I
wish you all a Happy New Year. I hope
yours was great. Just think, by next New Years Dani will be celebrating
somewhere new and exciting.
Hi,
we only had Sacrament meeting today for church. Instead of doing that on
Christmas Day our branch decided to do it on New Years Day. For Russia that is
the main holiday. All of the volunteers last night and tonight have to be in by
6:00pm because of all the alcoholic celebrating that occurs.
This week has been really busy. We had 8 new
sisters come in, Volunteer transfers and a visa trip. There were tons of Elders
and Sisters in and out. The AP’s are amazing to be able to coordinate all of
the comings and goings. On top of all that they have to make sure everyone has
a companion at all times.
With
so many new Sisters and 6 sister’s that left in Dec, even our younger sisters
have to train. Sister Holley and Shumway, who came in last July, will be the
oldest sisters in the mission by April 1. Even Sister Clark, who came in
October, is training.
This
week should be quiet. The Russians have a long holiday that began today and
goes to the 9th, for both New Years and the Russian Christmas. I’m
not sure who all will be in the office.
Elder
Nedelev (native Russian) was asking me about whether or not it was possible to
move a button on his hat. I just told him sure but that he’d have to sew
through the fur. I didn’t think any more about it until I saw Sister Howe with
the hat. She was going to Sister O’s to get a needle and thread. He was
probably hoping I’d fix it for him but he didn’t ask me and I didn’t think
about it.
Our
Landlord was in and out this week rebuilding our shower. There is a shower and
tub combo but they also have a stand-alone shower. Dad noticed a crack in the
floor of that one. He took it all apart a couple of weeks ago and ordered a new
base. Fortunately we had the shower in the tub so we could still get clean. The
people plumbing the shower reversed the hot and cold water. We told his wife
(she speaks English) but we will probably just leave it because it would be too
big a project to change.
Okay,
a couple of interesting things happened to a few of our volunteers. Elder
Buchanan was super gluing something and managed to glue two of his fingers
together. I looked like he was flashing everyone the OK sign. He asked for my
help and I told him he needed some sort of solvent. I googled it and found out
he needed finger nail polish remover. I called Sister O and she had some. It
was a successful separation.
Over
on the other side of the mission are Elders Wickman and Reusch. Elder Wickman
is one of my former NovoK Elders. Well they were cooking something on their
stove top and when it was done they went to turn off the knob. It turned past
the stop point so instead of going out the flame went higher. They turned the
knob and it came out along with the stem. In trying to get the knob back where
it was supposed to go they were taking the front part of the oven off. The gas
flared higher and started the stove on fire. Some of the counter top was
burning. They were a little panicked and didn’t know what to do. They went and
got their neighbor and he turned off the gas shut off valve. So the fire went
out but they are now minus a stove. Plus I’m sure everything probably smells
like smoke. Dad and I are so grateful that no one got hurt and they didn’t burn
down the apartment complex.
We
are having the AP’s and the Zone leaders over for dinner. One of the zone
leaders is new, Elder Vandermark. He was once one of my NovoK Elders. The Zone
leaders have moved into their apartment in Bezimansky which is a lot farther
away. They used to live with the AP’s in the second apartment. This apartment
is right next to President and Sister Ottesen. This used to be empty but they
moved a couple of Elders in when they couldn’t find an apartment.
The
Zone leaders used to come to dinner every Sunday but will probably only come on
Fast Sunday. It’s about an hour’s bus ride away so it really takes too much
time to come every week. The AP’s are moving to a new apartment when they can
locate their apartment keys. But it is only a few blocks away. It’s hard find
apartments for the Volunteers because of when we get new Visa’s or transferred
to a new apartment they have to get re-registered and the landlord had to be at
the registrar’s office to do this. So when they find that out many of them
won’t rent to us.
Yesterday
Dad and I stayed home most of the day. We did walk out on the frozen Volga
River. The wind was really blowing out there so we didn’t go far. Dad went on
to the market but I was too cold so went home to our apartment. We heard
fire-works going on until late at night. I even heard some at 4:00 AM. We did
see our first Russian ice bather. Well we didn’t really see but hear them. They
had a shield of cardboard around them. I guess they have a tradition of cutting
a hole in the ice and taking an icy plunge. I think it would get worse or
colder when you got out. The wind was blowing so I hope they made it back home
without getting frost bite.
Fast
and Testimony was great at Church today. Our investigator, Mike came just as
sacrament meeting was over. He didn’t know we only had that today and was
disappointed. Elder Miller told him that they had talked about a shortened day.
There
will be pictures of us on the frozen Volga and other various pictures.
We
love you all,
Mom
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