Thursday, February 23 is set aside as "Men's Day".  It used to be a day to honor those who had fought in the war, much like Veteran's Day, but now they honor all men.  On Sunday, after the block, the Relief Society had all the men come in and they sang to them, read some poems to them, gave each man a card and provided treats galore!

 Every Thursday our branch offers an English club.  The missionaries teach the classes. As you can see

we have a good group. This week Kent and I get to teach the advanced class.

We had a couple hours to spare and the temperature was up to a whopping 25 degrees so we decided to explore some new territory.  I wanted to take a picture of a typical intersection with pedestrians everywhere.  In Russia, you walk, walk, and walk.  The tallest building in the background is our apartment building.

This is the scariest part of Russia...their sidewalks!  Seriously, this is about 5" of pure ice.  The missionaries tell us that it is not "if" but "when" we will fall.  So far, so good.

                                       What a fun play land for the children.  Note the ice slide.

                                                      This is a typical bus stop.

Because people walk so much, buggies and strollers are a big item.  We have seen some really fancy ones.  This one was so unique because it doubles as a sleigh!  Children are always dressed as if they were going skiing or snowmobiling.  They put them in snow pants, coats with hoods, scarves, gloves and boots to protect them from the harsh weather.  The children start young getting used to winter weather!

Unfortunately, there is graffiti everywhere...on the new buildings as well as the old.

We stopped at a large, very nice grocery store.  This one had a variety of different vegetables.  I saw sugar beets, lots of herbs, and giant scallions.

In the far left, bottom bin are what look like football size grapefruit.  They have many different kinds of pears...in many shapes and colors.

                                               We found rows and rows of different breads.

We walked farther into the center of what looked like the business district.  This looked like an administrative building.  What caught our eye was the insignia on the top of the building.

                                                Does this bring back memories to anyone?

Just below this imposing building is where they have their ice sculptures every year.  We were told to try and see them...well we got here just in time for them to start breaking them down.  Below is one side of a giant chess game.  The dark figure is a woman walking through the pillars, so you can see how tall they are.  The following pictures are other ice sculptures that are still somewhat in tact.  Next year, we'll send you some more pics.

This shows you how modern and huge some of the buildings are in Perm. You can see that there are many cars in the downtown city especially. We are excited to get to know our new home and share it with you.

Home Sweet Home: This shows a large hallway.  It isn't really useful for anything...kind of wasted space. It is just to your right as you come in the front door.  The double doors on the left are to the livingroom, our bedroom is the door beyond that and straight ahead is the main bath.

This is our livingroom. You can see a door straight ahead.  That is a storage area...everyone calls it their second fridge or freezer depending on the temperature outside.  The couch is this apartments version of a sectional.

 We store our mop bucket, our dryer, and vacuum in our storage area.  It is really very convenient.

This is our bedroom.  The hot water recycling in the apartments is what keeps it warm and comfortable. You can't see our radiators because this apartment has them enclosed; much safer for children.  They are located underneath the windows in every room. There is no thermostat...whatever your apartment temperature is...is what you get.  So far we have been very comfortable. We have been told that the hot water is turned off in the spring and it can get rather cool in the apartments until the summer heat comes. We have an air conditioning unit in our bedroom.  We are told we will be very thankful for that.  It is hard to believe that it will ever get warm enough to turn on an air conditioner!!!

 On the opposite wall from the window, is our closet and clothing storage.

 This is our one decoration in the whole apartment.  Russia has many unique dolls that graduate in size and stack inside of one other another.  A member in Yekatrinburg decided to paint the prophets on the stackables.  I was able to purchase this set.  There are sixteen prophets and they fit inside of one another so that you only end up with three larger ones:  Joseph Smith on the left, Joseph Fielding Smith in the center and Pres. Monson on the left.

 The main bath: you can see the hot water pipes above the toilet.  The racks with hooks make it so that you can hang many things...towels, mirrors, washcloths, curling iron, etc. The bathroom walls are a washable tile that is very nice. A large tub shower is to the left.

I have to say that we have a wonderful place to live.  Our grandson was so excited to see what a Russian kitchen was like...sorry to disappoint you Abe, it is much like ours!  We inspect the missionaries' apartments quarterly to make sure that they are clean and in good repair. Today we visited two of the four apartments. President Rust has seen to it that our missionaries here have a safe, comfortable environment. We have visited families that have far, far more humble circumstances.  It makes me cry thinking about their living conditions. I feel so guilty. Be thankful for everything that you have!

This is our branch building.  It is located down an alley and to the back of the church runs the Kama river. The city of Perm is built along the banks of three predominant rivers.  This building is about ten years old. The members are very proud of their chapel. They just barely combined the two branches into one so that there would be more saints to support the branch and one another.  The branch president is so busy restaffing and making sure that people don't feel that they aren't needed now that the branch is combined and much larger. There is a lot of inactivity and this is where we have really been busy already.  The people in the branch are so friendly. They have welcomed us with open arms.  The favorite question of the older sisters is, "How old are you?"  I am the only one with white hair!  Dye is next to Vodka in retail consumption...just kidding!  They don't have benches but stackable chairs so they can be removed from the chapel to make it their cultural hall.  

We arrived in Perm on Saturday...dropped our bags and the missionaries took us to a branch party.  There is no carpet anywhere in the building.  Most members purchase or crochet a pair of slippers that they put on when they take off their muddy boots.  We didn't have any slippers our first Sunday but we have them for this week!

I took a picture of these dishes.  The Russian women are great cooks and take a lot of pride in their creative preparations.  On the left is a salad...it was so pretty it looked like dessert.  It has a base that is made of potatoes, much like a potato salad, then they take shredded beets and mix it with mayonnaise and spread it over the top and garnish it with olives and parsley.  It was really good, but then I like beets.  They are really big into mayonnaise.  They have shelves and shelves of mayonnaise in a vast variety of flavors.  I haven't ventured out into that yet.  On the right is a cold cut tray.  They love cucumbers and their cheeses are wonderfully delicious.  We haven't even been here a full week yet and we are fans of their cheese and sausage!

On Sunday, after Sacrament meeting the branch had a picture taken.  Apparently, a former mission president passed away and the branch wanted to send a condolence note with a picture of the branch so we quickly took a picture also.  It is amazing that with this many people...there are only about seven children in Primary.  We are so new to the branch...this next Sunday will just be our second Sunday...so we have a lot to learn about the make up of the branch.  What we do know is this:  five months ago, we didn't even realize that a Perm, Russia existed and now in a matter of one week, we have met so many brothers and sisters in the gospel that we feel so close to.  We are excited to work hard and aid this amazing group of saints to reach their eternal goals.  We see many people in our daily travels that could benefit from our message.  Our young missionaries work hard...and we are so thankful we can assist them. We are grateful to be able to be a part of this work!  The language is a huge frustration...but we keep on trying.

A peek into the apartment:  Introducing our dryer!  Everyone has these and they are great.  Just think of the Russian people when you enjoy those soft towels when you shower!

Most Russian apartments have laminate tile or pergo wood floors...you can see why. This is what our entry way looks like with just our two pair of boots...think what Wednesday looked like when we had eight missionaries here for lunch!  So when the streets and sidewalks are packed with snow, they use dirt to help with traction, hence it gets really muddy...everywhere!  I have to say that the snow/ice is melting, I don't know how since it hasn't gotten above 12 degrees F. since we arrived, but you can see more and more sidewalk appearing under the layer of ice.  Hurray!

This shows our entryway. You see the front door, the boot drop, a coat closet and nice storage area.  The computer desk was in the kitchen but we put it in the entry since it is so spacious and quite bare.  The little bath with the washer is just to the right and the kitchen is a straight shot from the door.

This shows our very nice kitchen. We have a great fridge, stove and oven. As you can see, it is large and roomy.  The Primary president was over and she said, "You have a big apartment so you can host many functions."  That is great for us. This apartment has large windows, we love it when the sun shines in.

This shows a close up of our filter system...the filter is on the left and the white hoses attach to the faucet
and we manually change the cold water from filtered to non-filtered. There is only one sink, the other area is for draining pots and pans and silverware.

This shows our cupboard above the sink. We wash our dishes, rinse them and then put them on the racks. There is a plastic tray that catches the water and the dishes drip dry right there in the cupboard! I love it.

Welcome to Perm, Russia.  This is the outside of our apartment building.  It looks new from the outside but in many areas of the inside it is appears old and unfinished. We live on the sixth floor and I must admit, I say a prayer that we make it to our apartment every time we get into the elevators. 

This is the entry way to our apartment.  There are four apartments on our side of the building.  As you can see, there is sheet rock still waiting to be finished but the door is brand new... we just took the plastic off   yesterday.

 

I think we are safe here, don't you?!  Three locks on the outside door and a peep hole to check on those at the door.  We live close to the center of town.  The zone leaders lived in this apartment before we arrived. This apartment was secured due to the ideal central location for a gathering for the elders and sisters.  The church is much farther northwest. We are hosting the 4 sets of missionaries for lunch tomorrow and then we will have our district meeting...all in Russian!  This really does help us learn more of the language.

 You can see from this picture that we have two doors to the entrance of our apartment.  The outside door has all of the locks, the inside door is probably for both insulation and protection purposes.  What looks like a phone by the side of the door is our intercom.  When someone comes to see us, the security lady rings us and we can see who it is on the square monitor.  We push "door" to okay them coming up.  Notice the little, white square below the intercom...that is the light switch.  They are located at hand level.

 Here is our infamous washing machine!  It measures about 17 inches deep, 3 feet tall and 2 1/2 feet wide, but believe me, we are grateful for it. It does a great job and thank goodness it spins the water out really well since we have to line dry everything.  This is the half bath that is located at the front of the apartment.

Outside of our kitchen window, you can see other apartment buildings. We have enjoyed sunny days, thank goodness because most of the day the temperature still registers in the minus digits.  We walked a mile and a half to a store today in -12 degree temps.  Thank goodness for long underwear!

 Right below our apartment is located a small grocery store.  The name of the store is "SEMYA" (that is the phonetic spelling) which means...family. It is open 24 hours a day and has many of the necessary items.  Food here is very expensive even in the larger food stores. You also have to buy the bags to carry your groceries home.  We are getting smarter and taking bags with us when we go.

This shows the outside of a typical apartment building.  The windows and metal patio areas are all very rusted due to the harsh weather conditions.  Many newer apartments are being built due to the demand. A single dwelling home is rare, particularly in the city limits.

The average citizen in Russia doesn't own a car, therefore the public transit system is pretty good.  This is a electric trolley car.  We were told that these are very cold in the winter and very warm in the summer.
They also have a bus system and another system of buses that are larger than mini vans but smaller than buses.  These are much more expensive but more comfortable...especially temperature wise.  In Perm, we will be using the bus system when it is too far to walk.

This is just a small part of an ice sculpture that was created for the Christmas holidays.  If you look closely you will see how detailed the fence is.  Needless to say, they don't have to worry about it melting for a long, long time!

It's time to leave the Garden of Eden in Yekaterinburg.  President and Sister Rust gave us a great start to our Russian experience.  Elders Larson and Holbrook are missionaries from Perm that rode the train into Yekatrinburg and helped us navigate to the train station and then onto the train.  It took us five long hours to get to our destination.  But after how far we have come, I guess that isn't really that long!

This shows the inside of our train couchette.  There are four little beds and a tiny table. Our luggage took up most of the space on the bottom bunks so we climbed up on top and slept for part of the trip! Jet lag is hard to get over.  Perm, here we come...

At last pictures of something besides us! This is the mission home where we spent two nights.  Because most people in Russian live in apartments, they have to make the most of their space.  Here you see how they have placed the water heater on it's side above the cupboards in the kitchen.  The metals objects hanging on the left wall look like large sconces but they are the water filters that are required for all drinking water.  Remember, this is not your average apartment!

See how they have taken a very narrow space and created a pull-out cupboard that enlarges storage space.

Here is our bathroom in the mission home, again you see how they have made room for the water heat by attaching it to the ceiling above the filtration syster. The silver bar that curls along the wall is a radiator that has hot water passing through it to heat the room.  All apartments in Russia are heated with circulating hot water radiators in each room.

Yes, McDonalds is alive and well in Russia.  The Americans tell us that the food is far better at McDonalds in Russian than in America.

This is just one of many beautiful Russian Orthodox churches in Yekaterinburg.