Testimony

---

This week we were involved in a lot of Russian culture.

For those reading our blog who are not LDS, the first Sunday of each month is "Fast and Testimony Meeting." We come to church fasting for 24 hours and donate what we would have spent on the food to the church for humanitarian efforts locally and world-wide. The church meeting is different in that there are no assigned speakers. Anyone who wishes may stand up and bear testimony. So we did that--in Russian! Sue had written hers out ahead of time and had her MTC Russian tutor correct the grammar. Ken wrote his out in the few minutes during the meeting. His was very short... Sue had someone afterwards tell her he could understand her. That's progress.

After church the teen-age boys pulled out this 

table-top game. When we saw them carrying it 

down the hall, we assumed it was Fusball-- that's 

what the boys in US and Germany play. But 

when we looked closely, we realized  it was a 

hockey game! Russians do love their hockey.

Peter Giles in Palo Alto taught a Sunday School lesson about keeping the Sabbath and sent out some questions to the ward email list (which we receive) about how we honor the Sabbath Day. This was Sue's response to him:

We just got home from church--being 10 hours ahead of you.  We had the same lesson in Sunday School today in St. Petersburg. I understand almost no Russian. At this point I pick up a few pronouns and prepositions. The last two weeks we had translation, but today I stopped doing that, because I need to learn to hear the Russian or I'll never learn it.

So I sat in Sacrament meeting understanding almost nothing, and yet feeling the Spirit so strongly of people bearing their testimonies.  I could feel the love they have for the Gospel.

Then I went to Sunday School class. Things are a little better there because I have the lesson manual in English on my phone.

I read the quote by President Kimball, about going to church to worship, rather than to be taught or entertained, and I realized how true his words are because of the experience I'd just had in Fast and Testimony meeting.   What I get out of meetings depends more on me--my preparation and my attitude--than on what I hear.

May 8th and 9th in Russia are like Memorial Day and 4th of July all rolled into one. We had the experience of sharing in these days of remembrance for events both happy and sad.

Mother Russia

The Piskarevsky Cemetery in St. Petersburg is the military cemetery and burial site for almost 1 million people. Close to 500,000 of them died during the 880-day Siege of Leningrad from 1941-1944. (St. Petersburg was named Leningrad from 1918 to 1993).   So many died so quickly that there was not time nor space to bury them individually.  The cemetery has 100+ large mounds that are mass graves. It's a solemn and sacred place for Russia, dominated by the large statue of Mother Russia. All the religious communities in the city are invited to come and bring flowers to lay around the base of the statue in honor of those 27 million Russians who died during "The Great Patriotic War" known to us as World War II.  In contrast, Germany lost about 7 million, Japan about 3 million, France about 600,000 and US about 400,000.  

Soldiers at attention lined the path of the
procession as we passed the eternal flame.

It was a long and solemn procession.  We were following groups of Russian Orthodox, Jews, and Buddhists. Some groups carried large wreaths or flower arrangements. Many individuals brought red carnations.

The procession was down this long path, flanked by the green expanses of the burial mounds.   You can barely see the Mother Russia statue at the far end. There are three or four more rows of identical mounds behind this original row.  Each has a year and a number. There are some records of those who are buried in each mound, but there are many, many more people who died in Leningrad and whose burial site is unknown.

The LDS group in the procession: Mission President
Larry Childs and Aleksey Chudinov from the
 St. Petersburg Stake are carrying the flowers.

As we approached the monument, music played and all of the attendant groups were announced. 

Part of the LDS Group at the base of Mother Russia statue

Ken took all of these pictures, and Aleksey Chudinov wrote an article about this that was published on the LDS church website for Russia:  mormonnews.ru.  [If you open this link with a Chrome browser it will ask if you want it translated, or you can right-click on the page and request translation.] Ken also made a short video of the event, which is linked here:  Piskarevsky Cemetery Procession

After the ceremony at the cemetery, it was time to start our own private party. May 8th and 9th are major holidays in Russia, but May 8th is also Sue's birthday, and May 9th is Elder Devol's birthday.  He is one of the Assistants to the President and works in the Mission Office with us. So we invited Elder DeVol with his companion Elder Belnap and President and Sister Childs out for a late lunch to celebrate.  

Allens and Childs got a ride in the Mission van  with the President to downtown, so we had some extra time while we waited for the Assistants to come on the subway. The Childs took us to the local renik. That's like the Farmer's Market. It's a big hall with lots of stalls and individual vendors. They have beautiful fruits and vegetables. There are meat markets--but the meat is a little sketchy as there is no refrigeration. Also cheese stalls, a big honey stall, and a wonderful stall full of souvenirs--especially the Russian stacking dolls (matrushkas). 

This renik is in the neighborhood where Dostoevsky lived and worked. His family church is also there. His money was used to enhance and restore it. It is under restoration now, as you can see the towers wrapped in scaffolding. The bell-tower on the left is especially beautiful.  

From front-left around:  Sister Childs, President Childs,
Sue, Ken, Elder DeVol, Elder Belnap

Ken knows that Mexican food is Sue's favorite, so he found a Mexican restaurant in downtown St. Petersburg. The food was actually pretty good! There was another birthday table next to ours for a child, about ten years old. He and friends got their picture taken wearing sombreros and serapes. They even brought Sue and Elder DeVol a special birthday dessert with a candle on top, and the staff sang "Los Compleanos" to us.

May 9th is another big holiday, but this is the day of Celebration. The Great Patriotic War is over!! In the morning there was a big military parade through downtown St. Petersburg. In the afternoon there is a 'people's parade' for those who carry small poles with flags honoring their family members who died during the war. There is a special grandstand for veterans--getting to be fewer and fewer.

We didn't attend any of that. As Volunteers in Russia we are requested to stay away from large, boisterous gatherings.

But in the evening--really 10 pm at twilight--we walked out along the river to watch the fireworks. It was a beautiful evening, and we stopped to watch just north of the Peter the Great Bridge. There were a lot of families out watching also. We could see the fireworks beyond the river bend over the tops of the buildings in the city center. But look closely in the photo and you will see two young men in the middle of the street.  This is actually a six-lane expressway.

Those young men were joined by about four others--all looked to be in their 20's. They set up flares in the grass strip in the middle of the highway, and then lit them all. They started spewing forth red, blue and white smoke--just like the three big stripes in the Russian flag. It was fun to watch--until it blew across the road and hit us in the face. Then they all lit big red flares and held one in each hand and waved them around. The cars had a hard time driving through the smoke but were slowing down and honking to join in the festivities. The best part was when it was all done: the young men ran back across the traffic to our side, picked up grocery bags and went back to the center divider to clean up their mess! Not a cardboard flare piece was left. If we could speak Russian we would have told them how impressed we were--with both the display and the clean-up.

After two days of all this excitement, we settled down to three quiet days in the office. People come and go. Sue is preparing for the new group coming in on May 23 and those going home on May 25. Ken is trying to balance all the financial accounts. It's a little crazy when he gets a report from The Bank of America and the column showing amounts has rubles for some items and dollars for others. You can't just put it in a spreadsheet do an auto-add.

Friday nights there is a "Game Night" at the Center Ward building in our office complex. This week the first game was "Tower of Flour." There is a one-liter plastic container packed tight with flour and then inverted on a plate. The plastic is removed but the flour stays in the shape. One peanut M&M is placed on top. Going around the circle, each person is supposed to use a knife to cut some flour off the outside--without making the tower fall. If the tower falls, the person causing the collapse gets to eat the M&M but has to do it with no hands. It makes for a flour-y face. Second round has two M&M's on top. Third round has three, etc.

Elder Larsen and Elder Gerratt

Sister Spilker

Even Sue got to eat some peanut M&Ms,
her favorite candy -- the hard way!

Saturday is our "day off" so we are trying to do something 'touristy' each week. This week we walked over the Peter the Great Bridge to the Smolny Cathedral and Convent. The large cathedral, built in the 1750's is surrounded by a complex of buildings that was originally supposed to be a convent, but it ended up being a girl's finishing school. Now some of the buildings are used by the State University of Saint Petersburg. As were most churches, it was abandoned during Soviet times, but it was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in 2015. It is now in the midst of a large restoration, and the outside scaffolding just came off recently. The bright blue/white exterior is unusual and beautiful.



Sue found this great aerial photo* of the whole Smolny complex, with the Peter the Great Bridge over the Neva River in the top left. We live near the left end of the bridge, and the Cathedral really dominates the skyline from our side of the river.

As we were walking home and just starting across the bridge, the sun came out, so there was a great view of our apartment building. We live in the section on the left, second floor, but on the back side--no river view. The Mission Office is a three-story building just behind the left side of this tall one. The Mission Home--the President's condominium--is in the center tower on the fifth floor and is half the floor with views all around. It's a beautiful place inside, too.

Saturday afternoon we were able to attend the baptism of a wonderful young woman, Dari Nazarovy. She was introduced to the LDS Church two years ago when she was a high school exchange student in Mesa, Arizona. Sister Everitt (left) and Sister Spilker were the ones who taught her here in St. Petersburg. Dari was so excited to be baptized today! Afterward we had all three lovely young ladies come to our little apartment for dinner, with birthday cake and ice cream for dessert to celebrate that Dari was 'born again' today.

---

Random thoughts for this week:  Learning the language.

While Ken struggles to read Russian receipts, here is an email Sue sent to the three kindergarten teachers at Belle Haven School in East Menlo Park, where she worked for so many years.

Subject:  I'm Back in Kindergarten

Jose, Jessica, Ann:

  I've been thinking about Kindergarten the last 2 weeks. I go around everywhere trying to decode words. I sound out signs on stores and buses. Russian is mostly very phonetic, so I can pronounce a word after I figure out what the letters sound like. But most of the time I don't know what it means. That will come with time, too.

So I have great sympathies for your little ones who are trying to decode all those sounds. I can say the Russian alphabet just fine, but putting them together to made a real word is a whole new problem I haven't thought about in over 60 years!

Please give my best to everyone at Belle Haven,

Sue

----

*Photo by Иерей Максим Массалитин uploaded and derivative work: MrPanyGoff - http://www.flickr.com/photos/massalim/3501497959/in/set-72157618681080652/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18768227