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.

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.

Cooking turkey on a Shashlik grill - Works Great

BBQ Turkey "Sanpete/Utah" Recipe

Look what Sister Beck found in Berdsk

The little vegetable stand very near our apartment

Three sweet sisters and their scarves

Another cathedral on the road to Novosibirsk

Sushi lunch with a couple of our young friends

Musical entertainment night by the missionaries

Trans-Siberian Railway treat made by Sister Palmer - We leave on the train

Looking down on gardens in the middle of Novosibirsk

A Novosibirsk Landmark

An evening at the Mission Home

Great Food & Great Friends

очень очень вкусная еда

Fun movie poster

Elder Berg and Elder Nelson teaching in our apartment

After meetings on our last Sunday here

Oh how we will miss our friends

"дядя лоня" - Our elderly buddy we like to visit with at Izumrudny

Dessert after a nice Sunday meal

Lots of Food – Lots of Rain

Another week of rain... A day without rain in Siberia is very unusual this year! There have been very few days when we haven’t packed an umbrella. Even the locals say that this is a very rainy summer. We are kind of wondering... what summer??  There is one thing different about the rain storms here compared to those in Utah; at least there is not wind to go along with it.

We have had lots and lots of dinner invitations recently. The people here are most kind and generous to us. We love the Russian meals that we have been invited to and the visiting with our dear friends is even better. On one evening last week, we were invited to dinner at a family’s apartment that is on the same floor as our apartment in Izumrudny. The father was in the Russian military and used to fly Mig fighter jets. It was very fun getting to know this sweet family.

We enjoyed having two very fine Elders, Elder McKay and Elder Brinton, the Assistants to the President, come to Berdsk and speak at our meeting on Sunday. They did a great job and we also enjoyed visiting with them at our apartment over a nice Sunday meal. Our Sundays here in Berdsk are counting down :-(  Next week will be the final Sunday for the two of us in Berdsk. The last Sunday that we are here in Siberia there is a special meeting in Novosibirsk with President Lawrence, so we will not be having any meetings in Berdsk that day. President Lawrence is the Eastern European Area President.

District Meeting - No one wears shoes in the houses in Russia

Just another day in Siberia

Very common sight from our apartment

Statue of Lenin in the downtown area of Berdsk

Our neighbors in Izumrudny

Friends we met through the English class visiting us

A nice meal with a very kind family

Russian Mig helmet

Walking through a small city near Berdsk. Yellow pipes carry gas.

NO, you press the button  :-)

Looking out over the Ob Sea

Elder Brinton and Elder McKay - Assistants to the Mission President

After a nice meal at the house of a friend that we met on a Marshrutka