Home Again, Home Again...

Made it home today - Monday - in the mid-afternoon.  Went to church yesterday in Kazan from 11 until 2...actually we got to the church building much earlier for meetings...and then drove toward Saratov until about 8:00 Sunday evening. We were going to spend two nights in Kazan but the Kosmygins decided to get down the road a little ways.  About 8 p.m. Brother Kosmynin was getting tired so we stopped at what I can only describe as a trucker's motel.  Our room had twin beds and the mattress was like a thin wrestling pad filled with corn husks.  Whatever...we slept okay.  Today we stopped by the town of Balakova and then Marks and then Engels just so we could see the towns and the church buildings.  Those three towns are in the Saratov District so we'll be visiting them again.  We also got to visit the home of the Kosmygins.  Three story home and the daughter and family live on the first floor, the son and family on the second and our hosts on the third floor. Passed by fields of cabbage today - lots and lots of cabbage!  Got home, threw some laundry in and went to the Renok to buy some fruit and veggies.  The little lady running the booth we shop at likes us, I think!  We're making soup for the institute kids tomorrow and mom bought a kilo each of filberts and almonds...lightly salted them and added a little olive oil and baked them.  Great snacks!  Got pomegranates, apples, carrots, persimmons, grapes, beets...lots of deliciousness.  Mom has been hunting for things to make Mexican food from - she found some peppers today that she's going to try.  We also found some tortillas that look pretty good.  If we can make Mexican food life will be complete!

Attached is a picture of the motel we stayed in, a picture of the Balakova church building and a picture from the window of the Balakova building - the building sits right on the Volga River next to a dam. We didn't get a picture but the building in Marks is church owned and built - very nice.  They have two in our didtrict just like it.  The building in Engels is also church owned but is a renovated building.  Also very nice.  we didn't stop there so no pics this time.

There was another unfortunate magpie incident today.  We took a little walk this morning in the motel parking lot and there were magpies and crows sitting in the corner of the parking lot conversing..You know how they get when they're together.  Then two large birds landed next to them - which looked like crows but had white on their wings like magpies.  I think the crows and magpies are breeding.  I'm a little concerned....

We figure that we spent a total of thirty-six and a half hours in the car during the last week.  The drive the last couple of days was very rough - we came back a different route so we could visit the other towns.  We're tired - but home safe and sound.  Tomorrow we have our first institute class in our home and need to make some treats for our zone conference Wednesday. I'm encouraging my companion to make chocolate chip cookies.  The cool thing is there are no chocolate chips here - so we bought big chocolate bars to chop up.  That ought to be fun...

We bought some chocolate candies at the renok in some town we visited - I finally got to sample them.  Really, really good.  I think we better never buy them again.