June 24, 2012  (Becky's birthday.)

Good Evening, Friends,

Sunday evening again in Moscow.  We had a very nice sacrament meeting today.  There were three adult speakers each assigned to talk about how we might live Christ-like lives  The did exceptionally well.  You might want to give it a try.


One of the eight-year-old sons of, I believe, an oil company worker was baptized after the three hour block of meetings.  The whole ward stayed for the event.  He was a cute, handsome young man.  His hair was even combed.   It was a very nice service.  His mom played the piano, gave a talk on baptism, and handed out hundreds of cookies after the event.  A typical day in the life of the typical Mormon mom.


Subsequently we were able to have the Walker's to the dump for dinner.  They have a new boarder, one of the 1st year BYU law students, Tim Stratford, another very nice young man.  We had rolls, rice, gravy, pretty good chicken, carrots, green salad, Ranch dressing made with one of the mixes the children sent us, and apple pie and ice cream.  You can see that we are into trying Russian dishes.  No, seriously.  The ice cream is Russian.  And, so was the chicken, although he could have been an escapee from the Ukraine, or Moldova.

The flowers I got for Marlene for her birthday.  Dinner, the Bolshoi, and fireworks were insufficient for someone so special.

About 10:00 in the evening.  The sun is going down and lighting up some of the buildings in the distance.

We are enroute (for Ben--driving toward) Sheremetova airport to make our 2nd visa trip to Riga, Latvia, last Tuesday.  Marlene wanted you to know that all of Moscow is not dreary apartment buildings.
(This, of course, is not really Moscow, but its outskirts as we near the airport, about 15 km from the edge of town.)

This nice man meets us in the airport and walks us to the trunk of his car where we make a seemingly semi-clandestine exchange of passports, those we deliver and those we take to return to Moscow.  It's all perfect legal, but his work at the trunk gives a little adventuresome feeling to the enterprise.  (Does that tell you anything about the level of excitement in our lives?)

We had variable weather in Riga.  At first it was cold and windy.  By the time we went to dinner at 6:00 it was sunny and clam.

Something to drool over.

This is the foreshadowing of some really cool wood work you are going to see in a moment.

Our cold-war hotel and some babe in front of the harbinger of things to come.

You guys killing all the flowers/weeds in your lawns are working too hard.

These are the objects that the yellow thingee was foreshadowing.
They were all over town.
The citizens were getting ready for a pagan mid-summer festival that was to happen on Sunday evening.

Some of these cows were anatomically perfect.  Well, not exactly perfect.
But perfect enough for some pervert to see if he could still remember how to milk one.
The milk maid, taking the picture, will be fired for not provided the required bucket.
You can see that I was getting some results--the stain on the asphalt.

Real live soldiers guarding the symbol of freedom in the middle of the city.  More on that later.

We are on top of the only hill in the town (in the country?)  It was a fortification many centuries ago.  We are looking at a park in the center of town were lots of good things will be photographed later--associated with the summer celebration.

I have asked this young lady what the celebration is about.  She has just graduated from the university with a degree in economics.  She needs a masters before she can get a real job and in the meantime does waitressing.
Her phone number is +47 555 999 1234

The mom on a cutesy bridge in the park.  Those thingies on the railings are locks.

Not all of the lockee's are Latvian's apparently.
I'll bet the women can explain the symbolism to the men-folk.

We will take a boat ride one of these days, when we have more time.  Same park.

We noticed an ad for this 'show' in the airplane throw away magazine and opined to each other that we should watch the film if the theatre was not too far from the hotel.  It turned out to be about 100 yards away.

Elena showed us around the theatre after we had watched the OK film.  The theater was the cat's meow in about 1921 and has survived Commie's, Nazi's, and 90 years.

Theaters are all about fantasies, n'est ce pas?

This was its original and current name.

The entry into the theater.

Winding streets.

We followed these two nice ladies for about a block as they tried to make their way across the cobblestones with their heels.  No easy job.  Nathanael could probably do it.

The Blackhead building in old town.  It is said to be the most striking building in the city.  It's hard to see but on top of the right side of the building it says, Anno 1334 and then Renno 1999. 

There are two bas-reliefs on each side of the front door.  I suspect this one might bear some relationship to the name of the building.

This is on the other side of the entry.

A striking church tower just to the left of the Blackhead building.

This Museum of the Occupation of Latvia 1940-1991 was the 'high-light' of our trip to Riga.  We spend two hours in this (properly) dark and somber building listening to a recording device explaining the approximately 150 panels of photographs showing the occupation(s).

Some background:  Latvia and its two sister Baltic States have always been so small that they cannot defend themselves from their larger and more aggressive neighbors.  They have been subject to Poland, Germany, Sweden, Russia,  and I suppose others over the course of their 800 year history.  It's quite amazing that they have retained a national identity.

Around the end of WW I (1921) they thought they had finally gotten an independent state.  For about the previous 300 years they had been a vassal state of Tsarist Russia.  Germany lost the first  world war, and the communists were establishing themselves in Russia and apparently had bigger fish to fry so they signed an agreement giving Latvia its independence in perpetuity.

One of the events leading up to the start of WW II was a secret agreement between the communists and the Nazi's that they would divvy up eastern Europe between themselves and leave each other alone.  In June, 1939 the commie's invaded Latvia and put an end to their independence.  They began a systematic program of either murdering, or shipping to Siberia, all of their leaders, intellectuals, officers, and teachers.

Then the commies and the Nazi's turned on each other and the Germans ran the Russians out of Latvia in the summer of 1940.  At first they were welcomed, of course, because the commies had been so evil.  Oh, the poor Latvian's, how little they knew.  The Germans were worse and of course had a special interest in liquidating the Jewish population.  I think I am correct with my memory that over the course of one or two days a dozen German troops killed 20,000 Latvian Jews.

In 1945 the war ended with Russia in charge of the Baltic states.  So the Latvian's traded the Nazi's for  newer, better, version of the Commie's.  And so it was until 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed in on itself and the Latvian's got their freedom back.

It does not pay to be a weakling in a neighborhood full of countries who don't mind killing people.

A statue near the museum.  Someone more artistic than me will have to interpret.  However, I am not so dull as to not notice the 'Ma Hen' is at the top of the pile.

Cute little through-building tunnel.

The park again, later in the day.  The ladies are making these flower thingees to make themselves more attractive to the men.  One of the stories we heard was that, on the appointed evening, the maidens will run into the forrest and dare the young men to come in and look for them.  Hmmm.

I'm sure the babes will be impressed with a hat like this young man is wearing.  I hope it's not poison ivy.

President Bowswell, left front, is buying dinner for some poor seniors at the Blue Cow restaurant.  I had a wonderful steak, my first since leaving the U. S. of A.

Sister Johnson's ice bowl full of fruit and sorbet.
Marlene suggests that Rachael may want to try these ice bowls sometime.  This one would have been better if it had been a little deeper.

The Russian Orthodox cathedral across the street from the hotel.  It was open so we went in and marveled about how beautiful it is.  The inside of domes are quite astounding.

Some Latvian soldiers who have escaped from a parade.  I quite liked these uni's and I am a hard guy to please when it comes to uni's.

We are flying back to Moscow.  Pretty countryside.  Lots of forests and water and mostly  very low hills.

The cook, in her spacious kitchen, in her new apron, courtesy of Emily.  She is making poppy seed bread for the birthday party to follow on Thursday ... see below.

Notice the very expensive and particularly lovely flowers, thoughtfully provided by a secret admirer. 

Marina and Marlene share the same birthday, 6-16.
We were late celebrating because some pesky general authorities were in the office last Friday (the 15th.)

President Schwitzer heard there was a party.

President Schwitzer is a world-class story teller.

His goodbye to the office and to Russia effective on Tuesday.

More buildings lit up.  I think this was taken about 10:30.

You have seen this scene in the winter when there was about a foot of snow on the ground.  We are coming back from the grocery store.

Ben and Nathanael--those are my white toes and not my socks.

The lady in the middle is our babushka who lives in the closet in our entry way.  She and her fellow closet-dwellers tend to the flower beds in front of the various entry ways.  Some of them are exceptional.

Here are some roses, or something similar.

(I know they are not roses, but I can't spell whatever it is they are.)

We are waiting at the Metro for the Walker's and Tim so we can begin an old-person's outing to the Tsar's wooden castle at the other end of the Green line.

These pay toilets are not as interesting as the meat wagon, but Marlene insist that I get a new picture every possible time.

The name of 'our' shopping center:  Rechnoy.

I don't know why but I thought of Ben when I saw this picture.  What do you suppose that means?

You can buy anything at these stands that pop up spontaneously.

I think the lady on the left is asking if she can get one of the slimming bras that I see advertised whenever I get to watch TV, which is only when we travel.

That 2nd word, starting with the B is really, "Vopper e."
You will need to get one when you come to town.

We have come back to the wooden palace built originally in 1700's.  It's very impressive.

Artsy craftsy.

The palace from a distance, through the trees.

Out of sequence but back in Riga at 'our table' at McDonald's.

A guest for lunch at Mickey D's.

We originally wanted to eat at the Carrot restaurant, but they could not feed a dozen old people at once. 

The exterior of the Blue Cow restaurant.

We are wandering north from the Tsar's wooden palace toward the next Metro stop.
I cannot remember if I have pointed out the the Orthodox cross has some extra parts:  There is an extra cross piece near the top and the crocked piece near the base.  This latter piece is meant to represent where the Savior's feet would have been.

Brother Palmer.   A wonderful man.  He lives in Layton, I believe, and made his living moving dirt around.

The Tsar's church.  The original wooden palace was near here.  This is one of the rare Orthodox churches in Russia that does not have onion domes.

This is the hill you saw a couple of months ago with mountain bikers racing down the slope.  Yesterday they were trying to para-sail.  But, while there was wind at the crest of the hill blowing toward me, as soon as they dropped below the crest they lost lift and came down just to the right of the tree line in the middle of the picture.

You cannot see them in the picture but there were about a half dozen folks trying to get airborne from the crest of this hill.

More beautiful roses.

Yet more striking roses.

Bon Soir, mes amis.  It is (guess what!) Sunday evening again. C'est bon.

It is lovely this evening--sunny and about 75.

We had the adult session of the Moscow Stake Conference earlier today.  Elder D. Todd Christofferson presided.  It was a very nice meeting.  You will see a bit later that, since the stake has no suitable building of its own they rented a large room at the Moscow World Trade Center for today's meeting.

The search for building sites for the Church in Moscow, and I suppose the rest of Russia, is a story worth telling sometime.  The short version is that because the government used to own everything in the country, and since that system collapsed in only in 1991, the good folks here have not figured out how to buy and sell property w/o enormous complexity and very long time periods being involved.  'The Soviet Times' as the natives call it, is not sufficiently far in the past for this country to function with anything like the efficiency that we expect in the U. S.  They are trying to some extent, but their hearts are not in it.

The Area Review has gone very well for the most part.  The most sensitive and complex event, feeding the general authorities lunch on Friday, went flawlessly.  Sister Johnson and her crew of two were not shot on Friday evening.

We have had quite the cultural week. We attended the Old Moscow Circus on Tuesday, Sleeping Beauty on Friday and Swan Lake Saturday evening--at the Bolshoi Ballet.  I will comment more as the pictures scroll by, but I need to note here that we wen to "The Bolshoi" as we locals call it, because it was Marlene's birthday yesterday.  The tickets were so expensive that the birthday dinner was held at KFC's, or something akin to KFC.

Of course decorum prevents me from telling you how hold she is, but I can observe that Methuselah has to be worried about losing his first place position.

(Now, Aunt Marilyn, you know that was a joke don't you?  You will see from the pictures at the theatre, as we Europeans call it, that she looks younger all the time ... and very sophisticated.)

Well, enough of the tension building introduction.  Here are tonight's pictures.

We have changed church meeting locations from the far NE of Moscow the far SE of Moscow (because the property managers for the Church played chicken with a new landlord and lost.)  This is a scene on the way to our new building, the South Building for those of you who have been to Moscow.

It's funny.  The authorities will bring a tiller into one of the weed covered areas, till out a design and drop in flowers.
That looks like grass in the picture, but it is about 20% grass and about 80% weeds.  We thought we would take a picture at the front end of the season see how things looked in a couple of months.

We are on our way to the circus on Tuesday evening.  This stained glass end of the Metro corridor is covered with clown faces.

Yuri Mikulin is Russia's most famous clown/actor.  His statue sits outside the circus building.  In Moscow, at least, the two circuses we have heard about have permanent buildings and do not operate from tents moving from city to city.

We are having a pre-circus dinner with the two main ladies from the office, Olga and Evengia.

About to enter the circus.  We had a really nice time.  Additional pictures come a little later.

This is half of the Area President's office.  He wanted to make it into a mini-meeting room so we have added a table, some chairs, and a wall-hung TV for showing PowerPoint presentations.  It's a Sony TV with a 3D projection option.  Eugeny (the technical guy) and I are testing the 3D glasses that came with the TV.
I have no intention of watching BYU football games in 3D

Sister Johnson and I were unexpectedly drawn into a luncheon for the visiting authorities on Thursday.  But that proved propitious because we stole the center pieces from Thursday's lunch to use at the office for Friday's lunch.

Here are the lunchee's and lunchers.  Peggy Hopkinson, Marlene, and Olga.  (Sister Walker did a great deal to help with the lunch but was not available for this pic.)

Back row:  Moi, David Stapley, Pres. Schwitzer, Pres. Rasband, Elder Christofferson, Bishop Stevenson, President Lawrence, President Bennett and Boyce Fitzgerald, the new DTA. 

The newly remodeled Bolshoi.    We have heard that it took six years and between one and forty billion dollars to restore this theater to it's glory.  It was lovely.

The happy couple.  Sister Connie Peterson mailed (at exorbitant expense) this lovely scarf to Marlene for her birthday.  It got taken to the Bolshoi.

About the fourth curtain call for the principal dancers in the ballet.  They were terrific.
I saw more pas de deux, pas de trois, et pliets than I ever expected to see.

The ladies were lovely and graceful.
The men were lovely and graceful.
I have seen more light loafers in the last two nights than one would typically see at a U. of U. football game.

When the mass of girls was dancing one of the swan acts their precision was so wonderful it reminded me of the Cougaretts.  (Maybe I will have have to confine myself to the circus.  This ballet stuff may be beyond my imagination.)

We are on our way toward the Metro after the ballet.  It is about10:00 p.m.

The summer view from the back window.

One of the Russian Orthodox churches with some American tourists posing.

Cute children enjoying the circus.

Cute adults enjoying the circus.

The piece de resistance for the GA luncheon--Becky's bundt cake transported to Moscow.  It was really good with fruit and fake whipping cream.

The visitors at the New Moscow Theater, waiting for Sleeping Beauty to start.   The performance was nice but it was not in the same league as the Bolshoi.  The company was good, however.

The Metro enroute to dinner and the theatre.

Almost KFC.  The Walker's and the Hatch's.

The north end of Red Square.

Before going into the theatre.
As we walked from Red Square to the Bolshoi I heard two couples behind us speaking English so I stopped to talk to them.  They are from West Virginia and had been riding motorcycles up from the Ukraine through Russian.  I only got to talk to one but he said they were riding BMW 1200 something or others.  I was very jealous.

Marlene has changed into her real theatre-going dress.

This reminded me of the light we have in the entry way at home.

Isn't she cute?

A statue of me at the entry way for the Moscow World Trade Center where we held stake conference today.

9 June 2012

Dear Comrades,

It is a beautiful evening in Moscow--70 degrees, mostly clear, the air is fresh and the crows are crowing.  But, the morning started full of rain, wind and cold.  The oldsters had planned to visit the Tsar's wooden palace this morning, but the rain deterred we fair-weather tourists.  It's probably a good thing we did not make the trip.  I think we would have overwhelmed the handicapped facilities at the park. (Wait!  There are no handicapped facilities in Russia.  What would we have done?! )

It's also a good thing I did not go because I had to work most of the morning.  Today was the start of the annual Area Review. That is a program in which three senior brethren from SLC go out to the hinterlands and, (mirable dictu!) review things.  The three-some for this year, for us, consists of Elder D. Todd Christofferson, President Rasband of the Presidency of the Seventy, and Gary Stevenson, the new Presiding Bishop.

In our case those three general authorities met my three general authorities in Kiev, Ukraine yesterday.  They held a 1/2 Area priesthood leadership meeting this afternoon that was broadcast from Kiev to every country (about ten in the Area) except Russia.  (Russian will get its P'hood leadership meeting next Saturday, broadcast from Moscow.)

The reach of these broadcasts is amazing.  Today's only spanned three or four time zones, from the three Baltic States to Bulgaria, Ukraine, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, and Turkey.  Next week's will cover all of Russia, seven time zones from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok.

After being together in Kiev today the six brethren will split into three pairs and start traveling in different directions.  President Schwitzer and Elder Christofferson will do tonight to Moscow and then to St. Petersburg in the morning. One pair will go to Riga, Latvia and one pair will stay in Kiev.  By the time they are done they will have been to every country in the Area except Georgia and Belarus.

They all will eventually make their ways to Moscow, so that by next Friday we will have the 'real' Area Review which consists of an all day meeting in our offices at which the visitors are shown what the Area presidents think they would like to know about the Area.  There will be morning briefings by the three presidents, and the afternoon a parade of Area staff folks explaining the state of things in Legal, Public Affairs, Temporal Affairs, Church History, Family History, Medical, and internet initiatives.  I am supposed to make all this work, but the real test will be Sister Johnson feeding lunch to six general authorities and two other brethren:  me and the DTA.  If that goes well, the whole thing will get an A grade and we will be able to keep our jobs, and Sister Johnson will come down from the rafters.

Last Saturday we went looking, at Travis' behest, for Fyodor (Theodore) Dostoevsky's boyhood home--which (mirable dictu) we were able to find.

A flying rat, eating the bread crumbs we left behind in the hope that we could use them to find our way home.  (Somebody has taken up smoking.)

Maybe our bread crumb tactic would have worked better if we had not spread them so widely.

Travis on one of the longest escalators I have ever been on. 

You remember a couple of weeks ago I showed you the billboard announcing that Sting was coming to town?  We round him on the escalator.

Proof that we were there.  His dad was a doctor working in a poor-person's hospital.  Their home was attached to the hospital.  The joint dates from the early 1800's and is still running.

The gate appeared to be locked, but the guide book said they should be open for business.

Brother Walker, being an attorney saw no problem with trying to break and enter.  We subsequently found that the operators had closed the latch but had not intended to deter visitors.  We got to see the house and contents.  It was interesting.

This is the hospital and Mr. D.'s statue.  I think Crime and Punishment is one of his works.  His hands are clasped oddly.

Travis is trying to mimic the great writer.  He (Mr. D.) left this home at 16 because his dad was unkind.   

We then took another run to Sparrow Hill where we had such a good time a couple of months ago with Earth Day, the dozens of motorcycles, etc.  This 'Discovery Park' (shout out to Becky and Rod) was between the metro and the Hill.  Marlene was impressed.

We have now reached the top of the hill and can see some weddings in progress.  This bright young man was able to attach flowers to his Mini-Cooper, or whatever it is.  The flowers are held on in little bottles with those rubber suction cup sticky thingees that you use to keep scripturess on your refrigerator.

Moscow State in the background.  A bride en route to Sparrow Hill.

Closer, closer.

Ah, the prize (for the guy.)  A chance to watch the RC cars!  (Poor bride.)  He looked about 16.

The forest we walked through on the way back to the Metro.

President and Sister Schwitzer getting ready for the farewell party.  Olga in the background is doing a strange Russian pre-party hair thing.

The entire presidency, waiting with great anticipation for the Russian play about to unfold.
Clocks in the background telling what time it is across the Area.

A newly built home with a mouse, a mosquito, a hare, a fox, a wolf, and a bear on his way to messing things up.  I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why the play's director would pick Alexander for the part of the bear. 

The former house-dwellers singing to the president and his wife.
I think it was Stairway to Heaven, but in Russian.

Parting gifts--a shawl and a book on Russian history and art.

We have learned that a finely made shawl  can be passed through a wedding ring.

This was a bitter-sweet party.  President and Sister Schwitzer have served wonderfully in Russia and have been very kind to us.  We will miss them greatly.

Olga (right) is going to the England London Mission in October.

Marina is the Liahona Director and party and play organizer extraordinaire.