Hi from Perm...

Last week we talked of our goal to visit all the branch members, active and less active, in hopes of getting to know them better and making a picture directory.    Well, it has been quite a week.   I can't believe the way our members have responded to our visits.  All too often, as missionaries we focus on the one lost sheep and not the ninety and nine...these faithful saints are so great!  This is Galena.  She is the branch librarian and a delightful sister.  Her husband died in 1985.  She has one son that is also active and has served a mission...he lives in Moscow.  She has had her family sealed to her.  She is there every week...alone, but always there!  She does a lot of handwork and keeps great photo albums. She made us the most delicious apple cake to taste while we were there.  She grows quite a little garden in pots in her little sunroom.  Most every apartment here has a little bonus area with large windows. It can be used for extra storage, drying your clothes on the rack, or growing a garden. She doesn't have a docha with a garden spot, so she has to make good use of what she has.  She is a very ambitious gal!

This is Val,  (for Valeri) and Laem, the wife (for Laemote).  They are one of the six couples in the branch that are both members and both active!  He has been a branch president and they have served a mission as a couple here in Perm.  Their calling was to go to the outlying areas and reactivate the members.  They are really great...they have three children...none who live close by nor are members.  In fact, Laem told me that she hadn't seen her children for twelve years!  They have a small individual home where they care for and love 15 dogs!!!  

You've met Igor before...he is the kindest young man.  He lived with an older brother but felt that the environment wasn't what he wanted so Brother Vacilly,  left, invited him to live with him.  Brother Vacilly has a severe case of scoliosis...you can see how short he is.  His wife is very against the church.
Just days before this picture was taken, Brother Vacilly's son, who lives about 50 miles away, was hit by a train and killed.  Bless Igor, he was there to go with him to the funeral and provide support and comfort. It truly is inspiring to see this little branch of saints look out for each other.  We didn't even know about Vacilly's son until after church the next Sunday.  I was in Relief Society and a young gal had just given the closing prayer and one of our older sisters, who is a friend of Vacilly, stood up and asked if we could say another prayer to bless Brother Vacilly.  She cried through the whole thing...I think this was the first time many of the sisters learned of the tragedy.  Thank goodness for friends in the gospel. 

On Thursday of this week, we headed to Yekatrinburg for couples training in the Addiciton Recovery Program of the church.  There is such a tremendous need for this here...actually everywhere!!!  Brother and Sister Bice serve as the coordinators and they gave a day long presentation on Friday to help us understand how to implement this program in our branches.  After the training, we experienced a mock meeting where the couples were those in need of the help. It was such a spiritual time, where we shared heartfelt concerns about our own addictive behavior.  We don't have to have trouble with alcohol, drugs, or pornography to have a need for this program.  There are problems such as road rage, over-spending, over-eating, control issues and on and on.  It is the kind of program that every person, member or not, could use to improve their lives.  It is all based on the help of the Savior's Atonement! After a busy day, Elder Pocock crashed, but I had to take a picture of our bunk beds at the mission home.  President and Sister Rust are great hosts!

We boarded the train at 10:30 p.m. Friday night in Ekat and arrived in Perm at 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning.  As we were waiting for a tramvy to take us to our apartment, I snapped this picture of a sweet babushka who seemed to sleep more peacefully at the bus stop than I did on the train!

Across from the train station, I spotted Bruce Willis!  I thought it was interesting how he is on billboards in Russia advertising credit to take a summer vacation.

Sunday is always such a special day.  We always get to the church early so we can greet the saints.  It is so fun to be able to call them by name and have something to comment on because of our visits in their homes.  Many of them go to their dochas during the week and then return for church on the weekend.  This week we received so much from the saints from their docha gardens...onions, two kinds of lettuce, cucumbers that are soooo sweet, and delicious strawberries.  They are so giving and very proud of their harvest...and they should be!  

This week many of our missionaries were gone due to transfers and visa trips.  In fact, Elder O'Neill...the last of the original zone... left for Ufa.  We will miss him so much!  For part of the week, we were down to one set of missionaries: Elder Hronek and Elder Flitton.  They had Andre' come to our home for a visit.  His wife is also very against the church and doesn't want the missionaries in her home.  He serves as a branch clerk...blesses the sacrament every Sunday...goes out with the missionaries on splits and is really a great guy.  We told him that we are so proud of him for his dedication to his baptismal covenants and the service he renders to the branch.  He loves the gospel and he also loved my cookies!  Every week, I spend my P-day making a ton of peanut butter, chocolate chip (they don't have chips...so I cut up chocolate candy bars), and oatmeal raisin cookies, banana bread, and lemon bars.  Then I have my stash to go to when we go out on visits or have people to our home.  They don't have anything like these things here...so they are getting a taste of American goodies! Their desserts aren't nearly as sweet and probably not as fattening!

One of the funniest monuments in Perm is this one called "Salty Ears".  They used to do a lot of salt mining up the Kama river from here.  Many of the miners would get an irritation on their ears from the salt and it would cause their ears to get red and swell.  Whenever they would see someone with the irritated ears...they would say, "he must be from Perm."  Elder Pocock must be from Perm...look at those ears!

Another Big Mac...it really feels like home at this MacDonalds.

Look who's back from England.  President and Sister Ustyuzhaninov were gone with their English school students for a month on a tour of England.  The girls stayed with their grandmothers.  They stopped by to say hi and work on some events that are coming up...namely a Pioneer Celebration. The YSA are going to be in charge of the decorations and a family dance...doesn't that sound fun?!

The FHE lesson is over and now it's refreshment time.  I always make something sweet but we also have vegetables and fruits.  The young woman on the left is our darling Ellia, short for Elvira.  She is
planning on going on a mission.  Below her is our soft-spoken Peoter.  He works so hard for so little...
we always give him a goodie bag to take with him when he leaves.

I love having the young people in our home.

On the left is Stanislav.  He is our golden investigator.  He is seventeen...can't join until he turns eighteen but comes to church every Sunday, wants to serve a mission, comes to FHE every week...where can we find about 100 more like him?!  He looks like a missionary already.  Here he is getting some advice from Elder Hronek after FHE.  He has already read the Book of Mormon and is one of those that hungers and thirsts after more knowledge.

Thanks for letting me share pictures of the amazing pioneers here in Russia.  We're so grateful for this opportunity!