Goodbye and Hello

We still don't know why we were transferred, other than for Dave's leadership skills. We've been told all along that we were going to spend our whole mission in Barnaul. We joked that we must have ticked off someone in Barnaul--maybe the bus conductor when we paid the fare of 12 rubles in kopeks, kind of their equivalent of dollars to nickles and dimes. I've only heard of one other time a senior couple in our mission got transferred; they had different responsibilities (CES) than we do and ended up in Turkey.

Plans kept changing as we were getting ready for the move. At first there was talk of using the mission van and driver, but that ended up not working out. We talked about what to move--all the dishes and everything in the apartment owned by the mission (the furniture and a few other items are owned by the landlady), or only take our personal belongings and things we had bought. Because the store in Barnaul where we got a lot of our bulk items was a long way from our apartment and we didn't want to be lugging things like heavy bags of flour through the snow in -40 degree weather, we've been buying extra on every shopping trip: a case of peaches, lots of our favorite muesli cereal only available at that store, several "big" bags of powdered sugar (almost a pound each, vs. spice packet size available in other stores), so we had lots to move. We planned to rent a second sleeping compartment and move everything on the train. However, we found out we could travel on the train, but it's not allowed by Russian law to rent an extra compartment for moving household goods. The next plan was to get a moving van. We decided we'd ride in the cab with the driver and they canceled our train tickets. The zone leader had a hard time finding a van, but finally was able to arrange for one the day before we were supposed to leave. We started having second thoughts about being cramped in a small cab for 6+ hours, especially since most people in Russia smoke, but the train was sold out by then. We were given permission to take a taxi (about $180).

When the moving van arrived Friday morning we were relieved to see the cab was bigger than many of the vans running around Barnaul and decided to go in the van. After we loaded everything, we were told we weren't going to be able to ride in the van after all. The van drove off and the missionaries explained that apparently the van wasn't going directly to Novokuznetsk. Instead they would take our things to the central warehouse, put them on a bigger truck with other stuff going to Novokuznetsk, and it would be delivered, um, sometime. The two missionaries who had talked to the driver came back with different stories. One said they take the container our stuff was in and load the whole container on a bigger truck, and the one with more Russian said they reload our things on the bigger truck. We were immediately concerned because we had run out of suitcase space and put some of our things in garbage bags and left items like a desk chair and the ironing board loose, figuring we'd meet the truck several hours later. We had no idea how many bags we had put on the truck, so we didn't know if we'd end up getting everything. And we hadn't packed with that in mind, but figured we could wear our clothes a second day.

We got to travel in style. The taxi made it a 4 1/2 hour trip instead of a 6+ hour bus ride or overnight train trip (arriving at 4:30 am). As usual, we were running on faith. The zone leader ordered the taxi. When it came we snapped a few farewell pictures of the elders and climbed in. It was a VERY nice taxi with soft seats, lots of legroom and a non-smoking driver--a RARITY in Russia. It was established very quickly, even before we got down the driveway by our apartment, that there wouldn't be much conversation since we couldn't understand the driver and he couldn't understand us. We had no way of knowing if we were even going the right way and didn't see Novokuznetsk listed on road signs until we were about an hour away. We keep trusting 20-year-old kids to take care of things and it's worked so far. We had to have faith that all our things that we'd so confidently loaded into the moving van an hour earlier would eventually make it to Novokuznetsk. We had to have faith that the Lord knew what we needed and we would be able to get by.

We eventually did make it to Novokuznetsk, where the taxi driver promptly got lost trying to find the address where we were to meet up with the Elders. That extended our trip by about 45 minutes, at no extra charge. Fortunately he kept his good sense of humor as we drove down one-way streets away from where he knew we needed to be heading, and we finally got to our destination. The apartment is one the "traveling missionaries" use on short stays. Since the branch in Novokuznetsk is so small, they often have a senior couple or zone leaders visit. It was definitely compact--the bedroom was about 2 inches wider than the bed was long. One night there was enough to tell us we wanted something larger, just for our convenience. We're glad our new apartment is MUCH bigger.

Because we didn't know we wouldn't have our things for a couple of days, we got here without a comb, contacts, shampoo, deodorant, beauty aids, hair dryer, curling iron, towels, meds, razor, coats (it dropped into the high 30s at night that week). Because of allergies, personal preferences and language issues, it wasn't like we could replace some of them easily. Besides, we kept thinking our things would arrive any time. We had one change of wrinkled clothing for each of us that we'd worn the day before we left, an electric toothbrush that died our first night here, Arline's comfortable but leaky shoes--not a problem the day we were traveling, but it rained several times in the next few days.

Remember, we were meeting people for the first time and Dave was being introduced as their new branch president and we wanted to make a good first impression. And he did, even without a suit!

We really struggled in the first couple of days here, but once Dave was sustained as branch president, many of those misgivings and feelings of wanting to go home (we weren't sure if that was Barnaul or Salt Lake so we stayed put) eased or disappeared, even though some of the problems remained. With all the opposition we felt, we think we're going to be a part of some very important things here in Novokuznetsk. One day we were feeling especially sorry about our circumstances, but then realized that in a few years we'll be laughing about it and decided not to waste time now being miserable.

On Monday when we had a little time to ourselves we did discover a few useful things buried in the bottom of the suitcase: one contact and solution, a comb, the picture album--everyone in Russia loves to show off and see pictures.

Except for a few minutes in a restaurant with wi-fi (we happened to have the iPad with us), we didn't have internet access for several days. You know you're taking too much for granted when you get frustrated at not being able to communicate with the family for a week.

On Tuesday we found out our things had arrived but they didn't have a truck to deliver them to us. We were given the choice of renting a local truck and picking them up ourselves or waiting until morning. Since we were just leaving to go to English Club at the time, we opted to wait until morning.

On Wednesday they didn't call and we couldn't call them. In the afternoon someone finally got in touch with them and found out they didn't have any delivery vans again. We arranged for a van to meet us and headed to the warehouse. After wandering around in the general area for a while we finally found the office, where they proceeded to charge us more than double the quoted price. Then they sent us to another place to get our things. They had very carefully packed all of our stuff in two large "build-a-crates." They take 4 boards approximately 8" high and hinge them to form the sides of a box. They can either be set out to be square or flattened for storage. In Barnaul they had put a set of those boards on top of a pallet, loaded the mini box they'd formed with our things and then added additional layers of the boards until everything was below the level of the top layer and put a "lid" on it--a sheet of plywood cut to fit, and wrapped it in plastic. One of our crates was 6 layers high and the other one 9. As near as we can tell, everything made it! We're in our new apartment and getting settled. Pictures to come in a future blog.

This week's "it happened in Russia":

There were a few people we especially wanted to say goodbye to before we left Barnaul. One of those was a lady named Olga. She was one of the "angels" we talked about when Hadley was born. She came to our apartment once and listened to a discussion, but said she wasn't interested in any more lessons. We became good friends through English Club. However, she wasn't there the night we announced that we were leaving. We'd made her a loaf of zucchini bread as a thank you for all of the goodies she had constantly brought to us, so we left it with the Elders along with a note telling her thank you and goodbye. When they gave it to her, she started crying. She said her daughter had been denied a visa and she was really discouraged that night. She told them we had returned the gift of being an angel. After the many tender mercies that have been shown to us in Russia, it was a joy to find we'd unknowingly given one in return. That made up for all the hassles of moving!

Transfers

Sorry for the delayed post this week. I guess delayed isn't the right word. Skipped is more like it. We lost internet access, and it's kind of hard to post without it! I kept thinking we'd be able to get a post done--tomorrow. They kept saying the same thing about our internet--tomorrow. Oh well. Since this is so long you can just think of it as two weeks of posts wrapped into one.

Transfers happen regularly--every 6 weeks, to be exact. Sometimes things get a little crazy around transfer time. Since we arrived four transfers ago, 10 missionaries have left Barnaul (out of 3 sets of elders). A few transfers ago we lost 4 elders. One left on Monday because he was going home; two left on Tuesday/Wednesday; a brand new missionary (we've been asked not to call them greenies anymore) and his trainer arrived on Thursday, another arrived sometime in there, and one elder stayed a couple of extra days since his new companion was on a visa trip--he would have gotten to his new city and not had a companion and we were short an elder, so he stayed; and a new elder who had been delayed because of a minor health issue arrived the next week. All the missionaries and some of the people from the branch go see the departing missionary(s) off. Of course, as many missionaries as possible greet the incoming ones. It seemed like we were at the bus station every day all week for that transfer, either seeing missionaries off or greeting the new ones. Oh, that must be because we almost were! We also have a farewell dinner before they leave and try to make sure the new ones have food in their apartment so they've got something to eat until they can get to the store (often they arrive at bedtime). Not only is it time consuming and the cost adds up to make all those trips, and a hassle because departures are often early in the morning, it's very disruptive to missionary work, but it's fun to meet new missionaries.

Whenever we've gone to the bus station to see the missionaries off, we've felt sorry for them having to pack everything up and have secretly been gleeful that we won't have to do that until we head home. Shh--don't tell them. They think it's an adventure!

We find out about transfers on the Friday night before they actually take place. Usually they leave on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on where they're going. With the distance the missionaries have to travel, sometimes it takes a couple of days to get from a city on one side of the mission to a city on the other side. Now that the two easternmost cities have been moved to the Vladivostok mission, transfers will be a little easier.

There was a bit of an usual twist to this round of transfers, and we found out about part of it earlier than the Friday before. We've decided that one thing the Lord must be trying to teach us is that comfort zones are for wimps. Just as we were starting to feel a little bit acclimated and that we were able to get around in Barnaul (the clerks in our neighborhood stores recognize us and don't expect us to answer them in Russian, we've made friends with many of the bus conductors, and we just found a great hardware store and mall on the other side of town and know how to get there now), we got transferred, something VERY rare for senior couples. A few weeks ago President Gibbons called and asked us if we would consider a "slight" change of assignment. He wants Dave to be the branch president in Novokuznetsk. Since the town is several hours away from Barnaul, that means a transfer, something we weren't expecting to have on our mission. Oh well, at least we weren't asked to change companions! We will still be doing the same things as a senior couple that we did in Barnaul, but Dave will have the added responsibilities of running the branch and he has the option of having Arline fill in with another leadership role as needed.

Novokuznetsk is a little colder and wetter and a higher elevation (1300 ft. vs. 400 ft.) than Barnaul. The city is about 1/2 the size and the branch is about 1/3 as big. There are two sets of young missionaries. At this point, that's about all we know. One nice thing about having a 2-week notice was that we had a chance to be able to learn how to say Новокузнецк before we got there, so we won't make fools of ourselves by stumbling over trying to pronounce it. We do that enough with other Russian words. It's said No-vuh-kooz-nyetsk, almost like it looks, but it's a little difficult for our old Amerikanski tongues to pronounce without a little stuttering over the strange sounds.

One big problem we faced was that we couldn't talk about it to anyone for a week. We had SO many questions, but President Gibbons left for a conference in Lithuania right after he talked with us, so we spent the next week and a half worrying. However, the zone leader in Novokuznetsk found us a nice apartment and everything worked out. We're here and getting settled and have internet again! So we've moved, but our addresses stay the same since everything goes through the mission office.

Now we have a much better understanding of why they keep transfer information so secret until the weekend before. After President Gibbons talked to us about the change, we struggled to keep our focus on Barnaul up until the last minute, rather than to try to wrap things up early and start thinking about what was ahead in Novokuznetsk. In addition, in some ways we felt a little like lame ducks once it was announced in church.

Last Sunday was an emotional day when we said goodbye at church. We were surprised by how close we'd gotten in such a short time to people we mostly couldn't understand. They were so friendly and jabbered away whether or not we could figure out what they were saying to us. We're grateful we didn't know we were going to leave after such a short time--we would have been more reluctant to put down roots and we would have missed out on some wonderful friendships.

They wanted to throw a farewell party for us on Monday night for FHE. These pictures are all from that night, but we're having problems with the captions. Lots of people showed up. There was the usual short spiritual thought as part of FHE, we had a chance to bear our testimonies, and then the festivities began. We played a group game (picture #1), they sang several songs, sometimes to us (performing) and sometimes specifically for us (about friends saying goodbye--picture #2: Vera, Tatiana, Larisa, Oksana, Anya and Liliya). A couple who has done some exhibition dancing performed for us (picture #3) and then they had everyone get up and dance. One older sister kept trying to get the missionaries to dance with her instead of with each other. It was so funny to watch because she didn't want to take no for an answer, but they were all so good about sticking to missionary rules. The Russians just wanted everyone to dance, and male/female couples weren't a requirement (picture #4, Liliya and Anya). The beat of their music was different, kind of between a waltz and a polka. They dance to it just fine--a waltz step with a quick hop in the middle--but it wasn't what we're

used to and we didn't last too long on the dance floor. At the end they gave us a book they had all signed. It is about this general area, with lots of pictures of the Altai mountains. Fortunately, it's in both Russian and English. Lots of fun and hugs and tears. We will miss the people here.

There are people and things that are hard for us to leave behind. Liliya (last picture) has been a long-time investigator and was baptized the day after we left. There were two more baptisms scheduled for this month and two more in October, and of course we got quite attached to the members we've talked about in past blogs. We have seen so much growth in the branch recently. The last two weeks have been a balancing act to keep nurturing while gently pulling up the roots we had just put down. Before Anya's baptism we told her we'd be here for more than a year from now--she was a particularly hard one to say goodbye to. A few people were clearly disappointed--more than once we heard the comment, "but you said you'd be here for a year and a half" from people at church and in English Club.

We had a few ideas "stockpiled" for future blogs, so if you continue to see things about Barnaul, don't get confused. We really will be in Novokuznetsk, but from time to time we may use pictures and stories that happened before we moved, especially in the middle of winter when we don't plan to venture out any more than absolutely necessary. It will also be interesting for us to see if some of the things we've seen are unique to Barnaul or are true in other places in Russia as well.

This week's Russianism:

They don't put notices in our mailboxes, except for bills. Instead they tape notices to the door of the building. That is fine for those who easily read Russian without needing a dictionary to translate. If the missionaries are around, we ask them to translate it. If not, we'll laboriously write down the letters and then go to the apartment and do our best to figure out what it says. Usually the notices are posted the day the water/electricity gets shut off. One afternoon we saw such a note. We recognized the word water and assumed it meant the hot water was turned off, since we hadn't had any hot water that day. The missionaries in our sector later told us they didn't have hot water either, and it was turned off for another 8 days. No one knows why. A few days after that there was no cold water. No notice. Arline realized it in the shower after she'd used up the cool water in the pipes. The morning we left Barnaul Dave saw a notice that we figured out said that the electricity would be turned off, so we hurried and moved all the heavy items down before the elevator stopped working. However, it was still running when we left 4 hours later.

We've been told that Novokuznetsk is a smaller city and things are cheaper there. Not only are they cheaper, they don't have as many amenities, including people to service hot water tanks, so no tanks are available. That means we'll have to deal with having the hot water turned off the same way the Elders do. I guess we'll get a better idea of what life in Russia is really like!

Another Delay

Two weeks in a row of delayed posts. Sorry about that. We're having problems with internet access, but we'll get our post up as soon as possible.

Out and About in Barnaul

There is a small amusement park (a dozen or so rides/activities for kids) just down the street from us. We walk through it often on our way to the zone leader's apartment. It's tucked into a small area on the corner of two fairly busy streets and has apartments and condominiums all around it. We've had fun watching kids enjoy the simple rides. парк (on the sign) is pronounced park.
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One of our favorites things to watch there is a new attraction. It starts with a large water-filled pool. To that they add a huge plastic ball with a zipper, and a child. The kids love it, even though it looks like it would be frustrating because it's so hard to walk in it. We also think it would get awfully hot inside the ball, but it doesn't seem to bother the kids.

We wondered how the ball kept its shape when they unzipped it, so we watched. After a child has been in it for a while, the worker pulls on a cord attached to the ball and slowly draws it back to the pad, unzips and lets the child climb out. The ball starts deflating. Then another child climbs in and the zipper is zipped almost closed. We thought it was strange that the boy immediately covered his ears. Then we saw this:

They stick the nozzle of a leaf blower in and blow it up again, finish zipping and push it out into the pool.

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The little kids don't have trikes like the ones in the U.S. They have these. The tall handle on the back is to make it easy on the parents. Usually the parents are pushing; we've seldom seen kids pedaling themselves. This is a row of them for sale, not a kiddie parking lot.
One P-day a member took us on a walking tour around Barnaul. The have a beautiful fountain in a park in the middle of . . . nothing much. Kind of a business/industrial/junky area.

Barnaul Elders at the time (l-r) Elder Ortner, Elder Bowler, Elder Hansen, Elder Prokoptsev, Elder Liljenquist, Elder Fitzgerald

In the center of town is a BIG war memorial. This is a very small part of it.
















Barnaul seems to enjoy statues of all shapes and sizes. Of course there are the requisite ones of Stalin (on the left) and Pushkin (poet, below), but there are some of lesser known characters as well. We haven't gotten pictures of all of them either because we didn't have the camera with us at the time or because we've seen them as we were zipping by on a bus, but we see lots ALL over town!

Your guess is as good as mine what this is about

The middle of a sidewalk is a perfectly logical spot for a wooly mammothSome of the many matroyshka dolls around, but I don't think these stack

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We've seen lots of pretty flower beds around town.











They love to paint things. All we can figure is that they want color. Some things they've painted that seem a little strange to us are cement fences, even the fancy molded ones; used tires in the gardens as sculptures; curbs (the one by our apartment has alternating red, green and yellow in some places and plain white in others); swing sets and sand piles--they don't bother to clean the sand off the sides first, so the paint doesn't stay on long, and besides, we think it's water-based paint.

Tire swan sculpture and other painted tire accessories

Caught in the act--painting the swings and sand pile

Russianism:

On P-day we went hat shopping at a Reenick (outdoor market). All eight of us in the zone found winter hats. We bought them in August, because they get more expensive the colder it gets. Then when it's really cold and you can't do without a hat any longer, they're no longer available.

Our zone presently consists of Elder Peterson, Elder Hansen, Elder Bowler, Elder Liljenquist, Sister Holbrook, Elder Fitzgerald (way in the back), Elder Holbrook and Elder Ortner