Becks in Siberia

Friday, September 6, 2013

Goodbye Russia

During our final week in Russia we decided to see a few cities in this huge country. We boarded the train in Novosibirsk on Monday, August 26th, and headed out on a 30 hour train ride to Irkutsk. This is the main city of the Lake Baikal area. We wanted to see this beautiful lake while we were in Russia. It is a huge lake that holds one fifth of all the fresh water in the world; it is the deepest lake in the world and it has unbelievably clear water. We were able to go out on the lake for a short boat ride and enjoy spending some time in a small village, called Listvyanka, on the shore of the lake. While we were in Irkutsk we also met a couple of the young missionaries that are serving there. They helped us out on a couple of issues and we were also able to enjoy a nice dinner with them.

After spending a couple of days in Irkutsk we flew to Sochi, the city in Russia that will be hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics. This is an area on the Black Sea that even has palm trees; YES, palm trees in Russia! We stayed in an area called Adler and we were able to travel up the canyon to the ski area that is being developed for the Olympics. There is a great deal of construction going on right now in preparation. We rode the gondola ski lift to the top of the mountain from the Rosa Khutor Resort (Russian: Роза Хутор), which is in an area called Krasnaya Polyana (Russian: Кра́сная Поля́на). This area is about an hour drive up the canyon by bus from Adler. On Sunday, we traveled to Sochi where we were able to attend church there; Sochi is about an hour north of Adler by bus or train. We enjoyed going to Sacrament Meeting there and meeting some of the members and the missionaries in Sochi.

After spending a couple of days in Sochi, we were able to visit St. Petersburg on our way to Moscow. We were only in St. Petersburg for one afternoon and evening; we were there because we booked a flight with a 19 hour layover route to Moscow. There are many beautiful buildings there and it is a comfortable city to visit. We had enough time to take a boat tour around some of the canals in the city and see several nice sites. We now realize that 19 hours is not enough time to spend in St. Petersburg.

What an amazing experience this past 6 months has been for us in Russia. We have grown to appreciate many things about this huge country. Most of all, we love the people of Russia; it is a country full of people that are courteous, generous, helpful and kind. We will greatly miss our little group of church members in Berdsk, the many wonderful friends and all the missionaries that we met while we were there. It was extremely hard saying goodbye to these dear people, knowing that we will likely not see many of them again. We hope and pray that we have, in some way, left a favorable impression about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which we represented. We dearly love this wonderful church; it has greatly blessed our lives. It has been an honor to represent the Savior and His church.

For anyone reading our blog who is not familiar with the church, here are links to some internet sites that will explain more about it:

English: www.mormon.org , www.lds.org
Russian: www.mormon.org/rus , www.latter-daysaints.ru

The Palmer's and Gundersen's sending us off.

The Trans-Siberian Railway

Irkutsk

On Lake Baikal

Going to church in Sochi

The Church on Spilt Blood - St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg

Irkutsk

Irkutsk Missionaries

Book of Mormon & Bible in hotel room in Irksusk

Eating Plove at Lake Baikal

The Black Sea near Sochi

Burger King in Russian

Rosa Khutor Resort

Ski area for the 2014 Olympics

Olympic Village under construction

Olympic Village in the distance

St. Petersburg canal tour

Welcome Home Poster on our garage

Sweet welcome home poster from family

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Our Final Week In Berdsk

Last week we spent our final days in Berdsk saying goodbye to many wonderful people. We have grown to love the people of Berdsk dearly. So many times we have come in contact with friendly people in this city. It is also interesting how many nice people we have met from a city south of Berdsk, called Iskitim, while we have been on the train going to Novosibirsk. It seems like almost every trip on the train we talk with someone from Iskitim and they have been very kind to us. This entire area has many very pleasant people. Last week was one with several tears shed saying goodbye to everyone :-(

Most of last week we were invited to lunch or dinner by our friends. I don't know if we have eaten so much in our lives. Also, we have grown to love the Russian food, except for maybe the horse meat :-) Many of our Russian friends love Laura's cooking also, especially the fine young missionaries here. I'm pretty sure they will miss the nice Sunday meals that we have had every Sunday. We had to carry on our Sunday tradition from home, having the family over every Sunday for a nice meal together. It was also a nice birthday week in Siberia last week. Lots of nice birthday wishes from family and friends at home and many good wishes from friends here.

This next week we will be working our way towards home seeing some of this huge country of Russia on our way :-)

T-Shirt Logo / Siberia Is Not A Resort :-)

Shouldn't have left the window open :-)

In the park in Berdsk

Berdsk Park

Novosibirsk at night

Talk-So-Phone Booth

Near a small grocery store with a friend

Wonderful dinner with friends

Old water tower ??

Meat shelf in the Rinok

Rain ALL summer - Don't ever remember seeing this road dry.

At our kind neighbor friends.

Saying goodbye to a couple of very nice ladies.

Birthday Cake

We are North - Satellite dishes show it.

One of our guard station friends.

Good times with the other senior couples.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Tear Filled Talks

This past Sunday was our final Sunday in Berdsk. The two of us were the speakers for our Sacrament Meeting. For those of you that know us very well, this won’t surprise you but they were tear filled talks. It is definitely hard saying goodbye to our dear friends here. It was wonderful having 19 people present at our little meeting in Berdsk.

More wonderful meals with our Russian friends was the story of last week. A young couple that we have become good friends with wanted to try the "famous" BBQ Turkey from back home; so after checking in several stores in Berdsk, we located some turkey breast meat and marinated it in the Sanpete County recipe. They also brought some trout with their own special recipe and we cooked it at the same time. Both the trout and the turkey were very tasty, “очень вкусно”! This couple also does wedding parties and they brought along some of the entertainment that they perform at weddings. We had a great evening with them and the young elders.

In the middle of the week the amazingly talented missionaries in the Novosibirsk mission put on a musical entertainment night. They performed around ten special musical numbers for a nice group of people at the branch building. Very, very enjoyable and boy can they perform!

Later in the week we were invited to the Mission Home for a nice dinner with President and Sister Gibbons and the other senior couples in Novosibirsk. What a wonderful cook Sister Gibbons is and we had a great time visiting with them and the other senior missionaries. We have become close to these great people. This has been such an unbelievably enjoyable experience; it’s hard to believe that currently there are only three senior couples serving in this entire mission, which is much larger in area geographically than the entire United States.

At the end of the week, we were invited to another delicious Russian meal at some very sweet friends ours. It is always enjoyable to visit with our friends here and learn more about Russia. This is a country rich in tradition and very interesting to learn more about. There is one thing for sure, you never leave hungry after a meal. They are so generous and kind. We will dearly miss our Russian friends. Thank goodness for the technology of our time, so that we can continue to communicate easily.