The Johnson's in Moscow

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.