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...

More adventures from Perm...

We hit a record -30 degrees celsius this past week.  We have never experienced it that cold and believe me... you not only knew it was cold...every fiber of your being sensed it!  We went on an hour and 15 minute bus ride to see our Relief Society president and this is what the windows of the bus looked like...we couldn't see a thing out the window.  The dark area is where Elder Dugger tried to defrost a peephole!  Then we walked about 4 blocks to her apartment...we walked very fast!

President Lubova (Lubov means "love" in Russian and she is truly full of love) lives in a very nice apartment.  She has a married son and a married daughter.  She, her husband, her son's family and her daughter's family all belong to different faiths but they have found a way to encourage and support one another in their beliefs.  Sister Lubova and her husband sold their larger apartment and purchased this very nice but smaller apartment so they could help their son purchase a place for he and his little family.

Sister Lubova is an amazing cook and she shared her talents with us.  Elders Dugger and Prestwich loved the homemade pelmeni (cooked pasta stuffed with ground pork) and her delicious salsa made with veggies from their dacha garden.  She also made a yummy frozen salad from strawberries that her family had picked in the forest near their dacha (summer cottage).  She loves the sisters and is trying so hard to develop unity amongst them.  It has been just a little over a year since the two branches were combined and there is still a need to make everyone feel a part of things! We LOVE Lubova!

When we got home that night...we took the decorative covers off our radiators and had the fan blow the
warm air from the radiators out into the room.  Our apartment was so cold!  The hot water flowing through the radiators has provided a comfortable situation for us but when the temperatures dipped ... things got a little too nippy and when there's no thermostate...you find other ways to stay warm!  The next three days I was in bed recovering from a nasty flu that Elder Pocock had just recovered from.  Glad to report that we both are up and running at full speed again!

One event that I missed was the baptism of two very special people...Valdimer and Irina.  They are such a delightful couple.  Our elders met them on the streets and introduced the gospel to both of them at the same time.  They are planning on getting married soon...this will be a second marriage for both of them. We are so excited to think about having another couple united in the gospel as a part of the branch.  This picture was taken just after their baptism.

This is our little Maria...she was on the blog on her blessing day.  She is growing like crazy...two months already.  Here Tanya is bundling her up for their walk to the bus stop, their bus ride and then their walk to their apartment.

 Tanya, Sasha and little Maria heading to the bus.  They are so faithful to brave the cold weather and be at church every Sunday...no car seats for little Maria...no car for Tanya and Sasha!

Remember Michael.  We had him over this week to work on getting some employment to help pay for his tuition.  He and Elder Pocock are such good friends and he relies heavily on Elder Pocock's ability to search the web.  Five hours later, we decided that we had to introduce Michael to Subway.  He had never tasted a sub before...he quite liked the whole concept but commented that he still preferred his Nigerian dinners.

Wednesday, January 23rd, we were at the airport for our final visa trip.  We kept waiting for the ticket office to open and finally found out that the flight from Perm to Moscow had been cancelled.  Thank goodness we had one extra day before our visa expired...so the airline made new reservations for the following day.  Thursday January 24th...we were at the airport for our final visa trip.  This time it happened and we arrived in Helsinki Thursday evening.  Just had to take this picture of the shampoo in our shower...four different languages to explain what this was...Finnish, Swedish, English and Russian!
The world is getting smaller and smaller.

We were blessed with two sessions in the Finnish temple!  It was sad to say a forever goodbye to this sweet refuge.

As we climbed the steps, we passed a handsome young man chipping away the ice and snow from the pathway leading to the temple.  We commented on his hard job in the freezing cold...he said, "It is an honor to be able to prepare the path for those coming to the Lord's house."  We left Finland at 6:40 p.m...arrived in Moscow at 10:15 p.m...left Moscow airport at 1:30 a.m. and arrived in Perm at 5:35 a.m.!  It was a L O N G night.  Needless to say, we took a much needed nap before heading to the church for missionary coordination and branch leadership training.

This is a picture taken from inside the branch.  Everywhere you look, people are shoveling snow off the roofs.  We are getting more and more snow every night.  This weekend is our Branch Conference.  The
Mission Presidency, Pres. Rust and his counselors trained the priesthood and Sister Rust and I shared the duties of training our Relief Society, Young Women and Primary leadership.

After the training, we were invited to go to a Ukrainian restaurant and enjoy great food and wonderful company.  President and Sister Rust are in the foreground; to the far right is President Rafes from Ufa; next is our Branch President; then the second counselor in the Mission Presidency, President Novikov, his wife and little guy from Yekaterinburg; Yulia, our branch president's wife and then me.  The restaurant creates little diningroom areas where you feel that you are sitting around the table at home!  The food was delicious.

This little one was the life of the party!  Part of the seating around the table was a metal bed...he loved jumping... then taking a bite...then jumping some more!

Branch conference was an eventful day.  Elder Pocock was sustained as the new second counselor in our branch presidency.  Our amazing Dima (Dmitriy) received the Melchizedek Priesthood and is preparing to go to the Kiev temple with the branch in March!  Yea, Dima!!! 

We know that this has been a hard winter for everyone!  Hang in there...the long month of January is soon over and with February comes the hope of spring!   We just have to enjoy the beauty that comes with this time of year.  We leave Friday for Ufa to finish the audit for the Ufa branch.  Another adventure ahead!