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!!!