Saturday, April 02, 2016

Last Sunday, after I finished sending my letter, Dad and I went back to the office. Sergey our cook and the AP’s investigator had offered to make us a typical Russian dish. (Yea?) He made Shchi pronounced shee. It was in a red broth. In it he boiled shredded cabbage, grated carrots, potatoes, pork, onion, celery and tomatoes. When the potatoes were done he took them out and hand mashed them and put them back in. The pork was on the bone and he cut a piece of meat for each bowl. He added salt and pepper, dill and a dab of sour cream………………..And YES I ate it all. They also had bread with it. It was good and didn’t make me gag. I keep surprising myself. I think I’ve gone at it with a new attitude, that I would rather eat it than offend someone. And no kids, that doesn’t mean I will eat the same thing for you guys. I’m not afraid to try it. I think the Lord has either blessed me with courage or destroyed my taste buds. When they serve bread here they take a slice and cut it in half lengthwise. Most meals include bread.

  Dad and I got to sit in on a lesson after dinner. They were teaching him about the Plan of Salvation and specifically about repentance and the atonement. Sergey wasn’t sure about Christ. He felt he was a good teacher and person but not the Son of God. Dad added some good scriptures from the Bible. Then in the conversation Sergey was questioning why we needed church. Dad told him that obviously Christ felt it was important because he established his church when he lived on the earth. If he hadn’t thought it was important he wouldn’t have felt the need to do that. Dad was really good and used the logical as well as spiritual. He always amazes me at the knowledge he has.

  Sergey wondered about the atonement and Christ taking upon himself our sins, even his when he wasn’t alive and able to sin back then. The elders took turns teaching him in Russian and the other one would interpret for us. They had him look up many scriptures and talked to him about the need for repentance and reaching the Celestial Kingdom and since we aren’t perfect we’d never be able to live there with Heavenly Father but because Christ died for our sins he paved the way for us to live with Him again.

  I was able to testify that I knew, in my heart, that any problem, sin, sad feeling, depression, and guilt or whatever we have, that Christ understands it perfectly. He felt everything we have felt. He knows us. He loves us and he wants us to succeed. I told him that I felt that because he made such a sacrifice for me, for him (Sergey), for all of us that I needed to do everything in my power to make that sacrifice count for something. That I want to be the best person I can be so I can be worthy of that sacrifice. What a great opportunity it was for both Dad and I to testify. I don’t know if what we said made a difference or not but it made a difference to me.

  My hair hasn’t been trimmed in almost two months. My bangs are hanging in my eyes and driving me crazy. So do I get it cut at a Russian beauty salon like your father bravely did or just let it grow for 16 months and 11 days? Swooshing my bangs to the side, I plastered them with hairspray. It worked for most of church but by the time I got home I was looking at them through my eyelashes again. I need to get brave I guess. Except a lot of the women I see walking around have bangs cut halfway up their forehead. Their faces are still pretty but it looks like their little sibling took the scissors to their bangs.

  Wednesday was Dad’s birthday, it was a memorable one. One: he had it in Russia and Two:  he got birthday wishes from tons of people. Included in those were kids, grandkids, family, friends, Facebook friends and lots and lots of missionaries. It was a great day. I didn’t make him any cake because most of the office was gone. I made cupcakes later in the week.

  We went with President and Sister Schwab and their daughter Jenny to the Holiday Inn for dinner. Jenny has been serving the past few months as a service missionary with her mom and dad. Prior to this she had served a mission in Minnesota. They are due to go home in July and she will go with them.  Anyway, Dad and I ordered a hamburger and fries. I know, I know, why didn’t we order something Russian. Well, it’s been so long since we had a hamburger and that’s what we wanted. 

  Well, Friday was April Fool’s day and I couldn’t think of anything to pull on the Elders. But our AP’s got the sisters in our district really good. I guess the other elders were listening in like a conference call when Elder Porter and Oldham called them. They told them there was an emergency transfer going down and they need to get ready to move. They weren't sure whether they believed them or not but when Elder Porter told them goodbye and said they’d see them on the next day for the move. Sister Thomas and Sister Johnson were wondering if they were serious or not. I guess they didn’t make them wait too long before telling them “April Fools”. The sisters were giving the elders what for, for the trick, at our district meeting.

  District meeting is every Friday at 1:30pm. There are three sets of missionaries in our district, plus us. It’s kind of different because they all go to the Avrora branch here in Samara and we go to Novo-K. So they are planning things that we aren’t involved in. The sisters asked me to go with them to visit with an investigator on this coming Wednesday. The appointment is at 3:00pm, so I will leave work early. I guess the investigator is 85 and thinks that it is easy for the sisters to believe because they were raised in the church. Anyway I’m going to tell them that my Mom is 85 and that she believes. I am certainly grateful to grandma for being such a good example for me over the years.

 I made some cupcakes for the meeting. The sisters are staying away from sweets so I left 4 without frosting. I told them that the frosted ones were cupcakes and the unfrosted ones were muffins. I passed them out to the people in the office too and ended the day with only one left out of the 28 I brought.

  Cooking is different. I bought a cake mix and from the picture on the front I figured it was orange. I bought another one that I thought was chocolate. Lynn took a look at both to decide which one he wanted, which made us look closer at the chocolate one. It turned out to be a wheat bread mix. So we decided on the orange cake mix. Most things don’t come in boxes here just a sealed bag.

Dad had to turn grams into ounces and ounces into cups for me. It called for 100 grams of butter and 160 grams of milk. I made about 15 cupcakes. Then I made my banana cake recipe and did cupcakes with that one too and got about 2 ½ dozen more.

  The frosting started with a cloud of powdered sugar clogging the air.  The mixer doesn’t have a very low speed. I had to wing it with the recipe because I couldn’t get to the internet. After pouring in the powdered sugar I added butter, milk and a granulated vanilla. Vanilla comes in a small bag; they don’t have the liquid variety here. Anyway when I was done I had Dad taste it and he said that it had a granular texture to it. It tasted ok so I did frost the cupcakes. Everyone at the office enjoyed them.

  After staring at my grey roots for a time I decided that this morning (Sat) it was time to go back to my almost natural color. Although some would argue, and probably will, that my natural color is now a mix of colors, predominately grey, I can’t go along with that thought.  The only box dye I brought with me from America is history now. I moved all the rugs out of the bathroom just in case I wasn’t as neat and I wanted to be. Next time the grey calls for me to hide I will have to buy something from here.

  Saturday morning was busy with folding clothes and cleaning the apartment. Dad had done some cleaning the previous night. 9:15 am. came and Anatoli rang the bell to come in. We grabbed the vacuum hose and made our way to the table where the children’s book, he is using to teach us, is laid open and ready. He took a break partway though and ate some fruit. He eats every few hours. Through sign language and the few Russian words we know and the English he knows he let us know he’s lost a lot of weight. Not through running or weight lifting but through diet. He is really a kind man and we are really grateful to him for helping us.

Carbonated Horse Milk