Sunday, June 12, 2016

Dear Family,

  Well, we never did find our camera so we bought a new one. Saturday we took a 2-hour bus ride to a huge mall that includes Ikea to look for a new camera. We found one that we similar to the one we lost. When we got it home, Dad opened the box and low and behold, there was a charging cord for both Russia and America. We were worried we wouldn’t be able to bring it home and use it.

  As we wandered the mall, we watched a classical music concert going on in the center where the food court was. They did an excellent job. We ate lunch at Ikea’s cafeteria. We both had meatball, fries and I had a couple of rolls.

On the way to the mall, there was a huge stretch where it looks like they are adding on to the subway. I’m sure they are trying to get ready for the Soccer World Cup games, some of which are taking place in Samara. They are building a new stadium out by the Ikea.

  The whole week was great! Dad and I were invited to go see a children’s fairy tale at the Samara Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre with Sister Schwab and her daughter Jeni. We watched a performance of Pinocchio. It wasn’t Disney’s Pinocchio but one called The Golden Key.

I looked up information on the story on the internet, “According to Tolstoy, he had read Pinocchio as a child, but, having lost the book, he started re-imagining it many years later in an attempt to come up with a series of bedside stories for his own children. The resulting story turned out to be so original and became so loved by the writer's children, that he decided to put it to paper and publish it.”

The theatre itself was outstanding. It sits on one of the biggest squares called, Kuibyshev Square, in all of Russia. The Theatre is called the Samara Academic Opera House. According to the internet, “The theatre was opened on the 1 of June, 1931 with the Mussorgsky’s opera “Boris Godunov”. Its institutors were outstanding Russian musicians: Taneyev’s and Rimsky-Korsakov’s pupil, conductor and composer Anton Aikhenvald, famous Russian conductor Isidor Zak, director jf the Bolshoi Theatre Iosif Lapitskiy.

  The scenery was colorful and the music incredible to listen to in that theatre. At the end, during the bows, children came up on stage to hand several of the actors’ flowers. Sadie would have loved it and would have definitely gone up on the stage.

  Tuesday night after the fairy tale, we were picked up by Pavel and Maria and they took us to the Staraya Kvartira restaurant. We ordered a Russian meal. Mine was Chicken with potatoes and Dad’s was pork. Dad had already told Pavel that we didn’t drink. They just had fruit juice and water with us. You hike down some steep stairs and are met with some old time memorabilia. A lot of it was World War II era stuff. The ceiling were all curved and made of brick. There were little cubies all over with tables in them. It was a unique setting and very fun to be there.

  Pavel is a very outgoing, talkative person who makes a great taxi driver. He is a former military lawyer. His wife Maria works for the government in the tourist industry. She brought us a bunch of brochures for places to go and see in Samara. They have a 6-year-old daughter who was staying with grandma and grandpa. Their parents are younger than Dad and I. Pavel is around 30 and I don’t know how old Maria is.

  We bought dinner and we are making plans to go with them again. We told them we couldn’t go on Sunday so we are planning for a Saturday in a few weeks. I think we are going to go to Toliatti, which is a few hours away.

  Dad and I are still walking on the Volga 5 mornings per week. We are there somewhere between 5 and 6 AM. Dad saw his first naked swimmer the other day. We figured we were safe coming out as early as we do but I guess not. Last week 4 men stopped us and asked us to take their picture. Dad took it and they started to talk to us. We told them we didn’t speak much Russian. We said we were from America and that we live in Samara. We said we were here for our church. They wanted to know if we were Russian Orthodox, Protestant, and Christian etc. We told them we were Christian. With a little more discussion, we explained that we were Mormon Missionaries. They seemed interested and impressed. The conversation was done in broken Russian and broken English. They turned back to the river and we continued our walk.

  I didn’t get to see Svetlana this week because she was sick.  I dyed my hair on Saturday and now instead of Russian Red it’s almost black. I hope that after a few more tries I’ll get the right color.

  Our district meeting on Friday was good. Elder Anderson gave our training and he did great. These missionaries are amazing with their knowledge of the scriptures and just their willingness to give everything to the Lord.

  Your Dad is amazing, while we were in the van waiting for the Schwab’s so Ramon (the mission driver) could drop us at church in NovoK Dad just stood there and talked to Ramon. Even if the other person doesn’t fully understand, he talks to them. He makes an amazing missionary. I got in the van and he stayed out with Ramon. At the close of our Sacrament meeting, today they sang God Be With You Till We Meet Again, for the Schwab’s. It’s hard for us to let them go. We feel very close to all three of them. I’m going to really miss them. They told us they’d be at our homecoming. It’s funny to think that we will be with the Ottesen’s (the new mission president) for more than a year.

  I forgot to tell you last week that Sister Vera in our branch was excited to show me her Temple recommend. She was excited and through sign language, she let me know the she wanted to know how to fold it. I took mine out to show her. Today as I got to church both sister’s Lyudmila and Vera gave me huge hugs and at least three kisses on the cheek. This is such a sweet, kind branch. Both Dad and I feel that they love us and want us here.

  We have zone conference this coming week. Toliatti’s is on Tuesday, Samara’s (ours) on Wednesday and Saratov on Friday. These are usually all day meetings. I picked up a couple of Apron’s for the missionaries to sign to give to the Schwab’s. The AP’s are going to all three zone conferences this time so I will have them get them signed. The Schwab’s are down to just a couple of weeks.

Sunday and Monday are holidays here so none of our Russian nationals will be in the office. It’s Russia Day. “In the past few years, Russia Day became an occasion for national pride, when many people pay tribute to prominent Russians. But many others still see this holiday as an extra day off.” ” Russia Day, annually celebrated on June 12, marks the beginning of democratic reforms in Russia and is one of the newest holidays in the Russian Federation.”

Love,

Mom

Sunday, June 06, 2016

  Well, I can’t find our camera and we had tons of pictures on it. We walked along the Volga yesterday and it just happened to be Volga Fest. There were lots of people, music and fun for kids. Hopefully I’ll locate it and send some pictures.

  This week has been a full one. We had transfers start on Monday. So we had tons of sisters and elders in and out of the office. The two new Elders and our senior couple got in Tuesday night. Orientation started on Wednesday. I have an orientation packet I have to put together for them.  After orientation on Wednesday the new Elders were paired with the AP’s and went out contacting. The next morning Elder Wilde was way excited. He and Elder Wardon meet a woman who invited them in to one of the Russian Orthodox churches. She spoke enough English that Elder Wilde could converse with her. Then they were able to place a Book of Mormon with a man who was very interested. He had a great first experience. Elder Wardon said he was really scared to do it but went ahead anyway. It was fun to see how excited he was.

  Tuesday night the Avrora branch was having a Borscht cook-off. Dad and I were invited but had decided not to go. On our way to our apartment we ran into President Blinkov. He invited us to go. He is the new branch President there. We decided we’d better go and we had a great time. Most of the Elders and some of the other’s dressed as ingredients that go into borscht. They sang a song as one by one the soup ingredients got into the pot. President Blinkov was a potato. I guess the person who was supposed to be sour cream didn’t show so they asked Dad to do it since he was wearing a white shirt. They put white dots on his cheeks and when it was his turn he really hammed it up and had the audience laughing.  I got some pictures but it’s in the camera I can’t find.

  There were 8 entries for the cook-off. Riesa, who cleans the mission office teamed up with me. I bought the ingredients and she made the Borscht. Two of our Elders, Anderson and Haroldson put together an entry also. Theirs is the only one I ate and it was really good. I also had some corn bread. Riesa and I came in 2^nd place. Dad tasted them all and some were cold and some were hot. He picked the one that won as his favorite.

  Thursday I went with the Sisters to visit Svetlana. She was amazing. The Sisters had gone with her to the doctor on Tuesday to help her. Then she called them on Thursday and told them that she woke up, after a full night’s sleep, feeling great. She’s been in pain for about 6 months. She said as she woke up she started praying, thanking God for Helping the doctors know how to make her better. She had a thing about prayer, never wanting to do it. Then when we were done with the lesson she offered to say the closing prayer. It was a wonderful prayer. She even thanked God for me being there.

After she was done I told her, “You aren’t an atheist anymore.”

 She was kind of taken aback and said, “Oh but I am.”

I said, “You are praying or communicating with God, you believe that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon through the help of God. You aren’t an atheist anymore.”

She wasn’t sure what to think about that.  Hopefully it will make her think. She gave us herbal tea and some cookies, crackers, dark chocolate and apples. The tea was chicory and was very bitter. I’m trying to be polite by drinking it. One of the sisters put some chocolate in hers to sweeten it, so I tried that in mine. It helped but still wasn’t great. I did manage to drink ½ of it.

  After meeting with Svetlana we went to Schwab’s for dinner with them and the Handcock’s. I made rolls and banana cake. We had spaghetti and salad. It was really good. The Handcock’s served a mission at the Kyiv Temple in Ukraine. They were telling us about some amazing experience that took place there.

  The Hancock’s said that they had a prompting to study the Russian language and had taken classes for about two years and can speak it very well.

We were told by President Schwab and Sister Zollinger the statics show that about only 6% of seniors who want to serve a mission are healthy enough to serve in Russia. Out of those 6% who receive a call to Russia 70 to 80% of them turn down the call. I just can’t imagine doing that when the call comes from God through the Apostles.

Dad asked President Schwab to give him a priesthood blessing and he did after dinner. It was an amazing blessing. I’ll let Dad tell you about it.

  Friday was District meeting and we met our new district leader, Elder Haroldson. He started the meeting by talking to us in an English accent. Dad thought I should show him mine but I declined.

  Saturday was a great day. We spent the morning cleaning and doing laundry. Then we got ready and headed out the door. We walked along the Volga River and it just happened to be Volga Fest. There were a lot of musical groups and tons of people walking around.

  We stopped part way and went to a restaurant to eat and no it wasn’t subway, burger king, KFC or McDonalds. We went to a Russian place. When we walked in they spoke to us and we told them we didn’t speak Russian. We were passed around to a few people and finally seated upstairs. The waiter handed up menus and immediately wanted to know what we wanted. We couldn’t tell him to give us a few minutes. Another gal came to help and said in English, Pig, cow, chicken? We both said pig. Then they were asking what else. I had given my phone with Google translate open to the waiter and he said something that translated to Caesar salad with Chicken. We gave him a thumbs up and said Dva which is two. So they brought out our salads and bread (no butter). It was really good. We figured that was it and we were getting a salad instead of pork. But after finishing our salad they brought in our pork dish. It was so good. It had a sauce on the side and some Cole slaw. I couldn’t finish it all because of the salad but really enjoyed what I had. KFC cost us about 600 rubles and this meal cost 2190 rubles which is about $33.

  Once we finished eating we continued on with our walk. The whole walk would probably take about an hour but we stopped along the way and also had lunch. We were gone over three hours. We were heading to the Rook. It is a monument that looks like a Viking ship. I looked on line and can’t find anything on its history. It is really cool looking and we took pictures, which is on my camera which I can’t find. We took a bus back and relaxed the rest of the evening. Well I did make rolls and chop carrots.

  Today was fast Sunday and I got to meet our new Elder in NovoK, Elder Lee. Elder Peterson got transferred to Saratov. I handed both Elders a small packet of cookies and Elder Wickman said to Elder Lee, “See I told you she would bring us something.” I guess after bringing them something for the past 6 weeks they know it’s coming.

  Fast and testimony meeting was great. Dad bore his testimony. He told the audience through an interpreter that he got a surprise at District Conference (like Stake conference) when they were sustaining the church leaders. They went through the mission presidency and they read his name in as the Mission Secretary. In his testimony he said that he was touched and that he would never had thought that he would be in Russia and have his name read in and have the people of Russia in that room raise their hands to sustain him.

  The three AP’s came to dinner, roast again. I asked Elder Porter what he wanted for dinner since he is leaving for home on Tuesday morning. He wanted the exact same menu as I made for them last time. They are so fun to have over for dinner.

Well, I love you all

Mom

Sunday May 29, 2016

  I can’t believe another week has gone by. Thanks to everyone who called or sent us email letters, we love them. I’ve spent the morning making dinner rolls for Sister Schwab. She tweaked her knee last night and has 4 missionaries coming to dinner. I offered to make her some rolls. Hopefully her knee will get better fast as she has a ton of stuff to do to get packed and ready to move back home to Farmington. They are traveling through the mission almost every day.

  So last Monday I told Elder Oldham that I wrote home about how the Sisters went up a notch for my favorite missionary spot because of their comment about me feeling more like an aunt instead of a grandma and he went down because of accusing us of stinking.

Elder Oldham said, “Wait a minute, I didn’t know this was a competition! I didn’t have all the facts.”

The next morning he came in and went right over to me and shook my hand and said, “Sister Stewart, how are you this fine morning?” Apparently he wants to move back up on my list.

  We have District conference and had the adults meeting and the Priesthood meeting yesterday. It was really good. Today we are meeting at 1:30 at the Renaissance hotel because our small church won’t have room for everyone. It’s nice to see a large group of LDS people.

  Sister Graham and Sister Hofmann brought an investigator who has only been studying the church for a month and is already in Mosiah in the Book of Mormon. I’m looking forward to this afternoon. Elder Yuriy A. Guschin, from Novosibirsk, Russia, is an Area 70 and is our guest speaker. He was a Russian gymnast in his youth. He has been a member for 23 years. He has two daughters and one of them is not a member, however her 17 year old son is and is planning for a mission. After the Saturday session we went to dinner with Elder Guschin and another man that I can’t remember the name of and Elder and Sister Zolinger, serving in Siberia and President and Sister Schwab. Dad and I had authentic Russian Stroganoff with potato wedges. It was delicious.

  President Schwab took us out to lunch because it was Elder Porter’s last staff meeting last Tuesday. We went to a corner restaurant where we ordered from the Russian menu using our Google translate. We messed up because Dad and I both ordered the same salad and soup and different entrees. I said I didn’t want the garnishes which is like a side, either cabbage or rice. But I guess she thought I didn’t want an entrée at all. The soup and salad was really good though.

  The new branch building is almost done. They have been working on this for a long time. The completion date keeps getting moved back. We got to go inside and look around. It is three stories high and very beautiful. Two branches will meet there. They are planning ahead for when we have a Stake in Samara and built some offices for them. President and Sister Schwab wanted to put in an elevator but I guess everything they’d have to do to get that would delay the opening to long so they shelved that for now. The older people (like me) will have a hard time with the stairs. My knees handled it okay that day but if I had to go up and down very much I think they would protest.

  Thursday was our Visa trip. We were in a small bus that was air conditioned, sort of. Just as you were about to break a sweat it would come on. It’s a long bus ride but we talked most of the way. President did remind the Elders that they still had to do personal and companion study that day. There were 8 of us. 

  When we got to the boarder we had to go show our passports and visas then we passed in to Kazakhstan. Then turned around and went back in. We have to leave the country to renew our visas. It was a little quieter on the way back. I managed to read 4 Liahona articles which is no small feat. The roads are not very good and you really bounce around a lot so focusing on my phone took a lot of perseverance.

  After lunch we went to get our hair cut at the salon that did Dad’s hair cut last time. I got the girl he went to and showed her a picture of what I wanted and she said Mozna which is like permission or just ok.

She did a great job on my hair. It is a little shorter than what I wanted but it will grow. Dad got the girl I talked to last time. She started with clippers then scissors and then was trying to even things up and then just took the clippers to Dad’s hair. She left about what Dad wanted taken off. It looks good, just not what I’m used to.

 This week a lot of missionaries will be in and out of the office as they go to their new destinations. Being prepared for that plus I have baptisms to record before the end of the month. That may seem a small task but it isn’t, since I have to type everything in Russian.

Our Sunday meeting was outstanding. President and Sister Schwab talked and basically said goodbye to everyone. It was very touching. Then I went to visit with Svetlana and Dad went home with the Schwabs. It’s been a great Sunday.

Love,

Mom

Emergency Crew 

Fire Trucks

  Saturday, after doing the laundry Dad and I walked to the walking street and had lunch. As we were approaching the walking street we heard a bang and saw sparks and while we were waiting to cross the street and fire truck came roaring up. We turned to look and saw that something electrical had blown up. So that was interesting.