A week ago we attended the church employee and volunteer
picnic at a “resort”. It took about an hour and a half to get there, which is
average for a commute here. Some of the employees in our building commute on
the Metro more than two hours each way to work. There were only about eight or
ten senior couples who attended the picnic, and we were the only ones from the
legal office. It was good to rub shoulders with the Russian Saints. We tried to
participate in a few of their games and did our best to communicate with them.
We have become good friends with a few of them so far like Zoya, the secretary
on the 9th floor, and Irina, the secretary to Arlen on the 10th
floor. They are about 36 and 42 years old, and both single. Irina is divorced
and has two grown daughters. She is new at her job with OGC and we like her a
lot. In fact, on Friday we took her to lunch with us, and she helped us pick up
a few items at the grocery store that we had been unable to locate. And her
being able to speak fluent Russian was a big benefit for us!
The way we shop
is that we go into the store and use Google Translate to try and figure out
what things are, so it’s kind of a laborious process. One way to use GT is to
use your phone camera to align the Russian text and it’s supposed to translate
it for you. It was wonderful having a
native Russian with us and made it so much easier to shop. I went by myself to
work last Thursday, since Jason was starting to get a cold. Then on the way
home, I went into this huge mall called the Vegas Mall near our work at the
Kubik Building. I wanted to do some clothes shopping, but was very unsuccessful
doing so. I have discovered that I’m already getting tired of the clothes I
brought, having to dress up every day!
You know me, I love pants. I told Jason, I have never worn skirts and
tops for so many days in a row before in my life! And the first thing I do when I get home is
change into comfortable pants.
Last Sunday was our second week of attending
church at the International Ward in Sokol, which is in the northwest area of
Moscow. We had travelled via the Metro and connected to a trolley the week
previously with Barbara and Mark Taylor, our associates in the OGC who are leaving
at the end of this month☹
They travelled to St. Petersburg last weekend so we tried going to church on
our own. We took a wrong turn and were 30 minutes late to church! That’s just
what happens around here. It is such a big city and it can be confusing which
way to turn when you get off the Metro.
We do have the
Metro App along with Google Maps and some other electronic resources on our
phones to help us out. Jason has a new
route configured for tomorrow which is shorter and all Metro with a little
walking. He wants to minimize the walking, since he has been having some heel
pain. I think he may be developing Plantar Fasciitis. I think I mentioned how
we have been doing a lot of walking and I’m enjoying it. I notice that the
Russians walk fast and there are rarely any overweight people here. They are
very beautiful people and have strong legs!! Not so many cars to drive them
everywhere. They walk and take Metro even in the frigid cold weather I
understand.
We were invited
to have dinner with Richard and Emmy Burton last Sunday after church. They
arrived in Moscow just a week before we did and lived in Salt Lake for part of
their lives, but more recently from Washington DC. They live on the 25th
floor of a new high rise in the Strigino area. It is a nice new area and they
are the first to live in their apartment, so everything is sparkling and new.
They fed us a yummy meal of lemon chicken, breads with cheese, broccoli, green
salad, and chocolate cake for dessert. The two of them are just the nicest
people and so generous. We will enjoy working side by side them for our
eighteen month stint here.
Arlen, our “boss”
was out of town most of last week, so it was kind of a slow week in the OGC
office for me in particular. Jason started working on a few legal issues, and I
tried to get more familiar with Infoguide, which is like a huge encyclopedia of
all their documents and records. Sister Burton and I learned how to upload
documents to Key Topics in Infoguide. Otherwise, I spent time organizing our
office, and checking Family Search, Facebook, Instagram, and email.
There is a
devotional every Monday morning for all the Church employees and volunteers in
one of the big conference rooms on the 10th Floor. It was all in
Russian this week, but they had a translator who gave us a tiny box and
earphones so we could understand the message. Every Tuesday at 5:30 pm is the
Senior Council where all the missionaries meet for a brief message, and to
introduce new couples, as well as hear farewell talks from those leaving. Then
they often go out to dinner together afterwards. The Scwendedmins who are from
Rexburg, Idaho gave their farewell message last week. He has been an auditor
and his wife has been along for the ride. They helped friendship Pable who is
the driver that the senior missionaries use to take them places. He was
baptized a few weeks ago and it was interesting to see pictures and hear about
his conversion story through the Schwendemins. Sister Schwendemin has made a
lot of quilts and cooked and provided food, friendship, etc. to many living
here. After their mission report, we went to dinner at the Italian Restaurant
in the Vegas Mall near our office. There were five couples and we sat at dinner
for more than two hours ordering and waiting for our food. They just work on
different timelines here!
On our lunch
hour, we will often go to one of the cafeterias on the main floor of this
building with the Burtons, Taylors, Cranes, etc. I have enjoyed a yummy stir
fry area, plus they have excellent salads with cucumber, tomato, onion, and a
beet salad that was to die for! On Friday, we walked with Emmy Burton and
Irina, the OGC secretary to Ashon, a big grocery store like Walmart here. It is
huge and trying to find what we need is tricky. Fortunately, Irina helped us
find a few things like Ziploc bags, Bleach, Stain Remover, and some Calcium
tablets. We got the calcium tablets at a pharmacy located right near Ashon.
There are several pharmacies all around us. This coming Thursday, I go back to
the European Medical Center to get my first injection of Eyelea from the
Russian Retina Specialist.
The Taylors are
also getting ready to go home, and they had to move into a temporary apartment
so a new couple, the Perrys, who are arriving this Monday, will have a place to
stay. It’s very interesting how hard the seniors have to work to find
apartments for the new couples coming in. We lucked out and got right into an
apartment when we arrived. Some have to
stay in a motel for a while until they find an apartment for them. The Russian
way of doing things just takes longer and is more complicated. Barbara Taylor
wears the same size clothes and shoes as I do, so she gave me three pair of
boots the other day, a heavy winter coat, hat, and gloves, so I won’t need to
purchase any winter gear. Bro. Taylor (Mark) gave Jason some boots that are two
sizes bigger than he wears, but will work since he will be wearing heavy wool
sock with them.
The Church has two
floors of employees in the Kubik building in the Strigino area and there are
about 90 employees in all. We are on the 9th floor, but the main OGC
office is on the 10th floor, so we go up and down stairs between the
floors to get a little exercise. The one problem with the stairs is that many
of the other people who work in this large business building smoke. Even
though they go outside to smoke, the stairwells are like chimneys and the smoke
collects in there. Many stand outside close to the building and smoke there
too. There are many more visible smokers here than in the US and there are not
as many restricted areas for them. We travel from the Molodyzozhnay Metro Stop
to Myakinino, then can either take a bus or walk for 20 minutes up a gentle
incline to our office. Every Monday there is a church employee and volunteer
devotional given by the native Russians in Russian so far. This last week we
used headsets and had a nice gentleman translate for us. Several of the employees
speak a little to a lot of English.
Saturday Sept. 16, we met the Griffins at our Metro Stop and
travelled to Izmailovksy Market. It is a huge market where there is apparently
the best tourist shopping. Items from the stacking dolls, to Father Frosts, to
fur hats, tablecloths, artwork and a flea market with used items is also
included. It’s huge! We enjoyed eating lunch in an area where there were four
different businesses all cooking various kinds of meat and veggies. I ordered
salmon and Jason ordered lamb, with veggies. After we ordered they
I was busy at church Sunday with the music. Two of the
sisters who are involved with the music in Sacrament Meeting and Primary went
with their husbands to the Mission President’s Seminar in Georgia last week and
had diarrhea from something they ate. There is a nice Yamaha electronic
keyboard in the Sac. Meeting area, then another not as nice one in the Primary
Room, and a bad one in the RS Room. I enjoyed being in Primary Room and
observing the combination of ex-pat children, Russian children, and both Senior
and Junior Primary combined. I will be subbing in Primary for the next two
weeks since Sister Debi Woffinden will be gone for the two weeks around General
Conference with her husband, Arlen, who is our Legal Counsel boss here.
I haven’t cooked much at home,
since we eat our bigger meal at noon, but tried my oven out with cooking up
banana bread from the brown bananas we have been buying. We had another delicious with the Burtons and
the Taylors on Sunday, Sept. 15. Emmy cooked two Angus Beef Roasts in her crock
pot while we were at church, then we put the juicy meat on yummy Russian bread,
with cheese slices, Confetti Corn, green salad, and torpedo fruit. We ate my
banana bread with ice cream on it for dessert. The Taylors had to move out of
their current apartment to allow the Perrys to move in. They arrive on Monday
and will be MLS Missionaries. It has been a bit of a hassle for Barb and Mark,
since they had to move to a temporary place for just about three weeks. Then
Barb’s back went out on her later last week. They are literally “enduring to
the end”!
I am hoping they find me more things to do. You can see from
the length of this letter, that I have plenty of time on my hands. Jason is
being given some legal cases to work on and I think will gradually be super
busy, especially once the Taylors are gone. They are both attorneys, as I think
I mentioned previously, so it will be a big loss. Elder and Sister Harris of
Wilsonville, Oregon, are a senior couple who will arrive in November. He is an
attorney and she is not, but they came to our home for a short visit before we
left Oregon to come here. They have only lived in Wilsonville for a few years,
so didn’t know Stan and Roslyn. He was a Circuit Court Judge in Southern
Oregon. Sister Harris has done lots of work with the refugees in Oregon. We
look forward to having them come and join the group here.
It is a toasty 72 degrees Fahrenheit here in Moscow today (Monday
Sept. 18, 2017) I had brought my medium weight coat, since it rained yesterday
and I thought we were in for more. Turns out, didn’t need it and took it off at
lunchtime when we walked to the nearby mall. There are two of them very close
to our work: the Vegas Mall and the Crocus Mall. Then there are malls
everywhere you go!
We miss you all very much and hope that you are all doing
well.
From Russia with love,
Sister Pam Carlile
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