Each workday we have a devotional in the Area office at 8:30.  It is attended by our office staff which consists of the presidency (when they are in the office, the two secretaries, Marlene and I, three Public Affairs folks and about six people from the Area Legal office.  There is a hymn (one day in English and one day in Russian), a spiritual thought, and then a prayer.

Here is Marlene's thought from about a week ago.

Marlene’s devotional thoughts from about 1-23-12

I would like to share a new feeling and insight I have had since coming to Russia.

I felt so lost!  I felt stripped of all familiar and known things and places.  I had left everything I owned or had, behind, except for what I could fit into three suitcases.

I had entered a strange land, with a strange language, with different food, and I was expected to do work I had never done before.

As I was thinking about this the idea came to me, “But you still have with you what matters most to you:  your husband, your testimony, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and a Heavenly Father who loves you.   And your family is safe at home, taking care of each other and they will do just fine without you.”  (Even if you think they can’t!)

Then in Sunday School, when we talked about how Lehi and his family left Jerusalem I now had a deeper understanding and appreciation for what they went through.

Then I thought about the Saints going west and what they experienced, and a new understanding and appreciation came to me for them too!

Later that day I was reminded of a scripture that I like, 2 Nephi 10:23.

We are free to choose the way of eternal life because of the choices those before us made.

I chose to come to Russia because I know the gospel is true.

You are all here because you chose to accept the gospel in your lives.

And because of the choices and the work we do here we are helping to make it possible for the people of the Area to have a choice also.

I would like to thank you all for your kindness and patience with Elder Johnson and me, for and making us feel welcome.

We had an adventure on Friday evening, the 27th.  Marlene has been very worried about how and where to get her hair cut, now that she is in Moscow.  (I married my barber so this is no issue for me.)  Anyway we discovered a few days ago that there is a beauty salon on the first floor of our large apartment building.  We stopped in to see them a couple of days ago, to see what the joint looked like and to see if anyone could speak English.  The place looked nice but no one spoke much English.  Nevertheless we were able to make an appointment for Friday evening at 1800 hours.

Friday afternoon Marlene took Olga from the office to the shop to see if Olga could explain to the stylist what was on Marlene's mind.  Apparently the explanation worked wonderfully because Marlene says that she got a wonderful hair cut and styling.

Here is the shop as seen from the waiting area.  What is fairly interesting is that you would never guess these tiled walls and marble floor would be inside the exterior door.

Here is Marlene and Nadia starting the process.  I had exiled myself to the waiting area to read hair style magazines and watch a little porn on the TV.  (I averted my eyes to the magazines.)

Here is the finished product.  That is Marlene on the right, and Ludmilla in the background.  (My view is that this challenge is behind us and now we can move on to more important things ... like where am I going to get some meat to eat.)

It is Sunday afternoon about 5:00.  We are fairly recently returned from church and have eaten our dinner.  Marlene has been pestering me for weeks to buy some kind of meat at one of the two grocery stores we shop at.  Most of it looks so suspicious that I have not been at all interested in experimenting.  (You should see what some of the sausages look like!  Floor scrapings for sure.)  Anyway we agreed to buy some chicken breasts last evening and make crock-pot chicken soup today, so that it would be ready for us to eat when we got home from church.

It was okay, actually, not bad ... or is that the same description?  The Lord will bless her for trying.

There is a McDonald's at the metro exit we use to get to church.  I opined to Marlene as we walked toward it this afternoon, that we could solve all of my food needs if we could just eat at McDonald's on the way home from church each week.  I don't think I closed the sale.

Speaking of McDonald's here are a couple of more pictures from our jaunt there a week ago Saturday.

The lady to the right of my bald head spent her time in the restaurant putting on her make up.

This is her with her cute son.  He is about four I guess.

Marlene tried to get a picture of him chugging from that one liter bottle of Coke, but he noticed her trying to get his picture and would duck each time he saw her trying to capture him.

We told the mom her son was cute as we left our table.  She did not seem to understand our English, but we ended up both leaving the restaurant at the same time and we saw her outside pulling him on this little sled we signaled that we would like to take his picture.  She agreed, but he remained shy and would not look at us directly.

Below is the counter at Mickey D.'s as we were leaving.  I suggest you buy some stock.

We are told that all of Moscow is heated by hot water and that there are several plants around the city that generate the water.  Here is one that we can see from the office window.  When it is a clear day one can see these plants emitting vast clouds of (I'm sure EPA approved) steam.

Here are the Walker's on Friday evening.  They are the very nice couple from Weiser, Idaho who have taken us under their wings and have tried to keep us from staving and blundering too badly.  Behind them is a small alleyway that leads to the back door of the office tower in which we work.  On either side are examples of the little shops (rinnicks) that dot the streets.  They sell every conceivable thing: bags, light bulbs, meat, fish, clothing, jewelry, everything.

Sister Walker is wearing a fur coat that is about three sizes too big.  It was loaned to her by her sister-in-law (brother Walker's sister).  It has gotten so cold, zero and less, that she was forced into more than her wool coat.

Speaking of Weiser, my motorcycle-riding sons will appreciate that Weiser is about 20 miles north of Ontario, Idaho or Oregon, right on the border of the two states.  We blitzed through Ontario on our way to Portland two summers ago.

More rinnicks just to the right of  the previous photo.

Marlene and I have decided that if we buy any Russian gifts for our children they will come from these kind of stores, low overhead and all.

We were asked to do 'sharing time' in the ward's Primary this afternoon.  This is the senior Primary and the staff.  They were all good children as we told them the stories that our children had provided us this week.  I introduced us and Marlene told the Book of Mormon reading stories.  The children liked the pictures of the family and of Andy and his family around the Apache's as he got ready to go to Texas.  It was a very nice 15 minutes.

(Those Mormon moms and Mormon kids are the same everywhere in the world that you find them.)

Dear Everyone,

It's about 9:45 a.m., Sunday, in Moscow.  I guess the sun has been up for about 30 minutes.  At least the sky is light.  It's 10 F and snow flurries are flurrying.  When we got here in late December, just a few days after the winter solstice it was pitch dark until about 10 in the morning and then turned dark again at about 4:00.  That season, thankfully is behind us.

I hope to post a bunch of pictures this morning with just a little explanation, because I am short of time but would love to 'catch up' and show you where we live and some of the surrounding parts of the city/neighborhood.

Our apt building.

A little playground.  the boy playing must be cold.  It's about 12, but winter does not stop kids.

The front door and the babushka.

Just inside the front door.  The ramp-like things are for the carts people use to carry their groceries.

One of our supersized elevators.

Just inside the corridor.  Four apts. per opening

Our front door.

Our hallway inside the apt., leading to the bedroom/living room.

About four inches thick with many bolts.  It sits in a steel frame.

NY's Eve at the Walkers with a batch of very nice missionaries.

Johnson's and Walker's.  They are from Weiser, ID.  Sis. Walker grew up  in New Plymouth.  Katti.

The missionaries again.

A particularly ornate stop on the Metro.

Some of the stops are gorgeous.

I think Arnold Freiberg did this statue.  Kidding.

StarLite diner.  A must stop place in Moscow.  $10 hamburgers.

A very ornate shopping mall.  Beautiful.  Expensive.

Marlene relaxing.

For Uncle Doug.

dashboard

(Post 3 for 1/19/12)  Within a few days of getting here we visited with most of the seniors in the mission.  They do this each Thursday evening.  We have hardly been back.  We are meeting in the Moscow Central building.  This is where the first stake in Russia was formed earlier in the year.  This is the high council room.  The couple in the right corner are the Neuenschwander's.  He has been a general authority for decades and has an extensive history in Eastern Europe.  He is one of the pioneers of the work in this part of the world.  He and his wife are now in Turkey preparing for the first missionaries of this generation to be allowed in a Muslim country. Just behind the photographer is the room in which Elder Nelson interviewed the men who would become the first high priests in Russia--at the Moscow Stake Presidency.

Historic things are happening here.

(Post # 2)  1/19/12.  Well, that seemed to work so let's see if I can give a little report of our doings.

This is the first evening that we have been here and have not felt like we had to do our office work in the evening, or were simply too tired to do anything but read.  We've had two good days and feel like there may be a suitable life for us here.

Above is a picture of me and Ron Fletcher at the SLC airport.  Ron said he would come to see us off even though we had to be there at 5:30 a.m., and he did.  What a friend!

I am goofing off while Marlene is checking us in.  I let her wrestle the four 50-pound bags by herself.

Rachael and Andy brought us to the airport.  We left their house a little after 5:00 a.m.  They were so kind to do that for us.

This was Monday, 12/26/2011.

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Below I am waiting at the luggage carousel in Moscow.  We have been en route about 20 hours.  We left on a Monday morning and got to Moscow in the early afternoon on their Tuesday.

richard johnson

Jan. 19, 2012.  I am having some trouble determining how to make a post because the instructions are in Russian and I still know very little, so let me try to post this note and if that goes I will come back and try something a bit more interesting.