FHE

Great family night tonight!  Three investigators attended which is always a good thing.  It's nice to have young people who are interested in the Savior and His teachings.   I have a picture of two of the Elders - our zone leaders who are AWESOME - and their object lesson using a can of air that we have to blow dust out of the computer and fax machine.  They used the scripture about building on a firm foundation and when the winds blow you're safe.  The game went well, too.  The final picture shows the results of the spud nut eating - they devoured forty of  them!  Had one of our YSA bring a friend which is exactly what we hope will happen.

Tomorrow we shop - again - for Thanksgiving Dinner - again - this Friday.  It is such a joy being associated with these young Elders and Sisters who are so obedient and such hard workers.  we love them so much and are so grateful to be working with them.  Man, do they love to eat!

Kathy Smith and Spud Nuts & Missionary Discussions

For many years we would stop by Kathy Smith's house on Halloween and she would have hot, fresh spud nuts!  Through the years she taught one hundred bazillion people how to make them.  Sherry never attended one of those training sessions BUT she does have Kathy's recipe.  Here are her results today for tonight's FHE. Spud Nuts are donuts with some mashed potato in the batter.  A lot like Krispy Kreme.  Best eaten hot, of course! Thanks, Kathy!

The missionaries came over today to do their weekly emailing home.  We invited the sisters to lunch since we needed to have a FHE planning session.  Tonight we're going to hand out gift bags with an object in them and they will have a few minutes to come up with a scripture based object lesson.  Then our friend and student Sasha Titorov will have us play a game - Two Lies and a Truth.  The player gets to make three statements about themselves - two of which are false and one is true.  Then everyone has to guess which is which.  Good way to get to know each other.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned the numerous missionary discussions we have in our apartment.  Probably six or seven times a week the sisters and elders bring an investigator over for a lesson.  Sometimes we get to help and sometimes we don't.  Since the church closed our building the missionaries don't have any place to teach except outside somewhere - and it's getting colder and colder!  Having such a nice apartment so centrally located is such a blessing - not only for us but for the missionaries and everyone else who meets here.  We've had lessons this week on the Holy Ghost, Faith and Baptism.  Last week a young man committed to getting baptized December 15th - and he's 19 years old so s a YSA!  Great guy and he's been one of our regular FHE visitors.

So, we do more than cook.  But - buying groceries and preparing food takes up LOTS of our time.  

The Night Train To Saratov

We took the Night Train To Saratov with two sisters last night.  It was awesome!  Here's two pictures of our little "kope'".  The beds lay down from the wall and you roll out a mattress and put on a sheet and away you go!  We enjoyed visiting in the second apartment until about 9 p.m. when we took two taxis to the train station.  The train arrived about 10:30 and we boarded.  It was scheduled to leave at 10:52 and it left at 10:52!  We're pretty impressed with the mass transit systems - the buses and taxis and trains run on time.  Normally when we go on a visa trip and the mission office makes our reservations they book an entire kope' per senior couple.  This time our CES boss booked them and had us in a kope' with two sisters.  It worked out fine but it would have been nice not to sleep in my suit!

Next time we take The Night Train To Saratov we'll take more pictures.  

We also picked up packages at the mission office to bring back to Saratov.  All the missionaries EAGERLY await letters and packages from home - and we had at least 25 packages and numerous letters.  They will be very happy to receive them.  We talked with Jamie on Thanksgiving and he just mailed one...so, he is soon to be my favorite child!

What a great blessing it is to serve with Sherry.  As you all know she is the nice one in our partnership and I have enjoyed the benefit of close assocation with her for 39 years. Serving together on a mission means being together 24/7/365.  I am really enjoying it.  Sherry said something about needing a break but I didn't hear her very clearly.....

Samara Teacher Training and OUR FIRST PACKAGE!!!

The third voyage of the VW Kosmynin - StarDate 23-11-2012.  The road from Saratov to Samara has not improved in the two months since we last drove it.  We listened to language lessons on the iPod most of the way.  When we got to the mission home - the "second apartment" - which is where extra people stay when they are in town - we were excited to find out that the mission office and President and Sister Sartori were feeding their missionaries - "another Thanksgiving dinner that couldn''t be beat" (Arlo Guthrie, 1967).  We got there just as they were being served.  In the interests of being polite we had our second Thanksgiving dinner.  This Friday we feed our zone and will enjoy our third Thanksgiving dinner.  We do what we have to do.

The dinner was great but the real reason we came to Samara was for our Saturday mission-wide teacher training.  As you can see from the pictures we had a great group of seminary and institute teachers.  I was so impressed with the quality of the instruction.  Our fearless CES leader assigned four different teachers to present various teaching instruction and they did a fantastic job.  Great spirit in the room and we thoroughly enjoyed the training.  We bought pizza for the group - when I say "we" I mean we paid for it and then will get reimbursed by CES - for lunch.  We did not order the pizza, however.  I hate to tell my grandchildren this but one of the pizzas was tuna fish.  And one was dill pickle pizza.  And the ONLY ONE with meat on it also had dill pickles.  I gave the pickles to Sherry and she ate them and liked them.  I still love her and everything but she is kinda strange sometimes.

After the training - which lasted six hours - we took the electric tram back to the mission home with two of the teachers...two sisters form Zavodskoy.  We rode here with our boss but he took two others back with him.  These two sisters and Sherry and I got to ride the train back to Saratov.  More on that later.

We enjoyed a fun afternoon and evening eating PB&J sandwiches from OUR FIRST PACKAGE sent by my current favorite child Hannah.  Christopher actually mailed it so he is also our favorite child. We couldn't believe how excited we were to open it even though we knew most of what was in it.  We now have enough peanut butter!  The best part were the family pictures Hannah sent - very heavily weighted with pictures of Lilly, of course.  Neyt Problem!   

Institute

Institute has been changed from Tuesday to Wednesday so more students could attend.  We had three attend this week - two great things happened.  One - we established a Facebook group for the Institute.  The name of the group is 

"Институт Религии Саратова" ( Institute of Religion Saratov).  We hope that will help us get to know more students as they discover the group.  We also got to eat up the leftover turkey - that's Uri, our institute council president manly eating the turkey wing with his bare hands.  The guy with the fork is Sasha who wears many hats - mission translator, distrcit executive secretary and brnach mission leader.  Sasha does all the translations for our mission president and does an excellent job.

Today was zone meeting - ran by our two zone leaders Elders Christensen and Owen.  Two fantastic elders and a great meeting.  In fact, every elder and sister in our zone is incredible - obedient, dedicated and a joy to serve with.

Off to Samara tomorrow for teacher training.  Our last trip this year for CES - we think.  We get to ride the night train home...we're kind of worried about that!

FHE Thanksgiving Dinner

Fun FHE tonight - we had a Thanksgiving turkey dinner with almost all the trimmings.  Sherry found cranberries and made sauce and fresh sage to make dressing.  Mashed potatoes, dressing, gravy and turkey...good stuff!  I don't think gravy is a staple here because most of the kids didn't know what to do with it.  Some refused to try it but most gobbled (get it? A little turkey humor) it down.  We had twenty four-here tonight - including four elders, two sisters and two senior missionary couples.  Still a great turn out of YSA - our biggest FHE group yet.  Our friends Elder and Sister Stevens brought two students down with them from Dachney.  It was an enjoyable evening - we had a brief lesson on Thanksgiving and gratitude and then had the students write things they are grateful for on some leaf outlines we made up and then stick the leaves on a tree we put on the wall.  Unfortunately, the tree is hard to see in the picture.  We plan to keep it up the rest of the year and add leaves to it.  

We get to feed the missionaries the 30th another Thanksgiivng dinner - fourteen missionaries.  That will be fun.  We go to Samara Friday with President Kosmynin for a teacher training on Saturday and then take the night train back to Saratov.  Our first train ride in Russia and it's overnight.  We've never slept on a train before!

Happy Birthday!

Today is Sherry's 57th birthday.  Kind of melancholy since her dad died on his 57th birthday of a massive and sudden heart attack - and her brother died at age 58 the same way.  Of course we had extensive EKG/stress test/treadmill/radioactive dye/MRI things before we left home and our hearts are fine.  The sad part of the day is when we realize how much life her Dad missed - and how lonely her Mom was - she was only 48 when Sherry's Dad died.  Sherry was only 16.

We went on an overnight trip to Balakova - about three hours away by car.  Other than President Kosmynin falling asleep at the wheel it was uneventful getting there.  We attended a two student seminary class (picture attached) and went to dinner at a very loud rock and roll bar/resturant.  Turned out a member of the branch was in the band playing.  He hadn't been to church in a while but came and sat with us - and showed up at church today!  His mom was pretty surprised and happy to see him.  

Drove to Engels after church and had dinner with Pres. K and his family.  His son turned 37 today as well.  We have a picture of that as well.

Home tonight and made a couple of desserts for FHE tomorrow.  we're having a Thanksgiving Dinner and Activity.  We're fixing food for twenty so we'll see who attends.                                                  

Cultural Night

Once a cycle - every six weeks - we are encouraged to get together and attend a cultural activity.  I'm hoping for some traditional Russian folk dancing sometime in the future!  This week we got to go to a traditional Russian musical presentation at a local conservatory.  The head balalaika played was incredible!  I have two videos attached - one with the balalaika headliner guy and then another one without him.  The three women are playing domra and the accordion played is really playing a bayan - an accordion without a keyboard - just buttons on both sides.  I really like the bass player with the really BIG balalaika. The videos don't do the sound justice but give you a feeling for the music.  Pretty neat! 
Check out the videos here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ElderAndSisterChilders

Early Morning Seminary

Here's a picture of our visit to the early morning seminary class.  Great teacher and great kids.

Bait and Switch - and other stuff

There is an illegal advertising scheme called Bait and Switch - it's where a store advertises something at a really great price and then when you go in to buy it they don't have it and "switch" you to something else - which, of course, is much more profitable.  I think I am a victim of Bait and Switch.  When we were considering serving a mission I was told many times by numerous respected people that senior missionaries did not have to follow the same schedule as the younger missionaries - who get up at 6:30, for example.  I was even told - numerous times - that senior missionaries could even take naps.  So, in the MTC there was no nap time on the schedule.  Okay, I figure - this is the MTC, it's kind of intense - so I'll get nap time once I get to Russia.  So far, only ONE real nap.  I got a short one today - BUT - we had to get up at 5:00 a.m. to drive to an early-morning seminary class.  Today's "nap" doesn't really count.  Someone needs to answer for this....

Today we got to do our first apartment inspections.  Each "cycle" (a cycle is six weeks - that is how often missionaries are usually subject to being transferred around and getting a new companion to work with and/or a new area to work in...except us senior couples.  We keep our companions FOREVER!!! :-) Hurray!) we inspect each companionships apartment.  We have a checklist, of course.  We also have a large supply of "Super Snickers" which is a double sized Snickers Bar and the reward for having a good inspection.  Let's just say that I am VERY grateful for the nice apartment we live in.  The last inspection we did they lived on the fifth floor and no elevator.  

And another thing - as you probably know I am a carnivore.  I like meat.  It tastes good and has lots of important and vital nutrients and vitamins and minerals.  Vegetables are not my favorite thing.  Especially green ones or cooked ones.  I promised Sherry that I would eat anything placed in front of me without complaint during our mission.  We made a pot of soup today and I chopped up four of those big Russian carrots that I so eloquently poemed about AND a quarter of the huge Russian cabbage I equally poemed about.  That is a LOT of cabbage.  I don't know what is going on but the soup is delicious.  Something ain't right...

Sherry did make chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches for institute tonight....and some oatmeal raisan ones for some reason....at least a small part of the universe is properly aligned.

I love my companion.  It's a joy serving together.  

Sisters, Sisters - there were never more devoted Sisters!

A picture of Sisters Upshaw, Childers and Moffett tonight in our kitchen.  Sister Upshaw was raised on a ranch and is the youngest of nine kids - and she knows how to run a backhoe! Sweet!  Sister Moffett was a high school cheerleader.  Sister Moffett is brand new and Sister Upshaw is her trainer.  Two very different sisters and they work together wonderfully.  The other sister - the cute one in the middle - had been with her companion a very long time.  Luckily, they get along great!

Pleasant Pictorial Pyccknn Pumpkin Post

Actually, the illiteration in the title to this post doesn't really work because P in Russian is pronounced R but whatever.  Sherry chopped up the jack o'lanterns, steamed them, put the soft pulp through a sieve and froze it.  Tonight we had an institute council planned and she made apple pumpkin bread and muffins.  Yes, they were great!  We'll serve some to the students who helped make the jack o'lanterns.  They'll love them and love the process.

Doggerel

I figure if my elder brother Stephen can write poems to a tree I could certainly write an Ode to a Cabbage.

The Cabbage

Oh, you are large and cost 64 ruble.

And carrying you home was a lot of truble.

I chopped you up with tears of regret

You are the best cabbage I ever et.

Since I am obviously on a roll (dare I say a Cabbage Roll?) - with apologies to Ogden Nash and Lewis Carroll - I will now continue my doggerel with an Ode to the Carrot

The Carrot

The Russian carrot

Has a lot of merit.

It's very sweet

And good to eat.

Doggerel indeed.

I have to get back to work now. We are making spaghetti sauce for our first Institute Student Council meeting tomorrow with fresh mushrooms, peppers and garlic from the renok. We're excited! And Sunday we get to visit two new branches...hope we get to meet some new friends.

Sacrifice

As we all know missions involve sacrifice.  One of the things Sherry has sacrificed is Mexican Food.  Not anymore!  She found some peppers at the renok the other day and they are HOT!  She cut them up and cleaned out the seeds and her fingers burned for two days.  She also found pinto beans and avocados.  So, today she made cabbage and lemon and pepper salsa, guacamole, frijoles (soaked the beans, slow cooked them for hours and hours, added some olive oil and salt - perfect!) and enchilada casserole.  She made enchilada sauce with tomato paste, hamburger and onions and garlic, peppers and we found chili powder the other day.  The sauce simmered and simmered and turned out wonderfully.  

Just in case you think we are just laying around and cooking all the time we also read our scriptures and study the language everyday and today we worked on our CES paperwork.  In an hour we have District Council meeting in our apartment.  Last night we had the sister missionaries over teaching a lesson to a new member of the church and the day before that we had institute class and the day before that we had FHE.  Next week we start Wednesday night Scripture Study Night.  We'll see if there is any interest in that from the members. We're starting to get busier and that makes life more enjoyable.  It's why we are here.  Fun to start to get to know the students.

We found out from our boss (CES supervisor Kosmygin) that we will be doing some traveling in November - an overnight trip to Balakova and a visit to Engels and dinner at his home in Engels, an early morring visit to a local seminary class and an overnight trip to Samara to attend institute and assist with teacher training.

We found out today that we will take our first visa trip around December 11th.  Currently we have to leave the country every three months to have our visas renewed.  That means we leave at 3:30 a.m., fly to Moscow and then to Kiev, Ukraine.  We get off the plane, go through customs and turn around and get back on the plane and fly back home.  We usually get back about 1:30 the next morning.  Not a fun trip.  The good news is that the law changed and new missionaries now have a three year visa.  They still have to leave the country but only every six months and only to get their immigration card renewed.  Still the same quick trip but much easier paperwork and less often.  The church is still trying to figure out how the law will apply to those of us on the current ninety-day visas.  Hopefully the law will apply to us as well and we can make less frequent trips as well.  We fly to Moscow in January for some training...we've been assigned to chair a couple of conferences to be held in Moscow next August for the youth and for the YSA.  We'll get some training for that in January.  We also fly to Turkey for a CES conference the first part of February.  

I suspect we'll have a few more trips with our boss as well.  Still a few towns we haven't visited!  Our boss is retiring and going on a mission the middle of next year so we will have a new boss then - and our mission president will be replaced about the same time.  With these changes and the two conferences we're in charge of it ought to be a busy and exciting year.  Plus, of course, our regular day to day work.  Life goes on...