Saturday, April 09, 2016

  Another week has gone by. Time is really flying. I am working on an assignment given to me by Sister Schwab. Missions around the world are putting together some ABC books using gospel related pictures and a short explanation. We have the Russian translated ones and the got printed off by one of the office Elders. 

  No dinners out with anyone this week, but our cleaning lady did make some Borscht for everyone for lunch during the week. The Russian’s don’t pronounce the T on the end of Borscht. She is the sweetest lady and has been a member of the church for about 23 years. I couldn’t hurt her feelings so I came in to eat it and found that I liked it as well as the Shchi (Shee) soup I ate last week.

The cleaning lady’s name is Ryeesa. She is a doctor but I don’t know what of. She is not practicing medicine and I guess she gets paid very well to clean. Even our driver, Ramon, graduated as a rocket scientist years ago but couldn’t find work in that field. He makes good money as our driver and it gives him free time to pursue his love, sand volleyball. He is supposed to be an excellent player. He is a non-member and has been driving for us for years.

  Friday we went to the Metro, which is like the Costco like grocery store in the US.  All four wheels on the shopping carts can turn a 360. Sometimes I’d get going with the cart, trying to spin around the corner and I’d run into the metal bar that runs around the frozen food container. Thank heaven I didn’t cream another person. It’s like it goes where it wants to and not where I’m trying to make it go.

  We took a marshrutkas (like a large van or a mini bus) to our NovoK branch today to watch general conference. It cost us 50 Rubles which is about $.70. The bus was full but for a seat in the back. I squeezed in but Dad had to stand. I think I could sit in two of the seats and be comfortable but not one. We made it to the Branch without anyone to show us the way.

  We did warn Elder Peterson that we were on our way and that if we didn’t show up to the branch in about ½ hour to come looking for us. We got off at the end of the route and several people on the bus were helping us out and telling us what we needed to do. We had the address of the NovoK branch on a laminated card (thank you elder Affleck) and they all told us we needed to take a taxi. So we bravely walked over to a group of taxi drivers and one said he’d take us. We paid him 100 rubles or $1.50.

We made it to the Preehod (long o), which stand for “Branch” in Russian, with time to spare. We were starting at 10:00 am. We had figured we’d listen to the talks using headphones while watching it with the branch. President Krevov told us, as we walked in, that the WiFi was down all over NovoK. We didn’t want to ask anyone to interpret for us for 6 hours so we just stayed to the first session. Thank Heavens I can already read the talks on line.

  Once outside, heaven hit us square in the face. It was warm and sunny. We invited the Elders to lunch and once again we felt heaven close by. They told us there was a McDonald’s in town. Dad and I had, what was called a big and tasty, which is a hamburger, cheese, lettuce and tomato and, of course, pickles. We also had fries and a drink.

  Dad and I still have a desire to learn the language but are having trouble doing it. When we get home from the office my mind doesn't want focus on anything hard. I asked the AP’s to give us a word of the day. They chose sabawka,(phonetic spelling) which is dog or sabawkie which is dogs. I got that one down and now I’m ready for the next word.

As we were coming out of our apartment on Thursday we met a neighbor who lives above us. These are the most  sound-proof apartments; I never hear anyone else unless they are outside and that’s only if the window is open. I saw a lady once, run up our stairs with a baby in her arms. The neighbor we met was coming down the stairs as we were locking the door. He said Hello to us and did speak a little English. We talked for just a second then we parted at the door.

More Tomorrow!