Sept 17-24 2017

On Sunday, Sept. 17, I played the piano at our International Ward for all three meetings: Sacrament Meeting, Primary, and Relief Society. There are no real pianos in our building, but they use keyboards. Two of the music sisters had attended the Mission President’s Seminar in Georgia, Russia (not USA!) the week prior with their husbands picked up an intestinal bug while there, so they couldn’t make it to church.

 Due to the cut backs at the US Embassy ever since Pres. Trump closed the Russian Embassy in San Francisco, many of the Church members who worked there have gone back to the US and the numbers at our International Ward have shrunk. As I mentioned previously we have some Senior Couples in our ward, a few Russian, some families here with the US Embassy, OGC workers, Philippine women who are members and work as housecleaners and send their income home to their families (just like they do in Hong Kong, as we learned when we went to visit Larry and Lynda there), and some African members and investigators from Ghana. We are really enjoying church! It is about a 45-50-minute ride on the Metro to get there, with a few short walks included.

We got invited to the Burtons apartment for Sunday dinner, which was yummy Angus Beef cooked in the crockpot for several hours, on Russian Rolls, with Confetti Corn (yummy—I got the recipe and you will want it, I promise!), Green salad and Torpedo Melon—it’s a light-colored fruit shaped like an oval with texture kind of like watermelon. I made my first batch of Banana Bread here and took it for dessert. It turned out OK considering I don’t have vanilla here. Elder and Sister Burton live on the very top of one of the tall towers in a nice area, not too far from where we are, but on the other side of our work office. Their apartment is brand new and very modern. It rained a bit on our way home and we had to use our umbrella for one of the first times yet.

Monday, Sept. 18 we had a meeting with Arlen where he explained more about our roles in OGC. He wants me to be like a legal assistant to Jason, which so far means getting familiar with InfoGuide, our legal data base. Also, I have been assigned to put together some information on how senior couples can better transition into this Mission for the OGC. Elder and Sister Harris are arriving in early December, and I have been assigned to be their tour guide and support while they transition to the country in those first few days/weeks.  We thought we were the “New Kids on the Block” because we have been here a month now, but no, we are now “Old Timers”!

Jason and I found some lunch at the nearby Vegas Mall food court. We ate at a Middle Eastern buffet restaurant where I got something that looked like cheese pizza and a yummy salad, made of cucumber, tomato, onion—those are very popular here.  Jason had fish which they have in abundance here.

At Senior Council on Tuesday, Sept. 19, we welcomed another new couple in—Elder and Sister Perry, from the Tri-Cities area of Washington State. They are from Kennewick and will be working as Humanitarian Volunteers. 

I was called to serve as Primary Pianist, via an email from our Bishop Backman. I had not actually met him yet, and he apologized for using email, but that’s just the way things work better here in Moscow. Since I’m already a set-apart volunteer, I was just called and sustained, but won’t’ be set apart.

Our OGC compatriot, Eileen Crane, travelled to England for a week with her husband who is the Area Mental Health Advisor. He had a conference there and we babysat Eileen’s blue goldfish named “Baby Cosmo”, for all you BYU fans out there. We managed to keep the fish alive. The Cranes travel practically every weekend and that has been the tradition of some of the Senior Couples. I think they are travelling to St. Petersburg this coming weekend.  I have overheard other couples talking about going to Denmark and Sweden. We will be going to Helsinki, Finland for our visa trip, which I think I mentioned earlier how we must leave the country every 90 days to renew our Visas. We are looking forward to going about Nov. 20 and will be able to attend the temple there which will be a wonderful opportunity.

Sister Eileen Crane travelled with her husband Russ to England since Br. Crane had a conference there. One of their children and the family met them there and they spent a week enjoying one of their favorite places. The Cranes have travelled extensively and since she has joined the OGC  here, they have travelled practically every weekend. We babysat their goldfish named “Baby Cosmo” while they were gone. 

We are learning to dress “Russian”, which in my mind means adapting to the weather conditions outside. It’s surprising that even yet, it’s not that cold so I’ve been wearing a top and skirt, with a jacket or cardigan. Adding a scarf can help one be warmer on cooler days. The Russian women wear lots of scarves, which for the moment are not winter scarves but just beautiful silk or cotton scarves with all kinds of prints and designs. I like to watch them on the Metro and check out their fashion statements. Many of the younger set are very well dressed. And the young men all wear t-shirts with US Logos on them as well as Nike and Adidas shoes, backpacks, etc.  There is a bit of a wind tunnel right when we get off the Metro, so my hair gets totally windblown then. I found that a scarf works well to keep my hair back. As it gets colder I have a medium weight jacket with a hood that I bought at Costco back home.

Last Thursday Jason and I left the office after lunch to go to the European Medical Center to get the first injection of Eylea here in Russia from my female, 41-yr old Doc named Dr. Boschat, a beautiful young, tall lady. This is my second appointment with her. There is never a line of patients to be seen here. You never have to wait. I was in and out in 15 minutes. She numbed my right eye, then moved me to a different room and had me wash my face and all the makeup off and put on a hairnet. Then she put more drops in for numbing. Back home Dr. Baynham used drops then a needle to numb my right eye. Then she had me lay down on a table, whereas back home, I would just sit up. She used some kind of support to keep her arms steady, which Dr. B. does not, and she used a much sturdier spring/piece of equipment to prop my eye open. Dr. Hansen, our Area Med. Dr. wanted to come in to observe my injection, so both he and Jason were in the room. They both said I twitched during the procedure and I did cuz it hurt! I think she needs to numb me a bit more next time. She gave me antibiotic cream to put on my eye for three days following the treatment, and told me not to swim, or get in the sauna. I was not warned of these things in the US. The Clinic here is very clean, but maybe the general environment in Russia is not as clean as the US. I was curious about all the cleaning/antibiotlic stuff. I go next week for follow up. It takes about 30 minutes to get there plus a good walk, and that’s about average for most places around here.

Arlen left for Utah and General Conference last Friday and will be gone about two weeks His wife Debi was excited to see all of their children who live between Southern Cal. and Arizona. The word in our OGC office is that’s when the crises happen when Arlen leaves. Sister Limb is travelling by herself to go to Idaho/Utah where one of her daughters is having a baby next week. She’ll be gone about two weeks. I’m amazed at the travelling these Senior Couples do depending on their assignments, Visa Trips, and pleasure trips: Rega, Latvia; Helsinki, Finland’ Talin, Estonia, Georgia, Armenia, Istanbul, England, etc..  Our friends the Cooks who also live in our building are hoping to go to Denmark and Sweden since she has some ancestors from there.

Last Saturday we went into Red Square and ended up touring all day on the Hop On Hop Off Bus. They have three tours included: red (which is downtown Moscow), green (a two hour tour further out from the city) and a boat tour. We went on all three that day and had a blast. It gave us more a feeling of the layout of the city. We met a young couple on the boat who spoke English and really enjoyed that experience—he was a tall blonde engineer from Germany and she was a beautiful Chinese girl who now lives in Vlad. where Hannah served, but is preparing to become a stewardess for Aeroflot. She speaks Chinese, English and Russian. He speaks German and English. She was helpful in telling us about some excellent places to see and restaurants to eat at. They recommended one called “Wild Meat” which was a Siberian restaurant where they ate deer and other interesting food.

I have been branching out and have travelled a bit alone on the Metro and have done a little shopping close to the office. I went to a store like Home Depot and bought a desk  lamp for our apartment. It’s sometimes hard to find an English-speaking clerk, but you learn to use sign language, a smile, and some animation to get your message across.

Jason is really getting involved in the legal work since the Burtons are leaving soon. They have delegated a lot to him. I have done some data entry on the legal matters and helped Jason with these contracts he’s creating for three countries. He has been having some heel pain, like Plantar Fasciitis, so we bought him some gel inserts.  He will have to tell you about his visit to the US Embassy last night on a special work assignment.

We find the news interesting that Huntsman was approved as the Ambassador to Russia, that Elder Hales and Pres. Monson won’t be at conference. We’ll be able to get conference on WIFI this weekend at crazy hours, but will watch it at times that are more convenient. The Senior Sisters are getting together Saturday to discuss the Women’s Meeting talks and have food too. They men are going to meet and “play” while we discuss.

We are getting ready to leave the office two hours early today to go on a special visit to Sokol, an area where the Church has a building(s). Life here is very interesting and I’m loving it!

Hope you all get to enjoy your conference weekend!

Hugs,

Mom/Pam