04 Jan 2012

Happy New Year..in russian (Slovum Godum)

Boy it is hard to believe that we are in 2012. We will be home really soon. It has been such a busy past month with so many things going on that I will just post pictures again and tell about the month.

We started Dec. with 4 new missionaries.  3 Native Russian sisters and 1 elder from Calif.

Then the next big event was the first Moscow Stake Christmas program in history.  It was really a big deal.  20 yrs ago the church did not even exist in Russia and now they have a stake.  We do not have a building large enough to hold the stake so they had rented a hall for the Christmas program.  They had some professionals come in and the 2nd half was all done by church members,   It was just a wonderful evening.

This is our newly baptized member Keseena.  She sang in the chior.
We just love her so much.  She says I can be her grandma.babushka)

Sergey was the master of ceremonies.  He works in the office next
to ours in CES and he is also a bishop of one of the wards.

Sister Missionaries singing.  So pretty.  We have alot
of talented missionaries.

Stage where the performance was.  We were not to sure why the chior
conductor had to be center front?

Elders singing a song.  When they all came walking down the asile
it sent goose bumps up your arms.  You could just feel that they
werre Heavenly Fathers servants.  They are very special.

The manager scene was done so well. The sheperd in green
looks like Michael.

The condutor man is very good, but he is also very dramatic.
This is the chior.

Always my favorite part..the children

The two girls in pink and purple are the twins from our ward.
Tonya and Mela.  The man wiping tears from his eyes explains
how these Russians feel about having the gospel here in their lives.

This is how all the children are bundled up when they go outside.
We call them little Randy's from the Christmas story.
These two were fighting over who the one binki belong too.

Two sisters in our ward who do a cute manager scene presentation.
They sing and move the characters all around.  It is really cute.

They made all these little like rag dolls.  And the table underneath
them moves so they roatate it around and make different scenes.

Walk in the snow to the office.

He came with me

We had snow for a few weeks but it has not got to cold yet.

And the packages keep coming.  We put this one under our tree.
Our children are the best!!!

This was full of medicines and other things to help us make
it down the home stretch.  Michelle and Sonya have
helped us so much with medications from home and other things
that we cannot buy here.

And the rewards of a mission.  Another baptism in our ward.   A mother and
her son.  Sevetta and Denise(that is Dennis in Russia)  Sister Ashby and
Sister Marty taught them the lessons.

Her mom and dad (who are not members) Brother Narbotnokov and Sisters
Marty and Ashby.

Elder Law and Elder Hayes also helped teach Denise and the man
on the end is our bishop.  Bishop McChaliff(that is not how you spell
it, but if I spelled it correct you would not know what his name was)

It was Denise'e 12th birthday the day he was baptized and this
is a cake his mom baked and surprised him with.


Now the Mission Christmas Party on the 24th of Dec.  We all meant at the South building...takes us about 1 1/2 hrs by bus and metro to get there.  We started with 3 baptisms which was wonderful.  Then President gave a little talk.  We watched a movie and then had dinner.  After dinner each district had prepared a skit.  It was a great day.  So fun being together as a whole mission.

Elder Law, Sister Hatch and Elder Zinn.   Looks like they are
reading scriptures.  Elder Zinn is our new office elder.

Sister Mordwinow and Sister Ashby enjoying dinner.

So much food.  And the missionaries love it.

Waiting in line for their turn.

Skits.

Elder Clawson on the window ledge is really a sleep walker.  This
skit was about him.

The elder sitting straight up is Elder Gump. (Forest Gump) and he played
the part perfect.

Sister Ashby and Mordinow were rapping to some words they
made up about teaching and finding people.

Babushka's (grandmas) that the missionaries are trying to teach.

Seniors....this is the area couples and the mission couples. There are 5 couples
in our mission and the rest are area.  But we all are like one.  We get together once
a week and the area helps with all the missionaries.  It is great.

We sang senior tells to the tune of jingle bells.  Chorus:

Oh!!!We are told we are old by each one of you,
Have you thought what you would do for money fun or food?
We are told we are old by each one of you,
Have you thought what you would do for money fun or food?

And then came Christmas Day.  Always a hard time to be away from family.  But one thing that
makes it easier here is that they celebrate Father Frost (Our Santa Claus) on New Years
Eve and on the 7th of Jan is their Christ only Christmas.  So the 25th of Dec. is just
another woking day here.
But we did have a wonderful Christmas.  One we will always remember.

Sister Ashby played beautiful Christmas Carols for us.

Elder Ayers loves to play classical music and he does it very well.

Elder Hayes was ratther excited with his new transformer.

Now this was really special.  The elders cooked Christmas dinner for us.
We stayed after church and spent the rest of the afternoon with them.
We are eatting in the chapel.  Only place to do that.  They fixed chicken,
potatoes, corn, rolls and a hot wasil drink.  Cake for dessert.  It was so good.  But
most of all so thoughtful.  Wil and Kaseena had dinner with us also.

Elder G says it is good down to the last bite.

Finally home and time to open our two packages. The things on
the couch are goodies from Mats family and we ate them
all on New Years Eve.

This package is from the whole family.  And we loved it so much.
Gene ate the hickory farm crackers and cheese and mustard and
he said I don't know if this taste so good because I haven't had it
for so long, or if it is really this good?  He loved it.

The grandkids are always sending cute cards.  The green box that has cards
and candy in it is so special.

This is what it said on the top of the box.

And this is what was inside.  It is so exciting to open a card each day.
They come from everyone. The ones we have opened so far have been
both family and friends.  We are loving this card game.

Another year older.  I have been making rice bags for aches and
pains so I guess Michelle thought she would buy a real store bought
bag for me.

Our little tree with our box of cards under it.

And another visa trip to Riga Lativa.  We thought we had done our last, but we had to do
one more to stay one month longer.  So we just took a few photos of old town
at Christmas time.

                                   The seniors had a little after Christmas party and ate and did
                                    white elephants.

Gene opening his white elephant. He was really excited.  It was a DVD Iron
Man 2.  But Sister Nuenschwander took it from him and he ended
up with a bag of hotel supplies.  Soap, shampoo, lotion etc,

Happy New Year.(.Slovum Godum) from the clock on the Kremlin.