A Week in Review

For the most part, this has been a busy week. It started with five phone calls/Skype for Mother’s Day–one to my mother and four to those who made me a mother (and their families). I’m SO glad senior missionaries have different rules. It was wonderful to hear the voices and even see some of the faces of those we love and miss so much. We finished up the calls Monday morning here (it was still Mother's Day in SLC).

May 9 is Victory Day in Russia. It is a very big holiday here that commemorates the day the Russian army arrived in Berlin to stop Hitler. It is a “lockdown day” when the missionaries don’t even bother going out to try to contact people, and they have to stay home in the evening because of all the drinking. The missionaries loved the change of pace. After morning studies they came to our apartment and spent the day together. For lunch we had шаурмас (in case you don't know how to pronounce it, that's sha-oormas), kind of a burrito-looking thing filled with meat, carrots, cabbage and spices. Very delicious. Then they got to watch two movies–they chose Toy Story 3 and Invictus. One was in Russian with English subtitles and the other was in English with Russian subtitles. After that they sat around writing in the journal/diaries of the missionaries who were getting transferred out on Wednesday and talked and munched on snacks. I had fixed four 9X13 pans of baked MacCheese. For once, they didn’t eat everything I had fixed! Here they are, all ready to watch Toy Story 3. Left to right: on the chair is Elder Vargin (Moscow, Russia); the couch has Sergay (mini missionary*, Novosibirsk), Elder Field (Washington), Elder Hanson (Missouri), Elder Sargsyan (Armenia); and on the air mattress is Elder Erickson (Cottonwood Heights). The couch is a kind of hide-a-bed affair. We thought it was a skinny trundle bed but found out the bottom "bed" lifts up and makes a fairly comfortable bed.
*A mini missionary is a young member from another city who is willing to fill in temporarily when a regular missionary leaves because of visa issues before another missionary arrives. Sergay did that here and lived the mission rules for two weeks. That really helps the missionary effort.

The next couple of days the missionaries traded around temporarily as needed as some Elders left and others arrived. While we kept our 3 American missionaries, we lost our 3 Russian-speaking missionaries, gained one from Latvia who speaks English well, one from Enoch (by Cedar City) and one from St. George. Yes! Now the weekly District meetings are in English and no one has to translate for us.

We’ve been asked to sit in on appointments several times this week. The missionaries are great to translate so we know what’s going on, tag teaming as one talks to the investigator and the other translates for us and then they trade off. It amazes me to see how easily they jump between English and Russian and back again, and that they can translate while the other person is talking--they don't have to wait for a pause. The missionaries are doing the teaching, but they like our comments and make us feel a part of the lessons. Most of the investigators speak only Russian. A few speak English quite well and don’t need our comments translated, but the lesson is still taught in Russian. Two of the people we met with have had all the lessons and attend church from time to time but haven’t been willing to commit to baptism yet. One of those keeps saying he wants to think about it, but never quite gets around to reading the scriptures or praying or attending church regularly or whatever. He just wants to think about it first. Friday night he said he will try to find time. I told him that wouldn’t work because he won’t ever find the time. He has to make it. That really shocked him. He actually gave the closing prayer and before he left that night he said he’s going to work on making time. He stayed for Sunday School today (in the past when he's come, he would leave after Sacrament Meeting).

This week's Russianism: On our way home yesterday we passed by the Russian version of storage units. Dad, you thought the Storage Center was great. Look at these babies! Each is an individual, stand-alone unit, just put next to each other and covered by corrugated tin.


And another set of them just down the street.
They have similar but nicer and fewer storage units in a row by many apartments. We’ve seen people park their cars in some of the ones by us. They drive up, put little ramps down by the curb and drive into their shed.