"We are daughters of our Heavenly Father..."

Young Women and leaders say the theme at
our Branch Activity

Yekaterinburg Zone

There were 14 of us for dinner. When assignments were being made one Elder said, "Oh, the centerpiece! I'll bring the centerpiece!" And he did.

Thinking of You

Love to everyone today! We can't help missing you all. As busy as we are in a foreign land, this family holiday brings out tender feelings.

We're having missionaries over this afternoon, after their turkey bowl football game! They're taking a 1/2 day P-day to celebrate.

We're cooking chickens, dressing from bread we have dried, and we made a passable pumpkin pie from pumpkin-like squash, and using whole cloves Elder Mac ground down. We even found fresh cranberries. Should be fun!

Geological Museum

Ana and Alexey, a dad and daughter who come to English class, offered to take us to museums to translate for us. Today we met them to go to the geological museum. Rocks are big business in the Urals.

Navigator

We depend on this map. Actually, Elder Mac has learned to read it well and can get us through the city on busses, trams, marshutkas (vans), etc. He can even call out to the driver in Russian when it's our stop.

Bread - Хлеб

When we first arrived we ate simple, familiar food: apples, cheese, bread, yogurt. Gradually we have branched out. The breads are abundant. To our surprise, people don't bake a lot, but are are more inclined to buy bread. The breads don't have preservatives so they dry our very quickly. Most you slice yourself. The dark one is so called Russian black bread. The cheesy Italian one is actually "focaccio" and not all that common but we rather like it.

Our little lunch pictured shows deli pasta and "plov," a popular rice dish that we liked from the start.

SOMETHING FROM HOME

You can call him 'The Mail Man' or 'Santa,' but when our driver came to the office the other day, he brought HAPPINESS! Pictured here are most of the 44 packages that were carried into the office.

Shortly afterwards, candy was shared, notes read, and new socks shown off. This time of year just simply needs packages to these faithful Elders and Sisters.

Oh, by the way, USPS didn't fare too badly either. Happy Holidays! It made me happy just to hold up packages for the picture!

High Tech - High Touch

FUN being in touch with some of you in the last week! Yesterday we had a great IM session with Roger and Carol Johnson, mentors to the both of us. (Carol really prepped us for what to expect here after their 23 months in Bulgaria.)

Then we SKYPED with some of our family. SO much fun! Last week we talked with Salem/Megan and noticed that the house was still standing. We love hearing your voices, seeing adorable babies, darling children! Besides that, we've been looking at blogs and we feel like we've had a sort of reunion. Thanks to all you blog keepers--so great to see video of grandchildren laughing, etc. We're GRATEFUL for technology!

Speaking of technology, we just learned about this DearElder site. You can go to it, write a letter, and they print the letter and send it to the missionary in a pouch--no charge. We get a lot of them here.

The Price

Elvira, here in our office, has learned English out of necessity. We depend on her. Yesterday she told us about a dear sister who was no longer active. Elvira is completely non-judgmental, as she tries to friendship and keep others included, young and old. She said quietly, "Maybe they don’t think how hard was the labor to reach this blessings, how was the price."

Hot Item

This copy of the Ensign magazine, the ONLY one in our office, arrived in a shipment of supplies. We leave it out on the desk to share it, and virtually every missionary who walks by gasps and picks it up. "Where did you get this??" Even the Mission President did this. Some of them copy articles to take back to their apts.

We're just suggesting that if you want to send a great holiday surprise, here it is. If you want your missionary to make some cash, send extra copies.

Formerly all missionaries were sent complimentary subscriptions of the Ensign and Church News, but now they get two Liahonas, in English and in the country's language.

Random Photos - October

Sunrise, Sunset

The sun is up by 9:00 and sets at 4:45. At noon it's low in the sky, as if it might be 4:00 in the afternoon. Of course, we realize that it changes no matter where we live, but we're watching the days shorten.

Stockholm

The 14 missionaries who spent last month in Sweden went to two sessions a day at the Temple. We asked how Sweden could need a Temple, since we thought there were so few members, and so few baptisms there in recent decades.

Our missionaries, back from Sweden, told us the Church has grown from within. It turns out that Sweden's population was in so severe decline that the government offered to pay a woman 80% of her salary for a year and a half to stay home with a new baby. In fact, they would pay her again for a second baby, and a third, and a fourth. Since the LDS mothers in Sweden wanted to have families anyway, this was a sweet blessing to them.

(photos from the sisters)

Fur Ties

Elder Savage (Denver) and Elder Viereg, (Holladay, UT) show up for District Meeting.

NO COMPARISON

We were squeeking a bit in our early days here, because of the apartment we moved into. The couple before us had used this apartment, partially because of it's location. The location was good, but what we found was equally as convenient in terms of location, but had a few 'EXTRAS" that we favored.

The entrance to almost all apartments we've seen is through a heavy metal door. This one is from the old location.

Because of the building boom here in Yekaterinburg, the new apartment we found was certainly more modern, roomier, and just simply more comfortable for old folks like us!

As a result of several visits to local members, we have also noticed the spectrum of apartments in terms of space, facilities, and the modernness of each.

This is the NEW place! Here are some comparison, side by side:

To say that we are thoroughly delighted with our "new digs," is a statement that is right on the mark. We live on the 6th floor and have windows that look out each side of the building. On the one side, we see the parking and the play grounds for the children. On the other side we see the street below and the houses that line the street. This is the view of our apartment from the street below.

Now, to those of you who are, "Where's Waldo" fans, here is a new version of "Find Grandma."

Can you see her waving HELLO, from Yekaterinburg?

WE LOVE IT HERE!

COLD

OK, for Jared and Eric and everyone else who thinks we're going to freeze, you're right. WINTER has arrived. We were lucky to have an extended autumn, so we're told.

Where we are, winter doesn't usually come in big, blustery blizzards. We've had gentle snow falling, like a gentle rain. But the temperatures were cold as we walked about 3/4 mile to the bus stop to go to and from Church today (20 degrees F, plus the wind).

One thing, though. The houses and buildings and stores are kept toasty warm. The whole building is heated from the city's central heat plant. Your building is either OFF or ON. So at church, when the first members arrive, they open all the windows to cool the place down enough for the meeting. In the spring, the whole building is turned off. If there happens to be an extra cold snap--well, there you are.

Kilbasa

Tons of salami and bologna and sausage. Tons. For refreshments at a fireside, it's common to serve a slice of bread with a slice of salami or ham on top--no dressing or mustard. Maybe a slice of cucumber. Preferred over cake or sweet treats most of the time. It's tasty!

Cookies

Except for the popular wafers, most Russian cookies aren't as sweet as the ones we know. No Oreos, Lorna Doones, or chocolate chip.

Food, Clothing, Shelter

Of course, Russian food, clothing, and housing interested us from the start, along with cost of living.
Yes, there are differences, but most things are surprisingly the same. It's hard to explain since food comes in different measurements and we pay in rubles. Milk, for example.

We can get pasturized milk in a liter bottle, but it has a different taste. We stick to milk in the boxes--like Gossner's if you're from Cache Valley. You can keep it on the shelf until it's opened--then refrigerate. It has a little after-taste, somewhere between dry milk and evaporated. We use it on cereal.

Box 1000 ml milk = a little over a quart
Cost @ 30 rubles = $1.20
So one gallon of non-fresh milk = about $5.00

A First

We digress from Mission News to bring you this important announcement: The Devout Aggie Fan in this office has been hoping for a UTAH victory over TCU. YES, he was rooting for UTAH!

Ice On The Pavement

Somewhere in our lives we've seen ice crystals form like this, but it still seems too beautiful to be believed. We walked on these patterns most of our way to the Office this morning.

Historic Election

We voted. Our absentee ballots arrived late, so we called Cache County. The clerk emailed our ballots, we voted, scanned them in, and emailed them back. Some Elders mailed theirs in. Others voted at the Embassy.

In the Office we were able to check results on CNN. Kind Russian members have been interested in the election and have called the Office or congratulated us on having a new president. It IS exciting, even so far away.

Elders and Sisters.

Top: Sis. Hardman and Elders Haderlie, G. Taylor and Odair leave for the bus, enroute to visa renewal in Khazakstan.

Upper R: Elders Thomas, Odair, Thompson, Shreeve and Haderlie arrive to be briefed by the President before leaving for Khazakstan.

Upper Left: In the Office kitchen Elders Dial, Haderlie, Smith, Abel and Dishnitsa.

Left: Elders Dewey and Mizin, Sisters Borchardt and Konstantinova during transfers. Elder Dewey jsut went through the files trying to find the name of the landlady who has the key to their apt.

Bottom: President Allen with his AP's and the Mission Van.

"Be thou strong, and of a good courage"

The Area President, Elder Paul B. Pieper, after a recent phone call with a member in Khazakstan, was sorry to note that the brother had been drinking. Then he said, “I will never condemn that man. Never.” This man was one of the first twenty to sign the church registration document in his country.

In the late 1980’s the Church began its official entry into the former USSR, but “legal recognition” was required. In order to get it, any church had to submit an application explaining its purpose, and they had to get twenty local citizens to sign.

A book we're reading tells it like this: “For a Soviet citizen to sign such an application at that time required more courage and deeper commitment than most non-Soviets can imagine. Petitions such as these had recently furnished names for KGB investigation and often reprisal.” Imprisonment was not likely, but “subtle and intimidating administrative punishment, such as loss of opportunity” was not unlikely (Browning, Russia and the Restored Gospel, 1997,18-19).

Sisters

Photos after RS District Mtg. after some had left. District President's wife in white sweater on the left; District RS President is the blonde on the far right; Kasusha, left photo, and her husband have befriended us.