Some habits never die...it's October and I'm thinking about Christmas.  We won't have a tree this year so I wanted to make a little decorative tree from pinecones for our apartment.  We were told of where we could find miniature decorations to put on the tree...so on P-day we set out to find this certain store.  Little did we know how long it would take and where it would lead us.  Elder Pocock's trusty IPhone has been awesome to help us get around this huge city.  We checked out the address and plugged it in to determine the transport to take.  Alas, we were dropped off at the train station with no store in sight!  With our motto, "we can do hard things" in mind...we headed across the train tracks and proceeded to follow the blinking light on the IPhone map that was to lead to our destination...on foot!!!

 Our wanderings took us past this lovely home with a statue of Lenin in the front yard!

Suddenly the sidewalks disappeared and we found ourselves walking a busy road with the hope that THE STORE was just around the corner!

Guess what...we walked and walked and walked struggling to find sidewalks and then when we found some, we couldn't use them for the puddles left from the rain the night before.

We came across a car wash...first one we have ever seen... by this time we wanted to put ourselves through it...we were a muddy sight!

We passed a factory located near the train tracks that makes various tools...and as you can see it had been there a hundred years back in 1978!

As we continued to follow the blinking dot on the map, it lead us off in a very different direction.  Here we passed much humbler living accommodations. 

This shows the addition of a bathroom right by the front entrance.  At least they don't have to walk to an out house anymore.

By this point, I was beginning to doubt the almighty Iphone!  No stores in sight...

The neighborhood well...we found it very unique that in areas of this huge city, people are still using a well to retrieve their water supply.

The phone came through for us and we finally found the Christmas decor and toy store and didn't even get a picture of it!  We were just so excited to actually find it. All that for the little garland and tiny decorations you see here.  What I would give for a Walmart, Target, or Fred Meyer!!!  Gathering the pinecones was a whole other adventure.  We used up all of our pinecones for the little tree shown here and some young women wanted to make one...so we went in search of more pinecones.

On our way to do service, we got off at an earlier bus stop and wandered into a forested area searching for the right fir trees and cones.

We found a ton of pinecones but they were all closed up tight!

We came home, got on the internet and found out that slow heat will open them up.  So we washed them off in the bathtub and roasted them in the oven...

Until we had dozens of beautifully opened cones.

These gals had so much fun creating their own pinecone tree.  Now they want to make a much bigger one!  YIKES...we've got a lot more cones to gather.

The girl's finished project.  As I talked with these gals, they told me that here they do very little decorating for the holidays.  Usually a decorated live tree and maybe some garland strung around the walls or windows.  They were excited to make something themselves to decorate their apartments and to do it so inexpensively and quickly.  Christmas is celebrated on January 7, but the bigger holiday in Russia is New Year's.  This is when gifts are exchanged.  It was really fun to see these young women get excited about being creative.

Elder Pocock and I decided to get some exercise one morning and check out another area of the city before the cold temps are here to stay.  We decided to take a short cut through the amusement park near by.  Many of the rides, concession stands and outdoor restaurants are being disassembled for the winter months.  Children just love this petting zoo, so it will be available until the snow flies!

The ground crew was busy mowing and raking the leaves at the park.  This it LITERALLY the first lawnmower we have seen since we have been in Russia...nearly nine months now!  The majority of the mowing is done with weed-eaters...that's right...weed-eaters.  It doesn't seem very cost effective/energy effective but that is how they mow their parks and the lawns near businesses.  Because most people live in apartment buildings, there aren't yards to care for.

Until there is snow, this little train will keep on running around the park.

Farther into the downtown area, there is an "eternal flame" from WWII in remembrance of their fallen heros.  It burns all year around.

We have been told that there are Memorial holidays here.  One in the spring, like our May Memorial Day where they go to the cemeteries and clean up the grave sites and decorate them...then again in the fall...in October, where they return to the cemeteries...remove the old flowers and get the site ready for winter.  This monument was decorated on the October holiday to commemorate the fallen war heros.

This beautiful Russian Orthodox building is located in the financial district of Perm.  It is very small and we are assuming that it is for those who want to visit during their lunch hour but we doubt, due to the size, that services are held.

We loved the look of this unique building!

We have found that there are a lot of artists in this city and they utilize the outside of buildings to display their work.

This is an apartment building that has never been finished, but another artist has used it for his gigantic canvas!  We will probably never see all of Perm in the eighteen months that we are here.  No matter what direction we go...if we walk far enough...we find another area that we have never seen before.

Excitement for the Perm Branch.  This is Stepan Obegan and his new bride, Olga.  His brother is his best man and Susha, is Olga's attendant.  They are required by law to be married by the government first and here they have returned to the branch to have a religious ceremony with family and friends. Stepan has been a former branch president and is loved by all the members of this branch.  He worked as a police officer and then for Interpol (international police department).  He is retired and now works for the church in overseeing all the physical facilities and processing the missionary registrations with their apartments and visas.

He has been waiting a long time for this day and he was thrilled.  Olga made a beautiful bride...she is half his age.  The wedding party pulled up to our little branch in this Hummer limo...our missionaries were more interested in the hummer than the wedding!

Elder Flitton just had to sit behind the wheel of this massive "machine"!  (That is the Russian word for  car.)

We've papered all we can at Olga's apartment.  The fourth wall needs some additional insulation so we will have to wait until Olga saves up for that.  Our next project will be to paint the closet and get a rod and curtain to enclose the area...then Olga can get her clothes on hangers and out of the boxes!  It's getting there and she is thrilled!

Wasn't conference wonderful?!  The branch was able to view conference on October 13 and 14th.  They watched it on the big screen in Russian in the chapel and the missionaries viewed it in the Relief Society room in English.  We loved everything about it...it felt like we were home watching it on television.

Between sessions, the branch puts on a simple luncheon and everyone can bring items to add to the meal.  Saturday, I brought zucchini brownies...and Sunday I served zucchini bread.  Yes, I'm still trying to use up all those zucchinis.

Saturday, October 13th, after the second session of conference, we had a very special baptism for Stanislav. He has been meeting with the missionaries for about four months now.  He was not eighteen, and his parents would not give him permission to be baptized...so he waited until his birthday and is now our newest member.  He is a great young man, we all love him dearly.  Between conference and the baptism...we were on an all-time high!!!

Monday, on P-day, we had Stanislav and the missionaries over for his first new member discussion.  The missionaries talked of the strait and narrow path that he now must walk.  They asked him to draw a picture of his path of life.  Maybe you can see how he has passed through the gate of baptism, next he will get the Holy Ghost, the Priesthood, he has to do his army duty, then he plans on a mission, schooling, marriage and family.  Oh, how we pray that he will be able to reach his goals and stay on the path.  He definitely has great goals in mind!

After the discussion, his friend came over and we introduced them to American pancakes with maple (thanks to mapleine), homemade peach and homemade apple syrups.  Yummy!  Here you have to be resourceful to have things taste like home!

Today, Saturday, October 20 we had another baptism...for TWO SISTERS, Ludmilla and Natalia.  We feel so incredibly blessed to have had three baptisms within seven days!  Ludmilla was taught by Sisters Knoll and Parkinson when they were here.  She had some health problems and had to have open heart surgery.  This put her progress on hold.  Sisters Denning and Robins kept track of her and when her health improved, they continued to teach her and now today she was baptized by Stepan Obegan.  On your left, you see Elders Flitton and Riddle who found Sister Natalia'a name in their area book.  She met with missionaries back in 2007 and wasn't ready for baptism at that point.  They called on her, met with her and have been teaching her for the past two months.  She is now ready for this commitment and we are so thrilled for the goodness of these two women!  It was such a thrill to be a part of this experience.  Due to conference last week,  all three of our newly baptized members will be confirmed this Sunday in Sacrament meeting.  What joy!  Elder Flitton is confirming Natalia.

The Branch gives each new convert a copy of the newly translated Russian triple combination plus a ton of other booklets and manuals to help them further their understanding.  They both decided to take some home tonight and the rest of the books home after church tomorrow since it will be hard to take that pile on a bus!  Life in Perm is absolutely amazing!