Summer Institute

Our class now has eight students enrolled!  That's the largest class so far.  This Saturday we are having an institute party at the AC...we bought food for thirty people.  Hot dogs, chips, mac salad, lemonade, cake and ice cream...and lots of games.  We got the ping pong table repaired and bought balls and paddles...we're ready to go!

Weird Stuff & Saratov Activity Center

Okay - three weird things happened this week.  First - I decided I can't eat popcorn.  The last few times I've eaten popcorn the next day the joints in my body have hurt and I've felt kinda yucky. Since popcorn has always been my favorite vegetable this is a problem.  Maybe I'll just experiment and see what size bowl I can have without any symptoms...sort of like seeing how close to the edge of the cliff you can stand without falling off. Yeah, that's the solution!  Second - Sherry made pot roast the other day...nice meat and onions and potatoes and carrots in the crockpot and then a lovely gravy...I felt terrible after I ate it.  We haven't been eating that sort of food much since we have been here. It tasted good but was really heavy and made me feel sluggish and yucky.  What?  You ask how much of it I ate...irrelevant question.  One more of my basic food groups eliminated.  Third - and this is really nuts - I asked Sherry to make borscht.  You know borscht is made with beets and cabbage and other disgusting veggie stuff, right?.  So, why would I ask her to make some?  That's just nuts...but, I've tried borscht a couple of times in cafes and I didn't like it - so I figure I ought to have Sherry make some good stuff and see if I like that.

We're in Russia and I'm doing crazy stuff...maybe it's the water.  They deliver the drinking water in 18.9 liter bottles (like five gallon size) so who knows where it really comes from....

Here's the latest pictures of our Activity Center.  We think it's starting to look pretty great!  Got a ping pong table to put together...got a keyboard delivered today as well.  Just a few more odds and ends and we're done...now we need to fill it with people!

Hannah sent us a very cool map of the world which we put on a bulletin board - we'll have people put stick pins where they are from...missionaries, members, friends...whomever.

Life is good.

Riding the Bus & Mom

Saw a very cool sign on the bus we were riding in yesterday.  The drivers must have the same bus everyday because they decorate them.  Some not so appropriately...but I loved this little sign.  It says Yo Ho Ho in Russia...Йо-хо-хо!

Mom made a couple hundred meatballs today...having sweet and sour meatballs over rice for lunch Friday..right before district meeting.  Wonder if six elders can eat them all?

Random Pictures

Here's a couple of random pics...one is of the fountain near the walking street.  It is also in front of the circus building, hence the animals.  

The second picture is of real, live Sister Training Leaders (STL) this morning in Zone Training Meeting.  STLs are awesome, as are all sisters. These are the first STLs we've had in our zone and it is wonderful to watch them interact with the Elders.

Zone training was all focused on the recent Work of Salvation broadcast and how to implement it in our zone.  Lots of very creative ideas.  The focus is more on working with members and being creative in contacting rather than just being out on the streets trying to talk to people - which is VERY unproductive and absolutely not the favorite things for missionaries to do.  In spite of that they still do it...they are wonderfully obedient to mission guidelines.

The next few months I can see a huge change in the focus of  our missionaries efforts.  Of course, the goal of bringing people to Christ remains the same but the methods will be changing.  We pray everyday that those people who want to come to Christ will meet our missionaries and learn of Him through them...and that our missionaries will be protected from those who may not be quite as interested in their message!

Activity Center

We got our fridge and microwave and rearranged the "kitchen" in the Activity Center.  Looks pretty good, doesn't it?

The picture will be on the wall once someone comes to hang them all.

Just found out we have an immigration trip the end of the month and get to take a day train to Samara.  After the trip we will stay in Samara for a few days and our new coordinator has asked us to meet with the branch presidents and discuss some CES issues.  This is revolutionary!  It's  the first time we have been asked - in English even! - to do something like this.  We think the rest of our mission will be very different.

Plus, we get to say goodbye to our mission president and the Connells, the office couple and also get to meet the new office couple and the new mission president.  Wonderful!

Life is good.

Transfers - and I have the best companion in the world!!!

We had district meeting today - this weekend is transfers.  Elder Owens, who has been our zone leader for a loong time and has been very helpful to us is going home...here's a picture with him.  He was raised in Albuquerque and his folks have moved to Annapolis.  He'll be going to back to BYU.  He plans to be a brain surgeon.  The other two pictures are of our district - we know Elders Malloy and Treator are being transferred - their area is being closed for one cycle.  Not sure about Elders Bateman and St. Clair and Davydov.  We suspect Davydov will stay as ZL since this is President Sartoris last month and he will probably keep current leaders in place for the new president...but who knows.  Only the Lord.

Elder Bateman has really grown in the ten months that he has been here - it has been wonderful to watch.  We're pretty close to him - we think he would be a wonderful replacement for Elder Owens as ZL - one of the best reasons is that he absolutely doesn't want to be ZL!  That's a good sign.

When we say that the ZLs help us what we mean is they are the ones we call when we need a taxi ordered or need a translator.  They attend district council every week and translate for us.  If we have an emergency we call them and they help any way that we need help.  The first month we were here it was such a blessing to have someone we could call.  Now we use them and Elder Bateman a lot - for example, last night we finished cleaning out old CES materials with President Markelov...today Elder Bateman and Elder  St. Clair are taking the four heavy bags of garbage to the dumpster three blocks away.  I keep lifting too much and tweaking my back so I really appreciate that kind of support - and they do it without being asked.  Wonderful examples.

My companion was asked to give the spiritual thought in district meeting today and gave the best spiritual thought I've ever heard.  I wish you could have been there.  She sweetly told about her Dad dying and meeting me and some spiritual experiences we've had with prayer and how they are anchors to our souls, which they are.  Then the district sang A Child's Prayer which had Sherry and I in tears. Sherry told about walking through camp at Girl's Camp and hearing the girls singing that at campfire and how sweet it sounded.  We always think about that when we hear that song...although now we may well remember our Elders singing it today...not quite as sweet as the girls but pretty awesome..."Heavenly Father, are You really there? And do you hear and answer every child's prayer...?"  We know He is there and we know that He answers our prayers - because He has answered our prayers in immediate and obvious ways - so that even a guy like me can understand.  We love Him and are so grateful to be serving a mission to help His children here is Saratov.

Moscow

Don't think we ever showed you this picture...our friends in Moscow just sent it to us...the Piersons are on their way home.  This is us in front of the lock tree - sweethearts put their names on locks and then lock the lock on this tree...and on bridge railings as we've shown before.  There are a bunch of these trees made just for this purpose in this park.  Pretty cool...someone needs to start doing this in the US of A!

Belt

So, I decided I needed a new belt because I only like one of the three I brought with me...we walked to the renok and found a belt booth.  They have booths for EVERYTHING!  Anyhow, I took off the belt I like and she measured it and then found some belts she thought would work.  I tried one on and it was way too long.  That doesn't happen to me very often but, no problem - she got out her pair of very large belt scissors and her equally large belt hole punch and shortened the belt!  It was awesome!  I now have a custom fit belt.  Probably made in Taiwan...it looks suspiciously like the belt I bought at Wal-Mart....

Coconut Chocolate Squares

Mom, who is awesome and the best companion ever, made coconut squares last night for dinner...except she added Nestle's Chocolate Chips to them.  I'm pretty sure eating them breaks the Word or Wisdom (our LDS health code) at least three times and must be against mission rules some way or the other.  they were good!  

Had a nice dinner with new friends Tonya and Dimitri.  He got active in church again a few months ago and was just ordained an Elder last month. Here's a picture they insisted on taking.  The members here take pictures of everything!  Even take them during some church services which I think is kinda weird...no pictures of the actual baptisms, though...which is good.

Dimitri had never had rice pilaf - he tasted it, said it was different but good and had seconds.  The chicken had my World Famous Dry Rub and was a little spicy - they gobbled it down pretty fast...the Elders ate two humungus helpings!

Rain

In the words of the Beatles - Rain, I don't mind...

It really poured last week - here's a couple of pictures of tElder Davydov street contacting barefoot.  They are nineteen, after all...! 

I got caught in it three weeks ago as I went with the missionaries to visit a member of the church.  I was soaked when I got home - but, I didn't melt and all my clothes and shoes dried off just fine.  

Lightening and thunder, too.  One flash was followed very quickly by a very loud thunderclap - and then car alarms went off all over the place!  Living in Central Saratov car alarms go off all the time...even if a car with a loud stereo goes down the street that will set off many car alarms.  Crazy.