Secret Santa

Something quite lovely happened the end of December when 3 large boxes arrived in the office from America. The boxes, sent by a Secret Santa, were filled with Christmas stockings which were filled with wonderful treats for 20 missionaries. I was the lucky one, who with President Sorenson, chose the 20 missionaries who would receive these stockings from America. We made sure that each of our Russian missionaries received one and it was not easy deciding who would get the others. All of our missionaries are so wonderful!

The lovely lady from America who put these stockings together has a missionary here in the field and wanted to share with those who might not otherwise get much for Christmas.

Yes, Virginia, there IS a Santa and he showed up in Moscow Russia and brought a smile to some of our precious missionaries.

Uneventful weeks

I haven't posted, because life here has been uneventful for the past couple of weeks. It has been very cold and our weeks have been busy and when the weekend comes, we just want to stay put. We don't have any desire to go out and so sightseeing when it is so cold and it just feels good to have time to relax at home. Even though that does include grocery shopping, cleaning and ironing.

We welcomed a new couple to our mission. Elder and Sister B are wonderful. They are going to be serving in Voronezh, the farthest city away right now where we have missionaries. They have been helping us here in the office while they wait to go down to take over for Elder and Sister C who return home on Valentine's Day.

The B's have been wonderful in helping us in the office get caught up on things we haven't had a chance to do. Exciting things.....like sorting through 4 first aid kits and consolidating them into one large one. It's nice to have it available in case sick missionaries come into the office. Things like cleaning out drawers with old records that needed to be destroyed.  They have also been wonderful about taking care of the mail for me for the past week and a half. It's a process and my time was freed up to get caught up on a few other important projects.

The need for senior missionaries is great. Our young missionaries do so much better if there is a senior couple close by. We currently have a few cities that don't have a couple. :0(.

Until later, dos vidonya.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Happy birthday!!

Dave was grinning from ear to ear when he came home from the office tonight despite the cold temps. I asked him what was up.  When Dave was coming around the side of the apartment building, Santa Claus was walking in front of him. They both came into the apartment building together. They got on the same elevator. Dave was surprised when Santa got off on the 10th floor with him. Immediately, Santa started talking to him in Russian and Dave made it clear that he couldn't speak Russian very well. Santa broke into song, Happy birthday to you in English and then sang it in Russian. He indicated that he was going to a birthday party in the building and kept singing Happy Birthday in Russian. Then Santa pulled out his cell phone and wanted Dave to take a picture of the two of them together!  It came out good. Santa was pleased. Then Santa said he was going to apartment 162 (Dave understood what he was saying.) The Santa costume was very beautiful and his hat was typical of Russian St. Nicholas. His beard was not real, but very nice. Dave wished he had his camera. So do I. It's not every day you get to meet a Russian Santa on the elevator on his way to a birthday party! ESPECIALLY in January!

"Thank you."

There is a very attractive woman at church who sits with her daughter and little granddaughters every week. She is quite outspoken and keeps things lively in Relief Society meetings (women's meeting). She has never spoken to me before. Today she said "good morning." Later she approached and using one of our sister missionaries to help her translate even though she does have some English), thanked Dave and I for our service as missionaries and wanted to know how long we are going to be there (8 more months).
I've stated before that we don't participate much in our ward because of the language barrier. David can sing many of the hymns in Russian now, but we have not been asked to give talks or asked our opinions in class which we could do with some translating help from our missionaries). However, we have established some friendships and feel welcomed and comfortable in our ward. We love our ward. We love the people.
Yesterday Tyeeceeah one of our 80-something babushkas saw me and stood and waited for me to come over and give her her hug. She doesn't call me Sister Sutton. She calles me Bar-Bar-ah and kisses me on the cheek. Luba, who's mother Maria is the 90 year old babushka that I love, and I have become friends FINALLY. Maria doesn't come anymore, due to health issues, but I am able to communicate with Luba through sign language and a few Russian words, and it works.
Many of the wonderful women I greet I still don't have names for, but as stated we both LOVE our ward. David has established relationships as well with a f ew of the fine men in the ward. We love our bishop, Bishop Mocholov. He is a fine man and we love that he speaks English!
But those words, Thank you, today, from a new friend, who is yet nameless, made my day.

SLIPPERY

When it's zero and snowing and there's snow packed ground beneath you, one would expet it to be slippery. Well, on the way to church yesterday, no problem. Sidewalks were clear. HOWEVER, when we got on the #10 bus  at Z-grad to go to our bus stop for Church, we certainly did not expect an ice skating rink on the bus. It was a slippery mess. We sat down in the first available seats and I helped a babuska (by lending her a hand literally) as she went sliding by). A man sat down facing us and he noticed me watching the people boarding the bus and then watching how they handled the icy floor and smiled and he started talking up a storm. We smiled and nodded as he went on and on. I wonder if he figured out we didn't understand a word he was saying. we did understand the gist of what he was saying though).

A little sign language goes a long way.

Choot choot Rooseeya  means little Russian. Our mission driver Alexander is wonderful but he knows little English and I know little Russian. He came into the office today just as I was wrapping things up for the day. I recognized that he was getting ready to go and REALLY wanted a ride home. So I quickly started my boots on. (as a hint of course). He had started heading down the stairs but glanced up and saw me putting on my boots. He asked a question (which I thought said are you going home?) I said da (yes). He said something else I didn't understand (which I thought meant, I'll give you a ride home). I said ha ra show Spah see buh. which means good. thank you. He then said something else which I assumed meant I'll meet you downstairs. I shook my head and said spah see buh again. I got my coat on quickly, met him down at the van and hopped in. He knows the way to our apartment. It is only about a mile to the apartment, but I was carrying a big bag and it was cold so I thought to myself a ride would be really nice! I  asked him "zhenah?" which means wife. He pointed to his throat and I said "Oozhis?" which means awful? He responded da. So, with just a few words and some sign language, I got a ride home, learned that he was fine, but his wife was sick with a sore throat.  Not bad for a 3 minute ride. Dos vidonya.

SNOWVEM GODEM!!

HO HO HO, MERRY CHRISTMAS! Or should I say Snowvem Godem! Today, January 7th, is Russian Christmas. How fitting that we would be able to come home from the office and open the Christmas gift that our daughter Shauna, Jeff, and Kyler sent us.  Thank you Jeff and Shauna for the great gifts and the graham crackers! Can never have too many graham crackers! (we didn't have any). Once again, when it got dark, we heard popping sounds outside the window and we were treated to yet another fireworks display. It's been going on every day since New Year's Eve.

On our way to the office today, we passed a couple. I said "snowvem godem". She looked very surprised and didn't respond, but Dave said he saw her smile. I didn't see the man's response.

We've enjoyed a respite in the weather, with milder temps in the high 20's and low 30's. It has been delightful. Tomorrow, temps are going to plunge again.

May the new year bring you joy, love and a renewed appreciation for the gift of family. DosVidonya!