Happy Belated Valentines Day!  The entrance to the delightful park in our area had this festive greeting...just had to share it.

This has been a wonderfully full week.  We always take advantage of a visit with our Zone Leaders to Laressa's and her sweet family.  You may remember that Laressa ia paralyzed, so company is always welcome.  We take a short bus ride then comes the long hike.  This doesn't really show the extent of the climb...but there is a steep hill that has intermittent steps...it seems that they go on FOREVER!  I really feel badly for whoever has to clear this sidewalk and stairway.

I have told you before that because so many people don't have cars...they spend a lot of money on extravagant buggies for their little ones.  Well, when you live at the top of the hill and the bus lines don't travel that way, you have to push the buggy up the many flights of stairs.  Thank goodness they have provided these rails that are the exact fit for the wheel base.  So the parents either push or pull the "baby buggy bumpers" up, up, up the hill and to their apartments.

 
We pass this beautiful Russian Orthodox church and monastery as we climb the hill.  It is approximately 6:30 p.m. and we still have a little daylight.  Yea, we love that the days are getting longer.

We have shared once before the challenges of getting to Laressa's home but at that time it was pitch black.  This shows the little village of homes nestled together.  It is beautiful...just wish that it were more accessible for Laressa's sake!  When we finally get to the top of the steps, we turn and go downward towards the river bottoms.  Much of the way is footpath only, no auto access.  Before this point, she has to be carried on a stretcher the remaining distance.  Her home is the one right over Elder Prestwich's head.  The picture captures some of the landscape, but you have to imagine going down to the river on the left and then back up to her home on the right.  Believe me, it is steep and now that some of the snow melts and then refreezes...we find it quite a feat to stay upright.

 Lubov and Yaric had what we call "a play date" with children from the surrounding area.  Laressa tries so hard to make her children's life as normal as possible.  When we left this evening, Laressa asked us if we would take a book to one of the children's mothers who is suffering with an alcohol problem.  She wanted to help cheer her up...this is the kind of woman Laressa is.

Laressa looked so beautiful this night...she had on a fancy top and had just painted her nails.  During the course of the conversation, she asked us if we would call her every day and encourage her to do her exercises.  She has a pulley and rope that is attached to the ceiling above her bed that she uses to strengthen her legs...but she hates doing it and often puts it off.  She needs encouragement.  Then she surprised us with the news that she will be going into a physical therapy hospital in the coming weeks.  She will be staying there a month and is in hopes that the constant therapy will help with her legs.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if she could get the use of her legs again or even partial use?!  It would be a miracle...but we believe in miracles.  Our constant thoughts and prayers are with her.

Our new zone as of 2/2013.  Back row LtoR...Elder Kaiser from Iowa, his new companion, Elder Henderson from Provo, Utah. Have to say that Elder Henderson lives in the ward my parents lived in and would visit my folks when he was involved in the YM's program...small world!  Elder Christiansen is from SLC, Utah...he is training his new companion, Elder Ashjian from Las Vegas, Nevada.  When Elder Ashjian arrived in our zone, he had been in Russia for all of 3 days and he was struggling with the jet lag.  He stays awake in all our meetings now!  Front row...Elder Dugger, New Mexico, Elder Prestwich, Utah, then Sister Patterson, who is new to our area from Bountiful, Utah...she serves with Sister Calli, from Georgia.  We are always glad to keep missionaries around...and love getting to know the new ones!  This is another great group of hardworking missionaries serving in a difficult mission.

Close-ups of the new companionships...Elders Kaiser and Henderson

Sisters Patterson and Galli

Elders Christiansen and Ashjian (Elder Ashjian has Armenian roots)

This is the greatest family!  We had a picture of this family on the blog around Christmas time...Brother Valamir was Father Frost.  Here you get to see him out of costume and with his lovely wife, Svetlana and two adorable daughters.  It was such a blessing to be in their home and get to know them better.  It is so rare to have all the family active members of the church...such a joy.

Brother Valdimir and Sister Svetlana make such a talented team.  Here is their little study that serves also as their older daughter's room.  Svetlana designed the furniture and Vladimir made it!!!  Wish the picture did it justice...she has created furniture that utilizes the space to the max.  Wish they could afford their own business, where they could capitalize on these talents.  They are taking one room of their little apartment at a time and remodeling it.  Can't say enough good about this family.

This is the new branch presidency.  Seated is President Ustyuzhaninov, with First Counselor, Vladimir Motovelov (shown above) and Second Counselor, Elder Pocock.

For Family Home Evening, we had two special sisters here for dinner and a night of getting acquainted.
You know our dear Olga from previous blogs...but this is the first time to introduce Nadesda.  What a sweet, giving woman.  She gave me a haircut a few weeks ago...not only came to our apartment but then wouldn't let me pay her!!!  So I told her that the only way I would accept those conditions, is if she and Olga came for dinner.  We had a wonderful time.   She shared that her husband was a heavy drinker and he left when she was pregnant with their first child.  She never remarried.  Her daughter lives in Spain and is married to a man from there.  They have a son.  She spent four months with them just last summer.  She worked as a beautician for 35 years.  She is now what they call a pensioner.  (retired).  I'm sad that it has taken us so long to get to know her...she is delightful.  Can you tell that we have an amazing branch?

This was the best week...we got to see Olga again and again.  She had invited us to attend the art gallery after her work.  On Wednesday it is free admission...so we took her up on the invitation.  This was a Russian Orthodox church but in the Soviet era they tried to eliminate religion and closed the church.  In the 90's, the building began to be used as an art gallery/museum.  The guide told us that the church is now talking with the city in hopes of taking back the building for the use of church services.

The building is three stories tall.  When the government closed the church...all of the interior decor and icons were removed, stored or destroyed.  Since the 90's, the museum/art gallery has been able to find numerous collections.  This is a picture of only the top one-third of this monstrous wooden and gold- gilded iconostasis that has been preserved and moved from another church to this one.  The pictures that are visible are not the original iconic portrayals...but rather European artwork.

This is a little closer view of part of the display.

We were fortunate that the only English speaking guide was on duty when we were there.  We are now on the third floor of the church where there is a huge display of wooden, three dimensional figures that have been recovered.  It is so against the church for people to worship life-like figures.  All the icons of the Russian Orthodox Church are paintings on flat surfaces.  To worship something that resembled a human, was considered irreverent!   Our guide explained that because this region is a great distance from the central headquarters of the Russian Orthodox church, people didn't follow the tradition and began to carve, paint and worship three dimensional idols.  You can see some of these wooden idols in the background.

This carving of the crucifixion was one that the guide explained in detail.  If you have ever seen a Russian Orthodox church...they all have a cross with a slanted cross bar where the feet of Christ were nailed.  The slanted bar depicts the fact that on the right hand of Christ was a thief that was repentant and the bar tips upward depicting that this man will be with Christ in paradise while the other will not.
The skull painted at the base of the cross symbolizes the skull of Adam, because their tradition states that he had been buried on the very spot where Christ was crucified.

We thought this angel with a trump was particularly poignant...kind of looks like the angel Moroni on the original Nauvoo temple.

I was so amazed with this picture that is painted directly on the wall of the former church.  The guide said that the entire church and even the ceiling of the church was covered with this kind of artwork prior to the Soviet era.  When the government took over the church, they put plaster over all these paintings. This is one of only two wall paintings that have been recovered.  The government asked if they wanted money to restore these paintings, but because it is such a slow, and expensive process...the gallery opted to take the money for expanding their displays rather than restore the paintings that are now under plaster...apparently lost forever!

This is looking upward from the third floor to the ceiling.  Can you imagine artwork painted on every wall and even the ceiling.

This is one of my favorite paintings at the gallery. Here a Russian family and friends are gathered around a newly purchased radio during the outbreak of WWII.  I have seen a similar painting of an American family gathered around a radio...anxiously fearing the news of another world war.  Life truly has similarities all over the world.

As we continued to our next destination, we found that with the warming temperatures...some of the businesses are pounding and scraping the ice from the sidewalks.  Here you get a feel for the depth of the ice.

In our travels, we passed this beautiful Muslim Mosque.

We finally located the "Lame Horse Club".  We had read of the disaster in Brazil where hundreds died in a night club disaster.  In the article, it made reference to a similar situation in Perm, Russia on December 5, 2009.  We asked Olga about this and she took us to the location.  As you can see, they have done nothing to the building except to wrap it in the green restraining fabric.  Our dear friend Nadya told us that some of her friends had come into town that night and they begged her to go with them to the club to celebrate.  She told us that she was just so tired that she refused to go.  In the end, she saved her life and that of her friends!

They have built this lovely monument in a park just across the street from the club in remembrance of the 156 people that died in this fire.  On the center pillar they have printed the names of those who perished.  We were told that 90 children became orphans that night!

At last English Conversation Group has started up again.  The area authority presidency has put out some specific guidelines on how we conduct our English group.  This was our first week, so I am sure that as the word gets out, our numbers will grow.  Elder Pocock and I are teaching the advanced group again.

On Fridays we have our zone meeting at our apartment.  We rotate with the companionships preparing the meal.  This week, Brother Stepan offered to prepare us his favorite Armenian dish, Doma.  He is from Armenia and is a great cook!  He purchased quality ground beef, added spices and rice...rolled it into meatballs and wrapped it in grape leaves and tied them like little packages.  He cooked them in a large covered pan filled with salt water for about two hours.  They were very delicious...especially with the Russian Smetana (sour cream).  It truly is the tastiest sour cream ever!

The kindest man ever is Brother Vacilly.  He is the branch assistant executive secretary.  On one of the branch presidency meetings, he brought with him his official booklet showing that at one time he belonged to the Communist Party.

This is the inside...with a young picture of Brother Vacilly.  Wow, talk about handsome!

Here is Vacilly now... and to think we were afraid of communists!  Never a more gentle, sweeter man will I ever meet!

Many of you have heard of the meteor blast in Chelyabinsk, Russia.  Chely is a town of about 1.4 million.  It is located in the Yekaterinburg mission.  It takes about an eight hour bus ride to get to Chely from Perm. We never heard, felt, or saw a thing the morning of the meteor blast...but we got a phone call from the mission office telling us that the missionaries were all safe!  We were shocked to hear the news.  What we are hearing is that when the meteorite entered the earth's atmosphere...it exploded like a sonic boom...and this is what caused the damage to the city.  I guess windows are broken and many of the frames are bent and mangled...it is a bad time of year to not have windows!!!   The missionaries got the scare of their lives...but it makes for a great approach when teaching the Plan of Salvation!  This is a picture they are displaying over here showing the initial blast.  No sign of any meteor fragments have been found.  Sunday our Branch President used this experience as a perfect example of how we need to listen to our Prophets and be prepared spiritually and temporally for unpredictable disasters.  Who knows what next week will bring....

Surprise, surprise  This is Elder Pocock, the non blogger, adding a post about life in Russia.  Please note that Sister Pocock has already posted a blog this week, so you need to keep going after you see this to read the real news of the week.  

Since coming to Russia I have been fascinated by the security systems they have here.  Maybe there are places in the States that have systems similar to these, but I have never seen anything like in my part of the world at home, so I felt that it would be interesting to many.  I will begin simply.  This first door is the entry to the branch building.  In the upper right hand corner of the door is an electro magnet.  

This is the corresponding component on the door jam side of the system.  When the door is closed, there is a powerful attraction and no normal force could open it.  In this case there is also a keyed lock on this door and on the inner door that are both locked in the nighttime.  They are not too much different than what you would see in the intermountain west.

So during the day, if you were to come to the church, you could ring the doorbell to the church (shown below), and if there were someone there to meet you, they can see in the closed circuit camera who is there and push a button on the system, and it would break the current on the electromagnet and you can easily pull open the door.

 This is a similar idea. This is a gate to enter the courtyard in front of our apartment. You can not see the camera from here, but the attendant can see you and buzz you inside the gated area.  If you are a stranger, they probably will still buzz you in (assuming you don't have a scary look or a weapon of some sort) and then you will come to the concierge.

 All of our concierges are women.  She is there behind the reflection.  They are there from early morning to late at night, and in our case, they let us right in.  They buzz the electromagnet, and the door makes a buzzing noise so we know that we can pull and have it open.

Now if the concierge doesn't recognize you, you have to push the buttons corresponding to the apartment number and that rings the apartment on their domophone.

This is a domophone.  It allows you to see who is out there, and you can decide if you want them to come in or not.  If you choose to let them in, you push the bottom button that says (convieniently in English) door and that deactivates the electromagnet and they can pull the door open.

Then you are admitted into our spacious, newly remodeled entry, which is honestly one of the nicest in Perm.  

They haven't gotten to the elevators yet.  Can't seem to loose the graffiti.  And I would prefer a little less GREEN.

 Another interesting fact about Russia.  They always number their apartments beginning from one to whatever.    Therefore you are never quit sure what floor to get off at.  In our case we are #82, but we live on the 6th floor.  The blue sign in the picture below tells the floor and all the apartment #s that are on that floor.  In some buildings we have tried 5 floors before we found the right level. In most buildings this gray door would be locked, but for some reason, no one ever locks this door.  I am glad.

Behind the gray door is our levels inter entry way.  I couldn't get a good picture, so I took a panorama of the area.  The first door on the left is the other side of the above door.  Then there are two apartment doors next to each other.  Then there is a hallway.  The next gray door is an opening for the utilities and the next door is our apartment (It looks small here-a close-up follows)

This is the door to our apartment.  It is heavy-gauge metal and the top lock has three bolts, the center has one, and the bottom has four bolts going out horizontally and two going vertically, one at the top of the door and one at the bottom on the handle side of the door.  It would take some serious explosive to get through this door.  And as you can see, there is a second door inside (mercifully no locks.)

And this is the way we get in.  The green fob is how we get through the electromagnets if the concierge is not available, and the center key gets through the top lock, and the larger key gets us through the lower lock.  Do we have any reason to feel unsafe?

This is just another look at how they use the four deadbolt system to secure a door.

Is this demonstration giving you any feeling for how difficult it might be to go tracking as a missionary in Russia?  If I would have had to do this back on my first mission, I don't think I would have contacted every person in town like I did in Norway.  I am going to give you one more example of what it takes to visit someone.  The Sisters Tikhonova and Galli and Sister Pocock and I visited a member last week.  This is the entry to the apartment building.  The pink door is the outer door where you ring the buzzer and the concierge screens you to see if she feels you can come in to the third door.  The second door requires no special access.  Sister Tikhonova is holding the third door open.

Now Sister Tikhonova is pushing the keypad for the domophone.  Since we have an appointment, the member is expecting us and he deactivates the electromagnet so we can go in the door to the elevators.

We are in and on our way up to the, now what floor was it we were going to?

I took this picture as we were on our way out, but ordinarily the host would have come out to open this door and it would be cracked to allow you access to the other door.  In this apartment building there were only two apartments behind this door.  His is the one at the end that you can see.  When we get to his door, we take off our shoes and leave them out in the hallway.  This is almost always expected.  Occasionally the people will just wave you in, but it would not be proper to come in with your shoes on unless they specified otherwise.

This is the same place only from the oppisite direction.  This is a high class apartment.  So counting back, we had two secure doors at ground level, and then two more doors at each apartment level.  Do you think they have a very high crime rate in Russia?  I'm betting burglary is low.

They invest a lot of time and money in their security.  This is a billboard advertising the new best door locks.

Just one last interesting tidbit for your enlightenment.  We can grow great icicles here.  Elder Wimber is close to 6ft, and it is about twice as tall as him.  You can't see too well, but there is another level above this, and it continues on up.  Always something interesting to see.  Hope you enjoyed the blog. 

Hello everyone.  This week we visited the ultimate bachelor pad!!!  Elder Pocock and I went with our Sisters Galli and Tikhonova to invite Edward back to activity in the branch. What a nice guy.  We had a great time talking about how he found the church...about the missionaries that taught him.  The ideal in this situation would have been to have a branch member go with the missionaries...this way the less active will have a forever connection when they do come back.  By the way, the Great Dane is a stuffed toy...could have fooled me!

Elder Pocock and I, with translating help from our missionaries, are teaching Mission Preparation classes for three young single adults that are anticipating full time missions in the near future.  Here we have Slava doing a make up session.  We also instruct the three future missionaries in a "Teaching, No Greater Call" Sunday School class.  The East Europe Area Authority Presidency requires that these two classes are completed before the missionary can submit his/her papers.  It has been delightful helping these committed youth prepare for this opportunity.

It happened...I went down!  It wasn't on a slippery sidewalk, or steep hill...it was boarding one of the many buses that we take every day.  The daytime temps are warming up...so there is a lot of slush that comes into the bus...then when the temps dip, the slush freezes and WATCH OUT!  Posted on the door is a large sign that cautions one to beware of slippery floors.  Just wish I could understand the written word!!!

We went to Ufa again this past weekend for the completion of the Ufa branch audit.  This is the view out the Sister's window in Ufa...apartment buildings everywhere and so close.

This gives you a look at the balconies of the the apartments across the way.  Some balconies are enclosed...others are open but irregardless they serve as an attached storage unit!

This is the entryway to one of the apartments we visited in Ufa.  We didn't realize what an adventure awaited us...

  This was the scariest elevator I have ever ridden in.

As you get on the elevator, there is a 4 inch opening where you can see the cables and shaft all the way to the bottom.  This was really scary when we looked down from the ninth floor!!!

After you get into the elevator, you select the floor.  The button stays depressed.  We travelled to the ninth floor and when we arrived the button popped out with a loud snap and the whole elevator compartment bounced big time!  I just about had a heart attack!  Wanted to take the stairs on the way back down, but at least we were prepared for the next round.  Every apartment building brings with it a new adventure whether it's the people we meet or the elevators we ride!

While Elder Pocock was involved with the branch audit, I had the privilege to meet with Elders Flitton and O'Neill as they discussed with Alexander his desire to obtain the Melchizedek Priesthood.  This mission is really working hard at preparing their priesthood holders to advance.  In order to have a stake, it is necessary to have adequate priesthood holders to serve in the variety of branch and stake positions.  Alexander is a wonderful man...he is preparing to go the temple in March and has been gathering family names to take with him!  His concern was if he was worthy or not. I shared with him the feelings of inadequacy that we felt when we received our call.  I promised him that if we are faithful, the Lord will qualify us for whatever calling we receive, I truly believe this.

Elders Artyukhov (L) and Hatfield were waiting at the church for an appointment.  They decided to do some service before their investigator arrived.  Way to go, Elders!  I might add that they were pretty excited when their appointment was over...they got a commitment for a baptism date.  So exciting.

The three men on the front row are the branch presidency in Ufa.  On the left is the second counselor Brother Anton, he is a young single adult that is truly magnifying his calling.  In the center is President Lushnaikov, married with three children (all in the church!!!), and the first counselor is Brother Arseni, married with one little guy (his wife is also in the church!!!).  Both counselors speak really good English, in fact when we were in Ufa three weeks ago preparing for the audit, Brother Arseni translated for us when we spoke in Sacrament Meeting.  I dare say that none of these men are older than 35 and they are truly doing a great job with the Ufa branch.  Sad we didn't get a picture of the clerk, Brother Timofey, that worked with Elder Pocock on the audit. He is also a young single adult that is doing an amazing job with the financial aspect of this branch.  The church is so young here...but it has great men carrying a heavy load!

Saturday evening, before we left for Yekaterinburg, we were able to go with Sisters Patchett and Robins as they met with Gulea just prior to her baptism this coming Saturday.  When we were in Ufa last time, we met Gulea as she was touring the branch building...now this time we were able to see the amazing transformation of this young woman.  She just glowed, literally.  She is so excited about her baptism and what this gospel is doing for her life.  We are so grateful to have been able to share these experiences with our missionaries in Ufa.

We flew out of Ufa at 10:00 p.m. and arrived at Elder and Sister Meng's apartment at 12:30 a.m.!  Glad they still love us.  We enjoyed a great nights rest and then were able to attend two hours of the block with them.  They attend church in the Botanika area in Yekaterinburg.  This area does not have its own building, but meets in a rented portion of this building.

The grey plaque announces the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  In through the grey door and up the stairs, we found a very nice area for this small branch to meet.

This is the foyer where we were able to greet members and missionaries.  Straight ahead is the chapel area.

This is Brother Kiradapkin from Yekaterinburg.  He was a mini missionary in Perm some time ago and he now has his papers in waiting to hear about his full time mission call.  (In fact, he served with Elder Flitton that you just saw on the blog, now serving in Ufa).  He is such a pleasant young man.  We're excited to hear where he will be serving.

After the second hour, we said goodbye to the Mengs (office couple) and flew to Perm.  It was wonderful to have even a short time with another couple that is experiencing the rigors of mission life.  Although our experiences are way different, we were able to lift, encourage and rejoice in this time of our lives.

So good to be on the ground again at our little Perm airport!  Gotta love those little prop engine planes.

Perm continues on with its' winter celebration.  Now there is an International Snow Sculpture Competition going on...located right next to the ice sculptures.  People from all over come to view these amazing works of art.

These are just a couple of the art forms:

It's transfer week and Perm zone got hit hard.  Both Elders Wimber (L) and Holbrook are leaving us.  Elder Wimber is going to Yekaterinburg to work as the Records Secretary...he is amazing at organizing.  Elder Holbrook is going to the Siberia Zone...to serve with Elder Riddle that has served here in Perm as well!  We have such great memories with these fine young men.

Sad goodbyes to Sister Tikhonova (far right).  She too is going to the Siberia Zone with Elder Holbrook.  Sister Tikhonova will be leaving for home in May.  She is an amazing teacher.  It is always hard to say goodbye...especially when we don't know if we will ever see these missionaries again!

The temperatures are on the rise, yesterday it was 29 degrees F!!!  This is great for everyone and everything except the snow/ice sculptures!  Here you can see what we have to wade through on the sidewalks.  Where five inches of snow and ice once laid...now there is a thick layer of snow and muck!

With the warming temps, both the young and old are getting out for their fresh air.  As we walked through Gorky park yesterday, we passed at least fifteen buggies with mothers taking their tiny ones for a walk and here we saw this sweet, older lady that is so stooped...going for a walk with a kind daughter, granddaughter or friend.  Fresh air is very important to the Russians...no matter the temperature!  We're hoping that since the groundhog didn't see his shadow, it means a shortened winter in Russia too!!!  Until next time...