21 June..longest day in Russia

My coments have not been working and I have no one to say Help to.(Like Dane or Sonya or Julie or Cody)  So I have to figure it out myself using the help button.  But I think it is fixed now.
Here it is the 21st of June.  It is the longest day of the year and probably will not get dark until close to midnight.  It is really hard to go to bed in the light.  And we usually can't.  So that is making for two old and tired people.  But life is great.  We are excited and waiting to hear where Cody will go on his mission.  He has submitted his papers and now we all wait and anticipate.  Of course I think it is Russia. Yahoo!!!
We welcomed a new couple the Palmers this week.  We meant them at the airport and then the driver took us to their new apartment.  It was clear across town and took 2hrs to drive.  Traffic is crazy here.  As much as I do not like the metro(subway) it is definetly the fastest way from point A to B. I prefer busses, but they do not always get you where you need to be.
This is transfer week and we are sending 6 wonderful missionaries home and we welcome 6 new ones tomorrow.  Wed 21. So we are still going through a lot of changes in our mission. We are getting a new office elder..Elder Bruev..russian native. and Elder Huston will be leaving.  We really get attached to the office elders and it is always hard to see one leave..
Our Shellie is on the Pioneer Trek. We hope she will be happy and enjoy it.  It will probably be a little hard for her because she is famous for tired and sore legs and feet. But she is so cute..
We have skyped with most of the grandchildren lately and they all seem to be good.  We love them all so much.  They make their grandparents proud. Little Morgan just turned 6 yrs old and Karlee will be 3 next week.  They need to stop having birthdays until we get home.
We love you all and our prayers are with our dear friends Hugh and Karen and Rick and Nina who are going through some pretty hard trials in their lives now.  And we hope that all you will remember them in your prayers also.The mission is great. We are learning to talk so good in sign language that we probably will keep talking that way when we get home. Just a few pictures







And it is package time.  Love the packages.  Our children really
take good care of us.  They serve with us and they receive the
blessings.  Michelle tells us she is getting them to share with her
brothers.  She thinks they need them more than her.

 

This is the box when we first open it.  Then underneath Michelle has
everything packed in solid in zip lock baggies.  She has got the packing
down.  She sent all our prescriptions and over the counter medicines for
the next 6 months.  And of course a few good things also.



I asked President if he wanted to send us home?  Drug addicts...Good try
but it did not work.



Andgie and Elder Gronning on a bench at Red Square




Our Friend Angie from home was touring in Europe.  She
e-mailed us and we were able to visit with her for awhile.
It was so good to see her.  We love her





Our cute little Shellie going on Trek.

 














05 June 2011 Wonderful Day

It has been such a wonderful time to be on a mission in Moscow Russia.  It has also been a very busy time.  To organize a stake takes a lot of time and paper work for many hands.  But the things we have done we loved doing and loved being a part of helping to organize the first stake in Russia.  We could just feel the spirit from all these saints who were so thankful to have an apostle amonst them and make them a stake where they would receive the blessings of a stake. And to have their own Patriarch.  They would have to wait years to have their patriartical blessings until a patriarch would arrive in Russia.  Then he would only have a certain amount of time here and they all could not get their blessings so they would have to wait until the next visit.  Many pictures that I hope will let you know of some of the joy we have felt.

Sister Sorenson and me on Sunday at church both in yellow.

Then who comes in but Maria and she has on yellow and then Sister Martyanova
and she has on yellow and then Tiesha in her summer hat. Love those two little
babushka's.  Granny's

This is 10:30pm at night.  Then it is light by 4am.  It is kind of hard
to get enough hours of sleep with so much light.

District meeting at the office.  President is enjoying cake and ice cream while
we all work hard on folding and stuffing programs.  In picture..President Sorenson,
on hi right Elder Jenkins, then Elder Gronning, Elder Hansen, Elder Palmer and
Elder Spoerri.  I helped too.but we did need a picture.

Elder Nelson greeting the members.



This little lady just cried and cried and she shook his hand.  They were
so excited to have an apostle with them.



She even made Elder Nelson shed some tears.

So many happy members/

Outside the Central bldg after Sat. night session.
Doesn't everyone just look so happy?

Gene walking to the Amber Plaza for Sunday conference.
They do not have a building large enough to hold
a conference in so they rent one.  The day will come when
they have a new stake center and then a day with a
Temple in Russia.

Inside the Amber Plaza waiting for meeting to begin.

The man on the far left is Pres. Boiko our new stake President.  Very young man with
2 little boys.  He will be great.  The man 2nd in on the right is the new
Patriarch.

Young Single adults chior.  They sang some beautiful hymns.  The conductor is quite dramatic.  We love
to watch him.

Front of program.  This is a little miracle.  We had the programs all
done and President got a call late Fri night saying that we
needed to do more.  Someone did not think we had
enough,  So Gene and I went up to the office Sat to run off
some more programs and songs.  There were some men doing
some kind of work on our floor and had things all torn apart.
We got to work running off 200 more copies of programs and songs.
Just as 193 came out of the copier the workers knocked the
power off.  No computers or lights.  And that happens quite
often,  So we were very blessed to get 193 just in time.

Back page of program



This precious little baby gave me a big smile and then took

a hold of my finger.  It felt so good to feel a tiny little hand.