The Stew

Sunday, July 03, 2016

Dear Family,

Happy 4^th everyone!! I almost forgot about it since our independence day isn’t celebrated in Russia. Go figure!! I’m bringing my cookies to the office tomorrow in honor of the day.

Well, we met the new Mission President and his wife on Friday. They are delightful. It will be fun to get to know the both of them. Saturday President and Sister Ottesen rented some bikes at a shop on the Volga and went for a ride. He said there were several people helping them to negotiate the deal. The bike rental person knew very little English and put that with Ottesen’s little bit of Russian and they needed help. Dad went over to the office on Saturday morning to help hook up President’s phone and laptop. He apologized for taking up our P-Day, but Dad was grateful he knew enough about those kinds of things to be able to help.

President was sick when he got here and was on antibiotics and now his wife has whatever he had. She is on antibiotics now and is feeling a little better. I bet jet lag made it tons worse.

When Schwab’s left Thursday morning for the airport, apparently the airlines changed the departure time by one hour and didn’t let them know. When they got to the airport they were already finished boarding and wouldn’t let them get on. They ended up staying in a hotel and left the next morning at 4 or 5 in the morning. They were going to tour St. Petersburg. You’d almost think it was God’s plan that they miss the plane, because I didn’t get their passports out of the safe and they didn’t remember either. (I did give them their deworming pills) They had their second passport, which is for only three years but not their main ones. Ramon the mission driver had to come back for an appointment so he got the passports and drove back the next morning to take them to the airport.

This week we’ve been trying to get everything ready for the new President. I created a book that President Schwab wanted to put together with all kinds of stuff and then Sister Schwab was redoing and streamlining the orientation handbook. Jenni called and invited Dad and I to go with her for one last Box Master from KFC so we did that. Then Jenni and I went to the Rinick (like a flea market) because she wanted to buy spices to take home. I used my google translation tool to write what she wanted in English, which the app translated to Russian. Worked pretty slick.

Tuesday, the AP’s invited us to meet with them and Dema, an investigator. He has taught himself Greek because he wanted to read the New Testament in the original text, knowing that the translations aren’t always correct. He studies things deeply. Dad and I were able to bear testimony to him about the truthfulness of the scriptures. We watched a short video about overcoming trials. It was about a man who lived kind of a wild life and was very unhappy. It is a true story and really seemed to touch Dema. These are the extra blessing times. I feel so fortunate that Dad and I are able to share our thoughts and feelings about Christ and the Church with others. Taking care of the Mission Office and being a support to the President and his wife and all the missionaries is very satisfying to me. However, testifying and sharing the light, Heavenly Father has blessed my life with, means so much more. It, frankly, goes beyond words.

I went with the Sisters to visit Svetlana on Wednesday. She was happy to see me. Whitey, her cat, (the young one) took a nosedive out of her 4th story window the other day and lived to tell the tale. When she brought him back in the house, he was alive but stayed almost motionless for a few days and then seems to be good as new. I wonder how many of his nine lives he lost that day.

Svetlana is funny, one minute she is saying that she knows God helped Joseph Smith translate the Book of Mormon and the next minute she says she looks at the book as a sort of history book. Just when you think, she gets what the sisters are trying to teach her she comes up with something that makes you wonder what it is she really thinks about all of this. She really loves the sisters and she loves speaking English.

Saturday morning I was doing laundry and making cookies until around 12:30. I made a lot of cookies. The sisters were having a baptism that day and asked the missionaries to bring some refreshments. Elders Anderson and Haroldson made snickerdoodles and I made chocolate chip cookies. The Sisters made three cakes. I saw tons of people going out with hands full of cookies. They chowed down, pretty well, on the cakes too. One of the Sisters in the branch asked Dad and I:

“How are you doing.” In English.

Dad and I, “Harrahso.” (fine) “Kak Delaw,” (how are you in Russian)

The Sister, in English, “super pooper.” I’m assuming she was going for super-duper. That was pretty funny.

The baptism was an Armenian woman who was like a golden investigator. She was so ready for the gospel. The sisters worked with her on the church’s stop smoking program. She has a son who is also taking the lessons and her daughter is going to take them also; what a blessing the gospel has been to them.

One of the sisters is having health problems and asked Dad and President Ottesen to administer to her. Pres. Ottesen anointed her and Dad gave her the blessing. It was very inspiring and Dad was rewarded with a big hug. We certainly love these two sisters.

Elder Wickman from our NovoK branch’s grandfather passed away this past week and President Ottesen called and told him after the baptism. I made him a card and brought him some cookies to church on Sunday. He is such a sweet young man. He has such a happy nature. We talked to him at church and he said it wasn’t unexpected. The hard part was that he was supposed to skype with his grandpa last Wednesday but his parents never called and they weren’t on line. I’m guessing his grandpa was going downhill fast. He is handling it all pretty well.

Today at church Dad was asked to pass the Sacrament. It’s great to see him do these types of things. He still hasn’t mastered the sacrament prayers yet. Meesha was given the Melchizedek Priesthood. He is 18 and a very sweet, handsome boy. He is thinking about going on a mission. I think he is only the third active Melchizedek Priesthood holder we have in our branch.

We invited the AP’s to dinner today. I made Stroganoff. I warned them that I didn’t make homemade rolls because I spent so long baking cookies that I just couldn’t bake anything else. They were happy with the cookies. Elder Worden says they are dangerous because you can’t stop eating them. Thanks again, Grace, for the recipe. I bruised my hand from chopping up so many chocolate bars. Oh what I wouldn’t give for some chocolate chips.

Well that wraps up the week that was!!

Love you all,

Mom