Welcome to Perm's Ice City... It is a traditional festival that they have annually around their Christmas, January 7.  Artists work for weeks preparing the ice sculptures.  Here we have a city sculpted out of ice in the background with singers entertaining the crowds.  It was so fun to see them dance and sing "Jingle Bells" in Russian!

Every year Perm selects a country to pay tribute to.  This year it is Holland.  Here Lena, Tanya, and Elder Pocock stand in front of ice tulips.  The biggest challenge is not keeping the ice from melting...it is keeping the snow off the sculptures!

You can see that we were getting snowed on while attending the ice display...we were glad because the temperatures were a bit warmer!!!

They had one snow sculpture.  Click on the picture and hopefully you can see the detail.  This was the only display in snow... all the rest were in ice.  So much detail...so much work!

This had to be my favorite...it was gorgeous.  You can see how tall these long, stem roses are.  With the light shining from the inside...it helped to highlight the details.  So beautiful.

Leading up to the huge Christmas tree in the center of the Ice City is a walkway that you can go through that depicts a famous cathedral in Holland.

It was such a sight with the lighting, the light snow falling and the intricately carved ice designs.

This couple on stilts was a real popular attraction.  How they ever stayed upright on the snow and ice, I will never understand!

Several horse-drawn sleighs took families for a ride around the Ice City.  We arrived in Perm in February, 2012 and by the time we got to the displays, they were dismantling them.  This year we were so grateful to be a part of such an amazing display of art and such a fun celebration.

This is our second counselor's family...Valery, Auxana, and Ona.  We went to enjoy their company and
celebrate the holidays with them.  We have seen many Christmas trees draped with long ice cycles in homes where we have visited.  You may wonder how Auxana can wear a sleeveless blouse in minus 20 degree weather...but the hot water, radiator heat keeps their apartment very comfortable.  Valery wants more than anything for Auxana to embrace the gospel and have their family united in one faith.

Here is Valery's grandmother Ona.  The little daughter is named after her.  Grandma made her way out of her bedroom to greet us.  She hasn't been well, so it was wonderful to see her up and around.  She is 88 years old.  Always a treat to visit this great family.

We had to get a picture of this man...we were celebrating Tanya's birthday and he came by our table.  Don't know his name...but he would make a great Grandfather Frost, don't you think?  Apparently he is quite the athlete here in Perm...a pleasure to see him!

Congratulations Tanya (R) and Happy Birthday.  It is a tradition here that the person celebrating the birthday invites and pays for the birthday dinner.  Tanya treated us and other friends to a tasty meal and
then an evening of games.  It seems like it should be the other way around...us treating Tanya! Thanks for a wonderful evening.

Lubov, the Family History specialist, invited Elder Pocock and I to share some of our experiences with Family History.  She is trying to get people involved in the program and prepare names to take to the temple.  My involvement in Family History has been more in the area of writing histories of ancestors and I shared how to go about doing that.  Elder Pocock had his trusty computer and talked about the satisfaction of helping to complete the puzzle of connecting families together.  Whenever Elder Pocock isn't doing missionary work, he is working on his Family History!  Lubov is very motivated and committed to Family History.  She blesses this branch.

It's done.  Nastia has finished her very own creation.  Wish you could see the details of the dress better...pockets coming off of the princess lines.  She did a great job.  She told me she bought more material for another project...she's excited about sewing.  It was so fun to teach her a lifetime skill!

Family Home Evening this week was entitled: "Hot Soup and Hot Topics!"  We had a great group... and we discussed how to make meaningful goals for 2013.  We reminded them that unless a goal is written down and then worked on, it is only a wish.  Many of them have so many challenges that despair limits their progress.  How we hope that we motivated these great young people to feel that they truly can set and REACH worthwhile goals!

. 

After FHE, we rolled up the rug and Sasha taught a modified cha-cha.  Not too many know how to dance, but they were very interested in learning.

The day after FHE, we packed up and left for Ufa on assignment from President Rust.  Ufa is a sixteen hour train ride...but President Rust has found an airline that flys there for less than the train ride.  From Perm it takes only an hour to Yekaterinburg, an overnight stay in Ekat, and then another hour on to Ufa.  I wasn't very excited about flying in such a small, prop engine plane...but we arrived safe and sound.

Welcome to Ufa...we were here Thursday through Monday.  Our main assignment was for Elder Pocock to meet with the branch clerk in preparation for the sixth month audit.  While we were here, we also inspected missionary apartments, attended zone meeting, missionary coordination, branch council, got asked to speak in Sacrament meeting, attended their Institute class, visited with their Branch Presidency, sat in on discussions and member visits and hugged the missionaries!  We loved our time here.

These three missionaries have previously served in Perm with us...L to R Elders O'Neill and Flitton, and Sister Robins.  The Elders are now the zone leaders in Ufa and Sister Robins is training a new sister missionary.  We have such great memories with these missionaries...it was wonderful to be able
to work with them again even if for a short time!

The Ufa Zone: L to R, Elders Hatfield, Artyukhov (native Russian), Sisters Rodgers, Petersen (new missionary) Sisters Patchett (new missionary), Robins, Sister and Elder Pocock, Elders Flitton and O'Neill.  This church is so blessed to have great young men and women who have such a desire to share their testimonies.

Ufa has a beautiful branch building.  The church was able to purchase enough property that the building could be all on one level.  We loved the open floor plan.  What a blessing to have their own place to meet.

When we left the branch on Sunday...after all the after-the-block meetings...this little tyke was at the front of the building shoveling snow.  The snow reminded me of that soap "Ivory Flakes".  It was so powdery and drifted so easily, makes for easy removal!

We told the missionaries to keep us busy while we were in Ufa and they did!  We loved visiting the members with them.  Here we have Sister Reisa.  She has been a member for ten years and is so very faithful.  Her daughter and grandson live with her.  It was sweet to see how kind her teenage grandson was to her.  Seriously, this little woman is a bundle of energy!

We had the privilege of participating in a discussion with a wonderful sister...Nadezda.  Sister Rodgers, who is only in her third transfer, is training Sister Petersen.  Because we have so few missionaries in this mission...they have to step up to a great deal of responsibility very fast!  They are both somewhat insecure with this very difficult language so a great returned missionary from the branch, Kirill, has been sitting in on their lessons and assisting where needed.  Nadezda met the missionaries on the bus and immediately started to read the Book of Mormon and meet with them.  She shared the stories of the BofM with her granddaughter and come to find out...some time ago her granddaughter found a Book of Mormon in a trash can, retrieved it and started to read it!  So now they are able to discuss these eternal principles together.  The granddaughter isn't ready to meet with the missionaries yet...but Nadezda gets the discussions and then mets with her grandchild.  Nadezda is already a missionary in her own right.

We found it really cold in Ufa...even the dogs have to bundle up!

Just down from our hotel was this beautiful Pravoslav cathedral.

Ufa appeared to be a newer city and it even has a freeway...something we haven't seen except when we were in Moscow and Finland.

This enlarged picture is dedicated to Elder Pocock.  When we arrived we were told, "It isn't IF but WHEN you will fall on the icy streets or sidewalks."  We have been so proud of ourselves...didn't fall last winter...hadn't fallen yet, UNTIL we went to Ufa.  At the bottom of this hill, you get a glimpse of the branch building.  This sidewalk is sheer ice with a thin layer of powder on top.  We had to walk down to the branch and back up to our hotel multiple times and this is where Elder Pocock met his demise!  Seriously, I don't know how these people maneuver these sidewalks in the winter.  One trip up the hill we helped a little, old (much older than us) lady with a cane get up this hill and then across the main street and up another hill to the neighborhood grocery store.  And the amazing thing is that many of their apartments have very small refrigerator space...so they have to make multiple trips to the store every week or carry large amounts of groceries on public transport.  We are so spoiled.  When I think of how we would go to Costco...fill our carts to the brim...load it into our cars...drive into our garages (with garage door openers!) and then deposit our groceries into our fridge in the kitchen and the extra one in the garage!!!!  Even in Perm, Elder Pocock and I are spoiled because we have a little grocery store right at the base of our apartment building...so we only have a short distance to go multiple times a week.  Count your many blessings!

This is our hotel...

The hotel room had a kitchenette.  We were excited to get to a little store and purchase some groceries.  We saw a pizza...it looked so tasty, so we bought it!  When we got back to the hotel, we realized that there was NO OVEN, just a stove top!  Well, as I have said before, where there is a will there is a way.  We cooked our pizza on very low heat in this covered pan.  The first round it worked beautifully...the pizza was delicious.  Second time around, we stunk up the whole room...unedible!

Elders Flitton and O'Neill practicing their door approach before contacting their neighbor.  

We found Ufa very festive.  They had a lot of holiday decorations around the town. Here you see some of their ice sculptures from afar.

Ice sculptures are a common thing in Russia.  Ufa's ice display was more modest than the one in Perm.  It was geared more to children.  Here is a sculpture of CPO 3!

We loved Ufa.  The people that we met, the cleanliness of the city, of course, being with our missionaries!, the branch leadership, being able to sit in on discussions, it was just a wonderful four days.  We have reported our visit to President Rust and will now be going back early in February to complete the audit with the branch.  It was so satisfying to be able to visit another branch and see the strength of the church in another area in Russia.  We are so grateful for the younger generation of Ufa who will continue to carry this work forward and build this area.  Russia is an amazing country, with such hardy and determined people.  Please continue to pray for the missionary work in Russia.  We truly love these people and want them to embrace the truth!