Sunday, October 09, 2016
Dear Family,
Well, this week has been great! I turned 65 so now
I’m older than Nancy is, again. On Monday, I came into the office and was
greeted by an off-key happy birthday by the 3 Elders in the office. I turned
and saw that my desk and wall were covered with hearts from Sister Ottesen and,
she gave me a big bag of M&M’s and a card. I few minutes later, two more
Elders came in with cake and juice. Dad had arranged for all of the elder
stuff. Everyone in the office had cake and juice. This I got birthday wishes
all day long. It was great. Even on Tuesday, I got a big bottle of coke zero
and a giant Twix bar from the Avrora Sisters and Sister Thomas. To go along
with all that, I heard from all my kids and tons of good wishes on Facebook. A
great way to turn 65
We met our 10 New Elders and 1 new Sister on
Wednesday morning. With Visa Trips and Transfers, we had a house full for
several days. The New Volunteers are great. I’m really impressed with them. Wendy
texted me a few days before they came and told me that the woman she works
with, Jill, has a son whose best friend was coming to our mission. (I hope you
could follow that). This Elder is Elder Briggs. I told Wendy to tell Jill to
tell Jill’s son’s best friends mom and I would take good care of him. Anyway,
they told me what Elder Brigg’s favorite candy bar was. I bought the closest
thing to it and put a post it note on it saying it was from Taylor. Elder
Briggs was very excited about it. His friend Taylor is serving a mission in the
Dominican Republic. I was impressed with Elder Briggs because he actually
carried on a conversation with President Blinkov in Russian. President Blinkov
is our Visa guy and he is also the Branch President of the Avrora Branch.
Another of our new Elders was Elder Tyler Nelson
from Brigham City, Utah. His family is in the Brigham City 13th ward
and he lives on Maple Dr. close to Gigi and Papa’s house. He said he didn’t
know any Phippens; I told him most likely it would be his parents who might
know them. I also mentioned Vanderhoof, Jensen and Kennington, but he didn’t
know those either. We’ll see if his parents know any of those names.
I’m sending you a picture of the new volunteers
being taught to “conteek”. You take a small bite off the ends of a chocolate
covered cookie, use it as a straw, suck up milk into it, and eat it.
All of our new volunteers were put up on a hotel
for two nights except for Sister Clark. She went with the Avrora sisters and
Sister Thomas. Because there were so many elders, the logistics were hard. We
not only had to house them but all of their trainers, and the trainer’s former
companions. Anyway, we put the volunteers in a hotel and the rest of them in
various apartments. This also saved some work for Sister O. She had original
planned to make them a Dinner Tuesday night, breakfast Wednesday morning and
dinner Wednesday night. She only ended up having to make dinner Wednesday
evening. She thought she would have to feed the new volunteers and their
trainers and after preparing most of the food she found out it was just the new
volunteers. She thought she’d have way too much food but ended up with no
casserole left over. The only thing left was some fruit and rolls. I went up
early to help get things ready.
Apparently, on Wednesday night some Elders, who
should know better, decided to start a small little campfire on the roof. The
Apartment where our AP’s and Zone leaders are staying is huge and it’s right
next to the Ottesen’s apartment. It opens out onto the roof. A couple of
them(not the AP’s or Zone leaders) thought they’d sleep on the roof and then
thought about camping out and then decided to have a camp fire. Well there are
security cameras everywhere and the next day someone from the apartment complex
talked to Sasha (works in the office) about it. When President Ottesen found
out, he was ticked and that’s saying something for President O. The Mission
could have all been kicked out or Pres. O could have been kicked out for what
they pulled and of course, they could have started a real fire. Anyway, the end
result is that they are looking for another apartment for the AP’s and Zone
leaders. It wasn’t a malicious act just an unthinking one.
I found out this week that we have another senior
couple coming in January. They will be doing CES (church education system).
They are Elder and Sister Bowlen from Texas.
Last week we had Uvgeny from Moscow upgrading all
of our computers and putting in new hard drives. We found out that he was on a
mission with Maria, out branch president’s wife. He said she was always excited
and involved with everything. He told us that whenever they had an activity
they would bring extra Band-Aids for Maria.
Saturday Dad and I walked down to see this wooden
plaque on a wall. I’ll send a picture of it. This is what the Internet says
about it.
“Legend has
it that Alexius, Metropolitan of Moscow, later Patron Saint of Samara, visited
the site of the city in 1357 and predicted that a great town would be erected
there, and that the town would never be ravaged. The Volga port of Samara
appears on Italian maps of the 14th century. Before 1586, the Samara Bend was a
pirate nest. Lookouts would spot an oncoming boat and quickly cross to the
other side of the peninsula where the pirates would organize an attack. Officially, Samara started with a
fortress built in 1586 at the confluence of the Volga and Samara
Rivers.[12] This fortress was a frontier post protecting the then easternmost
boundaries of Russia from forays of nomads. A local customs office was
established in 1600.”
.
We were going to go watch the Elders play some
football. They met a group of guys who play for a Russian football team and I
don’t mean soccer. As part of the BEHIND THE WALLS program, they got the okay
to play. It is a program that is supposed to integrate our volunteers in to
Russian life. One of our deported Volunteers is now teaching a Cross Fit
training class. Anyway, we found out today that our Elder Hemrick was taken to
the hospital with a concussion. He had a collision with a much taller and
bonier Elder Pacheco. He came to dinner to today so is doing much better.
On Friday, we had district meeting and elder Johnston
gave the spiritual thought. He chose Alma 59:9
9 And now as
Moroni had supposed that there should be men sent to the city of Nephihah, to
the assistance of the people to maintain that city, and knowing that it was
easier to keep the city from falling into the hands of the Lamanites than to
retake it from them, he supposed that they would easily maintain that city.
He gave his take on this and I started thinking
that this could be for us today also. That it is easier to maintain staying on
the right path rather than fall off and have to work twice as hard to get back
to where you were.
The on-service projects that the volunteers have
in our area are working once a week at the animal shelter, once a week at a
home for invalids and once per week at home where everyone is in a wheelchair.
They are working hard to make the lives of the Russian people better.
We watched conference at church today. Dad and I
watched the Saturday sessions on Friday and Saturday. Sunday we watched last week’s
Sunday sessions. Next week during the third hour we will watch the Women’s
conference and the men will watch the Priesthood session. I really enjoyed all
of it. I even managed to stay away for everything we watched. Everyone brought
food to share. I made a huge ham and cheese pasta salad and 30 banana cupcakes.
We took a taxi on the way up and we not only gave him a tip but a cupcake too!!
The AP’s, Johnston and Buchanan and the Zone
leaders, Quarnburg and Hemrick came for Sunday dinner. I made hamburgers, pasta
salad, and French fries. Of course, we had banana cupcakes for dessert. We did
take a picture to send to Elder LaBaron (he was transferred) to show him what
he missed.
Well, I’m going to send you some birthday
pictures, Plaque pictures, and Volunteer Picture and a little of the fall
colors.
Love you all,
Mom
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