They come and they go

The experiences of last week included an enjoyable evening spent with Elder Dennis B. Neuenschwander, who is an emeritus general authority of the church and is now serving as a patriarch for the Russia missions. We were invited to dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant in Novosibirsk with him and the Palmer's, another senior couple in our mission. It was a very enjoyable experience visiting with them.

Another opportunity of that day was to go to the large main train station in Novosibirsk and try to figure out how to purchase long distance train tickets on our own. Yes, it was an experience to be remembered but when it was all over, it was a success! At least it appears to look correct as far as we can read Russian :-) We purchased tickets for the train to travel to a city called, Irkutsk, which is near a huge lake called Lake Baikal. We decided to visit this area at the conclusion of our mission on our journey home.

One thing that is definitely constant in our mission is change... It became time for another change in our Berdsk area and Elder Stoneking was assigned to serve in the city of Krasnoyarsk. We had a nice little going away gathering for our departing elder on Tuesday evening at our apartment and several people came to say goodbye and enjoy some tasty homemade cake. Everyone here loves Laura's cooking :-) We will miss our Elder Stoneking. He is a fine missionary and served the people of Berdsk well.

We received a new elder in Berdsk to serve with Elder Evans. Our newest "missionary son" is now Elder Betteridge. He has been serving in a city several hours south of us called Barnaul. Barnaul is near an area of Russia that is very popular, called Altai. Altai is a mountainous region that many people from Berdsk travel to for recreation. Elder Betteridge's family lives in the state of Washington. He will be serving with us until we leave and we are excited to get to know him. He spoke to our little group on Sunday and did a great job. He also plays the Cello, which he brought along. He played a very nice number for our group on Sunday also.

We traveled to Novosibirsk on Friday for our regular district meeting at the Palmer's apartment. The meeting was uplifting, as always. Afterwards, we went with the Palmer's into the downtown area of Novosibirsk and visited a nice little Orthodox church building, located right between two lanes of traffic. Then we went to a market place called a "Rinok", which has a bit of everything to buy. Laura was soooo happy to find a couple of new blouses. To top off the day, we had another enjoyable train ride back to Berdsk with opportunities to visit with more of the wonderful people of this area.

On Saturday, we met the Palmer's in a city called Akademgorodok which is between Berdsk and Novosibirsk. There is a nice train museum in that city; which we visited and enjoyed with them. We then walked into the city and went to a restaurant that we had found on a prior visit, that has tasty "Shashlik". It was an enjoyable day visiting with the Palmer's. They have become great friends of ours.

Novosibirsk Train Station

Trip home from the grocery store

It's five-o'clock somewhere :-)

Small cathedral between lanes of traffic

Checking out the cathedral

We found the MTC in Russia :-)

At one of the Metro stops

Mission Home is in the distant blue building

Buildings where the Mission Office and Branch are located

The Elders with our good friend Michail

A very sweet lady that has been attending

Good-bye get together for Elder Stoneking

Elder Betteridge and Elder Evans

The Conductor :-)

A Siberian snow blower

This is what you call a real snowplow!

Conductor changed trains :-)

Entrance to the train museum