Sunday Jan, 29 2011

Decided that blogging every week was to much.  So to catch up a little it has been a winter wonderland in Russia.  I do not think it has been as cold as usual but cold enough.  We very seldom get above about 14 degrees.  We have a few days where we get in the low 20's but not very many.
I had been bugging Gene for a new rug for the living room.  We went to Ikea to just look at them and they had one on sale for $35.00.  I t was a nice rug that would fit right in front of the love seat and couch. Most of the rugs we had looked at were over $100.00.  So this was a great sale and for sure would be gone if we waited till we could get a driver. So he bought it and carried it home on the bus and then for 1/2 hr walk in the cold and on slippery sidewalks and in the dark.  It just made the apt feel like ours.  We arranged the furniture a little different and we both like it so much better.
 We have a new office Elder.  Elder Jenkins.  So we now have him and Elder Lex and they are great.  But Elder Lex says Elder Gronning has a problem because he has no hair he cannot see and he cannot hear.  Elder Gronning had asked for that.  They tease each other back and forth most of the day.
I am posting a lot of winter pictures because I think the trees are so pretty right now. 
We have also enjoyed a couple of weeks of getting trainned on the new simplified trainning.  President Sorenson has been trainning us and we have enjoyed it very much.
Our favorite thing this week was the ballet Swan Lake.  The West mission was having a senior conference and they were all going to it Monday night.  One of the couples could not make it so Pres. Wooley came to me and said.  Sister Gronning can I bribe you? Of course I said it depends.  Then he said will you take these tickets and go to Swan Lake with us tonight?  Well we felt we had to take them, but we were in charge of senior night the next night and I had planned to bake cookies and do a few things.  We tried to think of a number of excuses to get out of going, but just felt like we had to go.  They had spent good money on the tickets and were happy to have us come.  So we went.  Of course we got lost but Pres. Wooley found us and got us to the theatre.  The ballet and the music were fabulous.  We were so glad we went.  We just loved it.  It was 3 hrs long..so long and we got home about 11:30pm and then I baked cookies and we went to bed at 1am.  But so worth it.  We have gone on youtube and played the music a hundred times since.
Then I had a moscow mission miracle.  I lost my journal at the Christmas party.  I had written down so many of my thoughts from the 1st day we went to the MTC.  I had asked the AP's to look for it because our party was in their building but they could not find it.  I was so sad.  Then the thought came to me to see which senior couple was in that building.  It was the Overly's.  So I asked Sister Overly to look for it and she said you bet I will.  And she did and she found it on the coat rack.  What a miracle. So all of you remember that we can all have miracles in our lives.  I have been writing mine down here in Russia so that I will not forget them.
And last week our favorite thing was receiving a package from Idaho.  Full of love.  Pictures, popcorn, honey, valentine candy which I am saving to share with the office on Valentines day.(I do not even know if they have that holiday here.)  Brown sugar. Our children are the best and they do so much for us while we are serving here in Russia.  We love and miss them sooooooo much.
We send our love to all..Gene and Marcia

Big strong Gene

Not sure how happy he is.  But he had a right to be tired.

Lots of winter pictures. These next few are on the way to our
branch in Zelenograd.  Little forest along the side of the road.

Ice skating next to our branch bldg.  Where Elder Nielson broke his ankle.

Sunday dinner

Swan Lake theatre

Special package from Idaho

How cute are they?  Courtnee, Callie and Sadie

Box filled with love

Seniors at simplified training night

Children in snow,  They all look like Randy from the Christmas Story.

We took a walk in our little forest behind our apt.  Their are bird feeders
everywhere.  Look at the bird eating in this one.

Yes it is winter in Russia

Nice and warm in his new coat

Winter pictures of our forest

Children sleigh riding on the hill down onto a frozen lake

Lost and found journal

Sunday Jan 16 2011

Middle of Jan already.  First of all Happy Anniversary to Mitch and Sonya.  Sorry I cannot remember how many.  But I know it is just a few.  7 or 8???
This week has pretty much just been a normal week.  Now that all the Russians are through celebrating the holidays maybe the missionaries can do some good teaching.  During the holdiays they do not want to be bothered.  That is family time. In fact all the Christmas decorations are still up in the malls on the streets and everywhere.  But I guess the one thing that was different is we went out on our 2nd visa trip.  We went to Riga again to deliver documents and bring some back.  So we left our apt at 1pm and got home about 11:30pm.  There were also 5 missionaries on visa's to Kyev.  So the driver picked them up first and then stopped and got us.  One full van.  But it is a big blue van. It really is hard to do visa's.  Mostly just because they take up so much time.  For the younger missionaries all the sisters on visas's have to be at one apt the night before and all the elders at one apt.  That way the driver makes just one stop for each.  And they usually get picked up around 5am in the morning.  So it really makes a long day for them.  Yesterday they were able to do a session in the Kyev Temple and they were excited about that. 
I learned from cousin Joanna this week that Ilene is very ill.  She has been diagnosed with ALS. So sad to hear that.  She has been the best ever for Bart and such a great addition to the Harris family.  Gene and I both send our love and prayers to her.
Joanna also updated me on Aunt Naomi and Aunt Grace.  Two of three final.  And it sounds like Aunt Naomi and her walker are best friends and she is doing pretty good for 91.  Aunt Grace is having a hard time with memory so that is to bad. She has to have constant care. But uncle Ted has been gone for so long that she would probably love to go be with him.
It is 4 degrees F today so it has got cold all of a sudden.
Until next week we love you and miss you all Gene and Marcia

Elder Grover on the left was transferred out of the office on these transfers,
We keep Elder Lex.  He is such a happy and fun missionary

The office missionaries

Another wonerful care package from Michelle.  She sure does watch out for her parents

This is how the snow piles up as they shovel it.  It will not melt till spring
Never gets hot enough to melt

Another pile of snow

Christmas tree in the airport.  It is the year of the rabbit in Russia

Little stormy as we left for Riga Sat.

Gene's steak.  Not quite as good as barbecued on the grill at home. But it was the first
steak we have had since we got to Russia.  so we loved it.

09 Jan 2011

Hi to all
We are enjoying each new week in Russia.  Everything we were told about winter had us really prepared for the worst and the only thing that has been awful are the icy sidewalks.  We do have lots of snow because it will not melt till spring but the temperatures for the last couple of weeks have been in 20's and 30's.  We have been told it has been an unusually warm winter but we will take it.  Still cold when you walk everywhere you go, but could certainely be worst.
This week we enjoyed another specialized training meeting.  We finished the Book of Mormon study underlying scriptures in blue that would help us be better missionaries and red for those that would increase our faith.  Many scriptures were shared at our training and what they meant to the missionary that shared them.  So interesting  how different scriptures meant different things to each of us.  But it was a wonderful way to read the Book of Mormon and we cannot believe how much we learned after we read it this way.  We will start another reading in Feb but I do not think the topic has been decided yet on what we will look for.  so we are excited for that.
The branch had a Christmas party on Fri night the 7th.  Russia's Christmas. We went to it and what a surprise to us.  No one in the branch presidency came.  A little older lady from the branch just organized it with the help of the missionaries.  Very simple and probably only 20 people there.  Not like the USA would celebrate a ward party.  And the missionaries told us they had to tell the little sister how to organize what she did.  This was the best part.  Michael's family had sent candy canes for Christmas for the children in the branch.  So we thought this would be a great time to give them one.  But probably only 5 children were there.  Elder Morgan took the candy canes and went to each person and offered them one.  If you accepted one then Elder Bogdanov would have to do 10 push ups and he does them on his knuckles.  After awhile people did not want to take one because they could see his knuckles bleeding.  Then if they did not take one  Elder Bogdonov still had to do push ups anyway. The lesson he was teaching is that Christ suffered for us so we would have the gift of the atonement.  Christ payed the price for this gift whether we accept it or not.  We cannot take his pain away.  It was really a good object lesson.  some of the older sisters on the front row got mad at him and told him not to make tlder Bogdonov do anymore.  His knuckles were bleeding and he hardly had any strength left. In fact they were really mad at him for the rest of the night.  But it taught how much pain Christ bore for us so we could repent and live with him again. It was also fun to watch the Russians look at the candy canes.  They do not have them here, 
Hope you all have made great New Years resolutions.  I have a hard time keeping them so I usually do not make them.  However..I am going to try and learn one new Russia word each day..so we will see how that goes.
Da c don ya to you all...Gene and Marcia



New Christmas scarf from all my precious children





Metropolitan Mall  Big Mall



Decorated very pretty

 Honey Pomelo  Bigger than a grafefruit and not sour..peel and eat like orange

 Have to peel all the white off also..but so good

Elder Bogdonov in the background doing push ups

Never seen candy canes 







Cute 82 yr old sister singing a song at the program



Elder Bogdonov's knuckles



Giving Sonia a candy cane



Trees have ice on them







Gene's new winter coat











Jan 02 2022

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year both from Russia.They celebrate both together.  Big holiday. For the next 10 days Russia is basically shut down.  Transportation is still going and some stores are open but that is it.  Everyone goes on vacation and spends time with family. Pretty good idea Huh.
If  Robyn is reading this I honestly do not know our address.  There are no street names they just go by buildings.  My kids send things to the office.  So just send us an e-mail to mggronning2@hotmail.com and update us on your family and our ward friends. That is one of my fears if we ever have an emergency, like needing to call 911 I have no idea how to tell them where to come.  But my plan if that ever happens is to call the office elders and they can handle that.  Actually I am hoping we never have that expierence.
It has been a cold snowy week, but I think home is about as cold as here.   It was my birthday on the 28th.  Whoever thought I would spend a birthday in Russia?  But it was fun.  Missionaries called all day and sang Happy Birthday to me and President Ordered pizza for the office and Gene bought me some Roses and took me shopping for a new purse.  And of course e-mails from all the kids. So it was good.  Because Russia is on holiday this whole week we are getting in meetings and conferences for the missionaries so that they can spend their time teaching the rest of the month.  So the up coming week is full of meetings.
Fireworks have been a huge event on Christmas-New Years Eve.  It sounds like we are in a war zone.  They were going off all around us.  Some we could see but because of the tall apt buildings we could not see them all.  But they started at 7pm and continued on until the wee hours of the morning.  We finally got to sleep around 2am.  There are still some going off today.  I will post pictures with coments again to tell you about our week. 
Happy New Year and we will see you the first month of 2012.  Luvs from Russia Gene and Marcia
Just one moe thought.  We are having very little daylight right now.  It is light from about 10-4pm..

Christmas decoration as you walk into our apt building

My christmas blanket that hangs right by my desk so I see and I
can feel my grandchildren near,  I love this so much

My precious children hang on my desk also

I have the best desk ever

Christmas package from Michael's family



Reading a sweet message from Cody and Shellie








Elder Harrison and Elder Player from the West Mission.  Greeted
us as we came into the office after Christmas



My beautiful Roses's from Gene

2 days later.  We do miss Costco flowers

Cold and slippery walking to the office

So many fireworks on New Years Eve.  All over and all around us

In front of our entrance to our apt

Snow is getting deep and as you can see..no clean sidewalks.
This is also in front of our apt.

And Bud sent us this picture of his Russian hat..Isn't he cute?