Becks in Siberia: English is a key…

This past week was filled with great experiences. A new friend of ours in Berdsk introduced us to a very sweet English teacher. We went to her school and office on three different days to talk to her students in English. On one of the days we stood in front of her college class (similar to high school seniors at home) for about two hours as they asked questions about us and about America. We had a great time speaking with them and look forward to meeting with them many more times. At the other times, we met in her small office with several students, some adults and some teenagers. They were somewhat shy but very pleasant. We look forward to many upcoming experiences volunteering in the schools and helping with English. The younger generation has a desire to learn it, but the older ones don’t speak it at all. It is very rare to find an older person who knows any English. We love the look on the kid’s faces when we start talking to them in English. Our Russian hasn’t improved much yet, and we seem to get a better reaction when we speak in English - Not always though :-)

We decided to have a party for our little church group here in Berdsk on Thursday. We had the three members and four who are not members attend, plus the two Elders and the two of us at the party. We watched a short video on the resurrection of the Savior and had a nice meal. Another one of our new friends in Berdsk, a sweet young lady in her mid-twenties, came to our apartment the day before and taught us how to make a common Russian food called Vereniki. Plus another dear young friend brought some of her mother’s Vereniki for us. It was a great meal. Laura made a yummy carrot cake also and a bunch of other goodies. To conclude the party, we played a couple of games from home that we have played with our family. One of the games was a game of elimination where you pick any animal you want and make an action and a sound similar to that animal. It was fun and very interesting to say the least. I think everyone had a great time. We surely did.

On Sunday for church we were able to have a couple of sister missionaries from Novosibirsk come and speak at our little group meeting. They came the night prior and stayed the night at our apartment. They did a great job and it was fun to get to know them. Right after our meeting we headed to Novosibirsk by Marshrutka. The mission president and his dear wife invited all of the missionaries in the area to the mission home for a nice Easter meal with them. It was a great get together and fun to visit with all the missionaries. In Russia they celebrate Easter on May 5th, so we get to celebrate Easter two times this year. There is a special greeting and reply in Russia for Easter that we absolutely love:

"Христос воскрес!" (Christ has risen!) "Воистину воскрес!" (Indeed, he has risen!)

Miracles happen – small and large. We have had multiple experiences that seem that the Lord’s hand has been guiding us. Just to mention one little one; last night after leaving the mission home, we got outside the mission home building with the Elders and they looked at their watch and said that we had 14 minutes to catch the train. We had several blocks to walk first and then catch the Metro (subway) to the train station and still buy tickets. Well, we stepped up our pace and got to the Metro. Hopped on and headed two stops away to the train station exit, ran up and out of the Metro to the train station. Purchased our four tickets and stepped through the gate as the front of the train was pulling in. Hopped on the train for our hour ride to Berdsk and as we got off of the train in Berdsk and walked to the road, there was the Marshrutka #13 waiting, empty, that goes right to our apartment. It was 10 or 15 minutes after 9pm at that time and in the past they rarely go to our apartment location after 9pm.

This blog is getting kind of long, so for now we will defer sharing some of our other experiences until a later blog. Many interesting experiences of meeting people…