Hi from the land of snow and ice.  Our IPhone shows -17 degrees F. (-27 C.) on this Thursday morning, December 13.  The really great thing about a mission is that there are so many wonderful things to focus on instead of how cold it is!  We're excited to show what we have been up to the last few days.  This is Brother Vacilly...a real sweetheart in our branch.  He is the only member in his family, but a vital part of the branch family.  He has a beautiful voice and while we were waiting for an activity to begin, he asked if I would accompany him singing some Christmas carols.  I loved it...it reminded me of when I would play for my Dad.  Sweet times!

There's always hair that needs cutting and Elder Pocock is getting to be a master with the clippers!

Elders Kaiser and Riddle pose for a picture after their latest barber shop visit...

Isn't it looking wonderful?  We are so thrilled for our dear Olga.  We have finished the wallpaper, new curtains are up and Elder Pocock managed to work magic installing a new light fixture...no more dangling light bulb!  When funds permit, Olga plans to put down new flooring and then we will put new baseboards around the walls.  She is hoping to purchase a desk and some kitchen-type cupboards
for her food supplies.  Her closet now has a rod with a curtain closure so she can hang her clothing.  She has fewer and fewer boxes.  It truly feels like "Home Sweet Home".  It is such a joy to see what love mixed with team-work can create!

As we have worked on Olga's apartment each week, we have her neighbors peek in to see the progress.  One gentleman, Daniel, that lives down the hall has become our new-found friend. He was disabled in a shooting accident, just two months after he was married. He invited us into his one room apartment.  He has done a nice job making it very comfortable.  There is no elevator in this apartment building and he lives on the third floor.  Daniel never leaves the building during the winter months.  He goes and stays with his brother at the family Docha (summer cottage) during the warm weather...his brother and son help him get down to his car.  He can drive, but the winter weather makes it impossible for him to get around outside.  He is divorced but his son comes by occasionally.  He is very lonely and comes over to Olgas whenever we are there working.  He is very handy and does some repairs on his floor for the apartment building...it helps give him something to do and helps with the maintenance. Such a nice, friendly man with a very challenging life!

We do quarterly apartment checks just to make sure the apartments are kept clean and in good repair.  I must say they all passed inspection!  Elders Wimber and Holbrook live in an apartment building in the center of town that has 26 stories...we took this photo from outside one of the stairways.  Cold but beautiful!

We went to visit the newest branch member...little Maria.  You can barely see her in her crib.  We had her blessing picture on our last blog post.

The proud parents, Tanya and Sasha, have a very nice apartment.  This shows their one main room.  The baby's crib is on the wall opposite from us.  The couch behind me folds out into the parent's bed.  A tiny kitchen and bath complete the apartment.  Tanya is an amazing homemaker...she makes the very most of her limited space. They are such a dedicated couple.

Last week was Zone Conference in Yekaterinburg. It is always such a spiritual lift.  Here is the Perm Zone with President and Sister Rust.  Our next transfers come just a couple days before Christmas, so this transfer is cut a little short. This next transfer will be nine weeks instead of six weeks.  They are making adjusts in order to get some missionaries home for Christmas and also because of the change in time required in the MTC for various languages.  Can you imagine working out all the goings and comings of God's army?

The senior missionary gals...

They have to purchase four coupe's for our zone to travel to and from Ekat, but we always end up in ONE for some together time.  It is amazing how close you can get to one another as you serve so far from home.  We love our missionaries!

We got back from Ekat late, late Friday night and we were at the church Saturday morning to get ready for coordination meeting, celebrate Elder Kaiser and Sister Tikhanova's birthdays and prepare for the baptism of Valentina.  Elders Duggar and Cook were continually amazed, as they taught her, at how prepared she was to embrace the gospel.  She truly is already an asset to this branch.

The welcoming party...we love baptisms!!!

Shortly after the baptism, the Relief Society had their equivalent to Super Saturday.  Two other Valentinas and myself were asked to share holiday decorating ideas.  It was so fun to share and learn.
Women are the same the world over...we love making the holidays special.

You may remember this young man, Stanislav (Stass) on the left, who was baptized on October 13.  He just left for his mandatory year commitment to the Russian military.  We will miss him greatly and pray that he will be able to keep the spirit with him while he is so far away from the branch.  Elders Duggar, Cook and Dima were there to see him off.

The Perm Branch was blessed this past Sunday to enjoy a visit from the East European Area President, Larry R. Lawrence, of the Seventy.  He is seen here with our second counselor (L) Brother Vladamir and Dima, our amazing YSA that is so faithful!  President Lawrence spoke in Sacrament meeting on the need for Fasting and Prayer in our lives.  Our Branch President jumped up to translate, and to everyone's surprise, President Lawrence gave the entire talk in perfect Russian!  I spoke with him after, complementing him on his Russian skills.  He said that he has written several talks on key topics, had them translated into the proper Russian grammar and then memorized them.  We were impressed. He and his wife have served off and on in Russia for five years.  He also spoke to a combined Relief Society/Priesthood third hour and a fireside about an hour after the block.  He did have a translator for these two talks.  The branch provided a light luncheon for those staying to the fireside.  It was a spiritual feast and the chapel was filled for all the messages.  We are so grateful to have him visit our little branch!

We had two discussions at our apartment ... one in the kitchen and one in the living room.  I love it when we are so busy we have to double up!  One investigator left, then the sisters and elders and Denis, a new investigator we introduced in the last blog, left together.  They got halfway down the six floors when the elevator stopped!!!  They called us, we called the concierge and forty minutes later they were able to get out.

Here you can see Denis on top of the lift (elevator) in the shaft.  He was willing to climb up and reset the necessary buttons.  The concierge was most grateful.  This isn't the first time this has happened, let's
hope it is the last!

It is kind of sad how little we know about what is around us.  We get used to things that are familiar and we don't explore too much...especially in -17 degree weather!  But this last P-day, the sisters invited us to go bowling with them.  We walked for about six blocks to a fairly new, impressive IMAX movie theater and in the basement was a great, new bowling alley!

We won't post our scores, but let's just say, we had a blast!

We have a service project going.  We are going to decorate a tree and give it to a needy family.  If you look closely you can see the painted, salt dough Christmas ornaments and threaded popcorn garland.  To reward our helpers, we used some of the caramels sent in our Christmas package to make caramel apples and caramel popcorn...neither of which these young people had ever eaten!  When I picked up my apple by the stick and started to eat it, Dima said, "Sister Pocock, this is so strange!"  It was different for them but they liked the taste very much.  Thanks Tanya, Lena, Yulia, and Dima for your service!

The hearts are off the front door and Christmas decorations from loved ones now adorn our front door.

One of the special gifts from home is twenty-four days of memories.  Each grandchild, son-in-law and daughter has written a special memory they have shared with us.  It is so heart-warming and closes the huge gap between here and home!  Thank you...we feel loved.

A special "Happy Birthday" greeting to Kent's mother...Mildred Pocock White who is celebrating her "91st" Birthday on December 14th!  This photo was taken a year ago when she was living with us prior to going on our mission.  A special thanks to Gary and Chris Pocock for their loving care.

Happy December! 

We went to a local museum that was sponsoring a presentation on the persecution of the Orthodox church in the Ural Mountain area. These events took place back in the Stalin era.  We have been fascinated by the history of this vast country.  On the way we passed many apartment buildings that have been started with great anticipation...

only to stand unfinished!

As we made our way to the museum, we passed Pizza Hot rather than Pizza Hut!

Just like any other large city, there are beautiful areas and others that are in such disrepair!  Much of the construction here is either thick walls of cement, or several layers of brick with a layer of plaster over the top.  Here you can see the results of the extreme weather erosion.  If you look closely, you can see where the plaster has chipped away and a whole layer of brick is missing as well.

We walk through this type of passage way all the time.  Mostly they are by construction zones or areas that are unsafe.  Eventually they will be removed and sidewalks put in...but we have one on the way to our church building that has been there the whole nine months we have served here.

At last we arrived at the museum...

The first part was a short film telling of the persecution of the Orthodox church.  It showed them removing the sacred icons and burning them.  Much of the museum was dedicated to the priests and bishops that served in the Perm area that were persecuted and martyred.  They were told that if they denied their teachings they would be spared.  All were killed, one was buried alive!  Most of them were shipped off to Siberia and died there.  They displayed artifacts from these men and their families.  The artifacts proved that these faithful men continued with their beliefs even while held in the gulags (labor camps).  This was at a time when Stalin did not want the people to look to a church for help but rather to rely on Communism to answer all their needs!

This is our friend, Al who invited us to the museum.  He told us that he was born in 1980 and when he was four years old, he remembers his parents hiding their Bible under their mattress and reading it to the family in secret.  That was only 28 years ago and things like that were going on in this country.  You see why their history is so important to them...many of these people have experienced what is in the history books!!!  If you look closely, there is priest (second from left) participating in the tour.  It was a very inspiring and touching exhibit.

On down the road from the museum was the delightful flower shop that we pictured on the November 16th blog.  We walked around to the back and look what we found.  Al explained that these characters with the claw-feet are all from a famous Russian fairytale.  I must find this story...and get it translated!  So imaginative.

Here Elder Pocock and I are in front of a giant birdhouse from the same fairytale.

In the courtyard, we saw this statue of Grandfather Frost...looks like home.

We continued on to meet some young adults.  On the way we stopped at a brand new, huge Cemya (family) supermarket!  This was started over a year ago.  It was a part of a huge mall in the central part of Perm.  The mall was completed and opened but the Cemya Supermarket was one of those buildings that stood unfinished for many months due to problems with a crumbling foundation.  Finally, just last week, they had the grand opening and it is wonderful.  Wish it were closer!  A huge bakery, an amazing deli with prepared foods of every kind, tons of fresh fruits and vegetables...couldn't find yams though!!!  We keep trying.  When we entered the store, I was asked to go to a certain counter and there they used a hot sealing machine to secure the plastic around my bag to prevent shoplifting.  We've got to go back when time permits...just had to take a quick peek.

On a little farther, we met up with Lena and Tanya for an ice skating competition.  It was young teenagers from Perm that were preparing for competition.  They performed free of charge.  It was so fascinating to watch.  Both of these girls are avid skaters...but they prefer the outdoor track.

After the exhibition they wanted to take a walk in Gorky Park, we've shown you this park before.  You would think that with winter blowing right at us that no one would go to a park.  WRONG!  With so much of their year filled with cold temperatures...the people just have to adjust and they actually enjoy walks in the cold air!  Lena and Tanya are the gals we went to the forest with on a previous blog.  They are very energetic...it's good for us if we can keep up with them!

It isn't very often you see children on a Merry-Go-Round with snow all around!

Look what they are building...SLIDES!  Three different levels that will be sheer ice in the coming weeks.  Can you imagine the fun kids will have on these?

We ended a lovely day at "Mother-in-law's Pancake House".  We had chicken filled pancakes for the main course and banana and chocolate filled pancakes for dessert.  Their pancakes are called blinis.  They are much thinner than ours and they wrap around the filling like a tortilla.  So yummy!

On our P-day this week, we had a rare privilege.  Our friend, Tanya, (second from left) is an English teacher at a police lyceum.  Some time ago, she asked us if we would come to her school and give a presentation to her classes.  They really like to have English speaking visitors come so the students can learn about other countries and understand the spoken language.  Here we are with the two English teachers as well as our two young guides for the tour of the facility.

The students that go to this police school live here all week long.  Some students that live close enough, go home on weekends...others just go home on holidays.  This is a typical dorm room...six students to a room.  There were at least six dorm rooms per floor.  Their bathroom and washroom is shared by the entire floor.  They have only one shower per floor! The boys and girls dorm rooms are right next to each other.

This is their closet.  Three people use this side of the closet for clothes and books!  There is a large closet in the hallway for bulky, winter coats.  A place for everything and everything in it's place!!!

A Russian Orthodox chapel and basketball courts could be seen in the distance while we were on our tour of the facility.

This is a picture that they presented to us at the end of the day.  They took it of this years graduating class.  These young people (all young men and one lovely young woman) will be finished at grade eleven.  They will then continue on with their education at a chosen university.  Many go into law enforcement, others to the military, still others into law.  They were delightful.

This is a pano of the classroom that we taught in.  We prepared a power-point presentation that told them about our life in America, where we lived, about our family, and what we enjoyed doing.  We were able to tell why we were in Russia but of course, we were asked to not wear out badges nor preach the gospel.  All together, we taught six 40 minute lessons.  We saved some time at the end of each period for them to ask questions.  It was amazing how much they know what is going on in America.  They asked about the elections, who we voted for, how old we were!!!, if "Sandy" was really as bad as the news made it out to be, if Americans respect policemen, and if we can remember all of our grandkids names!!! (have to say, they were amazed at the numbers).  They were very polite and we really had fun learning from each other.

Winter has hit Perm!  Our low has been -16 degrees F. so things are going to get much worse.  Here you can see our little friend from the apartment building across the way.  Every morning he is out there shoveling the snow out of a huge parking lot!  What a worker.

We have had some wonderful experiences sharing the gospel this week.  Sisters Robins and Tikhanova gave us the wonderful chance to share our testimony with Galena.  She has a permanent grin on her face.  Such a pleasant gal.  She was at church all three hours today.

How we love Anna.  We have had her on the blog before as well.  She was a mini-missionary, married out of the church, has two darling children and now struggles with her husband allowing her to come to church.  She is there when she can.  Here her little guy is wanting to wear a scarf over his head.  He is so fun to entertain.  The furniture behind Anna are beds that drop down from the wall.  This is the only room besides the kitchen and bath.  It is small but she keeps it so nice.  We love hearing her pray and hope that our visits strengthen her.

Anna lives about an hour bus ride away. We travelled back with the Elders and went with our Zone leaders, Elders Cook and Dugger, to their apartment for apartment inspection.  On the way, we passed through this tunnel under a busy roadway.  They have just recently finished this and the paintings are amazing.  You really do feel that you are in an aquarium.  By the way, the apartment passed with flying colors!

This week our testimony meeting was very spiritual.  Our little branch has very faithful members and their testimonies build and strengthen mine.  We were thrilled to have Tanya and Sasha Fadeev bless their tiny little Maria.  Tanya made the baby's gown and bonnet.  They are so thrilled...actually the whole branch is thrilled with another generation in the gospel!  We are so excited about a baptism this next Saturday...more about that next week.  President and Sister Rust were here this weekend for a visit and interviews.  It was great to enjoy their company as well.

Cara and Kyle sent this picture of the Christmas facelift that they have put on our home!  There's no place like home for the holidays...unless it is in the mission field.  Enjoy the season everyone!!!  Until next time...