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.