March 26, 2012

Monday evening in Moscow.  We had a fine day at 'work.'  All of the care packages the children sent to us were picked up at the PO and brought to us by one of the drivers.  For $17.00 you can stuff as much as you want into a USPS box about the size of a VCR tape.  Becky sent one a couple of months ago and it finally made the trip, so she organized a contest to see which child's package would reach us first when sent on the same day.  Naturally, she won.  It only took from the 2 March to the 26th for all six of the packages to reach us.

We are in fat city!! We have all the dry mixes, chocolate chips, jerky, zip lock bags, and cute notes from the grandchildren, that anyone could hope for.  We are really excited and happy with our haul.

On Friday we made a 'visa' trip to Riga, Latvia.  We (and all the American missionaries in Russia) have to leave the country each 90 days to get a new visa.  I've included several pictures of Riga.  It is a city of about 800,000, quite European, quaint, and fun to visit.  We left Moscow in a snowstorm and arrived to sun and about 45 degrees.  A little cool, but much better than Moscow.

Ben, you did not comment on the Elysian Fields and Gladiator comment I made last time.  I'm going to give up trying to elicit any comments from you.

One of the cute children at the ward.  She is an adopted child.  But, as I have mentioned before we have several African brothers in the ward, two of whom were ordained Elders on Sunday.  In priesthood meeting they were invited to bear their testimonies.  They are tender people and bore sweet testimonies.

Sister Walker, Evgenia (for Thomas S.), and the bomb.

The rinnick just outside our back door had a major fire about a week ago.  A grocery store is being built in the basement of this building and they were in the finishing stages of the remodel.  The second floor seems to have suffered the most damage.  I'll bet the construction folks created the fire.  The guy on the left really is happier than he looks.

Marlene cannot resist trying to get pictures of cute grandchildren.

Our first trip to Papa John's pizza.  Not bad.

No one in the store spoke English, but we somehow worked it out.  President Schwitzer is fond of quoting his wife, "Being able to play Charade's is a lot more important that knowing the Genitive case."

This was the scene as we got ready to board our airplane to leave Moscow and head for Riga.

The work never stops for the dedicated.

We have left the snow behind, thankfully.

Riga, Latvia's cute little airport.  There were tons of these pea-green cabs.

Coke is ubiquitous.

Our Radison Blu Hotel.  In Soviet times it was the Hotel Latvia.

A Russian Orthodox church.  Lovely.

A freedom monument.  Someone claimed that Stalin threatened to blow it up as his troops left after WWII, but obviously he did not.

Just outside of McDonald's. Kawasaki 750.  We saw several kilocycles during the day we were there.

One of Riga's McDonald's.  Even if we had not been really hungry it would have tasted good.

This is looking out of the restaurant window.  This young man could do lots of tricks on his bike.

They had a walk-up window, since no vehicles were allowed on this part of the street.

The city dates from about 1300, though the oldest buildings only reach back to the 17th century.

All of eastern Europe seems to love flowers.  There is a flower shop every 50 yards, even in Moscow.

Lots of these cute, winding streets running through 'Old Town."  There were plenty of shops and restaurants.

WWII German hangers turned into a covered market not far from downtown.

Heroes of the Revolution, I suppose.

A lovely suspension bridge crossing the river that runs through town.

An artsy photo from the babushka.

A thousand foot TV tower and one of the only (on the left) Stalinist-style buildings built outside of Moscow.  There are seven of these in Moscow, called the seven sisters.  He had them built in the 30's because until then Moscow had no 'skyscrapers.'  And Stalin felt like he needed some to impress foreigners when they came to visit.

After a nice Italian dinner on Friday night with the Boswell's (whom we met in Istanbul and who are the Baltic mission president couple) and the Millett's, from PG.  They live on the south edge of  PG and do not know Becky, or Rod.

McDonald's in Russian.

Our presents, pre-opening.

The goods, post-opening.  We are so happy!.  We loved the notes from the grandchildren.  That is jerky on the right-hand corner of the table.  Thanks, Chris, and thanks to all of you for your thoughtfulness in sending things to us.

Saturday evening in Moscow.  St. Paddy's Day, I guess even in Moscow.  There is not much green showing, but I'll be there is plenty of drinking going on.

Here are a few odds and ends for the week, mostly the weekend.

We have tried to capture the flavor of the closet that the babushka lives in who guards the front door.  I am almost sure she lives in there.  I never don't see her there.  (How's that for good construction?)  I think the dimensions are about six feet by ten feet.

Marlene attended a special RS Anniversary broadcast today. It was the first Stake Relief Society meeting in the Moscow (therefore all of Russia) Stake.  President Schwitzer had asked the three Church female auxiliary presidents to record a message specifically for the sisters of Eastern Europe.  The broadcast was sent across the whole vast expanse of the Area.  The ladies all said it was very nice.

Post-meeting you will see pictures of sisters with roses.  No one will have just two (and maybe any even number.)  Two flowers is a sign of death, or bad breath, or something horrible.

I, of course, had to stay home and do the Saturday chores:  vacuum, take out the trash (see below), make the bed, iron all of my shirts and one of Marlene's, and generally play washer-woman, or cleaner-woman, or ironer-woman.  Oh, the tragic life I lead!

I have a special inclusion for Conner and Tyler Sturgis--pictures of the trash chute on our floor.  They opined the other day that they would like to ride it down to the bottom.  I think after they see the pictures they may wish to re-think that idea.

We have one more picture of winter-clad children, in the elevator.  These are cute boy/girl twins. Marlene has decided that she is going to be bolder about asking people if she can take their pictures.  What's the worst they can they do but say, "no."  Well, I guess they could also beat us up.

There is a picture of a distant relative of Marlene's, the sister side of one of the senior couples here.

Finally, we decided to really celebrate this Saturday evening, so we went with the Walker's to the nearby mall and had a Burger King burger.  The place was jammed and so there were no free tables at which we could put our four tiny butts.  But a  very nice, English-speaking, lady offered to share her table with us.  Marlene asked to take a picture of her daughter with the offer to email it to her.  She and her daughter were there for the two-year anniversary of the mall's construction.  She works for the construction company that built the mall, and therefore knew that the celebration was coming, so she brought her daughter for the fun.  She was very gracious and as you can see very lovely.  All of the Russians are not grouches.

Here is the babushka's front door.  It is just inside the main entrance.  

This is the right side of her home.  As I mentioned above it's about 2 meters by 3.5 meters.  The exterior front door is at the right of this picture.  It is a very heavy door and it swings shut with a bang every time anyone enters or exits.  The slamming shut has got to jar the closet.  I don't know how she ever sleeps.

This is Sister Palmer.  She is related to Marlene by being a descendant of Harriett Decker Young, who was one of the first three women to enter the valley with the initial party.  Since all of you remember the family conference in the summer of 2010 you easily remember H.D. Young and the First Encampment Park at 1700 South and 500 East.  Marlene is the bomb!
We are at the Central Building attending the Moscow Mission conference.  Pres. Schwitzer was the principal instructor.  We took some good notes and will try to get them distributed when we can.

During the morning meeting Elder Walker experienced some significant chest pain and profuse sweating.  The Area doctor was nearby and after some examination of Elder Walker determined to take him the the European Medical Clinic, which has been vetted for use by our missionaries.  In the end he was diagnosed with pericarditis, inflammation of the sack that holds the heart.  Not a great diagnosis, but lots better than a heart attack.

Here are the twins in the elevator.  Cute and shy.

Six American babes at the RS conference.

A branch or ward worth of Russian babes at the RS conference.  This is the chapel in our meeting house.  It is called the Sokolniki building.

Here is the very nice lady who shared her table with us this afternoon.  Her name is Nadia and her daughter is Alexandra.  She could not have been more gracious.

Our open front door.  I am going to turn around and walk down our little hallway toward the 'trash chute' room.-

The hallway.

The trash-chute room.  It is also the exit to the stair way in case of a fire or if the elevators quit working.  The trash chute is behind the half door.

The chute closed.

The chute access door open.  (Smelly.  Cold.)  The Ruski's are not dumb.  The rectangular opening is smaller than the chute.  That keeps one from stuffing something in the chute that will not fall to the bottom.  I have tested it a couple of times.  I keep thinking, "If I clog up this trash chute what will happen to me?  Will the police come and make me jump in from the top to see if I can dislodge the jam?  I'm not sure I can fit in the chute, but I am sure Tyler could.  He might have to come over here and jump down the chute.

The chute itself.  I think that stuff on the side is either modern art of the accumulation of about 20 years of stuff being thrown in.  Remember we are on the 16th floor, so there are only a few more floors up from us.  I wonder what the chute looks like near the bottom?  Too awful to contemplate.  I think instead I will think about Elysian fields and Gladiator.

Hello Everyone (Anyone?),

It is Saturday evening in Moscow, almost 7:00 p.m. (now 9:00).  It got to almost freezing today--a heat wave.  We had worked most of the day but took off about 2:00 to walk down to the river with the Walker's.  (Of course one would have to walk with the Walker's, would one not?)

I think I will post pictures in this sequence:

Number one will be some odds and ends.


Number two will be Marlene at work.  She is frantically working to assemble the Area history before the deadline of 3/31.  Of course she is being a lot more thorough and careful than any regular human being would be for a document that will never see the light of day, but that it just the way she is.  You will see stuff scattered across every flat surface in the office.  She can do that because the Russian employees are off on another holiday.  It was Woman's Day on Wednesday and for some reason they got half of Wednesday and the rest of the week off.  The non-Church folks will have to work this Sunday to compensate for one of those days off.  I think this is a hold-over from when the Commies ran things.  Their whole ideology was built on deifying 'workers' (in contrast to the oppressing classes of employers and bankers) so they developed a system where there are more non-work days, than work-days, and of course even if they wanted to change things the resistance would be enormous.


Number three will be pictures of the walk today.  Rod, I have a decent picture of the amphibious jet and the retired nuclear submarine.  Will you do me a favor?  Are these things in the Moscow River, or some other body of water, and what is the name of the park just outside of our window?  (I will show a couple of pictures of the park.)  I ask these seemingly dopey questions because I do not have a map of the area and I have not thought (until this moment) to look at Google.


Number four will be little children in snow suits.  Marlene is fascinated with how cute all of the children are, bundled in their little snow suits. Sometimes she sneaks pictures and sometimes she asks permission.  The moms are almost always willing to have heir children photographed, but sometimes they seem a little confused with her requests.  Maybe they don't speak English?

Section 1:  Miscellaneous.

This is how Sting spells his name in Cyrillic.  He is coming in July.  I think it might be part of the 24th  of July celebration.

This is bishop Henry Kosak, his lovely wife Elka, and their daughter whose name is LisaMarie, I believe.  He will be released tomorrow in anticipation of being the MP in Berlin this summer.  He is a wonderful man--very funny,very bright, very friendly.

These are the Carpenters.  They head home on the 15th after nearly two years of service here.  One of their responsibilities has been to manage the "Senior Council", meaning the old folks in the mission.  They are unfailingly kind and have been especially generous to us.  We are happy they get to go home, but we will miss them.

They have a very interesting 'call' story.  He has always wanted to come to Russia, but in their medical lead up to turning in their papers her doctor said that she would have to serve in the US of A because her knees are so bad.  So, when they opened their call and it was to Moscow they were astonished and overjoyed.

This was Friday evening at TGIF's.  (How odd!)  This is the third day in the Women's Day holiday.  No one was in the office by Marlene, me, and the Hatch's (to the right of the picture.)  Bro. Walker had cooked up the idea of taking the wives to dinner to get in the spirit of Women's Day.  Bro. Hatch is the Area doctor and his wife helps to coordinate all of the traveling patriarchs who come here to give blessings across this vast area where there are only two stakes and only two patriarchs.  Those are the Walker's to the left, or course.  It was brother Walker's idea that we do something nice for the wives.  I guess he was in some kind of trouble, or other.

The meal was very good, tho a little pricey.  But, of course everything in Moscow is pricey.

The restaurant was crowded and noisy, but we had a nice time.

TGI's is in a very nice shopping mall.  This pastry show was just outside the front door of the restaurant.  Marlene took the picture for Rachael.

This is the extra-fine trash chute into which we make our trash deposits.

 Section 2:  Marlene at work, taking up all the space.

She is working like a beaver to get this history done.  It is a massive job.

This is the secretary's desk.  Marlene has metastized across the whole office.

This is the board room table, also expropriated by Marlene.

There is at least one guy working away.

No. three:  Mostly pictures from the walk today.

All of the apartment buildings in Moscow are not as ugly as the one we live in.

The printed sign reads S T O P in Russian.   See, you could get along just fine.

This is one of the two grocery stores at which we shop.  The decode is Seventh Continent.

The view from our window a little after sunset.  This is the park I am hoping Rod will identify for me.  The park runs for at least a mile in both directions from the apartment.

On our walk today.  We thought it was warm.  Kind of like that picture in McDonald's in Istanbul where Marlene was catching rays with her scarf and overcoat on.  This skating rink has run all winter and is about a hundred yards from our back door.  I can't remember who the babe is.

Here are some happy suspects.  Well, at least two of them are happy.  I don't know what's wrong with the other one.

I have shown pictures previously of this building put up in Stalin's era.  It was constructed from 1933 to '37.  It must have been lovely in its day.

This is looking across the river at the jet amphibious aircraft and the retired nuclear submarine.  We may try to get over to see them in the summer.  Or not.

Number four:  Children.

These children and mom were across the street from us, so it was easy to sneak up on them with the zoom lens.  At least at this young age both parents seem totally attentive to their children.

We are outside of a strange store that we have dubbed "Home Depot."  It is a long, skinny building with about a dozen shops in it (used clothing, china, new clothing, a pharmacy, and at the back a sort of hardware store.)  This cute girl is  carrying the stool for her dad.

This is the front entry to our building.  The mom or babushka was taking the boy into the building, trying to get the tram up the steps.  He is a lovely child, but was shy and turned away as Marlene took the picture.

Today we walked down to the river and near it is an ice skating joint.  In the summer it is a nice park (they say).  In the winter they flood the walk ways, let them freeze and then charge the folks to skate on the walks.

More skaters.

A little hockey being played by some cute children.

The little girl bending over was intent on hitting the puck.

One more cute kid.  I promise this is the last one--at least for this session.

Happy Saturday night to everyone/no one.

Dick and Marlene