22 April 2011

Happy Birthday Gene today.  The next time I blog I will put pictures on of the office party for him. Most of the snow is melted and spring is trying to come.  Thank goodness.  We need blue skies and sun.We hit our half way mark last week. Still looks like it is going fast when I look back but long when I look forward.  So still day by day and it works great.  Still loving our mission.  Love the office work and being around President Sorenson so much.  He is so much fun and we love him.  We have lots of good times with the office elders too.  We went out on our third Visa trip last week and we had to stay overnight.  We took documents in on the 14th and brought documents back on the 15th. But we loved Riga and I almost could not get Gene back on the plane to Russia.  That is a switch for sure. Ususally me. But it was a little taste of America almost. The Moscow district is growing and still hoping to get the first stake in Russia soon.  I do not know if we will see that or not.  But we hope so..
To Cody who just had his wisdom teeth pulled we hope he is doing better.  Pa still has his.  To stubborn to get them out.  And to Michelle who has been sick with phenomia(don't know how to spell that) we hope she is getting better too. 
Well I will put pictures on and then you will see what has happened in the last 2 weeks.





This is the street in front of our apt that is dug up to put in a pipe.
So the cars drive on the sidewalk and the pedestrians have to
get out of the way.  Cars are the most important here.




We watched conference in black in white at the branch.
They could not get the color to work.  So we watched some
of it on our computer.




Elder Nielson's birthday.  He loves hash browns so Sister Sorenson
made him some and we sang Happy Birthday to him.



This was about a week ago.  We have had enough snow.



This is a package full of love from Henderson Nevada.  Michael, Julie
Cody and Shellie sent it and we are so excited to make soups and corn
bread and brownies from America.  Our children are so good to us.  We love
them so much.




Couple of Sundays ago when Cody was made an elder.  Can you believe that?
We are getting 2 Cody's in our mission they just have the wrong last name.
His cute girlfriend Melissa.  We love her.




They were all getting ready to take a family cruise so I put
their pictures on the ocean.  Kind of pretty..




This is a huge souviner renick.  This is the first time we have been
to it.  Kind of reminds meof Disneyland when you are walking to it..




That is Gene




This is granny and pa




Gene is trying to bargin for a big furry Russian hat.  The guy
spoke some English.



Plane to Riga Latvia..Our third visa trip



Riga is so old and there is so much history there. The churches,
coblestone streets, old buildings..




This church was beautiful.  Inside it was elogant with candles and stain
glass and statues and pictures..




Old long tiny cobblestone streets




Same beautiful church




Just an old beautiful building





This looks like the entrance to the courtyard and palaces that
they lived in.  This long tunnels are all over Riga.



First good donuts since we left home.



Old park





Lots of old engravings and decorations on the buildings

 



Look at all the detail on this building




And this one too





Happy me




Bridge in the park.  The locks are marriage locks.




The pigeions would come up and eat right out of Gene's hand.




Whenever we see pigeons we think of Mat when he probably was not even 3
and he reached down at a dinner table we were eating at outside
and cought a pigeon.  He had chased them all day and finally he had caught one.
We were in Old Town in San Diego visiting my parents on their mission.



Plane home from Riga

Sunday 03 April 2011

Spring is in the air.  The snow is melting and there are huge puddles everywhere.  So much snow to melt.  The workers take shovels and chop at it to help it melt faster.  But it is getting warmer and more blue skies and sunshine. We changed to daylight savings last weekend, so it now stays light until about 9 or 9:30p.m.  It is nice to have more light.  Russia will not change back.  They are going to stay on daylight savings now possibly forever.
It was sad to have my Dear Aunt Grace pass away on the 18th of March.  She was the last of my mothers 14 brothers and sisters to go.  We would of loved to attend her funeral but we hope the family knew that we were there is spirit and felt of our love for our Dear Aunt Grace.  Me and Gracie are blessed to share her name.  And I shared birthdays with Aunt Grace.  But we will always have fond memories of her.
It has been a busy two weeks for us with transfers.  We had 7 New Missionaries and we went home 8.  We will miss them all so much.  But the new ones come with a lot of vigor and enthusiasm and we learn to love them quickly.  We got one new one named Cody.  He just had the wrong last name.  Not Cody Gronning.  But I am sure he is a great Cody also.




Ready to do some Saturday grocery shopping

 


Elder Croese and Elder Hansen.  Both left this transfer and we will miss them
so much.  They were so good and helpful to us as we first came
to Russia.  I do not know if I would of made it without them.




Happy Birthday to Elders Jenkins and Lex.  Sister Sorenson thought
she had a happy birthday tablecloth and instead it was a
Happy New Year tablecloth.  But it worked great.

                                                    

This is what the sidewalks are looking like with all the melting snow.
Kind of muddy and messy.



We attended the Zelenograd district meeting.  Elder Hansen next to Elder
Gronning loves to cook.  So he fixed tacos and nachos for us all and they
were so good.  It is always great to attend their district meetings and see how
they teach and plan and help each other.  We cannot attend them all the time because
of our office calling.  They have them on Fridays around 11 or 12.  So at least twice a
month we try to attend.  They will come once to the office and we will go once to
the branch.  Fun and Good group of missionaries.




Not to sure why there are not dishes in the kitchen at the branch.
Elder Gronning ate in a frying pan and I ate on a bread board.
That is a homemade torilla shell.



Sweet little Maria coming in the door to church.  We love her.



Two beautiful sisters.  Little one is Sonia and big sister is Leeza.
Aren't they so cute.  Sonia is a very good ballet dancer and Leeza is
attending college in Moscow.





This is the whole family including grandma and of course
Elder Morgan.  He wanted a picture with them before he
left for home.  He also went out this last transfer.

 



This is the office.  But tomorrow Elder Lex will be replaced
by Elder Huston.  We will miss him so much.  We love him.
But we are excited to get to know Elder Huston.  We love Elder
Jenkins and he should stay one more transfer.  You get very attached
in the office.  You are around each other 5 days a week and we
work a lot together.  So it is hard every time one of the elders leave.
I have a bit of a problem with change anyway.  But I guess I will
have  to conquer that.

 

Sister Craythorn is our new couple sister and Sister Carpenter
just got a new hat.  We love the senior couples here.




Last Wed at English club.  Elder Morgan wanted a last
picture with all these fun kids.  Most of them came
into the spiritual thought after.  We have English club every Wed night.
We just invite people to come and have an English conversation.   We cannot teach
English or any gospel or we would be in big trouble with the government.  So we
just have fun talking and that helps them to learn English.  Then when that hour is
done we can invite them to come to another room for a spiritual thought about our
church and why the missionaries are here in Russia.  Then they can choose to go or stay.
Many investigators come out of English club.

 


Such a cute couple.  Katia and Sasha.  They are being taught by
the elders now.  We just all love them and they are so much fun.




One last picture for Elder Morgan with guess who?





Sister Perry, Elder Rudd, Elder Hansen and Elder Morgan.
All in line to check their luggage and head home.  We had put
2 Russian Sisters on earlier flights and we were waiting for
one more sister to arrive from NY.  It was a busy Friday.
But these are wonderful missionaries and we will miss them so much.



This is what the office looks like when the West Mission has transfers.
Their new missionaries come in and others are getting transferred.
Their mission is so large and spread out that they sometimes have
to wait in the office until it is time for their trains or other transportation.
The West mission is bigger than the distance from Ut to NY.  So their missionaries
are scattered far apart and do a lot of traveling.



And these are some of our favorite days.  Packages from home.  To receive
a package just feels like the people are there that send it.  It especially
makes me so happy.  Gene too, but me more.




Look at all the fun treats.  My family knows me.  Junk food is the best.
I someone made a pretty magnet.  It is on my stove.





And Sadie knows I love cotton candy.  I cannot wait to show that to some
of the Russians.  I bet they have never seen it before.

Sadie sent us 2 or her hard earned dollars.  Thank you
Sadie.

 


And precious Courtnee. 




And a note from our Callie who is growing up fast while we are gone.
We love her rabbit picture.




This is for all the other children.  They like to pick and choose who is
the favorite child.  They should know they all are. Mat
sent cold medicine.  We both have had colds and cannot find
cold medicine.  Coughing all night was the worst.  But we
are better so we will save it till next time or maybe just hope
there will not be a next time.




Pretty good homemade card..I am sure it was made with love.