Merry Christmas!

We aren't sending out Christmas cards this year (as usual), but we do want to send Christmas greetings. Here is a quote we recently read we'd like to share:

For each of you may this be a merry Christmas,

But more importantly,

I wish for each of you a time,

perhaps only an hour,

spent in the silent meditation and

quiet reflection on the wonder

and the majesty of this,

the Son of God.

Our joy at this season is because

He came into the world.

The peace that comes from Him,

His infinite love,

which each of us may feel,

and an overwhelming sense of gratitude

for that which He freely gave us

at so great a cost to Himself--

these are the true essence of Christmas.

President Gordon B. Hinckley

Merry Christmas!
Love, Dave and Arline

Visa Trips

For non-Russian missionaries, a visa is only good for 90 days. Exactly 90 days, not 3 months, so the office keeps close track and makes sure each missionary goes out of the country around day 88, just to be on the safe side. Currently the country we go to is Finland. That may change in the future. We were told "the government" (don't know if that's the Russian government or the US, or maybe the host country) decides where we'll go to pick up our new visas.

Visa trips and migrations are very disruptive to missionary work because it affects not only the missionary who leaves, but also the companion. In the past that meant that the companion became part of a threesome companionship, and the three missionaries had to keep up the work in both areas. Now under the new guidelines it means he goes to Novosibirsk and spends a few days there street contacting with the companion of another missionary who is going on visa, which will be less and less fun for them as the weather gets colder. We have to cover their group in English Club if they're gone on a Tuesday night or Gospel English on a Thursday night. For visa trips it's also disruptive because of the nature of the flights. They leave early one morning, spend most of the day traveling or waiting in airports, have a day in Helsinki to pick up their passports with the new visa, go to the temple and shop (Helsinki has a lot of "American" foods and some stores that cater to Americans), and then fly back to Novosibirsk on an overnight flight and then take a bus or the train back home, returning about 60 hours after they left, absolutely exhausted. There's a four-hour time difference between Helsinki and "home" and they're gone just long enough to mix up their sleep schedules. Being young, they think they can take advantage of the extra four hours the first night, but forget they lose four hours when they get back home. However, the missionaries love going to Helsinki and the temple. Fortunately, senior couples get to stay an extra day in Helsinki because of the rigors of travel on their old bodies. We use the same early morning/overnight flights, but don't have to rush to fit everything in in Helsinki. Now that we're in Novokuznetsk, we take an overnight train on Monday night and return early Saturday morning, again traveling on an overnight train. We like the change of scenery and LOVE being in the Helsinki temple. It's too bad the travel part is so brutal. Three months ago we didn't want to have to travel three nights on our visa trip. We've decided that's better than what we put up with last time where we had to change airports, had long layovers, and got delayed for hours because of fog.

Often with all the travel involved, there are other problems. The last group to go on visa got stuck in Helsinki because of the weather and missed their connecting flight, so they had to hang around in Moscow for a day. Fun for them, but more time away from missionary work. Another time the Elders got on the plane in Helsinki and just before takeoff one of them commented that he didn't see any workers on the tarmac. Between the time they boarded and when they took off, the ground crews went on strike. The luggage didn't get to Russia for a couple of days. And here the airline doesn't deliver it to your home. The missionaries had to keep checking with the airport to find out when their luggage would be ready for them to pick up. Because of some of the things we (meaning all missionaries from the US) like to pick up in Finland are "liquids" like Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce or French's mustard, we often check our luggage on the return trip.

In addition to the disruption of missionary work, these trips are very expensive. It would be nice if the Russian government would just let the Church pay a visa renewal fee and not require us to travel out of the country. However, we think that going to the temple is a gift, so for now we'll enjoy the mini some-expenses-paid "vacation" without complaint. Unlike the younger missionaries, senior couples pay for most of their own day-to-day expenses; however, the Church does cover most of the expenses incurred on visa trips including airfare and hotels.

The missionaries from the other former Soviet countries don't need visas, but they do have to do a "migration" trip and leave the country every 90 days. Our Latvian elder has to return to Latvia and is gone for nearly a week. He helps the missionaries there; when his migration paperwork is done he gets to come back. Our Ukrainian missionaries leave their areas in time to arrive in Barnaul in the evening, stay overnight with the zone leaders (elders) or a member or senior couple (sisters) and then early the next morning, 5:30-6:00ish someone picks them up, drives them over the border into Kazakhstan where they get to sit around for a few hours while their migration is processed and then drive back. Usually they catch a bus back to their area that night. One time a sister forgot to grab her passport on her way out the door and left it on the counter in her apartment. Someone got it to the train in Novosibirsk and the sister had to go to the train station in Barnaul to pick it up mid-morning the next day. They didn't get back from Kazakhstan until late that evening and had to stay with us another night before catching a 6:30 am bus the next morning. She was SO embarrassed!

The office really has to plan ahead so they can buy tickets from whatever city the missionary will be leaving from. This means that transfers are actually planned about three weeks in advance to avoid last-minute expensive tickets, but kept very hush-hush. Once I talked with President Trejo (our former mission president) on a Friday morning and during the conversation he said something about transfers that would be announced that night. He apologized to me but said that he doesn't talk to ANYONE (except the travel secretary) about the transfers before they're announced to the missionary, five days before the actual transfer. President Gibbons thinks the missionaries need more time for planning and saying goodbyes, so he announces transfers ten days before.

The timing for our next visa trip had us traveling overnight on New Years Eve. New Years is one of the two BIG holidays in Russia. It's such a big drinking day that the missionaries don't try to do any missionary work. Church will be one hour and then we'll all head to our apartments and stay put for the rest of the day. Anyway, rather than try to travel that night, the mission office moved our trip up a week. That means we'll get to be in Helsinki to see all the Christmas sights, exhibits, lights and hoopla! We're very excited about that.

This week in Russia:
It's time to reveal who the Russians are. We were a little surprised that there is so little ethnic diversity here, but yet there is no "Russian" look. That's why we included this--so you could be as surprised as we were! A lot of Germans look German, Brits have a British look to them, but Russians look like, um, nothing much we can pick out. A big part of it is that we don't understand how people who look so normal can open their mouths and have all sorts of unintelligible sounds come out, person after person after person!

A few people guessed one of the Russians, but the only one who guessed all three correctly was my dad. He also guessed the other nine incorrectly. Here are the pictures again but with their names underneath. Let's see if that helps you figure out which ones are Russian.
Elder Howard, Elder Turley, Старейшина Варган (he's over 2 meters tall when he doesn't slouch), Elder Newman, Elder Bounous, Elder Kelly (who is now with us in Novokuznetsk)
Sister Djurich, Sister Trottier, Sister Margolies, Sister Holmes, Сестра Василевская, Сестра Филатова (they are stepsisters and companions right now--yes, sister Sisters)

If you can't guess from their names, maybe you need to learn your alphabet again.

Baptisms and Bridges

We've had two baptisms since we came here, one in November and one yesterday. We've recently been (re)cautioned against giving out much information on blogs unless they're private because sometimes new members mentioned on blogs have been persecuted, so we won't post pictures and will only give sketchy details.

Our church building here is very small and there's no room for a baptismal font, so we go to a sauna/spa for baptisms. They have a small, deep pool (about 6' X 12' X 5' deep) and we use an attached room for the prayers and talks. It's different than other places we've seen for baptisms, but beats trying to do a baptism outside in freezing weather.

Стас (Stas, the Russian equivalent of Stan--we like that name!) was baptized November 19. He's been "investigating" the church for a long time. At first his parents were against it, and he couldn't get baptized without their permission. He waited a few years, but still came to a lot of activities and met often with the missionaries. He was baptized a week after his 18th birthday. His parents would have given their permission by now, but he wanted to wait until it was totally his choice. He's great! The missionaries said they have even seen him mature in the three weeks since his baptism.

The second baptism was yesterday. Мария (Maria) started coming to Gospel English and Family Home Evenings a few weeks ago. We thought she was around 20, but soon found out she is 16. She was very interested right off the bat, and said that what the missionaries taught her sounded "familiar." Her younger brother seems very interested too, but he hasn't had any lessons yet. Her parents are very supportive. After her baptism, she told us last week had been rough for her. She has lost friends because of her decision to join the Church. Her testimony is very strong. She's a very accomplished young lady in sports and education.

We're excited to have her in the branch. However, we have a little bit of a problem now. In our building we have the main room which is used for Sacrament Meeting, Sunday School and Priesthood, and a smaller room where we hold Relief Society. There's also a short hallway with bookcases where we store a few things where the missionaries have been meeting with a 12 year old for Young Men, and a restroom. Now we need a place to meet for Young Women (or is that Woman?). We knew this day would come too soon. We're just glad we're not trying to set up a Primary as well! Even though we only average about 17 people on Sundays, including the 6 missionaries, it's time for us to find a larger building to meet in.

This week's Russianism:
They have a fun tradition in Russia. When a couple gets married, they buy 7 padlocks. After the ceremony they go to 7 different bridges around their city, put a padlock on the railing and throw the key into the river below. There's a lot of fanfare with it and cars are decorated with ribbons and flowers. Often traffic is hindered as they put the locks on the bridge because they are accompanied by lots of friends and sometimes a videographer, but no one seems to mind. After they finish at one bridge they drive to the next bridge, honking all the way.

The locks stay put. When the railing gets painted, the locks get painted over as well. Supposedly if the couple wants to get divorced they have to find each key and take all their locks off all 7 bridges. We asked if that really happens and the people just laughed. "The keys are washed downstream, but it's a nice idea," was their response.

One interesting thing we learned is that when they get married (or divorced), that information is noted in their passports. The birth of each child is also noted in their passports.

Happy anniversary today Jeff & Becca, and to Brad & Heather on December 30, and next year to Niki & Michael in May, and Stan & Melanie in June, and all the rest of you on your specials days.

Festival of Trees

You might think it's strange to have a post about Festival of Trees while we're here in Russia. Ever since Niki was a patient at Primary Children's Medical Center when she was four, we've participated in at least one of their various fundraising activities every year. However, since we can't do much of anything for PCMC while we're here, our kids said they'd do a tree this year. It turned out отличный (aht-leech-nee), as we say in Russia.

A big thanks to Becca for spearheading it. She got everyone involved, including those who live out of state. Even cousin Em wanted to be a part of it. And thanks, Becca, for getting us the pictures so quickly. It made us feel like we were a part of it. Unfortunately, there were a few problems and we couldn't get all her pictures on the blog. Just know that the finished tree was glorious!

They called it Winter Woodland. Enjoy these pictures of the tree in process.

Em and Niki checking out the snowballs, and Michael (getting ready to cut Niki's hair?)

Seeing Michael on a ladder surprised us. We thought he was tall enough to reach anything. Flatfooted.

Niki, adding some white berries

Quality takes a lot of work and a long time to pull together. Em, Becca and Michael during their dinner break. Five Guys, mmmm.

Jeff was behind the camera for most of the pictures. I guess he did this shot to prove he was there. He was also in charge of putting the tree together, and he's got plenty of scratches to prove it, too.

Niki and Em attaching the snowy tree skirt

Admiring their work and making last minute adjustments

In addition to all the time they spent putting it together at the Festival, they also spent hours and hours in preparatory work (and of course lots of paper work and hoops to jump through). They started December 26--last year. This is the wonderful result of 11 months of planning and preparing.

The tree sold for about 3 times as much as they spent on it. Jeff said that with all their time, he figures that works out to about $1/hour. But knowing that they've helped a child get care they couldn't afford makes it all worth it, right?

This was the most wonderful Christmas present you could have given to us in Russia! Thank you!!!

This week's Russianism:
Dave found a Christmas tree for us. It's two feet tall from star to base. At first we thought it was nice they'd have a tree in red, white and blue for us. Then we realized those are the colors of the Russian flag as well. We weren't planning to have a tree, but Dave found this for a great price. We love this season. Merry Christmas!

And as far as last week's blog and "Can you spot the Russians?" contest, so far Kelly's ahead. He got one right. Can you beat him?

Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving Day. It was a mini-holiday for the missionaries. They came over after morning studies. While we were putting the finishing touches on dinner, they started watching "The Great Race" (Dave's favorite movie). They took a break when dinner was ready. We had roasted chicken in lieu of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, yams with marshmallows, corn, a delicious Oriental cabbage salad provided by one set of missionaries and monkey bread provided by the other set. We were able to provide some of those things because Niki sent Stove Top dressing, canned yams and marshmallows, none of which are available here. They LOVED it! When we were done they finished watching "The Great Race" and then "Monsters, Inc." before devouring the pumpkin pie (a can of pumpkin was also in the package from Niki). We decided they're just a bunch of big kids, with appetites to match! A few of them snuck in naps before leaving about 6:00 to do Gospel English. All in all it was a very nice day.

Elder White, Elder Capps on the couch, Elder Marcy and Elder Terry on the floor

Things Dave and Arline are thankful for:
*Skype, mails, blogs, texting, and Magic Jack phone calls.
*We can be embarrassed by our luxurious accommodations (by Russian standards). As we visit people in their homes, we see them living in tiny quarters and they don't seem bothered. The most cramped living situation we've seen is a family with 4 kids under 5 in a room approximately 10' X 12'; the kitchen and bath were down the hall and shared with at least 3 other apartments. Once we visited another lady and took a loaf of zucchini bread to her. She asked us about it and how we cooked it--did we do it ourselves or did we have to take it to a place to bake it for us. She lives in a small dorm room and has only a small hot plate for cooking. It's often a little awkward when they come to our home for FHE or firesides and see that the two of us have so much room in our apartment.
*Smaller versions of two of our 4 favorite stores in Barnaul have just opened up right across the street from our apartment. The fact that they weren't there when we first moved in makes us appreciate them all the more!
*Snow is less slippery when it's really cold.
*Cleats that slip over our boots for when it's not cold enough. They don't clear most of the sidewalks or parking lots, and walking surfaces are rather uneven. Right now we are walking on 1-3" of packed snow on the sidewalks. Here's a close-up picture of where the sidewalk is cleared at a crosswalk. That is very solid snow, about 2 inches deep.
*Feeling needed, especially on Mondays and Fridays when we feed the missionaries on P-day and after the weekly district meeting.
*Supportive family and friends and all the letters, emails and packages we get. It's great to be kept up to date on what's happening at home, and no, it doesn't make us homesick (at least not too much). We enjoy ANY contact from home, even when we don't respond.
*Our apartment is on the third floor (no elevator), so we get a little bit of exercise every time we come and go, but it's not so high that carrying lots of groceries is too hard. And we're about 15 minutes from church, so we get some automatic moderate exercise almost every day without thinking about it, even on days when we might otherwise be tempted to stay warm and cozy at home!
*Opportunities to meet, visit and Skype with other Senior Couples and compare experiences. It's nice to have our own peer group here!
*Warm, really warm, unbelievably warm Russian outerwear.
*Reminders of how great American really is and how blessed we are to call it home.
*So many diligent young men and women who are willing to serve the Lord.
*Wonderful inexpensive public transit that makes it possible to get around town and for trains to and from N'sibirsk for meetings and visa trips. We wouldn't want to be driving on the roads here.
*A long, mild Siberian autumn.
*The visa trips to Helsinki every three months where we can go to the temple. And that it's so easy to find English speakers in Helsinki.
*Senior couples get some privileges the younger missionaries don't, such as an extra day for visa trips; train trips (usually in a sleeping compartment at night or nicer seats for day trips) instead of buses; unlimited internet usage (in addition to staying in touch with family, it's great for checking recipes online or looking up information for talks, lessons and teaching; we don't tract or contact; we can go our separate ways if necessary, like Dave goes to the store to pick up a last minute item while Arline is home cooking; we get date nights and can watch an occasional video; we don't have to get up at 6:30 or go to bed at 10:30--they trust us to get enough sleep, and besides, we have permission to takes naps; we don't change companions and seldom get transferred.
*The warm, loving Russians.
*President Gibbons and his inspired leadership of the mission.
*The positive, upbeat attitude of the Gibbons that helps us to appreciate what we have here.
*Free heat--we can keep the apartment as warm as we like it. The buildings are heated by hot water running all through the city.
*We don't have to keep our apartment as warm as the Russians keep the stores and their homes. They love their heat and don't understand air conditioning. When it gets too hot we just open the windows and things cool down pretty quickly.
*The Holmes, the senior couple we followed to Barnaul, will be returning early next year to serve for the third time in Barnaul (this is in addition to the other two missions they've served, but apparently they like Russia the best). We met them once and they're delightful people. And we no longer have to feel like we abandoned our new-found Russian friends in Barnaul because we know the Holmes will take good care of them.
*Young men who are so appreciative of our attempts to cook using what we can find here. All they care about is that A) it is homemade and B) they didn't have to fix it. They eat all our experiments and mistakes without complaint.
*We can get by without speaking much Russian. They appreciate our attempts without pressuring us to learn more.
*We've been here long enough that we know our way around and can find most things without bugging the young missionaries.
*We have the gospel in our lives and always have had it to bless and guide us. Thanks Mom and Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa, and G-Gma and G-Gpa . . .
*Sunny days. Did you know it can drizzle snow? For days? Without any noticeable accumulation?
*An opportunity to give back to the Lord in gratitude for the many, many blessings he has given to us through the years.
*The great location for our apartment--close to bus stops, a few stores and walk-aways (Russian take-out)--and lots of windows in our apartment for watching life go on below on moderately busy streets.
*A classical pianist for a neighbor. We get to listen to her practice. She's really good. The thick walls mute it and we have to make the effort to listen, so it's never too loud.
*Great examples of other senior missionaries who have all been out longer than we have and are so willing to share their knowledge and experiences with us. Rubbing shoulders with them is a wonderful boost.
*The Christmas music Becca loaded on the iPad before we left. We didn't even think of it, but she did.
*Most of all, knowing we have a loving Heavenly Father who is mindful of all our needs, desires and wishes, and that He sent His Son as our Savior and for the opportunity we have to share that with others.

This week in Russia:
We're going to have a little contest to see if you can pick out the Russians in the pictures below. The pictures were taken at a recent zone conference. Let us know which 3 missionaries of the 12 you think are native Russians. You can comment on the blog or email us at arlinejh@gmail.com
Too hard? How about in the pictures below:

(L to R) Elder A, Elder B, Elder C, Elder D, Elder E and Elder Z

(L to R) Sister 1, Sister 2, Sister 3, Sister 4, Sister 5 and Sister 6 (one of those sisters is from North Salt Lake!)

Farewell

The first non-missionary church member we met in Novokuznetsk was Sasha. Her English is very good and she has been extremely helpful in many ways to us. A few days after we got here she received her mission call. She waited to open it until she could get her family and friends together. Her patience was amazing to us, but then again, she did ask us to keep it at our apartment so she wouldn't be tempted to sneak a peek!

About 20 people were able to attend. She planned a little program, including having the missionaries sing "Called to Serve" before she got down to business. After opening it she made a few phone calls to others who couldn't come. She even set up Skype so a friend in the US could watch her as she opened her call! She didn't look when she pulled the paper out of the envelope and quickly covered it. Then she slowly slid the paper down, reading each word carefully, stretching out the suspense. She was very nervous and excited about it.

She'd been told by the office that she'll be going to the MTC (Mission Training Center) in Madrid, so she thought she might be learning Spanish. We couldn't tell whether or not she was relieved when we told her that all of the missionaries from Russia go there now instead of Provo, and that they really need native-speaking missionaries in Russia. Sure enough, her call was to Moscow. She was VERY pleased.

She leaves tonight for Novosibirsk. There are three sisters heading to Madrid from our mission. They'll all meet up on Monday and travel to Spain together.

Today was her farewell. She did a good job (and so did Dave, who also spoke). She'll be a wonderful missionary.

With all her family and friends visiting, we had about 3 times as many Russians at church as usual today, which means 24 people were there.

This is a rather small branch. We have about 30 members on the records, but only about 11-12 are active. However, we have one young man serving in Samara, Russia, and now Sasha, and another young man recently returned from St. Petersburg.

Today's Russianism:
Parking isn't a big problem in Russia, even though there aren't a lot of parking lots. Part of it is that mass transit is heavily used, so there aren't as many cars on the road as in the US. The missionaries in Novokuznetsk walk most places because the city is fairly compact.

Quite often we'll see cars parked in places that would never happen back home. For example, if someone is going to a pharmacy with a walk-up window, they'll stop the car at the edge of the road (but still blocking traffic). It's perfectly legal. We've seen cars stop in a similar place when the person wants to go to a walk-away (Russian take out), even though they're blocking the bus stop. We're finding that Russians are amazingly patient. No one honks or gets upset with the cars blocking traffic.

Sometimes we've seen people park in a place that could potentially be a problem, such as in front of someone's storage shed/garage or partly blocking a seldom-used driveway. They park wherever it's convenient, set the alarm and walk away. If someone else comes along and needs them to move, they simply kick the car, setting off the alarm and in a minute the owner comes out and moves it. No one gets bothered. It's so simple and thoroughly delightful. When we first got here we thought we were in a high crime area with the car alarms going off all the time. Not so.

The Sign Monkey

Last week we were walking home and saw a man starting to wrap something around a square metal pole. It looked like he was getting ready to climb the pole, so we watched as he spent a lot of time getting ready. Then he did start to climb. It was amazing to watch. He had two straps wrapped around him and the pole. First he lifted the top one as high as he could reach and put the second strap about chest high and leaned back. He stuck the toe of his sneakers against the pole and pulled himself up, adjusted the straps and repeated the process, over and over until he got to the top and pulled himself up, next to the sign that was sticking out over the road. The amazing thing was that we had been wearing cleats over our boots because the sidewalks were so slippery, but he didn't have any problems climbing a vertical pole. Much of the time he didn't have a safety strap that we could see. He worked all by himself. We stood out in freezing weather with snow falling, just amazed by this. None of the other people walking by seemed to think it was anything unusual.

We hope you can make out the details in the pictures. It was night and snowing, so these are the best we could get of him in action.

Here he is at the top of the pole, using only one harness strap at this point. You can see his shoes aren't anything special. We couldn't figure out how he climbed that cold, slippery metal pole.

Climbing up to the top of the sign with electrical wires (220 voltage) running close to where he was working

He pulled the new vinyl sign up behind him and hung it over a light pole (far right of picture). Then he kicked the snow off the top of the sign before he started working

Sometimes he worked from the top of the sign, but sometimes he used a little seat when he had to lower himself to work at the sides or bottom of the sign. The seat had two settings, one for working higher and one for at the bottom. He climbed up and down the rope.

Off with the old sign

Some spots were nailed down better than others

Rolling out the new . . .

. . . and dropping down

He knows his stuff--it was perfectly centered, first try!

One last time down the far side to tack it all down

and almost done

We were too cold to stay around and watch him wrap things up and climb down. Here's the sign in daylight so you can get a better idea of what he had to go through. He was on top of that sign over a busy road while it was snowing! We've seen them use cherry pickers on other signs, so we were very surprised to see him doing it this way. (The pole looked yellow in the other pictures because of the lighting, but it's really white.)
This week in Russia:
Things have turned a little chilly here. We have icicles hanging from the light right outside our window. So far it hasn't dropped below zero F, although it has gotten to about 10 (-12 C). Then the next day warms up to a little above freezing and the day after that gets colder, then it warms up to just barely above freezing and then it gets colder again . . . Winter has definitely hit.

Home Alone and Halloween

This week was rather unnerving when we realized we would be the only missionaries in our city for a few days. Elder Harrison was transferred to the mission office and his companion, Elder Terry, went with him to pick up a brand new missionary. They stayed at the mission home for a few days for training. Elder Capps went on visa, so his companion, Elder Marcy, stayed in Novosibirsk with another missionary whose companion was also on visa. That left us to run things. Alone. Just the two of us. With no Russian skills. For the most part that meant we didn't do much since we can't carry on too many conversations, but we still had English Club on Thursday night. We had asked the people in the advanced class to help us run things. We came up with the bright idea of doing "stump the experts" with them as the panel (we didn't use those words because we didn't want to scare them). We were there as back up. We started the way we usually start our class, with homophones and idioms, and then turned the time over to the group to ask our panel questions. Things went well, but it was a relief to have it over.

At least we thought it was over. Sunday night we had a fireside at our home. The first person to show up was an investigator and her 7-year-old grandson who speak no English. None. And they were 40 minutes early. And the missionaries were 10 minutes late. Although it was a little awkward at first, we muddled through with our usual survival skill--smiles. We ended up with more people in our home for the fireside than we had at church today! Dave gave a good talk on the First Vision with some great insights. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and especially the visiting and food after.

HALLOWEEN

Several people have asked if Russians celebrate Halloween. In short, the answer is no. However, as if often the case in Russia, American influence is felt everywhere.

One young man in the branch, Kirill, LOVES Halloween, at least the yucky, gory part. He decided that FHE should be a Halloween party. He has been planning it out for weeks. He had several people make posters, big and small.

And our favorite one

He wove a spider web out of blue yarn (the small lights aren't anything for Halloween--they're part of the regular lighting in the church).

A few people had costumes, including Elder Holbrook (as a pirate)

Kirill as a Frankenstein/vampire

Sad Sasha and her litter of kittens. We've never seen them before. We think they're strays (who know Sasha).Although they don't celebrate it here, many people have heard about Halloween and wanted to learn more about what we do. We told them about the way kids dress up at school and parade through all the classrooms, as well as going trick or treating at night. Then Kirill got things going with his version of Halloween, Russian style.

There was a little bit of mock trick-or-treating, lots of laughs and candy and fun.

Kirill had a game to see who could turn the missionaries into mummies the fastest.

Elder Capps

Elder Harrison and Elder Terry

Elder Marcy

This week's Russianism:
We thought their bike frames were strangely bulky. That is until we saw one boy take his bike into the apartment building, pop a button on it and fold it in half to fit in the elevator (most of the elevators are too small for a regular bike). Brilliant!