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!