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.  

New Member

We had the area Physical Facilities Manager come and inspect our building this week.  We have just a few problems.  Our windows are rotting and there are two separate windows which make it impossible to clean in between.  There is no heat in the winter.  Only one plug works in the chapel, and finally, we are reaching capacity.  Since the heating problem and the capacity problem are unsolvable at this location he will be recommending we find a more suitable facility.  That would be nice. 

I also sent this email to our mission president last night.  

Dear President,

Our branch is suffering from a little spiritual and physical isolation from the rest of the church.  Our Russian members are feeling a little out numbered by all of the Armenians who have recently joined the church here and the Armenians need to hear testimony from and see what an active and faithful Latter Day Saint looks like.  

It is hard not to compare our two missions, and in this case I think our experience in New Zealand has given me some incite as to how we can help this situation.  We served in a small branch in Greymouth, 3 1/2 hours drive from the town from which our district was named and where all but one district leader resided.  That little branch provided all that leadership and every third Sunday one or two of them with their spouses would get up at 5:30 am so they could drive to Greymouth and be at our meetings that began at 10:00 AM. They spoke in sacrament meeting and trained our members.  District conferences every six months provided a sense of belonging, training, and above all, a spiritual up lift.  Every so often there were primary and youth activities that provided the same benefits for the young people as conference did for the adults.  Our branch was poor and the district provided funds for "petrol." 

Now we do not have a district here, but we do have a tremendous branch in Veronish that has possibly greater leadership capacity than the branch in New Zealand that staffed our district.  I can think of no good reason why a member of the branch presidency and his spouse as well as presidents of all the organizations or others in that branch could provide our branch third Sunday speakers and the benefit of their experience for our fledgling leaders.  It would be of benefit to those members who provide this service to us as it would be to our branch members.

It would be wonderful if Veronish could also invite our young people to special activities for both primary and mutual age children.  These suggestions would go a long way in uplifting and strengthening our branch in light of the fact we do not have a district to provide that support.  

Thank you for your consideration.  We are growing, and someday we will have strong leadership here too.

Love to you and Sister Sorenson

President Hoagland

 Above is Jeff's stepdaughter, Katelyn Wilson, who is a senior this year in Beaverton.  We are proud of her and wish her the best for the coming year.

 For the most part the modern Russian women make a great effort to be stylish.  It amazes me how they can walk on unimproved, and uneven surfaces for great distances to get to and from buses in 4 and 6 inch heals.  As we were walking to our local store I just could not resist taking this picture.  I don't know what to say but the young woman on the top left is more typical.

 In our English club we have a couple of English teachers who are quite regular in attendance.  We mentioned how they were really doing a lot of work at the school near us.  They said this school is one of the best schools in the country and they will now be having teachers and administrators from all over the country visiting and that is why all the work is being done.

 These pictures were taken a week before school started and the young people here are rehearsing a dance they must be doing.  They were very good.   The stone work, the tile on the stairs and entrance and even the white ceiling on the canopy are all new in the last month.

 At least once a week we go downtown to the main shopping mall.  We walk from the bus stop down this street about three blocks.

 On the way are also these tables of clothes for sale.  They are there rain or shine, summer or winter.

 We have arrived at the shopping mall.  It has your typical clothing stores, but also a very large grocery store that has some items we can't get elsewhere.  We have four stores we go to regularly to find all that we need.  This store has a sandwich size bread at a reasonable price along with a vegetable section that has lettuce most of the time.  I say most of the time because you cannot depend on things always being in stock in any store.  I don't think the Russians care because they are just grateful for the wonderful variety of food they have available since the Soviet Union.

 If this veteran were an employee he would be one of the most faithful.  He is always at this spot all year around.  He has a most solemn appearance and is constantly giving the sign of the cross.

 We heard that Lipetsk was getting its first McDonald's so we thought we would check it out.  Darn!  Not quite ready yet.  It is a 30 to 40 minute bus ride from home.

 Osha, where are you?  These men and women work on the top of this scaffolding without side rails.

 Women do the work right along with the men.

 All of the paving you see is new last month.  The gate and matching fence are also new.  Really fixing up the old school.  All of the flowers are are watered and weeded by the students under the guidance of a teacher even when school is out.

 First week of school and school pictures are in order.  In the back behind the trees is a sport court where soccer is played everyday.  They have four basketball standards in there, but only one has a hoop and it does not have a net.

 Visited the newest branch member yesterday.  His name is Arsen and is six days old.

 Arsen in bed.

 Elder Davis, who is doing amazingly well with his Russian.  

 You cannot go into an Armenian home without being fed.  Don't you just love it when someone takes a picture of you when you are eating.  Arsen's brother Artyome and mother Vika.

 Ararat loves is brother too.  You should see the boys run to the baby when he cries.  This was his first full day at home and when ever the baby cried that night the boys were up too.  Having to go to school the next morning made them a little tired and cranky by the time we left at 5:00 pm.

On our way back to the bus stop from Vika's apartment the Elder's called my attention to the butterfly that landed on Sister Hoagland's hair.  It took me over a block to get a good picture of it.  She was not amused that it was there so long.

Checks are not used in Russia as far as I know.  Disbursement of branch and welfare funds is all cash so receipts are all important.  We get our funds by using a debit card issued to the branch.  It is possible to have  some cash on hand by simply withdrawing some but it is against this mission's policy to do that.  It is also against mission policy to use your own funds to bridge the gap between immediate need and when you can get to the ATM machine.  We have had a particularly heavy draw on welfare this month so it has been really difficult keeping track of all the expenditures, also having people do services for what they receive.   A baptism of fire for me this month.  

 We have had some really good news from home this week.  Jeff and Fawn, after years of effort, have been sealed in the Portland temple and their two youngest were also sealed to them.  What a blessing.  Jeremy, Jeff's oldest was able to come to be with them.

Just prior to our entering the MTC I was blessed to baptize our neighbor April.  We learned this week that her husband Brad and 2 of their children, Chloe and Caleb will also be baptized this weekend.  We are so happy for them and for April.  We are sooo excited.

 Last Friday Elder Janson and Elder Davis invited us to a community armateur talent show at the main park in Lepitsk.  We came to see one of their young contacts perform a break dance.  Here he is with the Elders. A fine young man who has attended a couple of branch activities this week.  His family has a much greater income than our branch members as you can see by the camera he uses He also  brought to our Saturday party watermelon, coke (5 times more expensive than Russian soda), and two cakes.  We need to meet his parents.

 After the amateur show (it was amateur!) we took a walk around town and took some pictures of places we had not yet visited.

 There are a few of this kind of art around town.

 This is a Friday night hang out for some.  Those on the right were drinking.

 One of our frequently used bus stops.  We seldom have to wait 10 minutes to get a bus going where we want to go.

 Here is the fish freezer in our local market.  It is mostly frozen or dried fish you find in the stores.  None of it looks appetizing to us.

 One family showed up for our cleaning on Saturday.  We wanted to do some heavy cleaning but only got part of it done.  We washed marks on walls, baseboards and doors, window sills, etc.  We really need to clean the windows but they will take ladders and some other members who need the service.

 Armine cleaning the chalk board.

 Arpine cleaning the window sills.

 We are having way too many parties.  It seems like everyone in the branch had a birthday this month including us.  Starting next month, only one party for everyone with a birthday that month.

 Some kind of Russian charade game.  Since we didn't know Russian we passed.  They are not real good at it.

 Max, our young friend having his turn at Charades.

 Members enjoying the meal.

 This is a new move in, Oleg with Elder Raymond,  He has the Melchizedek priesthood and has been teaching the lesson.  We have been working hard to get all our priesthood holders to wear white shirt and tie so they can participate in the sacrament ordinance.  Sunday we had six brethren in white shirts.  We missionaries donated to the cause.

 Ararat had his tenth birthday on Wednesday (another party) in lieu of family home evening.  His mother was in the hospital having a baby and his father is in Moscow working so he and his little brother were a little blue to start the evening.  They missed their mom.

 Oleg, Elder Harris, Ani and Ararat.  Ani and her sister Rima put this party together.  What would we do without these two young women.

 After 9 months in Lepitsk, Elder Harris has finally been transferred.  While here he has been junior companion, district leader, trainer, and zone leader.  He has also been a big part of the growth here in lipetsk. He will truly be missed.

 Elder Harris leaving on the night train to Moscow.

 The Old Lipetsk district with a long time investigator who will join the church if he can ever get married to the woman he is living with.

The Hoagland's saying good bye to Elder Harris.  After 9:00 pm we don't wear our name tags because of harassment by drunks.