Hello from Moscow.  It's Friday about 6:00 p.m.  We came home early to meet one of the nice men from the Area Facilities staff.  He is coming to change one of the three filters on the kitchen cold water tap.  One filter gets changed each quarter, the second every six months and the third annually.  I don't think everyone gets this done for them.  Either we are special of they don't trust me to do it.

This week went quickly.  I think that is good.  We hardly looked up from our work and find that another Friday has come.

I took some pictures last night and one today.  We hope you like them.

This is the stake center, high council room, we have shown you previously.  The senior missionaries meet for dinner and 'fun' each Thursday evening.  This is just our 3rd opportunity to go.  Marlene is in charge and is sitting next to the Moscow Mission President, President Sorenson.  He is a gentle soul and very nice.

The gentleman in the white shirt is the area doctor, Dr. Hatch.  He it is who advised your mom on how to care for the wound she got on about her 2nd day here.  It is doing very well, by the way.

This is what you see when you first walk in the door of the stake center.  I think  all the chairs are these metal ones.

Here is the exterior door to the stake center.  I believe I am correct in saying that the Church has thus far only been able to lease buildings, at least in Moscow.  They tend to favor old schools to renovate because they can be made in meeting house much easier than most other buildings.

This is the view to the right of the front door.  The chapel is way off the beaten path and out of sight of most people.  The Church is in the process of looking for sites to buy, and they are hoping to situate them where the public can see them.

A concrete/block structure next to the stake center.  Lots of 'unfinished' exteriors here.

This is left of the front door.  We meet in an old building with a feature something  like this, a little roundish thing .  Maybe school choirs used to sing in them.

All toilets are flushed by a device on top.  One either pulls it, or pushes it.  They thoughtfully 

almost always have a little scrubber thingee so you can clean up after yourself, or the guy ahead of you.

The doctor is presenting tonight.  He preached about old people and exercise.  I was too busy resting to hear much of what he said.  

These are the Gronnings.  They are headed home to West Jordan in about a week.  They bore tender testimonies, particularly Sister Gronning, about how much they did not want to come to Moscow.  But, after all the chickens are counted they feel blessed to be here.

The president again, with two suspects.

We are headed to the metro to go 'home.'  We came and went with the Walkers.

We pass through this short, busy, street on our way to the Metro stop.

Here is one sandwich seller.  Smells good, but we are cautioned to not  eat from such places.

A closer look at the 'meat?' cooking on a spit.  This is immediately across from the other shop.

The metro entry building.

We bought our dinner at the Subway store you can almost see just a little left of center.  It is so cold the  camera is beginning to fog up.

We are descending to the train level.  This escalator is probably 75 yards long.  We have been on longer ones.

We are waiting for the next train.  One seldom waits more that two minutes for the next train to come.  I think they must be about 150 yards long.

Not very crowded.  It did get real crowded when we got into one of the inner rings.

The lady in black typifies many younger Russian women:  Tall, thin, fur coat, high-healed boots, cute hat.

The train cars.  We are on the Green Line, one of the oldest, and the cars are old.  But, they motor along.  It's hard for me to tell because the tunnels are mostly dark, but I guess we get up to 60 or 70 mph regularly.

Just outside the metro stop where we get out to walk 'home' is a pretty glitzy shopping center.  Just after this spot I turned to take a picture of a Burger Kind advertisement (for the shop on the 2nd floor, and some grumpy guy with a patch on his coat signaled that I was not allowed to take pictures of the Burger Kind sign.  Maybe McDonald's pays him.

When we walk to work we pass immediately to the right of this Papa Johns  to get to the back door of our office building.  The sign says' Papa Johns" in Russian letters.
We had an interesting experience on Thursday, I think.  The back door is supposed to be unlocked at 8:00 a.m.  We go there about 1 minute to 8:00.  I had been taught by my predecessor that if I would do one medium ring and two short ones the guard would come and open the door, even if it was a little before 8:00.  Well, at about the stoke of 8:00 a middle-aged Russian woman joined us at the back door and signaled, "Why isn't this door open?"  We shrugged like the doofesses we are and she started pushing the button, with that insistent ring that everyone recognizes.  Nothing happened in about 15 seconds, so she push it continuously for about a minute.  Nothing happened so she leaned on it continuously for about three more minutes, as which point the guard opened it.  By now it is about five minutes after 8:00.  We knew there would be an argument, and there was.  He gave as good as he got and she gave him all he could handle.  It was kind of funny to watch.  Make Marlene nervous.