Denis & Carol Ashton 11/13/14

Our post follows this - but wanted to add this post from the blog of  some good friends from St. Johns, Arizona days.  This is from the day they were leaving the MTC.  Thought you would all enjoy it, touches your heart:
         Day 1 - Friday
We got up about 6 a.m. and started packing the truck back up in the "cool" morning air.   We got most everything loaded up and then it was time to load the really "important" things. 

Elder Ashton loading the bikes 

There were several other couples loading up the "important" things, too and it was so funny it made me laugh out loud!   Elder Ashton was loading his bikes, the guy across the way who had only been there 5 days came down the stairs carrying his 36" flat screen TV and loaded it into the back seat of his car. Finally the couple that lived 4 doors down and had been there 5 days also loaded those things that were most important to them.   The Sister was a tiny little lady with white hair and she came out gently carrying two house plants which she very carefully placed in the back seat.   Her husband slowly followed her, very shaky in his walking, and also carefully loaded his "important" things on the other side of the back seat - high top basketball shoes.  

A Week of Activity 11/9/14

  The start of an interesting week - our refrigerator went out and later that day more of the plugs and lights did too - the breaker was down but wouldn't stay back up.  Our landlady was out of the country for the week and won't be back until tomorrow which is ok.  No complaints - the stove is gas and random plugs work, the light over the bathroom sink works as does that plug so the blow dryer and curling irons are usable.  The washer works and after a couple of days the elders had to use the computers, so they ran a cord,  There are no lights in the bedroom, but we have flashlights, and there are several windows so during the day it is light, so I guess we didn't rough it at all.  We had just been shopping so had meat, chicken and some good ice cream which the missionaries were more than happy to take off our hands since the fridge freezer didn't work.  The rest of the things in the fridge we just moved to the glassed in outside porch - opened a couple of windows there and closed the door into the kitchen.  It is actually as cold, maybe a little cooler than the refrigerator.
     We had to go back up to Samara - Mission Home - to meet with another CES couple.  We went up Wednesday morning, attended the institute there and met with them regarding the program there, stayed Wednesday night at the extra apartment at the mission home, then back Thursday.   It is about a 6-7 hour trip but interesting to see things along the way.

   There was another baptism for our branch yesterday,  a roommate to another recently baptized member, the girl in the blue blouse.  The young lady between those two, a member for a couple of years.  The lady on the left is an investigator.    - all good, fun people.  (couple of missionaries having fun in the background)

 This is Mike, a long time, take-care-of-everybody member of the Engels branch where they had the baptism, retired police I think.  He said that his tradition is to give the senior couples a knife, he'll make sure we get one the next time he sees us - reminds us of  Elder Gardner from Page who used to give the knives if you memorized the Proclamation to the Family.  When Elder Klebingat was here, he gave him a knife-knife - one of those sword kind that Michael & Riley would be excited to own - I think ours is much smaller.

We've sent pictures of the church building before, but wanted you to see more of the area.  The bus stops at the bottom of the hill and we have to walk up and over the bridge - this is the view from the bridge that goes over the train tracks - you'll recognize the building, we meet in the corner between the white and pink buildings about 2 1/2 stories up.  There are just two actual church buildings in the Samara Mission, others are rented space. 

We had a belated pumpkin carving activity at the Institute.  This is Mike with out little babushka cart and a couple of bags carrying the pumpkins back from one of the outdoor markets.  He's done more shopping in the last month than he has in the last 42 years - that isn't a complaint by the way, just a report.

Pumpkin carving is always fun, for some it was their first time and they did some quite creative things.   

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 So, all is well - we are good.  It is still hard to believe we are actually in Russia but recognize it is a long ways away.  We do miss home and family, and have thought of the feelings those early missionaries must have had as they were away from family with no email or internet or phone and often for a very long time.  We've thought of Grandma Waite with even more love and respect and admiration for her missionary service on her own without the blessing of having each other as we do.  She loved family and Bunkerville, and she surely missed that terribly, but worked her heart out with no complaints.    We are grateful to be able to serve here and have been impressed with the people.

   Strange to think I'm saying this since I'm the one who can wear a sweater during the summer,  but the weather hasn't been bad the last few days -- with no rain or snow or wind, and bundled up (me, not Mike - he's still just wearing his suit coat and jacket) - low 40's doesn't seem so bad.  We even walked down to the small new corner market after dinner Friday and bought a couple of ice cream bars that we ate on the way home, me without my gloves on. :)   more next week ..  .

   

Volga, Baptism, Conferences 11/2/14

 Kind of a cloudy day, but still a thrill to actually be on the Saratov Bridge which crosses the Volga to join Engels and Saratov which are both part of the Saratov district.   Engels has one of the three baptismal fonts in the mission so all baptisms for our area are there.  We had studied and read a lot about it before we came, still hard to believe we are here.  There is a picture earlier from the shore where you can see the bridge in the background.  We do like the Volga. 

This is the baptism - because they were there for the conferences, President Schwab (left) and Elder Klebingat (right)  and Brother Ridd attended.  Made it even more memorable for Ivon, who is in our Institute class.

 Below is another picture of the building we meet in, but a better shot of the whole building, we are three floors up.

 This is inside the building for the mission zone conference and the Saratov District Conference - like our Stake Conference - Sister Schwab - the mission president's wife you can barely see, Elder Klebingat of the Seventy is on the left and Brother Ridd  from the Young Men's General Presidency (his wife is in front of him)  

Sister Schwab asked the MLS Couple here - Jorgensens (on my left) and us if we could fix something so they could feed the visiting authorities before they had to go to the airport. Sister Jorgensen is a blessing and great to work with.  It was a bit intimidating, but things have a way of working out and it went well even with some adjustments for food things we couldn't find.  They are all very gracious and comfortable and fun to be with.  Including pics so you can see our frontroom.  Mike moved the kitchen table into the frontroom because the kitchen isn't big enough.

Because we are in a corner we have lots of windows, which we both like.  This is the corner of the front room, 

All for now .. more next week.  

Apartment, Branch 10/26/14

Just as a note - not that anything we have to say or pictures are all that important to anyone, the church and mission has asked that nothing be posted on face book - so any pictures or report we have will be on the blog. :)

We take the bus from our apartment to the office building where our branch meetings are held.  It is about a 5 minute walk to the bus stop.  Then it is another 30 minutes to an hour depending on the traffic, and then from that bus stop we still have about a 5-10 minute walk, depending on which stop we get off on.  Because of construction it isn't always the closest one.  The first picture is on the way to the building, the next of the building,  front door with the sign Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and then as we're walking back to the bus stop.  It is an older area, but still nature has a great way of making things beautiful.  The big pipes you can see in the pictures are part of their hot water system which is used in all the buildings for the radiators, pretty amazing really considering the size of the city.  The government regulates when the radiators are turned off and on.  Ours are on now, but we don't have them all on yet.  We are fortunate because we are on the fourth floor, the lower ones are colder but because the buildings are concrete, they hold the heat.  The high temperature here yesterday was mid-30's and will be the same tomorrow.  We warm up to low 40's the next few days.  We figured that yesterday it was about three times warmer in Bunkerville than it was in Saratov.  It is interesting, however, because it has been colder and breezier, mid 30's and no wind didn't seem all that bad.   :)

The next pictures are our apartment building, we are kind of tucked back in the corner on the 4th floor.  There is a small parking area and they must have it figured out who comes and goes when because the cars are parked both ways and in front and behind of each other.  It is hard to get a picture because we need to take it from above, but at night you weave your way through to get to the door into the building, but by 7 or 8 the next morning they are all moved out.  There is a small play area and the mothers or grandmothers will have the children bundled and out playing all hours of the day and night.  One of the sister missionaries here said the Russian's are told their children need to be outside almost everyday during their first two years.  For the ones we have seen, the parents and grandparents - usually the grandmother actually - are attentive to their children.  We were trying to show how small the elevator was, but it doesn't show very well - four people make it crowded but again, the people are accommodating.  From the elevator there is a little hall that has our apartment door and the one across from it.  You can stand in the middle with your arms out and touch both sides.  The locks are interesting - the keys are like the old keys that are long and you have to turn them three times to unlock all the locks, each turn slides in another small strong deadbolt, then once you are inside that is how you lock it back up.  There is one more lock that you just turn with your hand that is below those locks. 

Finally the inside of the apartment, which is nice .. and plenty of room for what we need.  We're grateful for our closet and chest of drawers, some apartments have closets that are more like a coat closet and no chests of drawers.  The stove is small, gas which I'm learning to use, and an oven that will barely take a 9 x 12 pan, the edges get done a bit faster than the middle.  They don't have much selection on cold cereal - mostly the sugar cereals - Mike has decided oatmeal is good - with plenty of sugar on it of course.  They have plenty of fresh vegetables, but you have to wash everything first with warm soapy water, then soak in a Clorox solution of 1 tsp per quart, then rinse with the bottled water.  This is just the missionary rule, I'm sure those who are raised here don't do that.  They don't have dryers, so that is our drying rack you see on the side in the bedroom.

We have about 20 active young adults, and one of our assignments is to reactivate.  The youth we have are strong and fun and speak only Russian for the most part.  We've had a couple of institute activities - I've already learned to make more than we think we will need and that you don't do make-your-own sandwiches or there quickly isn't enough for all.  Even with desserts, apparent the best thing is to put the portions out on napkins, then if there is some left you let them share. 

That is enough for now .. the sister missionaries are going with me to see if I can find some winter boots.  Mike wanted to go because he enjoys shopping so much, but decided to stay home and study and organize.  Love to you all    

Moscow, Samara, Saratov 10/22/14

We have been in Russia a week and have been lost three times, once in the Moscow airport after returning from seeing some of the Moscow sights and assuring Lena, the young lady employed by the church in the Moscow office who took us on that great tour, that if she got us on the train we would be fine at the airport; second in Saratov when we made a wrong turn coming back to our apartment and third in Saratov after assuring the MLS couple here that if they got us on the right bus we would know where to get off by the directions they gave us.  As that bus got to the end of the line and we were politely invited to get off with everyone else (7:30ish, dark and a bit stormy).  Mike showed him the address and he indicated across a couple of railroad tracks, a walking path, a couple of more railroad tracks and a one way street busy with cars that we were to get on bus 53 going back into the city.  We did call the missionaries as we had been instructed - their question as is usual for most of us in these situations - "Where are you?"  Had we known, we wouldn't have been lost.  We couldn't give them enough information except there was a large tower with flashing red lights on it, traffic moving all four directions and train tracks all over the place and they couldn't tell by that.  We wandered a bit (it was quite pretty when we were on the walking path with the dark and a bit of wind and big yellow leaves falling quietly around us), asked some questions and were finally directed by a couple of not quite sober gentlemen who had a hard time agreeing on where we should go.  We finally located Bus 53 and made it back into town.  Kind of fun actually.   No surprise when the sisters were assigned to pick us up at the apartment and made sure we made the right bus connections to church Sunday.  
     The missionaries have had several discussions with investigators at our apartment, also district meetings are held here on Friday.  We are across the street from the institute which is held on the main floor in that apartment building.  The first institute is tonight.  The first picture below is on the Volga River in Saratov - you can see the bridge in back, and that is only part, it goes on a lot more, is one of the largest in the world, the next is the Moscow river right close to red square and the last is a Basilica church in Moscow - will post more later.   :)