Spring

Seasons take on new meanings.
Spring I : The bitterest cold is gone, you put away the heaviest coat, and men and machines crack the thick, dirty ice off of walks and roadways. The new snow comes but melts.

Spring II: You spot buds on trees and almost overnight you see blossoms and greenery. Still cold mornings, sometimes freezing. Elders can wear short-sleeve shirts, no coats.

Summer: The heat hits. Everyone has new sunburns and summery clothes. With such a short night, things hardly have time to cool off.

When we told Elvira we treat dandelions as weeds and pull them up, she laughed and said, "Oh, no, but they're so pretty." Here she's standing by the lake that was frozen in midwinter.

(Luda in our Branch brought lilacs to sister Mac; dandelions seen from the bus; church on the Blood reflected in the water.)

Dom

The five story "domes" built by Kruschev were welcomed because they offered hot and cold running water, indoor WC, and the enclosed balcony (pronounced "bal-kone")--for free.

Alya remembers her parents waiting several years until their name came up so they could have one. Although aged, the apartments are valuable because housing is scarce. Young married couples live with in-laws. It's rare to start off in their own place.

Outside this dom, someone has been sprucing up the groundfloor garden space.
(click to enlarge)

Spring Cleaning

Most of the old wooden houses don't have indoor plumbing, so residents must go to the corner pumps and carry the water back to their houses, sometimes on small wagons or sleds. This woman is washing a large rug at the pump early in the morning.

Follow-Up

We're catching up in the Office after our Wonderful Weekend.

It was unusual for us to have every missionary gathered together at once, but now they're all back at work in their areas after sundry bus and train rides.

President Allen thanked Elder Mac for all his behind-the-scenes work. "We couldn't have done it without Elder McEvoy." When asked for the highlight of the event for him Roger said, "When it started." He took care of plans small and large.

Large: Meeting hall. Despite our early plans for the best possible place, we didn't get a contract signed until the Monday before the Sunday meeting. Tense.
Small: Contents of gift baskets; platorm seating arrangement signs; water bottles in cars.

Meanwhile, Sister Mac did her various assignments, such as "invitation" design. Her favorite task: Vaselina Novikova asked her to help with the Church's reporting of the event.

President Uchtdorf and Elder Andersen

Over 560 members gathered to hear our visitors this Sunday. Some came from as far away as Surgut, a 1000 mile, 23 hour train ride.

After the main meeting, the Apostles met with the missionaries in a smaller room to answer questions and to encourage.

It was WONDERFUL!

Touring

City tour lead by our Elvira Bryandina:
President and Sister Allen, Elder and Sister Andersen, President Wolfgang Paul, and President and Sister Uchtdorf.

Short Nights

Sunrise: 5:21 AM

 Sunset: 10:30 PM

Visitors

We're all busy getting ready for SPECIAL VISITORS this coming weekend.  All the missionaries and members will be gathering here for a meeting, since we don't have any large church buildings.  Really, no time to post.  Love to all!

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!