Thursday, March 2, 2017

Dear Family,

How is Grace’s back? Did Britti get her license? Has Dani heard about scholarships? Has Lauryn busted anymore toes? Has Joshua built his own lego village yet? What about Nica has she turned her Jr. High school on it’s ear yet?

This week certainly went by fast. The closer we get to coming home the faster time seems to fly. We had the Bowlers and the Bryson’s fly in on Tuesday and we met them on Wednesday. The Bowlers have lived in Alvord Texas for the past three years before that they were in Southern California. Elder Bowler is a retired train conductor. They are both super people and know even less Russian than we do. They both are outgoing but Sister Bowler is about double what Elder Bowler is.

The Bryson’s have lived all over the place but now are from Central Arizona. He is a retired CEO of a hospital. This is their third mission, 2^nd one to Russia. Elder Bryson is the more outgoing of the two. He talked to everyone in the Orenburg branch (where they are serving). He reminded me of Dad. They volunteered to help out in Guatemala in 2002, I’m not sure what they did there but it wasn’t a mission. Then they served a mission in Hong Kong. Then they went to Vladivostok. Their Russian is better than ours but I don’t think it’s as good as Sister Ottesen’s.

They had two days of orientation. We were involved the 2^nd day because the Hancocks were giving us all Self Reliance training. I had to leave several times to do stuff for President Ottesen. The Hancocks are traveling all over and training Branch Presidents in Self-Reliance. The program has to be run by the Russians but they need training in how to do it. In the meeting, they told us that they wanted Dad and I to be in charge of overseeing the Samara and Tolyatti areas. We kind of just listened and didn’t say anything. The other three couples have assignments different from ours so are more free to travel around for things. We need to be at the office. Besides, that kind of assignment needs to come from the Ottesen’s, not the Hancocks. That would be a change in what we were called to do. Anyway, Sister Ottesen was in all the meetings and she doesn’t seem to be leaning toward that. I guess we will wait and see, if it’s what they want us to do then we’ll do it. Hancocks speak pretty good Russian. They served at the Kyiv temple and took Russian for two years.

We all went to a Ukrainian restaurant on Thursday with all the senior couples. It was really good. I sent you pictures of mine and Dad’s meal and pictures of the restaurant.

Friday was the night of The Ball. I was expecting something more formal and more than what we had. Keshenya was encouraging everyone to come is church dress and ball gowns. I found out that Ball translates to Dance in Russian. It was pretty packed with people and Volunteers. We taxied over with the Bryson’s. It went from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm. They had cartoons for the kids upstairs and the volunteers and the members had shifts watching the kids. The kids could come and go how they wanted. They were all dressed in ball gowns, the girls anyway. I’ll send you a link to my google drive so you can see all the pictures.

Saturday morning at 10:00 am Dad and I left with the Ottesen’s and Bryson’s to take the Bryson’s to Orenburg which is about 6 hours away. This is where the Bryson’s are staying for a while. They live in a brand-new apartment, located above the Elders who are there, Elders Smith and LeBaron. The apartment was supposed to be furnished and complete. Well, it wasn’t. President stayed over another day to help them shop. They went on Saturday but the furniture store wasn’t open.

While they shopped Elder LeBaron took us sight-seeing. We went to a bridge where half was in Asia and the other half in Russia. You’ll see a picture of it with Asia and Europe spelled in Russian. We taxied there and after we were done there we walked up the Orenburg walking street. We went several blocks and found a Burger King to eat dinner at. After that we started walking back to our hotel. We ran into a park that was filled with ice sculptures. It was pretty neat. There was an ice maze that led to a wishing well.

We were almost to our hotel and the sidewalks were getting icier and icier as the temperature was dropping. Elder LeBaron was leading the way and I was walking beside Dad. I was up and then I was down. I couldn’t catch myself. Dad said my head made a cracking sound when it hit the cement. They both helped me up and I was grateful that no one was around other than Dad and Elder LeBaron to see my gracefulness. I felt fine, just a little head ache. We made it to the hotel room. The Elder had to hang with us until the rest were done shopping.

My neck was a little sore and it felt like my head ache was getting worse. I took some ibuprofen and got ready for bed after the Elder left. I told Dad if I threw up on him in the middle of the night then I probably needed to go to the hospital. It was strange because before going to bed I was trying to find the sore spot where I hit my head and I couldn’t find it. No goose egg, no sore spot, nothing. I think Heavenly Father was watching over me and must have cushioned my fall. By the next morning, I just had a slightly stiff neck.

Orenburg is small like our NovoK branch. It was good to meet new people. They all greeted us as warmly as NovoK does. The Bryson’s, Us and the Ottesen’s were all asked to bear our testimonies. There was a great feeling in that room. A young man named Evon was doing the translating for us. We found out that he is sort of their perpetual investigator. He started coming to church because of wanting to practice his English with the Elders.

Toward the end of their 2-hour block, (that’s how long their church is) President O opened things up to a question and answer period. Evon, who was translating asked the final question. He asked how a man could stay with one woman for 37 years. That’s how long the Ottesen’s have been married. President talked about the Temple and commitment. We started talking to him after the meeting and told him we’d been married 46 years. Dad told him that I tried to take care of Dad’s needs and he tried to take care of mine. Then I told him to marry his best friend.

After everything was over they had what they call a Tea Party. It’s more of a pot luck lunch. Salad, meat and cheese sandwiches, fruit, cookies and juice and tea. During that whole time, Dad was in the chapel talking to Evon about this and that. Someone took them a plate of food but they stayed in there to eat. I walked in to tell Dad we were leaving in 10 minutes and he was inviting Evon to be baptized. Evon told him he’d think about it. He seems grateful for the time Dad spent with him.

So that’s our week.

Love to you all.

Mom