We have had a very busy week.  Last Wednesday we had our usual district meeting in our apartment.  Friday we had dinner with a member with the Elders.  They wanted us to come and so we needed Elders to to come so we could communicate with them and both sets showed up.  Had a wonderful time.  Then on Saturday we had another baptism.  Artiome is a wonderful young man who was brought to the church by a less active member.  He is not long from Armenia and his wife, Marina, and children were in country only three days when he was baptized.  I went with Elders Janson and Davis yesterday and taught and testified to to Armina.  She is great.  I was asked to answer the question of why we don't use the cross.  

Sunday we had a visit from President and Sister Sorenson.  They were here for only branch council and church meetings and some interviews with the Elders.  They are wonderful.  After church I was busy with interviews and a presidency meeting.  We have most of our new members who  are trying to get established here in Russia who need church assistance.  We are working hard to handle the situation properly.  I took one family grocery shopping yesterday and gave them a budget of 2,000 Rubles ($66.00).  They filled a basket and I thought they had gone way over.  It was 2,004 Rubles.  Sister Hoagland and I had purchased enough to fill 2/3rds of a bag and it was 700 rubles.  I told her we wanted her to do our shopping from now on.  

Sunday evening we took a bus to Voronez for zone conference.  We had the pleasure of staying with Elder & Sister Craythorne of Syracuse, Utah.  They are here for 23 months and only have until February  before they go home.  they have just moved to Voronez from Moscow where they served most of their mission.  Sorry I didn't get a picture of them.  We were able to return right after the conference but due to too much happy bantering between the two missionary districts we missed the bus and stayed over one more night.   That gave the Elders time to play basketball on the church court and us to get to know the Craythorne's a lot better.  

 Our wonderful Lipetsk district.   They are so hard working and each has had a baptism in the last two weeks.  There are more to come.

 Our Armenian meal.  I made a potato salad, yes I did!  It just lacked a little mustard that we can't seem to find here and maybe some more eggs.  We had a sister in New Zealand that used 2 dozen eggs in her potato salad.  Talk about good.

 Here we all are, minus Vika and our photographer Arpine.   Margarite's husband is in the hospital out of town.  Armon in the back was just here for the day and went back to work in Moscow.  These two women are working hard to raise their children.

 Elder Harris on the left, Armon & Vika with their two boys, Artiome and Ararat.

 What great missionaries.  They are playing like they're riding the bus and Artiome is the driver.

 The bus just made a quick stop.  I want you to know that the bus drivers here have no regard for their passengers.  They stop at a corner as if no one was with them.  Passengers could go flying if they didn't hold on!

 Gathering for the baptism for Artiome.  Marina is talking to Elder Harris.  What a lovely lady.  She may be the next baptism.  They have a 2 1/2 year old, and a new born child.  On the far right is Armen, who has been a member since 1995.  He introduced Artiome.  He is working on getting active and wants to bring his partner to Russia and we hope get married.   They are expecting.

 Elder Davis and Artiome.  Elder Davis has been here 8 weeks and is already translating for us.  He was a champion drummer in high school.  We had scheduled this baptism in a spa at a hotel but Artiome wanted to be baptized in the river like little Artiome was last week.

 Artiome and his sweet family.  We are still learning names.

 Our wonderful Elders and Artiome. Elder Raymond on the left has been here two weeks and he along with Elder Harris are our zone leaders.  Elder Raymond went to Southern Virginia University, an LDS themed private Liberal arts university.  It has about 800 students and he played on their basketball team.

 Sargies is one of the witnesses as they prepare for the baptism.

 Here are some of us walking to the river for the baptism.

 President and Sister Sorenson with the Lipetsk district.

 On the bus ride to Voronez the Elders met 12 or 13 Christians returning home to Ukraine.  They are not affiliated with any church and were very interested in Joseph Smith and the book of Mormon.  They got 6 referrals from them.  They talked the whole 2 hours to Voronez and Elder Harris never sat down.  One of the Christian group got out a guitar and they sang a couple of songs.  That is their music being held up.  Elders Janson and Harris sang Lead kindly light for them.

 Our AP's giving the zone training.  They were terrific.  Elder Turner has done a lot for the work in Eastern Europe.  Most recently he was able to get the 50 signatures from non members needed to get the church recognized in Kazakhstan.  He has learned Russian to an amazing degree and knows some Armenian, and other languages.   Even some sign language.

I told President Sorenson about the Elders experience on the bus and he asked them to sing Lead Kindly Light for the zone.  Their voices blended beautifully.  We love our Elders.  Elder Janson preceeded me as Branch President and is my 2nd counselor.  I could not do it without him.  He has less than six months on his mission and he has been a zone leader. He is also our district leader now.

It is getting warmer and muggier here in Russia.  This week we broke down and bought a fan.  I got the hint when the apartment below us had an air conditioner installed.  

Church was interesting this week.  Most of the congregation did not show up until 15 minutes past the starting time.  We had a confirmation to do, and we had to wait until after the sacrament because the mother had not arrived until the bread was passed.  We have had to combine priesthood and Relief society the last few weeks because there were not enough sisters who stayed or came all together.  A bright spot was when I taught the youth Sunday school class.  They were amazing.  

One of the fun experiences of English club.  We are in the advanced group who talk on different subjects either purposely selected or just come with normal conversation.  We learn about each other and we also help them with new words and answer questions about word usage.  Helen in dark glasses just had eye surgery and has become a good friend.  She teaches English in a high school in Lipetsk.  We walked to and from club together and we are going to set a time to have dinner with her.  She said she would like that. We have a couple of people from the club who are taking the lessons.

 We said good bye to Elder Bishop (in grey slacks)  this week.  He will be serving in a Moscow ward just north of the city.  Elder Harris is still here (he was here when we came) and is a zone leader.  His new companion will also be a zone leader.  I suspect this will be his last transfer with us.

 Here  Elder Bishop takes the night train to Moscow where he will be met by his new companion.  Elder Harris will bring his new companion back with him/.

 For the past month or so these birds have been all over Lipetsk.  They frolic from sunup to sunset and do it with a high pitched screech.  They fly around our building all day long.  I have never seen one land and wonder when they eat or drink.

 We had to take a bus to see a member in the hospital over 2 hours away in Lambov. Lambov is a city east of here and just smaller than Lipetsk.

 Here is our lovely bus to Lambov.  Not a bad riding bus but no air conditioning. Just before we arrived a storm came by and we had to close the ceiling vent which for some made it warmer.  I was getting cold just before they closed it.

 Elder's Janson and Davis were with me.  We had no idea how to get to the hospital, but Elder Janson was in contact with Samville, who we came to see.  He told us which bus to take.  We took a Mashrootka, a large van, for the first part, then walked a ways to this train station where we got a city bus to the hospital.  We only had three hours before we had to be back to the bus station for our return trip and it took us almost an hour and half to get to the hospital.  We opted for a taxi to get back on time.

 A picture of the hospital.  Looks much better outside than in.  That is the opposite of most apartment buildings.  Apartment buildings look big and ugly outside but the apartments are better looking and small on the inside.
 

 Every city has a large WWII memorial and Tambov is no exception.  Unless I was turned around I think we passed two.  This one in the taxi and another on the bus.  These people have no idea how much military hardware and supplies we provided for them.

 This memorial was very well done, with some of the best lawn I have seen outside Moscow.

 Here is part of the second memorial with a view of a church under repair.

 Here is Leonid taking a group picture in front of the church.  He has some responsibility for the building and does a pretty good job.  He and his wife have a photography business, so he has a pretty good camera.  I think they take infant pictures.

 A less formal picture of the group Leonid was taking a picture of.  We are on our way to the river for a baptism.  We had around twenty people at the river, 10 of which were missionaries.  We had Elder Turner and his companion (they are AP's) who came and two office Elders who served here before, Elder's Anisaforov and Kvatnitski.  We are waiting at a bus stop for another member before we proceed to the river.

 In the summer the river is used quite extensively so we had to find a place that would give us privacy.  Worked out great with a hidden location near a pumping station.

 Artiome was not old enough to be baptized with his family last February but now he is ready.

 Here he is with his mother Vicka, Margarite, his brother Ararat and Elder Harris, who will baptize him.

 Elder Davis on the left confirmed Artiome in church the next day.  It was his first confirmation in Russian.  He did a fine job.

 On the left is a man who has an interest in learning more English so he was just there with us.  Right now English is the best attraction to involve people in the church.

 These Elders sang the opening song using an ipod for their hymn book.  L to R, Elder's Janson, Turner, ?, Harris, Davis, and our new Elder in town, Elder Raymond from Provo.  Following the baptism, we had a picnic in a close by park.  We felt like we were moving into Babylon when we got there and wondered if we should have found another place but several people came up to us an inquired who we were because of our appearance and looked like we were having fun.  Maybe it was not such a bad idea after all.

 Jeff and Fawn's family at Uncle Gary's house in Florence.  We were glad they were able to be there.

 I have emailed this to most of you but this is for my historical record.  I just read in the Deseret news that they just rededicated the Hyde Park Chapel in London.  I was there in February 1961 when President McKay dedicated the chapel the first time.  I had never before been in the presence of a prophet and I felt so blessed to be there.  

I have attached two pictures copied from the Hyde Park Chapel facebook page, one of which I think is of me watching president Mckay leave the chapel.   I am the first face you see to the left of my mission President, T. Bowring Woodbury, as he helped President McKay from the chapel.     It is one of two vivid memories of that occasion.  The second was shaking hands with a newly called assistant to the twelve named Gordon B. Hinckley.    

The second photo is of the chapel, which looks much the same as I remember it.  At the dedication I recall seated on the stand, Pres. & Sis. Mckay, Elder & Sister Hugh B. Brown,  Elder's N. Elden Tanner,  Gorden B.Hinckley and their wives, and President Alvin R Dyer, president of the European mission.  Elder Tanner replaced him shortly thereafter.  I remember most of the general authorities wives wearing fur coats on the stand.  I thought that strange.

It was also a happy time, as we learned that a new mission was being created with James A Cullimore  as my new mission president.  We were the first missionaries of the Central British Mission based just outside Birmingham, England in Sutton Coldfield.

Four of July party on July 8th

We had many of our friends here in Russia offer us a happy fourth of July.  They are very thoughtful. We had a wonderful party on Saturday in celebration of our Independence Day.  It was a little strange because our four main families all had illness and did not come, but we had one less active brother, one Sister, teen boy, one Melchizedek priesthood holder, the six missionaries who were members and eight investigators. 

Julie, Paul and Eric and Colin went to Friday Harbor on Friday of Last week.  They had a wonderful time and called us on skype when they got home late at night.  We had a great time talking to them but their mike was not working so we had to read their comments.  I showed them my new Russian fur hat and a new man purse I purchased instead of replacing my wallet.  They got a big laugh from both items.

 A family home evening demonstration during this week's family home evening at the branch.  Since it was in Russian I didn't get the meaning of this, but each step to the right represented sin and the elastic band would stretch farther and farther.  At this point the Elder behind the post let go and the band snapped back.

 Holly hocks are everywhere right now.  For some reason I love that name for a flower.

 The beginning of our fourth of July party.  It was supposed to be at a park, but the weather and the fact that the parks do not have picnic tables there we opted to have it at the church.  I made (with Sister Hoagland cooking the potatoes and eggs) wonderful potato salad.  The Elders cooked what we use for hot dogs and with a very good watermelon we had a pretty typical 4th of July picnic.

 Armen just moved to Lipetsk and wants to become active.  His friend, Artiome, below is taking the lessons.  He has a girlfriend still in Armenia.  He wanted his picture taken with us.

 Artiome has a baptismal date on the 28th of July.

 First game.  First to remove all tissue from tissue box.  Second game, bounce out 6 ping pong balls from tissue box.

 Second game.  be first to restack all the cups.

 Do you think Sister Hoagland won!

 Third game, knock over the pop cans with a panty hose on your had and a ball in its foot.

 Everyone got a big laugh out of this one.

 Fourth game, first one to eat all the M&M's without getting whip cream on your face.

 Vladimir loved this game.  He was single minded in eating as much as he could of everything.

 For some reason no one seemed to care if they got whip cream on their face

 Vladimir did clean the plate

 One of our first time participants in the branch had a good time too.

 Rodic was slow but sure.

 The three legged race was a hoot.  We had some funny combinations of people.

 Natalie from English club took these pictures as I was in the race.

 Here I am with my partner.  We did a little practice run which made us the fastest of all.

 Sister Hoagland ran a good race but her leg was hurting by the time they finished.  It think they put the twill too high.

 Last was the tug of war.   The far side won both heats.

 After all the games we finished with a spiritual thought.  Rodic has lost his freedom.

 Knocking whipped cream from your arm to your mouth is a skill.

 How did this picture get in here.  Just to show how some of the bread here is really small.

 Here is our planning session for the fourth of July party.  I thought we did really well.  The food was great and the games were fun.

 While we planned, Sister Hoagland and Nastia were preparing  a large pan of Lasagna.  They ate the whole thing.

 Elder Davis is having a little piece of bread.

 Maps of the new East European missions after this yea adjustments.  The Russia Moscow mission is the dark blue in the middle.

 Bought this wonderful wood box set from a wonderful babushka.  She is an investigator the Elders have me come to the lesson with.  She used to make these and she sold the Elders and me three sets.  What a deal.

Elder's Harris and Bishop with our babushka that we purchased the wood boxes.  I also bought the scarf she is wearing for Sister Hoagland.

 The Elders and us at the university where Nastia (Anastasia) received her diploma.  They don't make a big deal out of it.  We waited in this room while she received her diploma down the hall with just a teacher and her fellow students.

 Here she is after receiving her diploma.

One last game at the 4th of July party.  move three cans with a dry spaghetti from the floor to the small table.  The A&W root beer was purchased in Moscow at a specialty store.  It cost $1.20 per can.   Doctor Pepper cost $2.96.  Lucky we had some further use for the cans.  We did not buy DR. Pepper!