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.