Seriously, though, they rescheduled district conference that was supposed to be this weekend due to the fact that all employed people will be working on the weekend. There is a holiday on Thursday to celebrate Women's Day which causes the necessity for everyone to work on the weekend I guess. Don't exactly get it, but we've been told not to expect many people at church.
We had our first "official" dinner party last week. We invited the District President and his wife, along with the three branch presidents and their wives to dinner. I chose to make lasagna which was just okay, but they said they liked it. Unfortunately, two of the branch presidents and their wives canceled at the last minute so that was a bummer. But it made it so that we were able to bond even more with the branch president from New City. In fact, they were at our apartment for a good fifteen minutes before President and Sister Zolotov arrived; Sister Zolotov speaks English and translates for us so we were on our own to communicate with President and Sister Bushuev and managed to survive just fine. We attended that branch on Sunday, and we could really tell the difference in their reception of us. They initiated conversations and were much friendlier than they had been before. We will keep trying with the other branch presidents; this isn't the first time they have canceled appointments with us:(
We went to visit a member at her Art School. She teaches art to children from the ages of probably 5 to 18. She showed us many of the paintings her students have done, and you can’t believe these were pictures painted by nine-year olds! They were professional-looking oil paintings! There were also pen mediums and other paints. She had a class in session while we were there and allowed us to watch the children paint. Many of her students have gone on to study in Moscow. She is a very talented artist and teacher! She also speaks Russian extremely fast, but we catch a word here and there and also had another member come with us who speaks some English and was able to translate for us.
We were able to go to Samara Friday and spend the evening with President Sartori and his wife. It was an enjoyable ride from Old City to Samara - lots of trees, little villages, and varied architecture compared to Old City's view of apartment buildings that are all the same. When we traveled from Samara to Toliatti when we first arrived in Russia, it was dark so this was the first time we were able to see the landscape in the daytime and it was quite pretty. President and Sister Sartori were able to give us some additional leadership training information and helpful websites that are now available in Russian. Elder Peterson also spent some time with President regarding generating new ways to find and retain investigators. It was nice to be in the Mission Home. I brought my piano books with me and played the piano for close to an hour in their apartment. The Mission Home has another apartment adjacent to it, but one of the mission counselors was staying there so Elder Peterson and I stayed with President and Sister Sartori. I marvel at their devotion and dedication to keep up with everything. Sister Sartori was trying to manage the move of her 97-year old mother into an Assisted Living accommodation in Utah via fax and email since she is the POA along with all of her mission responsibilities along with hosting us. I’m sure they have people to dinner several times a week; that would do me in!
We had to hustle back in time to do some training for the Young Single Adult councils from Toliatti, Samara, and Saratov. It is amazing to see the Russian future leaders of the church here; they are awesome, devoted people! They are all wanting to plan a conference that would gather many of them from the different zones to associate with each other. We are hoping to help make that happen. We had lunch together afterwards that had been prepared by Sister Kozmenin. Her husband is the Mission Counselor over CES. She is into healthy eating so we had all kinds of interesting foods to try!
We continue to meet with Svetlana each week. She has a testimony of the church but wants to take time to make sure she makes the right decision to be baptized. She has been meeting with the missionaries for close to five months now. Last week we talked about Enos and prayer. This week we are talking about Samuel the Lamanite's prophecy of Christ's birth leading into His appearance to the Nephites in America. Last week she told me I was one of her two friends--that's a step in the right direction! She plays the piano so we have that in common. She likes to choose the hymn we sing at every meeting; she’s a very good sight reader; she is able to tell what the songs sound like just from reading the notes without hearing the music. Hopefully, she will stay for all of church this Sunday since we will be attending at the branch where she lives. Dad is speaking in Sacrament Meeting, and I will be playing the piano. We'll see if anyone shows up! Seriously, though, they rescheduled district conference that was supposed to be this weekend due to the fact that all employed people will be working on the weekend. There is a holiday on Thursday to celebrate Women's Day which causes the necessity for everyone to work on the weekend I guess. Don't exactly get it, but we've been told not to expect many people at church.
We had our first "official" dinner party last week. We invited the District President and his wife, along with the three branch presidents and their wives to dinner. I chose to make lasagna which was just okay, but they said they liked it. Unfortunately, two of the branch presidents and their wives canceled at the last minute so that was a bummer. But it made it so that we were able to bond even more with the branch president from New City. In fact, they were at our apartment for a good fifteen minutes before President and Sister Zolotov arrived; Sister Zolotov speaks English and translates for us so we were on our own to communicate with President and Sister Bushuev and managed to survive just fine. We attended that branch on Sunday, and we could really tell the difference in their reception of us. They initiated conversations and were much friendlier than they had been before. We will keep trying with the other branch presidents; this isn't the first time they have canceled appointments with us:(
We went to visit a member at her Art School. She teaches art to children from the ages of probably 5 to 18. She showed us many of the paintings her students have done, and you can’t believe these were pictures painted by nine-year olds! They were professional-looking oil paintings! There were also pen mediums and other paints. She had a class in session while we were there and allowed us to watch the children paint. Many of her students have gone on to study in Moscow. She is a very talented artist and teacher! She also speaks Russian extremely fast, but we catch a word here and there and also had another member come with us who speaks some English and was able to translate for us.
February 27, 2012
Can you even remember last week? The days just seem to run together. That is one thing that in and of itself has been different in the mission field for us. We don't keep track of what day or date it is like we did at home. Dad had a good birthday Sunday; well, "Russia" good. He spoke in church which was excellent. He was presented with a candy bar for his birthday from the RS president which they do for all 20 members of the branch on their birthdays:) Then we came home and had a real, bonified roast beast dinner - first one since we've been in Russia. Our district president has a friend in one of the "Reenoks," as they are called, who he trusts to sell quality meat. So President
Zolotov took us there last week and we bought a roast, pork chops, and 4 pounds of ground "farsh," a mixture of pork and beef. We spent $27 which seemed ridiculous, but it won't happen very often. I cooked half of the roast with potatoes and carrots and even made gravy. Dad said it tasted good so that's what was important. Planning ahead, he thought to bring the DVD Jeremiah Johnson strictly for the purpose of watching on his birthday, which he did. I told him that could have been a mistake on two accounts, one of which was seeing our "backyard" throughout the movie. We really do live in a beautiful place!
We will be having a zone conference here in Toliatti next month. There are eight other missionaries who will join the eight we have here. They come from as far as 8 hours away. I guess President and Sister Sartori will stay in a hotel here. We were hoping to be able to go to Samara for a change of scenery but this will be fine too. I wonder if they'll ask us to house some of the other missionaries. They could sleep on what I'm sure is a most-comfortable couch bed:) During our district meeting last week, the zone leader and his companion performed their OC (Old City, the name of the city we live in here) Rap. We took a picture of it and will send it along, but it was so funny. These two
elders are definitely some of our favorites. Elder Hale and Elder Hughes, H2 they call themselves, have fun personalities and get along well with each other. Elder Hale has a beautiful baritone voice; in fact, I accompanied for him to sing "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" in Sacrament meeting yesterday that was extremely good. Anyway, he sings part of the rap while Elder Hughes does a fist and knuckle rhythm on the table while doing the back-up talking part of the rap. The words they wrote are specific to the mission and are very clever...a missionary reunion hit to be sure!
Russians celebrated a holiday last week. The kids were out of school all week to celebrate the leaving of winter and the coming of spring. Evidenced by the horizontal snow storm we had Saturday, I can hardly see spring coming any time soon. But the holiday includes eating pancakes all week. Russian pancakes are called "Blini" and are like what we would call crepes. On Sunday they have a ritual of burning a stuffed doll which signifies killing winter. We can only hope she died! As part of the celebration, our Old City Branch had a picnic in the forest on Saturday. A picnic in the winter, you might ask? Oh, yes, absolutely..."it's normal." And, yes, it's still cold. We dressed for it,
but with the wind blowing it was still cold. But we walked in the forest for a while, some sled down hills on sleds, others on plastic bags, and we ate pancakes and drank herbal tea. One of them noticed dad had a bit of frostbite on his cheeks. We wouldn't have noticed but she said they looked a little white. So we've been putting lotion on them; I'm sure they'll be fine.
We had our first visa trip last week. We are required to leave the country every three months to renew our visas. You can imagine what a logistical feat that is to keep straight for hundreds of missionaries throughout Eastern Europe!! We were travelling with two of the same elders we arrived to Russia with originally. So four limited Russian-speaking Americans trying to maneuver three airports, four airplanes, taxi directions, etc. made for an exciting trip. We were doing pretty good until Elder Peterson made a
quick duck into the bathroom. Having complete faith and trust in him, the other two elders naturally followed in after him…into the women’s bathroom! The two elders quickly noticed their mistake (probably from the cleaning ladies yelling at them), but Elder Peterson was already committed and wasn’t yelled at until he was washing his hands. In their defense, the pictured logos on the doors were unlike any we have ever seen. The other airport bathroom signs were easily distinguishable, but these definitely were not. Makes for a good story anyway.
Our day started with getting up at 4 in the morning to take a taxi to the Samara airport, fly to Moscow, fly to Vilnius Lithuania, back to Moscow, back to Samara, taxi back home, arriving at 1:30 the next morning. We are hoping that some time during our stay here we will have a visa trip to Kiev, Ukraine, so that we can attend the temple there. Some interesting things about the airplane rides were we were offered a hard candy on a large tray a couple of times throughout the flight. It wasn’t a mint; just a fruit-flavored candy. We were fed meals on every flight. Our 7 a.m. flight was a chicken dinner. Another meal included weird looking meat and cheese on a roll. We were excited to have a couple of mustard packets included because mustard isn’t common here. I chose to save mine to take home. Elder Malloy chose to smother his sandwich with it, excitedly took a bite, and was surprised to taste yellow-colored horseradish! It was super nasty!! It was apparent the alcoholic beverages were free, but we passed on those.
While waiting for a connecting flight in one of the airports, we ate in a café and ordered strictly by pointing at pictures. All of the waiters were laughing at us trying to communicate what we wanted. Elder Peterson still ended up with mayonnaise on his sandwich despite his superb efforts to communicate otherwise. Russians do love their mayonnaise!!
Zolotov took us there last week and we bought a roast, pork chops, and 4 pounds of ground "farsh," a mixture of pork and beef. We spent $27 which seemed ridiculous, but it won't happen very often. I cooked half of the roast with potatoes and carrots and even made gravy. Dad said it tasted good so that's what was important. Planning ahead, he thought to bring the DVD Jeremiah Johnson strictly for the purpose of watching on his birthday, which he did. I told him that could have been a mistake on two accounts, one of which was seeing our "backyard" throughout the movie. We really do live in a beautiful place!
We will be having a zone conference here in Toliatti next month. There are eight other missionaries who will join the eight we have here. They come from as far as 8 hours away. I guess President and Sister Sartori will stay in a hotel here. We were hoping to be able to go to Samara for a change of scenery but this will be fine too. I wonder if they'll ask us to house some of the other missionaries. They could sleep on what I'm sure is a most-comfortable couch bed:) During our district meeting last week, the zone leader and his companion performed their OC (Old City, the name of the city we live in here) Rap. We took a picture of it and will send it along, but it was so funny. These two
elders are definitely some of our favorites. Elder Hale and Elder Hughes, H2 they call themselves, have fun personalities and get along well with each other. Elder Hale has a beautiful baritone voice; in fact, I accompanied for him to sing "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" in Sacrament meeting yesterday that was extremely good. Anyway, he sings part of the rap while Elder Hughes does a fist and knuckle rhythm on the table while doing the back-up talking part of the rap. The words they wrote are specific to the mission and are very clever...a missionary reunion hit to be sure!
Russians celebrated a holiday last week. The kids were out of school all week to celebrate the leaving of winter and the coming of spring. Evidenced by the horizontal snow storm we had Saturday, I can hardly see spring coming any time soon. But the holiday includes eating pancakes all week. Russian pancakes are called "Blini" and are like what we would call crepes. On Sunday they have a ritual of burning a stuffed doll which signifies killing winter. We can only hope she died! As part of the celebration, our Old City Branch had a picnic in the forest on Saturday. A picnic in the winter, you might ask? Oh, yes, absolutely..."it's normal." And, yes, it's still cold. We dressed for it,
but with the wind blowing it was still cold. But we walked in the forest for a while, some sled down hills on sleds, others on plastic bags, and we ate pancakes and drank herbal tea. One of them noticed dad had a bit of frostbite on his cheeks. We wouldn't have noticed but she said they looked a little white. So we've been putting lotion on them; I'm sure they'll be fine.
We had our first visa trip last week. We are required to leave the country every three months to renew our visas. You can imagine what a logistical feat that is to keep straight for hundreds of missionaries throughout Eastern Europe!! We were travelling with two of the same elders we arrived to Russia with originally. So four limited Russian-speaking Americans trying to maneuver three airports, four airplanes, taxi directions, etc. made for an exciting trip. We were doing pretty good until Elder Peterson made a
quick duck into the bathroom. Having complete faith and trust in him, the other two elders naturally followed in after him…into the women’s bathroom! The two elders quickly noticed their mistake (probably from the cleaning ladies yelling at them), but Elder Peterson was already committed and wasn’t yelled at until he was washing his hands. In their defense, the pictured logos on the doors were unlike any we have ever seen. The other airport bathroom signs were easily distinguishable, but these definitely were not. Makes for a good story anyway.
Our day started with getting up at 4 in the morning to take a taxi to the Samara airport, fly to Moscow, fly to Vilnius Lithuania, back to Moscow, back to Samara, taxi back home, arriving at 1:30 the next morning. We are hoping that some time during our stay here we will have a visa trip to Kiev, Ukraine, so that we can attend the temple there. Some interesting things about the airplane rides were we were offered a hard candy on a large tray a couple of times throughout the flight. It wasn’t a mint; just a fruit-flavored candy. We were fed meals on every flight. Our 7 a.m. flight was a chicken dinner. Another meal included weird looking meat and cheese on a roll. We were excited to have a couple of mustard packets included because mustard isn’t common here. I chose to save mine to take home. Elder Malloy chose to smother his sandwich with it, excitedly took a bite, and was surprised to taste yellow-colored horseradish! It was super nasty!! It was apparent the alcoholic beverages were free, but we passed on those.
While waiting for a connecting flight in one of the airports, we ate in a café and ordered strictly by pointing at pictures. All of the waiters were laughing at us trying to communicate what we wanted. Elder Peterson still ended up with mayonnaise on his sandwich despite his superb efforts to communicate otherwise. Russians do love their mayonnaise!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELDER PETERSON!!!!
February 26 marks an important day in the life of Elder Peterson! He is another year younger! Yes, instead of having gone over the hill to the downside, he has rolled backwards and is increasingly more youthful every year. He even had just nine candles on his birthday cake which was kindly donated by a fellow missionary, Elder Bishop, who had received a "REAL" Pillsbury cake mix and canned frosting from home at Christmastime but did not have a functioning oven to bake it in. So we frosted it up with the pink strawberry frosting, used matches for candles, and sang a rousing happy birthday at our missionary district meeting. Indeed, it tasted pretty darn fabulous! On his actual birthday, he will be speaking in church and is feverishly memorizing some of his talk in Russian, which is a classic example of his obsessive nature to achieve great heights and continuously improve himself. He is an inspiration to all of us and helps us to achieve things in our own lives that we most likely would not have done otherwise. He is a caring and loving marriage companion and a supportive and fabulous missionary companion, as well. He provides acts of service every day like grocery shopping, drying dishes, and even visiting "babushkas." Even though he might have a few more gray hairs than he did last year:), he also has more patience, more strength, greater influence, and marches to a greater purpose every day. Happy birthday! I love you more!!!
February 15, 2012
We have had some fun experiences this week. I have mentioned before about Elder Peterson’s dislike of lifts (elevators). Well, for you Disney World fans, we rode the “Tower of Terror” lift! Normally, we would choose to climb stairs in apartment buildings to find the desired apartment, but in this particular building the stairs are outside and in subzero temperatures, that didn’t seem to be the best option. So we dared to take the lift. Fortunately, it was double the size of the typical lifts so four of us could fit comfortably. Just don’t look down because you can see ALL the way down to the bottom level in between the floor and the entrance of the lift. Once the door closes, the dim light within flickers and the elevator noisily creaks from level to level. You know you’d arrived at the level you chose when the internal light flashes and you hear some electrical “ZAP.” I was waiting for the free fall from 9 stories high…maybe next time!
We have been meeting with a woman in our city for a few weeks now. She has a strong religious background and enjoys discussing different religious topics. She has started to pray differently than she had before. Instead of reading prayers, she now says her own personal prayers and has found much strength in this more personal way of talking with God. This week we showed her the DVD, “The Restoration,” which describes the story of a 14-year old boy, Joseph Smith, who prays to ask God which church he should join in his community back in 1820. His answer came as a personal visitation from God and His Son in a grove of trees telling him to not join any of the churches and that God would prepare Joseph to restore His true church again on the earth. After viewing the film, Ludmila described the feeling she had when she watched the part of God appearing to Joseph as “a tingling…like ants crawling up and down her arms.” That was a cool way of describing how she was being told what she had seen was true. We have that same feeling EVERY time we hear this true story!
We had our first experience of being lost in Russia this week, too. We were traveling to one of the neighboring cities to help the sister missionaries teach a family we have met with several times. So we were even going somewhere we had been before only this time it was dark, snowy, and the inside of the bus windows were frozen so you’d have to scrape a little circle of ice in order to peer out the window to try and see where you were. The sisters told us which bus stop to get off on. In his superb Russian language, Elder Peterson asked a family to tell us when to get off which they did, but it didn’t look familiar. Before we got off, we asked the bus driver and he agreed that it was the correct stop; but we didn’t see the sisters who would be there waiting for us. We were already late because the traffic had caused several delays so we knew they were waiting. Well, if we didn’t get off there, we wouldn’t know where else to get off because the bus driver said that was it. So we got off and called the sisters…which didn’t help matters a whole lot because neither of them speak English. We couldn’t describe where we were – duh – there weren’t any stores or landmarks within sight. So we tried to talk someone into talking to the sisters on our cell phone so they could help determine where we were and where we needed to go to find them. Well, the first couple of people wouldn’t have anything to do with us. Finally, Ken was able to talk a man into talking on the phone. After speaking with the sisters, he tried to explain to us where to go but we weren’t getting it. So in frustration, he motioned for us to walk with him, and he took us to the next bus stop which was so kind of him. But it wasn’t the right one either. To make a long story even longer, he called the sisters again but it didn’t sound like they understood each other. We made the executive decision to go back to the original bus stop, cross the street, get on a bus, and return home. Needless to say, that night we spent three hours on a bus getting nowhere! And the sisters weren’t happy with us! Elder Peterson’s next language session focused on “getting lost tactics” and learning how to say, “I’m lost; please talk to my friend!” in a stern, convincing way.
We had a fun Valentine’s Family Home Evening with the Young Single Adults on Valentine’s evening. This is the group ages 17-30 who we meet with every other Tuesday night. We wanted things to look festive so we had been looking throughout the week at different stores for things we could use to decorate our apartment. Without any luck, we had to resort to the “big mall.” We did find the Russian version of Michael’s craft store, but there wasn’t a “valentine’s aisle.” We managed to find a package of heart-shaped balloons, a red accordion-style thingy to hang, and pink tinsel on clearance from Christmas. We made it work. We also bought some paper and heart-shaped confetti for them to make valentines with. We had 13 youth come which included three investigators so that was awesome! We’re going to need a bigger apartment! We shared a short message on Christ’s love, made valentines, played “mafia,” repaired hymnbooks, and ate heart-shaped sugar cookies that I even managed to frost with pink frosting colored with some strawberry-looking powdered drink (no such thing as food coloring that I could find) and the only sprinkles I could find were multi-colored. But, hey, they were sprinkles! We didn’t know what the youth would think about making valentines, but we were pleasantly surprised! They were really getting into it. What we thought would be a 5-minute activity at best turned out to be hard to get them to stop after 30 minutes. A couple of them were getting help from the other missionaries on how to write in English and then presented us with their valentines. We took pictures, developed them the next day and made posters to hang in each of the three church buildings to encourage them and others to keep coming. We will be going with them this weekend to Samara for an all-day activity with other youth in surrounding cities. Working with these quality people is definitely a highlight of our experience!
Along with valentine decorations, Elder Peterson bought his early birthday present at the mall. It will be a shock to many of you that we have been here two months without quality speakers!! I know—hard to imagine!! After all, we might as well be listening to MoTab and Especially For Youth soundtracks in high def! Life is good again! We have also found real doughnuts, lasagna noodles and worcestershire sauce. I guess we’re good to stay a couple more months!!
We have been meeting with a woman in our city for a few weeks now. She has a strong religious background and enjoys discussing different religious topics. She has started to pray differently than she had before. Instead of reading prayers, she now says her own personal prayers and has found much strength in this more personal way of talking with God. This week we showed her the DVD, “The Restoration,” which describes the story of a 14-year old boy, Joseph Smith, who prays to ask God which church he should join in his community back in 1820. His answer came as a personal visitation from God and His Son in a grove of trees telling him to not join any of the churches and that God would prepare Joseph to restore His true church again on the earth. After viewing the film, Ludmila described the feeling she had when she watched the part of God appearing to Joseph as “a tingling…like ants crawling up and down her arms.” That was a cool way of describing how she was being told what she had seen was true. We have that same feeling EVERY time we hear this true story!
We had our first experience of being lost in Russia this week, too. We were traveling to one of the neighboring cities to help the sister missionaries teach a family we have met with several times. So we were even going somewhere we had been before only this time it was dark, snowy, and the inside of the bus windows were frozen so you’d have to scrape a little circle of ice in order to peer out the window to try and see where you were. The sisters told us which bus stop to get off on. In his superb Russian language, Elder Peterson asked a family to tell us when to get off which they did, but it didn’t look familiar. Before we got off, we asked the bus driver and he agreed that it was the correct stop; but we didn’t see the sisters who would be there waiting for us. We were already late because the traffic had caused several delays so we knew they were waiting. Well, if we didn’t get off there, we wouldn’t know where else to get off because the bus driver said that was it. So we got off and called the sisters…which didn’t help matters a whole lot because neither of them speak English. We couldn’t describe where we were – duh – there weren’t any stores or landmarks within sight. So we tried to talk someone into talking to the sisters on our cell phone so they could help determine where we were and where we needed to go to find them. Well, the first couple of people wouldn’t have anything to do with us. Finally, Ken was able to talk a man into talking on the phone. After speaking with the sisters, he tried to explain to us where to go but we weren’t getting it. So in frustration, he motioned for us to walk with him, and he took us to the next bus stop which was so kind of him. But it wasn’t the right one either. To make a long story even longer, he called the sisters again but it didn’t sound like they understood each other. We made the executive decision to go back to the original bus stop, cross the street, get on a bus, and return home. Needless to say, that night we spent three hours on a bus getting nowhere! And the sisters weren’t happy with us! Elder Peterson’s next language session focused on “getting lost tactics” and learning how to say, “I’m lost; please talk to my friend!” in a stern, convincing way.
We had a fun Valentine’s Family Home Evening with the Young Single Adults on Valentine’s evening. This is the group ages 17-30 who we meet with every other Tuesday night. We wanted things to look festive so we had been looking throughout the week at different stores for things we could use to decorate our apartment. Without any luck, we had to resort to the “big mall.” We did find the Russian version of Michael’s craft store, but there wasn’t a “valentine’s aisle.” We managed to find a package of heart-shaped balloons, a red accordion-style thingy to hang, and pink tinsel on clearance from Christmas. We made it work. We also bought some paper and heart-shaped confetti for them to make valentines with. We had 13 youth come which included three investigators so that was awesome! We’re going to need a bigger apartment! We shared a short message on Christ’s love, made valentines, played “mafia,” repaired hymnbooks, and ate heart-shaped sugar cookies that I even managed to frost with pink frosting colored with some strawberry-looking powdered drink (no such thing as food coloring that I could find) and the only sprinkles I could find were multi-colored. But, hey, they were sprinkles! We didn’t know what the youth would think about making valentines, but we were pleasantly surprised! They were really getting into it. What we thought would be a 5-minute activity at best turned out to be hard to get them to stop after 30 minutes. A couple of them were getting help from the other missionaries on how to write in English and then presented us with their valentines. We took pictures, developed them the next day and made posters to hang in each of the three church buildings to encourage them and others to keep coming. We will be going with them this weekend to Samara for an all-day activity with other youth in surrounding cities. Working with these quality people is definitely a highlight of our experience!
Along with valentine decorations, Elder Peterson bought his early birthday present at the mall. It will be a shock to many of you that we have been here two months without quality speakers!! I know—hard to imagine!! After all, we might as well be listening to MoTab and Especially For Youth soundtracks in high def! Life is good again! We have also found real doughnuts, lasagna noodles and worcestershire sauce. I guess we’re good to stay a couple more months!!
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| The District |
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| David and Elder M |
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| Valentine FHE |
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| Susha and Julia |
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| Valentine FHE |
Feb. 5, 2012 from Stacy
We made it through January! February has made itself known with subzero temperatures. It has been twenty-below-something Celsius all week which converts to about ten to fifteen below Fahrenheit. But, have no fear, it will be warming up this week to -11C, or 14F. Life goes on as usual here; "It's Russia!" We had to take our gloves off for a brief moment this afternoon on our way home from church when we were stopped by the police officers for not crossing the street in a pedestrian zone and asked to see our documents. It didn't take long for our hands to go numb! The snow literally squeaks under our feet when we walk on it. I made the mistake of setting a spare bottle of cooking oil in the cabinet out in the enclosed balcony only to find it starting to freeze within a couple of days.
We had our third Young Single Adult Family Home Evening last week. We had eight attend including one investigator and two less active members. A recent convert shared his testimony and the blessings he has received from being baptized. He is a 25-year old single gentleman who recently finished chemotherapy treatments. He has a thirst for knowledge and does all he can to learn more about the church. It was good for everyone there to hear his journey in determining truth and being baptized. He has become a good friend, as well as a good example. He invited us to meet with his nonmember mom last week. There was such a good feeling while we were there, and we know some day she will want to know more about the church. There is a misconception amongst some Russians that the Mormon church is a cult and that we sacrifice children. There is a lot of propaganda on TV that really works against us. We ask them why they believe such a thing and they say "I don't know"? After a few questions many don't believe it any longer and it leaves doubts about the source who pushed the falsehoods. So it is good when people can see we are normal, loving people. We played a couple of fun games. You can see in the attached pictures the game where you had to work together as a team to get a "ball" (we used a rolled-up sock) to wind around a stick. It's funny to watch people maneuver their hips and make it work. We are hoping to have successful activities so that the kids will talk amongst themselves and encourage others to come.
We went with the full-time elders to a family's home for their Family Home Evening. The Branch President and his family were there too. They fixed us pizza which was so thoughtful. They made the crust themselves which was triple-deep bread and very delicious! Everyone shared their feelings on a particular topic. Elder Peterson shared a thought, and I testified, simply for the fact I lack vocabulary! It is so frustrating to not be able to express yourself and every time you open your mouth it sounds completely unintelligent! Generally people are very patient and encourage us to keep trying and not give up.
We love having the missionaries over every Friday for district meeting and lunch. They tell about who they are teaching and are able to help each other with different concerns. The two sister missionaries are from the Ukraine. It is fun to have fellow sisters to be with, Sister Ostopchuk and Sister Braginyets. Sister Braginyets speaks very little English and Sister Ostopchuk essentially speaks no English except for "sounds good." Miraculously, we are able to communicate spirit to spirit, as well as with the help of the dictionary. Sister Ostopchuk has been a member for ten years and is the only member in her family. They have such great spirits about them and strong testimonies, as do all the missionaries. I don't know what I will feed them when winter leaves. All I know how to do is big pots of soup, chili, etc, which are less desirable in the hot summer months. I found a store that sells french bread similar to American style bread. I increased the quantity from two loaves to three because they love it so much. We marvel at how much butter they spread on it but figure they need the layer of fat to help keep them warm on the street:)
Today in church was our "kick off" in presenting this year's vision of home teaching and visiting teaching. Currently, and for as long as I am aware, this hasn't been happening. This is such an essential way to watch over the members of the church and help them feel loved and needed. The District President feels strongly that if we can follow through with home and visiting teaching that the individual spirituality of the members will increase and that we will be able to rescue less active members. We are praying for a miracle; there is such a need for unity, respect, and love in this area.
As we were skyping with our daughter Kallie this week, she saw Elder Peterson doing his exercises in the background as we were signing off. He routinely marches around the apartment with flashcards in hand, studying his Russian words to the beat. Kallie sent a humorous note that her dad was taking this belonging to "God's Army" a little too far, and that he didn't need to be marching:) Even so, we feel blessed to be here and are hoping that what seem like insignificant offerings might in some way make a difference.
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