Singin' in the Rain

Last week we had another couple of trips to Novosibirsk along with meeting many sweet people and some service projects.  Many of the missionaries in Novosibirsk along with those of us from Berdsk were asked to sing at a care center for seniors last week. We enjoyed visiting and singing for them. They were very humble and appreciative towards us.

Last week one of our dear members here in Berdsk was hospitalized all week for a bad case of what appeared to us to be Shingles. He was a very ill man and it hurt us to see him so sick. He teaches our Sunday School lesson each week and what a sweet, humble man he is. We hope and pray that he will be able to return to us soon.

For our Sunday meetings we had a member of the Branch Presidency from Novosibirsk come and speak to us. He is native to Russia and served a mission a few years ago in the Sumara, Russia Mission. It was interesting to us, while talking after our meeting, to find out that he served his mission with our language tutor from the MTC that we became good friends with. They know each other quite well and still communicate with each other. Small world!

An interesting coincidence, if you want to call it that, happened at the train station in Novosibirsk. After leaving the senior center where we sang, the four of us from Berdsk just missed the Metro subway that all of the other missionaries boarded; that put us delayed just enough to miss a train back to Berdsk. While standing and waiting for the next train for us to board, Laura looked at the person standing about two feet in front of us and said: Hay, we know that guy. It just so happened to be our friend, an older gentleman, we met on the train a month ago. He is the man that we posted a picture of on our April 29th blog. We were all able to sit together for the hour long train ride back to Berdsk and talk. He is very musically inclined and he hit it off real well with our elders, as Elder Stoneking is amazingly talented on the piano. He agreed to come to our apartment this next week and bring his accordion and play for us. He was also excited to take a Book of Mormon with him when he left. He has a real pleasantness about him.

We also met another new friend here in Berdsk that speaks English extremely well, which is very unusual. He is also very knowledgeable about America. He is very proud to be Russian but has great admiration for the United States. In the short time that we have known him, he has been very helpful to us. It is interesting how he came along at the perfect time, as our sweet young lady that has helped us so much just left last week to work in Texas for the summer. She won’t return to Russia until after we are home. We will miss her.

It has been said that you can tell when spring has arrived in Siberia... The people unzip their coats. Yay, we have now experienced spring. People started unzipping their coats last week!

Elder Stoneking and Sister Brown singing for the seniors

All of us singing

The seniors being entertained

The electric train station in Berdsk that we have become very familiar with

In front of the Theater in Novosibirsk

Countdown to the Olympics in Sochi

Another view of the Novosibirsk Theater

Singin' in the Rain...

Visiting our dear friend in the hospital

Doing a service project and having lunch at a friends

The moon coming up at 10:30 at night

Our visitor from the Branch Presidency along with our newest member 

This is where you put your bags when you enter the grocery store

Look what we saw near our apartment in Berdsk

Tasty Treats

While we've been here it has been challenging to find many of the same food items that we are used to back home. Well, this week we received a care package from our children at home that we had been anxiously waiting for. They sent us many of the items that we had been mentioning to them that we could not find or that just weren't available. It took a month and a half to arrive but was sure fun to get.

Another interesting experience we had was the recognition of a Russian word that we did not know. The name on a nice looking package of meat that we have been eating was конина (konina, the "н" sounds like "n" and the "и" sounds like "i"/"ee"). It had a picture of a bull on it and we just assumed it was similar to meat at home. Much of our shopping in the grocery store is by looking at the pictures on the packages. Well, we should have been more diligent at translating the words. During the week Laura was looking at the package and decided to translate the word on Google Translate. It just so happens that конина = HORSEMEAT and we have been eating it for we don’t know how long… Actually it didn’t taste that bad but Laura has a rough time even thinking about it… (Maybe if we whisper that word in the ear of our horse that gave us all the grief a couple years ago it will act better :-)

Our dear elder that we have grown to love so much left us and went to Omsk last week. Everyone here in Berdsk that knew Elder Bunnell absolutely loved him. He will be dearly missed. We received a brand new elder fresh from the MTC during the week. His name is Elder Evans and he is from Provo. He is a very nice young man and will be trained by our other elder here in Berdsk, Elder Stoneking. These are two wonderful young men that are very dedicated and very obedient. We enjoy working closely with the young elders.

We had the pleasure of having two of the sister missionaries from Novosibirsk come to our apartment (better known as a “Flat” here) and spend the weekend. They went with us to one of our member’s homes and had a nice visit and then they stayed over and spoke in our meeting on Sunday. We had a nice time talking with them and having them sing for us. What very special people all these young missionaries are in our mission.

It was our week to have our district meeting here in Berdsk. On the third Friday of each month the missionaries in our district from Novosibirsk come to our apartment for planning meetings and a nice meal. It’s always fun to be with them and feel of their enthusiasm. We also love to hear the hymns sung by them in Russian. We kind of move our lips and try to follow along…

Haven’t had a day this past week that didn’t require a coat. Still waiting for it to warm up! (But they say it’s coming :-)

Care package from home :-)

New meaning to "a picture's worth a thousand words"

Elder Stoneking and Elder Bunnell Teaching in our apartment

Starting to green up...

District meeting in Berdsk

Our "Flat"

Sister Brown singing to us

A nice meal of Borsch at one of our members named Tatiana

One of our Russian friends drew this map that we got a kick out of.
With all the potholes here, he was describing sober and drunk drivers in our two countries :-)

Mixed Emotions

This was a week of mixed emotions. We found out during Zone Conference, in the middle of the week, that one of our Elders in Berdsk, Elder Bunnell, will be leaving us and going to another city in Russia. We have become very close to this fine young man. We call him one of our son’s. He will be missed dearly in Berdsk, as he has developed many wonderful friendships. We will be receiving a brand new Elder here in Berdsk, fresh from the MTC. We truly enjoy becoming close to these wonderful young missionaries.

On Tuesday, we traveled to Novosibirsk and went to dinner with the other senior couples that evening. It was nice to get together with these fine people.  Then, on Wednesday, we enjoyed a full day of meetings in Novosibirsk at Zone Conference. We also enjoy the train rides to and from. It is always fun to look for someone to sit by and talk with. This trip was no exception. We sat by a nice Babushka going to Novo and a sweet young lady coming back. It is always fun to start talking to them about their family and then show them pictures from back home. We actually look forward to our train rides and our rides on the marshrutkas.

We also had an opportunity during the week to go help one of our members in Berdsk with a fence that she needs built. Tools and materials are a challenge but the reward of helping this dear lady and her daughter are well worth it. We also think that she is probably one of the best cooks in Berdsk, though she cooks all her meals on a wood/coal burning stove.

May 9th was one of Russia’s holidays with parades and fireworks. It is called Victory Day, celebrating the end of World War II. It is a large celebration that would be somewhat similar to our 4th of July.

On Sunday the family that we have become close friends with came to the meetings at our apartment. We had a full house with three of our members, five investigators and the four missionaries. Our living room was full. It was a nice feeling to have that many here. We are in the process of finding a place that we can lease to hold our meetings in. Hopefully that will materialize soon.

We are still waiting for it to warm up. All the Siberian people are still wearing coats and scarfs. We have had two days so far that we didn't need to wear a coat. Guess that’s the norm for Siberia. We did hear that the summers do warm up nicely though.

Cutting posts for our fence project

The fencing project begins

May 9th - Victory Day fireworks - From our apartment

Getting ready for our Zone Conference picture

Our Elders helping with a push start

A family in Berdsk that we have become good friends with

Showing pictures of home to a nice Babushka on the train

Billboard in Berdsk, saying Christ is Risen

Христос воскрес! Воистину воскрес!

Yes, this past Sunday was Easter Sunday in Russia. The reason that it is on a different date is because in some countries where the predominant religion is Orthodox Christian they base their Easter date on the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian calendar, so the dates for Easter are different most of the time.

We had a very nice Easter with our group here in Berdsk. After our meetings, which we are still holding in our apartment, we had Easter treats. Many of our members brought some type of goodie to eat after, plus boiled eggs. A Russian tradition is for two people to each take a boiled egg and say the Easter greeting three times trading their eggs and then hit them together to see which one breaks. The one whose egg doesn't break is the winner. Everyone had an enjoyable time and it was fun to experience that Russian tradition.

The Easter greeting in all of Russia is for one person to say:
"Христос воскрес!" Pronounced: khris-tOs vas-krYEs
Meaning: (Christ has risen!)

Followed by a reply from another person with:
"Воистину воскрес!" Pronounced: va-Ist-in-oo vas-krYEs
Meaning: (Truly he has risen!)

We loved it when we first heard about this traditional saying and it was even better to experience it!

We had another week full of meetings with investigators and friends in our apartment. The special family that we have met came over again; and we had several friends that we have met while here come and visit us. Our neighbor, in the apartment next to ours, even took us for a drive around Berdsk in his car and gave us a tour.

People here are so nice to us. It seems that when anyone comes to visit, they bring food. It appears to be a Russian custom to do so. We are definitely enjoying the hospitality of our dear Russian friends.

We had an opportunity to go to the home of one of the church members here in Berdsk and begin a service project. We hope to help her build a fence and do a few other fix-ups over the next few weeks. She is so sweet to us and is always bringing food or making a meal for us.

We are still working on getting a place to hold our meetings. There seems to be a lot of red tape and we have had several highs and lows regarding this issue. We are sure it will all work out soon. In the meantime, we are enjoying holding the meetings in the living room of our apartment.

On a happy/sad note, one of our dear friends here in Berdsk is leaving us in a couple of weeks. The happy part is, she is going to America for the summer to work. The sad part is, she will be gone until after we return home. She has been very, very helpful to us while we have been here. She is the young lady that we met on one of our first train rides after we arrived. She has been our contact to arrange our English class experiences, which we have enjoyed very much.

Easter Sunday treats that everyone brought

Food after our Easter Sunday meeting

Russian Easter tradition cracking eggs

Everyone participated in the egg cracking

Look what picture we found in Russia for our wall !

One of our young friends - Sweet girl

Nice meal after our service project

"XB"   Христос Воскрес!  Воистину Воскрес!

Our elders on the service project

You can still see ice on the main body of the lake

The last of the snow by the building next to our apartment