Birthday Week

When writing about the baptism of Artiome last week I mentioned that his wife was only in country 3 days.  I was blessed to go with the Elders to teach the first lesson to Marina.  Their apartment is a two room, meaning it has a kitchen and a living area where they also sleep.  They have a small tv and the Elders gave them 6 or 7 videos and their DVD player so they could watch them.  I don't remember all of the DVD titles, but they were about Christ and the restoration.  Then the couple of days between the baptism and our coming they had watched every one of them.   

They served us a simple meal and then we had a lesson.  Elder Davis gave the lesson on the restoration and bore testimony of Joseph Smith, followed by Elder Janson's testimony.  Then Artiome bore his testimony and to our surprise Marina bore a beautiful testimony of Joesph Smith saying because of Joseph's desire to know the truth God had chosen him to restore His church.  It looks like Lipetsk is going to have another full family come into the church.  They will be a real strength as they are both very impressive young people.  

 We had them over for dinner last week and had a wonderful time.  Sister Hoagland is getting to know Marina and Little Viola in primary.  We are so excited for them.

 Saturday we have sport night in Lipetsk and we walked quite a long distance to a park and then to the beach.  On the way we passed this stairway with the cascading water and fountains.  Lipetsk has many fountains as you can see from other posts.

At the beach we first played football with our investigators and members.  They asked if I wanted to play and I said I only play quarterback.  OK, so they set me up as the designated, no contact, quarterback for both teams.  Had a fun time and did pretty well throwing several touchdowns for both teams.  Had some defensive trouble with one Elder who was 6' 5" with long arms but he couldn't be everywhere.  He was a big help on offense but I had to throw to our young members and investigators too.

The young man without a shirt in the middle is interested in speaking more English.  He came to Artiome's baptism just to speak more English.  After this sport night he also came to church.  The other shirtless guy was hitting a volleyball with friends close by.

Talk after the play

 The beach looking up river.

 The beach looking down river.  This was taken around 7:30 pm.  They love their beach and a lot of people swim every evening.  The Elders stay away from this part of the beach for obvious reasons.  Modesty is at a premium in Russia.

 Following football, the boys playing with a volleyball joined us for a competitive game.  The Elders and the one investigator were winning pretty handily with just five players so I thought I would join and even up the game a little.  Played two and a half games and was pretty worn out by the end.  Great fun.

 After volleyball it was time for some fun with the Frisbee.  I had had enough sport for one night and Sister Hoagland was home alone so I left. 

 This is the trolley bus I took home.  These buses have to be 30 or 40 years old.  They are rusty, dirty and noisy from the operators controls and the air compressor used for the breaks.

 Elder Harris on the right has gone through two pairs of shoes since we have been here.  His companion, Elder Raymond also has a new pair of shoes.  Russian men love pointy shoes.

 This week was my birthday on Tuesday.  I received a call from President and Sister Sorenson in the morning singing happy birthday.  Later in the morning Elders Janson & Davis also sang happy birthday.  Elders Harris and Raymond invited us to lunch and a new fast food place.  Had a wonderful birthday.  It was English club that night and we again had a fun time with our friends there.  We had dinner with Helen, one of the regulars, in our home over the weekend.  She teaches English and speaks very well so we could have her without the Elders.

Before our dinner with Helen the Elders had a couple of lessons in our apartment.  One at 1:30 and the other at 3:00.  We have some hard working Elders and on Sunday we had 35 people at church with at least 5 of our regulars not even in attendance.  We only set up about 30 chairs, so we had to go get more.

 Elders waiting for the bus to take them to their next appointments following our lunch.

 Took this picture to show that our part of town is rather elevated.  We walk about a third of the way down this hill to get to the church.

 Grandson, Eric Davis, having fun on a knee board.  Good to see that great smile.  He likes to be serious.

 At family Home evening the branch gave me a little birthday party.

 Here we are with Margarite.

 Most of the work for this party was done by Rima.  Rima is an amazing young woman.  At 19 she is the most faithful and most knowledgeable woman in the branch.  She has served a "mini mission" where young women at least 12 weeks as a missionary with a full time companion, doing all that missionaries do.  President Woolley said she was as good as most of his full time missionary sisters.

Sister Hoagland made the cake from scratch.  No Betty Crocker here in Lipitsk.  Sister Woolley left the cake decorating sprinkles.  Here I am blowing out the candles.  Walking miles a week made this effort a snap.

Here we all are with our birthday hats on, celebrating my birthday.  These people are so sweet, we know that it will be hard to say good bye in just over a year.  We were told that they would love us and it is certainly true.  On the right is an investigator and just to his left is a new member who just moved in.  He comes to all our Sunday and Wednesday activities and we have him teaching priesthood right now.  Another brother moved in as well and speaks very good English.  He has only been a members since last fall.  His job does not allow him to come each week, but he comes when he can.