Dolphins

After looking at this week's title, you may be wondering what dolphins have to do with Siberia. A few years ago our family had the opportunity to swim with the dolphins, and Siberia is too cold for that sort of activity. After that experience, naturally, we were intrigued when we heard there was a dolphin show in town. When our district leader, Elder Прокопцев (Prokoptsev), asked if we'd be interested in attending, we gave him a resounding yes! Every quarter the missionaries are supposed to do a cultural activity where they get to know more about the area where they're serving or experience local culture, and this was part of what we did for this quarter's activity.

There was an inflatable arena on the same plaza as where the snow sculptures were a few months ago. It was very sturdy.

We got there a little early and watched some of the activities going on now--kids on bikes, roller blades, or just feet were having a lot of fun on the ramps.

Inside there were seats for just over 400 people. This is a view from where we sat. The seats on our side look just like these.

We'd been told we might get wet, so we decided it was a dress down day. It was the first time since we got to Novokuznetsk that we've dressed in casual clothes. Маша (Masha or Mary) also joined us.

Маша, Elder Прокопцув, Elder Воронков (Varankof), Elder Marcy, and Elder Howard

The announcer kept up a fun patter all the way through. We didn't understand any of it, but we had no problem understanding what the dolphins were doing.

We were a little surprised to see they had one dolphin and two other . . . somethings. We couldn't figure out what they were. The dolphin was having an off day and didn't do much at all, except hang around the platform waiting for food. Its trainer was clearly disgusted. However, the other two, um, mammals put on a great show for us. When we got home we checked it out online. They are finless dolphins. They have flippers, but not a dorsal fin.

Here are some of the things we enjoyed. Some of the pictures are more focused than others--we couldn't always judge exactly when they would be jumping, and it's hard to suddenly focus mid-jump, but at least you can get good idea of how they entertained us.

Waving at the crowd

In addition to the dolphins, they had a seal come out for a while. It was amazing how he walked around and easily jumped up and down from the table.

 

Have you ever seen a seal do the hula hoop?

Back to the dolphins--he flipped the ball into the audience with his tail

 They even danced for us!

The trainer was very affectionate with them

And of course, they took the trainer for a ride

After the show the young missionaries headed to the fortress. Since we'd already seen it and had food to prepare for a branch activity the next day, we headed home.

This week in Russia:
Today at church we witnessed a very touching scene. Yuri joined the church about a year ago. He's an older gentleman--75, which makes him one of the oldest people in Novokuznetsk. We've enjoyed getting to know him. He's got a cute sense of humor and the ability to laugh at himself and invites everyone to join in. Some days he's more lucid than others. As a result, he hasn't been given a calling beyond being ordained a priest. For the first time since we got here (so probably first time ever), they asked him to pass the sacrament today. One of the missionaries stood at his side and helped him all the way along. He was so gentle with Brother Yuri and sweetly guided him. Tender isn't a word I normally would have used to describe any of the Elders, especially this one (he's a wrestler), but today he was very tender with Yuri. Life is full of little surprises. To all you you parents of missionaries who are reading this, know that there are many little acts of kindness like this being done regularly by your sons that you will likely never know about.