Sept 10 2017

As we are about to complete our second week in Moscow, we would like to share our experiences so far.  A week ago today, we enjoyed our first church meetings in Moscow. We were guided there by a wonderful volunteer couple from St. George, Utah, Barbara and Mark Taylor. They are both attorneys and working with us in OGC (Office of General Counsel).  We rode the Metro from our apartment to the Strogino Metro Stop where we met Mark and Barbara on the metro platform. We walked by a beautiful golden-domed Orthodox Church on our way to catch a trolley which took us to a location near the Church in Skokol. The Church has rented facilities on the third floor and we enjoyed meeting with the saints in the International Ward and meeting many new people. It is in a bustling area.

Monday we went to work in the Kubik Building in the Europe East Area Office which is located on two floors of a large office building. We got introduced to our workspace and the others with whom we will be working. Arlen Woofinden is the Europe East Area Legal Counsel, and we report to him. The Taylors, Burtons, Elaine Crane, and several Russian employees of the Church work at the building with us.

On Tuesday after work we enjoyed our first Senior Counsel, which is a gathering of the senior couples also serving this area. Richard and Emmy Burton, who we knew from our training at OGC in Salt Lake City, introduced themselves. They are a phenomenal couple from the Washington DC area where he was a tax attorney, Bishop, etc. It turns out that Richard grew up on the Avenues in Salt Lake City and knew our Stan and Arlene Darger second cousins, as well as my Uncle Dow, Aunt Shirley, Becky and Win. Elder Burton was friends with John Darger and remembers riding on Stan Darger Senior’s fire engine every summer for the 24^th of July Parades. Emmy was born and raised in Connecticut and is very talented—has done much in the Church and will be an inspiration to me. Another interesting note is that the Burtons own a cabin near Woodland, Utah, where Jason’s family roots are and near the Carlile homestead which is currently owned by his Aunt Lois Carlile. Elder Burton’s father was ill most of his life and in the hospital for 31 years from injuries suffered from serving as a soldier.

After the Senior Counsel, we all went to dinner at a big mall called the Vegas Mall which is near the office building. There was a giant food court and we ate at the Brazilian Restaurant. Malls are everywhere with stores like Nike, Adidas, Ecco, Reebok, etc. There are many high end clothing stores as well, but they don’t seem to have too many customers in them.

Since we have been here we have had dinner with the Mission President McGhie and his family, with the Woofindens, and with the Cooks who are our neighbors in this same apartment building and he is serving as an Area Auditor. Today we went home from church with the Burtons and had a lovely dinner with them. They live on the 25^th floor of a high rise apartment a few Metro stops away from us. Their apartment is brand new and looks so awesome and modern with an incredible view.

We have really enjoyed these dinner invitations, as we have been transitioning into the country. I have not cooked one warm dinner here at our apartment yet, since we often eat a bigger meal at lunchtime near our office, and just snack lightly in the evening. You’ll be happy to know that I have made waffles and the big fat pancake for breakfast!  I think it will be our turn to invite some of the couples to dinner this coming weekend. In fact, we will be losing the Taylors in a few weeks, and are very sad about that. They have tutored us along ever since we got our call and were still in the states. We have grown to love them very much!

Our apartment is located near a Metro Stop which makes it very convenient for us to commute back and forth to work. It is a lovely place with one bedroom, high ceilings and crown moldings, two enclosed patios, one off the kitchen and one off our bedroom. We have a laundry room with a washing machine but clothes dryers are not used in Russia. Instead, drying racks are used and we hang or lay our clothing on them on these porches. With the humidity here, it sometimes takes days for things to dry, especially heavier items like jeans or towels. Our living and kitchen areas are spacious. And we have a hide-a-bed in our loveseat.

 It takes us about thirty minutes to get to work in the fairly good weather we have been having. Today it was very warm and sunny. Last week it was a bit cooler with a little rain, which reminds us of fall in Oregon. We have been walking quite a bit which has been good, since we will be in an office setting five days a week, about eight hours a day.

The Church employees that work in Moscow had a picnic yesterday. We rode the Metro for 25 minutes and made two transfers, then rode a bus for about 30 minutes to a “resort” out in the country.  We enjoyed good company, games, and food with the Russian Saints as well as  few er Senior Couples. Some of these natives work right around us and speak English so we have enjoyed meeting them. The lunch buffet was awesome! It included large chunks of pork, sausages, potato wedges, all kinds of fruits and breads. One new thing I tried was beer cheese, which someone recommended to me. It was  stringy cheese which was quite salty.

Pam (I) took the wrong bus home from our office last Friday, i.e., I got lost! I was coming home early to let the repairman in to our apartment to install a water filter on our kitchen sink. I ended up going 15 minutes the wrong way before a friendly Russian woman about my age, helped me. I’m sure the Lord placed her there. Neither of us spoke much of the other’s language, but we were able to communicate enough for her to show me where I needed to go. I was an hour late getting home, but still made it in time for our appointment! Then this morning we left our apartment at 7:30 am in order to get to church by nine. It was only our second time going there, and last week the Taylors showed us the route. We took the Metro for a few stops, then had to walk, then pick up the trolley. We turned the wrong way outside of the metro and were briefly lost. We called the Taylors who were in St. Petersburg touring with some of their family who was here visiting from Rigby, Idaho! We think you need to go on each route at least three times with someone else before trying it on your own. Jason is doing a good job of navigating here, but it is such a huge city and the metro system can be very complicated. We think we are well on our way to learning how it works.

One blessing I had last week was the Elaine Crane, also one of the OGC attorneys, had an extra ticket to the symphony at Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. Elaine’s husband is the Area Mental Health Advisory here and he didn’t feel like going that night so she invited me. She helped find our apartment and get it furnished, and has been invaluable in showing us around in our neighborhood, and lives not to far from us in another high rise apartment. The concert featured a young violinist who was awesome and the program consisted of some Alexander Bouradin music as well as some Tchaikovsky music, and another composer. The written program and the commentator were all in Russian, but I certainly enjoyed the incredible music and the historic hall in which the orchestra performed. I was struck by how young the performers looked. It seems that in the US, many of our symphonies are from the older set. Not true here.

We received an email a few days ago with all of the cultural offerings going on here for the next three months. Every senior couple chooses which events they want to attend then there is a Russian woman named Martina in the office who helps us get reservations. There is so much going on here you can’t believe it! From the Bolshoi Ballet (about $400 per ticket) to smaller ballet companies doing Swan Lake, the Nutcracker, other regional dance groups, symphonies, soloists from US and other places, and The Vienna Choir Boys Christmas Concert which is scheduled for January. This is a very exciting place to be. This weekend was a holiday called “Moscow City” celebration which represents the founding of Moscow 870 years ago. We didn’t go into the center of downtown, which we were actually warned to stay away from, and didn’t see much going on in our area. But apparently there were celebrations all around with fireworks, etc.

Hope you enjoy this rundown of our first two weeks in Moscow. It is a remarkable experience with many great and service-oriented people. Learning to live in another country is challenging, but well worth the effort. We send our love to all, especially to our two oldest daughter’s families who are currently in the path of Hurricane Irma. We are praying always for them and you!