Pochta

MAIL!

When the daily mail arrives, everyone in the office watches until the handful of letters is sorted. "Lucky," says one Elder to the only one who got anything. Or "Elder ____ got two. Somebody loves him."

Once mail arrives here, it's held in the office mail boxes until someone travels out to the various areas--and that could mean up to six weeks of waiting.  When we went to visit Perm, one of the Elders noticed a large bag we had and asked, hopefully, "Is that our mail?" We hated to tell him no--we hadn't brought any.

Letters: This service we mentioned before is smart. It's free (to Yekat), and the actual paper letter arrives quickly; you just name the mission, type your letter, and you're done. The next best bet is the SLC Pouch because US postage takes a letter or postcard anywhere.  If you choose USPS, it costs around $1 and takes under three weeks to arrive.

Packages: Big is not better. It's awkward to carry big boxes on trips to deliver. Soft package-type pouches are good. Any smallish box.  Avoid sending anything registered or with special attention. Instead of being expedited, it's held at the Pochta until someone here goes to retrieve it--an unwelcome, Major Effort.

Last week President Allen received a package of Oreo's from Elder Reynolds (released a few weeks ago). The cookies were parceled out to all of us.

Sunday

Last week after church we waited with
several members of our Branch for our buses.

The Language

Despite our best pre-mission efforts, we can't claim to speak or understand Russian. Thankfully, we have learned a few words so that along with a little sign language, we get by.

We senior couples wish we knew more. All of us more or less sound out the hymns.

Elder Moulton laughed at himself when he said some Sundays he's singing along, feeling like he's getting it pretty well, and then realizes he's been on the wrong page!
(Hymn: Love One Another)

Fireside

The Young Single Adults gather every Sunday at Elder and Sister Nuzman's for a fireside. Because of a visa trip delay, we had the fireside last week at our apartment.

After lasagna, we watched Elder Bednar's CES Fireside in Russian. They laugh and joke all the time, but here they're singing a reverent opening hymn.

(Most of the young men in the group have left on missions.)

Mac Attack

Were we hungry? Or just homesick? Neither one of us is a Mcdonalds fan at home, but last month we took a tram-vye to a McDonalds where we wolfed down Big Macs--and we both loved every bite!

Oo-Rah!

Everyone turned out for Victory Day, sporting striped ribbons and carrying flags in honor of the military. Children were pushed to the front of the crowd or rode on their Dad's shoulders.

The Head Miliatry man was cheered by the soldiers as he reviewed the troops in an open car. "Oo Rah!" Then, he sang the National Anthem over the loud speaker.

After all the soldiers marched by, the tanks and ammunition trucks followed. No bands except a stationary one at Lenin square. No beauty queens in sequins, no floats.




Lenin St. was closed off for day, so people filled it as far as we could see, strolling around downtown.

Finally!

It looks like the green of spring is here at last.
With our long hours of daylight, it should be fast now.

Coats are no longer necessary for most of us
but this babushka is keeping hers
sitting outside the Office today, enjoying the spring air.

Holiday!

Everyone is gearing up for Victory Day, celebrated tomorrow with big military parades. Actually, a parade here means military--tanks and soldiers. Sister Allen says the old veterans wear their uniforms, and people on the street hand them flowers.

WWII is remembered because 30 million Russians perished.

Church members have a clean-up service project planned at a city park.

(We wonder if you can see the parade on the Yekat web cam. It's at 10:00AM on Saturday on Lenin St--the second column, second frame.)

Pictures

Fifteen large pieces of nicely framed art showed up at the Office this week--much welcomed since up until now we had only the kind of pictures seen below. Patient Sasha Lyufkin, the Church employee responsible for buildings here, hung them all today. They're elevating.

District Conference

In President Leonid Galanov's talk he tenderly shared his conversion and the difficulties he had. "I couldn't quickly accept Christianity because it went against the Party. I had preached Communism." We love and admire him and Sister Galanov.

At the first of the year in the Mission Office, he and Elder McEvoy discussed his very thorough annual District budget proposal, with Elder Finch(Sandy, UT) translating


EDIT: At our May 9th Helping Hands Project, when we were finished raking a cleaning a park, we wanted a picture of Elder Mac standing with our two great leaders, Presidents Galanov and Prihodka. "Nyet!" said President G. in mock-protest. Heaven forbid a photo of them standing around on a work day, he explained in gestures! So they grabbed the nearest shovel to pose.

Worth a Thousand Words

We order materials all the time here but can't always get what we want. We'd love the Book of Mormon on CD in Russian (for a blind sister), but we're grateful for what we have.

We love this new Gospel Art "book." It's so affordable, and they've sent us titles and explanations in Russian. We're getting one for every missionary.

(Picture, copyright, Intellectual Reserve, Inc.)

Wash Day

Someone asked about laundry. We have an electric washer at home but no dryer--standard for most missionaries here. Clothes are hung up or put on a drying rack in their apartments.

At the Office we have the luxury of a dryer, one of the few in the entire city, we think. Water collects into a reservoir that we empty into a near-by sink.

The front loading washers take about one hour per load or more; the dryer takes over two hours.

Blini

When asked what Russian foods were our favorites we said, "Blini, with sour cream and red berries." The best were the ones Tatiana served us in her kitchen. Most Russians prefer caviar with blini. They're just like crepes or blintzes at home.

May 1, 2009

Happy May Day from Yekaterinburg! We had to laugh as we walked home in 4-5 inches of fresh snow. What did we expect? We ARE in Russia, right?

Service Hours

• Elders Vierig (SLC), O'Dair, Haderlie (MT), Anderson (Sacramento,CA) and Melnik (Ukraine) on our Clean-Up-The-Neighborhood-Near-The-Office Day.  Spring thaw reveals lots of trash left throughout the winter.
• Elders Shreeve (Mesa AZ),  Jensen (AZ) and Dewey(MesaAZ) with Elder Mac, where they deposited countless trash bags, a dog carcass, etc.  
• Elders Thompson (Driggs, ID) and Sorenson(SLC) rake the lawn around the office.  Lots of cigarette butts accumulate from delivery men and passers-by.
• After the work, we ate Sister Mac's fajitas using the Most Excellent Tortillas made by Elder Anderson.  
  

We were happy to have one neighbor thank us and give us her phone number for contacting!

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.