People, Missionary Work, and Culture

Well, I am sad.  President is finally transferring Elder Janson.  He has been here at least 4 transfers and was branch president until President Woolley called me to the position.  He is a fine young man who knows the Russian language better than most missionaries and has done all the translating of my talks.  He has been called to be an AP replacing Elder Turner who has been an AP since he left here 5 transfers (each transfer is 6 weeks) ago.  He will be missed greatly because he is the only one who knows the Russian MLS system well. That is the church finance and membership computer program.

 We were minding our business at home Saturday night and got a call asking us if it was ok if Nastia came and stayed with us.  She showed up around 9:00 pm with a friend from the church in Veronish.  A missionary mom had sent here a video of Anastasia (Nastia is short for Anastasia) which she has never seen.

 Marina is new member Artyome's wife, and is taking the lessons.  She is having trouble finding time to read the BofM and other things and still has not gained a testimony.  She is a wonderful young woman and some prayers would be very helpful.  I didn't tell her that my daughter has 4 children, an 11 room house plus 4 bathrooms, and is the primary president in her ward and still has time to read.  She only has a kitchen, bathroom and living room where they all sleep.

 Artyome's family, Myself, Elder Davis, and giving us all a salute is Elder Raymond.

 The Lipetsk missionary district.  Elders Janson, Raymond, Davis, and Law.  Elder Law joined us last transfer and Elder Janson will leave next week.  We will miss him!

 We cannot tract very much in Lipetsk because all the apartment buildings are locked and if they do get in people call the police frequently if they try knocking on doors.  Much of their finding activity takes place while on buses or just walking around.  They are very noticeable and people will talk to them.  Here we are having a stationary finding activity at the central renock (market).  We have the AP's in town, so they are helping.  We have two banners introducing the church on the left and the Book of Mormon on the right.  They had a lot of people stop by until some door salesmen started to encroach on our area.

 They set up behind the central bus stop where a lot of people come and go.  There are also many vendors selling hats, sweaters, shoes, coats, etc.  lined up on both sides behind me.  This lady with a smile just left the booth with some material.  She looks happy.

 The man at the left spent a long time with Elder Janson.  He wouldn't give his information but said he was very interested in attending church.

 Elder Davis is very quiet spoken but was the most aggressive in getting people's attention.  He followed this fellow a couple of booths down from us before he stopped to talk.   Notice the hats in this booth and a lady in a striped top trying on a sweater in the booth next to that one.

 The Elders must wear their missionary clothing on P Day as well.  Here are Elder Janson and Elder Harris hanging around together on P Day.

 I have been trying to take pictures of some of the women's footwear.  It seems I only see interesting ones when I don't have my camera.  We were on our way home from Artyome's when I saw these boots with six inch heels.  This was taken on a bus.  We have three classes of buses in Lipetsk.  Most are very old.  The newer fancy buses are used buses purchased from Germany.  First is the small buses that are privately owned that run the same routes as the city owned buses.  They are dirty, often crowded and the drivers are scary.  They try to get to the next stop as fast as they can.  They are not on a schedule so they just tear around to get as many fares from the traditional buses as they can.

Next are the oldest buses with worn out interiors.  They pick up seniors and students who have passes.  They can be either electric trolley buses or diesel.  They also pick up paying customers like us.  The newer buses have fabric seats, are much bigger, cleaner, nice windows to see out of, and easier (low to the ground) to enter and exit.    All cost 12 rubles no matter the distance traveled. 

 Another interesting pair of shoes.

 This was our hot water for most of this week.  Not fun.

 This is the meat market at the central Renock.  Vendors rent space and lay out their meat on these stone tables.

 Some other items are also sold in this building but most vegetables are sold outside.  I took this because of the huge radishes.   

 The other side of the round building.  We were told we couldn't take pictures in the building following this shot.

 Here is a picture outside the building.  The outdoor market surrounds the round building and goes off in another direction.  hundreds of booths selling all manner of clothes, fruits and vegetables.  You have to watch your prices as some produce can be purchased for less in traditional super markets.  We are advised not to buy eggs and meat at these markets.

 Interesting money situation here.  One ruble is worth .03 cents.  They are still using Kupeek's which are like our cents.  As a result when we shop for food we get some change in kupeeks that are next to worthless.  You can see them on the street because people will not go to the trouble to pick them up when they drop them.  Anyway, 2 - 50 kupeek coins make one ruble, 10 - 10 kupeek coins make a ruble, and 20 - 5 kupeek coins make a ruble.  I am still 4 short of these coins to make a ruble.   To get rid of my 10 kupeek coins I used 20 of them plus 2  5 ruble coins for one bus fair for a total of 12 rubles (.35 cents).

 Here are the most commonly used bills.  There are 10 and 5,000 ruble bills as well.  The 5,000 R bill is used mostly for paying rent, but the atm machines don't always have them.  The 1000 ruble bill is worth about 30 to $33.00 depending on the rate.

The Russians love English on their clothes and especially t-shirts.  As you can see they don't always make sense   Doesn't matter, most Russians do not know English.

See you next time.  We are having a wonderful experience.  Seniors, make every effort to have at least one full time mission experience.  The Lord needs you!!!!

Experiences in the branch

Since we have been here Saturday has been the day to clean the chapel.  In winter months it was no problem as we had sports day at the building and we just cleaned up after the activity with those who came.  Summer has been a different experience.  There has been no organized system where the members participated in the cleaning.  It was pretty much left to the Elders.  Things move a little slow here and I have been trying to involve members, especially those receiving church assistance.  

Two weeks ago we sustained a new member as our member cleaning coordinator.  I had made up a blank schedule and a list of clean-up duties.  Finally today we have those two items translated into Russian so they can be used.  In our visit from the area facilities manager three weeks ago it was approved for a cabinet to be purchased to provide access by the members to cleaning supplies and equipment, but so far no cabinet.  

Some of the interesting things going on with record keeping in the branch;  When my wallet was stolen last July 3, included in the missing items was the debit card (Russians do not use checks) used for funding branch budget and welfare requirements.  After using the new card for some time we noticed that we were not getting the weekly reports of our withdrawals showing up on the computer.  After finally reporting the situation to Moscow area finance office we were asked to send a picture of the screen that shows the report without the withdrawals.  I didn't know how that would help, but we complied.  Three weeks went by and I finally emailed them to see if they got the requested picture.  They wrote back asking for a list of all withdrawals since we received the card so they could investigate.  Now we wait!

On Sunday my first counselor could not come to church because he was not able to finance his bus ride into town from his farm an hour and a half away.  My clerk slept in and was also not there.  We have only three passwords to access the financial section of the church system and they had two of them.  Elder Janson and I share a missionary password but we needed two passwords to access the system.  Result, we were not able to record our tithing receipts and branch expenses for the week.  Not good! I have since requested a password for me.

On the bright side.  We had an audit on Tuesday of the first six months from Elder Craythorn who came up from Veronish.  Not one mistake.   

These first three pictures were taken from our apartment window.  Over this last weekend we had an inversion and at least 1 in 5 of the houses to our north were burning yard debris.  This is not Oregon.

I came late to sport day at the beach and everyone greeted me on my arrival.  I play for about an hour and a half each Saturday in the sand.

Here everyone is putting on the shoes and getting ready to leave.  There must be a dam somewhere on that river because the water level never seems to change.

We have a rather long walk from the beach back to the branch through some unkept foliage.  At the base of a cliff is this really quaint little chapel with beautifully kept grounds.

Here we begin a rather steep climb up to the top of the cliff.

This is a new monastery being built next to the little chapel.  It is at the bottom of the trail leading up the cliff.

At the top is a very nice park.  On Saturdays there are weddings being held all day long and they fan out across the city in decorated cars and limousines  to find locations for wedding pictures.  I am not sure if this was an actual wedding ceremony or just a friends and family activity.  That was a  beautiful bride.  I am told the reason there are so many weddings is because the average Russian is married three times.

Not far from the wedding party

From our kitchen widow, four stories up over brick stairs is this woman cleaning her windows.

You would never catch me like this.  I had my heart attack 16 years ago at the top of a 12 foot step ladder.  That was scary enough for me.

I do not know how these women do it.  Walking on 6 inch heals just to shop.  I think I will take more pictures of women's shoes because since taking this picture I have found some very interesting ones that I would like to share.

The parents of one of our new converts came from Armenia to live with their son and his family.  I am sorry I do not remember the sister's name but his is Ararat, just like his grandson.  We are here celebrating with fruit and cake, for her birthday.

The Craythorns took a 2 hour bus ride from Veronish so Elder Craythorn could audit our branch books.  They are from Syracuse, Utah and have been married 52 years since they were 16 years old.  Following the audit we took them to the "Rus Burger" for a really good hamburger and fries.  It has been open only 2 or 3 months and we have been there 5 times.  We were told by the Elders that they have great shakes as well.  I tried the strawberry a while back and did not like it.  I will have to try the chocolate and the vanilla.  They come recommended.

Here is our Nastia.  She has graduated from university and has moved home to her mother's little village where she has a job in the library.  Hope those stacks don't fall on her.  We really miss her.  She will come every once in a while, but I think she much prefers the Veronish branch which she also visits once in a while. It has at lease 80 in attendance and she has lots of friends her age there.

Special Zone conference in Moscow

We had a special zone conference in Moscow on Tuesday September 11.  We were sent via email our electronic tickets and on Friday we walked (for the exercise) to the train station up the road about a mile or so from our apartment and had our actual tickets issued to us.  

Our train left Lipetsk on Monday evening at 10:55 pm.   They had purchased four tickets for us so we would have a coupe all to ourselves.  It turns out it was not a coupe, but they had purchased  four beds in an open car with about 70 people with no doors or curtains.  We called our Elders and told them we would not be going to Moscow under these conditions.  We have had trouble with our tickets in the past so we felt we needed to make a statement to the office that they need to pay attention when ordering our tickets.    Two of our Elders thought it would be an adventure and volunteered to let us have their spots in the Elders coupe.  So we shared the coupe with the other two Elders.  None the less, sleeping on these noisy, rough riding, and over heated trains is our biggest mission challenge.  

One short ride on the metro and we were at our meeting at the Moscow central chapel.  We first had a zone meeting until noon with our zone leaders who reviewed a laundry list (their words) of mission rules so that the new combined mission had no misunderstandings as to what they were.  They also emphasized the baptism commitment.  Too many commitments are falling through.  After a discussion, we did some role playing using real investigator situations to obtain baptismal dates.  

For lunch we went to "SUBWAY."  First time for a subway sandwich since we got here.  Love that spicy Italian with Southwest sauce.  

After lunch we combined with another zone for a meeting with President and Sister Sorenson.  After some training with assistants to the president Sister Sorenson spoke on the theme of the Book of Mormon.  We are challenged  to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. At the end of Sister Sorenson's training she always has a health segment.  She asks people to stand if in the last week they had certain fruits  and vegetables.  We stand or remain seated for each fruit or vegetable separately. Those who stand for all those given get a treat.  This time it was M & M's which stands for mission miracles.   

President Sorenson continued the Book of Mormon theme in his usual folksy way. We love his sense of humor.  He gave some good incites on the value of the Book of Mormon in strengthening faith and conversion.   Told how in the Book of Omni, Omni only writes three verses, tells that he was a wicked man and had not kept the statutes and the commandments of the Lord as he ought to have done.  He then says he kept the plates as commanded and conferred them on his son Amaron and made an end.  As short as it was Omni's confessed wickedness had convinced a young man that he needed to change his life.  He gave other examples of how the Book of Mormon has blessed lives and that these were evidences of the B of M being from God.

Because our tickets for the return were the same as coming they had to change them.  There were no coupes available on the train originally scheduled, so we had to decide on which train to use for our return.  One left before the meeting was over, one at 5:20 pm and one at 6:30 the next morning.  We didn't know how we would get to the train that early so we opted for the 5:20 which got to Lipetsk at 3:20 am.  So much for a good night sleep. I slept well between 9:00 pm and 11:00 and Sister Hoagland slept well between 9:00 pm and 1:00 am. I also fell asleep between two and three when we received a knock on our door that Lipetsk was in 20 minutes.

Buses do not run that time of morning and there were no taxi's at the station.  One man I saw calling for a taxing and I put up two fingers to indicate I needed one too.  He was very nice and let me know the license number of the taxi coming for us.  

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Elders Davis and Law, Samville, Elder & Sister Hoagland just prior to eating more than we should at Samville and Margarite's apartment.  We had a wonderful visit with this beautiful family.  Samville has a terrible degenerative disease thatl causes terrible back and neck pain.  He eventually will not be able to twist, or turn his neck  and the disease also results in blindness.     

 Margarite is an amazing woman who now is the sole provider.  She should become a strong leader in the church.  Armine is next to Elder Davis.

 Here Arpine is reading English to Elder Davis.  She has been accepted in a good school at no cost and as  you can see from this and other pictures, she is as cute as a bug.  We started out with a variety of fruit and melons.  Sister Hoagland being a little hard of hearing did not realize this was just the start and ate until   she was full.

 Then came the main course.  They just have this one little table and we all sat around as best we could.  At the far right Armine is doing what she loves, water coloring.  The man on the right is a friend of Samvilles.  His wife is in the hospital with some complication of her pregnancy.  He has two other children still in Armenia living with grandparents until they can afford to bring them.  Life is very hard for the Armenians that they would come to Russia where it can't be much better.  There is much prejudice against them in housing, and employment.  Having been so isolated for ever, Russians are not very open to foreigners anyway.  Most frequently asked question when we meet people is "why are you here?" 

 This trip was so hurried, that we did not think about taking pictures until we were on the train coming home. This is a freeway outside Moscow.

 Traffic stopped for the train going by.  It is apparent that they do not have weight limits on trucks in this country.  The dump trucks we see in Lipetsk look more like a mining trucks and they are really heavily loaded.

 Typical trees you see around Moscow.

 This is a very beautiful Orthodox church.  I really like the shiny blue onion shapes.

 Some Moscow suburbs.  They must take commuter trains we saw into Moscow.  Some new construction as well.

 A village a few miles from Moscow.

 Railroad bridge.

 Fall is on its way.  Don't like to see the trees change so soon, but we are in Russia.

 This is the first time we took a train before 6:00 pm and this one had a snack vendor who came by about every 30 minutes.  We left the door open because these little coupes can get stuffy.  We had a babushka stop by and try to talk with us.  She even came in and sat down until she realized we weren't communicating very well.

 A village train station.

We sat at train stations quite often on the trip.  At this one the sun began to set.  While they do have some diesel engines, the vast majority are electric as you can see the overhead wires.  They are quiet running and their horns are pretty wimpy, making less noise than our semi trucks.