Home

We have been home for a week.  We had a long day last Monday...30 plus hours of travel.  Arrived in Richland after flying through Germany and Seattle.  

We've bought a car, got clothes out of storage, etc., etc.  Today we have started to feel a little energetic. The combination of travel and serving for twenty-three months has exhausted us.  Sunday we spoke in church - Sherry spoke for almost 25 minutes and Ansel gave a surprise piano solo!  I was happy to have seven or eight minutes to speak.  I got Jonas to help me a little which was fun.
We've talked with Jamie and Amanda and Skyped with Jared and family. Sunday we spoke at church and got to attend Ansel's Eagle Court of Honor.  

Friday we head up to Spokane to spend a few days with Hannah and then leave Monday for a trip around America to see our family and friends.  We'll be gone two months and then will move into an apartment and go back to work with Christopher.

We are awed by the affluence we enjoy in this great country.  Driving down the freeway in our comfortable car - going where we want, when we want, is incredible.  America is a blessed nation.
We continue to Skype with our Russian friends and follow them on Facebook.

We have made friends for eternity...and we will never be the same.

Saturday is a Special Day

Today - our last Saturday in Russia - was fun.  We attended a baptism in the Aurora Branch here in Samara...a baptism of a YSA age young man, of course.  Apostle L. Tom Perry said a few years ago the growth of the church in Russian will come in the 18 to 30-year-old age group and it certainly has in our area.  Over 70% of the baptisms this year have been that age group.  Now, we need to make sure they enroll in institute!

This afternoon the senior couples in Samara - The Ledfords, The Rowleys, the Dunns and President and Sister Schwab went with us to a new steak house near the Volga and a few blocks from the mission home.  Pretty fancy and a lot more expensive than the Kafes our coordinator takes us to but a wonderful evening.  These couples are incredible and a real example to us and to the entire church of sanctified service.  It's an honor to be associated with them.

Church tomorrow and then interviews with President Schwab...temple recommends for us and exit interviews for us and for the other missionaries going home.  Dinner with everyone and a testimony meeting...then bed.  Up early Monday and out the door at 01:00.  First flight leaves at 04:20 to Frankfurt, four hour layover and then a ten and a half hour flight to Seattle.  Couple hours there and arrive in Pasco around 14:30.

Home.

Goodbye

It's very hard to say goodbye to people we love...

Our Last Saturday

So - today is our last Saturday in Saratov.  We left our apartment a little before noon and caught a trolley bus to Lenin Square.  Then we walked across Lenin Square and bought a hot dog wrapped in dough and cooked from a lady at a table.  It was very good...Ansel bought one when he was here and loved it so I decided to have one for him today.  Then we caught bus 284b to Engels for the baptism of 19-year-old Dasha

She is awesome.  After the baptism we helped with the food and then got a taxi with Elder ad Sister Yorgerson to Solnichney...about a 45-minute taxi ride.  The famous Saratov Bridge over the Volga is closed until November to everything except buses so we went the long way.  Solnichney had an activity about the restoration of the gospel that was awesome.  We helped with the food - Sherry cooked fry bread for an hour or so.  Got another taxi with the Yorgersons and dropped us off at our apartment on the way to their apartment in Zavodskoy.  Home now, having a sandwich because we forgot to eat.  Tomorrow is our last Sunday in our branch and we both got asked tonight by our good branch president to give a good-bye talk.

We do not want to give a good bye talk.  We just want to slip out the back door.

This is gonna be hard.

More Interesting Russian Stuff

1.    Transportation difficulty.  You never know if it is going to take twenty minutes or ninety minutes to get somewhere.  Traffic can be horrible.  The roads are not designed for as many cars as they now have.  And the roads are poorly maintained.  Another thing that frustrates the process  – when there is an accident no one involved can move their vehicles until the police arrive – which can take hours.  Accidents really mess up the traffic flow.

2.    Clothes drying racks.  Apartments only have washers – no dryers.  You hang your clothes on drying racks overnight.  Sometime we have a fan blow on them to speed the drying process.  We didn't have a dryer when Christopher and Jared were young…and we used cloth diapers.  They were like cardboard after they dried on the rack in front of the wall heater!  Our bath towels are wonderful after they have dried on the rack…nice and coarse and scratchy the first time you use them.

3.     Dill...we have eaten a lot of dill since we got here...it's in soup, on the shashlik, on the rice...

4.     Carrying groceries.  One of our senior missionary buddies said his arms are three inches longer because he has to carry so many plastic grocery bags such a long way.  We take a taxi if we have more than four bags...

5.    Pork. In Russia pigs have not been bred to be lean.  Pork chops taste like pork chops used to taste when I was a kid.

6. Fat.  No one trims any fat off meat.  When we serve ham the fattiest pieces go first.  They have a beef soup that has fatty pieces of beef in it - or it has each time we have eaten it.  Sherry puts all the meat in my bowl and I give her all the veggies...not sure if that is True Love or what...

7. Sandwiches.  A "typical" church activity meal would be a slice of bread with a slice of meat on it.  Maybe a slice of cucumber...and the cucumbers are sliced lengthwise so they fit on the bread better.  Why didn't we think of that before?  We'll be slicing cucumbers lengthwise for sandwiches for the rest of our lives.  We have made deli sandwiches a few times, American-style, and many people take the top piece of bread off and eat it separately.  When I found out before we left home that a typical Russian snack was bread and meat I knew I was going to the right mission!

8. Mayonnaise.  They put mayo in soup. 

9. Ketchup on tacos.  I know you won't believe this but some Russians put ketchup on tacos.  No TrueBlue American would EVER do that!   

10. Kvas and Diet Pepsi and Root beer.  It's really difficult to find diet soda here.  Or root beer.  Kvas - a popular Russian soda - is NOT root beer, by the way.  Let's just say Kvas is an acquired taste.  We made homemade root beer and then made root beer floats once and not very many people liked them. And the homemade ice cream and cookie sandwiches we made were not a big hit...they took them apart and ate everything separately.

Family Visit and Baptism

We really enjoyed a wonderful visit last week from Christopher, Jen, Ansel and Jonas.  They arrived Saturday night - we had a fireside with a meal before they came and we were grateful that everyone pitched in to clean up so we could go to the airport.  Zhenya drove us there and we watched them come into the baggage area...the secure baggage area that Sherry walked into anyway so we could hug them!

We collected their bags and the boys and I hopped in a taxi and went to Christopher and Jen's hotel.  We got then checked in and Ansel and Jonas came to our apartment and spent the nights there.  Sunday we attended church - here's a picture of the Sunday School class. Everyone at church was so friendly and happy to meet them. 

Monday we walked around the walking street and the renok and then spent the afternoon at the dacha and everyone got to eat some delicious shashlik! The Markelovs and Semonovs were at the dacha with us - it was great to visit with them and have them get to know part of our family. 

Tuesday we inspected the sister missionary apartment, walked through the park and shopped at a local supermarket. We came home and made borscht for institute Wednesday and then went to English Discussion Group. 

Wednesday we went to Victory Park and had a late lunch at Carl's Jr.  The only place with ice in the soda and free refills!  Wednesday night was institute - here's a picture of the boys playing Skip-bo with some of the young women before dinner. The boys even tried the borscht and then they sat in on a missionary discussion. 

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Thursday we took a couple of buses to the Volga River and walked along it for a few hours. Then back home for some food and off to the airport.​

Yesterday we had a wonderful baptism of a ballerina who has been investigating the church for over a year.  It was a sweet experience.

Today we are going to Penza with Zhenya, our coordinator...just a three hour drive and only one night in a hotel. We plan to visit some less-active youth and the Seminary and Institute teachers.  We'll attend church Sunday and we'll be back in Saratov Sunday evening.  Monday we start packing our bags.  Only one more Sunday in our home branch - Volzhski Branch. We should leave Saratov around the 18th and will leave Samara for home on the 21st.  We leave the mission home at 00:30 for an hour ride to the airport, then a four hour flight to Frankfurt and a 10 1/2 hour flight to Seattle..and a final flight to Pasco.  We will arrive in Pasco the 21st about 14:30.

Baptism

Tonight I got to baptize a real ballerina!  She was so nervous - she doesn't like water - good thing we only had to do it once!  One of the elders stood on the step and whispered the words to me in Russian and I repeated them.  It was a wonderful experience.

Here's a picture with my companion, too.

Next 15 things about Russia

1.     Lots of little plots of ground are dug up by various assigned people and planted with lots of flowers.  Wonderful.

2.     The sidewalks and parks are kept very clean – every morning there are old women – babushkas – who sweep around each apartment house and sweep the streets.  Babushkas kind of run Russia.  Each apartment building has a “committee” of babushkas who watch over the place.  Russia men die young due to the alcohol and tobacco use…very common to have families with no husband.  Babushkas – grandmas – are often seen with grandkids.  The multigenerational family – minus Grandpa in many cases – is alive and well in Russia.  Lots of time they live in the same apartment.  Very common for young men and women to still be single and living at home into their thirties/

3.     Speaking of warning signs – forget about it!  Safety is not uppermost on anyone’s mind.  Low hanging sheet metal roofs at eye level as you walk along a sidewalk, potholes in the sidewalk and streets, construction sites with no signs…our lawyer sons have said that we can thank lawyers for our safe environment in America.  Our attitude about that has changed – a little.  Besides, we don’t own a business anymore…

4.     People cut in front of us in line all the time. That said, we also meet the nicest people – they are friendly and want to talk with us and go out of their way to be nice. 

5.     Popcorn.  Russia needs more popcorn…lots of microwave popcorn but very hard to buy popcorn kernels.  We have senior missionaries who buy it for us when they see it…we have had popcorn delivered from Moscow and Samara as we travel around.  It is good to have friends.

6.     Friends.  We have made friends that we will have forever.  Other senior couples, a few younger missionaries and a few Russians.

7.     Chocolate.  Some of the best chocolate we have ever tasted. I had to quit buying it so I would quit eating it. Mostly.

8.     Ice cream.  One ice cream bar is the best ice cream bar I have ever eaten.  No ice cream in boxes – it comes in logs in a plastic wrapper.  Cut it into slices and serve it.

9.     Tea.  Lots of interesting kinds of herbal tea.  Jasmine and Cherry or Creamy Rooibos are our favorites.  People drink a lot of tea.

10.  The monthly cost of our internet is 400 rubles…about $12.  Lots cheaper than the U.S of A.

11.  McDonald’s, KFC (or Kentucky Fried Chicken if you are our age) and Carl’s, Jr.  Rarely go there in America but there is something comforting about a burger, fries and a milkshake…

12.  Shoes.  There are a LOT of shoe stores.  And women wear really high heels – even in the winter.  The variety of shoes is incredible!

13.  The way women dress.  Women dress up when they are in public.  One of our friends says she dresses up to take out the garbage.  The women are beautiful on the street -  they may live in a small apartment with a bunch of other people and not have a lot of money – but when they are on the street they are dressed well.

14.  Renoks - marketplaces - are awesome.  Lots of little booths and just about everything and anything to buy. We have a fruit and veggie stall we shop in a lot – the lady running it really likes us.  We buy a lot since we feed a lot of people.  She is always suggesting things for us to buy just so we don’t forget.  Sherry has eaten her weight in kiwis.  Russian cabbage is incredible.  The pomegranates rock. Great potatoes and carrots.  Celery and iceberg lettuce?  Not so good…

15.  Buses and tramvis and trolley buses and minibuses.  We want our car.  Air conditioned, quiet, smooth roads…can’t wait!

Dacha Time

After returning from our travels we were invited to visit Lena and the kids at the dacha.  She stays there alone a lot while Zhenya is traveling so it was really nice to be able to spend a few hours with them and relax a little.  Of course, we had shashlik!  Zhenya just took some herbs from his dacha garden - garlic, onions, mint and tore them up and marinated the chicken in them with a little salt.  Really simple and delicious.  We ate a bazillion fresh strawberries from their garden...plus took a bunch home and had them over ice cream the next day.

We put together a bed he had bought at IKEA on our travels.  Zhenya is very patient...his kids Tonya and little Andre wanted to help and got in the way a lot.  Of course my "get the job done" reaction is to get them out of there - but he calmly kept on working and having them help him.  I suspect he knew that he wasn't building a bed but raising a daughter and son.  Great example to me...I spend too much focus on building the bed and not enough on raising the child.  I've committed to do better.  Same principle applies to my relationship with my sweet companion...getting a meal made or cleaned up after is not as important as being kind to Sherry.  Guess we never learn, do we?

There are a couple pictures of Tonya in her new nightgown Hannah included in the last package she sent.  Tonya loved it and wore it all night.

One last picture of me working...as a CES Missioanry you are always working, working, working.  We had a pile of documents to shred and Zhenya suggested I burn them at the dacha instead.  So the picture may look like me relaxing but it is really showing me hard at work destroying vital CES documents!

Traveling With Zhenya

On our recent road trip with our boss we traveled 2500 kilometers in five days, over 40 hours in the car and visited four branches and held graduation ceremonies in each branch.  Actually due to Russian law we held an activity since we can not hold offical classes since we are not official Russian approved "teachers".  Of course that means we don't give out diplomas - we give out letters.  That said...we had a great time seeing all the teachers and students we have come to know over the last 22 months.

I've attached a picture of the branch president in Toliatti with our coordinator as they are preparing to give out letters.  Zhenya had a great program organized - nice program to hand out to attendees, a few appropriate videos to show and some testimonies and a great Book of Mormon multiple choice game to play.

On our travels we stopped at a roadside stand and bought some flaxseed. That area has a factory where they make flaxseed oil.  You can see in the picture the bottles full of seeds or oil. The colorful things hanging on the stand are woven, out of a plastic type cord, by the folks that live in the area. They make a great backcleaner for the shower...we have one in our apartment. There are a lot of people that sit by the side of the road selling stuff. At this time of year a lot of them are selling honey and strawberries from their yard or dacha. They sit there for hours, sometimes with only a little table and chair and sometimes with just a chair. 

We stopped for shashlik at a new place - as you can see Zhenya loves shashlik.  This one was cool because they brought it out and set it over a burner at the table.  We were in Tartarstan and were the first Americans the waitress had ever met.  Pretty cool.

Stalin's Bunker

We visited Stalin's Bunker during our conference...here's a little info about it.

World War II best held Secret “Revealed” in Samara, Russia

In 1991, when the Kuibyshev was renamed Samara, a building in the city center was opened to the public, which for half a century was known only to a handful of people. This building was Stalin’s bunker, which was the deepest structure created during the Second World War.

Stalin’s secret bunker was built in Samara so that he would be protected if Moscow fell to the German Army. It was built not only to house Stalin but the Soviet government. The building itself was disguised as an Apartment building as to not attract attention.

Stalin’s bunker in Samara is considered the most secretive of all now declassified bunkers.

The bunker itself is an amazing feat of engineering for its time, the overall depth of the structure was 37 meters, the height of a 12 story building.

The giant “hole” for this structure was excavated in less than 9 months of non-stop day and night work. In the bunker was a stand-alone air regeneration system which had its own power. Even today all this is still in excellent working order. The Bunker itself has kept its integrity and is designed for full autonomy for five days. The once-secret multi-story building is also equipped with elevators. The lowest floor was a meeting room that held 115 people. Next – was a recreation room, especially designed for Stalin. On the upper floors were rooms for security guards, warehouses, and logistics services. The bunker itself could withstand a direct hit by the largest aviation bombs of that time. The overall construction of the walls and ceiling were monolithic poured concrete, each being three meters thick, with a sandy layer and then another 3 meter concrete “mattress” on top of that.

The main issue of concern to all those who might have come to dwell in the structure: Was Stalin himself there? According to official data, during the war he had never housed here.

Most of the visitors to the bunker have questioned the fate of those who built this building. Many believe the theory that all the construction workers where shot once the bunker was complete. However, no evidence has ever been found to support this.

Behind the first door is the upper deck, from which the descent into the bunker runs into the elevator, and on-wall stairs. We get to the bottom of 14-meter shaft which connects to a long cross-floor corridor that is home to life-support machines and the auxiliary machinery bunker. If necessary, the upper floor was covered with an extremely massive steel plate capable of withstanding pressures up to 10 tons per square meter.

In the middle of the corridor leading to the emergency exit, the entrance to the main part of the tank – the vertical trunk of refuge, stretched into the depths of the earth for another 23 meters.

After descending all 192steps, we get finally to the deepest part or lowest floor. Once you have reached this destination you will notice light emanating from under glass block tiles that has been laid as a floor to walk on.

Russian Weirdness, Part 2

One of the senior missionary sisters in what must have been collusion made a fresh broccoli salad for one of the many meals at our couples conference.  I ate it and really enjoyed it.  I had like four helpings.  It's the first time I have voluntarily eaten and enjoyed broccoli.

It MIGHT have something to do with the bacon that was also in the salad. There was a LOT more broccoli than bacon.  The salad was REALLY healthy.  My companion liked it, too...

I had to complain to Sister Schwab - at one point during the couples conference we actually went twenty minutes without eating.  Of course, there were snacks on the table if you wanted them but no real meal.  It was hard.

Unique Things About Russia

1.     The light switches are higher on the wall than in America.  Took a little getting used to.  And they are outside the door of the bathroom instead of on the wall inside the bathroom.

2.     People wear their wedding bands on the right hand.

3.     Aeroflot stewardesses.  They are dressed in wonderful uniforms and are all beautiful.  Kind of like America in the 60’s.

4.     People applaud when an Aeroflot flight lands.  Are they happy to survive? Not sure why but it’s cool.

5.     You have a little key fob that you wave over a thingie by the door to your apartment building and the door buzzes and let’s you in.  The sound of those door chimes/buzzers will always remind us of Russia.

6.     Car alarms.  Car alarms go off all night.  One night we had a lightning storm and the thunder would set off all the car alarms.  Once a car with a very loud stereo went down the street and car alarms went off as it passed.

7.     No skim milk.  Just 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5.  We did get 1.5 after we had been here a while.  And a lot of the milk is not stored in the refrigerator section at the store – it is packaged and has a pull date of four or five months after you buy it.  Tastes okay, though.

8.     Everyone takes off their shoes in the foyer of apartments.  You walk around in your socks…we have slippers we wear around our apartment.

9.     Half the time the hot and cold water faucets handles are backwards.

10.  Lots of people have bad teeth…and a lot of people have gold teeth.

11.  Calendars start on Monday.

12.  There are a LOT of holidays and almost all of them are in the first part of the year.  The first ten days of January are holidays. Then there is Victory Day and Russia Day and Women’s Day…the list goes on and on.

13.  The sidewalks are very uneven…we have to watch where we are walking or we trip or fall in holes.  We have both fallen a few times…sometimes on the ice and sometimes tripping on the sidewalk.  The sidewalks have 4 or 5 inches of ice on them during the winter…we have learned to slide our feet like we are ice skating.  Sherry puts her arm through mine and we slowly walk down the sidewalk together in the winter.  I like it.

14.  The sidewalk curbs are painted – a few feet white and then a few feet black.  There are groups of men and women who have plastic buckets of thick, oil-based paint and little paintbrushes that go all through town painting the curbs every spring.  There are no “wet paint” signs anywhere – you just learn to be observant.

15.  Trees are painted, too.  The bottom four feet of trees are painted white all through town…again, people with buckets of white paint and little brushes walk around painting tree trunks every spring.

Samara Visit

Here's a couple more pictures from our recent Couples Conference in Samara.  One is of Elder Childers channeling Stalin at his desk in his Samara bunker.  The second is of us in front of the statue of Lenin in Revolution Square in Samara.  Every city seems to have a statue of Lenin...in Samara there are many.  One is huge! In the picture we are on our way home after a long day with a lot of fellow old people.  

Once a year or so the mission president and his wife invite all the senior missionary couples to attend a Couples Conference.  Last week we enjoyed three days with the six other couples and our mission president and wife.  We all had an interview with our president.  Each couple also got to report to the group on our assignments. It was incredible to hear what the various couples are accomplishing!  It's really amazing to hear about the one on one relationships they are building and the lives they are changing. 

We visited Stalin's Bunker - there is a separate post about that - and the local botanical gardens and went to the mall and ate at the food court...if that isn't a typical senior missionary activity I don't know what is.  Crazy.

Took a train ride there and back with the Saratov couples. Our train left Saratov at 4:20 am and got to Samara at 12:30 pm. Our trip home from Samara we left at 11:00 pm and got back to Saratov at 7:30 in the morning.

 Really wonderful to be with our peers - they are an impressive bunch and really doing the Lord's work here.  We can touch people that no one else can.

Life is good.  

Sunday

It's hot - like 90 degrees - and the bus today was not air conditioned.  None of them are. Oh well, as long as you learn to sit on the side of the bus that is not in the direct sun it's okay.  We took a marshrutka - a mini-bus - yesterday to a baptism and it was HOT - and bumpy - and crowded.  We took a taxi home.

Got to speak in church today.  Had a good time doing so and used Brother Nicoli - a temple sealer - as an object lesson.  

We may have started a new tradition.  Miroslav received his mission call yesterday and the branch president asked me if I thought it was okay for him to open it at the end of sacrament meeting.  He has no family to open it with.  I enthusiastically endorsed the idea!  So, he opened it and after he read where he is going - Rostov Mission - everyone applauded.  Then we had closing song and prayer.  Maybe not EXACTLY normal but it may be the only time I've felt applause was appropriate in a sacrament meeting! 

I've attached some pictures of the various transports we ride on...we ride on all of these fairly regularly.  The tramvia - the one on rails - are really old.  We like them best because they are not usually as crowded and since they are on their own rails they don't get stuck in traffic as much as the other forms of transport.  Some of the tramvai have plywood seats which look like they have been installed to replace the worn out regular seats.  It's all an adventure!

Air Conditioning

So...we've been in the activity center just about a year.  We finally have internet but still no WiFi.  We were told there was no budget for air conditioning this year.  Then our mission president came down to Saratov and spent half a day - the hot afternoon half - in the building holding interviews and discussions.  The next Thursday - yesterday - air conditioning people showed up and installed air conditioning.  I called our president and asked him what he did - he said he just called the facility managers and told them we really need it now.

Next week I think I'll ask him to call about the WiFi.  I've tried everyone else...nine months to get WiFi is RIDICULOUS!!!

Game night was fun tonight...and very COOL!

Life is good.

Saratov Missionaries

Just got word today that a call has been extended for our replacements.  No name yet - they have to accept - but they will arrive in mid-October.  Our coordinator called and was happy someone has been called but said he will not have a couple for almost three months!  Hopefully other couples can fill in and hopefully the mission will keep this apartment that is so perfectly located.

Exciting...and a reality check.  We come home in two months....

New Saratov District Presidency

At our special district conference today our current district presidency was released and President Reshethikov was called as the new President with first counselor President Lutzenko and second counselor President Shikerov.  Reshethikov was just released as Area 70, Lutzenko was the former district president and Shikerov was a branch president...and the last applicant for Zhenya's job as CES Coordinator.  All great and effective leaders.

Very strong presidency...we want a stake in Saratov!!!

Zhenya translated for both President and Sister Schwab during the conference and did a great job.  He looks so awesome standing next to them.  We're really proud of him.  President Reshetnikov said he and Lutzenko want to start meeting to learn English.  Cool

Dacha Time!

The Markelovs just purchased a dacha so that they and the kids will have a place to relax and play during the summer.  This was their first day at the dacha and they were kind enough to invite us to come and play (oops, we mean WORK) in the dirt with them!  We have REALLY missed working in the garden in our regular clothes...this was a real joy.   We even cooked hot dogs over the fire.

And, according to the instructions we have received as missionaries one of our responsibilities is building relationships of trust with our local leaders...we're pretty sure this falls under that direction...so, we weren't having fun today...it was work, work, work as usual!!!

Life is good.