ODDS AND ENDS

As we've sorted through our pictures lately we've discovered a lot of "single" pictures--little stories centered around one picture, but not enough for a whole blog, so today's blog is made up of a variety of things we've enjoyed here.

We saw a lot of these in Barnaul, not so many in Novokuznetsk. We wondered for a long time what they are. In some areas there are rows upon rows of these (well, not quite organized into rows, but a whole bunch of them) in empty fields along the walkways by apartment buildings. One day Dave saw a man stand up and climb out of one so we asked what they were. They're like individual root cellars. People use them to store potatoes, onions, etc. from their dachas and access them all winter long. You can't tell from this picture, but there's a lock on it; it's propped open for a little ventilation

This is from the Sunday we had record attendance. We loved having 39 people there that day.

Russian men really do sit like this. They won't sit on the bare ground or even on stairs, but this is a very common scene. They can sit like this for a very l-o-n-g time.

These statues (to the left and below) are at  on either side of a big archway at the entrance to a large park in Novokuznetsk. They depict the mining that is such a big part of the economy in this area.

 

An update on the wedding locks on the bridges: Several weeks ago this metal "tree" appeared next to a bridge. There's a note saying it's a gift from a local company, and brides and grooms should put locks on the tree instead of the bridge railing. That's a nice thing, since the railing is too fat for locks to fit around. The tree is filling up very quickly (this picture was taken about a month ago and there are a LOT more locks on it now).

Most of the Russians love to play games. This one involved feeding candy on a string to another person. The catch was that you couldn't see where the candy was in relation to the person because you were seated back to back.

Games at FHE are a must each week. One popular one is "Do You Love Your Neighbor?" When we play it at the church, there's plenty of room to make the circle bigger, but our living room is much smaller and makes the free-for-all a little tricky.

Many weeks we set up a table or two after the lesson and play Uno. Some people never get tired of it.

We had another baptism a while back. It just happened to be scheduled for the same weekend that President Gibbons was in town, so he got to baptize her. The turnout was terrific--21 people, which more than we often get at church.

After the baptism we went back to the church for a short program and food. Dave made his killer cinnamon rolls--always a big hit with the members here.

We were at the train station saying goodbye to Elder Прокопцев who is now home in Latvia. A man (left side) saw we were taking pictures and wanted to get in on the fun. No one has any idea who he is, but we all got a good laugh out of it.

This week's Russianism:

This story is going to be a little hard for the Johnsons to digest. Sorry, but it's true, so get over it. :) There are pigeons almost everywhere in Russia. Apparently during a war the soldiers survived by eating pigeons, so now they're protected. People often sprinkle bird seed on the ground and then you see this:

Or this:

Shortly after we got here we heard about a missionary who got sent home because he kicked a pigeon. We've learned, don't mess with the pigeons!

Next week our blog update will be delayed because we'll be traveling. We get to go back to Barnaul for a few days to see our old friends! We hope to have a new post up by Monday.