Hi there!  Another week in snow-cover Perm.  We did have two days above freezing, so things are improving. Life is great...

I want to introduce a front view of Gulya...she is the little gal that had the Angel Moroni atop her birthday cake on our last blog.  She is a very active member of the branch with a beautiful voice!

Kent and I were given permission to bring some extra chairs home from the church for our Family Home Evening activities.  We were going to try and take them on the bus when Dima came to our rescue.  Here we have just loaded up the chairs and Kent went to get in the passenger seat and was surprised to see a steering wheel right in front of him.  Most cars here are American (and they do drive on the right side just like we do) but Dima has his own special car.  Here Kent is pretending to drive away...I think he misses time behind the wheel.  Dima works in a bank as a loan officer but his second job is selling Xango!  He went to America last summer with the company and will go again this September.  Just today, we loaded a keyboard from the church into the back of Dima's car to be transported to our apartment.  He is going to think his third job is moving furniture for the Pococks!  He joined the church just last October. He's always at FHE.

On Saturday, March 17,  the women of the Perm Branch celebrated the birthday of the Relief Society.
Here is a picture of some of the sisters that attended.  Three out of all of the branch women pictured come to church with a spouse.  The poster shows the past General Relief Society Presidents through the years,  which was the theme of the program.

After the program, several men of the branch provided us with a lovely meal.  We didn't have to set up, cook, or clean up.  It was a birthday present to all of the women!

This is one of my favorite women in our branch.  Ninna is a real character.  She is trying to learn English so every time we walk through the doors to Sacrament meeting she yells out, "Come, sit here!"  She wants me to listen to her read English.  Today she gave us her book that has Russian and English passages.  She told us to take it home and practice our Russian...was that a hint or what?!  I have to tell you about this passionate woman. The second fast Sunday that we were here, she stood and bore her testimony and in closing she thanked God for Putin because under his leadership the doors were open to our church for proselyting. The second counselor stood and interrupted her and asked her not to mention things of a political nature...she went right on.  The Branch President then had to get up and explain from the pulpit the importance of not sharing our political beliefs in church...he then let Ninna finish her testimony.  She told me later that she lives with one daughter and that her daughter doesn't speak to her at all...so she is very lonely.  She said that she, "looks so forward to church for the companionship of the saints and to be able to talk...and now to us in English!"

This is Peorta.  He is a convert of about a year.  He is a kind, very soft-spoken young man.  He loved being our waiter at the party. He has shaved his long beard but he still has a ponytail, that he keeps neatly wrapped.  The young man in the red is the self-assigned branch cook.  His name is Artum.  He loves to cook and he is always in the kitchen when we have branch parties.  He shared his secret for the baked chicken that we had...it was so tasty.

Look at that dessert!  It is called Baklava...a traditional holiday treat...alternating layers of a crust and nuts in a sweetened syrup.  It was so delicious.  Here you can see Tamara...the YW President (I think I called her Tanya in the last blog...opps) she wants all of them.  The woman in the center is her dear friend and she is investigating the church.  Sister Parkinson is also in the picture.

After the program and meal, we went to the Relief Society room and finished two quilts that were started earlier in the week.  This quilt was made specifically for our Second Counselor's wife and baby.  The baby was born early and weighed in at 3 pounds.  We're happy that the baby now weighs 6 pounds and is home from the hospital.  At church the following day, the Relief Society presented Brother Valdimir Matovilova with the blanket.  The sister on the far left teaches Sunday School, the young woman in the center of the picture, Ekaterina, is the counselor in the Relief Society. The sister bending over the quilt teaches with Dima (our Xango friend) the Gospel Essentials class.  The sister on the far right joined a year ago.

Just a glimpse into our activities at FHE this past week.  After a very fun lesson on how the brains of men and women differ, we played "Minute To Win It" games.  Below we have three of our gals shooting rubber bands at stacked yogurt containers.  They were supposed to knock them all off the table in ONE MINUTE.  Nastia is in the orange.  She is getting her Masters and teaches like an AP chemistry class for high school students... in English! She is one of the gals that asked me to teach her piano lessons.  The gal in the center is Kate.  She is Nastia's friend and she is an economist for a paper company.  She is not a member. On the far right is Lenna, a regular at the FHE group.

Here the missionaries join in to try and blow a plastic glass off the table with a straw.  Elder Brinton, center, has the most hot air!

They loved this minute challenge the best!  You place a small cracker on your forehead...and without
touching it, you get it into your mouth.  The young man in the red is our infamous Al.  We love that guy.
Maxeem, at the top is investigating the church.  Elder O'Neill at the bottom was the winner!  These are the people that play a huge role in our life.  They display such goodness.  It is an honor to mingle with them!
We are leaving this week for a Zone and Couple's Conference in Ekatrinburg.  We will be greeting a new senior couple to the mission while we are there.  I am glad that we have five weeks behind us.  Each week we gain a little more confidence and make more friends.  Missionary work is the greatest!

Can you believe it, we 've been here a month today!!!??? Our Zion Zone with the newest missionaries. L to R...E & S Pocock, Sister Knol', a native Russian that has limited English skills, Sister Parkinson, Elder Silva, Co-Zone Leaders, Elders Hranek and Waddington, Elder Brinton, Elder O'Neill,  and Elder Latimer.  Although we greatly miss the missionaries that left, we are enjoying what these great young people bring to our area.

Recently we have had several get togethers with our branch...so I am going to introduce you to some of the wonderful saints that we get to enjoy and admire.  On the left is Massa (I'm not even going to try to type their last name, which they always put first when writing their name)...she is about 27 years old, a returned missionary, and serving as our Primary President.  She has been so wonderful to help us with our Russian, with our visits to stores, translating for us in Institute, and on and on.  She is engaged and leaving our branch in June. We have such mixed feelings about this!!! I am going to help her make her wedding dress.  We had she and her non-member mother over for dinner this week.  We love Massa!  Milena is in the middle.  She is 23, a returned missionary, has applied for school at BYU Hawaii to further her education in English as a Second Langage, she too is the only member in her family, and she was recently called as an adviser to the Young Women. She loves my Russian accent...she's such a hoot. These gals are my best friends here...they both teach English for the Branch President's school...so we can really communicate.  They are truly a blessing in our lives.

 This is Valedra, the first counselor in our branch presidency, and his wife.  I don't know her name...she is a non-member.  She comes to the activities but doesn't attend church at all.  The older girl is hers by a previous marriage and the younger girl is theirs.

This is Lodmela, her husband and their grandson that they are helping to raise.  Lodmela is an amazing lady that is very active in the branch.  Her husband isn't a member and their grandson and son live with them.  She brings the grandson to church every week.

Our Branch President, Nikoli, his wife, Ula and their two little girls, Dassa and Sophia.  In the background is Sassa (short for Alexander and for Alexandra! We have lots of Sassa's in the branch) He is the younger brother of the Branch President.  He is 26 years old and Elder Pocock has been helping him get his requirements completed to get his mission papers in.  He has graduated from the University.

 This is Yula and her son Dema, short for Dimetry.  She is the main Primary teacher.  If they have enough children show up, one of the presidency helps teach.  She is always to church and always alone!  She is delightful.

This is Tanya, a counselor in the Primary, and her husband Sassa.  That's right, another Sassa.  He was the branch president of the other branch before they combined.  He is now the Sunday School President.  Another really active couple that help keep this branch going!

On the left is Alex and Lenna.  They are married and a really faithful young couple.  Alex was a counselor in the other branch presidency before the branches were combined.  He now serves as the ward mission leader.  All the missionaries meet with him every Sunday to review our progress. This was my family group at our recent party for the children in the branch.  We were all divided into families.  The little gal in the middle is a non-member that came with a friend.  She was in church on Sunday...hooray!  Each family got a treasure map with different colors marking our destinations.  Balloons that match the colors were on the outside of the doors where we were to go.  At the first destination, the children in the family group got to fix our hair anyway they wanted...don't we look cute?

This is Elder Pocock's assigned family.  They are the ones that brought along the young non-member in my group.

At one of the stations, we were blindfolded and every member of the family group had to draw something that depicted a loving home.  The sister helping is Tamara, she is the Young Women's president and also the mother of our Branch President.  She is great with her 5 young women!

At another station, we were to create something with balloons.  Here the first counselor and his family made a huge sunflower with leaves!  Congrats to the winners.

Meet Brother Vascelee.  He is the sweetest man.  He has a severe case of scoliosis but it doesn't slow him down.  He walks everywhere he goes and from what we hear, he goes faster than anyone on two feet! He is the branch photographer.  The family party was a huge success.

This past Friday, March 16th, was Gulya's 23rd birthday.  She is a sweet gal in the branch that has a beautiful voice and loves singing in the branch choir. Russians love birthdays and they put on quite a party.  I feel badly that I didn't get a great picture of Gulya...you can see her to the far right, all in white. Look at that feast she and her mother prepared.  Elder Pocock is helping her mother put the top on her cake.  Gulya asked Elder Pocock and I if we would do a 10 minute presentation on Eternal Marriage at the devotional before her party. She explained that they invite all of their member and non-member friends to their parties and then it is a tradition that they have an opening song, prayer and devotional about something that is dear to them, to help interest their non-member friends.  These members are great missionaries.  It was a neat experience.

Look at Gulya's birthday cake...she had someone make this Angel Moroni out of fondant.  That cake was something else.  She had a wonderful group of friends there to support her.  A great evening was had by all. Hope you enjoyed meeting some of our branch family.

I took this picture from the bus on the way home from the party.  Of course, these gas prices are in rubles and per liter...but when you think gas is getting out of hand over there, here is a visual of where it could go!!!

We had two P-days this week because on Wednesday all of our missionaries were gone from Perm. It was transfer day...so they were either riding the train to Ekat to deliver a companion or pick one up or they were flying out of the country for their three-month visa trip. (Every three months the government requires us to leave Russia to go into another country in order to get our visa renewed. They work it out so that the missionaries go to Finland or Ukraine so that they can take in a temple session and then return.)  At English class, a less active member (who ice skates every day after work) asked if we would be interested in seeing an ice skating exhibition of younger children.  We told her that we would love to meet her there.  So Wednesday we left a little early so we could take in all the sights along the way.  Below is a school that some of our FHE young adults attend.  The words read: Perm State Technical University...I know, they make simple words soooooo hard!

 This is one of many beautiful Russian Orthodox Churches...it looks like they were repairing a steeple.

 Near the church we ran across a large, new Semya...family grocery store.  We got so excited at the variety of things we could buy.  Kent didn't get too excited about this!

They had huge bins of every kind of vegetable and fruit imaginable.  You take your selections to the weigh-in area and weigh your own produce and then it dispenses the price you put on the outside of the bag.  This saves time in the check out line.

 Here is how we buy our ice cream...it looks like long, loaves of dough.  To serve, all you have to do is slice off a piece.

 Yum, pigs feet and cow's tongue...Russian delicacies!

Here we are at the ice skating area.  They have these exhibitions free of charge prior to major holidays. On Thursday, March 8 is one of the biggest holidays in Russia...Women's Day. We have since read an article that stated that March 8 is an International Women's Day.  Did you get candy or flowers?  I have never seen so many men carrying bouquets of flowers; there were several young boys that had single stem roses they were carrying home after school...I'm hoping it was for their Mom.  Even women were buying gifts and remembrances for their friends.  English class was held that evening and our ice skating friend Tanya, gave me a Cowberry pie for Woman's Day.  So thoughtful and soooo good.

This is an inside view of this huge arena.

The lighting was bad so my little camera didn't do very well but here is a view of some of the children doing their warming up.  It was pretty impressive.  I would say that the youngest participant was about five (and already she is very professional) and the oldest was about seventeen.  It was a treat.  Ellie, Lucy and Mia...you would have loved it.

At the end of the presentation, about twenty children came out and did a dance on skates to a Russian folk song. They were really enjoying themselves.

After the exhibition, our friend Tanya took us to the outdoor skating area, where she skates everyday.  This is Tanya in the pink coat.  She is an English teacher at a private military school for children.  She comes to the English classes taught at the church to better her skills.  This last week we had our advanced English class participate in debating skills to help them think on their feet.  They really got into it!

This outdoor skating area is about the size of two football fields.  In the center, we saw young people playing a hockey game.

Around the outside of the field is an area for speed skaters to practice.  It was really fun to watch them.  See how the blades of their skates are only hooked at the toe.

Our friend, Tanya, introduced us to this 70 year old woman that speed skates everyday.  She is an international champion in the veteran age bracket.  She told us that she is coming to Salt Lake City for the Veterans International Championships in 2015!  We told her how close we live to SLC and told her we would love to cheer her on.  She is delightful.  Guess what, she didn't have any socks on.  She told us they like to feel that they are one with their skates.  My hands were frozen just taking her picture and there she was skating with bare feet!

She hesitated at my taking her picture because she recently feel down and broke her front teeth and blackened her eye.  Double click on the picture and you will see what I mean.  But this didn't stop her.  This is a representation of the Russian will...when they set their minds to something, they give it their all!

I have to admit, these next pictures were my favorite part of our afternoon.  We live in an area where there is a lot of graffiti, wine and vodka bottles, cigarette butts, and very sad and depressed looking people.  It was totally refreshing to cut through an amusement park for children on our way back to our apartment. Here we were thrilled to feel happiness in Russia.  Fathers playing with their children on the rides...

Families holding hands, laughing and enjoying an afternoon together...

The sound of children giggling as they would slide down a pure ice slide...

and mothers everywhere walking their babies...the future of this country.

This sweet mom was the proud parent of two tiny, little girls.  They will be hearty children in no time.

Another amazing day in Russia...the sights and people are so great.

P-Day goodbyes!  On P-day, the zone met at a nearby Ukrainian restaurant for our last dinner together. Great missionaries, great times, great memories! 

Here you can see the atmosphere of the little restaurant where we ate.  They make every booth seem like you are eating around the table at home. Cozy!  The food was amazing.

On Monday night we open our home to anyone that is the only member in their family for Family Home Evening.  If they have other members, they are encouraged have it with their own family.  The young people often bring many of their non-member friends.  Kent and I teach gospel related lessons that are geared to the young adults.  They love men/women relationship type topics.  We often play games afterwards and of course, I fix a treat.  That in itself is a feat...trying to find the ingredients for my recipes! Many of the younger people in Russia know how to speak some English. We speak some Russian, they speak some English and we have a great time together! At this activity, we had sixteen young people attend.

Signs of Spring...I may be getting my hopes up but when we were on a walk I took this to mean: Spring does exist in Russia!  Here one worker breaks up the layers of ice on the sidewalk and the other hauls it off behind the building in his little cart.

I don't know how they do it, but many of the women walk around on the icy sidewalks in these boots with six inch high heels! The other gal in the picture has boots more to my liking.  Notice the beautiful fur coats both are wearing. I have never seen so many beautiful coats and hats.

Even the evergreen trees have to have a layer of protection from the harsh temperatures.

With warmer temps, we deal with this. I still don't get how the snow melts when it hasn't been above freezing but anyway, when the snow melts, we get to walk through mud, puddles of mud and more mud!  No one seems to mind, they are used to getting their boots, shoes, tights, long coats and...

suit pants muddy.  Every night Elder Pocock has to let it dry and then brush it off.  Welcome Spring!!!

The people in Perm are enjoying their new trolley buses...saves on the shoes and clothing!

Whatever will they do with all of the snow???  After I took all of these pics and talked of Spring...it snowed off and on all week.  I won't talk of Spring until I see buds on the trees!