From Russia With Love

The Romanovs

2010-02-05T16:33:00.024+05:00

Yekaterinburg is known as the city where the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II and his family were killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. There is a beautiful cathedral built close to the site where this horrible deed took place so many years ago. This is a brief history lesson about the Romanov's and the memorial that stands in remembrance today. Nicholas, became Tsar of Russia upon his father's sudden death at age 49 (due to kidney disease). Unready to inherit the throne, Nicholas is reported to have said, "I am not ready, I do not want it. I am not a Czar (Tsar)." Though he was an intelligent and kind-hearted man, he lacked any preparation to rule, and unfortunately, he continued his father's harsh polices.

Nicholas' Tsarina, the loving German princess Alexandra Fyodorovna, was also a liability. Like the Czar, she was not a ruler. When the Czar took control of the army in the front lines during World War I, he left his wife in charge of Russia because he only trusted her. She was indecisive, did not trust other peoples advice, and she was not intuitive in the ways of politics. The fact that she was from Germany also lessened her popularity.

Nicholas and Alexandra had four beautiful daughters, Olga, Tatyana, Marie, and Anastasia. They were also blessed with a son, Tsesarevich Alexis. Alexandra Fyodorovna had inherited a mutation gene from her grandmother, Queen Victoria,which caused hemophilia in her son.

A Russian Orthodox Priest arrives and walks the stairs to the cathedral.

During the night of March 2, 1917 Tsar Nicholas abdicated the throne. He and his family were placed in a kind of house arrest. They were kept in confinement at a couple of locations before being transported to Yekaterinburg on April 17, 1918. They were kept in a private home in the heart of Yekaterinburg. On the night of 16/17 of July, 1918, the royal family was awakened around 2 a.m. and told to dress, then they were led down to a half basement room at the back of the Ipatiev house (the home of military engineer Nikolay Ipatiev) and were told that it was for their safety as anti-Bolshevik forces were approaching. Present with Nicholas, Alexandra and their children were their doctor, and three of their servants, who had voluntarily chosen to remain with the family. A firing squad had been assembled and was waiting in the adjoining room. Nicholas was carrying his son; when the family arrived in the basement, the former empress complained that there were no chairs for them to sit on. When the chairs were brought in and they were seated, the executioners filed in. It was announced that they had been condemned to death by the Ural Soviet of Worker's Deputies -- the executioners drew revolvers and the shooting began. In 1991 the bodies of Nicholas II and his wife, along with three of their five children and four of their servants, were exhumed. Because two bodies were not present, many people believed that two Romanov children escaped the killings. In 1998 their remains were reburied in St. Petersburg, along with several of their loyal servants who died with them, in a special chapel called the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

On August 23, 2007, a Russian archaeologist announced the discovery of two burned, partial skeletons at a bonfire site near Yekaterinburg. The bones were found using metal detectors and metal rods as probes. On April 30, 2008, Russian forensic scientists announced that DNA testing proves that the remains belong to the Tsarevich Alexei and to one of his sisters.

The Russian Orthodox Church inside Russia rejected the family's classification as martyrs because they were not killed because of their religious faith. Despite the original opposition, the Russian Orthodox Church inside Russia ultimately recognised the family as "Passion Bearers", or people who met their deaths with "Christian humility".

Yekaterinburg's "Church on the Blood" is built on the spot where the last Tsar and his family were killed.

Odds And Ends

2009-11-24T18:19:00.034+05:00

At the end each day I am finding it harder and harder to sit down and compose a blog. We have reports that must be done, cooking and baking to do, and service to be rendered. So, while we still think of all you dear ones at home, who look forward to our adventures, I am afraid our blogs will be shorter and farther apart.

I snapped a picture of this odd little fellow outside a quaint souvenir shop in Old Stockholm while we were recently there on a visa trip. Cute in a strange sort of way. Towards the end of October we flew to Helsinki and then took a boat (ship) across the Baltic to Stockholm Sweden. We have been blessed to see many countries, meet interesting people, and have experiences that wouldn't have been possible had we served a mission outside of Russia. Still, we hope and pray that the policies governing missionaries/foreigners will be relaxed and the three month trips will become a thing of the past.

The sights along the shoreline were beautiful --

We were able to attend the Stockholm temple -- and we welcomed the peaceful break. Stockholm city center at night.

At the end of the summer we took a trip to the

country with the youth. We enjoyed a beautiful day hiking in the woods. Tying ribbons to trees is a tradition that is supposed to bring good luck.
Then we stopped at one of our youth's family dacha (garden home) and ate bar-b-qued pork.

This is a street meat market -- similar ones can be found all over the city. This must be a pretty good one because we have waited for the missionaries here many times and there always seems to be a line. The lady in the "delicatessen" takes the order, then whacks off a hunk of meat, weighs it, and puts it in a plastic bag. I was watching -- she did not wear plastic gloves, did not wash her hands between transactions, while taking money and using the cash register, and she scratched her nose a number of times. Ewe!!! The thing that is odd is Russians become very upset when you don't wear a hat -- Ron has been scolded several times. They think sickness comes from having your head exposed to the cold. The reason I took a picture of this bar was because of the odd sign on the street in front of it. Who would have thought -- a "Watch Out for The Drunks Crossing" sign. Only in Russia!

Oh, and Ron is not one of them.

Blessed Are The Children

2009-09-23T11:27:00.049+06:00

"I am filled with charity, which is everlasing love; wherefore, all children are alike unto me;

wherefore, I love little children with a perfect love; and they are all alike and
partakers of salvation." Moroni 8:17
Matthew 18:4-5 "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little
child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso receive one

such little child in my name receiveth me."

After youth conference we were faced with the dilema as to how we would transport all of our quilts, kits, and shirts to the orphanages so far from Yekaterinburg. Christine and Gary Baker and their driver Aleksai came to our rescue and stuffed everything into their car. Then we waited for the orphanages to announce the dates and times for the graduation parties. Christine asked if she could take some of the quilts and kits to an orphanage that we had not originally planned on, but had great need. We had blankets and kits for all the children in the Nizhnaya Salda and Verkhnaya Salda so I gave her the green light. It was wonderful to think that we had enough, and to spare for blessing other children. Then, the last week in August I received an email from Christine Baker telling me that our two orphanages had planned their "Graduation Parties" and we were invited to take our gifts and distribute them. Our mission driver was not available, and we live about 2 1/2 hours from one of the homes and another 1 1/2 hour from there to the next one. It is a long way! However, we really, really wanted to be there to see the children, so we made our plans, and one of our YSA's agreed to drive. The night before we were to leave, our driver backed out -- he felt it was really too far, so we had to cancel the day. We felt bad, but we're grateful the Baker's carried our love with them and shared it so generously with these wonderful young people. As Gary and Christine gave the youth their gifts Christine told them the hygiene kits would help to keep them clean on the outside, but they must make good choices to help them feel and stay clean on the inside, giving them a few examples. She continued to tell them that the sewing kit should remind them that everyone makes mistakes, but it is important to correct our mistakes. When we do this it is like mending, and everything is good as new again. The blankets, she said, represent all the good people who have helped them along the way to feel safe and comforted. They should be careful to choose friends wisely and to look for reliable people to be their support system as they go on through life. Christine and Gary showed the youth the cards that we had attached to each quilt and told them each was a gift made with love.

The first party Christine and Gary attended, the staff did not allow the children to choose their own shirts, but made the choices for them. Christine said they were happy with the gifts, but there was a world of difference between the first and second orphanage. The caretakers in the second orphanage let the children choose -- the pictures show the fun they had, and how carefully they made their choices. Seldom do they have the opportunity to choose a new shirt of their own liking. The children take their time to select just the right one for them.

Let's see, I think I like this one -- so many choices! What fun!

Great choices! The children were so pleased, they quickly ran off to try on their new apparel. This is Stephen -- I would like to tell you a story about one of our quilts and how it made it's way into his hands and warmed his heart. The Lord is aware of his children and I believe he is especially mindful of the innocent, helpless ones. Elena is a caregiver who loves children -- she monitors their care in different orphanages and is a good friend of Christine. Late one night she was on her way back to Nizhni Tagil from a distant city where she was visiting with an old friend. As she started to leave a young man jumped in front of her car. At first she was startled, but then she recognized the youth as one of the orphans from an orphanage that housed children with disabilities that she had visited in the past. She rolled down her window and asked him what he was doing out that time of night, alone and so far away. He told her he was starting in a trade school in Nizhni Tagil but had traveled to this city to visit his sister's sick baby who was in the hospital. She offered him a ride back to Nizhni Tagil and once he was in the car his backpack fell open revealing the only thing he had was a few kopecks (much less than a penny). Because he had not eaten she offered him fresh bread and he quickly gobbled it up. She asked him what he would have done if no one had stopped for him and he said he would have walked the 18 miles back. He told her he had been praying all day for his little nephew and had asked the Lord not to take the baby, if possible, but to take him instead. Elena's tender heart worried about what might have happened to him had she not stopped. The next day Christine, her daughter Jill and Elena went to visit Stephen in his dorm and took him one of our quilts (the one with race cars -- very bright and colorful, a hygiene kit, some convenience foods, and some plates and cultlery). He was overwhelmed with gratitude. He examined every single thing in every bag, hugged everyone, and sang "America The Beautiful" to them, which he had memorized in English when he was at school. Stephen is only about 5 feet 2 inches and looks like he is about 14 years old --and probably has the mentality of a 12 year old, however, he really is about 17 years old. Stephen hugged each item to his heart, held them there, smiled and thanked Elena and Christine, saying over and over how much he loved everything. He was truly grateful.

Addendum: Recently we held a Relief Society Enrichment activity where we met and started a new project knitting/crocheting winter items for the orphans. We were busy learning, chatting, laughing and enjoying one another's company. Such a good day! Everyone took home their items with the promise to finish their work and return with finished gifts.

Sister Kopylov and Sister Vera proudly display the wonderful items they finished -- colorful socks, mittens, hats, and scarves. A labor of love that unites all -- the giver and the receiver. Maybe we will have another opportunity to take that love to the children of Nizhni Tagil.

The Joy of Service

2009-09-08T16:34:00.078+06:00

A DREAM IN THE MAKING -- QUILTS: Ron and I were looking for a worthwhile service project for our Young Single Adults. And we thought we could take it a step further and spread the joy of service to those in Relief Society, and to the people in our English Club. We wanted our service to be more than cleaning the city parks (although worthwhile). We envisioned those who participated to feel the joy one receives when they assist another person and give of themselves, helping that person to also feel loved. Sister Baker who lives in a town about 2 1/2 hours from Yekaterinburg is passionate about serving the children in several orphanages in towns around her home. I got in touch with her and she was excited about the prospect of our service.

I was never alone -- Ron was always with me -- cheering me on, setting up the frame, carrying the supplies, remaining patient while I took up all the floor space in our little apartment, and quietly giving of his time while I marked the quilts (which took a lot of time!).

When we first started the quilt project we did not know what the YSA budget would be for service, so we purchased only a few supplies. Ron and I went to OBI (a store similar to Home Depot) and bought wood and clamps for the quilting frame. Getting them home on the bus is another story -- do you know how much we take our cars for granted at home? I bought material for two quilts. The first people kind enough to help us with our 'orphan project' were those who attended our English Club. A quilt was stretched on the frame before the start of English and we invited those who were interested to join us -- it was the first time many had ever tied a quilt. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to visit and get to know one another while we worked. I also asked some in other cities if they might like to prepare a quilt to give to the orphans. Sister Palmer in Tymen readily agreed to buy material, and assigned the sisters in her branch to create a quilt block. She even enlisted the help of some of the missionaries, and all worked together to come up with a beautiful gift that will warm not only the body, but also the heart of one of these less fortunate youth. A quilt was also created by the youth in a neighboring mission, the Novosibirsk Mission. They brought their gift with them all the way across Siberia by train and proudly donated it to our cause.

When we received the generous donations from kind folks at home we went to work in earnest purchasing material, thread, yarn, and batting. It was not an easy task -- we do not have a JoAnn's nearby. It must have been a funny sight to see me and one of our sweet YSA carrying 20 yards of rolled batting through the streets of Yekat --too much to try to stuff on public transportation. Without a car we had to make many trips back and forth, exhausting the quality (Yekaterinburg does not have a lot of good quilting supplies) material in one shop and then moving on to another. I was able to enlist the help of those youth who had sewing machines to take a quilt at a time and sew the pieces together. I also was able to borrow a machine from the branch RS and I sewed daily. By the end of July one corner of our apartment was filled with 20 'ready to tie' quilts and we were prepared to move to the next step. We bagged each quilt individually, threaded needles, and put the yarn, needles, scissors, and a card to be signed by each of the service participants in each bag. YOUNG SINGLE ADULT CAMP - CELEN 2009:

While we were at the camp it rained every day and was chilly so we needed to revise the plan to be outdoors. Initially we were going to spread the quilts across picnic tables or on the grass where they could be stretched and the YSA's could navigate the tying process. In the end, we used whatever space in the buildings that would accommodate several quilts, plus the participants -- but we did not have the luxury of a lot of room. We had to crowd into an area that was too small for the stretching of material, working elbow to elbow and with few chairs. We were given 1 1/2 hours to complete the 20 quilts and assigned 8 youth to each quilt. It was remarkable that the quilts turned out so well -- I only had to make corrections on a few. Please notice the happy faces and intense concentration as the youth worked together, laughing, chatting, threading -- needles down, needles up, clip and tie. (I had taken pictures of all the quilts and those who joyously worked together to complete them, but unfortunately, I lost my camera the last hour of the last day. I want to thank many friends and acknowledge their kindness as my email box filled with the following lovely pictures)

Back home in Yekat we surveyed the service that had been accomplished and we were thrilled with the results!

SEWING AND HYGIENE KITS: We had limited places to lay out our supplies and assemble our kits. The young people chose the floor at the end of two halls to set up their assembly lines and were excited to get to work. Each sewing kit contained 4 different colors of thread, needles, pins, a pin cushion, a measuring tape, scissors, buttons, post it notes, and a pen. Each hygiene kit contained soap and dish, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, band aides, shampoo, razors, Q-tips, tissues, a brush and a comb.

Sister Baker donated beautiful silk bags that she had purchased while visiting China. Each bag was filled to the top, and all of the sewing supplies were put into cute little bags purchased on sale at IKEA. (Yes, we have one in Yekat).

SHIRT DECORATION:

We had 75 shirts to decorate. We divided the youth into groups -- paint, applique, and buttons. They were given the assignment to make the shirts for boys, girls, or either, and for the different age groups at the orphanages. They could use their creativity and make a work of art. I was amazed at the beautiful artwork that came from these talented youth -- the shirts were impressive! I am posting just pictures because I think the pictures speak well for themselves. Please notice how seriously they took their assignment, and also the joy on their faces as they worked together.

This Post comes with a huge "THANK YOU" to all who contributed so generously to this dream. We hope you can see the wonderful things your gift has given, but it doesn't end here - this is the gift to those serving. Next post will show the joy of those receiving. Serving brings joy to the giver and to the receiver - may we all look for ways to serve.

Trips

2009-08-14T20:01:00.098+06:00

Since our April 17 blog we have been very busy. Part of that has been the travel -- two visa trips to Helsinki (one the end of April and one the end of July), a trip to Moscow, and a trip to Lithuania. We would like to share with you some of the highlights of these trips.

April and July: We took visa trips to Helsinki, Finland. Helsinki is a lovely city. It is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the southern part of Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, by the Baltic Sea. It is built on Granite and therefore, when they build they must blast out the foundation before they begin.

We have had the opportunity to see and do many things since we came to serve our mission. Traveling is a mixed blessing -- we see places and meet people we would not have otherwise been able to, and being gone from our assignment is a strain -- also travel can be exhausting due to the unpredictable schedules set for us. But, all in all, we are grateful for the many opportunities that have been ours and feel blessed to have been able to see many beautiful and exciting places in the world.

The Helsinki Finland temple is made of Granite, it is superb in it's workmanship, it sits a top a small hill in a beautiful location, and the sessions are presented in many languages. We enjoyed the peace of the surroundings and felt a strong Spirit of love while we were there. This was the last trip we would take with most of these guys. Four left in July for home(Elder Magleby, on my left, and the last three far right of picture, Elders Pulsipher, Sorensen and Jensen). We enjoyed the trips we took with them -- they always looked after us and were a lot of fun. The second visa trip to Helsinki was the last visa trip we will take with Elder Bassett, left of me, and Elder Able, center blonde. They will be leaving the missionfield before our next trip in October.The church hostel sits on the same property, right next to the temple. While we were "stuck" in Helsinki we stayed in the hostle on the weekends. During the week the rooms had been reserved by various braches/districts throughout Russia for members who came to do temple work. At that time we moved to a hotel within walking distance so we could attend the temple daily. It is clean and quite nice -- although the beds were a little short for Elder Nuzman. An added bonus was water you can drink right out of the tap!!!

Helsinki is a beautiful, clean, modern city with much to see. The people are friendly and helpful and many speak English. We stayed close to the temple the first visa trip, but had the opportunity to take a bus or train downtown on occassionally.

We really enjoyed Helsinki!!! The Helsinki Cathedral is probably the most prominent building and symbol of the city.

Down by the wharf is an open market with a variety of items to buy, it is quite beautiful and they sell everything from flowers to fish -- a wide variety of aromas wafting through the air.

While we were waiting for Ron's visa to be processed we decided to take a trip across the bay to Eastonia. The ride there was about 2 hours long. The luxury liner is not the boat we took -- ours was the little red doozer below. After a week of waiting for Ron's visa to arrive one of the temple missionaries told us we should take the Viking Line cruse to Stalkholm Sweden, stay overnight on the ship, and spend the day in Stalkholm. We were tempted (and still kick ourselves because we didn't go), but we were afraid the visa would arrive and it wouldn't be in good form to be vacationing on some cruse ship when we should be heading for home. We didn't think our Mission President would be pleased.

Tallin is the capital and largest city in Estonia. It is quite small -- it covers only about 61.5 square miles, and has a population of 404,000. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, and is only about 50 miles South of Helsinki. We enjoyed a restful ride on the boat and then took off to see the city.

Historically the city has been attacked, sacked, razed and pillaged on numerous occiasions. Although extensively bombed by Soviet air forces during World War II much of the medieval town still retains it's charm.

Ron stands next to St. Catherine's passage.

Medieval Town Hall sits in city center. A weather vane, the figure of an old warrior called Old Thomas was put on top of the spire in 1530 and that became the symbol for the city. (Sorry my picture cut off Old Thomas).

Tallin is a quaint, old town that it pretty touristy -- we couldn't find a place to sit down, unless we sat at one of the outside restaurants. And no restrooms, unless of course, you go to one of the restaurants. Needless to say, we only stayed in town a couple of hours.

We sailed back to Helsinki past the old fort with it's canon standing guard, and into the port.
Suomenlinna has been a UNESCO world heritage site since 1991.

In the far distance the Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral' dome reaches towards the clouds.

After 2 weeks, Ron received his visa and a van took us back to Saint Petersburg (about a 5 hour drive) where we caught a plane for home (the second visa trip we flew from Yekat directly to Helsinki and back). It was a nice visit (both times), the people were kind and hospitable, the country is beautiful and progressive, and we loved the opportunity to attend the temple. MAY: In May we flew to Moscow, one week after our trip to Helsinki, and neither of us were looking forward to travel again so soon. However we were greatly blessed to be welcomed by our CES (now called S & I, Seminary and Institute) director, Henry Kosak and his family, and a fun and entertaining office staff.

Moscow is a huge city -- with a population of about 8.5 million people. It is beautiful and historic and it was a wonderful opportunity that we normally wouldn't have had. We were summoned to Moscow to receive a new, important assignment and we needed training. Henry, our director and his staff taught us - Sergey, Henry, and Oxana took turns with our old heads and tried to stuff as much into them as two days would allow.

Henry Kosak is the Area Director for CES, covering the East Europe Area (Russia, Ukraine, Baltics, Armenia and possible other places). He is kind, chirsmatic, and loved by the youth and fellow employees. He and his family are from East Germany and will living in Russia for another 3 years to fulfill this assignment. On the way to the office for our training, he decided we needed to see Red Square, so he made a detour and we were fortunate to arrive early in the morning when tourists were not out and about. So much to see, so little time, but we were grateful for the opportunity to be here and for Henry's kindness in taking time to show us this historic place before our day began.

This was a 'once in a lifetime' opportunity -- the skies were clear, the air was crisp, and there were few people on the square, so I kept my camera snapping.

The Kremlin stretches from one end of the square to almost the opposite side.

It was an amazing feeling to stand in the middle of Red Square -- so much history and important events had taken place in this very spot. We were grateful for the Kosak's warm hospitality. We loved staying in their home and feeling of the love they have for one another and the gospel. JUNE:

In June we flew to Lithuania to attend a CES conference. If these pictures look familiar, it is because this is the same town I posted in one of my first blogs last year.

Vilinus is still quiet and beautiful.

Our main purpose for going to Vilinus was to learn how to be more effective as CES missionaries. We attended classes every day for 6 hours. We learned a lot and we gained weight -- devotional, breakfast, class, lunch, class, dinner, study groups. Henry Kosak (grey suit) and Sergey (dark suit by flip chart) are wonderful and entertaining leaders.

Last year we attended this same conference and could hardly stay awake because we were still suffering from 'jet lag'. We had only been in the country 4 days when we flew to another time zone -- Lithuania. This year we learned much more and came back "re-energized" to continue with our work.

On the last day of our conference Henry invited us to take a walk around the town. This beauty was parked outside our hotel as we left for our walk -- All the men had to stop, take a look, and drool.

A beautiful day for a walk. It is good to get away from our studies and enjoy some fresh air. These are some of the beautiful sites we saw as we walked around the town.

We stopped for a few minutes to get a photo of the entire group -- behind us is an old fort.

Three days and we were ready to head for our home countries and missionary duties. This is the kind of transporation we often take -- kinda scarey, huh? Most Russian planes are very old and do not have modern capibilties -- which means Ron sits with his knees up to his ears, extrememly cramped. Unlike airlines in the US, all airlines here serve meals with each flight. We would do without the food if we could trade it for leg space.

Seniors are a lot of fun -- and they are tough too. You have to be able to endure a strenuous schedule and keep up. These are the Millers and the Sartoris. (Sister Sartori went to Granger High School with me - two years younger - for those of you who are old friends her maiden name was Julie Lelis.

Traveling can be exhausting -- they book us on the 'red eye' so the church can save money. Which means we sit in the airports for looooooong periods of time, and we fly when 'normal' people don't want to. We are home to stay -- at least until October, when we will receive our 'marching orders'. We do not know at this point where we will be headed. We only have two more visa trips and then our last trip will be back to the states. We are looking forward to that one, but until that time we stay focused on all the work that still needs to be completed.

Kim's Visit

2009-08-12T13:57:00.029+06:00

Sunday, May 30th we left our apartment at 3:15 am to go to the airport to meet a very important person. Our dear daughter Kimberly had finished her MBA program with an international business class held in Germany -- and she decided to pay us a visit. Happy Day!!! After picking her up we caught a couple hours of zzzzs and then we were excited to meet a few more important people. President Uchtdorf, Elder Andersen and their wives had come to Yekaterinburg to share a special message at a conference for the members. I had been asked to prepare gift baskets for our visiting dignitaries. It was an interesting experience to put together baskets that would go to hotel rooms of such special guests. I received many suggestions and advice -- "Do not put candy in the baskets"; "Oh yes, this person likes M & Ms"; "Make sure you have fruit and nuts".... As it turned out, they ate very little -- they were too busy giving talks and touring the city. But the missionaries loved what the baskets contained and found everything perfect. We had put a porcelain Russian doll in Sisters Uchtdorf and Andersen's baskets and they both seemed thrilled with them. The new Hyatt Hotel ballroom was rented to host the 600 members we expected to attend from our mission. The mission president was a little worried that not all the seats would be filled, but the members came -- from all over and from very far away. They did not want to miss this wonderful opportunity to hear Apostles of the Lord speak. It was exciting to feel the spirit and see the looks of joy on members faces as they greeted friends they hadn't seen in a long time ... and the missionaries whom they held dear. President and Sister Uchtdorf and Elder and Sister Andersen toured missions throughout Russia and Eastern Europe. Their words spoke truth to the heart and are still being remembered and spoken among the members. We were privileged to be able to attend a missionary meeting after the conference where we shook hands with each of them, had questions answered, and were able to feel of their personalities. They are all amazing people and servants of the Lord. Kim visited for five days -- she brought the sun with her and it was warm enough that we could walk along the streets and meet some of the local folk. We had a fun time acting silly with some of the bronze statues throughout the city. We took Kim to a mall -- I wanted her to see all the shoes. Russian women love shoes, in every color and style -- to match every dress. I tried to talk Kim into buying a pair, but she was afraid her baggage was already at maximum and couldn't afford another ounce.

The Maksimkina family invited us to their apartment to share with Kim a true Russian dinner. The Russian people are so hospitable and warm, in spite of the language barrier they make you feel right at home. Zoya and Elena our best friends. Zoya Mokhnatkina was a member of the church when Elena came to a sacrament metting. They met at the meeting and Elena asked Zoya why she had joined this particular church -- Zoya bore a powerful testimony of the gospel which helped to convert her. Now they love sharing time together and are not just best friends, they are truly sisters. They each have a daughter studying in Provo -- Katya at BYU and Anna at the international language center. Russians love to share their photo albums and also love to see pictures you might have in photo albums. Whenever we go to someone's apartment we are treated to pictures of their families. Kim loved looking at photos of Elena and Dimitri's family. What an endearing custom. Zoya and Elena tought us how to make Russian specialties -- Pirogi (baked rolls with meat and onions on the inside/also some with cherries) and Monties (steamed little packages, like ravioli, with meat, cabbage, and onions). What a great idea! When they come to my apartment what American dish should I teach them? The Elders serve as our translators, although Dimitri, the father speaks pretty good English. Roman, their son is one of our Seminary Age youth.

Sister Maria was anxious to meet our daughter and so we took Kim with us 'home teaching'. Sister Maria is a widow who lives in a one room apartment -- very sparse and without any luxuries. She has few joys in life and lives a very lonely existence. Kim was happy to go with us and took interest in the photo albums Sister Maria wanted to share. Sister Maria continues to ask about our beautiful daughter and how she is doing. We did a little sight seeing and went to visit the Church on the Blood, where the Romanov's were executed (a future post). And we walked along the river even though it was a chilly day. We loved the time we shared -- It was wonderful to have Kim here!

YSA Service Project

2009-04-16T08:23:00.018+06:00

One of the activities at our Youth Conference in August will be a service project. Time will be set aside during our three day conference for those attending to give service. As we contemplated this time, we decided we wanted a project that would last in the hearts and memories of those giving service and those receiving that service. Gary and Christine Baker - far right and children from orphanage.

Enter Brother and Sister Baker from a city about 2 hours North of Yekat. Gary, a long term employee with Boeing, has taken the assignment as the start up CEO director general for a three year period. His job is to build and equip a new facility for a joint venture that is owned half by Boeing and half by a Russian company. I had heard that Christine was helping with two orphanages near her home and emailed her as to the possibility of our YSA doing a service project to help these children.

When the children turn 17 years old they graduate -- which means they must leave the orphanage. They are given a blanket, some towels, a toiletry kit, a small sewing kit, and a little money. Some may return to distant relatives, others may go to a hostel, others may find their own way to school or work. Their road is very difficult, because they must face it basically alone. Our YSAs have accepted the challenge of making 12 quilts for those 'graduating', and if we can get the money, we hope to make toiletry bags also. We have plans to involve the Relief Society sisters in helping to tie the quilts, and we will invite our English Club members to participate in giving a little worthwhile service. We think this will be a great opportunity to bring people together in brotherhood, and will bless many people, as well as our youth. Some of the graduating class crowd around Christine - it's easy to see their mutual affection.

The small children live in very crowded conditions, but love to frolic and act out, especially in front of the camera. Just like all children, these boys love brownies and treats -- but fruit is a mainstay and is loved by all Russian children. Christine and Gary Baker love these children -- Christine is passionate about serving them and she has been a great help to us as we have planned and organized this service project. Hopefully it will be a memorable experience that will lead to lives focused on charity and giving. It's hard to imagine what life would be like without a family, or the support of a church family. I think it would be very difficult. I know the Lord loves all his children and I know He expects us to look after and care for those who need help.

We Have Been Busy

2009-04-11T12:09:00.042+06:00

It's April 12th and I have missed the beautiful blossoming trees and tulips in my gardens at home. Spring is almost here in Ekat -- at least the temperatures have risen and the days are much longer. I have thought of all of you and know that your lives have gone on with the raising of your families, work, education, service, etc., etc.

Well, we have been busy also.

We have gone through a muddy season -- and probably will have more of the same before summer arrives. I have written enough about this -- but pictures do not do justice to the thick, brown goo.

We took another Visa trip to Kazakhstan. Ron got this great shot of this babooshka who had fallen asleep at her stand and was about to fall off her stool. We watched and she slept on and seemed stuck to the stool. I'm pretty sure she didn't make much money (tenge) that day. We have supported our youth as they have prepared for their missions and have watched them progress until their departure. Arseniy opens his letter in front of our group -- 'I'm going to the Russia, Vladavostok mission!' (we will have 3 of our group leaving for the MTC this month - that will bring the total serving from Ekat to 6). They are great examples to the rest of the youth.

Olyssia and Tanya are currently serving as missionaries in different missions in Russia. Zoya gives the girls a big hug. Zoya is the mother of their good friend Katya, who is currently attending BYU.

We love being with our youth - and we have attended their activities. Elder Nuzman must love them a lot -- he hates dancing.

We attended Nina's wedding - one of our Young Single Adults.

Once a month we host an activity for our Seminary age youth. We are trying very hard to get more of the 14-17 year olds excited about coming and participating. We hope they will build a support system with many friends for their future.

We've hosted many dinners in our apartment for the missionaries who serve us so well, and also to thank those who are leaving the missionfield.

Dinner before Elder Savage leaves for home (grey sweatshirt)

Then, we've said 'goodbye' to our wonderful missionaries and dear friends, whom we have learned to love.

We are currently planning a 3 mission youth conference which will be held in August. We meet with our youth committee twice a month. We have great youth leaders and they are planning a wonderful, uplifting and fun 3 day experience for about 200 Russian youth.

And we have moved into a new apartment (see other blog), which meant no internet for 1 month. So that is what we have been doing and that is why you do not hear as much from us as you used to.

Happiness is ...

2009-04-11T11:34:00.035+06:00

When I was young we used to play a game called Happiness Is... We would start off with the phrase and then add our own thoughts. Happiness is.... a glass of ice water on a hot, muggy day. Happiness is... fresh, clean sheets that envelop you in a sweet fragrance after you've had a long hard day. Happiness is... getting a long, informative email from someone special who you haven't heard from in a long time. Happiness is... getting a seat on the bus or tram vi. Well, you get the idea -- and I'll bet all of you have played it at one time or another. Well, we have a Real Happiness story... Happiness is... moving into a nice neighborhood; into a clean, well cared for building; a building only 1/2 block from our current church building; 6th floor apartment; new washer (our last one broke and flooded the apartment twice).... Happiness is... a gaited building that is shoveled, cleaned, and cared for daily. Looking up from our backyard towards our apartment we can see our balcone and our neighbors next door. It is a bank with many reflecting windows --at night they turn on colored lights and it appears green.Happiness is... having nice big windows that let in the sunshine and allow us to look out onto the city skyline from our bedroom towards the front of the building. We live on a one way street which is quite busy. Currently the windows are closed and we do not hear very much of the traffic -- we'll see how much happiness we have when summer comes and we open the windows to let in cool air and the noise comes with it. When the outside of our old apartment was repaired and painted I held my breath as the workers walked shaky planks without any safety precautions. One day while looking out our bedroom windows towards the front of our new apartment I saw workers shoveling the ice and snow from the roof of the building across the street. They had a huge hammer that they would lift and slam down on the ice, then they would use a shovel and some tools to loosen it and shove it over the edge to the street below. As you can see they were standing on a sheet metal roof that must have been very slippery. Several times I saw them slip as the ice gave way and I was sure I would see a tragedy happening before my eyes. They did have a rope tied around their waist, but I am not sure it would have held them had they gone over the edge. Happiness is ... not seeing anyone fall to their death.

Although we have no trees or bushes in our backyard, Happiness is ... being able to look out our rear window and not see anyone using it as a bathroom (in our last apartment that was the case as I gazed out the kitchen window on a daily basis).

Happiness is... having a bus stop right outside your building -- we can't go everywhere using this stop, but others are not a far walk. Happiness is saying 'Let's go to the Subway' and not mean the Metro. This Subway sandwich shop is just around the corner. Happiness will be ... not gaining weight because we don't have to walk as far, and we eat more fast food. (but aren't Subway sandwiches slimming -- seems like I remember a commerical....)

We have a playground and a little area with benches to sit and relax -- it should be a pleasant place in the summer. We have seen a few children playing there in the afternoons -- Happiness would be to have our grandchildren to share it with. Looking down on our 'yard' from our kitchen balcone. A balcone is an enclosed porch that sticks out from the building (you can see them in the picture)-- I am sure the word balcone comes from the word balcony, or possibly the other way around. The balcone stays cold throughout the winter and we store some food there -- we also use it for luggage storage and other items. Happiness is... having extra storage space.

Happiness is... an elevator with no graffiti -- two elevators that are clean and do not smell (what a wonderful treat, after living in a building for almost a year with an elevator that smelled like dirty socks). Luckily we lived only 3 stories up and could take the stairs. Now we are 6 stories up, and this is Russia, so our happiness will end with the loss of electricity.Happiness is ... having a living room with a nice interior, good furniture, and space enough to fit all our youth comfortably.

Happiness is... having a comfortable bed. In Russia the mattresses are different than the box springs and cusioned mattress we are use to. Here they are one piece, like box springs, but comfortable. We are very low to the ground, we feel like we are almost sleeping on the floor, and literally 'fall into bed'. Happiness is... having a refrigerator that actually keeps things cold and is much bigger. What a blessing! We also have a larger oven and a new ceramic stove top. By the way, the Sprite bottles on the counter are full of filtered water, we keep them filled and use them as needed. Happiness is... having water that doesn't stink, and isn't a funny color. Do you remember our last bathroom? These are quite an improvement -- Happiness is... having the doors lock from the inside. Who would have thought???

Happiness is... being able to flush, and not have to brush.

I may have to wait to explain that until we return home.

Happiness is... having a place where those you care about feel comfortable.

Yulia and Anna enjoy relaxing while others in the group play a game.

Happiness is... being surrounded by wonderful, good, young people who feel as blessed as we do by our new apartment. They love it too!

And Happiness is... having many friends and loved ones at home who pray for us daily and support us with their prayers and emails.

Ice Sculptures

2009-02-16T18:50:00.026+05:00

Welcome to the Yekaterinburg ice city. The festivities began on their biggest celebration day -- New Year's Day, January 1st. This year the theme was 'Year of the Bull'. Each year the city hires a company to come to the city center to build an ice city. This year the walled encloser represented The Great Wall of China, and in the center the ice sculptures were displayed. Individual artists followed the theme as they carved their own sculptures. Plaques in front of each 'masterpiece' identified the individual artist. The creations out of ice were truly amazing. We went twice to the city's ice sculptures. Ron and I went the first week in January and then we went with our missions senior couples towards the end of January. At night the lights highlight the sculptures and the tree lights pulsate to music. It is beautiful and festive, and adds a great deal to the holiday season. Around the ice city are ice walls thick enough for people to walk on . We walked around atop the ice blocks and could look at all the activities taking place below. This is a picture of the Duma building across the street.

Lenin stands guard over the winged beasts. The day shots were taken a few weeks after the sculptures opened. Snow had dulled the crispness of the sculptures, but the temperatures were warmer. It's important to dress warm -- tempteratures can dip to -20 Celcius. We were dressed warm, but our hands were freezing cold. Notice the guy with no gloves -- maybe he is suffering from a brain-freeze. Inside the walls of the ice city are small amusements similar to what you might see at a carnival. (rings over bottles, knock the bottles over with a ball, shoot the basket, etc.) You could also have your picture taken with a Saint Banard, and since it's the 'Year of the Bull' maybe a nice shot with a bull??? I'm afraid we missed our opportunity on that one. Many slides offered children of all ages an opportunity to whiz down an icy slope riding a small round sled, a sack, sliding with your shoes or your coat. It is important to pay attention to where you stand, because they come down those slopes quickly and the ice carries them a long way. I saw one lady knocked over by a tiny, but speedy little girl. Ouch! The night Ron and I walked over to view the Ice Sculptures was so cold that my camera kept freezing. I could only take two shots, then had to put it in my coat to warm before I could take more. We are not as hearty as the Russian people and only lasted a couple of hours before heading home to our warm apartment and some hot chocolate. So beautiful! And made with chainsaws -- pretty amazing! The Far Eastern influence can be seen in all the sculptures. Of course that's the theme.

It's February 16th and the ice sculptures have been torn down, swept up and hauled off. The weather has warmed to just freezing and snow is melting. Spring is just around the corner. So until next year when the ice city returns....Snovem Godom! Have a wonderful New Year.

Christmas Pageants

2009-01-09T18:25:00.011+05:00

I remember going to the church as a kid to watch the nativity acted out by our ward members. I don't remember if I ever got to play the part of Mary, but I do remember playing the part of a lamb, and I was cast as an angel a few times. During the Christmas holidays Ron and I attended one of the branch activities where they acted out the nativity. Shortly after arriving they pulled Elder Nuzman aside and started to dress him in his costume. We were not able to understand what they were saying as they cloaked him in his regal attire. While we were waiting for the play to begin we speculated as to whom he might be playing, and of course, one of the Wise Men was the logical choice. And so.....

"Rinat, I get to play one of the Wise Men in the Nativity. I guess they did some type casting." Hey, Danil, what did they cast you as? A pirate???

"No, Elder Nuzman, I'm going to be Joseph".

"Well, they looked at me and thought I would make a good Wise Man." Ha Ha

I know this looks like one of Harry Potter's friends, but anyone with that cool of a hat, has to be cast as a Wise Man. The guy with the scarf was cast as a slave -- one that stands and fans the King.

So 'wicked King Harod talks to the 'real wise men' and invites them to return when they find the new King.

You may ask, "What part did you play, Karla"? Why an angel of course.

Kazakhstan

2008-12-13T17:54:00.063+05:00

On November 17th Ron and I went to the mission office where we were given instructions for our trip to Almaty Kazakhstan. We were leaving that Monday afternoon, flying to Moscow , then on to Almaty -- we were scheduled to return on Saturday. Almaty is a beautiful modern city. It is the largest city in Kazakhstan with 1,348,500 people. The word Almaty comes from the Kazakh word for apple.

This building was made of glass -- quite beautiful.

We know some of you think that our visa trips must be wonderful -- we get to visit many different parts of the world and see new cultures every three months. Their are a few advantages, like traveling with great young people and having adventures that the 'normal missionary' would never have. However, they are also filled with hours spent in travel, going without sleep, eating strange things, and some anxious moments concerning how and when

you'll return, and who will take care of your responsibilites while you are away.

Some of you asked what we did while visiting Almaty. This is what we did --

We Went Shopping:

Everyone who visits Almaty, and the 'natives', like to shop for fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, or almost anything at a place called The Green Bazar. On the way to the 'Green Bazar' Ron and I walked past the Central Mosque of Almaty. Quite an impressive building, but I am sorry to say I know nothing about it. Also, while on our walk we saw an interesting thing -- A man backed his station wagon up to the curb opened the back, and inside on the floor of the car was a dead animal. People came over with bags, they cut off pieces of meat, paid for it with Tenge (their money) and went happily home to cook a 'nice dinner'. Not your ordinary butcher shop. You can find almost anything at the Bazar - light bulbs, kitchen tools, paint supplies, all kinds of clothing apparel, and Ron even found power tools. We didn't purchase any souvenirs because our bank card was not working and we had concerns as to when it might start functioning again. But the missionaries found some Kazak slippers that reminded me of Aladdin, Russian ties, gloves, and hats.

Dried apricots, cashews, dried plums, chocolate covered peanuts - called Hedgehogs (yummy), almonds, and much, much more. The sight was beautiful and the room smelled wonderful.

We were all attracted to this vendor because he let us taste everything -- a good salesman -- we all purchased things from his booth. We Got A Little Culture: We were invited by the Moscow Mission missionaries to attend a cultural night at the opera with them.

During one of the intermissions I went to thank our hosts for the nice evening and was introduced to a man by the name of Gary Despain. I said, 'Not the Gary Despain that graduated from Granger High School?" He said 'yes', but neither of us recognized the 60+ faces, we only remembered the 17 year old faces. What a treat! He is a pilot for Air Astana and is living temporarily in Almaty. Imagine going to and opera in Kazakhstan and running into a friend from high school!!!We Did Some Sight Seeing:

We went to the mountains to visit a very famous outdoor speed skating rink called Medeo, which sits 1,691 meters above sea level. The rink was closed and in need of repair so we climbed the stairs to the top of the mountain (850 stairs). Whew!!! I was the last to arrive at the top, but I was glad I went.

Looking back down all of those stairs we had just climbed was spectacular.

Coming down was much easier. Elder Magleby found slick way to slide down the railings, although I think it must have been pretty cold. I was a little nervous -- then Elder Sorensen tried it and couldn't stop (a street lies at the bottom). I could see one of them ending up hurt on top of a mountain, with no cell phone, in a strange country -- and I said, 'Enough"! We walked down the rest of the way.

One day we took an aerial tramway from downtown Almaty to a popular recreation area on top of Kok Tobe, which means green hill. (This is the same hill where Kazakhstan was dedicated to the preaching of the Gospel)

The city television tower is up there along with a variety of amusement park type attractions. We were there in the middle of the week, on a cold day, so everything was closed. We did enjoy the tram -- everyone, except Elder Nuzman who is a little nervous about heights.

These five characters are 'our guys', the group that we will/have taken our visa trips with. They are a lot of fun -- this is the last trip for Sister Borchardt, who will go home in January. The Beetles sang us a few tunes.

We Met Members of the Almaty Branch:

While in Kazakhstan we were given strict orders not to do any missionary activity -- we couldn't even answer religious questions asked by our own church members living in Almaty. According to law, anyone who preaches within the country must have a license issued by the government. The missionaries who come to serve there from the Moscow mission cannot open their mouths and say anything of a religious nature until they obtain that license. We were allowed to sing in the choir that day -- probably the biggest choir they have had for a while.

The Almaty Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has about 60 active members. The chapel was filled to capacity while we were there.

The sisters and I were invited to attend Women's Conference at the Almaty Branch. We found the same welcoming spirit with these dear women as we would in our various home wards in the USA. Their theme was built around strengthening the family -- we ate, played games, sang songs, and participated in sharing ideas.

We Participated In Sports:
The missionaries had 'sports' activities they participated in about every other day. No this is not them -- next to the field where they were playing soccer, a school was having an American football game. We wandered over to watch and cheered on the Almaty Apples. They looked like they were winning over the Kergistan Kinnickees (I just made up those nick names- could you tell?). Watching was a lot of fun --but it was easy to tell they were very new at the sport.

We Studied and Spent Time Together:

We went to one anothers apartments for District meetings. We had three apartments with about 2-4 miles between each.

Three groups of missionaries (21 total) gathered together at the Almaty meetinghouse one afternoon to watch a session of conference. What a great group to be 'stuck' with!! The problem is - about 40% of our mission was now outside of Russia, and all these young missionaries were worried about their contacts at home, and who would take care of their work. Thanksgiving day we gathered together in the largest of the 3 apartments to enjoy a nice meal and just to be together. The food smelled wonderful and the company was great-- all these young people were kind, patient, and grateful to be spending this special time together.

Elder Gubler cooked 6 chickens, mashed patatoes, carrots, gravy and corn. We also had homemade rolls, cake, and apple pie. Yum!!! Elder Nuzman was invited to do the honors in slicing the chicken.

"No one can eat until I get a shot of this food", Elder Shreeve snaps a photo.

What do you do after feasting on Thanksgiving? I mean, when there are no football games to watch. Play games, of course -- even Ron got into the act, and had a good time.

Zenkov Cathedral is surrounded by Paniflov Park, a pleasant rectangle of greeenery. The park was named after the heroes of World War II. The Cathedral is one of the few tzarist-era buildings to survive the 1911 earthquake, despite the fact it is built entirely of wood and constructed without nails. It is beautiful and almost looks like it should be in a storybook or fairy tale. It is also one of the eight most unique wooden buildings in the world. It serves as a Russian Othodox Cathedral.

It's just as pretty from the back as from the front.

In the park behind the cathedral were some very impressive statues dedicated to war heroes. I know our grandsons would be very impressed.

After 13 days (for our group) we finally had our visas -- hurray!!!! We flew from Almaty to Moscow - then had to transfer to another airport in order to connect with the flight to Yekaterinberg. We took a train - about 15 miles; rode on a subway until it ended - possibly another 15 miles; rented a small bus - big enough for 19 of us (some of the missionaires found flights directly to their mission areas and had already departed) and all of our luggage, and traveled another 10 miles, or more. Finally we arrived at our airport and we were very happy to be on the last leg of our journey 'home'. An exciting adventure -- but not one we would like to duplicate in the near future.

2008-11-01T14:57:00.060+05:00

Welcome to our city. We would like to take you on a tour of Yekaterinburg Russia and some of the sights we see every day. The city is situated on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains and is the 5th largest city in Russia. The city was founded in 1720 by Vasily Tatischev and George Wilhelm de Gennin. Everyday we see:

In the summertime we saw lots of skin. But the people are beautiful, and most dress very fashionably. Many of the women wear spiked heels -- now that it is winter they wear spiked boots, of all colors. Green, purple, blue, red, boots -- to match thier outer wear - coat and hat.

Garbage - enough said.

Every big city has pigeons -- Yekat has its share. Graffiti Art

Flower shops, fruit stands, and banks are plentiful. You can find them on every block, and in the center of each block. They remain open year round and are open until after 10 pm in the summertime. Hours will probably be limited this winter -- I am thinking that those little plastic houses must get very cold as the temperatures drop.

I threw this picture in for Jaren and Scott -- while in Germany, they learned to love doner kebabs. Here in the city there are many stands-- they serve sliced meat from a rotisserie on a pita/tortilla type bread, with vegetables and sauce. Yum!

Lovely parks and places to walk are all around the city. Quite beautiful, except for the garbage.

A Russian highline canal.

Many of the Babooshkas sell their produce, knitting, flowers, and bottled sauce on the

street corners. They probably don't earn much, but enough to suppliment their living.

They are in 'their spot' day in and day out, no matter what the weather.

This cute old man plays for a few rubbles. Ron and I may have to take up the accordian in order to suppliment our income when we return, like the pensioners do in Russia. Early in the mornings when we would walk out of our apartment, we would hear the bottles breaking and rattling along the bricks as the city workers swept the park clean. They did a good job of cleaning up the previous nights mess. The Russian people don't clean up after themselves because they think will put someone out of a job. Interesting thought process.

The city workers have no safety regulations -- no OSHA organization in Russia. These men were painting our building. Most wore no safety belts, and walked on wooden planks that were not secure, up 6 stories. It frightened me everytime I looked out the window.

Everyday we take some form of transportaion -- I have covered that in a previous blog, so just a couple of pictures that I thought were interesting.

The city is full of statues -- and they love their statues.

Ask any Russian and they will tell you this statue is in honor of the man who invented the radio - his name is Alexander Stepanovich Popov. However, if you are writing a term paper on the radio, you might want to do a little more research. Whatever was invented -- Russians invented it first.

Every city in Russia has a least one statue of Lenin. We see him everyday -- this statue stands directy across from the Duma building, where we catch most of our public transportation.

This statue honors the Communist Youth. Russian workers are honored in this statue.

Yekaterinburg can boast that they have one of the tallest incomplete architectural structures in the world, the Yekaterinburg TV Tower. They ran out of money before they completed it (fall of the Soviet Union), and so it just stands a mere 220 meters (about 700 feet). Originally they planned to have a restaurant on top so it would have been 400 meters.

Walking along the river we found a really interesting old building. The city is filled with many historical, old, and interesting buildings.

Ron and President Allen walk in front of a very prosperous merchant's home. Around the turn of the century the man that lived in this home, owned many businesses in the city and he was a well known trader. When we walked around the building to a park in the back we saw that the back of the building had not been restored and didn't look anything like the front. They were just 'putting on aires'.

The city has these old buildings that used to be the homes of the traders/merchants. Maybe they weren't quite as successful as the previous merchant, but they still had a very nice home. These wood homes usually have intricate wooden 'gingerbread' around the windows, doors and under the eves. They are quite beautiful because of the workman ship that went into their building. They are tearing many of them down to make room for new buildings.

This is my favorite old building situated right in the city center. It is the very impressive city Duma building, and was built by German prisoners of war. It is now a government building, but was used as KGB headquarters in the past. It has a clock tower that chimes on the hour and we can hear it from our apartment, only a short distance away.

This is where old meets new --

literally. It's interesting the way

they incorporated the very old building into the front of the new

high rise.

The population of Yekat is about 1.4 million.

Most of the people live in highrise apartment buildings. Many new apartment buildings are being constructed, but the cost to live in them is probably out of the average person's range. Looking across Gorodskoee Lake you can see the northern skyline of the city.

The skyline is filled with cranes.

Beautiful old and new churches dot the landscape.

We asked the people in English Club 'What are the

main religions in Yekaterinburg?' 'Atheism' was the

first reply; then Russian Orthadox; Catholicism; Jewish;

and Protestant.

The most famous church is The Church On The Blood. This cathedral belongs to the Russian Orthadox church and is built on the site where Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and their children, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Tsarevich Alexei were executed by Bolsheviks. It is very beautiful and a very touching story -- I will do a future blog on the Romanovs.

Notice the barbed wire around the walls of this monestary - this might be the solution to keeping

our teenagers in class.

A beautiful little church located in a park.

And this is our church building. Top floor of this bank. It looks nice on the outside, but is pretty plain on the inside. We call it 'Rosie' because it sits on a street called Rosie Luxenburg. It is located about 6 long blocks from our apartment. We walk to this building about 5 times a week.

We have a circus in our city that performs shows year round. We haven't been yet, but plan on taking in a show to see if it is "acceptable" for the missionaries to attend.

I caught this picture one day from our kitchen window. A man was 'mowing' our back lawn with a weed eater -- this is the way they mow the lawns. We have never seen mowers used, even in the parks --just lots of men with weedeaters. I thought Jaren might be interested in this one.

One of the hardest things I had to get used to when we arrived in Yekat was all the garbage. Most of the garbage doesn't make it into the cans -- this garbage area is behind our building and is kept realitively good, compared to other garbages. This is where Ron's friend, Scabbers The Rat lives.

We've walked all over the city and our apartment is just ahead of us -- just around these garages where people park their cars, through some trees, down a dirt path, and we are home. We hope you enjoyed the tour.

Traditions

2008-10-09T12:28:00.032+06:00

The city is full of lovers -- you will see them holding hands, with their arms around each other, and kissing on subways, on street corners, and in the park. During the summertime they were everywhere -- I suppose it is due, in large part, to the fact that they have no private place to go. It will be interesting to see how the lovers will deal with cold winter's blasts.

Once they have found 'their true love', as part of their marriage tradition, they go to the river to place a lock on the bridge. They lock their lock together and throw the key into the river, symbolizing their trust that the marriage will endure forever. We haven't seen anyone diving into the river to retrieve the key, so we assume most marriages endure -- or possibly, it's just too much trouble.

All sizes, all shapes, some big, some small, some heart shaped, some ordinary, some expensive, some cheap -- I even saw a bicycle lock once (Not sure what it symbolized -- possibly a marriage on the go). On each lock you will find the couples names and the date of the union engraven or painted, according to their financial ability.

Russia's laws require that everyone be married by civil authority. (Our youth, marry here by civil law and then travel to the temple in another country to have the marriage sealed). After the ceremony, it's traditional to decorate the wedding procession cars and then to drive up and down the city's main streets honking horns and waving. Every Friday and Saturday Yekaterinburg is filled with a cacophony of joyous beeping.

Part of the wedding tradition is to go to the various city parks for picture taking. The bride and groom, their friends and family are found in beautiful setting all over the city, smiling and toasting to the future couple.

The couple travels to the mountains on their 1 year anniversary in order to tie a ribbon around a tree symbolizing their love and commitment for the future. There are also many other things tied to the trees -- liqueur bottles, shoes, and hats just to name a few. I'm not sure what they symbolize.

The chicken is a symbol of Luck and Prosperity -- All in all, some very nice traditions.

Prague

2008-09-09T13:07:00.058+06:00

On Friday morning, August 22 we awoke at 1:30 am, after about 3 hours of sleep, to begin our first visa trip. We were picked up at our apartment by a cab containing two of the elders that would be traveling with us -- our traveling companions consisted of 4 elders and 1 sister. We waited at the airport for 2 hours and then boarded our plan for a 4 1/2 hour flight to the Czech Republic. You might think this is a great way to sightsee, but think of the disruption to mission work, and what it costs the church to send missionaries every 3 months to get new visas - a huge problem for all the missions in Russia. The mission presidents also have concerns about their missionaires who have to travel so far unsupervised, not to mention the extra office staff it takes to plan and make the travel arrangements. We made the trip in one very long day. One of the elders who traveled with us, Elder Sorenson, made a 20 hour train ride, prior to taking the plane -- and he would have to take the 20 hour train ride home afterward. Not all fun and games.

Prague is amazing! We loved everything about the city -- except possibly, the prices. The first impressive building we saw was the opera house -- at least that is what we thought it was. It was a great morning for a brisk walk and a tour of historic Prague.

We decided we would travel together -- first we would head towards the St Charles bridge, cross it, then climb the hill to the Prague Castle.

The sun was shining, the air was clear, we were with good companions, the surroundings were amazing -- we didn't care that we had only a few hours of sleep. We wound our way through the city.

To get onto the bridge we entered through the Old Town Bridge Tower -- built in Gothic Style and quite impressive.

We arrived at the bridge early enough that it had not yet become congested with tourist, painters, or those selling their wares. The bridge is decorated by a continuous ally of 30 statues and statuaries, most in the baroque style and erected around 1700.

Elders Magleby, Jensen, and Pulsipher stop to pose.

I took this picture from the bridge, showing the old town upstream.

After leaving the bridge, we began our trip to the castle. We knew it was a top the hill, so we began our assent across the cobblestone roads and walks -- everything was clean and beautiful.

Up, up we went climbing many stairs.

Finding a few surprises along the way --Elder Sorenson clowns around. Could it be a former missionary who didn't make it to the airport on time for their return from a Visa trip??? High on the hill we could look across the city below, and on the hill adjacent to ours, the Petrin, I saw Petrinska Rozhledna. This is a tourist attaction we didn't have the time to visit. It is often described as a small Eiffel tower. It was built in 1891 and was used as an observation tower/transmission tower.

I don't know what this building was, but I loved seeing 'Old Glory' waving in the breeze.

The Prague castle is one of the biggest castles in the world (according to the Guiness Book of WR), at about 570 meters in length and an average of 130 meters wide. Included on the grounds are three courtyards, the St Vitus Cathedral, Romanesque Basilica of St George, a monastery and several palaces, gardens, and a defense tower. The various rulers who occupied the palace made their own additions and changes, so there are a mixture of styles.

Elder Nuzman tried to look as stoic as the guards.

We arrived just in time to see the changing of the guards -- pretty impressive.
Inside the second courtyard we stopped at a lovely fountain to take pictures.

Imagine our surprise when we climbed up and looked over the bowl to see a man collecting the money inside it. Not sure if it was his job, or if he was just in need of a little cash.

St Vitus's Cathedral took 600 years to build and is the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. It contains the tombs of many Bohemian kings. The cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. They are in the process of cleaning and fixing the outer structure. The Cathedral sits in the middle of the third palace courtyard. The front view with the Rose window above the portal depicts scenes from the bibical story of the creation.

The walls of the cathedral have many colorful stained glass (mosaic) windows depicting various historic or bibical stories. The most famous is the Mucha window depicting scenes from the life of SS Cyril the Methodius, who brought Christianity to the Slavic area. It also shows St Wenceslas kneeling next to his grandmother St Ludmila. The organ loft was massive.

The zigzag pattern of Net Vaults from crossing down towards the choir. This vaulting of the ceiling was unique and became a famous part of architecture.

The third courtyard was huge and was surrounded by extensive palaces.

When we left the castle we stopped on top of the hill overlooking the city. I have always loved the red tile roofs and clean, well manicured gardens. Then we began our descent.

Going down the walkway we could see the Monestery of St. George below.

As we walked back across the other bridge into the city, I was able to get a nice shot of the St. Charles Bridge from down river.

In Old Town Square we stopped to watch the hour change on the Astronomical Clock. This clock dates back to 1410 and has three components: The astronomical dial, representing the sun and moon; the 'Walk of the Apostles' and other moving sculptures; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months. It was very nice -- but did not compare to the the Glockinspeel in Munich.

Ron and I decided to let the 'young people' take off on their own and we would find a place to rest. After all that walking we were tired. We found a bench under a tree and were thrilled to watch a dance festival being performed in the town square. Some of the dances reminded me of the Western Square dance -- but of course, the music was much different. Every band had an accordion.

Wonderful costumes from native lands, and we heard many, many languages, Danish, Dutch, German, and some we didn't recognize. Happy, fun-loving people. It was so much fun to sit and watch and listen to the music.

This costume comes from Wales. The story of the hat is quite interesting. The stove pipe black hats are traditional in Wales, but in the Southern part of Wales the people are closer to the England, and they speak English. They wanted to distinguish themselves from the English and let others know they are true Welshmen, so they exaggerated the tradtional stove pipe hat and made it taller. I think it looks a little like the Puritan hats in early America.

Carriages took people for rides -- the horses look quite stylish, don't you think?

As we were about to leave the city, we had a group of young people stop us and asked the Elders, "You look like missionaries, are you?" We were told not to wear our tags, but even then, the missionaires stood out. Elder Nuzman and I were told to dress 'casual' so we were comfortable, but we didn't 'look the part', (in fact they wondered if we were the parents of one of the missionaries). The youth were on an excursion from Germany, a 2 hour drive from Prague. We had a good time chatting and getting to know each other, and even found some common acquaintances -- isn't it wonderful to be a world-wide-church! A chilly, rainy morning welcomed us at the Yekaterinburg Airport (Elder & Sister Nuzman, Elder Magleby, Elder Jensen, Elder Pulsipher, Elder Sorenson and Sister Borchardt). We experienced a few delays, so we arrived at 8:30 am on Saturday, August 23rd. We couldn't couldn't get a cab to take us back to the city for the price we asked, so we opted for a bus ride. It took longer, but was less expensive. Walking back to city center, I stopped a passerby to get one last photo of our 'gang'. We were tired and anxious to find our beds, but we had a terrific trip -- a wonderful day in Prague!

Novosibirsk Youth Conference

2008-09-05T17:17:00.044+06:00

We met at the Yekaterinburg Boxal on the afternoon of July 22nd, anxious and full of enthusiasm to begin our journey across Siberia to attend the Novosibirsk Mission Youth Conference. This is an event that the youth look forward to with anticipation all year, so they were particularily happy and excited. However, Elder and Sister Nuzman, new to the job, had a few reservations and viewed the trip with some trepidation.

A couple of little gypsy boys wound their way through the crowd begging for money. The youth and leaders were generous, but this encouraged the boys to 'stick like glue', especially to Elder Nuzman and President Allen. Cute, but well seasoned in the art of begging.

To begin our trip into Siberia we had a four hour bus ride from the Yekaterinburg station to the Chelyabinsk train station.

We arrived at the Chelyabinsk train station (Boxal, pronounced Voxal)and waited for another mission group to join us. While we waited two of the Perm youth entertained us and many other travelers with their violin, guitar, and drum music. A very nice diversion and the time passed quickly.

The train arrived and we were ready to be on our way. We would arrive at our destination after 38 hours of arduous train shaking, rattling, and many, many stops -- With us we had 72 youths and 16 leaders.

I had never ridden on a train before and this was quite an 'eye opening' experience. We were given a compartment called a 'coupee' -- not luxurious, just four bunks and clean sheets with a small table between where you could eat. At the end of each car a place where you could get hot water -- we did have noodle bowls so this came in handy; and one bathroom at the end of each car for everyone to share. And boy was it dirty -- yuck!, a small sink to wash in and the toilet flushed right onto the tracks -- we were not supposed to use it when we were at a station. Walking from car to car was amazaing! Not quite like in the movies -- but a mass of humanity sleeping out in the open for everyone to see in cars that everyone shared. I would have hated to be stuck in something like that, but that is where most of our youth stayed. Of course, they were all together and so didn't mind, and probably played games instead of sleeping.

We did get to see some interesting sights as the train rocked back and forth as it clickity-clacked along the rails. When one sees the vastness of the Russian countryside it is truly inspiring, and quite awesome. A vast wilderness.

We arrived in Krasnoyarsk on July 24th and were ushered to our buses. Tanya smiles -- we were happy to be on the last 'leg of our journey. The youth look rested but probably had only a few hours of sleep during the 36 hours on the train. They were anxious to shower and change into clean clothing -- Elder Nuzman and I were anxious, and stinky also.

On our way to camp we were able to view beautiful Krasnoyarsk from our bus windows.

The things we loved about the Youth Conference:

The Scenery: The camp where we stayed was in the mountains and reminded me much of the mountains in Colorado, except not quite so big. It was a beautiful setting. We stayed in buildings similar to dormatories -- twin beds and a shared bathroom. Each of the senior couples had their own bedroom -- phew!

Workshops: For two days the youths attended workshops learning a variety of things based on topics like faith, self worth, and priorties. Many said these were the best part of the youth conference. They enjoyed being able to express themselves where others would understand their feelings and they wouldn't be ridiculed.

Dances: Every night a different dance. The youths loved being together and it showed in their faces. Sister Nuzman loved being a part of the 'group' too.

Food: OK, maybe not everyone enjoyed the food -- I know some of it was not good! Even those from Russia left some of the food on the table. I took the picture of the kitchen because they really produced a lot of 'grub' three times a day. We had potatoes, fish, a strange hot drink with floating fruit, cream of wheat, bananas, barley, yogurt, cucumbers and tomatoes and many other things -- my motto was: 'If I can't recognize it, I won't eat it.'

Did anyone notice the fly strip above the serving counter -- another thing to add to the appetite.

An international dance with costumes -- even the Palmers got into the 'act'.

Games: No matter where in the world you live, youth love water ballon games -- and the water fight that always follows. Sister Paul (wife of visiting Seventy) didn't care for the fight -- but the youths ran and screemed and soaked each other. Great fun!

Dances: Romance was the theme for the last dance.

Our youths dressed so nice -- Dasha looks like she is going to a debutante ball. Everyone hopes someday to find 'that someone special' -- someone who believes the same as they do.

Beautiful women with dreams for a future filled with a home and happiness.

Elder Page took a special young woman for a 'twirl' and enjoyed every minute of their dance -- she looked like she was enjoying it also.

Sunday we all met for a wonderful testimony meeting and to listen one last time to Elder Paul of the Seventy speak. The youths lined up against the auditorium wall as one after another stood to give their testimony with spirit and conviction -- the Spirit was very strong. After about 1 1/2 hours the meeting closed with a song and a prayer and we headed to our dorms to pack and prepare for our jouney home.

The senior couples really had a good time bonding -- The Moultons (Humanitarian Missionaries), The Pages (Proselyting) and The Palmers (Proselyting)

All of us pose together -- not an easy task. We had a great time and many are already planning for next years East Europen Youth Conference to be held in Saint Petersburg. Potentially, we could have as many as 1,000 youth attending. Wow! What fun! Once on the train, we stood near the windows and talked, or sat in our coupees and watched as mile after mile of beautiful county rolled by.

We saw wonderful gardens which were filled with many potatoes, dill, tomatoes, cabbage, flowers (Russians love flowers), cucumbers and manyother plants that I wasn't totally sure of. They own these gardens outside of the cities, where they usually have a small house called a Dacha, and they can go to get fresh air, relax and work in the summer time. Also the fresh produce might help to supplement their income.

These nicely decorated water towers were located near many of the railroad stations.

Going home was a lot more fun -- we have side-by-side coupees and we enjoyed each others company. Elder Page loved telling us jokes and we laughed alot. The train was much newer, quieter, and cleaner, plus the coupees had tableclothes! We were really enjoying luxury now.

Night came, we were exhausted, but we would all soon be home. We were grateful for a wonderful experience and an opportunity to share time together.

DISTRICT SERVICE PROJECT

2008-08-07T23:47:00.024+06:00

About 3 weeks ago, on a Saturday morning we took a bus to a park near a great university. We were going to join the members of the District in a service project to clean and add beauty to a local park. One of the major culture shocks for me when I arrived here is the lack of 'public pride' where it comes to keeping the city clean. Garbage is everywhere -- I think they just think someone else will take care of it. Anyway, we had our work cut out for us.

About 35 people showed up to help clean up their park and serve the community. We were given aprons with the church logo of 'Helping Hands', some water to keep us going and a pair of gloves. I have never picked up so many cigarette butts in my life -- actually, I don't remember picking up any before. I started counting after about a half hour and I had picked up about 500 an hour later; also many liquor bottles and pieces of glass.

Ok, grab your sacks, put on your gloves, and get to work!

Zhennia and Sasha pose for me -- they are two of our Institute age youth and have come to make their contribution to serve.

A building from the near-by university pokes through the trees -- really quite a nice sight.The broken glass was everywhere. I couldn't figure out why parents weren't concerned as their children ran and played on and off the paths.

Ron got his bag and began picking up empty liquor bottles, broken glass, and other trash and then he disappeared -- I didn't see him for a couple of hours. When we finally met up again he said he had found the 'mother-load' of trash on one side of the park and had filled his sack to the top. He said a man watched him for a while and then began helping pick things up and putting them into the bag. The man kept talking to Ron, but of course, Ron didn't understand. Our District President came by and talked with the man -- the man couldn't figure out why an American would come all the way to Russia and then help clean up thier park -- he was amazed. He emptied one bag and began another -- no shortage of garbage here.

The park had lovely flower gardens and I couldn't resist putting aside my garbage bag for a few minutes so I could snap a few pictures. It would have been a beuatiful place to sit and do some watercolors -- I would have loved it, but not today.

Some of the older members worked on painting poles and benches in an area close to the children's play ground.

The Sister missionaries and some of the youth covered themselves with plastic bags to try to avoid painting their clothes with red, as they 'spruced-up' one of the covered patios.

Across the park, some men were practicing sword play with large bladed swords. It reminded me of a scene from the book 'Erogon' -- my grandsons would have loved it! I thought it was a little wierd and didn't venture too close.

The picnic area recieves a face lift with red paint, and it's starting to look beautiful again. Much brighter and very colorful.

Elvira and some of our Seminary age youth paint over bricks that have been covered with graffiti.

The Elders shoveled dirt into a wagon to be transported to a location where flowers were being planted. Notice how young the dirver looks -- Elders are coming into the mission field looking younger every year, or maybe it's just that I am getting older.

We leave the park a much prettier and cleaner place than when we found it. It was a good day, an enjoyable day, a day to remember.

Transportation

2008-08-07T14:51:00.030+06:00

We thought you might like to see our modes of transportation, now we are living in the city of Yekaterinburg. When we go to our English Club, the Russian adults are very interested in American cars and what is popular there. You might be interested to know that if they could choose, they would like to have SUVs. Gas prices here are about what they are in Colorado, maybe that is one reason there are not may large cars, although they can be found. The roads are lousy. The winters are rough on them, so there are many huge potholes. Speed limits do exist, but are not enforced. Policemen stand by the side of the road and signal anyone driving by to pull over

In the morning and evening rush hour streets are filled to capacity -- drivers drive three abreast where there is only room for two. Some even drive on the sidewalks. The streets are filled with buses, Tram Vi (runs on a track), Marshutes, Tram Autobus, cars, and trucks. It's a mess! and it moves at a snails pace during the rush hour. If you think your traffic at home is something -- you should be here!

I hope you can see how congested traffic is in the City of Yekaterinburg. In the picture is a Tram Autobus -- it runs on electricity, but doesn't have tracks.
Parking an issue? Not really -- you can park anywhere -- no rules where it comes to parking. Park on the sidewalk, in the trees, on the street, in traffic -- almost anything goes. It is truly amazing!

Marshutes - are yellow vans that have a seating capacity of about 12 people. The cost more and are quicker than the buses and trams so that might be an advantage. We don't ride them much because Ron is so tall that his knees take up two spaces and the poor person sitting across from him can't find a place to put their knees. We took the back seats in one of these once and we had a hect of a time trying to get out.

On the other side of the 'city center plaza' is a large body of water, where the river backs up. You may rent canoes or this larger craft to paddle across the water -- it is really quite beautiful.

A small craft takes people on an outing --

the Cathedral On The Blood can be seen

in the background.

The Metro stop is close by our apartment and we have had the opportunity to take the 'subway' a few times. It is a quick way to get to areas outside of town.

One day, while we were waiting for the train, two little boys, about 10-12 years old, came up to us and started talking. Elder Nuzman told them he did not understand and I told them in Parooski that we were from Denver Colorado. Boy, did they get excited over that! When the train came they motioned for us to follow them and they wanted to stand next to us -- the one little boy whipped out his cell phone and I couldn't understand anything in his excited speech except "Denverah Colorado!" We were celebrities. It's a long way down and the escalator moves rapidly -- quite an exciting ride -- I was quite scared the first time we jumped on and down, down, down we went into the abiss.

It's dark and chilly so far underground. When the train arrives a swish of cold wind comes from the tunnel.

I hope you can see how steep the climb is -

not as scarey going up as coming down.

A few people ride bicycles -- they can be tricky when encountering all the city

traffic. Ron was hit by one a girl was riding one day -- he as not a happy camper!

We have seen only a couple of Harleys -- but there is a Yamaha store not far from us. They do have small motorcycles, and motorbikes. We understand that snow removal on the streets is minimal in the wintertime, so maybe that's why they are not popular.

Skating, rollerblading and skateboarding are all favorite pastimes for the young -- Ron and I do not claim them as our favored mode of travel.

I finally figured out where all those 'road apples' we had been dodging in the middle of the sidewalks had been coming from when we encountered horses on the plaza one evening. I had my camera handy so I asked if I could take pictures, the girl said if I wanted to pay -- at least that's what I think she said. Ron and climbed the hill and sat on the stone wall where I snapped all the free pictures I wanted. The girls charge money for people who want to ride the horses -- we didn't ask how many Rublee it would cost.

A few weeks ago we traveled by train across Siberia -a story I will share in another blog -- quite an experience!

When all is said and done, this is how we get around most of the time.

Besides you have a greater opportunity to see sights you have never seen before.

Firesides

2008-07-14T13:26:00.021+06:00

Every Sunday evening this is what you will find in our entryway -- Shoes! It's fireside night and an opportunity for the youth to gather, share the gospel, sing songs (they love to sing), enjoy each other's company, eat, play games, and laugh. We have now held 6 firesides in our home and we love having the youth come. In spite of the fact that we are crowded, the youth don't seem to mind. However, they were very grateful when Elder Nuzman fixed the bathroom door so it locked on the inside, instead of the outside. That got him a round of applause!

Cute little, vivatious Varvara poses with Elder Nuzman -- she put on the Sister's name tag as a joke.

Luba gives our spiritual thought and talks about her conversion. She has been an example of kindness to me as she takes her little brother (about 10 years old) with her to many church functions. She is a very talented seamstress.

These three girls speak some English -- our translator, Ksusha (all in white) has been a blessing to us. Anna, girl far left, has been called as a missionary -- she leaves in September for Hawaii.

Elder Taylor gives us a 'cheesy' smile. Shasha smiles like most Russians -- not showing their teeth.

Just a few of the beautiful faces you might see --

The girls outnumber the boys by about 10 to 1.

They love games, here they are playing 'Do you love your neighbor?' We try to keep it in the Sabbath mode, but there is a lot of laughter. They enjoy one another, and we are grateful.

We are a bit crowded , but the youth haven't complained. Daniel did ask if we had more chairs -- I wonder where we would put them?

We don't have enough chairs for 20 people, so some sit on the floor. That is where you will usually find me.

We have served Navaho Tacos, Macaroni Chicken Salad, Tuna sandwiches, (their own concoction, consisting of a really oily tuna, corn, cheese, pickles, and mayo -- served as open face sandwich -- pretty messy, but they love it), patatoe salad, and always, always -- cucumbers, tomatoes, bananas and oranges. I have made a lot of cookies and Texas sheet cakes -- I bake about 3 times a week.

Eating is always important to the youth -- it's amazing how much they can 'pack away'. Most of the girls are tiny, little things, but boy can they eat!!! Hear they enjoy ice cream and sliced bananas. They love bananas -- we serven them every Sunday, no matter what, and they dissapear.

Daniel gives the announcments and usually takes 'charge'.

The youth love personal stories -- here they are listening carefully to what is being said.

Sisters Konstantenova and Richey say, "Paca! it was nice sharing your fireside with you." Just passing through town prior to a visa trip. We enjoyed their enthusiasm and fun games.

EAST MEETS WEST

2008-07-04T20:58:00.019+06:00

A couple of weeks ago two of our favorite people invited us to a picnic. Elder Farmer and Elder Reynolds, our Zone Leaders said they were celebrating a last 'get-together' before some of the Elders in the District went home. I don't think they thought we would accept, but we were happy to spend time with these exceptional young people. We traveled by van (marshute) up into the Ural mountains where we enjoyed the day -- picture taking, laughing, getting to know each other, cooking hotdogs, playing ultimate frizbee, yep, a day to remember.

We traveled by marchute (a van loaded with about twelve seats) and Taxi to see the spot where Asia and Europe meet.

It's an impressive monument and there is a nice park all around it -- places to sit and paths to walk.

One foot in Asia and the other in Europe -- how fun! Blue skies, fresh air and great company, who could ask for anything more?

A casual day in the mountains - no suits, ties, skirts, panty hose -- need I say more?

Hold that pose -- I think you will like this one...

East or West?

A beautiful day and we are having a good time.

After picture taking we were off to the woods to build a fire and roast our lunch. Where in Colorado can you build an open fire without worry of burning down the forest? It's quite humid here but no one seems to worry about starting a fire.

There is something odd about the forests in Russia, at least in this part of the Urals -- We have never seen any animals. No chipmunks, squirrels, deer, rabbit -- nothing -- only birds. You would think that at least you might see 'road-kill' along the highway if any animal life existed, but we have never seen any. Maybe this is a sign of how severe the winters can be.

We made our hotdog sticks out of dry branches -- thank heavens for Elder Nuzman's trusty pocket knife -- where would we be without it? I cooked and ate one hotdog and decided it must be an acquired taste. Not quite like the hotdogs back home.

Strange hotdogs on dry bread or some kind of lunch meat with cheese -- take your pick -- the Elders didn't seem to mind, but I didn't see the sisters consume much.

Hey -- where's the mustard? What kind of a lousy outfit is this?

Goofy pose -- great kids....

Elder Kornev was one of the Elders heading home the following week to Latvia. I will miss him -- both Ron and I thought he was a kind and thoughtful man. I am sure his family will be happy to have him come home.

Check out Elder Taylor in the back -- such a cute character!

Shhh! Elder's sleeping -- A long hard day of ultimate frizbee will do that to you.

But Sisters Borchardt and Bodavets (from the Ukraine) are still full of life.

It was a really fun day -- so glad we tagged along.

Welcome to our Dom (home)

2008-06-29T20:01:00.029+06:00

Through the trees you will see a large pink building -- this is where we live in our new city. It lies along the river and plaza where many people come to walk, hold hands, sing, dance, drink, and party. Which makes for some really noisy nights -- like when Russia was in the finals for the Soccer World Cup -- we didn't get much sleep that night.

One day we were walking on the plaza and a many was unloading this toilet, unfortunately he forgot to close the hole in the bottom of his truck so as he pumped raw sewage from the toilet, in went in his truck and flowed back out the bottom all over the cobblestones. Boy was it bad!! As we hurried away, promising not to return this way again for a long long time, I thought to myself, now that's what you call a really bad day!

Standing across the plaza you can see our apartment complex. A river runs right down the center of the plaza -- quite lovely, but quite polluted also.

This picture is taken right outside our entrance. I had a nice picture of Ron holding the door open, but when I brought it up I could see some rather nasty images of graffiti right over his head. Not appropriate for an Elder of the Lord's.

Third floor at the top of the stairs, that's where you will find us. We do have a small elevator, but it stinks really bad, so we get our exercise -- thank heavens we didn't choose an apartment on the 6th floor.

Guests, how nice, come on in and see our new digs. I'm not sure how Ron sees with his sun glasses on -- its fairly dark in the hallways. There are windows at the end of each staircase which when opened let in flys. Our apartment has nice new windows with screens -- a BIG plus when we were looking for apartments.
Don't worry about us being safe once inside our domain. Take a look at these doors -- a thick one on the inside and a metal on on the outer door -- and take a look at those locks. Three to be exact -- plus the very outside door at the end of the hallway going outside, which requires a special button to open. The phone on the wall is when people come to the outside door, they call our apartment number,#58, and we buzz the door and it opens for them. Pretty nifty, huh?

Once through the doors you enter our hallway which takes you to all rooms within the apartment. Behind the mirrored doors is a storage/coat/and clothing closet. On Sunday evenings this area is full of shoes. It is the custom here to remove your shoes when you enter someones home -- a very nice custom. But the real reason they do it is because it is quite muddy and dirty outside and they are thoughtful enough not to bring it in.

This picture is out of order, but I wanted to include it because I think it is funny. These two doors are to our WC and our Bath/Washroom. Notice anything funny? Well, the locks are on the outside of the doors, which presents a problem when our youth come on Sunday evening. They usually have a guard stand outside the WC to make sure no one enters while they are inside. Ron is trying to remedy the situation, but lacks some tools. He tried to remove the locks with a screwdriver the the screws have been stripped -- we will have to replace them.

They are in the process of restoring the outside of our building -- thank heavens, it really needed it, as do many of the large apartment buildings. Two men were out of some pretty shakey looking scaffolding this day scraping off the old stucco -- it made me nervous to watch them.

Our bedroom -- we hang our clothes in the wardrobe and also in the closet in the hallway. We moved one bookcase from the front room to make room there and it doubles as a place to store some of our clothes and other items. The bed is quite comfortable -- we were worried about it, but are grateful for the blessing of sleep in a bed that is not as small as we had imagined.

Almost all of the things we thought we were going to 'inherit' from the previous CES couple somehow 'disappeared from storage, but we were grateful for a few blankets and this one comforter which was stored at the mission office.

This is a picture of our dryer and I suppose it really should have followed the picture of the washer -- oh well, you get the idea.

Our bath/wash room -- I don't know if you can see it, but we have a bottle to water on the shelf to brush our teeth with. Sometimes we have no hot water -- Ron found that out one morning as he showered -- me I always shower at night.

Our WC -- water closet. Very small, but it does the job.

I wanted you to see our water purification system -- very expensive -- only a small amount of purified water comes out at a time, but enough for us to fill our sprite bottles. We usually wash the dishes in hot soapy water then boil water to rinse everything in. We have been told not to drink unfiltered water. It is a hastle, but we want to stay healthy. The missionaries used to have these same systems, but they require filters to be changed periodically and when a shipment of filters arrived at the Moscow airport they were taken -- a very big expense for the church. Now the missionaries buy bottled water.

Our apartment was just redecorated, they put in a new kitchen, which it quite nice and will do fine for our stay here. The oven and stove are small -- We purchased a cookie sheet and it wouldn't fit. So when I bake a batch of cookies I can only cook nine at a time and it takes quite a while.

Looking out the third floor window lets us see what's going on outside -- which can be very interesting. Because we live in the center of the city we have alot going on on either side of us. Last week there was a concert on the main street in back of our building -- a small wooded area divides our parking lot from the businesses. Anyway, a lot of drinking was taking place and so our little wooded area became a local toilet for many of the men and a few females. Very interesting and a little surprising to gaze out the window that night.

(I erased the pictures, sorry -- I'm still getting used to blogging)
Our refrigerator -- the freezer works well, but the fridge part doesn't keep things very cold. Ron freezes sprite bottles filled with water and puts them into the fridge and that has helped. We need to talk with our landlady. A bit of a problem since we don't understand each other.

Ron studies -- Scripture study, language study, lesson planning, and then in the afternoon we are on the go to appointments, shopping, or just trying to find our way around the city.

One of the reasons we chose this apartment was because it has a realitively large living room -- but even so, when the youth arrive we have to move things into our bedroom to make room, and then we are still really crowded. So far, the youth haven't seemed to mind, but as we grow in numbers, which we hope we will do, we will have to come up with a new plan.

The halls are in much need of repair, but they keep it fairly clean.

We travel out the long dark, stinky hall ( I know it looks light, but it is almost pitch black ) to the bright sunlight, where take long gasps of fresh air.

And so, for now we say goodbye to all of our friends and family. We'll talk to you soon.

OUR TRIP TO LITHUANIA

2008-06-26T14:41:00.023+06:00

We flew out of Yekaterinberg to Moscow four days after our arrival and headed to Vilnius Lithuania. After our arrival at the airport, a bus picked us up, along with several other missionary couples heading for the same CES conference in Kanaus. It was about an hours drive to get to the city of Kanaus and we passed Rumsiskes like this one above. The countryside was beautiful and a lush green --forests and rolling hills. We got to know many of these seniors over the course of a few days and were grateful for their enthusiasm and wisdom-- we were the 'greenies', with only 4 days under our belts.

Kanaus is the second largest city in Lithuania and was a former temporary capital. Between the world wars industry prospered in Kanaus and at one time it was the largest city in Lithuania. During the inter-war period, Kanaus had a Jewish population of 35,000-40,000, about one forth of the citys total population. Jews were concentrated in the citys commerical, artisian, and professional sectors. ( a little history lesson)

There are two large rivers that run through the town and merge. They are called the Nemienas and the Neres.

Ron holds on the the railing because he is afraid he might fall in.

We know nothing about this church, except I got the name off the internet -- Vytautas church.

On our lunch breaks, we journeyed out and walked around the town. Here Rone stops in the shade of a watch tower.

This is Hotel Daugirdas -- I know it looks lovely, and it was, but we really did spend the better parts of three days in class. The first night we were so tired and class lasted so long that neither of us could hardly stay awake. We were still reeling from jet lag (12 hour difference from home) and then a three hour difference between Yekaterinburg and Kanaus.

Looking up from the lobby of the first floor where we sent many emails while were were staying here

We had delicious meals in this lovely little dining hall. Breakfasts were the best -- a buffet with a large choice of whatever you might like (with the exception of many fish items that I would'nt even try).

This was a former Presidential home/palace.

Ron and took walks around town whenever we had the opportunity, but we really didn't have any information about the buildings. It was a quaint, little town filled with much history.

This beautiful church stands in the city center, surrounded by a large cobblestone square. They don't hold services here, only weddings

We took a walk early one morning and found the town quiet -- in the afternoon and evening it is filled with busy tourists and cars crowded together in the narrow streets.

The CES Director for this part of the world, Henry Kosak rented a bus for us, so we traveled comfortably. Away we go into the country.

This is a picture of the church I shot earlier, called the Vytautas church - shot from across the river and in a moving bus. Pretty good, huh?

It was a beautiful day -- and nice to get away from the classroom and breathe some fresh air.

In June of 1940 the Soviet Union occupied the city and a series of arrests, confiscations, and the elimination of all free institutions began. Soviet authorities confiscated the property of many Jews, while hundreds were exiled to Siberia. Germany invaded the town in June 1941 and Soviet forces fled. The anti-communist German organized insurgents began to attack the Jewish people blaming them for Soviet repressions. Of the 37,000 Jews in Kaunas only 3,000 survived the war.

One of the death camps where the Jewish people and others were exterminated. We took a tour, but came away feeling very sad.

This is a picture of the massive memorial they built to the holocaust victims. A beautiful memorial to a horrific part of history. I came away feeling very greatful for my heritage.

I hope you can see how impressive this massive memorial is.

After our return to the city we shared a good meal and held a testamony meeting on the top of our hotel. They even had an ice cream birthday cake and sang 'Happy Birthday to me. It was very memorable.

And so we say goodbye to Kanaus, and all the lovely people we met. But we will have many fond memories of an enjoyable trip to a beautiful county.

THE MTC EXPERIENCE

2008-05-25T02:29:00.023+06:00

This picture is out of order, and I couldn't move it, but I wanted to show you the dining hall. It was amazing -- 3 meals a day, serving 1,500+ people. We could choose from bagels, cereal, hot cereal (oatmeal for Ron, yeah!} eggs, pancakes, all kinds of juices, fruit, french toast, biscuits with gravy, hash browns, etc for breakfast. Lunch and dinners: soups, salads, hamburgers, pizza, casseroles, burritos, chicken fried steak, salmon, rice, ham, almost everything a young person longs to each. Yum! (except their chicken nuggets are hard as rubber} And missionaries from all over the globe -- I met a young man today in the laundry who was from Scotland, assigned to Paris France. It is so fun to walk around and listen to the various languages being spoken. We asked two Korean boys where they were from and they said 'Taejon'. When we told them we had a son who served there, they beamed with pride and wanted to know his name.

Our journey begins on a beautiful spring day in Ogden Utah. May 19th we awoke encompassed by Utah's majestic mountains, the sun shining and beautiful blue skies.

Clyde, Ron's brother and his wife, Yvonne, were our hosts. Clyde got into the spirit of the moment by wearing his old missionary badge.

We don our badges and our smiles -- now we are ready to drive from Ogden in the North to Provo in the South. Look out Provo, here we come!

Where in the heck are we going to put all this luggage?

Do you really need all this stuff?

Are you kidding? --serving 23 months in Russia requires a lot of stuff

Senior compartments consist of a bedroom with desks and closets and a bathroom. Pretty small, but we are happy to be here

However, if we had to spend all this 'togetherness' more than the 9 days assigned, we probably wouldn't look so happy.

Ok, everyone, this is where you can find us . Yekaterinberg Russia, deep in the heart of the Motherland. We will be eating bortsch, potatoes, and cucumber and tomatoe salad.

Our days were scheduled with things to do from the time we got up, usually around 6:00 am. First we went to eat -- an amazing experience! We then attended classes centered on the 'Preach My Gospel' book, where we participated in discussions, saw videos, and listened to uplifting talks. We had the opportunity to work in the call center one afternoon, talking calls from people all over the United States who wanted free materials sent to them. I talked with a lady from Kentucky. Fun!! We met with our Russian tutor, Katya, in the evenings after class for a 2 hour language lesson. She was really patient with us and we actually learned a lot.

We will not be traveling by bike, nor car, but likely by bus or the metro. Most likely, our two feet will carry us across Yekat. I loved this bronze

sculpture of two missionaries with their backpacks and determined faces.

The MTC is so amazing! -- 400 new missionaries arrived on Wednesday and electrified the air. With bright smiles (and some sad faces), but for the most part eager to begin their new adventure just like us. The MTC is a city unto itself, with post office, laundry, seamstress/tailor, barber/beautician, cleaner, bookstore, doctor, cafeteria, lodging, computer center, classrooms, concert/assembly hall-- everything you might need is here.

It isn't unusual to walk around and find young missionaries practicing their preaching skills. These young people we practicing in German. Then they broke out in song, "I Know My Redeemer Lives", it was breathtaking!

Holding a 'street meeting in German - Jaren and Scott I know you would have loved it.

We had about 25 couples in our group of senior missionaries and 2 single sisters, one a widow and the other divorced. These are really remarkable and intelligent people. Coming from all over the US and going to serve all over the world. One couple are serving their 3rd mission in Africa, they just love the people; the widowed sister told us she has all of her valuables in her two suitcases and is going to serve her forth mission -- pretty humbling. Some of the countries that will be served by these great people are: Canada, Nigeria, Uganda, England, Switzerland, Mexico, United States, Spain, Germany, Guam, and of course Russia. They are people from all walks of life who feel a need to give back to the Lord and to serve his children.

We will be leaving our retreat on Wednesday morning, May 28th to fly to Russia. Our trip will last about 36 hours, but when compared to the pioneers trip across the plains I guess we can't complain. At least not too much. We have loved the beginning experience and look forward to many more within beautiful Russia.

I wondered what life was like behind these walls each time we dropped one of our five children off to begin their journey, and now we know.