Hi from the entry way of our apartment building that leads to the elevators. They have hung new sheet rock, pulled up all the old tile and are in the process of laying new tile...so we have been practicing for the balance beam portion of the olympics as we have walked these planks and then taken the stairs up six flights to get to our apartment. Thank goodness we don't live any higher. It truly will be lovely when it is done, but carrying groceries six floors is a work out!
The branch was thrilled to open the July, 2012 "Liahona" and find a picture of the women in our branch in the Russian speaking section. The article documented several branches and how they celebrated the anniversary of the Relief Society.
Family Home Evening was great this week with Elders Bybee, left and Flitton teaching about the Proclamation to the Family by playing the "Jeopardy Game". The youth had never heard of this game but they really got into it. There's nothing like competition to get the young single adults' attention!!! They had the gals against the guys. It was a see-saw battle, but in the end the gals won by getting the "final" Jeopardy question correct!
We meet with Ludmilla and Vladimir on a regular basis with the sisters. Vladimir is a non-member and such a great guy. We had fun with our lesson and then here came their home teachers. It is so wonderful to know that home teaching is alive and well in the Perm branch!
For our English Conversation Group this week, the elders prepared a fun memory/matching game. They prepared words taken from a grocery shopping list...one word in English and the same word in Russian. The object of the game was to match the Russian and English words that meant the same thing. It is amazing how interested people are in learning English and since it is offered free of charge, we get a good turn out.
This is a great member of our branch, Nina. We were excited to go to her apartment and get to know her better. She is fortunate because she doesn't have to work and is able to enjoy many interests. Her husband is a non-member but comes occasionally to Sacrament meeting. They have two daughters, one is a member. She is in the process of a remodel and she showed us her bedroom where she wallpapered the walls (apartment walls are cement and they have to use very heavy, textured paper on them), upholstered a chair, made her bedspread and curtains all in a matching fabric. Pretty impressive. She gave us a CD of 1500 pictures of Perm...there is a lot of Perm that we have never even seen yet!
Our dear friend Olga, invited Elder Pocock and I to bring the sisters and come visit her. She has purchased an apartment in Perm and will be moving into town the middle of August. We are excited to have her closer to the branch. She is such an asset. We love visiting the area where she lives now with her mother. The air is so fresh and clean and the lake is just a refreshing sight!
As we got closer to Olga's apartment, we could see that wedding preparations were taking place. They were decorating the cars that would follow behind the bride and groom.
Later in the day, we went for a walk and came across the lovely bride and groom holding the camera in out-stretched arms...trying to get a picture of themselves. We offered to take some photos of them and got one for ourselves. Cute couple!
The little town of 7,000 has many little single family dwellings nestled in the hills above the lake. It was fun to see how each family decorated and cared for their home differently!
It was amazing how many homes had piles and piles of wood...cut so evenly and stacked perfectly! Olga said that it is so disturbing because there is a gas company just 50 kilometers away but because of the expense of running the gas lines...people here have to rely on wood burning stoves. One thing they have going for them...Russia has a lot of trees!
In the distance, you can see the 138 stairs we climbed to get up into the hillside village.
Off we went to Olga's garden. When we were there in March, the tomatoes hadn't been planted and everything was so tiny. Here you can see a variety of beans that we picked...they sure don't look like beans, do they?
The plants in the hot-house are thriving! Look at the height of those tomatoes, peppers and egg plant. They trim all the leaves from their tomatoes up about three feet, and then they prop their plants with stakes. (along the left of the greenhouse) This way the tomatoes never touch the ground and they feel that they grow bigger and more abundant. It was as if the tomato plants had a trunk. We came home with sacks of vegetables. What a wonderful day in the country-side.
Saturday, we had President and Sister Rust here for our Zone class. They drove the six hours to meet with us and attend the branch on Sunday. They brought their two AP's, so we had 14 of us for lunch. It was tight quarters but a lot of fun.
There is nothing like a visit from their Mission President to help missionaries get fired up and motivated to keep going. Zone Class is a time when we share our highs and lows, where we challenge our present goals and set others, where we love and encourage one another, and where
we make commitments to try harder! So many young people with differing personalities, from very different places but with all one purpose. We truly love these young men and women.
Perm Branch has a large group of YSA and a very small group of Primary children. This was our entire Primary on Sunday. They are adorable and although they are small in number, they really can sing out! Tanya, is the President. She prepares so well...these children are blessed to have her love and care. We met for an hour after the block and discussed ways this small group can put on a Sacrament meeting program. We're excited to announce that Tanya is expecting a little girl in November...yea another child for our Primary...eventually!
Our Elder Bybee goes home tomorrow...we have only had him in our area for a month and he has been easy to love. Today was P-day, so we all went to a military museum with our friend Eulea so we could enjoy our last few hours with Bybee! This is a picture of the original factory that was built here in Perm. This is how Perm came to be. The factory built these museum weapons and as far as we know, it continues to build weapons. While we were at the museum, they had a change of shifts and there were a ton of people that came from the factory. This city was closed to people from other countries for many years, especially during the war years.
Quite the arsenal! The Russians are very proud of their involvement in WWI and WWII. They take great pride in making a difference in those wars. The young people are very aware of their country's history and speak of it often.
The guys really got into this museum!
A great afternoon with some of God's army...
No comments:
Post a Comment