Anne and I will be going to Moscow Russia to serve an 18 month mission for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (or Mormon). We will start this experience off by traveling to Provo, Utah on June 24th where we will have the opportunity to get some intensive training in Russian and to see some family. Then, on June 30th we will start a week's orientation in the Missionary Training Center. We fly off to Moscow on Monday, July 7th. Our responsibilities will be to strengthen the local church there, teach English as a second language publically and assist the younger missionaries. We may also be opening a family history/genealogy center there soon.
We understand that we will be serving in a town called Yaroslavl, a 4 hour train ride north of Moscow. Yaroslavl is a town of 750,000 on the Volga river. Here is a picture of the apartment building where we will be staying in a 2nd floor, four room apartment.
Currently we are learning Russian. We have a tutor for one hour at least three times a week. Our tutor's name is Justin Bogh. Included is a picture of Justin and his roomate. Justin is the tall one, standing 6'5". We enjoy him very much. He is very helpful and a skilled teacher.
We are replacing the Yorgesen's. They are completing their 18 months there. We are able to email them with questions and they have been very helpful with their answers. They sent pictures of some groceries shown here. Hey, M&Ms are available there! We will be OK.
