October 15, 2012

We had our conference weekend this weekend. On Saturday we watched both Saturday sessions and priesthood at the branch building. That was a lot of conference! Sunday we watched both sessions. We had about 30 minutes in between each session which is good. We loved Elder Nelson's talk on missionary work. He invited investigators who had questions about anything at all to go and "ask the missionaries; they can help!" We also enjoyed hearing from Elder Larry Echo Hawk. He was the stake president of the BYU singles stake where Elder Peterson served all those years so we got to know him pretty well. Elder Holland never disappoints; he has set himself to such a high standard and delivers every time! We had five investigators come to conference so that is pretty awesome. We also had one member come who hasn't been to church in many years. We went with the elders to visit her this past week, invited her to come, and she came! Her husband is very against the church, but as long as she doesn't tell him where she's going, everything is okay. Her brother is a fairly active member. One of the investigators commented on the music. Even though she wouldn't have understood any of the words, she definitely felt the spirit of the music. Awesome!

We had an interesting meeting this week. For the last couple of weeks, we have been impressed to go and see the non-member husband of one of our active members here. We had a member of our Branch Presidency call and make the appointment directly with him. He (counselor in presidency) was supposed to go with us. We got over there and he never came. So we explained to this person that God talks to his representatives and that we had been impressed to come and get to know him. We also asked him why God wanted us there. It ended up being a very good meeting. We talked about some wonderful things as well as listened to some gripes. Bottom line, he invited us back. The missionaries had been trying to see him before, but he wouldn’t allow them to visit. He just goes into another room if they are visiting his wife. He stayed the whole time with us, and we had a good chat. We looked at and talked about Enos and he agreed to read. We will follow up this week and see what he thought. He is in his mid-70's; he and his wife have been married for 24 years; she was baptized in 1995 along with her daughter so they have been members of the church for most of their married life. We haven't discovered all of his hang ups, but maybe we can be friends and help him think twice about maybe coming to church. He said he would come to the big Fall Ball next weekend. As an update to this story, we returned last night and this couple taught us how to play Sequence (an American board game). It is similar to Connect Four, but you play it on a board with checkers. We had a lot of fun and felt impressed that just coming as a social visit was more important than trying to teach a lesson this time. Many times, just being patient and friendly ends up paying better dividends in the long run.

We had a zone training meeting this week. Our Area Presidency has said we are to have a zone training meeting once a month. The mission has a zone council meeting once a month, district leaders join that council every other month, and then the zone training meeting replaces district meeting that particular week. They are trying to get information passed along from leadership to the other missionaries more effectively. Missionaries living two or more hours away from where the zone leaders are will not be able to attend, but this week, being the first meeting and with a lot of training information which the mission president learned at the recent mission presidents' conference, all of the missionaries in the zone came together. It is so great to see elders and sisters again who we served with in the past and haven't seen in awhile. President Sartori taught us the concept of "drag vs. lift," as directed from the Area Presidency. There was quite an extensive list of items that tend to cause distractions, or "drag," in missionary work; for example, hanging out in the church building longer than necessary, shopping other than on P-day, not exercising etc., etc., etc. We came home and made some goals where we can improve.

We are headed to Kiev, Ukraine, this week for our visa trip. We arranged to go a day early so we can check out the city and go to the temple a couple of times. We will have to exchange money and get around on our own which will prove to be interesting. Hopefully, someone at the temple will speak English and will be able to give us some hints. We have met the mission president and his wife; they are from Rexburg, but I'm sure they don't have time to be tour guides.

We are reminded every day of the dedication, discipline, and hard work that it takes to be a diligent missionary. We feel so honored to serve with such valiant young men and young women who are doing their best to be the best possible missionaries! The church is true!

1 - Missionary Meetings
2 -  This is a street in town that is lined with flower shops.  In the winter, they just bring the flowers inside. You buy an even amount of flowers to give someone for mourning or sympathy and an odd amount for birthdays, love, everything else.  There are a lot of flower streets in the different cities of Russia.

3 - Rainy-day Sunday

4 - Missionary Meetings

October 8, 2012

We have spent time with our "missionary family" this week. We were in their home Monday evening when President Sartori set the two brothers apart for their missionary service. It was a humble and sacred opportunity. They both speak some English, and so it was their responsibility to translate for each other's blessings in order for their parents to understand. I know they were each blessed with the gift of tongues that night. Needless to say, I was a weeping willow; it was seriously like sending off our own sons. I was crying more than their own mom! But in talking with her throughout the week, she is making up for it now :-) She says she and her husband sleep, then cry, sleep, then cry every day. Other than the older son serving in the army for a year, they have never been separated and 27 months will be a long time to be apart! We know exactly how they feel, and that is why it will be such a blessing for them to get on their mission in a couple weeks and have their thoughts and actions consumed in missionary work themselves.

The mom prepared a wonderful dinner for all of us after the setting apart including all of her sons' favorite dishes. She also had Elder Peterson's favorite coconut cookies for dessert. As we said our tearful goodbyes and left the building, we looked back up to their window from the street, and they were all lined up waving to us. Twenty-seven months is a long time for them, but it is likely we will never see them again. We are getting a taste of what it will be like to have to say goodbye to all of our Russian friends eventually. We'll get to do it all over again in two weeks when the parents are set apart and leave! We have thought about what a blessing it has been to be here now when we have been able to know and learn from this family's wonderful example.

Our family home evening this week was interesting. Elder Peterson was adamant that we teach the young single adults the "Boot Scootin' Boogie." Just a side note, we don't know the boot scootin' boogie. Thank heavens for the Internet:) I took a crash course on YouTube and taught the few kids (and even a couple of adults) the basic steps. Most of them picked it up really fast. One of them made the comment that Elder Peterson was dancing free style. Our district is having a big Fall Ball in a couple of weeks, and the young single adults will teach the dance to everyone there. Russians listen to the contemporary American Top 40-type music, but country music is completely foreign to them. I don't know how much they like it, but many of them just like learning something American. They want to know what other dances we know:) So we'll also be teaching the Macarena at the Fall Ball. HA!!

Our walks in the forest this week have been on a carpet of leaves. It is definitely taking on a new look as we move into Fall. Today we bundled up for our walk because it has been cold the last couple of days, but we were pleasantly surprised that it was rather warm and were shedding layers as soon as we got outside.

We were able to watch each General Conference morning session live on Saturday and Sunday nights. We will be watching all sessions together at the district building next weekend. It was exciting to hear the prophet announce new options for missionary service. Young men can now choose to serve missions as early as age 18 and graduated from high school, and young women will have the option of serving as early as 19 years old. As the brethren mentioned in a subsequent press conference, the Lord is "hastening the work." How exciting to imagine the increase of full-time missionaries, eventual new missions being created, and the good news of the gospel being spread to more people than ever before! The gospel is true, and we love being part of this great missionary effort!

1- Boot Scootin' Boogie!
2-4 Fall Forest

October 1, 2012

     What?!! Did that say OCTOBER?! Today will be a good day. We will be going to hear the two brothers in our branch be set apart tonight by the mission president. They leave pretty much in the middle of the night to begin their adventure. The family spoke in church on Sunday, and I played a piano arrangement of "God Be With You Till We Meet Again." They took pictures with the other young single adults from the branch after the block of meetings. Interestingly, the couple of other young single adults from the other branch didn't come to the meeting, but it doesn't really occur to them. It's just another meeting like every other Sunday. Compared to what we're used to at home with friends, friends of friends, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc., flocking to attend, it is quite different. They will be sorely missed. Earlier in the summer, two other of the young single adults left to study in America and now with these brothers leaving, we really need to seek out our less actives and strengthen our group.
   Today is transfer day. Most of our district is staying the same. We'll get one new sister, one new elder (who already served here and we adore), and the companionship who lives a long ways away from us will be forming their own district with the other companionship who will be added to their area.
   Our Seniors' Conference was enjoyable. We arrived in time to report on our area and hear other couples tell about what they are doing. It's obvious that we all have different talents and abilities and are serving where we can best contribute. There is one couple who just arrived and will be going to start their service as the new CES couple. We remember being in that situation:) There is another native couple who we just fell in love with. They have doubled the sacrament meeting attendance in their branch in the short three months they have been serving there. I'm telling you, if we could get more Russian senior couples to serve, the church would grow by leaps and bounds. They just innately know how to relate to the people. They not only know how to speak their language, but they really know how to speak their spiritual language too, if that makes any sense. The less-active members can more easily trust them. They don't necessarily appreciate Americans, who appear to them as if we know it all, telling them what to do and how to feel. This Russian couple told how they were sent to their area with no idea of what to do. They had a branch list and that was it. So they bought a map, started locating addresses, and went to visit people. They were disillusioned by the fact that nothing was happening after a couple of months. But they were persistent, kept visiting people, and the people are starting to come back to church. We were so humbled and so grateful that they are making such a difference. We mentioned to the president somewhat teasingly (but it would honestly be great) that he should move them around to each mission area every six months and let them work their magic. We know that won't happen; we just need to learn from their example and try harder. We spent quite a bit of time with this couple trying to communicate with them and really enjoyed getting to know them. Elder C was easier to understand than his wife. She speaks very fast. But we managed to get by. They understood most of what we said, and we understood hardly anything they said, but we smiled and laughed and were able to make enough sense to ask related questions. Elder Peterson and Elder C became fast friends when they learned that they shared the same taste in musical groups--Foreigner, Rolling Stones, White Snake, to name a few. Never would have guessed it in a million years! We will keep in touch with them through email.
   We took a boat tour on the Volga River, walked along the new park they are constructing down by the river, played Russian General Conference bingo, had a testimony meeting, had an intense training from the mission president and his wife regarding training they had just received at the mission presidents' training from the area presidency. He had several slides with at least 25 items on each slide of things to be careful of that cause "drag" in the mission; or, in other words, distractions from the work. President wants us to
encourage the elders and sisters to avoid these things and do all we can to keep them on track. We also ate lots of good food and just enjoyed being together.
   We participated in a Toliatti district service project on Saturday morning at a children's school for the hearing impaired. We were asked to clear a field of trees to prepare it for a park that will be put in eventually. There were about 30 people there including members and missionaries. Brethren and missionaries used chain saws and axes to cut down the trees, and the rest of us hauled the limbs off to another field. It had rained earlier that morning but cleared up and let us accomplish what we needed in the two hours we were there. Typical to President Zolotov, he provided lunch for everyone who attended. We built a fire, boiled water for hot chocolate, and roasted hot dogs.
   Amidst these activities, this week we managed to visit with a couple of investigators, attend Institute, and Elder Peterson trained the district and branch councils on effective branch councils. So it's been a busy week. I was able to watch the RS General Broadcast last night and enjoyed that. We are looking forward to General Conference this next weekend.
  We were reminded this week that God calls ordinary people to do extraordinary things, and as long as we allow ourselves to be worthy vessels of the Lord, he will tell us what to do. I pray that will be the case for each of us!

1 - The Stevens'

2 - Sartori's, Stevens', Chiperov's, Elder Wing

3 - A "Birdseye View" of the Volga

4 - The Chiperov's

5 - Our awesome district
6 - Several of the Young Single Adults in New City

7 - New City Missionaries and Dolgov brothers

8 - Togliatti District members at our Branch Council Training
9 - Our Volga River Cruise Boat

10 - President and Sister Sartori, Elder and Sister Childers

11 - Looking at the bank from the river

12 - Elder and Sister Connell

Missionary Highlight

   We have an exciting missionary story to tell! We had been sworn to secrecy since at least March (it's been so long I can't even remember), but today we can officially share the good news about a family in one of our branches. The parents and their two sons have received their mission calls! The brothers leave next week, and their parents leave the end of October. Let me back up and start from the beginning. We were meeting with this family on a routine member visit, and they told us that they had some important news to tell us and that they needed our help. They had decided to all serve missions simultaneously and needed our help to communicate with the Mission President without anyone else knowing. Of course, their branch president would know because he had to generate their applications, but he was sworn to secrecy also. We're not certain why it was so important to not let anyone else know, but we agreed to their wishes and moved forward. I will never forget that evening. The spirit was so strong, and I was quite overcome with emotion. This family is willing to answer the call of a prophet, take a leap of faith, rent their apartment to the church for the two years they're gone and go wherever the Lord calls them. We will really miss their influence in our district. The father is a counselor in his branch presidency, one son is the president of our student youth council, the institute instructor, as well as the district young men's president. Both he and his brother are actively involved in young adults and are a big support to all of the youth in the district. They also speak a little english which is often a lifesaver. The mom is a gospel doctrine teacher and a great influence for the members and less-active members. We have been meeting with them every other week the last four months for missionary preparation training which has really been a treat. They will all be such effective missionaries and will return to continue being terrific leaders in the district.
   There are always so many details and documents to get in order before they receive their calls. They were hopeful to leave by the first of September, so they're not too far off. But their calls have been long in coming, and so we have had to be quiet for a long time! Their desire was to all leave at the same time and so their situation is somewhat unique. The parents will be serving in the Baltic States Mission beginning the end of October, and the boys are serving in two of the Ukraine missions but will not be reporting to the MTC in Madrid until January. So they will be going directly to St. Petersburg next week for three months on a special assignment to the Mission President, then to Madrid from there. Their two-year term will not begin until January when they enter the MTC. They consider their time in St. Petersburg as a "bonus!" The sons received their calls about a week before their parents, leaving them three weeks to be ready; their parents, five weeks. But not to worry...they have been telling us they are ready for weeks before that. And they mean it in every sense of the word. Their suitcases have even been packed for just as long.
   I have learned a lot from their example. The most important things are taken care of and there is no need to worry about the frivolous things I would worry about. The younger son will receive his endowments in the Madrid temple...without his parents in attendance. But that doesn't seem to matter. It's only important that he is receiving them. No need to organize a social gathering before leaving...in fact, it was our suggestion that they even speak in church next week before they leave. They didn't have a house full of people when they opened their calls, obviously. Our traditions back home aren't even thought of here. It's just a simple, humble experience. We are so grateful to have been able to share this experience with them and know we will be forever friends. We had our last lesson with them on Saturday night at our house and made tacos together. They saw it as a celebration dinner. We just saw it as quality time with good friends. They were worried about eating Mexicanski food, especially the dad. But he ate more tacos than anybody! We made homemade tortillas, and they really were quite delicious! (Thanks, mom, for the taco seasoning!

September 24, 2012

   We had President Zolotov and his family over for FHE last week. He is really working hard to learn English so he talks to us in English, and we talk to him in Russian. Pretty hilarious! He even said part of his prayer in English which was so impressive. We know exactly how he feels trying to remember words or even put some semblance of a sentence together. The first thing their girls, 8 and 6, saw when they came in the house was our toaster and asked for toast. So they had toast with Nutella. We had watermelon. September is the month for watermelons here and people buy them like crazy. We have eaten a LOT of watermelon this month!
   Every cycle each missionary district is supposed to have a cultural activity. In the past, we have gone to the orchestra, a singing performance, an exotic fish exhibit, museum, etc. This cycle there wasn't anything appropriate or worthwhile to see so Elder Peterson suggested going into the forest for a picnic. Technically, the forest is "out of their area" so the missionaries had to get permission to go. Honestly, it would be a shame to be here and not go into the forest because it is so pretty and has such a distinct peaceful feeling to it. We scouted out the best gathering place beforehand and ended up having a great time, as you can see from the pictures. Some missionaries brought foil dinners to cook; others, hot dogs; us, big fat sausages. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the missionaries loved taking a break and enjoying the scenery. We still walk in the forest regularly and have seen a lot of people lately gathering mushrooms to sell on the street. We asked some members how they know which mushrooms are okay to eat, and they told us that children are taught from the time they are small to distinguish the edible mushrooms from the poisonous ones. People walk out with bucketfuls of mushrooms. Personally, I'll continue to buy mine at the market.
   Nothing to complain about the weather these days. We have been enjoying beautiful fall-weather days and pleasant, warm evenings. It will be changing soon so we are trying to soak it all in while we can. It is dark by 7 o'clock at night now.

1.The forest in September
2.The lake in the forest in September
3.Frogs in the lake in the forest in September
4.Babushki who sit on the bench outside of our apartment building every day. This is very typical dress for the older women in Russia.
5.Elder Peterson with the plant lady in our garden
6.Elder Lythgoe and Elder Long demonstrating their scouting skills
7.Elder Bullough and Elder Taylor
8.Elder Peterson and Elder Malloy making their hot dog roasting sticks
9.Sister Scoville and Sister Pearce
10.Missionary campfire
11.Hiking into the forest for our cultural activity

September 17, 2012

We have met with a few member families this week who we have been trying to see for a long time, so that is a great thing. We share The Starfish Story and then play General Conference Bingo, which is always a hit. There's something about competing for a trivial prize that makes it fun and exciting and it gets the kids involved. We went out to Prebrejnee for FHE this last week and met with three of the families who live there. This is the town that is about 40 minutes away from our Komsomolski Branch. Sister Izmalkova always treats us to a delicious dinner. This week she and her husband made Plov, a very traditional Russian rice dish, in the dutch oven. We met with a family in New City, a mom and her three sons; and we met with a family in Shloozavoi Sunday night who have five children, a very uncommon thing here. We admire those who are trying so hard to remain true to their faith amidst ridicule and persecution. We are having our District President and his family to our home for FHE tonight.

I've been grateful for my rain boots this week! We have had a lot of rain! That's a good thing I suppose because it keeps things nice and green. The leaves on the trees are starting to turn colors. We went on a little field trip Saturday to a neighboring town called Jigliovsk. We can see it across the river from where we live and have been wanting to check it out. It is a small town that is in the "mountains." The streets are definitely more quiet than where we live--not many cars, friendly people on the streets, older architecture, just a different feel to it all together. The hillsides were very pretty! In a couple of weeks, the colors will be full on. One of the funniest things we saw while we were there was a frantic push for everyone to get onto the marshutka (taxi van). Have you ever played, "let's see how many people we can fit into a Volkswagen?" Well, that's pretty much what this looked like, only more like a tiger pouncing on fresh meat. The marshutka pulled up, and obviously this particular one hadn't been coming very often because it was practically full before it came to the stop, and 15-20 more people pushed and shoved their way into the van...strollers and all! It took about three tries to get the door closed! It also reminded me of the old Heatheridge Fourth Ward days before the ward was split--the ratio of soft-benched seats to people was rather low, so as soon as the chapel doors were opened after Sunday School and before Sacrament Meeting started, members would toss their scriptures onto a bench from where they were standing and wherever they landed, that would save their family's spot. Good times.

We had our first YSA FHE of the new year. We had about ten young adults come so that was encouraging after a slow summer. We talked about the scriptures being our books of instruction in our lives and made cookies with the ingredients that we determined from scriptures we looked up. They enjoyed it--something a little different and interactive. Our Sport Night activities are winding down since it is practically dark by 7 now. The elders love to be able to be outside running so it will be sad when that comes to an end. Elder Peterson has an idea to bring it inside and teach everyone how to line dance. Ha, we'll see how that goes!!

Friday night was a Relief Society Women's Conference organized by our RS Distict presidency. The theme was "Do You Love?" They showed a cool video clip that illustrates when we give love to others, they will be more willing to share their love with others as well, kinda like the "pay it forward" idea. Then they had sisters speak on loving yourself, loving others, and loving the world. The district president prepared and served dinner to everyone with the help of the two branch presidents and Elder Peterson. We had plov, tomato and cucumber salad, bread, grapes, and don't forget the chai (tea)! The meeting didn't end until after 8:30 and then we ate after that so it was a long night, having started at 6:30. The best part of the activity is that we were able to bring an investigator with us named Valyentina. The missionaries have been teaching her for a couple of months, and she is progressing just great. She is 70 years old, lives alone, is very kind, and is also very patient with us because we don't understand a lot of what she says. She says she knows the Book of Mormon is true, but she doesn't really understand why she needs to be baptized. Elder Peterson taught a good lesson to her on the apostasy and prophets the other night. We are praying she will continue to feel the spirit and desire to be baptized. She thought the RS meeting had a very good feeling so that's good. I just wish the members would have talked to her.

Institute started back up this week. We are studying New Testament. I remember teaching primary one year when we were studying the New Testament and how much I loved reading the stories of Jesus. We have two teachers who will be sharing the teaching this year. One of them has been a member less than a year; it will be a great learning experience for him. There's no better way to learn from the scriptures than to teach from them!

We feel so blessed to be part of the missionary effort here in Toliatti. Our unique opportunity is to able to serve in the same place for the duration of our mission which gives us the opportunity to become well acquainted with the members here. Our lesson in RS Sunday was on missionary work, and I was asked to share what blessings we receive as senior missionaries. Definitely one of the biggest blessings is our association and love for the members here in our branches. It is life changing to see their sacrifices in overcoming deep cultural traditions to become dedicated Latter-day Saints. We are growing to love them so much.

Here is the link to the video clip we watched for anyone who is interested:
https://www.google.com/url?url=http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DnwAYpLVyeFU&rct=j&sa=X&ei=SAVXUOq7CeXl4QSDiIGYCw&ved=0CCUQuAIwAA&q=life+vest+on+youtube&usg=AFQjCNFs1C-JjX1M4MYahQ8NlgOwZER4MA

1.Leeza and Nastia Izmalkova

2.Brother and Sister Izmalkov
3.Elder Long, Elder Hangen, Brother Alexander, Sister Vera, Sister Gallina, me at Izmalkov's home

4.Making Scripture Cookies - Anatoli, Vitali, Oleca

5.Making Scripture Cookies - Sister Pearce, Lucina, Anatoli

6.Making Scripture Cookies - Stas

7.Making Scripture Cookies - Elder Malloy

8.First Institute class for the 2012-2013 year

9.Playing Charades at Family Home Evening
10.This decorated SUV is typical to a wedding entourage.  People decorate their cars like this and then drive down the street honking their horns.  There are always several on Fridays and Saturdays. 

Last 7 pictures are of a field trip to Gigliosvk