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 :-)