Miscellaneous

Three of our missionaries - Bateman, Davydov and St. Clair - got matching ties at the 37 ruble store...which is like the Dollar Store.  Cute, aren't they?  Also have a picture taken out our kitchen window - a pipe is being replaced and the crane is lowering it into the ditch...the interesting part is that there are no flagmen or traffic control...cars just drive under the crane as it's moving the pipe.  Our new mission president is an attorney - he's gonna love this kinda stuff!

Finally, we have a picture of our district and our mission president and his companion.  The missionaries are Elders Bateman, St. Clair, Malloy and Treator.  Taken today after the training broadcast we watched from Provo.

The AC

Here's a few pictures from the YW activity at the AC.  The first is a picture of preparations in what we call the classroom.  They are getting food ready...then a picture of the large activity room as some of them gather before we started.  

 The third is our "kitchen" since we can't have a real kitchen for some reason.  There is a fridge and microwave on order so that will be nice...with them and a crock pot and a rice cooker you can make lots of food!  Sherry bought a couple of large tubs that work to wash dishes in - sort of like camping!

The final picture is of a skit - the "cool" girls are teasing someone and the good girls make them stop and see the error of their ways.  I'm pretty sure the cool girls ended up joining the Church, too!  The cool girl with the sunglasses is the same girls we posted the accordion video of a while back.  She went to general conference and Disneyland and the Grand Canyon during April.  The former CES couple - The Williams - hosted them.  I told the Markelovs that when they come to conference we'll take them to Disneyland!

The AC is coming together, isn't it?  The facilities folks ought to get the pictures and chalkboards hung this week.  Now, we're working on WiFi and air conditioning and couches...I'm pretty confident we'll have WiFi...

Dacha Life

Saturday morning we attended the very first district activity in our new activity center!  It was, of course, a Young Women conference. The YW always go first, don't they!  I'll post a few pictures from that in a separate post.We stayed for the first hour or so - President Markelov gave the spiritual thought - then we climbed into the Lada and drove to President Lutzenko's dacha!  It's about 30 minutes from our home and in a wooded area.  None of the dachas are real fancy but they provide a wonderful break from city life and a chance to grow fruit and veggies.  We enjoyed a shashlik barbecue.  

Here are pictures of the zone leaders and President Lutzenko cooking...Elders Davydov and Owens got to attend so they could translate.  I also have a picture of Elder Davydov on the phone - they probably fielded twenty phones calls in the three hours we were there...ZLs are always on the phone when they're not teaching.  This is the first time President and Sister Sartori appeared in public during their missions in jeans and casual clothes...they liked it - the missionaries were kinda weirded out to see their mission president looking like a normal human being!  Also a picture of the newlyweds together and President Yemslo up an apple tree. A very nice group picture including our friends Elder and Sister Stevens who go home in six days.  Elder Owens will be going home at the same time and the Sartoris have a month left.  This is the last time we get to see them before they leave.  They have been wonderful leaders and great examples to us. Finally a picture of Sister Markelov doing some dishes in the sink in the ground.  Pretty cool.  President Markelov's dad has a dacha but it doesn't have water or power.  The building on the site is maybe 10 feet by 20 feet with a couch inside.  There are a bunch of very old apple trees on the property but well pruned and sprayed.  Plenty of fruit and berry bushes, too.

These are wonderful people and it is a honor to know them all.

Baptism

Friday night was Valia's baptism.  It was AWESOME!  Our friend Miroslav baptised her - you can see by the pictures that they seem to get along pretty well.  Also a picture of them and the missionaries and President Markelov and one of the two of them with Mom and our local Area Authority Seventy Elder Reshetnikov.   He is a wonderful man and gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost.  President Markelov spoke on baptism.  I got asked to bear my testimony which I did...the spirit really supported me.  Valia was touched and we got all mushy for a few minutes.  Then, after the closing prayer, President Markelov came up to me and asked me to say shhhhhhhhhh.  He then said the correct way to pronounce the word "that" in Russian is "shhhhhhow", like a movie show...not "stow".  "Stow" means 100.  So, what I had actually said was "I know 100..." rather than "I know that..."  I thanked him and then said that everyone knew what I meant, right?  He said, of course, you're American!

It's good to have friends. Since he's going to be my new boss I have to be nice to him.

The AC

Here's the current pictures of our Activity Center (The AC).  Coming together nicely, isn't it?  Add some white boards, bulletin boards, church pictures, cabinets....if you squint it looks like an institute.....and after this weekend with all the emphasis on the internet maybe wifi approval will be forthcoming!

Busy

Whew, what a day!  Got up, exercised, had breakfast, got a call from President Kosmynin wanting us to open the Activity Center (AC) so he could begin delivering all his CES materials there so we went over and helped him unload a car load of manuals and stuff - he has three or four more loads. Then we walked to the renok to get our walk in...that's only a mile and a half or maybe two.  After we got home - a little sweaty because it's kinda warm and humid today we did our scripture study then had a lesson with the elders and Valia and Katya.  Then we fed Elder St. Clair a slice or two of salo since he had never had any and was curious.  Then they left and a little while later we had another lesson with Elder Davydov and after they left we grabbed some dinner and the other elders in the district had a lesson.  Good to stay busy.

The baptism Friday night looks like it is getting organized.  Friday night is difficult because the only building with a font is Solnichney and it's a two hours bus ride there on a Friday night.  Hard to get anyone to be able to make it there in a timely manner after work

The AC is looking great - hopefully furniture will be delivered this week. We're fixing taco soup for thirty people for a YW activity Saturday - we'll fix it in our apartment and take it over there.  Once everyone figures out what is available I'm sure we'll get to be a little more out of the loop.  President Sartori doesn't want our apartment used like it has been the last nine months.  We are hopeful we will be doing more S&I stuff and less social activity stuff.  It's all good and helpful.

More Sprinting in Russia

As the attached picture verifies I have added three new Sprint workouts to my exercise routine.  Sprint now comes in three new flavors - oops, I mean workout routines.  They are very good and after a few months on this new regimen I am happy to say I think I'm seeing results! 

District Conference

This weekend we enjoyed district conference in Saratov.  I've attached some pictures - one showing the room as conference began.  The next three show Sister Sartori, the wife of our mission president, speaking with her translator who is one of our local members.  There is also a picture of Lina speaking, one of our students.  The next picture is of our friends Elder and Sister Stevens giving their good bye testimonies.  They cried a lot - it's difficult to leave the friends you have made over 18 months. Elder Davydov - our Unkranian Zone Leader, is translating for them. They work in two branches and have developed a lot of close relationships.  Our mission is a little different since we visit a lot of different branches.  We do have the Volzski Branch which we live in and visit most often.  We also have developed some wonderful friendships with members throughout the mission.

The final picture show the newlyweds.  President Yemslov - which may or may not be the proper way to spell his name - is the first counselor in the district and is a contractor.  He has been hired to remodel the Activity Center which he is finishing this week.  His wife died last year and he remarried three months ago. It's wonderful to watch them enjoy each others company.  She is the district primary president.

The 29th we have been invited to the dacha of our District President Luzenko.  The Stevens, Sartoris and the district presidency and wives will all be there for a barbeque...called shashlik.  We would call it shish kabobs.  It's all good!  I get to bring my Soon-To-Be-World-Famous Dry Rub and they will try it on some of the meat.  I suspect they will like the local marinade better.  It's all good to me!

President Luzenko is a wonderful man - the members here love him.  He is very personable and eloquent.  The entire district presidency are men of God who love the Lord and really want to help the members here stay close to Him.  It's a joy working and meeting with them.

Just an update...

No pictures today, nothing fantastic happened - just a post.  Today is Monday, June 3rd - we've been on our mission nine months.  The time has flown by.  Fourteen months to go.  If we had signed up for an eighteen month mission as most of our senior missionary friends did we would be half way done - and only have nine months left.  That would not be good!  It is a great blessing that we will be here as long as we will.  I think we will see amazing things happen both in the missionary work here in general and in our area of assignment specifically.

As I have mentioned to a few of you - our mission president and his wife were scheduled to go home July 1.  They are now going home August 1 because President Schwab is ill and needs some tests and surgery before he can come to Russia.  Not sure when that will be - we may have a temporary mission president, President Schwab may get here by August 1st or we may get an entirely different mission president.  Miracles happen so we are waiting and seeing.  God bless President and Sister Sartori for their willingness to extend on the spur of the moment.  Gob bless their family as well - I know they will now miss a granddaughters wedding.  They have been away from home for nearly five years since they were called to serve as mission president while serving in a different mission here in Russia.

The remodeling of our new Activity Center is scheduled to start next week - June tenth.  Shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks.  We're very excited about having a place to gather - and I am personally very excited about having a ping pong table!  We bought some supplies at the direction of President Sartori plates, glasses, electric teapot, etc.  It will be well supplied. Every Friday night we plan game night...we'll see how my latent ping pong skills develop. If they do you'll probably hear about it...if you don't hear about it you can make your own assumptions.

Tonight for FHE we plan to clean the Activity Center and play some games.  Sherry made brownies for dessert.  There is a CCM (Coordinating Council Meeting) at the center this coming Saturday - Area Seventy, Mission President, District Presidency, Branch Presidents all meet and discuss progress on the Area Plan and whatever else the area presidency wants them to discuss. We'll try to stay out of the line of fire!  We've got tables and chairs there, food is ordered, water is ordered, and paper products are purchased.  We'll have the place as clean as we can as well.

The week after is District Conference - like Stake Conference only smaller.  Always good to meet together.

Very happy to meet our new grandson Micah Jeffrey Childers - we have Skyped with him.  He is sort of the strong, silent type and exceptional cute.  Excited to see where Micah and his family end up living when Jamie decides which job offer to take.  We're looking forward to exploring a new part of America.  They speak English in America so that will be fun, too!

Brandon has a fun job, Hannah is doing good with her graphic designing, Jared and Denee are settling in to  their new home, Christopher and Jen stay busy with work and family - life continues to move forward.  We miss everyone but know we are where we are supposed to be - and at the right time, too.  Life is good.