Gronnings in Moscow

20 Jan 2012

2012-01-20T10:16:00.000-08:00

This just might be the last mission blog. Things are really getting busy as we are coming down the home stretch. Very exciting to know we will be home in less than 3 weeks. And a few emotions about leaving the mission field. You probably cannot believe I am saying that, and neither can I, but we have made some wonderful life time friends, and some of them Russians. We will be friends with many of the missionaries when they come home. Couple of the elders live within 30 min. of us.The senior couples have already got plans to meet. But the spirit of the mission field has been a blessing in our lives. And our children have been a blessing to us as they have served with us. We could not of done it without them.
O.K. Gene checked himself out of the hospital or he would probably still be there. The man he shared the room with could speak English. But he could not get out of bed. His wife was visiting and Gene had tried everything he could to get the nurses to get the doctor because he wanted to go home. He finally asked the man's wife if she would help him. She was happy too. She told the nurses to get the doctor and that Gene was going home. In 30 minutes he he saw the doctor and got himself checked out. And he has been great since. What a blessing.
Picture time:

Going to the hospital to visit Gene

Elder Perfiliyev and Elder Jenkins helped me find my way
on the metro to the hospital I could not of done it
myself. I was so thankful to them .for helping me.

Another wonderful baptism. This is the boyfriend of
one of our young sisters. Her name in Jana and I cannot
say his name. But he was so happy to be baptized.

Elder Ayers, Elder Everett, the boy?, Elder Narbotnakov and
Elder Palmer. These 3 elders all had a part in teaching this boy.
I guess I should say young man.

And winter finally came. It is about 14 degrees F today.
These winter pictures are of last Sunday at church.

The children are always out playing. This is the ice
skating rink by the church/

Mothers with buggies. I just love watching all the people
outside. Many if not most do not have cars. So they are use
to getting around by foot, bus or metro.

My favorite. A little, teeney, tiny girl on the ice
skating rink. Of course no ice skates. Just all bundled
up scarf and all.

We had womens conference this week at the Mission Home.
It was a great day with all the sisters.

Love them all. And they are all different..But so special out
serving the Lord.

Sister Bice is teaching on how to get along with your companion.
She said learn now because it will prepare you for marriage.

My sweet Sister Ashby writing everything she is learning
in her journal. I watched her deep in thought many times.

Our Dear Sister Carlson who was going to get married and then
she and her boyfriend both knew she needed to serve a
mission. So they parted for 18 months. They have their
wedding date set for this June. Isn't that a great sacrifice and
an example of true love?

A group picture. Starting at left..Sister Hoorspool, Sister Bullough, Sister Ashby,
Sister Savchuk, 2nd row R-L Sister Huefner, Sister Sorenson, Sister Palmer,
Sister Craythorn, Sister Carlson, Sister Uskova, Sister Frolova,Back row L-R
Sister Thrall, sister Mordwinow, Sister Daniels, Sister Petersen, Sister Workman,
Sister Naegle, me, Sister Rasmussen, Sister Hobbiebullina, Sister Bice and
Sister Walker.

Elder Hayes and Sister Ashby singing I know that my Redeemer
Lives, Spiritual thought for English club. Very pretty.

China at the ward building. Just love it.

The cards go around the closet. Love them all

We have loved playing the card a day game. The box is
getting fewer and fewer. But it is always fun each night
to open one and seee who it is from. I hang them all
on the closet door in the living room.

District meeting with Elder G, Elder Hayes, Elder Ayers, Elder Everett,
Sister Hobbiebullina, Sister Ashby and Elder Law, We
love them all.

Thank You to all:
We have so appreciated your faith and prayers for us as
we took this leap of faith and served in Moscow Russia.
It took us all to get this done and it has been a wonderful
expierence.
We will be home on the night of Feb 11 and will speak in church
the next morning Feb. 12th Yikes!!!!Hope we are awake.
Our church building has chanaged. We are on 2700 W about
half way between 7800S and 9000 S. Right by the golf course
and sugar factory road. Any questions call Michelle or Mitch or
you can e-mail us.
Das-e-don-ya (goodby)

05 Jan 2012

2012-01-09T11:44:00.000-08:00

This is how we celebrated the Russians Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. There Christmas is the 6th of Jan. Tues and Wed we spent at home with Gene in terrible pains in his knee. It sounded like labor pains in a knee. The pain was making him sick and we tried everything to make it go away. I finally called our mission doctor. And he said to give him some Tylenol with codene which I had and it helped it a lot. But he had to keep taking it for 2 days or the pains were right back. Then all of a sudden the pain left as quick as it came. All better. Must of been something floating in his knee that got stuck somewhere and finally moved. That is our medical conclusion. Great day Thursday. Enjoyed the office, went to senior council night. Good day. Then Friday it went down hill again. Gene told me his stomach was bothering him. He did not eat much lunch. I said lets go home and he said he had to much to do so we kept working. (I mean serving) About 4:30pm he looked at me and said I am sick we need to go. So I started closing down my computer and next thing I know President says Sister Gronning would you come in the office while we give Elder Gronning a blessing. I did not know he even went in Presidents office, but he was laying on his couch in terrible pain and told me to get him a bag that he was going to throw up the pain was so bad. Well the pictures explain the rest.

sorry about this picture. I cannot get it to delete.

It was so sad to see him in so much pain. We were trying to get
him down the 2 flights of stairs and he just couldn't do it.

The sweet elders did their best to make him comfortable

And this is where he ended up at the European Medical Clinic.
Not something we wanted to do in Russia.

What would we do without pain killers? He was so happy
to be out of pain.

Having dinner. A hunck of salmon that I had to take out of the
room is smelled so bad. He looks like an angel in his white
night gown. And he is drinking lots of water. Lots of water bottles.

Lovely view from his window.

This was my pretty walk home from the off tonight. A light snow
was falling and it was so pretty. The trees were so pretty.

To sum it up. Russians believe you need to stay in the hospital along time. I think at home they would of gave him pain killers and sent him home. And the nurses all speak Russian so he has to

communicate the best he can. It is like playing charades all day long. He shares a room with a man who speaks Russian and English so he helps out once in awhile. Anyway, we are not staying there

much longer. We hope to get him home tomorrow and he can wait for it to pass here. It will be 4 days tomorrow, What an event coming down the home stretch of our mission. But we will both learn from this expierence and we will both learn more patience which we need to do,

04 Jan 2012

2012-01-03T03:27:00.000-08:00

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.

December is here!!!

2011-12-05T02:38:00.000-08:00

It is hard to believe that December is here. 2 more months and our mission is finished. It has been a fun month of Nov. with alot of fun things happening so I will just explain the month in the pictures. We were looking at the weather and it looks like it is colder in Utah and Idaho than it is here in Russia. Our winter is here but we have not had much snow and the temperatures are around 30 degrees most of time. But we know it is on its way.

We have our plans to come home. We will leave the mission on the 8th of Feb. and spend a couple of days in Washington D.C. and see our grandson Cody on his mission. We will have a grandparent, grandson missionary picture. We think that would be sa great photo. His mission president has approved us coming. Then we will leave on Sat.Feb11th and arrive home around 7:20pm. Hard to believe. I thought I would never be able to say it went fast. But it really did.

We started Novemeber with a Zone Conference. they are always great and we
always learn so much from President Sorenson and the Zone Leaders and
the AP'S. This was lunch time. One of the branches prepared it for us. I am
sure it was good, but I did not like it.

Look at the elders. Obviously it was good. I am not sure that
Sister Sorenson is as anxious to eat as them.

And who else but our best friend..Elder Lex. He is from Austria and we have
rreally grown to love him. And cute little Sister Naegle nest to him. They
are the newest couple and had only been here about 2 weeks. They live very
close to us which is so nice.

Sunrise is not my favorite time of the day. I love Sunsets. But the sun comes up
so late now that this was the sunrise from our office window.

And Michelle is taking care of us. She sent us many needed items.

Licorice, frosting that is creamy, pills, dvd, fairy tale book that I am going to give
to one of my friends at English club. Lots of pictures from the grandchildren.
Eye glasses and cake mixes. Until you do not have cake mixes or canned frosting
or good powdered sugar to make frosting with you will never know how much
I appreciate these things.

New little treat we buy at the grocery store when we go shopping. Gene likes the
cherry turnover and like the dry cookie .

We went the elders to their bishops house for dinner and family home evening.
This is salad on bread.

These is the plate full of food they handed me. I about died.

This is their youngest boy Maxim.(Maxeem) Very, very active.

This is the 2nd little girl Maria.

This is their oldest girl Melana. She was reading us a story about how Jesus knows her.

Singing a hymn together. This is the living room.

It amazes me how they raise a family in this little apartments.

Getting ready for Thanksgiving.

Our big 9lb turkey that we were so happy to have.

Lots of yummy food. Not the same as home but it was the best we could
do and we all enjoyed it.

Waiting to get started. They were all so excited to eat
Thanksgiving Dinner.

Dessert time. Elder Naegle (the senior) is just one of the kids. We love him.

Elder Hayes ate and ate and then went for lots of desserts.

Big Russian hats.

It's over and cleaned up and we collapsed.

One fun English Club. Boris played this guitar we have at the church.
He also sang. We really have a fun time at English club. We have made
many friends. You just hope down the road something touched them
and they will join our church.

All 3 clubs(beginners, intermediate and converstional) all got together
for the last 10 minutes and played hanky panky. We all had fun.

15 Nov 2011

2011-11-13T09:55:00.000-08:00

It is so wonderful to be associated with missionaries, We love them all so much. They are always so happy and thank you so many times for every kind thing you do,

Winter is coming quickly. We have had a couple of small snow storms but nothing big. And we are at about 32 degrees most of the time. The worse part is that we are getting so little daylight. I miss the sunshine and blue skies. It is dark when we get up and close to dark about 5pm. But it will get worse so too bad.

District meeting at our apartment. Elder Spoerri, Elder Palmer, Sister Ashby,
Elder Hayes, Elder Ayers, Elder Gronning and Sister Marty. Love them all.

Yevgenny and Gene. He is one of our new members. He is such a cute kid.
We love him too.

Elder Hayes new hat.

Henry and Elenka Kosak. He is the director over CES. It was his
birthday and brought in some treats. Really good German patries.
they are German.

English Club. Sister Marty and sister Ashby and I
all wore the same color.

This is the biggest bag of flour I can find, then the biggest bag of sugar
next to it and then you buy eggs by the 10's not a dozen. Very seldom
can we find white eggs. The dark yellow yokes kind of freek me out.

A fun Senior Council night. We were all invited to President Lawrences house
for dinner. So Elder Anderson rented a bus, (We all pitcched in) so that we all
could get to his house. There was no other way to get there. Getting places is
such a big hassel and it always takes so long.

This is our big blue bus.

New CES couple Elder and Sister Naegle. They live about 30 steps
from our apartment. We had Sunday dinner with them. Then watched Stake
Conference with them.

This was the first stake conference conducted by the Russia
Stake Presidency. We do not have any buildings large enough to
have the whole stake in. And this conference had some satelite broadcat
with it from SLC. so they asked the seniors to stay home and watch it
on the internet so the members could have the room, plus there would
not be much English translation. We thought that was a great idea.

This is our newest member Valeria. He was Baptized Sat. Nov. 12th. His mother
is next to him and Brother Narbotnokov and His mother are on the other side.
They are related..I think like 2nd counsins,

Elders Everett, Ayers and Hayes who all helped teach him.

All the Narbotnokov family and the Elders with Valeria.

Sister Ashby with cute little Olla. Her mama made
her skirt and shirt. And she had purple shoes to match.

Just us with Sister Ashby and 2 precious little Babushkas. (grandmas)

21 Oct 2011

2011-10-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

The last days of fall have arrived. And we did enjoy them. So many beautiful trees all around us. I do not know if we were just still in survival mode last fall or if the leaves were not as pretty. But we do not remember the colors being so pretty last fall.
We all had flu shots again. I am going to choose to not post any pictures this time.
We have busy helping a new couple get settled. They are a new CES couple (The Naegles) who will work in the CES office which is in the same hall as our office. So the office elders found them an apt. about 20 steps away from ours. It is in a building just across the corner from us. So we have spent the week trying to show them around. How to use ATM'S, how to grocery shop, get metro passes and bus passes and help try to find furnishing's for their apt. But it was nice to get another couple and I am just gald it is not me. Every time we bring in a new couple, I just go, thank you that is not me. Those first few weeks are so hard and such a culture shock.
We enjoyed another visa trip to Riga Lativa and enjoyed the beautiful fall colors there. We will take one more visa trip since our release date is 12 Feb.
The other event was watching General Conference a week later on a small t.v. in black and white with the missionaries and a few members who watched it in English. Of course we can watch it on the internet in color. But for the missionaries that is there only way to see conference. so we enjoy it with them.
Another big event..Mitch shot an elk and was so happy.
Our Cody is doing great. He will leave for the Washington D.C. mission Wed. He is so excited to get on his way to his mission.
Now a few pictures:

The next few pictures are of our visa trip to Riga.
We took a train to Segulda Park.

Try and read those signs and decide which
way you want to go????

Train we rode to Segulda Park

Pretty little church at the park

Maybe if we cannot read the signs we
can try reading the map. No such luck!!

Walking into the park

Castle they are re-building

Leaving the park

I ran into this handsome man at the park.

Beautiful fall views from the hotel window

The colors were so pretty

Beautiful tree looking out our kitchen window.

More pretty trees looking out the kitchen window.

Pretty fall evenning down at the lake in our forest.

Fall was just so pretty this year. All the trees around us were
beautiful colors. This little lake is about a 15 min. walk
through the forest behind us.

Pretty berries with the pretty red and yellow leaves.

Elder Walker (works for the legal dept of the church) plays
the saw. It is really pretty.

He played it for us at Senior Night,

We said good by to our dear friends the Patterson's.
They were a humanitarian couple.

A fun package from Michelle. Love to get packages.

Look at all the fun stuff. Michelle really knows how
to pack a box. Not a corner is left empty. She takes
great advantage of the ships if it fits.

She puts cake mixes in zip locks so she can get
more in. She flattens all the boxes and lays them
on the bottom.

None of these in Russia.

In between sessions at confernce. We took some sandwhich
things and banana bread and shared with the missionaries.
We just had 1 hr. in-between the morning and afternoon session.

Few of the cute kids in the ward wandered up when
they heard we had food. They are so cute.

West Office Elders. We love them both. Elder
Beck and Elder Kavas.

Thanks to Michelle for her orange frosting I made halloween
cookies for senior night. Lots of work. But they were so good.

Office elders, Elder Bruv and Elder Ablett with our new member
friend Yevgenny came over for dinner.

Two Mission Presidents. Figuring out their i-phones.

O.K. Elder Gronning and Elder Ayers took on
Elder Palmer and Elder Elder Hayes. They lost.
This was after English club. They have a ping pong
table at the back of the chapel.

President and Sister Sorenson's daughter and her family
came to visit for a week. Aren't they so cute.

I loved on the baby and it was just so good to hold a little baby.

Way to go Mitch. Nice elk. Karlee did not like it,
but Morgan did.

Look at WShellie's new pretty teeth. No more braces.
And she got her first letter from her brother in the MTC.

05 Oct 2011--Cody is on his way to the MTC

2011-10-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

This blog is just my Cody blog. I love him so much. He just skyped with us while they were driving to the MTC. Pretty hard for Michael and Julie and Shellie and his girlfriend Melissa. I can still remember the day we took Michael. But I can also remember the day he came home. We hope so much that Cody will enjoy every minute of his mission. He is going to the Best of the Best. Everyone will love him. He makes his grandparents proud.All these pictures I took from pictures sent to me. So that is why they are a little blurry or fuzzy...but oh they are all cute..

Our grandson Missionary going to Washington D.C. South.
All dressed in his red, white and blue.

Fun at Michaels house 2 weekends before Cody left. Michael has a
pool in his backyard, and the everyone, especially the children
spent endless hours in it.They all had so much fun. Gracie and Sadie

Cody and Melissa

Gracie and Sadie

This is everyone that went to Cody's farewell. They are grouped in families.
Notice all the red, white and blue. Little girls had red, white and blue bows in
their hair. Big girls had red, white and blue corsages and the boys all
had red, white and blue flag ties.

Who could not love those boys? Dane and Clay, Mitch, Cody,
Mat and Michael.

And who could not love all these girl?.Michelle, Melissa,oops, there is Cody
with them, Julie, Sonya, Marcy Callie. Then litte Karlee and Courtnee,
Sadie, Shellie, Gracie and Morgan.

Look aat our precious grandchildren. Two more precious ones could
not make it and one more precious granddaughter is on the way.

Love you Cody..

01 Oct 2011

2011-10-05T09:04:00.000-07:00

There has been so many things going on the past couple of weeks. We have kept very busy. We have had a Specialized training meeting, we have been to two cultural events and a very special baptism. And then best of all has been Cody getting ready to go to the MTC Oct 5th.

Our weather has already got cold. We have had to start wearing our winter coats. We went to church yesterday in our light coats and we about froze by the time we got home. There has been a very cold wind.

We will go out on Visa Tuesday the 4th to Riga Lativa and return on the 5th. We are hoping this will be our last visa. The visa trips are such a pain for all of us. Lots of time and lots of money. But it has to be that way if we want to stay in Russia. So we just do it. The young missionaries enjoy going to the Kyev Temple when they are on visa. So that is a good place for them to spend the day. They cannot stay overnight. But the senior couples usually have to take all the passports to Riga and then bring back the new ones.

There are so many pictures again. Just look at the ones that interest you.

Sister Sorenson talked about the 2000 Stripling warriors at our
Specialized taining and Elder Breedlove drew all these for her free-hand.
It amazes me, because I have no art talent at...zip

Elder Breedlove showing the page of them that he dres.

Then he ran off 200 copies and Sister Sorenson taped them
all together to make 2,000. It was a very good lesson.

Eder Paul was so hungry and the spagetti tasted so good
that he could not spoon it in fast enough. Then he ate
another whole plate full and they were big plates of spagetti.
I ate about one third of my plate and was stuffed.

Elder Carpenter was the smart one and wore his napkin. Most
of us had spagetti down our fronts.

This is the tie that a lot of the Missionaries like to buy here
in Russia. I really like it. How do you like their double knot?
Elder Gronning does not like it, but I like it a lot. Is that a surprise?

Cute babushka's (grandmothers) that served us lunch. They
kept going to the elders and bringing them a new plate
of spagetti. When she came to Elder Gronning he patted his
tummy and stuck it out fat and she got the message..no more.

Dinner at the Starlight Diner before we went to the Russian
Dance. Gene was having an oreo shake for Gracie. She told
him to have one for her. She ate with us here and loved it.
They serve good American food.

YUMMY

Oreo Milkshake for Gracie

Theatre

More theatre

Cute picture of Elder, Dr. Hatch and Sister Hatch
waiting for the program to start.

Elder and Sister Carpenter and Elder and Sister Craythorn.

They did dances from all around the world. Very talented people

Driving home in President Sorenson's car looking
out the window at the Kremlin.

Another pciture of the Kremlin

The theatres are beautiful both inside and outside. This is going to
the Golden Cockerell Opera.

This cute group of girls came to the opera all dressed alike.
Prim and proper. We are gussing they might be from a private
girls school.

They all have on the same pretty suits and shoes

Pretty chantelier?(Light) in the theatre. There were many
of these all around

And the senior missionaries waiting for the opera to start. It was
a 3hr opera and not one of us liked it.

Beautiful balcony

Good orchestra

Our two cute office elders. Elder Ablett from
England and Elder Bruev from Russia.

Elder Gronning got a warmer hat so Elder Hayes wanted his
summer one. We call these Cody hats, because our Cody always wore them.

Then Elder Palmer borrowed Elder Gronning for a hat phot
with Elder Hayes. They love Elder Gronning.

We are starting to have beautiful fall colors. There are little
forest all around us and big trees everywhere. So the colors
are around us all day.

Pretty colors everywhere.

Kaseenia our new member and Sister Ashby

Kaseenia was baptized last Sat. by Elder Spoerri. She is such
a sweet girl. We all just love her.

Sister Trunova, Sister Ashby and Sister Marty with Keesenia and
Elder Spoerri. These are the sisters who taught her.

This is all the missionaries and ward people who
were at the babptism. There were others but they
did not make the picture.

Elder Gronning, Elder Spoerri, Elder Goddard (from Idaho, he knows Mat )
and Elder Hayes.

Elder Hayes playing the prelude music.

Cute family in our branch. He is a counselor in the bishopric
and Mawsha and Anna are his daughters. We love
the girls so much. Mawsha and Anna are our two
little friends.

I just love the Russian children. They always walk holding
onto a parents hand and they usually are carrying something
or pushing something. How cute is this?

Is this cute enoug?. Mat and his two litlle girls hunting
on the 4-wheeler. I think they were hunting for Grouse Sadie and Courtnee.

18 Sept 2011

2011-09-19T10:31:00.000-07:00

Well one of the fun things in the past few weeks was watching the children start back to school. It is a very big event here. Every child brings beautiful bouquets of flowers for the teacher and the whole family comes to see them start school. We went right down to the school and acted like we were grandparents (which did not take much acting) and enjoyed watching all the children. The flowers here are so beautiful.
It has turned to fall here. We have had a lot of rain. But the last few days we have had some sunshine so that has been nice.
Our Cody will go through the Temple on Saturday in St. George to take out his endowments to go on his mission in a few weeks. We are so proud of him. It is so hard to be far away and not participate and be a part of this event with him, but he will know we are thinking of him. Our children have taken care of each other so good while we have been gone. Mitch and Michelle's families are going to St. George on Saturday to go through the Temple with him. We are so greatful for all of our wonderful children.
O.K. if you have an hour of spare time start looking at all these pictures. Or if you just have a few minutes then look at a few.

1st day of school

Looking out the kitchen window as the first day begins.

The little boys all bring flowers and they all had on suits.

So many beautiful flowers.

Another cute little girl. Look at her pretty long hair and pretty
white bow.

This little guy was so cute. He waved and said hi to us.

Rain, rain. But that doesn't stop the party.

You can see the whole family with this little girl

Big white bows and flowers and white tights were almost on every little girl

This little guy was not to sure about his flowers.
Aren't they so cute in their little suits holding the flowers?

I loved her tights and shoes.

More cute little girls with beautiful flowers abd white tights
and white bows. And most of the girls either had on
blue skirts or jumpers.

This is so blurry because they were moving, but I just loved this little girl
in her big plaid skirt and sweater and hat.

The whole family

Most of the schools have big iron rod fences around them.

All dressed up, but I don't know where his flowers were.

Everyone was taking pictures.

Another favorite. A little girl tired of the party and just
wants to push her toy. Parents hold on to their childrens hands
most of the time in Russia. And if they are not holding on they
are walking right with them.

More pretty flowers.

Looking out the kitchen window at the office as the
children were walking home from school.

They are making a subway station right on our corner. The metro
does not come this far yet. So we watch them working
everyday as we walk to and from the office.

And yes it does rain hard. We were waiting for
the bus in this rain storm.

I call this our seasons tree. It is right outside
the office window and we can look at it all day.
It looks like fall is in the air.

We said goodby to out dear friends Elder and Sister
Budd. We loved them so much and hope to see them
when we get home.

And good by also to Elder Bogdanov. One of our very
favorite missionaries. He lives cloe to the city of Vladavostok
on the other end of Russia. He served in Z-Grad for a long
time so became good friend.

Look who turned 4. Our precious little Courtnee.

And look who I think turned 11. Our precious little Sadie. Her dads
hunting buddy.

Sadie went hunting for her birthday. Her dad says she loves it. And
this is with a broken arm.

Who needs a son for a hunting buddy?

I took these pictures from pictures that Mat sent me. So that is
why they are a little blurry. But oh so cute.

Whats a camp without marshmellows?

Sandhill cranes. And 2 hunting buddies. Callie and Sadie.

What a good dad. Do you think he loves his girls? They love him?
A favorite picture of mine.

Elder Zwick a member of the seventies had been in Russia to teach
at a Presidents conference. Our ward in Z-Grad got to have him speak.
In the picture is Sister Schwitzer, a sister in our ward, whose name is much
to hard to spell, Sister Zwick and then another Sister

Elder Zwick talking with Elder Palmer and Elder Hayes.

Not to sure what he was telling them, but he was looking at their nametags. For
my boys the elder with the red hair and big smile is a crazy mad hunter. Elder
Gronning talks alot with him about hunting and I think it makes them both happy.

Another fun district meeting at the office. Elder Ayers at the front of the
table is a beautiful piano player.

Oh, I think I am getting fat. We do eat a lot.

Elder Spoerrys grandmother had sent him some root beer extract. So he
made root beer and we got some ice cream and had root beer floats.
They were so yummy. They have very good ice cream here and I do
love ice cream. Especially vanilla.

Morgan and Karlees new puppy went to dog heaven. I think she only
lived about a week. But they were very sad. So just a few days later they
had a new puppy and they love her just as much. She is Lou Lou and
Karlee says she is a girl.

Elder Gronning is always entertaining. President, the AP'S,
and the office elders. I think they were on google earth looking
at their houses and seeing where they all lived.

Say cheese. You have to love the elders. Not to much longer and
our Cody will be one of them.

Sunday 28 August 2011

2011-08-29T23:32:00.000-07:00

Just a few fun pictures and expierences to share. It has been a wonderful week with beautiful weather in the 70's.
We had a very good senior council at President Sorenson's house last Thursday night. They barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs and we had delicious potatoes and choc cake and ice cream. Elder Palmer told us all of their goal to give away 1 Book of Mormon a day. They have a short testimony and picture and phone number in the front. He said we have beenn told to flood the earth with Book of Mormons. So as a group we were challenge to go to the water park on Sat night and give out 1 Book of Mormon with our testimonies in it to at least 1 person. I said "I cannot speak Russian. How do you do that?" He says just start up a conversation by asking if they speak a little English and then go from there. He said if you will pray to be guided to someone the spirit will guide them to you. Oh boy, panic set in. I knew I could not do this. And Gene was not to excited either. So in the following pictures I will tell you a little more about Sat. night.

Our dear friends the Carpenters. They are our hero's. Sister Carpenter
has had knee replacements and now she needs a hip
replacement. But they came on a mission anyway and she does
her best to walk around. And you can tell it hurts her so much.
They are a great example for everyone. And Elder Carpenter can
speak a lot of Russian. He practices all the time. He loves Russia. He
says if it was not for his family he would live here to help the gospel
move forward.

Elder and Sister Craythorn. This is the couple that some
of Michelle's friend know.

Pres. Sorenson teaching us. The couple close to him, she is in
yellow are the Luekenga's. They are the new West Mission
office couple. So they join us on Senior Coucil night.

Couple looking at President are Elder/Dr, and Sister Hatch.
Sister Packard is sitting next to them and Elder Packard looks
like he is bowing his head.

A new disposal after 14 months.

We searched and searched for a drain stopper and this
is what we used for 14 months. A measuring cup.

Entering the park on Saturday night.

Many beautiful flower gardens.

I love the castle in the background. It is Kathryn the Great's
castle. But it reminds me more of Disneyland.

Now you think we need to start looking for the one to give
our book of Mormon to? But guess what? I gave it away at
the metro station with a lot of nudging from Elder Gronning.
We were all meeting on the green platform and some of the
couples were not there yet. So we were all standing around and
we seem to be a bit noticeable in white shirts and name tags. It
does draw peoples attention. Ayoung boy about 17-18 was looking
at all of us trying to read our name tags. So with a shove I went
up to him and asked if he spoke English? He said Choo Choo( means a little.)
I showed him my badge told him what it meant and opened our
Book of Mormon with a picture of our family in it and started to
tell him about our family and how much this book meant to all of
us. I asked him if he would accept it as a gift from me to him?
He acted like he needed to give me something for it and with sign language
I was abale to make him understand I wanted to give it to him for nothing.
And he took it and held it close to him and said spaceba (thank you)
and jumped on the metro.
O.K. we were done...Elder Gronning says lets go home, but of course
we didn't.

More pretty flower gardens.

The fountains before the lighs come on at dusk

This explains the obvious look.

He's so cute. He is going to give away that family proclomation
in his pocket.

This is Sister Carpenter and then Sister and Elder Palmer.
They are the couple that give a Book of Mormon away
every day. He always carrys one in his hand as you can see.

As my children would say I have a flashing red light that goes off on
my head that says talk to me. I guess that is because I am a little shy. Many
of you do not believe that but it is true. This is Neena and Gene and I were
sitting on the bench and she came over and asked if she could take our picture
for us. So of course we let her. Then I asked her about all the tree leaves she
was carrying. She takes them to a 100 degree sauna and fans them all over her
body for 10 minutes and they take away all your sickness and make you healthy,
according to her. She also puts them in tea and sleeps with them. She offered to
give them to me but I told her she better keep them. I was not going to a suana
any time soon. I do not think Gene would let me sleep with them...

Sister Sorenson came and joined in our conversation. Neena did speak some
English. I had a little photo book and I showed her my family and grandchildren
and she had pictures in her bag of her family that she showed us. But they were
all dead. I asked her if she thought she would see them again and she said she hoped
so. We told her we believed in the eternities that we would all live together again.
She is Orthodox and has had many family members who were devout orthodox.
Long sdtory short, Sister Sorenson was able to give her their Book of Mormon and
we got her name and telephone number to give to the missionaries in that area.

A georgeous sunset that night.

It was dusk. Now the colors would start.

They were beautiful So many different colors and lots of fountains.

One of my favorites

Another favorite

Add captionLoved the green in this one

This is the 2nd couselor in the stake presidency. So young.
His little boys name is Mark.

Morgan and Karlees new puppy.
Our new grand dog. Her name is Lucy

22 Aug 2011

2011-08-23T22:55:00.000-07:00

Wow, August is almost gone. So much has gone on. I will just tell it all with pictures.

On Sunday we went to vist the Garbooz family in Lotoshino. We had been
there once before. It is about a 2 hr drive each way. Brother and Sister
Garbooz are the only active members in their city. Every Sunday they
hold their own meetings in their home. They are very faithful members.
I do not know if I could do that if it was just Gene and I. They teach each
other the lessons, they give talks, and he passes the Sacrament. You can imagine
how happy they are when someone comes to visit. This is their living room
and bedrrom. Very humble little old house. Sister Sorenson sitting on their bed.
And notice the pretty rug hanging on the wall behind her.

Alexander is the mission driver. He is such a nice man.
Of course we cannot understand a word he says, but we
gesture back and forth and do sign language.

Sister Sorenson, then guess who and Sister Garbooz

Brother Garbooz, Gene, Pres. Sorenson, Elder Page, Elder Bruev and Alexander
I think we quadrupled their church attendance. Gene did an audit while we were
there. They pay tithing and fast offerings and then a few other financial
things are involved.

No in-door plumbing. This is the out house that they (and us) use. I cannot
imagine going to it in the cold winter. And it is truly an out-house.

Path to the out-house and to the garden at the back
of their house. And guess who is coming out of the
out-house. Sister Sorenson

Wood for the winter. This is the back of the house

Big bumble bees were everywhere. Lots of pretty flowers

They collect rain water to water their beautiful garden

Path out to the front street and a small shed

Entrance to house

Lunch in a very small kitchen

President and sister Sorenson and Brother and Sister Garbooz

Grandpa and the dog. He is not a member

Mission van. We are packing up to drive back home.

Yummy Peanut butter from home. We have found peanut

butter here but it is not skippy or jiff and we have to

go to the mall to buy it and it is $5.00 a bottle

Our usual lunch for the day..no fast foods by the office...
Honey Peanut butter sandwhich in the bag. No ziplocks unless
you go to IKEA to buy them and then they are expensive and
it is way far away. So we have got very use to ties or knots on
our bags.

Michelle sent me a cute P-Day skirt in another fun package
from home. I had some pictures of the box and everything
that was sent. But we were taking some pictures off my
camera card at the office and somehow deleted a number
of them. But there was a skirt, a shaver, candy, pills,
jerky, nuts, lemon extract and so much other stuff. Our children

take such good care of us. It is kind of fun for a change.

Gene's new shaver from Michelle and he loves it!!

Making new steps outside our apt. This is the path

we take to catch busses and go to the grocery stores.

Making the stairs up the hill

08 Aug 2011

2011-08-09T10:36:00.000-07:00

It has been a wonderrful week. President and Sister Sorenson came back to our mission. This is just a short blog to share that

wonderful news. Our faith and prayers were answered. It is a miracle that they were able to

return. Before they left for the USA for medical treatment, Sister Sorenson had me and Elder Gronning come to their house and show us everything in it that belong to them and the things that

needed to stay. She was not sure if they would be returning so if they did not she wanted us to

know what to pack up and what to leave. So that is how serious things were before they left.

So one big, huge Mosocow Mission Miracle. They are back and the mission is complete again.

They were missed soooooo much.

They have the most beautiful flowers here. Flower shops along the streets
everywhere you go. There is a shop by our apartment and we had
this bouquet made for President and Sister Sorenson. We chose the flowers
and they arranged them. It was a little hard in sign language, but we did it.

Aren't they cute? They were so happy to be back.

This is the 8 new missionaries that arrived on Wednesday. They
are a great bunch. We sent 5 home. So it was a big transfer.

Elder Hansen, one of our favorites. He was leaving for home and this was
his last English club night. Bach-T's father baked this pastry for
him. They are not members but Bach-T comes to English club. We
will sure miss him. He has been in Z-Grad for about the past 7 months.
I baked the little tupperware of chocolate cookies.

Back just in time to celebrate his birthday.

Happy Birthday to President Sorenson. Pres. Sorenson, Elder Page, Bishop
Kosak, Elder Lex, Elder Bruev, me, Elder Breedlove and Sister Sorenson

29 July 2011

2011-07-29T11:18:00.000-07:00

Such wonderful news. President and Sister Sorenson are returning to the mission. After going to the U.S. for a couple of weeks for medical testing, he is on the mend. Such a blessing to the mission. Elder Neuenschwander has been taking over while President was gone and we have learned to love him and know what a great person he is. Today we had a Mission Conference and he taught us all how to achieve our goals in life. It was a good lesson for all of us.
Our grand dog Penney is lost. She ran away on the 24th because of the fireworks. So I miss her clear over here in Russia.
We are doing great. On the 27th we celebrated being in Russia one year. What a difference a year can make. I got out my journal and read it and the memories of arriving and the first few weeks came flooding back quickly. But it proved to me that I can do what is right even when it is so hard you think you can't.

Elder Bruev's birthday so we are singing Happy Birthday to him.
Elder Neuenschwander, and AP'S Elder breedlove and Elder Nielson. And of course
photos on my desk.

Elder Bruev's birthday

West Mission invited us to go to lunch with them
to welcome their new office couple the Lukengeys.
They are the couple on the end on Gene's right.

On a clear day there are some beautiful sunsets

Elder Lex, Elder Jenkins, Yevgenny and us. He was baptized
and we are so happy. He has becoame a very good
friend here.

Elder Page, Yevgenny and Elder Jenkins.

Nachos that we make for dinner sometimes on the weekend

Elder and Sister Hawkins who we love.
They were the West Missions office couple
and they just left for home Tuesday. We will
miss them.

After Mission Conference our district came to the house
for District meeting. They wanted to cook. So the
Elders made Pelmeni and the Sisters made an Olivia Salad and
I baked a cake and Elder Spoerri made brownies and we
had vanilla ice cream.

This is Peleme (I do not have a clue how to spell it) but you
pronouce it Pail em eee. Little like a pot sticker. These
had ground beef in the middle. First of all they made the dough
and what a process. They had to knead it until was hard, then roll
it up like a thin snake and then cut it in spieces and then we
made circles with the little pieces, filled one circle with the
ground beef, folded it over and pinched it together well and then
did a fancy fold on it after that. Then then put them in a pot
of salted boiling water. Lots of salt and as soon as they floated to
the top they were done. Eat them plain, or with mustard or with sour
cream. Guess which I chose? You are right..plain..and they were the best.

Sister Marty taking pictures.

Olivia salad. Potatoes, pickles, eggs, a meat similar to bologna.
peas, cucumbers and mayo. Little like our Potatoe Salad. It
was so good.

Finally time to eat. Elder Palmer, Elder Jenkins, Elder Gronning,
Elder Spoerri (loves Elder Gronning) Elder Hansen (loves coke)
Sister Trunova and Sister Martychanova..that is why I call
her sister Marty,

Seniors at Pizza Hut

Do you love those two heads? After we finished eating at Pizza hut
we walked to the Central Building where we have our senior
council. We discuss things that need to be addressed and talked about and we
have a spiritual lesson. It was Gene's turn to teach it and he
taught it on gratitude.

Visa trip again to Riga. This is the view from our
hotel window, Such a fun, old city.

Another view from our window

We found an ice machine. We have not seen one
of those since we left home. We were so happy. And
it was like crushed ice. Did you ever think you would
appreciate something so small?

Sunset in Riga

I love a pretty sunset.

Another pretty view from our window. We have walked
down that street every time we go to Riga. It takes
you into old town.

Specialized trainning the day after President and
Sister Sorenson went to the US. He had blood clots in
his lungs and they thought some other problems.. But after
many test they have the blood clots taken care of and no
other serious medical conditions that would prevent him and
Sister Sorenson to return.

Two of our favorite people. Elder Budd and Elder Lex. Elder
Lex was teaching us at this meeting and he had a tee
shirt on under his white shirt that said 15. The goal was
to get 15 baptisms this transfer, That is why his tie is un-done.

Elder Neuenschwander asked us to come to the departing
missionaries dinner. This was a mid transfer and with President
in the US the Neuenschwanders had to take over. They did
a great job.

05 July 2011 Summer in Moscow

2011-07-06T00:57:00.000-07:00

Summer is here and it is quite warm. I think that the humidity makes it feel warmer. I know it makes my hair look like its been in the water fountain mists. All frizzy and fuzzy and wet and curly and crazy. But we did not get to enjoy much summer last year because of the awful heat and smoke. So it has been fun this summer to notice more of the pretty things around.
All of the senior couples have been sick with some bad cold, cough and fever. We have it also but are finally feeling better. We slept the entire weekend.
President Sorenson has been quite sick. He has had blood clots in his lungs and has been in the hospital for about 5 days. He just came home today. But we are sure he will still be down for awhile. So we will all pitch in and get things done. But we miss him and we were very worried about him for awhile.
Big news is our first grandson Cody received his mission call on Thursday. He waited until Friday to open it so we could all have a group skype call and be part of the excitement. For us that was 6am Sat. morning. But we were ready to get up and be part of all the excitement and fun.. Big surprise....Washington D.C. South Mission. For some reason he felt he would go forgein so he was a bit shocked..as we are all when we get our calls. But it only took us all a few minutes to realize that was the perfect place for Cody to go. He will be there during the next Presidental campaign and he will probably have some great opportunies to talk to people about the (Mormon) religion. We love the NE. Gene and I love the history and beauty of it. Cody will too. There is a blog armiesofhelaman that tells a lot about his mission. If it is possible we hope to stop by and see him on our way home while we are still missionaries. A photo of us all. That would be so great.. Needless to say, we are excited and proud grandparens. And we can hardly wait for him to expierence the joys and blessings of a mission. He will be the best missionary ever. And more good news is that our little Shellie survied the pioneer trek. It was pretty hard on her. She has leg and feet aches a lot and she is very small. So we were so proud of her and her father said she shared her testimony about it in Sacrament meeting and it was wonderful. She said it was a good expierence and I think she would go again. Once the blisters on her feet are better and her sore and chapped lips are healed. We love her. And the next news is that we will be grandparents of another grandchild, thanks to Mitch and Sonya about the first of March. Sonya says she cannot keep it a secret for very long. (Like a week or two) We love her too..But we are very happy about that news. That will make no 12. Right now we are at 8 girls and 3 boys.
Our mission is moving forward as a stake. As of last Sunday we had 3 bishops. Each Sunday a new bishop is made until they have them all. It is exciting. But it is also a big teaching and learning expierence for these Russian saints. They have no idea how to do many things. Enter the Temple recommentds, process missionry applications, organize the youth and single adults activities and so on..but they are ready and willing to learn.
The mission is wonderful and it is a wonderful time to be in Russia and watch the saints learn to serve and do all things they need to so they can function as a stake. Love it so much. I will post pictures.

Happy Fathers day from all the kids. If they had not told us it was Fathers Day we
would of not known. We celebrated man day in March,

West Mission packing up to move missionaries on
transfers. Sometime they go by plane or train. Their mission
is huge. The size of it probably compares in Utah to NY.

One of the funny little busses we ride to church in Z-Grad. This
was a very rainy day. Appreciate your cars and conviences. We had a long walk after
we got off the bus so use your imagination how we looked.

This is 11pm at night. It just is not dark around here. I think that is why
Gene and I have both been sick again. It is hard to get enough sleep.

Another 11pm view out the window.

Pretty little flowers amonst the weeds on the way to
the office.

I love the little blue ones.

More pretty little white flowers. We did not see these last
summer but they probably could not grow in the heat and smoke.

Two cute new office elders. Elder Bruev and Elder Page.
They are both doing a great job.

This was the sunset riding the bus home about 10:15pm
the other night. It was really pretty.

Another picture of the sunset.

Pretty purple flowers by our apartment.

The big white envelope for Cody.Who would
of ever guesses Washington D.C. South?

Cody and Melissa submitting his papers. We are proud of her and the
suppot that she is to Cody.

Shellie made it home from trek. A little dirty and beat up.

Ouch!!!

Oh grandchildren are fun. We love them all..Can't wait to see them again.

21 June..longest day in Russia

2011-06-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-07T11:30:00.000-07:00

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.

Fun in Russia Month of May 2011

2011-05-28T07:10:00.000-07:00

It has been a great month for us. We have had zone conference, the annoucing of the first stake and a wonderful visit with Michelles family. Summer is here and it is wonderful to have blue skies. We have very little dark. It is not totally dark by 11pm and it is light by 4am. There is so much to tell about that I will just tell it with the pictures.

We have a heated towel rack and it blew a leak.

What a mess. Dirty rusty water squirting everywhere. It was starting

to cover the floor and go out into the hall. We did not know how to call anyone

for help, so we just finally figured out how to turn the hot water off. But it
would not go off all the way so Gene made a water slide with the shower
curtain so the water would go into the bathtub. One huge and big mess. We were both
covered in filthy rusty water from head to toe.

Towels from mopping up plus there were many more. In above
picture look at the water on the ceiling. Yuck!!

It was also our 10 days for no hot water. That started the
day after the leak. They turn the water off to clean the pipes.
Do you think it needs it? Glass of hot water.

This is what the water looked like when they turned it off. I got
a little out before it was totally gone.

Elder Jenkins and Elder Huston getting ready to go on
mail run. They have our driver Alexander pick them
up on Tues. mornings around 6:30am and he drives them
to the service center, the post office, the distribution center
and the central bldg. and where ever else things need delivered
or picked up. They usually get back to the office around noon.

This is the annoucement of the stake.

Back side with dates and times of meetings.

Yeah a package from home. This is from Michelles family..Happy Mother's day cards and Happy Birthday pa cards
from all the children and grandchildren.

So exciting to open. Brings a little of home to Russia.

Elder Patterson and Gene at zone conference. Looks like mut and Jeff.

A happy moment. Michelle arrived.

And Clay and Gracie came too. So fun to see grandchildren. Just to
be able to hug them and feel them hug us.

Touring Russia

Moscow River

Christ Cathederal. It is beautiful inside.

Bridge over the Moscow river

We always found ice cream. We love ice cream..especially vanilla for granny.

Little children in Russia are so cute. They make me happy.

Many beautiful flowers

Famous Cemetery where many important people are buried. We saw Kruchev's grave.

This man was founder of the circus here in Russia and he was
also the clown in the circus. The circus is suppose to awesome.
Hope to see one.

Gorky Park

Fun to play in the water

Love cotton candy

Entering towards Red Square and the Kremlin

Alexanader Gardens..many beautiful gardens. This is the place that
the church had a dedicatory prayer for
the gospel to be preached in Russia.

Changing of the guards at the Kremlin

This cannon was never shot

Many cathderals inside the Kremlin wall

Ice cream again

So cute

Lots of loves

Looking at the Moscow River

Another cathederal

More loves

Just in case you do not know that is Gene's head with a cathederal dome on top.

So many different cathderals.

A break for lunch from McDonalds

St Basils Cathderal

Kids got to expierence the bus ride that pa and granny take quite often.

No only the kids the whole family. 2nd bus ride

Fun new Russian hats from the souviner renick.

08 May 2011 A HISTORICAL DAY FOR THE CHURCH IN RUSSIA

2011-05-08T22:48:00.000-07:00

Sunday 08 May 2011..Mother's Day in the USA President Sorenson annouced to the Russian saints that we had been approved to organize the first stake in Russia. What a historical event in the church? The stake will cover a very large area and it will have 6 wards and 3 branches. Keep in mind that everyone either drives, takes the metro or busses to get to church. Elder Russell M Nelson will come in June to our District Coference and he will organize the stake at that time. We are so excited to be a part of this wonderful and historical event in Russia. After a stake we will start waiting and praying for the day when we will see a Temple in Russia. The missionaries have worked very hard for this day and we hope all the ones that have gone home will hear the news and know what a great part they had in this event happening. The ones here are very excited and know that now they really need to step up and keep pushing the work forward.

I guess since I skyped last Gene has had a birthday. The office elders came in singing happy birthday to him and then they went in the kitchen and prepared a delicious steak dinner for him. He had no idea and was totally surprised when they asked him to come into the kitchen. I had told him we would buy Pizza for the office on his birthday. So about 12 o'clock he told Elder Jenkins to call and order it. He did a real good job of faking the call. I loved it.

Also Easter was quited different here. The Sat. before Easter the traffic was horrible. We were on a bus and stopped and going nowhere. We went past a cathederal and people were lined up for blocks with sacks in their hands waiting to get in. So when we got home we got on the inet and read about Easter in Russia. The Sat. before is called Holy Saturday and they take breads or cakes, something like that and have it blessed to be eaten on Easter Sunday. It is a very big event for them. On Saturday night they have a big mass where they celebrate. It goes into the wee hours of the morning. We could see the cathederal from our window all lit up. And we could here the bells ringing. Saturday evening we decided to walk to the cathederal by us and kind of just see what was going on. When we got there police were everywhere..I do not know why..and they were watching people very carefully. We just hurried along at that point and knew it was best to not be there. We had left without our documents so it would of been terrible if one of the police had stopped us. We will not leave without them again. We do know better.

Pictures below will tell of the rest of the events.

Hope everyone is good. We are and we are enjoying the warmer weather.

Elder Huston and Elder Jenkins coming to the office and singing Happy Birthday
and giving Elder Gronning a couple of treats.

Surprised in the kitchen.

This is the steak dinner..pretty yummy huh?

How cute is this? Elder Jenkins and Elder Huston with Elder Gronning showing the
great meal they prepared. Steak, potatoes and gravy and brocoli. I baked a cake and had
some ice cream

These are our friends Eldr and Sister Hawkins. They are the office
couple for the west mission right next to ours.

Elder Huston and President Sorenson ready to eat.

Happy birthday to Gene in Russia.

Big catheral in downtown Moscow where a huge Holy Sat.
Easter Mass was going on. I took this off the T.V

We watched what they were doing but of course did not
understand one bit of it. But oh so different than how
we celebrate Easter.

And along came another package from Michelle and family. It was
an Easter Package full of Easter treats. Of course everyone gets
to enjoy those.

We had a lot of fun with the chicken that layed eggs.
Not to many people had seen one of those.

This was a plaque in the package that sits between
our two cubicles at the office. We love the saying on
it and it always reminds us to be loving and serve others.

Clay and Gracie sent their new school pictures in the package.
Such cute grandchildren. We will see them in about 12 days
when they come for a visit.

We have notes like this one on the front door of the apt building
quite often. We take a picture of it and then ask the office
elders to read it and let us know what it says. O.k I just found
out what the sign says. Hot water will be turned off from May 11
until May 18. How awful is that? Cold showers!!! They have to
clean the water pipes.

Senior night. Sister Neuenschwander and Sister Patterson
trying to serve refreshments using the floor for a table.

Elder Hansen, Ola, Elder Owen and Elder Bogdonov at church
yesterday. The children love the elders.

22 April 2011

2011-04-22T10:55:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-03T10:23:00.000-07:00

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.