Olga leaves for the MTC

Olga Vasilyeva, called to Rostov-na-Donu, said goodbye to the Branch Sunday, amid restrained tears. She spent all of SS talking to Xenia, a returned missionary who completed her Moscow Mission over a year ago. Russian missionaries spend a month in the Provo MTC.

Goodbye Winter

Looks like our high today is a balmy 45 degrees.
Time to put away the winter gear.
(Elders Haderlie (WY) and Holden (WA), Office Elders the last two transfers.)

Tyumen

Last month in Tyumen we stayed with wonderful Elder and Sister Palmer (Fruit Heights, UT) who love to look out for the Elders. When the missionaries arrived, they went right to Sister Palmer's kitchen drawer which she keeps stocked with cookies and other goodies. Besides the drawer, there were cinnamon rolls, "Palmer mix" cereal, and pot pie that day.

Siberia Zone Leaders, Elders Campbell (NV) and Isenbarger (IN).

Bus Stop

Last night after English, one of the electric trolley busses stopped in traffic. We watched as the lady driver turned to the passengers, and then 5 or 6 men got off and pushed it backward 10 feet to reconnect the line overhead. The men got back on and off they went.

On one of our bus rides, the bus engine choked and died. The driver called out something in Russian, opened the doors, and all of us got off and walked on down the street.

Spring Snow

Days are much longer now, so it's still daylight at 9:00pm, but no serious green growth to be seen. Instead, we keep getting snow storms that melt away quickly. The Russians joke about their weather.

"We have three months of cold weather, and nine months of really cold weather."
OR
Alexsey: How was your summer?
Vladimir: It was OK, but I had to work that day.


(Elder Mac as we arrived at the Office last week. He spent the winter helping keep the walkways cleared. It's common to let the ice build up on walks and scrape it away at the end of hard winter.)

Conference and Easter

We loved watching Conference at the Branch on Saturday and Sunday--Russian version was in the main hall, English in the back room. Elder Mac made the DVD copies, and all the Branches in the mission watched on the same weekend.



In between sessions, Sister Prihodka, the Branch President's wife, provided an Easter "snack" lunch. She brought raisin bread, and lots of boiled eggs to be eaten with a dab of mayonnaise. The chips and pretzels are Americanski.
These traditional cakes, we think, were made by Kisenya Druskova in our Branch. The cakes are essentially a raisin bread. We stopped by the Orthodox cathedral on Saturday afternoon and saw that the patrons had placed their cakes with candles, decorated eggs and candy on the table and their priest blessed them and sprinkled water on everything and everyone. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but it was as you see in the link.
(Thanks to Russia blog for the link.)
(Kasusha, we took the cake picture off your Facebook : ) We hope you don't mind! )

Lesson in Surgut

After the great food, Elder Mizin (Russia)and Elder Stewart (NJ) taught their investigator about the Word of Wisdom. She's the brunette in the gray top.

Dinner in Surgut

After church we walked from the bus stop to Vladimir and Nadeshda's "doma" (apartment) where she had dinner ready. She had gone to so much work: plov (a popular rice dish from Asia), cucumber salad, and hot red berry tea. Sister Mileeda and Igor came, too; brought the bread squares with beef/onion filling. For dessert there were little tarts filled with local berries (currants and "cranberries") or Russian cheese. (March 2009)

Springtime

President Allen joins two babushki who we found sitting on the office steps, enjoying spring sunshine.

Easter - "Christ is Risen"

The Easter greeting in Russian is "Christ is Risen." Then you answer back, "He truly is risen."

This kind of egg decorating is popular here because you can get the bright colors. It's a plastic sleeve that fits over the boiled egg, then is dipped in boiling water to shrink and fit.

Russian Easter is the week following Easter in the West.

Conference Weekend

We stayed up late to watch Conference on our Saturday and Sunday nights. We're watching the rest on recordings. No spring flowers here yet! Family on our minds these days.

(When we looked for a picture of flowers at Temple Square, the internet took us to this photo Rachel Rodgers used last year.)

Trans-Siberian Railway

From the windows with snow falling lightly.