Rick & Anne McClelland's Russian Mission

Baptism, Coming Home

2010-01-05T09:58:00.017-06:00

Baptism
Pictured above is the tree that was set up on Gorkova Square. The banner exclaims "Happy New Year". So it really isn't a Christmas Tree. Russia celebrates Christmas as a religious holiday on January 7th.

Elders Worthington and Nuckols met Irina on a bus at the close of their day. Elder Worthington had an impression that she knew English. She was anxious to meet and be taught in English. So most of her lessons took place in our apartment. It was a thrill to hear the lessons taught in English so we could know what was going on and participate in teaching her. She wasn't sure she was ready for baptism till she went to Ludmilla's baptism the week before we left, where she had a strong witness of the spirit. She asked Anne when we were going to leave and when she found out it was in a week, she said she was going to pray fervently about baptism. On Tuesday, she asked to be baptized the next Saturday.

Above, she is pictured with Anne and Sister Rasmussen. Elder and Sister Rasmussen arrived on Friday in Nizhniy to replace us. They have been working in the office in Moscow for 10 months.

Here Irina is pictured with Elder Guynn who baptized her. Irina was the first person that he had baptized.

Coming Home

This was the last time we were with our missionaries in Nizhniy. It was hard to say good-bye to them. They are all so special to us. From left: Elders Guynn, Anderson and Nuckols, Sisters Chetina and Doty.

On Monday morning, the 21st, we traveled by plane to Moscow and spent the night with the Woolleys. They are doing a great job as mission president and parents. They love the missionaries and keep new ideas for teaching and contacting flowing into their lives continously.

Our family, except for one child and his children from Boise who joined us on Christmas day, and one grandson serving in the Utah Ogden Mission, were all wating for us in the baggage area when we got off the plane. They were quite a spectical for all the other passengers arriving with us.

We were so happy to see them.

It was wonderful to have grandchildren gathered around us again.

The day after we got back we went to a Christmas tree farm hoping to take a hayride, however, they were no longer giving hayrides. But there were plenty of other activities for the grandchildren. We took the opportunity to take a group picture on the haystack with everyone there. What a GREAT family!!

We couldn't resist having our picture taken in front of these beautiful Christmas trees. The real snow started the next day, Christmas Eve, and really helped all of us enjoy a white Christmas. (We are taking credit for bringing the snow with us!)

On Christmas Eve day, after the grandkid's cookie decorating party, Anne read them the story behind "I heard the bells on Christmas Day". That evening, each family received a copy of the book as a special Christmas Eve gift.

It was wonderful to spend time with our first great-granddaughter, Eleanor. She loved being with great-grandpa.

Home at last in Keller, Texas. We absolutely loved our mission. The Russian members and the participants in our English Club groups provide us with treasured memories. We lived our dream and hope to do it again in the future.

Christmas Tree, Walking Street, British Pub, English Club Social, YSA Social, Baptisms, Last District Picture

2009-12-16T13:18:00.022-06:00

Christmas Tree
We spent part of our P-day decorating the tree and the apartment for Christmas. Sister Doty and Elder Guynn put ornaments on the tree. We used felt snowflakes with pictures of each of the missionaries we have served with both in Yaroslavl and Nizhniy. We had 37 snowflakes.
Elder Anderson adds one more.
Elder Nuckols placed the magnetic nativity pieces we found in Prague on a covered pizza pan.
Sister Chetina puts another snowflake on the tree.
Elder Worthington puts the "finishing" touch on.
The final additions and a truly spectacular Christmas tree! Full of sweet memories.

Walking Street
We took some time off one afternoon and did some Christmas and souvenir shopping on the walking street. At the end of the street is the kremlin.
We loved seeing the horses "dressed" for giving children rides. This group includes five in graduated sizes.

British Pub
This fun restaurant is the meeting place for an English-speaking group each Saturday. The missionaries all joined them for hot chocolate (the best we have found in Russia) and some fun conversation. Later, we went back and had almost-authentic fish and chips for dinner.

English Club Social
We invited our conversational English Club groups to a Christmas social at our apartment. We played games, were entertained by Elder Worthington on the guitar and ate some or our traditional Christmas goodies. It was a fun time for all of us, especially the 7 English Club members who attended. As Vladimir, Alexey and Alex were leaving, we wanted to get a picture of the traditional shopka Alexey was wearing. Helps keep him warm! It has been 31 degrees below zero here lately.

YSA Social
We also hosted a Christmas social for the young single adults. There were 20 there and 2 non-members and the elders. They played games, sang karoake, had a white elephant gift exchange and enjoyed some more of our traditional Christmas goodies. From left: Ala, Deema, Tanya, Luba, Olya, Anar and Elder Nuckols.

Baptisms
We were fortunate to have two baptisms in one day. Ludmilla is in the lower branch. Sisters Chetina and Doty helped teach her.
Elder Nuckols, on the left, baptized and confirmed Ludmilla and Elder Worthington, on the right, baptized Yaroslav. He was confirmed by President Kalyonov from the upper branch.
Elders Guynn and Worthington taught Yaroslav.

Last District Picture
Our last district meeting was on the day Elder Worthington left to go home. He has been a great district and zone leader. He will be missed
Our last picture as a district. In the front beginning left, Sister Doty, Rick, Anne, Sister Chetina. In the back from left: Elders Worthington, Nuckols, Anderson and Guynn. Truly outstanding missionaries who have had an impact on the lives of members, non-members and Rick and Anne.

Stockholm, Zemskov's, Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T08:41:00.018-06:00

Stockholm
This is the Grand Hotel we stayed in while in Stockholm. It was built in 1893 as a replica for a hotel in Monte Carlo. The original carved woodwork was wonderful and the whole experience was really fun. We were several miles from Stockholm city center, so we took a quaint little train into the city.

This is a view from our hotel window. The bay is surrounded by beautiful homes and many boats.

We were able to attend the Stockholm temple which has a very unique architecture.
The feeling is almost one of a summer resort.
The grounds were beautiful with the fall plantings and the quiet flow of the fountain.
We took a bus tour of the city and this was the royal palace. It's quite plain in architecture and there is not a lot of security.
The Opera House is just down the street from the palace, and is more majestic, but certainly not as large.
This view from the bus window gives you an idea of the water that surrounds Stockholm. It is actually many islands connected by bridges.
We couldn't resist taking a picture of this wonderful troll outside a gift shop. Trolls are a major theme in Sweden and I wonder if the story of the "Billy Goats Gruff" comes from there.
This cute troll was outside another gift shop. Notice the skis and the Swedish flag. We also like the fact that he is standing beside a Dala horse, a native craft since the 19th century.
Sweden, much like Finland, is build on rock. These rock beds are seen along the highways and roads everywhere. It's surprising because of all the water.
Elder Worthington mentioned he would love to have a Dr. Pepper if we found one. We did and he was in heaven when we brought it back to him.

Zemskov Visit
The wonderful Zemskov families came for family home evening. Andre and Olga are in the center, her parents are on the left and his are on the right. Their two children are Masha and Vanya and their niece, Sonya, on the far right, was visiting. Andre's father is not a member, but is investigating.

Thanksgiving
Elders Guynn, left, and Worthington were very proud of their peach cobbler which they made for Thanksgiving dinner. After tasting it, we agreed they should be proud! Having those creative aprons must have helped them be such good cooks.
Thanksgiving dinner was special for all of us. Starting left, Elders Worthington, Nuckols, and Anderson, Sister Chetina (almost hidden), Elders McClelland and Guynn, Ludmila, an investigator, Sister Doty, Alusha and Pasha, newly baptized. Erina, another investigator, is there, but hidden. We had Thanksgiving thoughts printed on cardstock taped around each cup and also positioned in the floral arrangement. It was very festive and, as the Russian's say, very tasty!

Transfers, Nizhniy, Baptisms, Tolstoy's Home

2009-11-17T00:22:00.019-06:00

Transfers
Here is our wonderful district just before transfers took place. We are going to miss the three who are leaving. Starting in the back left: Elders Nuckols, Westbroek, Smith and Worthington. Sisters Smith and Doty in front.
This transfer saw Elder Westbroek (on the left) and Elder Smith both leave Nizhniy. Elder Westbroek who has been an outstanding district leader, finished his mission and went home. Elder Smith stayed a week to orient Elder Nuckols before he was transferred to Rayzan.
Sister Smith (on the left) also finished her mission. She will be missed by Sister Doty and all the missionaries as well as the members. Elder Westbroek and Sister Smith took a night train to Moscow.
Elder Anderson (on the left) came in on the train the next night and was Elder Worthington's companion for a week while Elder Smith oriented Elder Nuckols to his new area. Then, Elder Anderson became Elder Nuckols' (on the right) companion.
Sister Chetina (on the right) came in on the plane the next night at 11:30 pm and is Sister Doty's new companion. Sister Chetina is from a town in the Ekaterinburg Russia Mission.
Elder Guynn (on the left) transferred in from Rayzan the following week after a visa renewal trip that Elders Nuckols, Anderson and Guynn all went on to Kiev. Elders Nuckols, Anderson and Guynn all came out together three months ago. Elder Guynn is Elder Worthington's (on the right) new companion. (Hope you could follow all that!)

Scenes from Nizhniy
The first big snow fall of the year. The picture was taken on October 30th looking out our kitchen window.
The next day, after more snow fell, the children in our complex made a snowman. Can you find him?
Public transportation is really big here in Russia. Here is a Marshutka (small bus which is privately owned) at this bus stop with a larger city bus (run by the government) getting ready to pull in to pick up passengers. There are 21-24 seats on a Marshutka and often times there are about 50 people crammed on to it. Marshutkas are our normal mode of transportation most of the time. Notice the advertising posted all over the pole in the foreground. You see it everywhere.
Here is a tramvai, an electric bus on tracks. These were installed a long time ago and are cheaper to ride. This tramvai track is about a half of a short block from our apartment. We take it sometimes to ride down to one of the grocery stores we shop at, if we don't walk that distance for our daily exercise.

Baptisms
Dasha was contacted by Elders Worthington and Nuckols, came to English Club and was given to Sisters Smith (on the right) and Doty (on the left) to teach. Dasha was baptized on the Saturday before Sister Smith went home.
Pasha has appeared on our blog a few times before while he was being taught by Elders Westbroek (on the left) and Smith (on the right). He is the boyfriend of one of our members in the lower branch. He was baptized on Sunday, the day after Dasha was baptized and just two days before Elder Westbroek went home.

Tolstoy's Home
We were assigned to go to Tula by the mission president to interview a new counselor for their branch presidency. It just so happened that Sister Smith served in Tula for some time in the beginning of her mission and also decided to visit there that same weekend with her family who came to pick her up. Pictured above are Sister Smith, her father and mother and her niece, Savannah (who has been like a little sister to her). Sister Smith didn't know that Savannah was coming. It came as a big surprise for her. They are standing beside a pond just inside the Tolstoy estate.
Here we are pictured in front of Tolstoy's home. It's hard to tell this is the front, but the front door is just behind Anne's head. We flew into Moscow and were picked up at the airport by our office couple, the Rasmussen's, and they drove us to Tula. They have an apartment there and spend most weekends in Tula, teaching English Club on Saturday and then they go to church on Sunday. After the visit to the Tolstoy home we grabbed a bite to eat and drove the 2.5 hours back to Moscow to catch our plane back to Nizhniy.

Upper Babushkas, Evgeny's baptism, Elder Nelson Visit, Sasha Going Away, Eleanor

2009-10-29T12:53:00.021-05:00

Upper Babushkas
These three sweet babushkas come faithfully to Church in the upper branch and sit on the same row together. We love seeing them and watching how they care for each other.

Evgeny's baptism
Evgeny's conversion story is quite miraculous. He watched a TV interview with two missionaries 17 years ago and wanted to find the Church all these years. He went to several churches, but when they didn't have the Book of Mormon, he knew they weren't the Church he was looking for. One day he was looking for an office and happened to see the Church's sign on the outside of the building. He went in and Elders Worthington and Nuckols were teaching a lesson. They invited him to stay. They have continued to teach him and were able to see him baptized in October. Elder Nuckols is on the left and Elder Worthington on the right.

Elder Nelson Visit
The day we had anticipated for several months finally arrived. Elder Nelson, a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, arrived at the Nizhniy airport with Elder Pearson, in the background, President and Sister Woolley and their interpreter.
After the meeting with the members, Elder Nelson was willing to have pictures taken with missionaries and members. It was such an honor to be with him and to hear his message of love and gratitude.
The day after the meetings, we met Elders Nelson and Pearson to take a culture tour. Because the traffic was so congested, they decided to spend their time at our apartment while their cell phones were charging. We had such a wonderful visit and enjoyed listening to Elder Nelson play the piano. He started with "Sunrise, Sunset." After he finished, he quipped, "When in Russia...!" Sister Doty felt honored to be able to be with our special guests. Her companion had to leave the night before for a visa renewal trip so she was staying with us. She received some very personal and timely advice from both Elder Nelson and Elder Pearson, first counselor in the Europe East Area Presidency.

Sasha Going Away
Sasha, on the right, is a member from the lower branch. He found out during the week that he would be leaving for military service for one year. All Russian young men are required to serve one year. We hosted a farewell party for him. Selyena, from the upper branch, shares her good-byes with him.
This was most of the group who gathered to say good-bye to Sasha. Sisters Smith and Doty are in the back on the right. Elder Smith is is on the left in the forefront. Sasha is sitting between Anne and Rick.
From left to right: Posha, Ilusha, and Olya. Posha is investigating the Church and has had several lessons in our apartment. Olya is a member and Ilusa is her 4-year old son. Posha and Olya are planning to be married in the spring. Posha is such a sweet, loving man and Ilusa loves being with him.
Ilusha enjoys hiding and found this wonderful spot under the kitchen table. He is such a fun little boy and loves wearing the Angel Moroni tie we gave him.
During Sasha's farewell party, we each shared something we liked about Sasha and gave him advice. Here Elder Nuckols, standing, and Elder Worthington share thoughts with Sasha.
Elders Smith, left, and Westbroek listen to others share their good wishes to Sasha as they wait their turns.

Nizhniy Landscapes
Early morning mist hangs over lower Nizhniy Novgorod.
A picture from the upper city looking down the hill and across the bridge to the lower city.

Eleanor
Our darling little great granddaughter, Eleanor, was born May 8th. We're looking forward to getting to know her. One of the blessings we'll enjoy when we return home.

Branch Presidency Training, New Sisters, Relief Society Presidency Training

2009-10-08T10:29:00.018-05:00

Branch Presidency Training
On September 26th, our mission paid the transportation costs for the 15 branch presidencies and one district presidency in our mission to travel to Moscow and participate in a training session. There are 11 branches in Russia, one in Almaty Kazakhstan and three in Belarus with a district presidency over them. As far as we know this is the only training they have ever had altogether. We had 39 there out of the 48 who were invited. Presentations were assigned out to different Branch Presidents to give. One of them wasn't able to come so Rick ended up giving 2 of the 6 presentations. These presentations covered the basics of leadership in the branches and are ones that Rick had developed mostly in Yaroslavl to train the branch there.

We had quite an unusual problem leading up to the training. On Friday afternoon when we stopped at a super market, President Woolley's and Rick's computers were stolen, along with a computer projector and some money. The car hadn't been locked and was an easy target. All the presentations were on Rick's computer. He quickly called those he had emailed the presentations to and they sent them back to him. There was some midnight oil burned trying to get ready for the next day. All the name tags that Rick had prepared were also stolen.
These wonderful sisters prepared the delicious lunch of shredded BBQ beef, rice, corn, salad and a dessert of brownies. They are from left to right starting in the front; Sister Rasmussen (serving in the office), Sister Woolley (mission mom), Sister Hall (serving in Almaty). In the back are Sister Lowry (humanitarian missionary serving in Voronezh), Galeena Nikitenkova (serving a mission in the office from Minsk), Sister Wade (humanitarian missionary from Minsk), and Anne.
As folks were leaving, one of the counselors from Voronezh sang several Russian songs to the sisters sitting in the foyer. He has been a branch president there and is now moving to Chelyebinsk, much further east.
After our training session, President Woolley took the senior missionaries to the Bolshoi Ballet. There were some nervous moments before it started because the tickets to the ballet were in his brief case which had been stolen. They found the confirmation record and used it to get in. The ballet was wonderful. It felt like we were suspended, floatingon air while we watched it. The dancing, costuming and scenery were just outstanding. President Woolley has been to ballets in many cities in the world and he said this was the best he has ever seen.
We weren't in the normal Bolshoi Hall, it was being renovated. But this one was magnificent.
Here are Elder and Sister Rasmussen and Sister Nikitenkova enjoying an intermission. They work in the office together.
We weren't allowed to take pictures during the performance, but Anne took this one of the main stars at the last curtain call.
On Monday, we went to Arbot street and did some shopping with some of the other senior couples. This picture was taken in front of Moo Moo's, a Russian buffet restaurant that we had eaten in before. (The y in the Cyrillic alphabet is pronounced "oo".)

New Sisters
Sister Smith, on the left, transferred to Nizhniy the first week of September from Almaty, Kazkhstan, and worked for a month with our mini-missionary, Luba Ivanova, pictured below. Luba is from the upper branch in Nizhniy. Sister Doty, from St. George, came October 1st from the MTC. Here the sisters are making a microwave chocolate cake in the little bowls. Anne had the instructions written out and taped to the counter. All the missionaries enjoyed their cakes with ice cream.

Relief Society Presidency Training
On October 3rd, the Relief Society presidencies from our 15 branches gathered in Moscow for training. The lunch was prepared by the wives of senior missionary couples and the husbands helped serve. There was barbeque chicken breasts, glazed carrots, green salad, cucumbers in sauce, rolls and sugar cookies. Anne made the rolls and cookies before we went to Moscow. She also decorated the cookie cutters to give to each sister as a reminder of the theme, "Soul, Heart and Hand." Sitting at this table are the RS presidents from both the Nizhniy branches, Sister Erina Kozhina on the left and Sister Yelena Danchina.

There were 26 sisters attending the meeting. The mission paid their transportation to Moscow. The four sisters on the left front are from Nizhniy. Sweet little sister Mikelova, in the middle front, is 80 years old. She is the second counselor in the upper branch. After arriving back at the Nizhniy train station, she tripped and fell, breaking her arm. We were all saddened by this mishap. She helped Anne in a presentation on additional RS meetings, sharing some of the wonderful activities she has organized for the branch sisters. Sister Danchina, second from right, presented outstanding training on compassionate service. There have been many reports of how much the sisters enjoyed the time together and appreciated the training.

Yaro Trip, Visa Trip to Prague

2009-09-18T02:12:00.020-05:00

Yaroslavl Trip
We attended meetings in Yaroslavl while we were there and former Branch President Chernikov was there with his darling family. Maxie wanted to be like the missionaries, so he borrowed a badge. He'll be a great missionary in a few years!
Karina, the Chernikov's 4 year old daughter, also wanted to be a missionary. She came over to sit beside Anne to have her picture taken. She'll also be a wonderful missionary!
Our dear friend, Ilya, came to Sacrament Meeting to see us. He surprised us by bringing his new girlfriend, Sveta. We enjoyed visiting with them. Sveta is starting her last year in law school and Ilya will be leaving for Austria the end of September to attend a university for a masters degree. Aren't they a darling couple?!
While we were on our visa trip, Valary was baptized. Elders Worthington, left, and Nuckols helped teach him. He's a very humble, sweet man and will be a strength for the branch.

We had to say good-bye to Sister Corbett, on the right, after a short stay in Nizhniy. She was transferred to Kazhakstan. Our sweet Luba Ivanova from the upper branch was her companion for two days while she packed and got ready to leave.
The city of Prague in Czech Republic was a wonderful place to visit for our visa renewal trip. It was one of the only cities that escaped a lot of bombing during WWII, so the historical buildings are in tact. They have been or are being restored and refurbished since the fall of communism. Every place we looked was amazingly beautiful.We ate two meals in this wonderful restaurant. The atmosphere was so great and the food was very good. When we went back for dinner, there was a trio playing old romantic American music. We felt like we were dreaming.
Every street had buildings and homes with completely different architecture. We could have spent several days there just looking at all the buildings.
The murals on this building were magnificent.
We visited the royal palace grounds with this huge cathedral. It was built over many years in three different parts, so it has several architectural styles.
From the palace hill, we could see out over much of the city. It's hard to see, but there are several bridges in the distance. There are 18 bridges in the city that cross the river. The stone wall in the foreground was built centuries ago and is being preserved.
Another very interesting architectural building in the Jewish section. We must have hundreds of pictures of different buildings throughout the city.
This is one of three Hebrew clocks in Europe. We couldn't get to the front to get a better view.
There are several cathedrals that have this type of towers. If you notice closely, the one on the left is thinner and shorter than the one on the right. They are called the Adam and Eve towers. Eve is the one on the right, of course.
When our tour ended here in the old town square, there was a festival going on with bands and dancers and lots of food and souvenir kiosks. There was lots of merriment.
This door really caught our attention. The detail is unbelievable. It's beside the astronomical clock which you see in the video below.

Every hour, the two little doors above the astronomical clock open and figurines of the twelve Apostles can be seen rotating around. At the end of their appearance, the rooster crows, reminding everyone of Peter's denial of the Christ. You have to really listen for the crowing. There was a huge crowd sharing this experience with us. We hope you enjoy it, too.

Transfers and Visit to Yaroslavl

2009-08-31T06:05:00.029-05:00

Most mornings during the week, we walk around Gorkova Square which is about two blocks from our apartment. We walk three times around the outside, just on the other side of the trees surrounding the square. Then, we also walk one time around on the inside walkway, seen above. Flowers beds like this are planted in many of the public areas and are very beautiful. The statue is one of Gorky, the Russian poet. Nizhniy was originally named for him, but was changed when the city became more industrialized.

Transfers
We had an emergency transfer of Sister Corbett, from Canada, replacing Sister Lavrentyeva because Sister Corbett is a registered nurse and Sister Uldonova had been experiencing fainting spells and nausea.
We meet the missionaries most of the time at the train station. Pictured above is an amazing chandelier that hangs in the lobby of this vugzal (train station).

The two side walls are decorated with mosaics depicting Russian history. The upper one is a memorial to WW II.Sister Uldonova and Irra Vershinina on the last Sunday before Sister Uldonova left. Irra just returned from a mission to Ukraine. She also speaks English quite well and is anxious to do Russian translation of materials we need for training. She has been a real blessing for us
This is our district, plus Valeri. In the back from left to right: Elders Smith, Malanin, Worthington, Valeri and Rick. On the front row are Elder Traasdahl, Sisters Uldonova and Corbett and Anne. Valeri is an investigator that Elders Worthington and Malanin have been teaching. He has a baptismal date for September 5th. This was our last meeting together before Sisters Uldonova and Corbett left and transfers took Elders Traasdahl and Malanin.
Dasha Vostrykova was a mini-missionary in Yaro last November and part of December. On a trip back to Yaro to attend a baptism of one of the investigators she helped teach, Sasha and she formed a relationship and she moved to Yaro for the summer. She has just moved back to Nizhniy and Sasha stayed with us for the weekend. Both of them are planning to serve missions soon.
Elder Malanin was transferred to Yaroslavl and Elder Traasdahl was transferred to Minsk in Belarus. Elder Westbroek on the left was transferred back to Nizhniy to be companions with Elder Smith. Elder Westbroek was in Nizhniy when we came apartment hunting, but was transferred out before we moved here. Elder Nuckols came to Nizhniy straight from the MTC and will be companions with Elder Worthington.
During a YSA activity at our apartment, we celebrated Rick's birthday, watched Narnia II, Prince Caspian, and also saw photos and videos from the YSA Conference in St. Petersburg that 8 of the YSA attended. Deema Danchina had just returned home from a mission in the state of Washington. He was one of the last Russians to be called to go out of the country. We're very glad he's home. It was amusing to hear him give his talks in the two branches here. There were a couple of times in each talk that he couldn't remember the words to express himself in Russian; he is so used to speaking and thinking in English.

Visit to Yaroslavl
On the last weekend in August, we visited Yaroslavl, arriving on the overnight train early Friday morning. Rick is now the first counselor in the Mission Presidency and received an assignment to go there and call a new 2nd counselor. He also volunteered to do the financial audit while he was there. It was great to be with Elder Malanin again. He has only been gone a week, but we were glad to see him. After doing much of the audit on Friday, we took them to the Texas Restaurant. It is the one that is close to the apartment we used to live in. Later that evening, Rick went to the Family History Center and did some web conferencing tests with one of the branches in the mission and a test on the computer there to see if it could do web conferencing properly. Rick is trying to get web conferencing up and working by October so we can start to have monthly leadership meetings using that technology.
On Saturday, the branch planned a picnic. The Chernikovs met us at the bus stop and Rick picked up Max and he stayed with him the whole way (45 min) out to the picnic site. He also fell asleep for part of the time.
Besides the Chernikov children, two other little boys came with their non-member mother. They were also very cute and we enjoyed playing with them.
One of the highlights of the trip was to see these two young ladies again--Natasha, on the left, and Kristina Chernikov, who is back from nine months in Burley, Idaho, as an exchange student. We were so excited to see her again. She had an amazing time in the United States. Natasha met a returned Russian missionary from Canada just after we left Yaro and things are looking promising.
Elders Malanin and Boradin barbequed chicken over the coals at the picnic. It was delicious.
After eating, Elder Boradin pulled out Kristina's guitar and several of them sang Russian folk songs. It was the best Russian music we've heard. Also pictured here are President Chernikov (elders quorum) and two of his children, Karina and Max. Rita is sitting on the log with the other adults. She is a very good friend from English Club.
We walked down to a spot where we could see the Volga River and noticed the leaves beginning to show their color. Rita makes a good subject.
On the way back to the bus, Anne couldn't resist taking a picture of this little dacha where, as you can see, someone is presently living. They are probably there only for the summer and will return next month to the city.

Elder Worthington's Birthday, Stass's Baptism, Apartment

2009-08-02T11:21:00.021-05:00

Elder Worthington's Birthday
Birthdays are always special for us. This will be Elder Worthington's last before he leaves to go home later this fall.
He wanted cheesecake instead of traditional birthday cake, so that's what he got! Having only 2 candles to blow out ensures wishes will come true.

Stass's Baptism
The highlight of a mission is a convert baptism. Stass, on the right, has been faithfully taught by Elder Traasdahl, on the left, and his companions. Stass will be an asset to the Church here and is looking forward to serving a mission after his one-year wait.

Our Apartment
We thought it would be fun to share some pictures of our wonderful apartment. The entry hallway is always full of shoes when the missionaries and investigators come. It's a very well-kept tradition to take shoes off when entering a dom (home). It also houses a large storage closet for coats, shoes and other items.
From the entry hallway, it opens up into a nice large foyer so it's not cramped when you come in like a lot of apartments. (Click on the picture to get a better view of the darling frog we found. He sits on a rock that says, "Welcome Friends." Even the Russians love to read it.)
The living room is spacious and comfortable. The display cabinet gives us room to share the treasures we've bought in different countries and cities. Sister Lavrentyeva and Elder Traasdahl relax while waiting for a meeting to start.
The other side of the living room is used for a dining/game table. Elder Smith and Sister Uldonova are waiting for the meeting also. (You might notice the rug. It's one of the cute "town" rugs and is a hit with the missionaries and small children. They like racing their cars and playing on the town streets.) The piano is on the right behind the sofa.
Elder Malanin, on the other side of the display cabinet, is ready for their meeting to start. We use the TV for showing Church DVD's to investigators.
The kitchen is large enough for several people to work in at the same time and has nice cabinets and countertops. The highlight for Anne, though, is the little dishwasher. It's just large enough for two and when we have company, we run it twice.
At the other end of the kitchen is a small table where we eat most of our meals when we're alone. The corner cabinet holds the microwave and storage.
We also have a small storage room with an extra refrigerator and shelves for additional food, tools, cleaning supplies, etc. The missionaries love the refrigerator because we keep sodas and extra fruit for them there.
The master bedroom is large compared to the one we had in Yaro. The bed is somewhere between a queen and king. We added rugs on either side of the bed and into the middle to make it more comfortable.
We also added the little bench for sitting to put on shoes and socks. The wardrobe is the only closet, but has plenty of room for the clothes we brought and the dresser on the other side has large drawers.
Anne is getting her weekly update letter ready to send. The office is very comfortable for both of us to use our computers and the printer. There is a sitting area and a large storage cabinet across from the little loveseat so we have plenty of room for books, paper, files, etc. On P-day, the missionaries use the office to send emails to family.
The large bathroom also houses the washer. The tub is large and the shower is very nice. It also has it's own hot water heater which we have used the last two weeks while the hot water in the building is turned off. Very convenient! We're also very fortunate to have a second water filter system in the bathroom so we don't have to keep filtered water in bottles for brushing our teeth. We're also lucky to have a half-bath off the foyer for guests to use.
The third bedroom has been such a great place for storage and doing all those household things like hanging clothes, sewing , and ironing. The sofa makes out into a bed for guests or it's nice for the missionaries when they want to take a quiet nap on P-day. Luba, sitting in front, from the upper branch, and Rita, from the lower branch, are the young single adult reps for their branches and have come to plan activities for the next few months.
The sewing machine has been a life-saver for Anne because of all the missionary mending, hemming and making fun gifts. The table was an old door we added legs to. There is also an extra wardrobe at the other end of the room which we use to store out-of-season clothing and ironing waiting to be done. This little apartment is such a blessing for us. We love using it to entertain, teach lessons, feed the missionaries and members and enjoy quiet time from the world outside. How grateful we are each day for this little bit of heaven.

Transfers, YSA Activity, President's Visit

2009-07-23T06:28:00.017-05:00

Transfers
Elder Worthington was transferred here and is the senior Zone Leader. He replaced Elder Nutt and is Elder Malanin's companion, who is also a Zone Leader now.
We welcomed two sisters into Nizhniy, both from Russia. Sister Uldonova, on the left, is from Ofa, the same town that Elder Kruglyak is from and the same mission (Ekaterinburg) that Elder Malanin is from. She has been out about four months. Sister Lavrenteva is a brand new "greenie" from the Novasibirsk Mission and will be trained by Sister Uldonova.
While we were waiting for the new missionaries to arrive, Elder Malanin and Elder Traasdahl taught Katia, on the right, with Irina, the Relief Society President of the upper branch. It was a good lesson and we felt the spirit.

Pictured above is President Smirnov of the lower branch and the couple who was visiting from Norway for three weeks.

YSA Activity
On Saturday afternoon, the 18th, we had a YSA activity at the lower branch. We grilled hamburgers and fed them first, then played some games that Anne had prepared. We had a water balloon toss, seen above. Rick is bending over the water balloon box getting another one to toss to his partner, Elder Smith (back right). Our APs, Elder Russell (with his back to us in the left foreground) and Elder Harker (background center of the picture) came up on Saturday morning to split with the missionaries before the President and his wife arrived. Elder Traasdahl is just to the right of Elder Russell with his head looking back to Elder Worthington in the background.
There were two teams (not including the missionaries) who passed the oranges under the chin, without using hands, to the back of the line and then back to the front. Here Deema looks on while Katia passes the orange to Leeda, another team member.
Here Alla passes the orange to Vasalisa.
We also took turns doing three-legged races. Elder Russell and Elder Smith are teaming up against Rick and Elder Harker.
After the race, we sang happy birthday to Elder Worthington and to show that he hasn't aged too much, Elder Harker and then Sasha jumped on his back.

New Mission President visits Nizhniy
We met our new mission president and his wife at zone conference on the 3rd. They are President and Sister Kenneth M. Woolley. They are on a two-week, whirlwind tour visiting all the 11 branches in the mission. They spoke in sacrament meeting at both branches on Sunday.
The president and his wife arrived on Saturday night a little after 7:00 after a 5 hour drive from Moscow. They came directly to our apartment where the missionaries were already assembled. Anne prepared a lovely dinner for us all and then the President conducted interviews with all the missionaries. Above the APs, Elders Russell and Harker, are playing around a bit while Elder Traasdahl looks on in the background.
Sasha, the mission driver, drove President Woolley and his wife here from Moscow and enjoyed the dinner with us. He also drove us from Yaro to Nizhniy when we moved in April.
President Woolley presented a fireside on the coming forth of the Book of Mormon on Sunday evening for the members, missionaries and investigators. Elder Malanin holds a first-edition copy of the Book of Mormon that President Woolley brought with him and passed around at the fireside for everyone to examine. He asked that we put on the white cotton gloves to protect it. It was wonderful to have them here for the weekend.

4th of July P-Day, Transfers

2009-07-08T12:29:00.016-05:00

We celebrated the 4th of July on the P-day before the holiday. We planned a picnic in the park with games, food and lots of R&R. Anne made cookies decorated like flags for each country the missionaries represent: America, Russia and Latvia. From left: Elders Traasdahl, Malanin, Nutt, Armstrong, Smith and Jeremejev.
It seemed a little ironic that Rick wore is Russian t-shirt while enjoying his American flag cookie!
While the elders played frizbee and football, we took a walk along the edge of the park. It provided a great view of lower Nizhniy and the Oka River.
The wildflowers were in bloom and it was a lovely, colorful scene all down the hillside.
On the way back to the picnic area, we walked along this beautiful path through the Birch forest.
Elders Armstrong, Malanin and Traasdahl hope to catch the football. (Actually, the ball dropped between them.)
Elder Traasdahl makes a break to catch this pass ahead of Elders Armstrong, Smith and Nutt.
Elder Malanin looks for someone to pass to while Elder Traasdahl guards him. Rick makes a break from Elder Smith and Elders Armstrong and Nutt wait for the action to pick up.
Elder Jeremejev gets into the action by taking pictures.
In the evening, after our picnic, we attended a wonderful presentation of romantic Russian songs sung by the two women on the left who have professionally trained voices. The one of the right was the fantastic pianist. It was one of our favorite culture events since being in Russia. It was organized by the upper branch activities committee chairwoman.
Elder Jeremejev has provided many hours of entertainment with his piano playing. He learned to play just three years ago and does not read notes. He plays from hearing the music and then adds his own embellishment. He also plays his own compositions. He is truly remarkable.
This transfer has been hard for us. Elders Jeremejev and Nutt were both transferred. Elder Nutt will be serving in Kazakhstan with Elder Baxter and Elder Jeremejev goes to Tver, south of Moscow. They both left Sunday right after meetings.
This is the last picture of our Zone before transfers. From front left: Elders Malanin, Jeremejev, and Traasdahl. Back left: Anne, Rick, Elders Smith, Armstrong and Nutt. These pictures were taken in front of the lower branch building.
It was a hard day when we said good-bye to Elder Armstrong. He's heading back to the states after serving very faithfully for two years. He's been an exemplary missionary and we loved serving with him both in Yaroslavl and in Nizhniy. We wish him well in all he does!

Baptism, Visit to Kremlin

2009-07-01T23:10:00.021-05:00

Baptism
Ivan Zemscov turned eight recently and he was baptized a member of the church. He got up, on his own accord, in last month's testimony meeting and bore his testimony. He surprised his parents. This family is unique in Russia. Both sides of the family are members of the church. This is a three-generation family picture where all are members! Andre, the father, was just sustained as a member of the branch presidency and he is a returned missionary from the Baltic States Mission. His mother is on the left. Olga's parents are in the center of the picture between Olga and Andre.
As we were exiting the church we turned back and had to take a picture of the water pipes that run in front of the church building. Here they are arching over the driveway that leads to the back of the church. This type of water system can be seen all over the city.

Visit to Kremlin
We stopped on our walk to the Kremlin to take this picture on our walking street in front of the theater. It was Elders Malanin and Nutts' turn to write home on our computers that morning, so we walked with them to the Kremlin.
We also paused to take this picture at a statue of a Russian police officer. The "walking street" has several statues depicting different activities that are placed randomly.
Here is a picture of Anne in the middle of the beautiful flower garden (with mowed grass) just inside the Kremlin wall.
Here is the Kremlin tower, built in 1500, where we entered. Anne is talking to two of the missionaries.
World War II monuments are everywhere in Russia. Just inside the Kremlin walls was a line up of several vehicles from that war. Here Elder Armstrong poses in the back of a pickup truck.
Elder Traasdahl is saluting as he poses next to a submarine tower that was part of this display of World War II relics.
Elder Malanin is posing next to a Russian Army aeroplane.
There are a lot of grounds and quite a few buildings still in use inside the Nizhniy Kremlin. Here we are walking past the church inside the Kremlin. Pictured are Elder Jeremejev, Rick, Elders Smith, Malanin and Nutt.
This shows the whole church with a bell tower on the left.
At the back of the Kremlin overlooking the bluff is the intersection of the Oka River, coming in from the left, merging with the Volga River on the right. We walked down the path you see in the bottom left corner of the above picture to get to the lower part of the town.
On the path on the way down was this picturesque little prayer chapel.
At the bottom of the bluff was the Kremlin wall, and just outside was this restored church.
We wanted to get to the spot where we could take our picture in front of the Nizhniy sign that is shown at the top of our blog. It turned out to be a longer walk than we expected. On the way, we saw another beautiful church. This one was a little more unique because of the multicolored domes on its top. (Click to get a closeup.)

Across the street from the Nizhniy sign is another church which we we first saw it that it had and Angel Mormoni on top of the tower on the left. But, of course, upon closer examination we saw that their angel had wings.

Helsinki Visa Trip

2009-06-22T01:01:00.022-05:00

We took this tour bus to see the city. The guide was an interesting woman who shared her opinion about politics, the financial crisis and the history of Finland. She described the sites on the tour in four different languages.
One of the interesting buildings we saw was this one with the wonderful detail at the corner.
This view shows the corner as it appears from the front.
Rick thought it was neat to see clean streets and a tramvai that was quiet, clean and modern.
This monument was built to remember the Finnish composer Sebelius. A sculpture of his head is in the background, right. As you can see, it was a chilly day.
The Church in the Rock is a Lutheran church "carved" out of a rock hill. It was interesting to see the variations of rock and the sound was wonderful. The ceiling is a copper dome. There was a piano concert while we were there.
Of course, we had to shop for souveniers here. But we spent so much time, we had to run to catch our tour bus.
This is one of the government buildings. It's across the street from a great indoor food market and an outdoor fresh fruit and vegetable market.
We loved this reindeer outside another souvenier shop. Rick just needs his Santa suit.
We couldn't resist taking a picture of this quint telephone booth. Isn't that more fun than a cell phone?
Walking through one of the many parks where the flowers were in bloom and the grass was cut! The lilacs were still in bloom and the fragrance permeated the city.
If you look closely, you can see a pigeon resting on the head of the statue. He flew off and back several times while we were walking through the park. Reminds us of the "Happy Prince" story.
The Helsinki Temple is up on a wooded hill. It has dark stained woodwork all throughout except in the Celestial room. All the wood in the Celestial room is hand carved, inlaid, natural light finish, which is very Scandinavian. It was so peaceful and enjoyable to be there. The flowerbeds all around the grounds were in bloom and the tall pine trees were majestic.
This fountain, overlooking the bay, was so fun. The water shoots out of the mouths of the four seals on the edge.
There were fountains everywhere! This one was in a park and was very soothing. We loved the blue-painted basin and the hostas.
While we were there, we had to ferry to Tallinn for an interview at the Russian Embassy. This is the ferry we took. It was more like a luxury cruise ship. It was 2 hours over and 2 hours back for a five minute interview. We left the hotel at 8:30 am and got back at 8 pm that night. But we enjoyed the scenery and the peaceful calm of the water.

Jeremajev the builder, YSA activity,Ilya baptism, City Conference, American Culture Evening, Happy Birthday

2009-06-17T23:32:00.020-05:00

Jeremejev the Builder
During one of our P-Days Elder Jeremejev (pronounced Yair ah may yev) did some amazing building with a deck of cards. He is from Latvia and very talented.
Here is his finished product.

YSA Activity
One opportunity for us the last senior couple suggested was to organize Young Single Adult activities. Our first activity was at our apartment. We held a game night starting out with a spiritual thought. We showed the video "Reflections of Christ." Twenty-one participated, including four non-members. Pictured above, beginning in the rear left, Olga, a non-member, Erra (just returned from a mission a few days before), Antone, and Olga. Sitting in front are Vasalisa (her friend Olga is sitting behind her) and Rita. The Olga on the right and Rita are sisters and both are returned missionaries. Rita returned two weeks before this activity.
Shown are more of those who attended. From left to right, Alla, Stas (a non-member), Tanya, Nastia, and Murat (a non-member friend of Tanya)

Ilya's Baptism

On the Saturday of City Conference, Ilya was baptized. He is the 15-year old son of the Young Women's president in the lower branch of the Church in Nizhniy. Elder Traasdahl, on the left, taught him the lessons. Elder Armstrong, is on the right.

City Conference
On June 13-14 we had a City Conference in Nizhniy. There were meetings on Saturday and Sunday. Elder Manzhos, an Area Seventy from Ukraine, was our visiting authority. He gave very inspirational talks and direction to the leaders and members. A 2nd counselor was added to the Upper Branch Presidency who used to be the Elders Quorum President and a new Elders Quorum President was called. One other member of the Upper Branch was ordanined to the Melchizedek Priesthood. In the lower branch, the 2nd counselor was released to become the YM president and a new one called. The two branch presidents have decided to take our suggestion and establish a Mutual activity night during the week. Presently, they have seminary twice a week on Tuesday and Thursdays at 5 pm,

The picture above was taken at the conference. From back, left to right, are Elder Russell (an AP and a former Nizhniy missionary), Elder Nutt, Elder Armstrong, Elder Traasdahl, Elder Malanin, Elder Rosenhan (an AP and a former Nizhniy missionary), and Elder Smith. In front, from left to right are President and Sister Collins, Elder Jeremejey, Anne and Rick.

American Culture Evening
When we went down to 3 sets of missionaries last transfer, we considered canceling English Clubs in our lower branch. But, instead, we decided to try and emphasize English Club on the lower side and see if we could get more people to come. We decided to have an American Culture Evening. We prepared flyers which were handed out to present English Club members and the missionaries gave out to contacts.
We spent several hours preparing a set of slides depicting American religion, holidays, sports, cuisine, music and tourist destinations. We showed the slides first and then served some typical American food prepared by all the missionaries. Anne and Rick prepared Sloppy Joes, Jell-o, Tex-Mex dip with tortilla chips and chocolate chip cookies. Elders Traasdahl and Smith made Kraft macoroni and cheese and Kool-aid, Elders Nutt and Malanin made apple bars and Elders Armstrong and Jeremejev made chocolate cake. Above Elder Rosenhan serves chocolate cake to Sasha while Elder Nutt looks on.
Above Alexey, from our upper branch club conversational group, is playing with Elder Armstrong. In the back left, wearing a red shirt, is Boris, a member of the Church and a regular conversational group attender in the lower branch. He is also the Family History Director for Nizhniy.
On the left is Andre and a friend he brought and Vlad is on the right. Andre and Vlad attend the lower branch conversational group. Vlad often attends the upper branch conversational group also.
Here are Ina, her mother, Lilya, and Ivan. All three are actively being taught by the missionaries.

Happy Birthday
In our district meeting, we celebrated Elder Armstrong and Elder Malanin's birthdays.
Elder Malanin makes a wise and blows out his candles.
Elder Armstrong also got his chance to make a wish blow out candles.

Upper District, Mall, Sasha, Transfers, Zone Conference+

2009-06-03T13:23:00.020-05:00

Upper District
The upper district after branch meetings the Sunday before transfers. The three on the right left Nizhniy. Elders Terrill (3rd from right) and Michaelis (far right) finished their missions and returned home on the 28th of May. Elder Baxter (2nd from right) was transferred to Kazakhstan. Elder Malanin, next to Anne, stayed.

Fantastica Mall
The Fantastica Mall from the bus stop. You can see it spelled in Russian left of center on the roof line (Фантастика). OBI is a Home Depot-like store, actually bigger than most of the Home Depots at home. Real, pronounced Re-al, is the supermarket where we enjoy shopping. On the left side you can see an outdoor screen advertizing movies showing at the cinema there. Can you see the Russian word for cinema in the picture?

Sasha and Family
Elders Terrell and Michaelis invited a non-member man, Sasha, who has 7 children (really unheard of in Russia!). The missionaries have been working with the family for 6 years and he loves the teachings and the way they have helped his family. His oldest daughter from a previous marriage is 20 and lives out of the home. He has a 12, 8, 7, 5, 3 and 1-year old. He brought 3 of his children with him--the 8, 7, and 5-year olds. They were so adorable and fun to have with us. They are very well-behaved and obedient. You can tell there is much love and respect in the family. They have a hymn book in their home and even the 5-year old sang the songs with us. During the lesson the missionaries had prepared, they were very attentive and answered questions correctly. It was so impressive to be with them. While we played a game with Sasha and Masha (the 8-year old), the two little boys, Sergey and Ilya, played with the cars on our living room carpet. When they were ready to leave, we gave them a plate of the cookies we had for treat to take home and they each picked a car to take with them. It was so hard to let them go, they are just like our own grandchildren.

Transfers
Here are Elders Baxter, Terrill and Michaelis at our last district meeting on Tuesday before they left. Elder Baxter left the next morning and the other two flew home to America on Thursday.
Elder Kruglyak, on the right, was transferred to Kazakhstan along with Elder Baxter. They are on the train, ready to leave.
On P-Day, after five of the missionaries had left town, the three remaining elders came to our apartment for P-Day. Elder Malanin cooked Plov for us. It is a Russian dish that is reserved for men to cook. It is made with rice, meat, vegatables and spices. The ingredients can vary according to what is available. We all enjoyed it.

We also celebrated Elder Traasdahl's birthday on P-Day, a little early since his birthday was the next Sunday.

The new elders missed their 11:30 pm Wednesday train because they were directed to the wrong train station. They were to arrive at 6:35 am on Thursday. They spent a short night in Moscow and caught a train around noon which arrived in Nizhniy about 7 pm. Above is Elder Malanin (right) with his new companion, Elder Nutt. He is from Sandpoint, ID.
Pictured above are Elder Traasdahl (left) with his new companion Elder Smith. Elder Smith is from Vernal and knows some of Anne's cousins.
We are excited to have Elder Armstrong (right) back with us. He was our district leader in Yaroslavl. He will be going home at the end of this transfer. He is both our Zone and District Leader here. We now have only one district. His companion is Elder Jeremejev.

Zone Conference+
We had our last zone conference on Monday, June 1st with our Mission President and his wife. They are going home the first of July. It was, as usual, and uplifting event. The two of them are master teachers. Elder Rosenhan was also transferred. It was a big surprise. He had 6 weeks left on his mission and he has been made an Assistant to the President. He is in the center of the first row, next to President Collins.
Following our zone conference we had a very special treat. Our two Moscow missions had a meeting with President Uchtdorf and Elder Anderson (our newest Apostle) and their wives. At the beginning of the meeting they had all of us file past them and shake their hands. What a thrill for these young missionaries and us older ones also. Their teachings were inspiring and the spirit was electrifying in the room. After this meeting, we went to a larger auditorium where they met with all the saints from the two missions who could be there. They talked about the possibility of a stake in Moscow and of a temple here and inspired the saints to work toward those goals.

The picture above is the Cosmos hotel where we held the meetings with President Uchtdorf and Elder Anderson. It reminded us of a hotel in Las Vegas. There were even slot machines inside.
This was an awesome monument just outside the hotel.
A cool (klasna) monument commemorating the victory of WW II not far from the hotel. The area around the hotel was all very nice. We walked through a park with amusement rides and other recreation facilities on our way to eat. It was a very nice walk.

Lower Branch, Our Neighborhood, P-Day, Mall, Kaljonov dinner, Teaching

2009-05-23T08:43:00.021-05:00

Lower Branch

The lower branch building is owned by the Church. It's a beautiful two-story building and has a large chapel and a baptismal font.
It even has a spire on top. We visit the Lower Branch every third Sunday and have English Club there on Tuesday evenings.
The grounds are kept immaculate and there is a lovely garden area in the back with flowers and shrubs.

This group of young people came to visit us the Sunday evening after we were in the Lower Branch for Church the first time. From left: Sasha, Vasilisa, Tanya, Natasha, Olga, and Ilya. Tanya and Vasilisa teamed up to translate for us. Ilya is not a member, but has a baptismal date for June 13th. All the others are members of the Lower Branch. We enjoyed getting to know them better and they brought a delightful spirit into our apartment.

Our Neighborhood
We wanted to share some of the neighborhood area we live in. We walk past this rather rundown area to get to our apartment building.

This is the front of our apartment building. It's five stories and we are on the second level.

This is a old wood structure across the street from the apartment building. There is a little "Producty" (kind of like a 7-11 store) on the corner.
Looking out our back windows in the kitchen and on the balcony, we see the courtyard and this very old dilapidated house. We were surprised one morning, after it had rained, to see a little old woman come out the back door with a pail of water, empty it and then go back inside. We really didn't think anyone lived there, but we were wrong. Our hearts go out to the people who have to live in these conditions. An egg would not stay on a table in that house!

This is the back of our building. We are in the apartment on the right, second level. You can see our balcony and the kitchen window is to the right. The lilac bushes were just beginning to bloom. We've enjoyed the spring with all the flowering trees and bushes. The fragrance is wonderful!

This is the back courtyard. The flowers are blooming more now. We would like to donate a bench for sitting out there, but since there isn't a gate on one side, it would probably not last long.

P-Day

P-Day with the missionaries is always a highlight of the week. Here they enjoy a game of "Phase 10" and some "munching." Beginning in the forground left: Elders Kruglyak, Traasdahl, Rosenhan, Jeremejev, McClelland and Michaelis. Elder Terrell is hidden.

While the others play games, Elders Malanin and Baxter write home and enjoy letters from family.

Shopping!

This is the Fantastica Mall. It's really a beautiful place and there's lots of shopping. If you look closely, you can see the Real sign in the back on the left. We do a lot of grocery shopping there. There's also a cleaners, a nice gift shop and a home center store.

Family Dinner

We invited President Kaljonov and his family for dinner. Their two oldest sons know English well and their youngest son is taking English in school now. Their oldest son, Mesha was married three weeks ago to Natalya. From lower left: Kostya, Natalya, Erina, Anne. Back left: Deema, Mesha, President Kaljonov and Rick. We fixed a Texas-style meal with barbeque chicken, potato salad, fresh fruit (including canteloupe which they had not had before) and Texas sheet cake. They enjoyed it all very much.

Teaching
One of our favorite experiences is having the missionaries teach investigators in our apartment. Elders Kruglyak and Traasdahl (back right) taught Lilya, her daughter, Enna (front right), and Marat, back left, who is a friend of Tanya, sitting next to Anne. In the background, you can see the "kissing" dolls we bought for our 41st wedding anniversary.

Good-bye Yaroslavl, Hello Nizhniy Novgorod

2009-05-06T12:49:00.022-05:00

Places in Yaro

There were a couple of places we wanted to get pictures of before we left. One of them was the flower tunnel, which was one of the entries into the city and one of the only remaining parts of the original walls. The selling of flowers is a big thing in the Russian culture. There are small flower shops almost on every other corner and you often see people carrying flowers on the streets that they have just purchased.
Here is a picture of the part of the original wall and tower that houses the flower tunnel. You can't see the tunnel from here because it runs perpendicular to this view, from the left side, where our picture was taken, to the right side of it. Since Yaro will be celebrating it's 1000th birthday in 2010, you can imagine how old this wall must be.
From where we were standing taking the picture of the tower, and turning about 90 degrees to the left, is the Volkov theater. It was built in 1750, the first theater built in Russia. We went to two plays in this theater and enjoyed them both, even though they were all in Russian.

Texac again
Our tradition is to take the missionaries out to lunch after the last district meeting before transfers. In this case it was our transfer that we were anticipating. We went to the Texac restaurant again which was close to our apartment. Elders Armstrong and Heath, in the background had been there with us before, but Elders Jouttenus, right front, and Hiatt had not. We all really enjoyed our meal and time there together.

Yaro Branch
President and Sister Collins came to Yaroslavl our last Sunday there. Both of us spoke and President Collins took the last 5 minutes of sacrament meeting. He then took the second hour and showed part of a DVD made in Russia by the church about building better family relationships. It was very well done. After meetings, we gathered all who were there and took a picture of the branch. President Collins is standing left front next to Rick who is holding Maxi Chernikov and Sister Collins is sitting next to Anne, right front.

Last Sunday Dinner
Later, after meetings, we had our last Sunday dinner together and took a picture of our district.

Nina and Radeon, from Rybinsk, Tanya, Sasha and Daniel were also there. We snapped a picture of Sasha and Tanya.

Our Barber
Elder Armstrong has been cutting his own hair since he was 8 years old. He also gives haircuts to all the missionaries in the districts in which he serves.

Visit to Yaro Families

Before we left, we visited the two families of the former and current branch presidents. Above are the Chernikovs, a delightful family,

At the Vaneevs' (Branch President and RS President), we enjoyed holding baby Maxim. He has grown a lot since we saw him when he was blessed. He is a very happy little boy.

Just Before We Left
Thursday, the 23rd of April, the mission driver brought the large mission van to Yaroslavl to load up our stuff and us for our trip to Nizhniy Novgorod, the 4th largest city in Russia. We had spent the week before boxing up everything to either move to the Family History Center for storage for the next senior couple, or, to go with us to Nizhniy. The missionaries all came to help load, as well as Ilya, Sasha and Tanya. The whole van was packed full and the two of us rode in the front seat with the mission driver. Above is a picture of us just before we got into the van which is almost like the picture that was taken when we first arrived. From left, Ilya, Sasha and Tanya.

Zone Conference
On the 26th, we took an overnight train from Nizhniy to Moscow to attend Zone Conference. It wasn't the most comfortable accommodations and we didn't get very much sleep. We did manage to stay awake during the meetings. They were very good and spiritually uplifting. Then we rushed to catch the 4:40 train back to Nizhniy, arriving at about 11:00 pm. The time went by fast because we played games with the missionaries all the way home.

Nizhniy Districts
Nizhniy and Yaro are similar in one way. Both are situated at the intersection of two rivers. In Yaro it is the Volga and the Kotorosl and in Nizhniy it is the Volga and the Oka. The Oka is much bigger than the Kotorosl. The city of Nizhniy is over twice as large as Yaroslavl, with 1.5 million in population. The city is split in half by the Oka and is referred to as the upper and lower city. We live in the upper city, about 2 blocks from the branch in a really wonderful apartment. The district of missionaries that serves the upper branch is pictured above. From left to right are Elders Baxter (DL), Milanan, Terrell and Michaelis. The last two are our zone leaders and Elder Milanan will be our district leader for three weeks starting next week. Elder Milanan is from Meahst which is in the Ekatrinbourg Mission east of the Moscow missions.

The lower district is pictured above: from left to right, Elders Kruglyak, Rosenhan (trainer), Jeremejev and Traasdahl (DL). Elder Kruglyak is from Kurgan in the Ekaterinbourg Mission. Elder Jeremejev is a new missionary from a small town in Latvia. He is a native Russian speaker. All three of our Russian speakers are learning English.

Winter scenes, RS birthday celebration, Printer/Copier, P-Day games

2009-04-08T10:55:00.018-05:00

Winter Scenes

On our last train trip to Moscow, we took some pictures of the countryside. Every few miles, there will be a small community of datchas, tiny little summer cottages.

They appear every few miles, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

You'll probably have to click to make this picture larger to see the little houses behind the hill.

It's a continuous round of birch/pine forests, open fields and little datcha communities.

This is our courtyard with children playing in the snow. On the left is a group of boys playing stick hokey on the packed snow. It was fun to watch them slipping and sliding around.

Here are ice fishermen on the Kotrasol River. Alexander, one of our English Club members, catches as many as 50 small Perch each day. He loves to make fish soup with them.

RS Birthday Celebration

During our branch Relief Society birthday celebration, Anne taught the women how to knit hats on round looms. Sveta, on the left and Shondra on the right, learned quickly.

Maria, the Relief Society president, is on the left and Lena, a non-member is on the right. Maria finished her hat for her new baby.

Deema, second counselor in the Branch Presidency, was anxious to come and learn this craft. He did very well!

Sveta brought her finished cap for us to see. She really caught on fast!

New Printer/Copier

Rick has worked hard to be sure the branch has the equipment it needs to keep things organized. The new printer/copier finally arrived and is now installed and usable. He started trying to get this from the church physical facilities in October of last year. It finally came!

Elder Jouttenus practices playing the piano while Elder Hiatt looks on. We are always grateful for missionaries who can play the piano.

P-Day Games

While Elders Armstrong and Heath are using the internet, Elders Hiatt and Jouttenus play Mexican Train with Rick and Sasha. We all enjoy preparation days (P Day) because we can visit and play together for a few hours. Sasha joins us when he has free time. He is planning to serve a mission in the near future.

Games with Elders; Tallinn, Estonia

2009-03-23T11:35:00.020-05:00

Games with Elders

We always look forward to Thursday preparation day. It gives us a chance to be with the missionaries in a totally different environment. They do their emailing, eat snacks, play games and watch gospel-oriented DVD's. Here Elder Heath, left, and Elder Jouttenus enjoy a game of "Pass the Pigs," which has become a missionary favorite.

Visa Trip to Tallinn, Estonia
The Old Town in Tallinn was really fascinating for us. Walking up those narrow streets and imagining the history that took place there was mindboggling. The Estonian flag is in the forefront of the flags. It's hard to see, but it's blue, black and white. Blue for the sky, black for the earth and white for purity.
Rick is standing in front of a group of buildings which show some of the different types of architecture.
Walking up these narrow passageways and seeing the thickness of the walls gives a whole new meaning to laying stone.
This was one of the entrances to the upper level of the city. The huge gate has a heavy bolting mechanism that would take a pretty strong person to engage.
One of the cathedrals in the city.
Closeup of a cobblestone road. It was fun to imagine the clopping of horse hooves and the jangling of armor as we walked along the streets.
A view from the upper part of the city overlooking the Baltic Sea and some of the Old Town buildings. The turrets were especially fun to see.
This gives a little perspective of the walls and buildings which were built in the 1200's. Look closely on the right side and you'll see a little hole in the wall. We weren't sure if it was a breather hole or a place to put a gun barrel through.
This was the main city center square and there were lots of fun shops and restaurants. The local craftsmen sell their beautiful work in the shops along the streets. There are lots of linen and woodcarving items. We found a lovely nativity set made in Tallinn to add to our collection.
This was a little different archetecture and we thought the two dragon heads were an interesting touch. (Click on the picture for closeup of the heads.)
In the park at the bottom of the Old Town hill, they had a snow sculpting exhibit. Many of them had been broken down, but this one was still pretty much intact.

This area of the park was filled with ducks everywhere. I think they had flown back a little too soon, but we enjoyed watching them trying to keep warm. The back of one of the snow sculptures can be seen on the left. It was a delightful trip and we hope we get to go back so we can see more of this beautiful city.

Women's Day Activity, New Baby Chernikov, Snow Scenes

2009-03-10T01:53:00.024-05:00

Women's Day Activity

Sasha, in the forefront, is our Activities Director in the branch. He arranged to come to our apartment and prepare the food for the Branch Women's Day Activity. In Russia there isn't a Mother's Day. They have Women's Day instead on the 8th of March. The activity was on Saturday evening. The country took Friday and Monday off work. Above, Sasha Yartsev and Deema Gavrilov (2nd counselor in branch presidency) are mixing cookie dough.
Sasha had a lot of fun rolling out the dough. He wasn't used to using a rolling pin sleeve and thought it quite unusual. Some of our children may recognize the apron he used. It was made by Rick for Bonnie when she was in college and says, "Hot Dish." He loved using it.
Deema peeled all the potatoes and cut them up for a Russian version of potato salad.

Sveta Danilova was asked to help with the cooking and took charge in the kitchen in our apartment. They cooked chicken and potatoes for making two types of potato salad.

The program was begun with our Branch President giving some appropriate remarks for the occasion. Then Deema gave a spiritual thought about women. Next, the missionaries entertained. First Elders Hiatt and Armstrong sang a duet, accompanied by Elder Jouttenus on the piano and Sasha on the guitar.
Then, Elder Armstrong and Sasha performed a duet.
All the missionaries joined together to perform a skit showing a "woman" putting on make-up. As you can tell, this is a combination of two pictures. As a result, you can see Elder Jouttenus twice. From left to right are Elders Hiatt, Jouttenus, Heath, Jouttenus and Armstrong. They are preparing Elder Heath for the skit.
Here you see all the missionaries again. Yes, you really do. That is Elder Hiatt's right arm and Elder Jouttenus's left arm protruding from the plastic bag. Elder Heath ended up with quite a mess at the end with lipstick all over his face and eye brow pencil in various places on his face. Sister McClelland recommended that Elder Heath put on vasaline before this started and Elder Heath was very happy about how easy the make-up came off. He was such a good sport about the whole thing that it really helped everyone enjoy the Elder's hamming it up.
Sveta worked tirelessly getting the food ready to serve. In addition to the potato salads, she had a fruit plate accompanied by a caramel fountain to dip the fruit in.
Here you can see a shot of the audience with Elder's Hiatt and Jouttenus serving. All the women were served first, then, the men got to eat. You can see the two potato salads on the plates that Lena is carrying. Lena is a returned missionary who moved to Moscow from our branch about a year ago. She is also the sister of our former branch president's wife.

New Baby Chernikov
Here is a picture of Larisa Chernikov with Karina (on the right), Maxim (on the left) and baby, Matvee (in the center). They are wrapped in towels that Anne made for them. The baby had to stay in the hospital for over two weeks because they were concerned about him. Larisa had to stay with him. She finally told them that she would give the baby the treatments which they were giving him and signed a release so she could take him home. Everyone is happy to have them home. They all came to church the next Sunday.

Snow Scenes
Here is a picture of the snow we walk around in every day. The walks are mostly cleared but very icy. The snow from the parking lot to the right of this picture is dumped in the field adjacent to make the mound you see. This is taken half way between our outside apartment door and the Texac restaurant.
This shot is taken from our bedroom window. If you look closely at the little fruit stand across the street, you'll see a mother pushing her baby in a carriage. We are amazed how many people walk their babies even when it's so cold and icy. The building on the right is an elementary school.

Valentine Party, Common Area, Mens' Day, English Class, RS Project

2009-03-02T00:50:00.016-06:00

Valentine Party

The branch had a Valentine Day activity and asked Anne to make refreshments. She baked the cake and decorated it. It says "We 'heart' You". The sprinkles were little pink, red and white hearts she found at one of the stores.

She also baked heart-shaped cookies and made frosting so everyone could decorate their own cookies. Sasha was meticulous in putting little sprinkles on one by one to spell Dasha for his girlfriend.

When he finished his three cookies, they read "Dasha and I." I'm sure Dasha was impressed when she saw them on his Facebook page.

Common Area

This is our courtyard from our balcony window. It was such a beautiful day with clear skies and sunshine. We actually had four days in row like that, but the temperatures are still cold and the icy streets and sidewalks are treacherous to walk on.

This is our little rolling cart which we use to haul groceries and other items. It's usually brimming over when we return from our shopping trips. We also use it to carry 5 liter water bottles to the branch building. Since we have a water filtering system in our apartment, we fill the bottles to use for sacrament and drinking. The Church provides the filtering systems for each missionary apartment.

Men's Day

Rick is showing the card and gift he received for Men's Day. The sisters bought the pens and had them engraved with CTR in Russian. They also provided refreshments after the meetings on Sunday.

English Class

We were invited to answer questions and help students speak English in an evening English class. The teacher is on the far right. The students are either graduates of university or full-time students who want to learn English for their own benefit. This was one of the beginner groups.

This is the advanced group that Rick worked with after the Elders left. Anne continued to work with the two beginner groups. We invited all of them to English Club and hope we see some of them there.

RS Project

Medina had her 8th birthday last week and Anne make a new cap for her as a gift with a knitting frame she received from home. She's learning to use it so she can teach sisters in the branch to make things for their families. The first activity for teaching knitting will be on March 20th.

Texac, Area Authority Visit, Transfers, Mission Conference

2009-02-15T12:47:00.015-06:00

Texac, one more time
The week before transfers we take the missionaries out to eat. We decided to take them to the Texac Sports Grill to see what that was like compared to the restaurant that we went to before. As it turned out, it was the same menu with not quite as comfortable seats and no dance floor with live singers. Elder Smith was the only one of the missionaries who had been there before.

Rita, from English Club
This is Rita bundled up with her new shopka on after our Institute class. We love having her in our class. She is one of our English Club participants who chose to come to our Institute class since we conduct it in English. She has told us she now speaks much better English because of her participation with us.

Area Authority Visit to Yaro
Elder Paul Pieper and his family, our East European Area President and a General Authority 70, visited our Yaroslavl Branch as well as President and Sister Collins. We conducted an Auxilary Leadership meeting the night before their expected visit. Elder Pieper surprised us and came early and attended most of Rick's leadership session with the Branch Presidency on Interviewing and then stayed a while afterwards and socialized with us. It was a real treat. Elder Pieper's son served in Yaroslavl on his mission and baptized our current Branch President. On Sunday, President and Sister Collins spoke in Sacrament Meeting. Elder Pieper took the last 5 minutes; then, he did a Q&A for the second hour of our meeting schedule. It was a spiritual feast for all of us.

We had two young men interviewed to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and 6 people interviewed to receive their patriarchal blessings. There are two traveling patriarchs who come during the year and give blessings. They travel to the major population centers all over Russia and surrounding countries and give about 100 blessings in each center.

One of the other treats of the weekend was that Dasha Vostrykova came to visit because Sasha Yartsev was to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. However, President Collins wasn't able to interview him before meetings so President Collins authorized Rick to sustain Sasha and Vanya, the other new Elder, the following week. Here is a picture of Sasha and Dasha below.
Transfers
On Monday, the 9th, it was time for Elders Jenson and Smith to leave Yaroslavl and complete the transition of Yaro from the Russia Moscow Mission to the Russia Moscow West Mission. Here is a picture of the group at the train station (vauxal) who were there to see them off. From left to right are Vanya (who just became an elder), Elder Jenson, Sasha (our tutor and a new elder), Elder Heath, Elder Armstrong, Shondra, Elder Smith, Daniel and Rick.
Elders Jenson and Smith in their last few minutes here in Yaro. We will miss them.

Whenever the 7:15 am train leaves, a corny, somewhat cool traditional song plays over the loudspeakers at the vauxal. Rick has been saying for sometime that he wants to capture a video with the song on it. As you listen to it, pay attention to when they say "Yaroslavlsky vauxal".
That same Monday evening, we went to the train station again to say goodbye to Elder Armstrong as he left to go on his visa trip. We waited for about a half hour and Elder Jouttenus arrived. He is from Finland and his father also served a mission. Pictured above are Elder Heath, Sasha, Elder Jouttenus and Rick.

Mission Conference

The next day we departed for our Moscow West Mission Conference in Moscow. We were surprised when the train that Elder Armstrong purchased tickets for turned out to be, as Anne calls it, a traveling campground. This picture shows the inside of it. It is all open with 4 beds on one side of the isle and a place for two to sleep on the side we are sitting on. We are sitting at a table (you can see Anne's shoulder on the left of this picture) that folds down into a bed. This isn't our favorite way to travel. This is the type of train we took a while ago when our tickets were purchased for the wrong day and we met a young Russian on his way to accept a job in Bejing.

We got to Moscow a day early and spent the night with Dr. and Sister Rees. We have stayed with them before and had a wonderful evening visiting with them this time.
At Mission Conference, we met the last of the Russia Moscow West missionaries to be assigned to Yaroslavl. Below is Elder Hiatt. He has been out about a year now and he will be serving as Elder Heath's companion.

New Presidency, Lilia's Baptism, Sisters Leave, Mission Reorg, Masha Leaves, Ribinsk

2009-02-01T14:24:00.019-06:00

New Branch Presidency
On January 11th our branch presidency was reorganized and Murat Vaneev, who was first counselor before, was sustained as the new Branch President. Daniel Jatileni, who was 2nd counselor and is a 6th year medical student, is now 1st counselor. Dimitri Gavrilov, who was Elder's Quorum President, is now 2nd counselor. Our former branch president, Sergey Chernikov, was called as Elder's Quorum President. It is great to see him sitting in the audience after 7 years, 7 months and 7 days as branch president. They are expecting their 4th child any day now.

Pictured above is the Vaneev family. Sister Maria Vaneev is Relief Society president. Maximus is one month and Medina is 7. She will turn 8 the end of this month and will be baptized.

Lilia's Baptism
Paul met Lilia in a small sweet shop where she works across the street from the branch. Paul is a refugee from Somolia. He left his country because, as a Christian, he feared for his life. For those of you who remember, he brought her to the first baptism we had back in August. They were married in October. Our sisters have been teaching her since soon after they were married.
Pictured are all those who attended the baptism. There were two investigators there: Olga, in the tan sweater and Larisa, standing in front of the steps.

Sisters Leave
Sister Brown had been promised a transfer to Kazakstan and she was excited about it. The mission office had delayed this transfer several times and had to delay it again for reasons explained later. We saw them off at the train station early in the morning. Masha is standing next to Sister Brown.
Sister Gorina was busy talking to two non-members, Lewde and Galia.

Mission Reorganization
On Saturday morning, we called into a special meeting that President Cranney set up. He started that meeting by reading a letter from the First Presidency describing a reorganization of the Moscow and Moscow West missions. The Russia Moscow mission now includes only greater Moscow That means that Yaroslavl, Nizhegorodskaya and Almati, Kazakstan have been moved into the Russia Moscow West Mission. The West mission gave up the areas in Moscow that were previously within their boundaries. In this reorganization all missionaries,except senior couples, who were in each of these missions before the reorganization are staying with their mission. There is a short, two week transfer where West missionaries are going to the areas where our old mission used to cover and becoming familiar with their new areas and the Moscow missionaries are going to those parts of Moscow that used to be part of the West mission and becoming familiar with those areas. At the end of the two weeks, Feb 9th, missionaries who are out of their mission will be transfered back to their missions.

Above you see Elder Armstrong, on the left, Elder Heath, second from right, just arriving in Yaroslavl at the train station. Elders Jenson, in the center, and Elder Smith, on the right, have two weeks left here.

Elder Heath, Tanya and Elder Smith. Tanya is a returned missionary who takes care of all the paper work for missionaries transferring into and out of Yaroslavl.

Ribinsk
Every few months we travel to Ribinsk to see members of the branch who live there. We stopped on the way and took the picture that appears above and used to be at the top of our blog for most of the winter.
Elders Jenson and Armstrong are pictured along with Sergey Varnofski, a member who drives taxi. He was baptized two years ago here and soon moved back to his home in Uzbeckistan. He moved back to Yaroslavl about 3 months ago. This time he brought his wife and mother.

Masha Leaves for Mission
We hosted a going away party for Masha at our apartment on Saturday night. She left for her full time mission the next day on the 7:15 am train. The two girls on the right are Sveta, an investigator, and Lena, Sister Chernikov's sister and a returned missionary. Here Masha passes a ball of yarn to someone and says something nice about them, then, they pass it back to her and say something nice about her.
Sasha is playing for everyone to sing along. Lena and Deema are enjoying the music.
The next morning we were at the train to say good-bye to our little ray of sunshine who we love so much. If you think we look cold, you're right. It was -25 C (-11 F). It was the coldest day we've experienced so far.
Several others also showed up to say good-bye to Masha. From left to right are Elder Smith, Masha, Leude, Elder Heath, Galia, Sveta Danilova (a returned missionary and the branch Primary President) and Shondra (1st counselor in the RS and a 4th year medical student from Guyana).

New Years, Nativity & Transfers

2009-01-16T04:24:00.019-06:00

New Year's Celebration
Elder Smith is anxious to try some the festive foods we prepared for our celebration. We set up a buffet in the foyer so we could use all the tables to play games. The buffet table is our drying rack with a board on top.

Sisters Brown and Gorina really got into the New Year's Eve celebration mode. With party hats, noise makers, confetti, garland and 7-up, it was quite the party!

The fireworks display outside our apartment was spectacular. There were several families setting them off in our courtyard and we could also see the display at the Texas Restaurant. It was very impressive. We all stood inside our balcony porch. You can see the fireworks through the screen.

After all the food, games, movies (2), fireworks and Happy New Yearing, the Elders crashed on the floor waiting for the taxi to take them to their apartments. The sisters went first, so the Elders waited for the taxi to return for them. They all returned New Year's day at 11:00 for brunch and a day of games and another movie. It was a memorable time for all of us.

Nativity Exhibit
Since Russia celebrates Christmas on January 7th, we decided it would be a good time to share our tradition of nativity collecting. Our stake at home has had a nativity exhibit for many years and we felt it would be a good missionary activity. We asked members of the branch to share any nativities they might have, but we only received some small cards. The nativities were all from our collection purchased in Russia or Spain. As you can see, we didn't have a huge number to exhibit, but it was fun to set it up.

President Chernikov was especially interested in the one from Kazakhstan since he and his wife are from there. The little "tent" box holds all the pieces for storing. The set is made of felt and all hand sewn.

In the center of this picture, you can see the nativity from Sergey Passod, a little city north of Moscow. It is all hand carved and painted. The book relief nativity in front is from Spain.

On this table from the left is a nativity from Russia, a picture in the front painted by Masha from the branch as a Christmas card for us, a metal silhouette from Spain, a little American set sent by our children, several pictures and small cards, and two little paper sets for children taken from the Liahona and the Church website.

We had a short program which included a solo sung by Elder Terry, right; a reading of Christ's life by Elders Smith and Keifert; a spiritual thought on gifts of the spirit and what we can give Christ by Sister Brown; a piano solo by Sister Gorina and the reading of the Christmas story from Luke by Tanya from the branch. Everyone was touched by the music and the special message conveyed by the missionaries.

Elder Jenson was in charge of the refreshments and he did a wonderful job of making the table look very festive and appealing. The whole evening was a great success.

This shows some of the people who attended. We had 16 non-members there, so we felt it accomplished our goal of showcasing the Church and our belief in Christ.

District Meeting Pizza
The day after the Nativity Exhibit, we held our last district meeting with all of these missionaries. We traditionally take them out to eat for lunch on the last district meeting before transfers, so we went for pizza. Anne had gone that morning to have her stitches out and was especially happy to be free from bandages.

The Former Branch Presidency

Our Branch Presidency was changed when President Cranney came to visit. This is the former Branch Presidency from left: Marat Vaneev, 1st Counselor; Sergey Chernikov, President; Daniel Jatileni, 2nd Counselor. Brother Vaneev is now the Branch President and Daniel is his 1st Counselor. The second counselor was not there because of work, so we will have a picture of the new presidency next time on the blog.

Transfers and Going Home

It was a sad morning when we said goodbye to Elder Keifert. He is returning home after serving 2 years faithfully. We will miss him and his fun spirit. From left: Masha leaving for Moscow to start the visa process for entering the MTC in Provo on February 3; Elder Keifert; Sister Brown on her way to Moscow to get her visa for Kazakhstan; Sister Gorina; Elder Terry on his way to Moscow to be a companion with an Elder whose companion is going home. (Elders Smith and Jenson were in Spain for visa renewal.)

Visa trip to Madrid

2009-01-02T09:44:00.018-06:00

Enjoy Marcia
We flew to Madrid on Tuesday, December 16th, arriving late in the evening. Marcia Sperry from Trophy Club, Texas, one of our friends from home, flew to Madrid and stayed at the same hotel we were in. She brought things from home from our children and friends and things she had for us. She took home with her some Christmas gifts for some of our children and also gifts for some of her relatives and friends that we had purchased for her. We had the special experience of spending Wednesday with her in the Temple. We performed 45 sealings and we each did an endowment. In addition, Rick did 4 initiatories. All of these were for names she had researched. Some of the ones we did were people she had known, which made it extra special. It's difficult to see from the picture, but the lights on the trees were like water drops falling from icycles. It was quite dramatic. The whole complex was lighted and decorated.
We found a mall close to the MTC which had a wonderful nativity exhibit measuring about 15x20 feet. Most of the terrain was made from bark of a special tree found natively in Spain. As you can see above, it looks a lot like craggy rock. There were scenes of Bethlehem all the way around and some of the characters were animated. It was truly spectacular.

Trip to Segovia
On Friday, we made a trip north to the town of Segovia with Elder and Sister Palmer from the Russia Ekatrinberg Mission. It was a half hour ride on the fast train which traveled about 120 mph. It was a very smooth and enjoyable ride. Once there, we took a bus to the center of town and were dropped off at the acquaduct built by the Romans. You can see from the picture above how gigantic it is. The Palmers are in the picture with Rick.
From the acquaduct, we took another bus up to the castle which is built higher up the hill from the acquaduct. Here we are pictured just outside the castle. There is a steep cliff just on the other side of the wall to Anne's left.
There was some beautiful intricate work that was incorporated into the walls of the castle. This is the castle that Queen Isabella lived in when she was crowned queen of Spain.
This is a picture of the chapel that was part of the castle. The icons in the niches give a 3-D effect. It was very beautiful.
The castle was turned into an Artillery School later on after the monarchs left it. Rick makes a great modern knight in shining armor!
There were lots of armour and weapons on display in the castle. It was amazing to see one of the cannons that was cut away to show the rifling in the barrel. It was over an inch deep. One whole room was used to display different knight armour. It was amazing to see all the intricate metal work on each piece.
Trip to Toledo
On Monday, we made a trip south a half hour to Toledo with Elder and Sister Nearon who are on a church service mission assisting the chief legal counsel for the East European Area. He is a lawyer from California. The name of this town is not pronounced like the town of the same spelling in Ohio. The "e" in the middle of it is pronounced as a long "a".

The picture above is of the entrance to the cathedral. We were told that this is the second largest Roman Catholic cathedral. The one at the Vatican being the largest.
We took a tram around the outskirts of the city. It was open air on one side with a roof on it. It was like the ones that bring you in from parking lots at Six Flags. The castle, which you can see pictured on the right above, was closed for rennovations and we couldn't get into it. The spire of the cathedral we went through, can be seen to the left of center as the next highest building. It was a great way to see the whole city.
The town is surrounded on three sides by water. Here you can see a shot of a bridge that was built by the Romans when they occupied this area.
The wall surrounding much of the city was started in 932 by the Moors.

President and Sister Hill
Pictured above are President and Sister Hill of the MTC. They are very accomodating to us and all the missionaries who come from Russia to stay with them. They became good friends to us while we were there.

Transfers, Mission Conference, Christmas, Anne's Accident

2008-12-29T00:43:00.023-06:00

Transfers

We were sad to see Sister Vostrykova leave after a 6-week mini-mission. She is planning to prepare for a full time mission when she turns 21 in September. She has such a warm, fun spirit and really helped advance missionary efforts in Yaro. Starting left to right: Elders Jenson and Smith, Sister Vostrykova, Elders Terry and Keifert and Sister Gorina. Elders Smith and Keifert are stylin' in their shopkas.

We were excited to welcome Sister Brown back. She is very dedicated and works well with both members and investigators. In the picture, she is strapping on her backpack for the trek to the apartment. Sister Gorina is looking on and at left is Vanya, a branch member.

Mission Conference

Christmas Eve was a special day for our mission. We had an all-mission zone conference for the full day. It started with all kinds of board games, ping-pong, pool and visiting with missionaries we hadn't seen for a while. Rick is in the center teaching Catherine, the mission president's daughter, the fine points of Pass the Pigs.
After watching "Scrooge," we gathered everyone for group games. We played the "Bell" game and everyone had fun. We then did our traditional "Night Before Christmas" left/right game. In the picture above, one of the groups is trying to determine which direction they should pass the gifts. (For parents of missionaries, if you click on the picture, it will enlarge so you can see your missionary.)
We all felt the Christmas spirit when Father Christmas and the Snow Maiden made their appearance. They passed out gifts to everyone and brought warm wishes for a Merry Christmas. Sister Leslie, the Snow Maiden, has been serving in Kasakhstan and was in Spain with us for visa renewal. Father Christmas is a native Russian missionary.
We both enjoyed being with Father Christmas. He is a delightful young man who loves the gospel and meets the challenges of the mission experience.

This picture hardly does justice to the Yaro group doing "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer." They totally took us by surprise with their rap take of the traditional song. They were really popular with the audience. The reindeer in the background have all served in Yaro at some time. Starting left back: Sisters Leslie and Brown, Elder Barney, Sister Gorina, Elders Angelo, Morgan and Briggs. Front: Elders Jenson (Rudolf), Terry, Keifert and Smith (Santa). This act definitely set the standard by which all others will have to be measured for years to come!

Christmas at our Apartment
Since we travelled back to Yaro on Christmas morning, we decided to wait and celebrate with our missionaries on Sunday. We had a traditional Christmas ham dinner and then they opened gifts we picked out for them. Sister Gorina loved the personal and hair products we gave her. She loves to primp and is totally a girly girl! Elder Terry is in the background.
Elder Smith loved getting his own "Crocs." Elder Jenson and Daniel look on.

To add a little spice to Elder Keifert's gift, we wrapped it in several boxes so he actually had five gifts to open. He loved getting a blow-up neck rest pillow to use on trains and planes. We also gave one to Elders Jenson and Terry and Daniel received some much needed lined leather gloves. Sister Brown was excited about her Prado art memory game. We picked it up in Spain for her. Everyone enjoyed the afternoon and felt like it was really Christmas!

Anne's Accident
What a way to get a new capka! Saturday night, Anne tripped in the office doorway and fell headlong into the corner of the archway seen above. She had a deep gash which required 12 stitches. We were blessed to have Daniel with us at the emergency clinic and he has been very attentive in watching for any signs of problems. He is a 6th year medical student and is the 2nd Counselor in our Branch Presidency. Rick and he gave Anne a blessing before going to the clinic and we are sure that helped reduce the effects of the fall. Since this picture was taken, blood has settled around and under Anne's right eye, making it look like a real fight!

We wish you all a very Happy New Year!!

P-Day, Branch Computer, Alexander's Baptism & Decorations

2008-12-11T12:48:00.016-06:00

P-Day
Here is our district on a recent P-Day. The missionaries come over in the afternoon and use our two computers to do their one hour of internet time to write home. While one companionship is doing that the others are in the living room playing games. Much of the time we are playing with them, if we are not preparing something for them to eat. Here Sasha Yartsev (our tutor), Elder Jenson (on floor) and Elder Smith in the back are playing a Russian card game. In the foreground, from left to right, Elder Terry, Sister Vostrykova, Elder Keifert and Sister Gorina are playing an advanced game of Uno.

Branch Computer
We now have a computer for our branch. Rick found an old one in Moscow that the APs were no longer using. It was Windows 98SE with a broken CD drive, 166 MHz, no USB ports and no way to connect to a network. We bought a computer desk and a 4 port USB card for it. It took a couple ot trips to the local computer store where we bought the 4 port USB card to get service to get it working. The service each time cost 200 rubles (about 7 dollars) for an hour. Very cheap compared to the US. It is now working, which means that Rick doesn't have to stay in the branch waiting for Elder Jenson to do the finances on his laptop. He can now go home after church and help Anne get ready to feed the missionaries Sunday dinner.

Alexander's Baptism
Here is Elder Jenson with Alexander just before the baptism. We rented a section of a bath house to do the baptism. The section had four rooms (one of them a sauna), some showers and a small pool about 4-5 times the size of our fonts at home.
When we got there we stuck our fingers in the water and found that it was ice cold. Luckily, there were 3 tubs in the shower area which we immediately started filling with hot water and dumping into the pool. We did this for about 45 minutes when Alexander said the temperature was OK to go ahead. Above are Elders Smith and Keifert with Alexander filling the tubs.
Here are Elder Keifert, Masha and Alex in the hallway leading down to the four rooms. The first room on the right was where we gathered for the program. Alex is planning on being baptized in January.
Here is the pool where the baptism took place. The water was still cold and when Alexander came up out of the water he was so shocked with the cold water that he almost pulled Elder Jenson under. After they got out, they went into the sauna room and warmed up before changing clothes. It was nice to have the sauna room there. They really enjoyed it. Sister Vostrykova is in the above picture with her back to us talking to Masha.

Decorating Our Apartment
We invited the missionaries to bring an investigator or less-active over to help decorate our apartment for Christmas. Elders Smith and Jenson worked very hard on getting the garland up over the doorway into the living room. They put lights through the boughs and hung little replicas of matrushka dolls on the garland.
Anne and Rick worked on the tree. There are several sets of handcarved ornaments we found at the renik. We couldn't find a star anywhere for the top of the tree so we finally settled for a sweet snow lady who looks like an angel.
The other two elders and the sisters worked on getting our advent calendar prepared. Elder Keifert is hard at work on it here. It is made from paper towel and toilet paper rolls cut and covered with paper. They placed a piece of candy inside each one and covered it with a circle with the day on it. Each time someone comes, they can open it for the day and have the candy inside.
Here is a shot taken from our kitchen doorway showing the advent calendar and the tree in the living room reflecting in the mirror. The pictures on the wall are from a calendar. We framed them to help remind us of the meaning of Christmas.
Above is one of the nativities that we bought in the renik on one of our trips down to Moscow. We found the little feather tree at a gift shop in Yaroslavl.
Sister Cranney (our mission president's wife) told us they were going to Kazakhstan (it is part of our mission) and wanted to know if she could pick up a nativity for Anne there. We, of course, said yes. It is pictured above. It is all hand stitched from felt fabric and has darling details. The little "tent" in the background opens up to hold the pieces.
A couple months ago, Sister Cranney mentioned she was ordering a hand-painted Russian nativity. Anne asked if she could order us one also. It came from a town near Sergei Pasad which is on the way to Moscow and is the birthplace of the Matrushka stacking dolls you saw on an earlier blog. The pieces are hand carved and painted and are very detailed. We are pleased with our decorations. It isn't like previous years where every room is decorated with Anne's 300+ nativity sets, but it really brings the spirit of the season into our home.

We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and hope you make the worship of the Savior and remembrance of his birth the central part of your celebrations.

He was born in an obscure village. He worked in a carpenter's shop until he was 30... He then became an itinerant preacher (for only 3 years).

Yet nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race.. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that... ...ONE SOLITARY LIFE.

Masha's call, Thanksgiving & Branch Social

2008-11-30T12:40:00.018-06:00

Masha gets her Call

While waiting for the office Elders to arrive on the train from Moscow, Masha and Elders Keifert and Smith had a snowball fight. I think the innocent people standing by got the worst of it! We were all excited to see where Masha's mission call would be.

Elder Smith packed some pretty hard snowballs. Poor Masha was outnumbered 2-1.
The office Elders finally arrived and Masha proudly displayed "the" envelope. She later opened it at our apartment with the missionaries and many branch members there. She will be serving in the Russia Novosibirsk Mission. She enters the Provo MTC February 3, 2009. Sister Gorina is standing to Masha's left. In the back are Elders Knuth, Keifert, Barney (yes, the one who served with us in Yaro), and Smith.

Thanksgiving
How to clean out a pumpkin: one sharp knife, two scooping spoons, two strong, willing Elders! We were able to salvage enough pumpkin for a pie, a cake and 2 bags full, frozen for future use. Elders Smith and Keifert work intently, even on P-Day.

When we were in Moscow, we found this wonderful Russian folk costume which Anne decided to wear for Thanksgiving. The flowers were purchased Thanksgiving morning to bring in a little beauty. Notice the bowl of M&M's. Before dinner, we asked the missionaries to each take some, but not eat them. We then asked them to tell what they were thankful for using each M&M. Their responses were very touching as they remembered family, home and the Savior as well as many other blessings.
We were excited to find turkey parts and bought three skinless breasts. They roasted just fine on a bed of dressing. What an easy way to prepare turkey! It may become a tradition.
Our Thanksgiving dinner buffet was set up in the kitchen using the table and the drying rack with a board on top, making two tiers. Sisters Gorina and Vostrakova begin filling their plates with turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, corn on the cob, peas, mashed potatoes and gravy, Jell-o salad and rolls.
The Elders were glad we had salad plates so there was more room on the dinner plates. Elders Keifert, Smith, Jensen and Terry took time out from eating to pose for the picture.

Anne adding whipped cream to a banana caramel pie. There was also, chocolate, pumpkin and apple. Everyone was able to sample each one.

Rick is slicing ice cream from a tube. We buy it this way to serve larger groups. The ice cream has a consistency about like frozen Cool Whip, but has a richer taste.

Branch Social
At the branch Thanksgiving social, we tossed a ball of yarn from person to person. As you tossed it, you held onto the end and told why you were thankful for the person you tossed it to. We had quite a "web" woven by the end. Karina and Max loved walking and playing under the yarn web.

There were lots of goodies for the Thanksgiving "feast". The Elders bought cookies and candies as well as juice. Anne made sugar cookies to look like pumpkins, left side. The Elders made mashed potatoes and gravy, the Sisters made apple and cabbage salad, and Sister Chernikov made a yummy seafood salad.

Moscow, Renick, Zone Conference, plus

2008-11-16T11:58:00.019-06:00

Cake for Sister Cranney's Birthday
This last week we traveled to Moscow for Zone Conference. The next day was Sister Cranney's birthday. Both Anne and Sister Gorina made birthday cakes for her. One was English and the other Russian. Because we haven't been able to find food coloring, Anne had to use white frosting for the message.

Souvenir Renick
Just at the entrance of the souvenir renick, off in the distance, are these beautiful buildings that we couldn't resist taking a picture of.
This is the main isle of the souvenir renick. There are three of these isles in parallel and they dead end into another one that extends quite a ways off to the left.
Matrushkas were everywhere. They are handpainted (many of them) stacking dolls which have from 3-15 in a set. We bought some at this stall.
Here is a shop at the end of the main isle with some interesting carved bears on top. There was interesting architecture everywhere. It was quite an adventurous experience for us.
This picture shows a sail boat and a windmill at the end where the artists are displaying their paintings.
Here is the prize Matrushka we bought there. The largest one stands 9" tall and the smallest is 3/8" tall. There are 15 in all. When the lady was showing it, we just kept thinking that one has to be the end, but she just kept opening another one until the last one was so small, you could hardly see it. They all have different cathedrals painted on the front, even the smallest one!

Moscow Metro
Rick is quite impressed with the Moscow Metro. This is a shot of riding down one of the long escalators descending down to the metro tracks. This shot was taken when we were about 2/3 of the way down the escalator.
There is a lot of classical architectural detail included all throughout the Metro tunnels. This is a shot of one of the ceilings.
This is a shot of one of the platforms where you wait, most of the time no more than a minute, for the next train. For the most part, all the floors and walls are marble and are kept very clean. After having been on the subways of New York and the underground of Paris, Rick finds Moscow's Metro to be a step up from both of them. Madrid's was newer and quieter, but not as archetecturally beautiful. The train cars are nothing to shout about, especially when compared to Madrid's newer, cleaner ones.

Train on the way Home
Here is our district on the train on the way home. It is a four hour train ride, but we enjoy it together. From left to right are; Elders Smith, Jenson, Terry, Sisters Gorina and Vostrykova, then Elder Keifert.

Masha's Birthday
After our institute class on Saturday, we celebrated Masha's birthday with a pineapple upside down cake that Anne made. She is actually 25, but wanted to be 21 again. We are teaching "Introduction to Family History" in institute.

We found out at Zone Conference that Masha will be entering the MTC in Provo on February 3rd, but we don't know which mission she will be going to yet. Here mission call hasn't arrived, but President Cranney could tell us her entry date so she can know when she will go in. We are expecting her call letter to arrive at the Mission Office this next week. Someone from the office will bring it up along with our 2nd passports for us to sign.

Radeon is an Elder
Radeon from Rybinsk was ordained an Elder last Sunday. He will be going on a three week mini-mission starting Friday, the 21st. We are very proud of the progress he has made. His mother just got her temple recommend to go for the first time. She has been a member since 1995 or so. She isn't sure when she will go, but we are happy she now has it.

The "Cute" Stump
On the way back from our service project at "Fund Charity" we came across this stump beside the sidewalk. Anne thought it was "cute" so we took a picture. The word "cute" was bandied about by the elders for a while. Elder Smith told Sister McClelland that when he calls to tell her about his cute fiancee, he hopes that she doesn't think about this stump.

Halloween Party

2008-11-09T12:58:00.017-06:00

Branch Halloween Party

As people walked through the front door, there was a "tunnel" into the foyer. Rick is standing with Alexey at the end of it. This helped everyone know there was something different in store for them.
The refreshment table was decorated with a little witch that was donated by the humanitarian center where we do service. The fall squashes were brought to us by an English Club member who had been trying to find pumpkins, but was not able to. Everyone looked for pumpkins, but there were none to be found. Anne made the cupcakes with gummy worms on top. We have not been able to find food coloring, so we thought chocolate frosting would look like dirt for the worms to come out of. They were popular as well as the rice krispie treats. The other packages of candies and cookies were purchased at local grocery stores.
Our district is the epitome of inventive costuming! From left: Elder Keifert as Ryu, the Street Fighter, Sister Gorina as a young girl, Shonra (Anne's VTing companion) as the mad doctor, Sister Vostrakova as a girl punker, Elder Terry as a zombie. Back: Elder Smith as a victorious boxer and front, Elder Jensen as the lovable Yoda.
Let the games begin!! It's hard to see, but each of the people has a pencil tied around their waste and is trying to get the pencil in a soda bottle. The pencil hangs down from the middle of their backs. It was fun to watch them moving around trying to get the pencil over the bottle opening. Elder Keifert on left and Natasha on right.
The Mummie Wrap was very popular and used a lot of toilet paper. The race was on to see who could get wrapped first. There were candy prizes for winners at each game station.
Sister Vostrakova really displayed "an attitude". She is a mini-missionary and had just arrived the night before the party. What a trooper to come up with a costume and help with the games. In the background, you can see the balloon/dart toss game and the line with donuts hanging down.
Eating donuts on a string was popular and fun to watch. Anne made the donuts since the ones in Russia don't have holes.
The Texan and his cat. We had fun coming up with costumes. Rick found his hat at Metro for 99 rubles which is about $4.00. Notice his belt buckle. We made if by wraping foil over a cardboard cutout. Anne's tail was a piece of the garland we used on the refreshment table and the ears were made from styrofoam liners that came in her new boots, colored with marker.
Tossing darts at the balloons was very popular. Masha, on the left, did the face painting for anyone who wanted. DeCasta is throwing a dart.

Rick's favorite Halloween picture of Anne.

Sasha got into the whole costume thing as a gangster. He was really a hit with his long fur coat. Lilia stole the show with her entrance as a pirate. She had all the detail, including the little parrot on her shoulder.

Anatole came in camouflage and Masha added the face painting to complete his costume. Rick is in the back and Paul on the right. Daniel is in the black hooded shirt with the long black nose.

Rita, from English Club, was adorable in her oriental outfit. She was such a help in cleaning up after the party. She always has a wonderful smile and is a delightful person to be with.

The pictures we took of the spook alley didn't turn out well because it was so dark. Everyone enjoyed the creativity of the missionaries and most of them were scared going through. It was a evening to remember, for sure!

Birthdays, Theater, Service, Transfers

2008-11-03T02:32:00.017-06:00

Elder Angelo's Birthday
Elder Angelo turned 21 and we were able to celebrate his birthday on his birthday, it was a P-day. Anne made a marble cake for him. He said he had never had one. We have had a hard time finding birthday candles, so we have to conserve by using 2 for twenty and 1.
We took a picture of the district at Elder Angelo's birthday when Elders Smith and Jenson were on their visa trips in Spain. Elder Angleo, Sister Gorina, Sister Shavyeko and Elder Keifert.

Theater
We are allowed a "culture" night once each transfer. Transfers are every six weeks. This time it was the sisters turn to pick the activity. We went to a hockey game on our last culture night as you may remember. They decided to have us go to a Russian theater here in town. The Volkov Theater is the first one ever built in all of Russia, a distinction we were surprised that our city had. It is currently being restored throughout the interior. The molding around the stage is all carved wood and the curtain drop had an oval hole with a backdrop to give a 3-D effect.
The ceiling had eight of these chandeliers with gold-leaf decoration around the whole thing. It was very beautiful.
It was, of course, all in Russian. Our missionaries said it was high level Russian and they only understood about 40% of it. On the other hand, we understood only a few words and picked up the general story line from the gestures and actions on stage. The set revolved so that there were not scene changes. It just turned to where the next scene was set. It was very well done.

End of Provaslavny Service
Last week was our last time for service at the Pravaslavny Church. We finished painting the floor. It took us three sessions to finish it because we kept running out of paint. Each week we came back to paint floor, we had a different color of red (crahsney in Russian). Father Alexander asked to meet with the sisters. In their first meeting he showed them a DVD prepared by his church on our church. They said it was about 50% correct in what it said. They have agreed to meet with him again, but this time they will show our DVD on the Restoration of the Gospel.

Un-Birthday
Anne felt sorry for all those whose birthdays had already passed or were after they were going to be going home. So we decided to have an unbirthday for Sisters Shevyeko & Gorina and Elders Jenson & Keifert. There were 22 special candles on the cake. Special because they were the relighting kind. Each tried to blow them out, one at a time without success.
Then, they decided all four of them should blow. Those candles put off a lot of smoke. Lucky (?) for us we don't have fire alarms in our apartment. They finally got them out by dropping them in water.

Transfers
This picture was taken at our last district meeting, the day before transfers.
Elder Angelo and Sister Shevyeko were transferred. They are the last two from the original district which was here when we arrived. It was hard to see them go. Sister Shevyeko is holding a "goody" bag that Anne always makes for our departing missionaries to help them through the 4 hour train ride to Moscow.
Here we have our new missionaries arriving at the train station, along with our returnning mini-missionary, Masha. Masha is in the red jacket. She spent the last 6 weeks in Moscow serving with Sister Brown (former Yaro missionary). She got to help teach and see baptized one of their investigators. We filled out her papers for a full-time mission just before she left on her mini-mission and she is waiting for her call to come from Salt Lake.

Elder Terry is the fourth from right. He came to replace Elder Angelo. Both Elder Jenson and Elder Terry are now designated zone leaders. Yaro has been designated a Zone for some time with only 6 missionaries in it, but we had a district leader. President Cranney decided to make Yaro a full zone this transfer by appointing these two as zone leaders.

Sister Vostrykova (Dasha), in the black and white jacket, came to replace Sister Shevyeko. She is from Neegzny-Novgaroad and is on a mini-mission for 6 weeks. She turns 21 next September and wants to go full-time then.
We finally got the 2nd package sent from home. It was so big it was hard to get up to Yaro on the train. When Elder Keifert came back from Spain on his visa trip, he brought 3 other smaller packages that had arrived for us. This one would have been impossible to drag around Moscow. This big package was sent a month before the other smaller ones he brought up. The big one took 2 months and the smaller ones took 4 weeks.

Madrid

2008-10-22T06:44:00.018-05:00

Madrid, Spain Temple Complex

As we approached the Temple complex, this is the view we first saw. It was a lovely, peaceful feeling to see the Temple in such beautiful surroundings. The red brick building in the background is the MTC and also houses a distribution center and a hostle for Temple workers and patrons. There is also a stake center in the complex.

This picture was taken from the 6th floor of the MTC building where the cafeteria is. It was wonderful to go there every day and feel the spirit of the missionaries and President and Sister Hill, the MTC President. We ate most of our meals with them and enjoyed watching General Conference, two sessions live.
This is one of the statues on the Temple grounds. The flowers and landscaping were just wonderful to see.

There were flowerbeds like this one all over the grounds and tall everygreen trees everywhere. We spent all day Tuesday in the Temple doing work for two of Rick's great, great grandfathers and an ancestor of Marcia Sperry. That made our trip all the more enjoyable.

Sightseeing in Madrid

This archway gate was where our tour started.
We can't remember what all the buildings were, but loved the architecture and the way they are preserved.

This is an apartment building. We decided we could live there and enjoy it quite well!
The courtyard of the Royal Palace. It has been here for centuries and has been added to over the years. The interior is so lavish and ornate, it is hard to imagine the time and labor involved. Most of the the ceilings are painted with murals. The Persian rugs and silk damask draperies and wall coverings are just magnificent. There were rooms for displaying the royal china, silver and crystal. It was fun to see, but not quite our style.
Looking behind us across the other end of the courtyard is the Royal Cathedral. It was being refurbished so we couldn't go in to see it.
There were beautiful, huge fountains everywhere in the city.
The Prado Museum of Modern Art. The other end of the building looks the same. There are statues down both sides.
This gift shop was across the street from the Prado and we loved the manequins on the second floor which is a theater. The shop gives discounts to missionaries and we were able to buy a Lladro nativity set which was on sale.
A display window of the gift shop caught our eye. It looked very real, with life-sized manequins. It was such a fun trip and one we will treasure as a highlight of our mission experience.

Zone Conference, Renick & Red Square

2008-10-13T12:41:00.018-05:00

Zone Conference
On Thursday, October 9th, we traveled to Moscow for Zone Conference leaving on the 7:15 am train. We came down on Thursday for all of us to have interviews with the president and then our Zone Conference was on Friday. Anne, of course, did her usual thing and prepared a bag of goodies for each of the missionary companionships and us to eat on the train to help the 4 hours go by faster. We had a very good zone conference. President Cranney and his wife, pictured above, just came back from mission president's conference and had picked up some very good material which they both presented. Sister Cranney prepares some really outstanding meals which we got to have on both Thursday and Friday for lunch.
Renick
On Thursday afternoon, we went with the elders in our district to the Moscow Renick. It covers many square miles in the northeast part of Moscow. It consists of thousands of small kiosk-like shops shown above. They are both in the open air like the ones above, as well as in very large buildings. We were looking for a light leather jacket for Anne. We didn't find one she liked. The shop keepers tried very hard to sell us what they had. At the last shop, he started out with a price of 7000 rubles. As we were walking away he came down to 3000, then, 2500 and finally we heard him faintly yell 2000 ($80).

Red Square
From the Renick, we went down to Red Square in the center of Moscow. This was fantastic. On the other side of this building is Red Square. You can see St. Basil's church, on the far side of Red Square, through the left archway.
This building is just a little to the right of the previous picture. It is also on Red Square. The statue represents on of the major Russian Generals who was successful during WWII.
This shot is a little farther to the right. The building on the left is the one in the previous picture. After taking this picture, we went into Sbarro's restaurant, met up with some other elders and fed them all pizza and salad. When we finshed, it was dark outside.
This is a picture of Moscow's eternal flame, commemorating WWII. It is just a little to the right of the picture above. That is Elder Jensen from Price Utah, taking a picture of it also. You may remember on one of our earlier posts that we showed you the Yaroslavl eternal flame. Every city in Russian has one, we hear.
This is taken inside Red Square. This is the back of the red building you saw a few pictures ago. It was fantastic to be on the square at night. I will describe the square as if we are in the center of it and keep turning to the right.
Here is a picture just to the right of the building shown in the previous picture.
This picture is a little more to the right and shows what the missionaries call a high-priced, exclusive mall called "Goom". We didn't go in because there wasn't enough time. We will make it back to it on a future trip. This takes up all of one side of the square.
Here we are standing in front of the Goom Mall.
This is St. Basil's Russian Orthodox church. It is truly a beautiful site to behold. It reminded us of a fairytale castle. It is located at the far end of the square.
This is along the wall to the right of St. Basil's church, opposite Goom Mall. The building beyond the wall is where the government meets. The window with the light on is supposed to be the President's office.
This is a picture of the stand that is always pictured in the videos from Russia showing their leaders standing on the different levels, reviewing the parade of troops and weapons passing by. It was just amazing to be right there on the grounds that we used to see and think that it was somewhere we could never get to because it was behind the Iron Curtin.

From here, we went back to pick up our luggage and then went to the Mission Doctor's apartment. The doctor and his wife just finished their mission and we won't get a replacement for another six weeks, so their apartment was vacant. It used to be the mission home. It was very large with a nice king-size bed. Our apartment could fit into the combination living, dining, TV room. We stayed there two nights and then flew to Madrid for our visa trip.

Capka, Dinner, HT, Ribinsk & Orthodox Church

2008-09-28T23:33:00.014-05:00

Capka
Doesn't Elder McClelland look distinguished in his capka? It really helps keep him warm on these cold days. The temperatures have been in the 30's and 40's for the last two weeks. Our heat was turned on in our building last Friday and we are grateful for the warm air while we study and read. We haven't had to have the small electric heaters on so much.

Vaneevs & Olga to Dinner
The Vaneev family came for dinner last week. Brother Vaneev, known as Brat (brother) Marat, is the first counselor in the branch presidency, his wife, Maria, is the Relief Society president and Medina is 7. She is learning English in school and it has been fun to help her with her homework.

This is the group we had for dinner. Brat Marat, Maria, Sister Gorina, Medina, Olga, Elders Keifert, McClelland and Smith in the back. Sister Gornia was staying with us while her companion, Sister Shaveko, was on her visa trip to the Ukraine. We enjoyed hearing their conversion stories and learning more about them and their families.

Home Teaching at Chernikovs
When we went home teaching to the Chernikov's, Max and Karina enjoyed playing on the exercise ball President Chernikov uses. He was in an accident several years ago and has back damage that doesn't allow him to stand straight. They are such a sweet family and we enjoy their little ones especially. We were treated to cookies and rose tea during our visit.

Another Visit to Rebinsk
During our trip to Rebinsk, we saw this cute little datcha (retreat home) and wanted to share it with you. Most of the datchas are not as well kept as this one. There are datchas everywhere, especially in the countryside. People go there on weekends during the summer months and grow fruits and vegetables on their little lots.

Inside Pravaslavny Temple
These are all pictures of the inside of the Orthodox Russian Temple on the grounds where we do service. The outside of this building is shown in the Anne's Birthday Post. It is the brick structure. They are working on the reconstruction and restoration of this building and the church building where they hold services. Father Alexander, the priest there, is very appreciative of our service. He told us he feels like we are his friends and has invited us to visit him at his datcha so we can just talk and get to know each other better. He presented each of us with a charm to show his appreciation for our work. We work in an auxillary building which is used for eating and other activities.

This will be an amazing building to visit when they have completed the restoration. It will probably not be finished for many years, however.
This picture was taken before Elder Barney left for Moscow. Don't they look like the four Musketeers? Starting left: Elders Barney, Angelo, Keifert and Smith. We'd recommend them for painting anyday!

Hockey, Service, Chernikov and Transfers

2008-09-21T12:47:00.022-05:00

Hockey Game
On Monday night, we went to Arena 2000, the home of the Yaroslavl Locomotive, to see a hockey game. This was our cultural activity for the month.
The Locomotive is one of the best teams in Russia. They won their league two years ago and were 2nd last year.
Elders Smith, Keifert, Barney and Angelo really got into the whole experience. Elders Smith and Keifert are sporting their scraves and Elder Angelo is wearing a jersey. The bought these before the game started.
It was an exciting game. With our help rooting them on they won 3 to 0. The arena was full during the game, but during breaks, it emptied out.

More Service at Provaslavny Church

We returned to the Russian Orthodox church and painted the room we cleared out the week before. Anne and Elders Smith and Angelo are starting to paint the wall. You can see the small cans of paint on the floor. They were a little larger than quart size. We were all provided brushes to paint with. If we had had rollers or a paint sprayer, we could have done the job in a fraction of the time it took us. Having some Kilz would have helped also.
Here is a shot of the job we did. Elder Barney used the ladder shown in the corner to paint the upper wall on the left.
After we finished work, we were treated to lunch by the Priest, who is seated at the head of the table. Last week, after our service, we experienced our first authentic Russian meal. This week, we had a vegetable soup, a cabbage and carrot salad and a beet salad which was much like Borsht without the liquid. Of course, this was accompanied by great bread, fresh fruit (apples and plums) and a fried vegetable of some kind that was very good. The room we are eating in is one the missionaries helped clean up and paint several months ago. It looked like the room we have been working in, which is adjacent to it.

Dinner at Chernikovs'

Elder Angelo had heard a lot about a special Kazakhstan dish called Bish Barmach from the missionaries in our mission who have served there. The Chernikovs are from Kazakhstan and Sister Chernikov spent the month of August there with her parents. Her mother came back with her to Yaroslavl and will be here when their baby arrives in December. The Chernikovs invited all the missionaries over to their apartment and served us this special dish. It has beef and pork along with potatoes and onions and a unique noodle-like substance. All of it is boiled in separate pots and served on a tray. In Kazakhstan they eat it with their hands and wear big bibs. We, fortunately, used plates and forks. The noodle-like dough was laying on the beds on cloths waiting to be boiled when we got there. It was about 24-30 inches in diameter and very thin. It was then folded and boiled.
Here you can see Elder Keifert sitting at the table in the left foreground that we ate on. In the background you can see President Chernikov with his two youngest children; Karina and Maxim, who is looking through a Book of Mormon.

Transfers and Pierces arrive
On Friday morning, we saw Elder Barney and Masha off to Moscow. Elder Barney was transferred there and Masha started another mini-mission for 6 weeks. She took her full-time mission papers with her and only has her dental exam to complete while there. Two English Club members joined us at the train station.
On Friday night, back at the train station, we welcomed Chris Pierce (center with white hat) and his parents (his Dad is behind him to the left) and Sister Shavyeko (on the right), Sister Gorina (next to Shavyeko) and Elder Jenson (on left) to Yaroslavl.
On Saturday night the branch had a social for the Pierces. One of the things we did was to pass an apple around the big circle of about 25 and each of us told one thing we loved about Elder Pierce. When the apple completed the circle, Chris had to light the matches and try to get them all to burn with as few re-lights as possible.

Family History Center
Here is a picture of our Family History Center. If you double click on the picture you can see a car parked under the trees. It is parked just outside the door into our FHC. The Church actually owns the back corner of this building. It contains two fairly large rooms, one small one, a storage room and a restroom. We rent the building where we have our branch meetings. We must own a building in Yaroslavl to be officially registered as an organization here. If we didn't own this building, our missionaries would have to travel back to Moscow every three days. You can see the graffiti all over the lower level of this building. It is rampant here. We are expecting a contractor to come paint over it and make some other improvements. We have been expecting that for over a month now.

Another reason I took this picture was to show the grounds around the building. Very seldom do you see any upkeep on the grounds around the city. The parks and squares are cut, but almost everywhere else things just grow wild.

Anne's Birthday +

2008-09-14T12:13:00.015-05:00

Anne's Birthday
Anne started her day with an omelet that Rick made her. Just a little while later, the first set of elders called and sang happy birthday. Then, about an hour later the other set of elders called and sang happy birthday. Later in the day, both sets of elders came over to coordinate for the baptism the next Saturday. They had another reason for coming over. They brought birthday presents and a card for Anne. She is sporting both of her presents in the photo above; a capka and a shawl. Two of the elders already had capkas and the other two decided to get them also when they bought the one for Anne.
After English Club Rick had arranged a surprise birthday celebration for Anne. He told the people in the English Club Conversational class that we teach and the other missionaries told their classes also. Natasha, the young lady that was baptized last month, helped with refreshments by baking two Russian birthday cakes. Anne decided that she was going to celebrate her birthday with everyone so she also baked a cake and we bought ice cream for everyone. It was a very enjoyable day. Anne is holding a card made by one of the young women in the branch and is standing next to Alex, an investigator.

Provaslavny Service
The day after her birthday, the missionaries called and said we had an opportunity to provide service at the Russian Orthodox (Provaslavny) Church where they had performed service in the past. It is just across the street from McDonalds and quite close to our apartment. This is a view of the church from the front.
Behind the church are two other buildings. The one above, they call a temple. It was built in the 1600s. It has been gutted and they are starting from the base structure to build it out again. They are also having to shore up the foundation and replace a lot of bricks in the walls.
Across from the temple is a long two story building. We went up to the second floor to a big room in the back to work. Our assignment was to clean it all out. You should have seen Elder Angelo's eyes when he asked the priest if we were supposed to take apart the set of make-shift shelves that were standing in one part of the large room. It is hard to see in this picture, because of the dust, but Elder Angelo is flying through the air to destroy one section of the shelving.
After we took the shelving apart we threw it out the window down to the ground. This is Elder Barney at the window tossing the disassembled shelving out.
This shot is of the back of the church taken from the upstairs window where we were working. After we finished cleaning up that upstairs room, we went to the back of the church and separated the red (krasny) bricks from the white ones. At noon, the priest took us all upstairs and they fed us lunch. It was our first real traditional Russian meal. We had a delicious soup to start with. There was also caviar spread on unleavened bread and Yaroslavl grown apples and plums on the table to eat. After the soup, they served us Gretchka. One of the elders told us it was buckwheat cooked in some type of broth with some carrots and other seasonings in it. Rick really liked it.

Anne's Birthday Dinner at Texac
Anne chose for her birthday present to take all the missionaries out to the Texac restaurant for dinner. We went on the Friday after her birthday. This is the restaurant that is within the same block that we live in. It is very Texicanized as you will see. Here we are out in front.

Here we all are in front of the sign inside the restaurant. You can't tell it very well but the Texas neon sign is on top of a map of Texas.

This is a shot looking across the dance floor over to the saloon. There is a bar on the right behind the post. On the post is a "Wanted Sign" for Osama Ben Laden. Just to the right, there was a small stage where they had live singers performing for part of the evening.

This is the door out of the dining area back to the font desk. Etched on the glass is "Cowboys, leave your guns at home." Most of the signs there were in English.
But, the menu wasn't. The covers were made out of leather. It took us quite a while to make up our minds what we were going to have. Four of us had T-bones, one had a rib-eye and Anne had the cowboy steak. The food was very good, by any standard.
Anouther one of the cute touches was out near the front desk by the coat check. There was a cowboy who had a lighted cigar (red light in the end) and a horse behind him whose ears and mouth moved.