Loving it in Lipetsk!

This week we went and visited a sister named Vera. We went with Elders Harris from Wyoming and Kvasnitsky from Ukraine. Vera is an invalid (Elderly) who moved here from Taskent. She joined the church a few years ago and we came to give her the sacrament. We had a spiritual thought for her as well.

Since we were new to each other we spent some time getting to know her. She does not know when she was born, where or who her parents were. She has a son who has visited her. She lives in one room with a kitchen table, cabinets, a fold out sofa bed, coffee table and of all things a piano which is beautifully finished but needs a lot of work inside. She shares a kitchen, utility and bath rooms with 4 other rooms.
Here we are with Elder Kvasnitsky in front of the small elevators used in these 10 story apartment buildings. There is room for about 4 people. Our elevator is not unlike this one for size, but this one was particularly scary. The door would shut before we could all enter, like all elevators if you put pressure on it it will reopen. This one opened and then slammed shut causing it to open again and we could not get it closed. We walked the six floors down. It was a very dirty and gross facility.
Sister Hoagland finally had courage to try her oven this week. We had to sit down and translate on the computer what the controls were. She did a mighty fine job with these oatmeal cookies.
Thursday of this week was "Women's Day here in Russia. It is a full blown holiday. We took the bus downtown to the mall to have Sister Hoagland's glasses repaired (a screw fell out) and wanted to buy some groceries but it was so packed we passed on that. Above is a branch party in honor of Women's day. L to R Elder Kvisnitsky, Ani, Vika, Ayda, Ararad, Artiome, Sergies, Radic, Rema, Valentina, Reta, Elder & Sister Hoagland.
Here are the Sistes we honored. They each received a card and a Tulip. Sis. Hoagland, Ani, Valentina, Rema, Ayda, Vika and Rita. Ayda is Ani and Rema's mother. Artiome is having fun at his mothers expense. We have three active YSA who are wonderful. They have all served mini missions (6 months) as teens.
We tried a store not unlike Costco when the lines were so long at the mall. We took a taxi as we didn't know what bus to take. This good man spoke English and called a taxi for us and waited to give the driver instructions. He was from Albania and has a son living in New York. About an hour after we were home I discovered that my wallet was missing. After looking all through the apartment I went down to the front of the building to see if it had fallen on the ground after getting out of the taxi. Could not find it. About forty minutes later we left for the church and there was our taxi. There were two men in it and they would not give me the wallet until I forked over 400 rubles. I had all the cash with me, but it was worth the peace of mind to have the credit & debit cards back.
We took an exploratory walk west of our apartment and about four blocks away was this war memorial.

We do not know the reason for the honor guard and wreaths, but the guards were gone when we returned.
Elder Harris was gone on his visa trip, and this was Elder Turners last week with us as he was being made Ap. Elder Anisiforov, center, fixed a traditional pork and rice meal in his honor. Elder Anisiforov will remain here as branch president. We will miss Elder Turner, as you can imagine he was an outstanding young man who was faithful in his duties, and spoke the Russian language extremely well.
Elder Harris, Rema, Margarite (sweet investagator), and Elder Kvisnitsky.
Same meal as before.
The pork and rice dish with tomato and mayonnaise on the side. Russians love Mayo! They have it in many flavors.
Elder Turner and Grandma Rema.
The branch on the day Armond, Vika and their son Ararod were confirmed the Sunday before we arrived.

We received the new Book of Mormon translation and the first triple combination this week. This is very exciting news, especially for the Elders who teach from it. The old translation was o k, but did not explain things as clearly as our English translation and in some cases investigators found it confusing. It has taken ten years to put it all together so now they have a triple combination for the first time. We are not sure how the members will get there's. We think they will have to order them on line and I am concerned about their ability to afford them. We will see.

Because of the new translation, the sacrament prayers have also been changed. I copied the prayers from D & C 20 and am now trying to learn to read them. It looks to be a few hundred repetitions before I can do it for sacrament meeting.