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.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Siberian Weather
The first 8 weeks we were here were mostly nice and sunny, with a few gentle rains showers. Now we're getting a glimpse of what winter may be like, only it will be colder. There have been several storms recently that have made us glad we were inside. The skies suddenly open and rain comes down in sheets, driven by heavy winds. It's the kind of rain that annihilates umbrellas and makes any kind of rain gear like ponchos or raincoats ineffective, and people wish they were wearing their winter boots instead of sandals and tennis shoes. We watched out our window as the wind blew water up the slide at the playground.
A few days ago Dave got caught in one of the storms.
Here's his account of it:
I was going to meet the Elders and an inactive member and had just gotten on the bus when it started. Numerous cars pulled over because the rain came down so fast and hard. I think maybe their windshield wipers don't work so they couldn't see. When I got close to the bus stop I texted the Elders to see if I should just ride the bus to the end, pay another fee and ride it home, but they said the meeting was still going to happen. Luckily for me, the bus driver drove up to the curb and I could run right into a store. Ten minutes later the rain stopped but the streets were flooded. Many people took off their shoes and socks, rolled up their pants and walked across. The Elders and I took the long way around on high ground and stayed dry. When we walked back an hour later, only a few small puddles were left and all the vendors were out on the street again.
Yesterday and today there have been a few scattered showers. Yesterday evening the wind picked up and we had nearly 10 minutes of hard hail and wild winds. The hail wasn't big, just a lot of it being blown hard and driven nearly sideways. It only rained for another 1/2 hour and then the sun came out and the blue skies returned. Then a few hours later there was heavy rain without the wind and that continued throughout the night. We're amazed at how the water all disappears quickly. They must have a great drainage system, although we haven't seen any evidence of it (no culverts or ditches that we've seen). We assume the water drains into the Ob river.
It was fascinating to watch from inside our nice dry apartment. It reminded me of the times when storms have raged in my life. We haven't always been warm and safe and dry. Sometimes we were caught up in the swirling events surrounding us, which made the times when we were protected even more appreciated.
One nice thing about the rain is that we don't get drifting cigarette smoke coming in our windows.
It's a little hard to keep missionary hours (lights out by 10:30) when it's not dark at bedtime. The sun goes down now around 10:00ish, but it stays "twilighty" for a long time. I don't know when the sun comes up, but it's always very light by the time we get up.
Lately the high temperatures have been low 80s, which doesn't sound bad; it's the75+% humidity that kills us.
This week's Russianism:
They have small moving trucks here for local moving. When you want one, you call a central number and within 15 minutes there's a truck at your door. After everything is loaded, you climb in the cab of the truck and go with them. You get them for up to an hour for 200 rubles (about $7), but once they get to the destination they unload everything at the curb as quickly as possible and then leave--they won't help you carry anything inside. We used them to move chairs from the church to our apartment for a meeting. We joked about using them to meet some Elders (and luggage) who were transferred to our city--it's cheaper than a taxi!
A few days ago Dave got caught in one of the storms.
Here's his account of it:I was going to meet the Elders and an inactive member and had just gotten on the bus when it started. Numerous cars pulled over because the rain came down so fast and hard. I think maybe their windshield wipers don't work so they couldn't see. When I got close to the bus stop I texted the Elders to see if I should just ride the bus to the end, pay another fee and ride it home, but they said the meeting was still going to happen. Luckily for me, the bus driver drove up to the curb and I could run right into a store. Ten minutes later the rain stopped but the streets were flooded. Many people took off their shoes and socks, rolled up their pants and walked across. The Elders and I took the long way around on high ground and stayed dry. When we walked back an hour later, only a few small puddles were left and all the vendors were out on the street again.
Yesterday and today there have been a few scattered showers. Yesterday evening the wind picked up and we had nearly 10 minutes of hard hail and wild winds. The hail wasn't big, just a lot of it being blown hard and driven nearly sideways. It only rained for another 1/2 hour and then the sun came out and the blue skies returned. Then a few hours later there was heavy rain without the wind and that continued throughout the night. We're amazed at how the water all disappears quickly. They must have a great drainage system, although we haven't seen any evidence of it (no culverts or ditches that we've seen). We assume the water drains into the Ob river.
It was fascinating to watch from inside our nice dry apartment. It reminded me of the times when storms have raged in my life. We haven't always been warm and safe and dry. Sometimes we were caught up in the swirling events surrounding us, which made the times when we were protected even more appreciated.
One nice thing about the rain is that we don't get drifting cigarette smoke coming in our windows.
It's a little hard to keep missionary hours (lights out by 10:30) when it's not dark at bedtime. The sun goes down now around 10:00ish, but it stays "twilighty" for a long time. I don't know when the sun comes up, but it's always very light by the time we get up.
Lately the high temperatures have been low 80s, which doesn't sound bad; it's the75+% humidity that kills us.
This week's Russianism:
They have small moving trucks here for local moving. When you want one, you call a central number and within 15 minutes there's a truck at your door. After everything is loaded, you climb in the cab of the truck and go with them. You get them for up to an hour for 200 rubles (about $7), but once they get to the destination they unload everything at the curb as quickly as possible and then leave--they won't help you carry anything inside. We used them to move chairs from the church to our apartment for a meeting. We joked about using them to meet some Elders (and luggage) who were transferred to our city--it's cheaper than a taxi!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Adventures of Cooking in Russia
Anna with her parents (and us)Now, some background about the dinner. It took several conversations back and forth, but we finally found one night that worked for Anna's family and the missionaries who taught her. Dave and I went shopping and got everything we needed. Sometimes it's hard to find a decent cut of meat for a roast, so we were pleased to find a nice big one at the second store we went to. The slow cooker here really is a slow cooker--for the size of roast with potatoes and carrots we planned, we would probably need to cook it for over 15 hours, so we figured out how to do it in the oven (small oven, one rack, definitely NOT convection). Then Monday the missionaries just happened to mention that Anna is a vegetarian. So much for our plans! My first thought was that I could make macaroni and cheese and cut up some carrot sticks, but that doesn't seem like a good meal when you're trying to do something special. I thought about making my pasta salad but omit the chicken, but I'd also have to omit grapes (they're not safe for us to eat unless we put them in bleach water first--yuck) and find a substitute for the bow tie pasta. I think I could probably find everything else, but I wasn't looking forward to a watered down version of a great salad. I checked online for vegetarian meals but didn't want to experiment with a new recipe with visitors. I emailed Becca and Heather, both very good cooks, for some suggestions.
They sent some recipes that sound wonderful and should have been helpful. However, the biggest problem we have with fixing food is finding the ingredients. Dave wrote down the Russian words for things like cream cheese and cottage cheese and took his time wandering around the store. He found those two things as well as a box of lasagna noodles* and we were delighted because we didn't know they were available here. However, the cream cheese is about 6.5 oz instead of 8 and the cottage cheese is way expensive, like $2 for a package slightly larger than a yogurt cup.
*It says lasagna on the box, but the noodles are mostly flat--a little wavy like they weren't dried flat, but no curly edges--and short, only 7" long, and they tend to clump together worse than spaghetti while cooking. A couple of days later we found a bag of something that resembles lasagna noodles with wavy edges, but they're about 1/3 as wide and only an inch long.
Heather, Becca and her mom gave us lots of suggestions that we'd love to try when we get back home. Either we can't find the ingredients for them here or we haven't looked because we can't eat the fresh produce without soaking it in bleach water or cooking it.
Here are some of their suggestions and why we couldn't make them:
*Spinach Manicotti--We haven't been able to find spinach or manicotti shells. We have seen very small pasta shells yes, but no way could we stuff them with anything bigger than half a mashed pea. The Elders have told us there is no spinach, fresh or frozen, in grocery stores Russia.
*Zucchini casserole--no zucchini, no cream of celery soup, no stuffing mix.
*A spinach or tossed salad? We can't eat the produce here and I haven't seen the makings for a nice tossed salad. Of course, I haven't really looked closely at lettuces since that would be a waste of time :) We don't have a blender to make a smooth dressing. They're probably available here, but we don't have one and haven't seen one.
More ingredients not available to us (or at least we haven't found them yet) so we couldn't make the other suggested recipes:
jars of spaghetti sauce
provolone cheese
ricotta cheese
Italian seasoning
crushed red pepper flakes
blanched/slivered almonds
sesame and poppy seeds
wine vinegar
Craisins
fresh strawberries
We think they have canned tomatoes, but can't read what the various kinds are and the pictures aren't very clear, so we haven't tried those yet. That will be an adventure for another day.
We're looking forward to our first Visa trip to Helsinki at the end of the month. Everyone keeps telling us about the American Store where we can get a lot of food items not available in Russia, like mustard. Even if we don't buy anything, it will be nice to walk among familiar foods and just bask in the atmosphere!
I hope this doesn't sound like I'm complaining, because I'm not. I was just surprised how something that would be so easy at home is such a big challenge here. Except when entertaining vegetarians, we've been able to fix delicious, nutritious meals easily, and learn new ways of fixing them as well!
I'm sure if the situation were reversed, a Russian visiting the U. S. would have a hard time finding some of the things they can get here so easily. One of our favorite meals here is a dish called plove. It's chicken, rice, shredded carrots, chopped onion and a spice packet called "plove." Mmmm. I wonder how many packets of it I can fit in my suitcase when we go home.
Dinner turned out great. We had vegetable lasagna made with a white sauce. The recipe was delicious, and we didn't even have to try to figure out how to substitute something for spinach or eggplant.
We recently made a fun discovery. At home one of our favorite meals was something we called sketti casserole. We haven't been able to make it here because we can't get the cans of tomato soup it calls for. One night I was feeling a little brave and decided to make it. We were pleased that it turned out almost like at home. Here's what I substituted:
fettuccine noodles for spaghetti (my mistake in picking up the wrong package at the store)
tomato sauce with lots of milk and a little mayonnaise and sour cream mixed in
Colby jack cheese instead of cheddar (it's easier to find here and a little cheaper).
Today's Russianism:
Toilet paper comes in fun colors--bright pastels: sunny yellow, bright pink, deep peach, lime green, and then sometimes gray, and if you look hard you can find white. The bright colors have an associated scent to them, like lemon, strawberry, peach or green apple. Hmm. For some reason, the concept of scented toilet paper had never occurred to me--what about you? Sometimes the texture has an almost crepe paper feel to it, but sometimes it's almost like what we had at home. For a long time the biggest package we could found was 4 rolls. Lately we've seen it in 8-packs, but that size doesn't easily fit in the storage space we have so we get the 4-pack, which costs nearly $4. On the other hand, we found batteries are MUCH cheaper; internet is only $18/month and is much faster (100.0 Mbps).
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Sharing the Gospel in Russia
This week's Russianism: People shop several times a week, so there’s no reason to have multi-packs. Besides, there’s not a lot of room for storing extras in the apartments. The missionaries have commented on some of our unusual storage places (such as inside a stool).
A comment made by one of the Elders explains a lot about the struggles the missionaries face here. He said the culture in Russia is that everything is very short term, especially here in Barnaul. They simply live for today. Jobs provide just enough money to get by; there aren't a lot of career opportunities in Barnaul, which is fine with them because they probably wouldn't take advantage of them anyway. They shop several times a week because they just need enough to get by for another day or two. Short expiration dates on dairy products? Not a problem, we'll use it up and buy more tomorrow. Not a lot of bulk buying opportunities? That's fine because we only need a little today. We got a kick out of the individual packets of cat food. Going out and getting drunk is very common, especially among the men. They don't care about tomorrow because they'll deal with that when the time comes, hangover and all. Now try introducing the idea that they can be with their family forever or the concept of eternal life. It just isn't comprehensible to them, and they don't even want to try. It's totally against anything in their culture and upbringing. Not only is it foreign to them, they just can't get their minds around it. We have such a wonderful message to share, but it's hard to get past the cultural limitations.
The family unit isn't valued much here. We see a lot of women pushing strollers or buggies by themselves. That isn't because their husbands are busy doing something else--in most cases there are no husbands. Either they're divorced or more likely never married. Even among those who do marry, divorce is almost inevitable. Families are small, often a mother and a child, occasionally two. A member of the Church introduced herself and said she has a large family--she and her husband have 3 children.
Another problem we face is that the Russian Orthodox Church, or Pravoslavia Church, has made a big deal out of "If you're Russian, you're Pravoslavia. If you're not Pravoslavia, you're not true to your country." That doesn't mean they attend church (because most don't), just that they can't be part of any other church. Some people, especially the older ones, feel very strongly about that. Others simply choose not to believe (logical after the atheistic doctrine of communism) or will grasp at a multitude of religious ideas, embracing the good they see in all religions and ignoring the parts that don't mesh, or looking for multiple gods. In spite of all of those challenges, occasionally we find someone who is ready to receive the gospel.
That said, we are seeing some limited success. The goal in Barnaul is to have one baptism a month. This year so far they had two baptisms before we got here, another one yesterday--Anna, and have some people investigating who look very promising. It is so exciting to see the change in their lives when they come to understand how much their Heavenly Father does love them, and the joy they feel as they learn the gospel principles and gain a testimony. It brings hope to them in a way we'd never realized could be such a blessing, just because we've always had it. Thanks Mom and Dad, (and their parents and grandparents and . . .) Recently we were talking to someone from Ukraine and she asked if we had been raised in the Church. When we answered yes, she asked about our parents, then grandparents. When we told her that we both had ancestors who crossed the plains to Utah, she was amazed. To me our heritage is just part of my life, one more thing I now realize we take for granted.
Here are some pictures from yesterday's baptism. Anna is very sweet and reminds me a little of a reserved Emily Fuller (my niece). Maybe it's because they're both artists, or Anna's smile or eyes, but we both sense it. We've been able to sit in on some of the discussions the Elders had with her and fell in love with her very quickly. She asked us to give the opening and closing prayers at the baptism. Fortunately they allowed me to do it in English. Dave got brave and gave his prayer (written out ahead of time) in Russian.
This is Anna with the three sets of Elders in Barnaul. One Elder is from Latvia and all the rest are from the U. S. They're all good guys. Elder Hansen, one of the Zone Leaders, is the missionary in all white.
This is everyone who came to the baptism except for the person behind the camera. Of the twenty people, eight are members of the branch--including Anna now, one is a friend of a member, three are investigators, and then the eight missionaries. It looks like I'm holding a rose, but Anna (in purple) is holding it.
A comment made by one of the Elders explains a lot about the struggles the missionaries face here. He said the culture in Russia is that everything is very short term, especially here in Barnaul. They simply live for today. Jobs provide just enough money to get by; there aren't a lot of career opportunities in Barnaul, which is fine with them because they probably wouldn't take advantage of them anyway. They shop several times a week because they just need enough to get by for another day or two. Short expiration dates on dairy products? Not a problem, we'll use it up and buy more tomorrow. Not a lot of bulk buying opportunities? That's fine because we only need a little today. We got a kick out of the individual packets of cat food. Going out and getting drunk is very common, especially among the men. They don't care about tomorrow because they'll deal with that when the time comes, hangover and all. Now try introducing the idea that they can be with their family forever or the concept of eternal life. It just isn't comprehensible to them, and they don't even want to try. It's totally against anything in their culture and upbringing. Not only is it foreign to them, they just can't get their minds around it. We have such a wonderful message to share, but it's hard to get past the cultural limitations.
The family unit isn't valued much here. We see a lot of women pushing strollers or buggies by themselves. That isn't because their husbands are busy doing something else--in most cases there are no husbands. Either they're divorced or more likely never married. Even among those who do marry, divorce is almost inevitable. Families are small, often a mother and a child, occasionally two. A member of the Church introduced herself and said she has a large family--she and her husband have 3 children.
Another problem we face is that the Russian Orthodox Church, or Pravoslavia Church, has made a big deal out of "If you're Russian, you're Pravoslavia. If you're not Pravoslavia, you're not true to your country." That doesn't mean they attend church (because most don't), just that they can't be part of any other church. Some people, especially the older ones, feel very strongly about that. Others simply choose not to believe (logical after the atheistic doctrine of communism) or will grasp at a multitude of religious ideas, embracing the good they see in all religions and ignoring the parts that don't mesh, or looking for multiple gods. In spite of all of those challenges, occasionally we find someone who is ready to receive the gospel.
That said, we are seeing some limited success. The goal in Barnaul is to have one baptism a month. This year so far they had two baptisms before we got here, another one yesterday--Anna, and have some people investigating who look very promising. It is so exciting to see the change in their lives when they come to understand how much their Heavenly Father does love them, and the joy they feel as they learn the gospel principles and gain a testimony. It brings hope to them in a way we'd never realized could be such a blessing, just because we've always had it. Thanks Mom and Dad, (and their parents and grandparents and . . .) Recently we were talking to someone from Ukraine and she asked if we had been raised in the Church. When we answered yes, she asked about our parents, then grandparents. When we told her that we both had ancestors who crossed the plains to Utah, she was amazed. To me our heritage is just part of my life, one more thing I now realize we take for granted.
Here are some pictures from yesterday's baptism. Anna is very sweet and reminds me a little of a reserved Emily Fuller (my niece). Maybe it's because they're both artists, or Anna's smile or eyes, but we both sense it. We've been able to sit in on some of the discussions the Elders had with her and fell in love with her very quickly. She asked us to give the opening and closing prayers at the baptism. Fortunately they allowed me to do it in English. Dave got brave and gave his prayer (written out ahead of time) in Russian.
This is Anna with the three sets of Elders in Barnaul. One Elder is from Latvia and all the rest are from the U. S. They're all good guys. Elder Hansen, one of the Zone Leaders, is the missionary in all white.
This is everyone who came to the baptism except for the person behind the camera. Of the twenty people, eight are members of the branch--including Anna now, one is a friend of a member, three are investigators, and then the eight missionaries. It looks like I'm holding a rose, but Anna (in purple) is holding it.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Typical Week
Now that you've heard all about how we've settled in, we thought you might be interested in what it means to be Member and Leader Support missionaries.
We have the same morning routine as the missionaries: an hour each of personal, companion, and language study. As a confirmed night owl, I've had to do some adjusting, and it's taken quite some time to change my sleep patterns. Some days we do better than others. Language study continues to be a challenge. Some mornings we don't get in all our studying because we have meetings, activities, or end up baking in preparation for something, and have to squeeze study time in later. In the afternoons and evenings we meet with people as much as the Elders include us. When they have an appointment with women and no adult men are present, they're supposed to have a member join them, and when no one from the branch is available they ask us to go with them. Sometimes they translate a lot of what's being said, sometimes not much, but often we're able to form a bond that transcends words. We've been pleasantly surprised at how friendly people are after such a connection is made, because on the streets the people don't smile or look at each other much. When we sit in on a discussion the Elders are more likely to translate everything and we will often be able to contribute to the lesson. Lately we've been sitting in on a discussion or visiting with an inactive an average of at least once a day. We're pleased the Elders are including us more now. Unfortunately, all too often we meet the Elders to go visit someone and the person isn't home, doesn't show up, or calls at the last minute to cancel. Fortunately we do have cell phones.
Sundays are pretty much the same as at home. We have church of course and sometimes leadership meetings or choir practice.
Mondays we have Family Home Evening for the singles. It's held at the church because that's a central location. Most of those who attend are in their early 20s and are not members (except for the missionaries, of course). We start with a song and prayer, have a short spiritual thought (usually 10-15 minutes) as they call it, and then the rest of the time is spent playing games. They LOVE to play games. Sometimes they are games with cards like Uno or with physical pieces like Jenga, and sometimes games like Duck, Duck, Goose (the Elders said that one was a big hit a couple of months ago). They also make regular use of the ping pong table in the back room. Once in a while someone brings refreshments. The whole evening lasts a little more than an hour.
Tuesday and Thursday evenings we have English Club. We aren't allowed to call it English class or claim that we're teaching English because we aren't certified, so it's called English Club. There are three groups: beginning, intermediate and advanced. We lead the advanced group because they understand pretty much everything we say and we don't have to try to explain things in Russian. In our class we pick a subject and ask everyone to talk about it. They get to practice their English, and we learn about Russia and they learn about the U.S. Much of their English is from school and is British English, so once in a while we tell them the American words--they'd rather speak American English than British English. Lately we've started the class with homophones (won/one, hear/here) and they really seem to enjoy that. Classes last about 45 minutes and then all three groups meet together. In the joint meeting someone from the third group translates and the rest of the night is in both English and Russian. They briefly discuss what has been talked about in each group and then one of the missionaries tells a short story with some sort of moral and another missionary give a 3-5 minute spiritual thought on a general gospel topic. Then we invite everyone to come to our meetings and other activities throughout the week.
Saturday is Sports Night. We go to a field close to the church and play frisbee, soccer, modified football, or whatever people are interested in and there are enough people for. In winter or bad weather we play games in the church.
Wednesdays are P-days. Since we have laptops and the iPad, the Elders like to come to our apartment rather than go to an Internet cafe--nicer environment and we don't charge! Dave also cuts their hair as needed. There's always food, whether it's cookies or pancakes or something more substantial. We've decided we're going to plan to feed them more, since they seem to enjoy hanging around and visiting and munching even after they're done with their computer time. There are six Elders in our city.
Fridays we have the District Meeting at our apartment at noon. During this time we discuss goals and how well we've done the last week, what's happening with investigators and reactivation efforts, motivation, focus on a particular missionary theme, and they even give us time for our "Senior Moment" when we share things that we think could help them, like encouraging them to be outrageously obedient to mission rules or give them a scriptural passage to commit to memory. Of course we feed them, but we try to make it something like cookies or banana bread that they can grab and run with as they head out for appointments or to go contacting. This all lasts about two hours.
We're having lots of fun!
This week's Russian Oddity: There are little shops everywhere - on every corner as well as down the blocks. Each one has its own specialty. The flower shops are the most common, and there are other shops selling fruits and veggies or magazines or beer or cigarettes and candy (explain that combination) or ice cream or watches or phones or . . . . Grocery stores simply sell groceries. Lenta is their big "Costco-type" store where you buy a membership, but it’s more like a Smith's Marketplace or Target as far as their selection. But you can get more than just groceries! However, you check out the groceries and pay, and then check out again with any electronics--things like a digital scale, iron or other small appliances. And multi packs? Forget it. After a while we were finally able to find 8-packs of toilet paper, but in general, packages are smaller here. Even the largest wastebaskets are small. I'd guess they hold about 4 gallons.
We have the same morning routine as the missionaries: an hour each of personal, companion, and language study. As a confirmed night owl, I've had to do some adjusting, and it's taken quite some time to change my sleep patterns. Some days we do better than others. Language study continues to be a challenge. Some mornings we don't get in all our studying because we have meetings, activities, or end up baking in preparation for something, and have to squeeze study time in later. In the afternoons and evenings we meet with people as much as the Elders include us. When they have an appointment with women and no adult men are present, they're supposed to have a member join them, and when no one from the branch is available they ask us to go with them. Sometimes they translate a lot of what's being said, sometimes not much, but often we're able to form a bond that transcends words. We've been pleasantly surprised at how friendly people are after such a connection is made, because on the streets the people don't smile or look at each other much. When we sit in on a discussion the Elders are more likely to translate everything and we will often be able to contribute to the lesson. Lately we've been sitting in on a discussion or visiting with an inactive an average of at least once a day. We're pleased the Elders are including us more now. Unfortunately, all too often we meet the Elders to go visit someone and the person isn't home, doesn't show up, or calls at the last minute to cancel. Fortunately we do have cell phones.
Sundays are pretty much the same as at home. We have church of course and sometimes leadership meetings or choir practice.
Mondays we have Family Home Evening for the singles. It's held at the church because that's a central location. Most of those who attend are in their early 20s and are not members (except for the missionaries, of course). We start with a song and prayer, have a short spiritual thought (usually 10-15 minutes) as they call it, and then the rest of the time is spent playing games. They LOVE to play games. Sometimes they are games with cards like Uno or with physical pieces like Jenga, and sometimes games like Duck, Duck, Goose (the Elders said that one was a big hit a couple of months ago). They also make regular use of the ping pong table in the back room. Once in a while someone brings refreshments. The whole evening lasts a little more than an hour.
Tuesday and Thursday evenings we have English Club. We aren't allowed to call it English class or claim that we're teaching English because we aren't certified, so it's called English Club. There are three groups: beginning, intermediate and advanced. We lead the advanced group because they understand pretty much everything we say and we don't have to try to explain things in Russian. In our class we pick a subject and ask everyone to talk about it. They get to practice their English, and we learn about Russia and they learn about the U.S. Much of their English is from school and is British English, so once in a while we tell them the American words--they'd rather speak American English than British English. Lately we've started the class with homophones (won/one, hear/here) and they really seem to enjoy that. Classes last about 45 minutes and then all three groups meet together. In the joint meeting someone from the third group translates and the rest of the night is in both English and Russian. They briefly discuss what has been talked about in each group and then one of the missionaries tells a short story with some sort of moral and another missionary give a 3-5 minute spiritual thought on a general gospel topic. Then we invite everyone to come to our meetings and other activities throughout the week.
Saturday is Sports Night. We go to a field close to the church and play frisbee, soccer, modified football, or whatever people are interested in and there are enough people for. In winter or bad weather we play games in the church.
Wednesdays are P-days. Since we have laptops and the iPad, the Elders like to come to our apartment rather than go to an Internet cafe--nicer environment and we don't charge! Dave also cuts their hair as needed. There's always food, whether it's cookies or pancakes or something more substantial. We've decided we're going to plan to feed them more, since they seem to enjoy hanging around and visiting and munching even after they're done with their computer time. There are six Elders in our city.
Fridays we have the District Meeting at our apartment at noon. During this time we discuss goals and how well we've done the last week, what's happening with investigators and reactivation efforts, motivation, focus on a particular missionary theme, and they even give us time for our "Senior Moment" when we share things that we think could help them, like encouraging them to be outrageously obedient to mission rules or give them a scriptural passage to commit to memory. Of course we feed them, but we try to make it something like cookies or banana bread that they can grab and run with as they head out for appointments or to go contacting. This all lasts about two hours.
We're having lots of fun!
This week's Russian Oddity: There are little shops everywhere - on every corner as well as down the blocks. Each one has its own specialty. The flower shops are the most common, and there are other shops selling fruits and veggies or magazines or beer or cigarettes and candy (explain that combination) or ice cream or watches or phones or . . . . Grocery stores simply sell groceries. Lenta is their big "Costco-type" store where you buy a membership, but it’s more like a Smith's Marketplace or Target as far as their selection. But you can get more than just groceries! However, you check out the groceries and pay, and then check out again with any electronics--things like a digital scale, iron or other small appliances. And multi packs? Forget it. After a while we were finally able to find 8-packs of toilet paper, but in general, packages are smaller here. Even the largest wastebaskets are small. I'd guess they hold about 4 gallons.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
A Week in Review
For the most part, this has been a busy week. It started with five phone calls/Skype for Mother’s Day–one to my mother and four to those who made me a mother (and their families). I’m SO glad senior missionaries have different rules. It was wonderful to hear the voices and even see some of the faces of those we love and miss so much. We finished up the calls Monday morning here (it was still Mother's Day in SLC).
May 9 is Victory Day in Russia. It is a very big holiday here that commemorates the day the Russian army arrived in Berlin to stop Hitler. It is a “lockdown day” when the missionaries don’t even bother going out to try to contact people, and they have to stay home in the evening because of all the drinking. The missionaries loved the change of pace. After morning studies they came to our apartment and spent the day together. For lunch we had шаурмас (in case you don't know how to pronounce it, that's sha-oormas), kind of a burrito-looking thing filled with meat, carrots, cabbage and spices. Very delicious. Then they got to watch two movies–they chose Toy Story 3 and Invictus. One was in Russian with English subtitles and the other was in English with Russian subtitles. After that they sat around writing in the journal/diaries of the missionaries who were getting
transferred out on Wednesday and talked and munched on snacks. I had fixed four 9X13 pans of baked MacCheese. For once, they didn’t eat everything I had fixed! Here they are, all ready to watch Toy Story 3. Left to right: on the chair is Elder Vargin (Moscow, Russia); the couch has Sergay (mini missionary*, Novosibirsk), Elder Field (Washington), Elder Hanson (Missouri), Elder Sargsyan (Armenia); and on the air mattress is Elder Erickson (Cottonwood Heights). The couch is a kind of hide-a-bed affair. We thought it was a skinny trundle bed but found out the bottom "bed" lifts up and makes a fairly comfortable bed.
*A mini missionary is a young member from another city who is willing to fill in temporarily when a regular missionary leaves because of visa issues before another missionary arrives. Sergay did that here and lived the mission rules for two weeks. That really helps the missionary effort.
The next couple of days the missionaries traded around temporarily as needed as some Elders left and others arrived. While we kept our 3 American missionaries, we lost our 3 Russian-speaking missionaries, gained one from Latvia who speaks English well, one from Enoch (by Cedar City) and one from St. George. Yes! Now the weekly District meetings are in English and no one has to translate for us.
We’ve been asked to sit in on appointments several times this week. The missionaries are great to translate so we know what’s going on, tag teaming as one talks to the investigator and the other translates for us and then they trade off. It amazes me to see how easily they jump between English and Russian and back again, and that they can translate while the other person is talking--they don't have to wait for a pause. The missionaries are doing the teaching, but they like our comments and make us feel a part of the lessons. Most of the investigators speak only Russian. A few speak English quite well and don’t need our comments translated, but the lesson is still taught in Russian. Two of the people we met with have had all the lessons and attend church from time to time but haven’t been willing to commit to baptism yet. One of those keeps saying he wants to think about it, but never quite gets around to reading the scriptures or praying or attending church regularly or whatever. He just wants to think about it first. Friday night he said he will try to find time. I told him that wouldn’t work because he won’t ever find the time. He has to make it. That really shocked him. He actually gave the closing prayer and before he left that night he said he’s going to work on making time. He stayed for Sunday School today (in the past when he's come, he would leave after Sacrament Meeting).
This week's Russianism: On our way home yesterday we passed by the Russian version of storage units. Dad, you thought the Storage Center was great. Look at these babies! Each is an individual, stand-alone unit, just put next to each other and covered by corrugated tin.
And another set of them just down the street.
They have similar but nicer and fewer storage units in a row by many apartments. We’ve seen people park their cars in some of the ones by us. They drive up, put little ramps down by the curb and drive into their shed.
May 9 is Victory Day in Russia. It is a very big holiday here that commemorates the day the Russian army arrived in Berlin to stop Hitler. It is a “lockdown day” when the missionaries don’t even bother going out to try to contact people, and they have to stay home in the evening because of all the drinking. The missionaries loved the change of pace. After morning studies they came to our apartment and spent the day together. For lunch we had шаурмас (in case you don't know how to pronounce it, that's sha-oormas), kind of a burrito-looking thing filled with meat, carrots, cabbage and spices. Very delicious. Then they got to watch two movies–they chose Toy Story 3 and Invictus. One was in Russian with English subtitles and the other was in English with Russian subtitles. After that they sat around writing in the journal/diaries of the missionaries who were getting
transferred out on Wednesday and talked and munched on snacks. I had fixed four 9X13 pans of baked MacCheese. For once, they didn’t eat everything I had fixed! Here they are, all ready to watch Toy Story 3. Left to right: on the chair is Elder Vargin (Moscow, Russia); the couch has Sergay (mini missionary*, Novosibirsk), Elder Field (Washington), Elder Hanson (Missouri), Elder Sargsyan (Armenia); and on the air mattress is Elder Erickson (Cottonwood Heights). The couch is a kind of hide-a-bed affair. We thought it was a skinny trundle bed but found out the bottom "bed" lifts up and makes a fairly comfortable bed.*A mini missionary is a young member from another city who is willing to fill in temporarily when a regular missionary leaves because of visa issues before another missionary arrives. Sergay did that here and lived the mission rules for two weeks. That really helps the missionary effort.
The next couple of days the missionaries traded around temporarily as needed as some Elders left and others arrived. While we kept our 3 American missionaries, we lost our 3 Russian-speaking missionaries, gained one from Latvia who speaks English well, one from Enoch (by Cedar City) and one from St. George. Yes! Now the weekly District meetings are in English and no one has to translate for us.
We’ve been asked to sit in on appointments several times this week. The missionaries are great to translate so we know what’s going on, tag teaming as one talks to the investigator and the other translates for us and then they trade off. It amazes me to see how easily they jump between English and Russian and back again, and that they can translate while the other person is talking--they don't have to wait for a pause. The missionaries are doing the teaching, but they like our comments and make us feel a part of the lessons. Most of the investigators speak only Russian. A few speak English quite well and don’t need our comments translated, but the lesson is still taught in Russian. Two of the people we met with have had all the lessons and attend church from time to time but haven’t been willing to commit to baptism yet. One of those keeps saying he wants to think about it, but never quite gets around to reading the scriptures or praying or attending church regularly or whatever. He just wants to think about it first. Friday night he said he will try to find time. I told him that wouldn’t work because he won’t ever find the time. He has to make it. That really shocked him. He actually gave the closing prayer and before he left that night he said he’s going to work on making time. He stayed for Sunday School today (in the past when he's come, he would leave after Sacrament Meeting).
This week's Russianism: On our way home yesterday we passed by the Russian version of storage units. Dad, you thought the Storage Center was great. Look at these babies! Each is an individual, stand-alone unit, just put next to each other and covered by corrugated tin.
And another set of them just down the street.
They have similar but nicer and fewer storage units in a row by many apartments. We’ve seen people park their cars in some of the ones by us. They drive up, put little ramps down by the curb and drive into their shed.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
One Month in Russia, Part 2
Here are some more things we've learned and adjustments we've made:
Spring in Salt Lake vs. spring in Siberia. According to the online forecasts, except for Mother's Day weekend when we woke up to snow, the weather in Barnaul since we got here has always been warmer than in Salt Lake, sometimes by only a few degrees, sometimes by 20+ degrees. How does it feel to know you're colder than Siberia? Unfortunately that won't always hold true. They've told us that it almost always gets down to -40 here at some time every winter.
Thermostats vs. government provided heat or lack thereof. When we first got here the temperatures were in the 70s and the heat in the buildings made things miserable. We turned off the radiators in our apartment and always left the windows open. Sometime in the last few weeks the heat that is piped throughout all of Russia via hot water pipes got turned off. No announcement, no fanfare, just turned off. We didn't notice it at first, but as is typical with spring weather, it's turned chilly again. However, the heat is off now until they decide to turn it on again in the fall. We have a small electric heater we can use in our apartment if necessary, but church is another matter. It's downright COLD in our meetings now. Oh well, at least no one falls asleep.
Large quantities of any item vs. frequent shopping trips, which is fine because there are grocery stores on nearly every corner and we shop often. Since we carry everything home (sometimes taking the bus depending on where we shop) and up 3 flights of stairs, we don't want big packages of anything. It's taking us less time to shop now than it did three weeks ago as we're becoming more and more familiar with their products and don't have to spend quite so much time trying to figure out what things are.
Clothes dryer vs. drying rack. Now instead of sitting in a laundry basket getting wrinkled, the clothes come out of the washer that way :) Because the best place for our drying rack is in our front entry, we put clothes away as soon as we can after they dry so we can move around the apartment again. One of the missionaries said he's never seen a dryer here, either in stores or in anyone's home. When we first got here I looked and looked for dryer sheets to help with some static problems. Now I know why I can't find them! I've learned how much tumbling clothes takes out wrinkles. I've also learned to time the laundry so I'm home when the washer stops and can hang things immediately, which helps a little, and iron Dave's shirts while they're still damp, which helps a lot. We're just glad to have a washer in our apartment. It takes about 2 1/4 hours to run a load, and it holds about half of what my washer did at home. That's nice--we don't have room to dry more than one load at a time.
Bread mixer vs. kneading dough by hand, another thing that helps me realize how much we take for granted. We do have a hand mixer that's great on higher speeds and works for making cookie dough. The slowest speed is broken so I'm still trying to figure out how to add flour to things without covering the whole kitchen in a fine layer of dust. But Dave kneads his bread by hand. It's a good thing he's so strong!
Bags of Grandma Sycamore's bread vs. bags of refrigerated bread dough. Quick and easy, but not quite the marshmallow texture of Grandma Sycamore's bread. They do have a lot of different kinds of bread here, and we'll be trying out some in the months to come. However, the bread is good the first day, dry the second, and goes moldy within a few days.
Skim milk vs. 2.5% milk. Milk comes in approximately 1/2 liter bottles or bags. We wouldn't want them much larger than that because they have very close expiration dates--the bags are good for about 4 days, the bottles about 5-6 days.
Ziploc bags/containers vs none. I like to use them for a lot of different things. I'm hoping some bags are on their way in a package that is coming from home. They do have some small containers that can be used for leftovers, but not the big ones we're used to.
Aluminum foil and plastic wrap in boxes vs. on rolls. It saves room in the drawer, but it's harder to deal with.
Crisco vs. butter. They don't have shortening here, just butter and margarine. Fortunately, so far all of the things I've made have turned out just fine.
Cool, clean water vs. cool clean water. For the first two weeks we were here our water filter wasn't working so we had to use bottled water. We boiled water for washing dishes and tried drinking it after it cooled, but one sip was enough to convince us bottled water was worth the price. It's very rusty and has an awful taste and not safe for Americans to drink unfiltered/unless boiled. We finally got the missing part and hooked up the filters. It hooks on the faucet on the sink and runs water through 3 filters--one we change every other month, one every 4 months and one yearly. We have to be careful to run only cold water through it or the filters melt. There's a little tab we pull out to make the water run through the filters. The water tastes SO much better with the filter. The Elders have told us the filters look awful when they change them. Here's a picture of what the set up looks like (sorry I can't get the picture to turn). The filtered water comes out of a separate little spout to the right of the faucet. When we push the tab in, water comes out of the faucet normally.
A dishwasher vs. small plastic dish tubs (slightly larger diameter than a dinner plate). We don't have enough dishes to fill a dishwasher anyway. The small size of the tubs makes it a little tricky to wash pans. We wash dishes often enough that it takes longer to heat the water than it does to wash, dry and put the dishes away. Most of the missionaries just put soap on a sponge, wipe the dishes and rinse under running warm water, but I feel better using the tubs and hotter water. They have a neat appliance here called a Chineck that heats water quickly. Although it looks like a big coffee pot, you can't heat anything in it but water. It's that black thing behind the plate in my hand.
English vs. Russian. Oh well, we haven't quite found solutions to everything just yet. No, we don't always have interpreters like they originally told us we would. The missionaries are REALLY good at simultaneously interpreting during meetings, but they aren't always around when we need/want to talk to people on the street, in stores or on the bus. We just need to spend more time studying Russian in our down time.
All in all, we can't complain. We have running water, rugs on the floor, decent food, an air conditioner in our bedroom that we hope works in the summer, email & Skype, a new-found appreciation for what we had at home, dedicated missionaries, and most of all, the gospel. We are truly blessed.
Spring in Salt Lake vs. spring in Siberia. According to the online forecasts, except for Mother's Day weekend when we woke up to snow, the weather in Barnaul since we got here has always been warmer than in Salt Lake, sometimes by only a few degrees, sometimes by 20+ degrees. How does it feel to know you're colder than Siberia? Unfortunately that won't always hold true. They've told us that it almost always gets down to -40 here at some time every winter.
Thermostats vs. government provided heat or lack thereof. When we first got here the temperatures were in the 70s and the heat in the buildings made things miserable. We turned off the radiators in our apartment and always left the windows open. Sometime in the last few weeks the heat that is piped throughout all of Russia via hot water pipes got turned off. No announcement, no fanfare, just turned off. We didn't notice it at first, but as is typical with spring weather, it's turned chilly again. However, the heat is off now until they decide to turn it on again in the fall. We have a small electric heater we can use in our apartment if necessary, but church is another matter. It's downright COLD in our meetings now. Oh well, at least no one falls asleep.
Large quantities of any item vs. frequent shopping trips, which is fine because there are grocery stores on nearly every corner and we shop often. Since we carry everything home (sometimes taking the bus depending on where we shop) and up 3 flights of stairs, we don't want big packages of anything. It's taking us less time to shop now than it did three weeks ago as we're becoming more and more familiar with their products and don't have to spend quite so much time trying to figure out what things are.
Clothes dryer vs. drying rack. Now instead of sitting in a laundry basket getting wrinkled, the clothes come out of the washer that way :) Because the best place for our drying rack is in our front entry, we put clothes away as soon as we can after they dry so we can move around the apartment again. One of the missionaries said he's never seen a dryer here, either in stores or in anyone's home. When we first got here I looked and looked for dryer sheets to help with some static problems. Now I know why I can't find them! I've learned how much tumbling clothes takes out wrinkles. I've also learned to time the laundry so I'm home when the washer stops and can hang things immediately, which helps a little, and iron Dave's shirts while they're still damp, which helps a lot. We're just glad to have a washer in our apartment. It takes about 2 1/4 hours to run a load, and it holds about half of what my washer did at home. That's nice--we don't have room to dry more than one load at a time.
Bread mixer vs. kneading dough by hand, another thing that helps me realize how much we take for granted. We do have a hand mixer that's great on higher speeds and works for making cookie dough. The slowest speed is broken so I'm still trying to figure out how to add flour to things without covering the whole kitchen in a fine layer of dust. But Dave kneads his bread by hand. It's a good thing he's so strong!
Bags of Grandma Sycamore's bread vs. bags of refrigerated bread dough. Quick and easy, but not quite the marshmallow texture of Grandma Sycamore's bread. They do have a lot of different kinds of bread here, and we'll be trying out some in the months to come. However, the bread is good the first day, dry the second, and goes moldy within a few days.
Skim milk vs. 2.5% milk. Milk comes in approximately 1/2 liter bottles or bags. We wouldn't want them much larger than that because they have very close expiration dates--the bags are good for about 4 days, the bottles about 5-6 days.
Ziploc bags/containers vs none. I like to use them for a lot of different things. I'm hoping some bags are on their way in a package that is coming from home. They do have some small containers that can be used for leftovers, but not the big ones we're used to.
Aluminum foil and plastic wrap in boxes vs. on rolls. It saves room in the drawer, but it's harder to deal with.
Crisco vs. butter. They don't have shortening here, just butter and margarine. Fortunately, so far all of the things I've made have turned out just fine.
Cool, clean water vs. cool clean water. For the first two weeks we were here our water filter wasn't working so we had to use bottled water. We boiled water for washing dishes and tried drinking it after it cooled, but one sip was enough to convince us bottled water was worth the price. It's very rusty and has an awful taste and not safe for Americans to drink unfiltered/unless boiled. We finally got the missing part and hooked up the filters. It hooks on the faucet on the sink and runs water through 3 filters--one we change every other month, one every 4 months and one yearly. We have to be careful to run only cold water through it or the filters melt. There's a little tab we pull out to make the water run through the filters. The water tastes SO much better with the filter. The Elders have told us the filters look awful when they change them. Here's a picture of what the set up looks like (sorry I can't get the picture to turn). The filtered water comes out of a separate little spout to the right of the faucet. When we push the tab in, water comes out of the faucet normally.
A dishwasher vs. small plastic dish tubs (slightly larger diameter than a dinner plate). We don't have enough dishes to fill a dishwasher anyway. The small size of the tubs makes it a little tricky to wash pans. We wash dishes often enough that it takes longer to heat the water than it does to wash, dry and put the dishes away. Most of the missionaries just put soap on a sponge, wipe the dishes and rinse under running warm water, but I feel better using the tubs and hotter water. They have a neat appliance here called a Chineck that heats water quickly. Although it looks like a big coffee pot, you can't heat anything in it but water. It's that black thing behind the plate in my hand.
English vs. Russian. Oh well, we haven't quite found solutions to everything just yet. No, we don't always have interpreters like they originally told us we would. The missionaries are REALLY good at simultaneously interpreting during meetings, but they aren't always around when we need/want to talk to people on the street, in stores or on the bus. We just need to spend more time studying Russian in our down time.
All in all, we can't complain. We have running water, rugs on the floor, decent food, an air conditioner in our bedroom that we hope works in the summer, email & Skype, a new-found appreciation for what we had at home, dedicated missionaries, and most of all, the gospel. We are truly blessed.
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