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.