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.