A DAY AT THE BEACH

FYI: We don't have a firm release date yet, but we know we will be home by the end of September and will speak in church on September 30 at 12:30, 2625 Stringham Avenue. This is a week later than we originally planned.

We had a wonderful day at the lake last week. One of the members made arrangements for her friend Viktor, who has a car, to take us to a lake close to Novokuznetsk. (Viktor is the one who drove us to the ski resort last winter, but we haven't seen him for a couple of months.) We were a little surprised at how many people were already at the lake when we arrived just after noon. We drove around until we found a nice place with some shade. Viktor was well prepared with camp stools and blankets for the ground in addition to plenty of wood and the cooking supplies. He promptly set up a little portable BBQ and soon had some meat cooking.

Viktor is the only one who had a swim suit and he took a quick dip. The rest of us just enjoyed the change of pace and scenery. While we ate we visited, talking about jobs, school, and various Russian and American leaders.

 

They told us the lake was very low now because it's been so hot here and we haven't had much rain this summer. Some factories may even have to close soon because of lack of water. Apparently the drought and heat are a problem throughout much of Russia. They announced at church today that there are major fires in Tomsk.

When it was time to go home we headed out. We were surprised to see that in just a few hours there were about three times as many people as when we first arrived, so we weren't the only ones who enjoyed the change of scenery. Mary pointed out an island in the lake that she said isn't visible when the water is higher. We drove across an area with lots of large loose rocks that normally would be covered with water and got stuck. Everyone except Viktor got out the car to lighten the load and Viktor tried multiple times to back up and get through, but seemed to sink deeper and deeper with each attempt.

After a few minutes a man and his family in a 4X4 drove by, noticed our plight, and offered to help. Mary told us that is unusual here in Russia. Fortunately Viktor had a brand new tow line.

 

As soon as the car was off the rocks, our good Samaritan jumped back into his vehicle and drove off, and it we got on our way again.

It was nice day.

This week's Russianism:
We finally found some creamed honey like we enjoy so much at home. We bought some and liked it so much that we went back and bought several more the next week. Now we've gone through all of what we had and went to buy more, but they're not stocking it any more.  Who knew there was a creamed honey season? Not only do we love creamed honey, but the flavor is more what we're used to than other honey we've tried here.

CELEBRATIONS, Part II

A few weeks ago we wrote about the picnic and branch celebration. Today is about the celebration that evening, which was a birthday party for the city.

Thanks to Elder Fitzgerald (below) from Pleasant Grove for most of these pictures. We ran out of room on our camera that night and didn't get all the pictures we wanted, so we took some off his camera.

One of the main streets in the city was blocked off and people walked wherever they wanted. There were tables set up along the side with people selling a variety of crafts, food, art, whatever.

We started by going to one of many free concerts. The one our group picked was jazz--we thought of you, Brad. We were told they were going to play for three hours!

When we had enough of standing in the sun, we headed to another part of town, back down the same street, but the street was nearly empty. A few minutes later a parade came by. Unlike the parade we saw on Victory Day, there was no military or government involvement, just people having a good time. Note all the balloons--Russians of all ages L.O.V.E. balloons.

We're guessing that many of the "entries" were advertising for various companies . . .

or a martial arts academy

Even a marching band!

 

 

There were probably over 100 balloons released right here

We saw quite a few people on stilts throughout the evening

  This is the city flag, kind of a coat of arms

After the parade was over we went to a big park in the city. We've noticed the top of a Ferris wheel peeking over the tops of the trees when we've ridden by on the bus, but didn't know what else was there. It's a full-blown amusement park!

The view from the top of the Ferris wheel

Unfortunately, Elder Fitzgerald's camera took a nosedive off the top of the Ferris wheel, so we don't have pictures of the rest of the rides. They had lots of different kinds, all in a very small area. Some were like the Magic Carpet and Pirate's Ship at Lagoon, others were just as wild or more so. There were also some calmer rides like bumper cars for younger kids. All the people in our group seemed to be having fun--when they weren't sick from all the motion.

We understand there was a fantastic fireworks show. Since it was at midnight (only in part due to how late it stays light), we missed it.

This week's Russianism:
Since there is no stake in Siberia, there is no stake patriarch. Once a year a Russian-speaking patriarch comes from the U.S. to several areas without stakes. Patriarch Rogers was a mission president in Saint Petersburg (1993-96) and also taught Russian at BYU until he retired a few years ago, so he speaks fluent Russian. Last week he came to Novokuznetsk for a couple of days and gave 7 blessings, one of which was his 2,200th blessing, and he's only been a patriarch for 5 years! One night he gave a fireside at our apartment. It was very well attended--24 people is more than we had at church today. It was rather cramped trying to fit everyone in. We ran out of chairs and some of us sat on stools or the floor

Everyone who came (except the lady behind the camera)

Patriarch Rogers is the one directly below the picture of Christ

Afterward we had Dave's wonderful cinnamon rolls--always a BIG hit.

SR. SOCIAL

There was a Sr. Couples Conference held shortly before we arrived in Russia that we didn't get to participate in for the obvious reason that we weren't here :) Since then there have been a few attempts made to hold another one but for a variety of reasons they never happened. We've seen each other from time to time, and had a few visits over Skype, but never had a chance to really get to know the other senior couples. President Gibbons decided to fix that.

Wednesday morning we left early on the train and headed to Novosibirsk. We met up with the three other couples at the mission office and enjoyed a nice walk to the Mission Home. It was a hot day outside, so it was a relief to walk into the building--while not air conditioned and fairly warm, at least it was out of the sun. The eight of us piled into the elevator, the doors swooshed shut, and the elevator sat. And sat. Then it sat some more. Pushing buttons didn't help. The alarm button only gave out a weak sound. The doors wouldn't open. It was getting warmer and warmer every minute. Finally Elder Webb pulled out his cell phone and called President Gibbons. A few minutes later the doors finally opened and we spilled out into the cool lobby that before seemed so hot. We're not sure why the doors finally opened; we're guessing that maybe it was that President Gibbons hit the call button so the doors opened to let him on. We split into two groups and went up on other elevators. Later when we left, half of us walked down the stairs.

We walked to The Mexican, a restaurant a few blocks away. We enjoyed a good (Mexican) meal there. Then we walked another couple of blocks to the theater where they had tickets for us to see a Russian ballet, Coppelia. It was wonderful! Dave has been hoping we'd get to see a Russian ballet before we leave, and we did!

Approaching the "Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater"

The building was completed around 1945, hence the old Soviet symbol on the bas relief above the entrance.

 

It is bigger than the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. The architect was either killed or imprisoned when that was found out. (We've heard both, but since we can't read much Russian, we couldn't verify which.) It is also bigger than any theaters in all of Europe.

The Gibbons said the coat check area is wonderful--even in January, with all the people who attend and check their heavy winter coats, getting out after is quick and painless with several coat check areas like this:

This is one of four coat checks. Of course, in July they're unnecessary.

This is the end of the season--we saw the last performance of Coppelia. There is one more performance of La Bayadere. Apparently they have one opera company and one ballet company, and rotate through a variety of ballets and operas, rather than several performances of one show and then start on a different production. President Gibbons said they will often put on 2-3 different ballets and 2-3 different operas in a single week!

The inside of the theater is beautiful:

And outside the rotunda:

Then there was the performance. Absolutely awesome!

 

 

We are SO glad we had the opportunity to see a Russian ballet.


This week's Russianism:
While we enjoyed going on a day train (for most of our trips we've had our own sleeping compartment instead of regular seating), things did get rather warm on our way home the next day. A lady came through the car with a basket of ice cream treats, so we bought one. We were surprised to open it and see that it was an ice cream cone. They lined the inside of the cone with a chocolate shell (like the outside of an Eskimo Pie) and then filled it with ice cream. The cone doesn't get soggy. It was very tasty! No pictures of those--we ate them too quickly.

By the way, today is National Ice Cream Day in the U.S. Hope you get to enjoy some ice cream!

FOURTH OF JULY

We decided to do a 4th of July celebration for YW this week, since the 4th fell on the same night as YW. We also invited the missionaries since we thought they would appreciate a little taste of home.

The evening got off to an exciting start. We had an unexpected thunderstorm sweep through about an hour before we started. It blew in and really dumped hard in a way we've never seen outside of Siberia. The thunder kept setting off car alarms. One of the missionaries said all the lightening was the equivalent of fireworks.

We did our best to fix what we considered typical 4th of July foods with what is available here. Dave fried up burgers (we miss our BBQ grill) and we put out toppings--tomatoes, (mustard from Helsinki), cheese, a type of pickle (not dill), ketchup, mayo, and fry sauce.

We also served up fries, baked beans (Dave really had to scour stores to find bacon), Kool-aid (thanks for sending it Mom!) with ice, deviled eggs, chips, and watermelon. For dessert we had cookie dough brownies and ice cream.

They all seemed to enjoy it. One of the biggest surprises was that the Russians liked our ice! We found some little pouched bags for making ice, so we made some the night before. At one point in the meal our Russian missionary even asked if we had any more ice. Typically Russians don't like ice, although they sure enjoy ice cream. We were surprised at how much they all ate.

The Americans talked about what their families did to celebrate the 4th of July. Then everyone just sat around and talked and laughed and relaxed and enjoyed the holiday.

Mary, one of the YW, had offered to get fireworks. It's legal here for people to set them off themselves. We decided not to do fireworks this time since it doesn't get dark until so late. However, Mary took a video of the fireworks from the city's birthday celebration last week (done at midnight) and we watched that on her phone.

Fun evening. Different celebration that what we would have had in the US. Everyone had a great time and left absolutely stuffed.


This week's Russianism:
Yesterday was "water day" when people (mostly kids) get others wet--water balloons, dumping water out of a window on people below, whatever. We saw more of it last year in Barnaul, but maybe that's because it's been so rainy here that everyone who was outside was already wet. And with all the rain, temperatures have now dropped into a much more comfortable range. YAY!

ELEVEN vs. THOUSANDS

Yesterday we took part in two celebrations in Novokuznetsk.

First we celebrated the beginning of missionary work in Novokuznetsk by going to a high place across the river overlooking the city where the first missionaries met to dedicated Novokuznetsk to missionary work and introduced the city to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There were eleven of us.

The second was a birthday party for the city of Novokuznetsk. Thousands participated.

They both had music

they both had food

they both had activities and games

one had a fire the other had fireworks

they both included a lot of walking

Eleven people attended the first one while thousands attended the second.

The second one was fun but the first one had eternal consequences.

What the small group of eleven commemorated was potentially far more important for the city of Novokuznetsk than the meeting of thousands.

 Starting the fire with two sticks (matchsticks)

Cooking the hot dogs

Lots of food

 

Singing

 

Someone discovered this swing. It looked like an old fire hose tied to a stick. They had a lot of fun with it.

Elder Patten

 

Mary

 

 

 

Galya

  Elder Прокопцев  (Prokoptsev)

 

And last but not least, our fearless branch president, 

President Ivan

 

Good people, nice day.


We ran out of space on our camera, so we're hoping to get some pictures from others for the evening festivities to post on a future blog.

This week's Russianism:
Anyone who thinks Siberia is a vast frozen area is sadly mistaken. There are many large cities (Novokuznetsk is about 600,000 people, N'sibirsk is well over a million) and the people are wonderful. Temperatures last week according to the forecast (we don't watch the news to find out how hot it actually was) hovered in the 90s and got over 100 one day. We're even slowly kind of acclimating to the humidity!