Miscellaneous news about the Church in Russia

No pictures this week, only news.

*First, a few weeks ago the first stake in Russia was formed in Moscow. That doesn't directly affect us, but it shows growth is occurring here and sets the example.

*Second, our branch has been brought under the Novosibirsk District umbrella. Instead of being an independent unit reporting to the non-Russian speaking mission President, we now have the support of district leaders. It sounds like a minor thing, but it has big implications. They told us that as far as they've been able to determine, this is the first time a district has been formed in Russia that included more than one city. In the past the districts have always been in big cities like Moscow, Novosibirsk or St. Petersburg. This new district includes three cities: Novosibirsk, Barnaul and Tomsk. Barnaul and Tomsk are approximately the same distance from Novosibirsk (about 2 1/2 hours by car or 4 1/2 by train), but in opposite directions, so it covers a BIG area.

*Third, our mission is being divided. Not divided in half, but more like sheared off. Effective July 1, the two easternmost cities with missionaries, Ulan Ude and Irkutsk, will become part of the Vladivostok Mission. That means we'll only have a missionary presence in 7 cities, but it makes transfers easier and also means the mission president has MUCH less traveling--currently it takes 3 days by train to travel from one end of the mission to the other. Our new mission president will now serve for 3 years instead of 2. Past mission presidents have only served 2 years because of the rigors of so much travel for zone conferences and such.

*Fourth, our new incoming mission president had a last-minute change of assignment from Arkansas to Siberia. What an adjustment that must be!! We don't know all the particulars, only that the one we were expecting won't be coming and the new one, President Gibbons, will get here sometime in August. The delay is because of how long it takes to get a visa. President Trejo will be leaving as scheduled on July 1 and his current second counselor in the mission presidency, an elder serving as half a senior couple companionship in Irkutsk, will be the interim president until President and Sister Gibbons get here. Then he and his wife will go back to Irkutsk and be part of the Vladivostok mission!

*On a local note, we were told Friday about upcoming transfers. On Wednesday we will lose 4 of our 6 elders and gain 4 new ones. That's more of an upheaval than normal, especially considering at the last transfer 6 weeks ago we lost/regained 3 elders. From what we've been told, it's usually 1-2 elders that get moved around.

*Right now we have a very "old" mission as far as how long missionaries have served. There are about 60 young missionaries in our mission. Between now and the end of the summer around half of those will have gone home after finishing their two years and nearly 30 more new missionaries will have arrived. That means a lot of the missionaries who haven't been out very long now will take over the leadership positions. One of the elders leaving Barnaul will be a zone leader, and he's only been in Russia about 6 months! He's a great guy and will do well.

This week's only in Russia:
I'm sure this has happened elsewhere--wherever there are young missionaries or even just teenagers, most likely boys. One of our missionaries is from a family with 12 kids. He always amazes us at how much he can eat. We had pizza for lunch one day of our Zone Conference. He put an entire slice, 1/8 of a large pizza, in his mouth all at once. He looked a little miserable, but he got it all in! I'm not sure whether or not I'm glad we had left our camera home that day. These missionaries are good kids and work hard and sometimes we forget they're still just teenagers.