Last week was a very busy and fun week for us here in Siberia. First of all, we celebrated our 37th anniversary. We were able to speak with most of our children back home on Skype and visit. Skype and Facetime have been a real joy to be able to stay in close contact with our family.
We visited a very large and nice zoo in Novosibirsk with the Palmer’s, one of the other senior couples in our mission area. It is in a beautiful area in the middle of a large pine forest. The Novosibirsk Zoo happens to have a Liger, a cross between a lion and a tiger. We happened to show up the day after they let new cubs from the Liger out in the cage. It was an enjoyable visit to the zoo with good company.
On the morning of June 19th, just past 6am, we both were awakened by an earthquake. We are living on the 6th floor of an apartment building, so we felt it quite well. Our bed was shaking back and forth for what it felt like several seconds. It ended up being a 5.3 earthquake several miles to the East of us. It was kind of exciting for a bit. Laura was nervous and wondering what to do. It was actually quite interesting.
On Friday of last week, we had the district meeting at our apartment in Berdsk for all the missionaries in our district. Laura made a nice big meal to feed 19 people. She also made a batch of homemade cookies for the companionship that made the most contacts during the prior week. The assistants to the president won that contest quite handily. They said they enjoyed her cookies very much :-)
On Saturday, we had a little party in the park area of изумрудный (Izumrudnyy, which means emerald), which is the area of Berdsk where we are living. We had several of the members and some of our friends come and enjoy a popular Russian summertime BBQ, called шашлык (shashlyk, kind of like shish kebab). It was tasty!
Sunday was a great day for us in Berdsk. We had President Gibbons and Sister Gibbons visit our group and speak in our sacrament meeting. We had all of the active members of our group attend plus a member that lives in Akademgorodok, which is a city located between Novosibirsk and Berdsk. We enjoyed a nice meal after our meetings with the Berdsk missionaries and President and Sister Gibbons. It was a busy week with lots of cooking...
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| The entrance to the Novosibirsk Zoo |
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| Great day at the zoo |
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| The Liger |
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| "That's for the birds" |
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| Two fine elders with us at the end of their mission, soon heading home |
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| Summertime view of the Russian Orthodox cathedral in Berdsk |
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| Interesting architecture |
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| The party outside of our apartment |
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| Cooking шашлык (Shashlyk) |
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