Sunday, January 22, 2017

Dear Family,

Another week has flown buy. We just finished dinner with 5 Volunteers. We had our normal two, the AP’s, Elders Quarnberg and Buchanan plus Sister Howe, who is going home on February 7^th and two Russian Sisters, Sisters Grishina and Sister Petrova (I think). Sister Grishina will be going home to St. Petersburg on April 25^th. Sister Petrova is a mini missionary who is only here for one week. She is here from Saratov. She said she always wanted to go to an American Home and felt like coming to dinner at our apartment was like that. As she was leaving she did tell Dad that her brother was as big and round as he was but he is only 17 (Dad just laughed).

Sister Howe has to eat Gluten and Dairy free. She can’t have eggs but she can have mayonnaise. I made her my roast and I cooked the carrots there instead of in brown sugar and butter. I made corn but didn’t butter the pan or cook the corn in butter. I used Gluten free flour to make gravy. I have a French bread recipe that doesn’t have dairy in it so I tried to make that with the Gluten free flour and it didn’t rise. I thought maybe the yeast was bad so I tried it again and it still didn’t rise. So I made it with regular flour and it did just fine. I found a recipe for Gluten and dairy free cornbread so I made that. It turned out okay. Then I also made a pasta salad and a green salad and had some canned pears as well as some fresh ones.

For dessert I found a recipe for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. It doesn’t have any flour or dairy in it. The biggest ingredients are Powdered sugar and peanut butter. You do bake them. She seemed to like them. I also made regular Chocolate chip cookies.

Last Tuesday I went to the hospital/clinic. Our mission doctor thought I should have my blood sugar checked so we can keep track of it. The insurance company made an appointment for me and Elder’s Buchanan and Rasmussen came with me. It was a really nice facility. You had to put booties on (like you wear at a temple open house) when you come in. I’m so glad the elders were there with me. We figured out where to go and the doctor was waiting for me. She asked me my height and weight and I told the elders to plug their ears. After filling out paper work and asking me some question she took me into an exam room. The Elders stayed out. I took my top off and she felt my arms and neck. Then I was asked to lie down on the exam table. (Mind you this is for a diabetic check) She did an ultrasound on my neck. I couldn’t figure out why they were doing that but of course I couldn’t ask her.

After getting dressed I went back in the other room and she told me that everything looked great. Then she sent us out the door and Elder Buchanan said we were supposed to come back Tuesday for the blood test. I told him my email said I was supposed to have my blood checked that day and that they asked me to come in fasting. So we went back to the deck where we showed our papers and they had us call our insurance company who gave permission for the blood test. We went back upstairs for that. I signed something giving them permission to give my information to Elder Buchanan. He will pick up my results from them. Anyway I was pleasantly surprised at the conditions of the hospital/clinic.

Dr. Taylor called me to follow up on my experience and he explained that the Russians love their ultrasounds and they probably looking at the blood flow in my neck. I was glad to have that question answered.

Elder Briggs (Wendy’s co-workers son’s best friend) came to the office for splits with the AP’s. I sat as asked him how things were going. So he told me about an experience he had (he’s been out since October). Several months ago he pulled a muscle and just kept going. It just wasn’t getting better and after several weeks. It was decided that he needed to go to a clinic and have it looked at. While there he met an English speaking worker. He said he spoke almost perfect English. They talked quite a bit. Within a week of that visit his problem started to clear up. He kept thinking about the person he met and he and his decided he needed to go back and talk to him again. That person is now his investigator. It is simply amazing the lengths the Lord will go to get to his people. Elder Briggs said he would have preferred a still small voice instead of pain.

So that was interesting. Eventually they left and we made sure we saw who ever came to the door. They are going to install a camera so we can always see anyone coming to the door. Right now if they get past our window without us seeing them we can’t tell who is at the door, so this will help.

Dad and I Skyped with Elder and Sister Bryson who are a senior couple coming on February 21^st. This will be their third mission and the second one to Russia. They are doing a Leader support mission. Our other Senior couple, the Bowlers will also being arriving on the 21^st. They are an Education couple. Dad and I are praying that some senior couple will be inspired to come to Samara to take mine and Dad’s place. I don’t want to leave them without help or have to call two Elders to work in the office.

We had a birthday party on Friday which I was supposed to make a cake for. I was saying my morning prayers Friday and it popped into my head that I forgot to make the cake. So I made a cake and got it frosted. Dad and I bought pizza for the office. Friday was President Blinkov’s birthday but early in the month it was Sister Anna’s (housing), Sister Lena’s (accountant) and Monday will be Riesa’s (cleaning lady). President Blinkov’s wife made cake too and the Elder’s brought drinks. They all seemed to really appreciate it. We sang Happy Birthday to all of them.

The AP’s finally remembered to bring their Christmas socks with them to work and we took pictures. They bought us socks for Christmas. They are so sweet. Dad and I went to KFC just off the walking street for lunch on Saturday and then Dad got his hair cut. I made an appointment to get mine cut on Tuesday.

President Krivov, our branch president came to the mission office on Friday. He was telling me that the Ottesen’s were babysitting for them while he and Maria went on a date for the first time in two years. He told me that his oldest, Deanna said she didn’t want to stay with the Ottesen’s she wanted to stay with Sister Stewart. She hardly talks to me at church but I guess, at least I’m someone she knows.

We had Zone training on Wednesday. The training was put on totally by our zone leaders and Sister Training Leader and it was one of the best I’ve been to. They gave us three goals which we later voted to adopt. 1.) Help build the Samara Russia Stake. 2.) 10 baptisms in the first 100 days of the new year. This one was voted to move higher because we’ve already had 2 with another 2 scheduled. 3.) Commit to talking to people on transports. The interpretation of the law has changed somewhat so now our Volunteers can talk to people on the street and in their homes if they are invited to.

Elder Miller, our NovoK Elder was asked to do a little training. He talked about asking questions so you can learn about people and situations. He had us move our chairs in a circle and did an exercise where two people stood up and you could only talk in questions. If you paused or made a statement you were out. It started with Me and Elder Lytle. He started by saying “We should start, which was totally a statement so I told him he was out. Then I made it through a few more Elders. We didn’t understand that the questions needed to build on each other so a lot of our question were random. When Dad was up no one could get him out. His comeback question was always “Why do you want to know.” Anyway it was pretty fun.

Sister Howe, our Sister Training Leader did part of the training also. She asked us why we need stakes and told us it was for refuge, defense, and to strengthen each other.

I’m sending you Christmas sock pictures and pictures of us heading to the walking street.

Love you all,

Mom