We had some wonderful visitors this week.
First -- Sister Jean Bingham, General President of the Relief Society for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came last weekend. With her also came Elder James Martino, the European East Area President for the LDS Church. And both of their spouses came too. Sister Bingham met with local Relief Society leaders on Saturday afternoon, then all four of the visitors spoke at a general meeting for anyone on Saturday night. On Sunday evening they held a small Q-and-A session with the Young Single Adults. We were in on the last two meetings. It's good for the USA Church leaders to get out in the world and find out what's really happening so far away. And it's good for the local Church members to get great counsel and advice from wonderful Church leaders.
L-R: President and Sister Martino, President and Sister Childs, Ksenia Crandall and her mother Tatiana Oleshevko. The daughter was visiting from Houston, Texas, and her Mom is our wonderful caretaker/cleaner for the Mission Office. The place is always immaculate! That is Sister Jean Bingham in the back on the right.
This September will be the fifth anniversary of the founding of the St. Petersburg Stake. When Elder Russell M. Nelson came to organize the Stake in September 2012 he said that someday there will be an LDS Temple in St. Petersburg. When Elder Jeffrey Holland was here in April he renewed that promise. Because of the current status of Russian law, that isn't going to happen for awhile. But when it does, there are a lot of LDS members here who know where they would like it to be built. On the photo at the right, we live and work where the blue dot is. Just north of that is a bridge over the Neva River. The left side of the River is the old city part of St. Petersburg, which is an International Heritage Site and has strict architectural and height limits. On the right side of the river just barely north of the bridge you can see a large triangle of land that is currently mostly empty. Gazprom, the huge Russian gas/oil conglomerate, wanted to build their new 88-story(!) tall headquarters building there. Everyone had fits about it -- too tall too close to the old city. So they built their new tower about 10 km west, out on the Gulf of Finland. Now that land sits empty. It is where the small Okhta River (Охта in Russian) comes into the Neva. We'll see.....
The near fence borders the Okhta River. The far side is the vacant lot.
Each Saturday or Sunday evening we try to have one of the companionships in our District come to dinner and invite someone to come along -- from the Ward or someone they are teaching. Last week we had the Assistants to the President, with Erik. He's a fine young man and accomplished pianist. We forgot to take a photo at dinner, so here's one at the Fireside with Sister Bingham on Sunday evening.
It's Transfer Week again! It's only been three weeks, but because the new Mission President is coming on July 2, we had a short transfer. They don't want him to have to organize that when he's only been here for two days. And so this next cycle is nine weeks. Next transfer is Aug 17.
Those going home bring their bags into the office. We have a big scale so they can make sure they are under the 23 kilogram airline weight limit. KLM/Delta changed the rules this week. They now get two free bags!
Everyone else who is moving from one area to another brings all their stuff and stacks it in the front foyer of the church. Suitcases everywhere!
While people are standing around waiting for their new companion to show up, or some such, we like to put them to work. Our project this week is to stamp every piece of printed material in the church building with the official name of the Church in Russia. It's part of the new anti-terrorism law passed last July. Anything that could possibly be distributed has to identify the proper legal name of the entity that is distributing it. So we are doing our best to comply.
Ken made a video of the Elders racing to see how many stamps they could do in one minute.
Click here to see it.
We said goodbye to Elder Christopher Belnap. He was one of the Assistants to the President until three weeks ago, so we knew him well. He's standing with our wonderful Sister Efimova. She is the real wonder woman!
Our other visitors from the USA this week were "The Piano Guys." This is four men from Salt Lake City who started making YouTube videos to promote a piano store. The videos went viral, so the store closed, and now they just make videos and do concert tours. Thursday night, June 15, in St. Petersburg, was the last performance of a nine-country tour this summer.
https://www.youtube.com/user/ThePianoGuys
https://thepianoguys.com/
They like to mix classical music with modern, especially to make videos in exotic places. They played along with videos they've made in Brazil and Scotland and on the Great Wall of China.
After the concert we got VIP passes to go backstage and meet them in person! It helps when you are hanging out with the Mission President. :o)
Donating wheelchairs to people in need of them is a world-wide project of LDS Charities. The website says: Last year, Humanitarian Services provided wheelchairs to 57,000 people in 54 countries. They included 430 wheelchairs to Kazakhstan, 1,484 wheelchairs to Vietnam, and 330 wheelchairs to Madagascar.
The full story is here
And this week they donated about 50 wheelchairs in St. Petersburg. We went along to the the hospital to help a little, and mostly for Ken to take photos. First some local Russian people who work with wheelchair recipients spent three days learning how to assembly and repair the chairs. Then on Friday afternoon the recipients came to get their chairs.
There were a couple of young teen-age boys who came in stroller-type chairs, as you can see in the photo. They always had to be wheeled around by someone else. They were so excited to get a chair that they could push themselves. They left with big grins on their faces.
We keep being amazed at the architecture in this city. As we left the wheelchair event and walked to the Metro station, we passed this old fire station. The brickwork is beautiful. And although the style is old, the top of the tower has modern satellite and cell-phone antennas.
Saturday night our dinner guests were Elder Gerratt and Elder Muhlestein. They are affectionately called "the office-niki." They work with us in the office most afternoons helping with all the paperwork to keep the mission running smoothly.
They invited Sister Natalya Akolushnaya, a member of the Central Ward. She and her husband each served missions in Russia in the early 1990's! They were the first LDS couple from Russia to be married in the Temple, in Stockholm, Sweden.
It was a beautiful day--very long. The sunset was about 10:20 but it never got dark. Still it's time to sleep. And then Sunday morning at 7 a.m. we heard all the buzzing..... More about that next week.
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| L to R: Jennie Martino, Jean Bingham, President Childs Natal'ya Sukach of Center Ward & Lubov' Sergeyeva of Avtova Ward |
L-R: President and Sister Martino, President and Sister Childs, Ksenia Crandall and her mother Tatiana Oleshevko. The daughter was visiting from Houston, Texas, and her Mom is our wonderful caretaker/cleaner for the Mission Office. The place is always immaculate! That is Sister Jean Bingham in the back on the right.
This September will be the fifth anniversary of the founding of the St. Petersburg Stake. When Elder Russell M. Nelson came to organize the Stake in September 2012 he said that someday there will be an LDS Temple in St. Petersburg. When Elder Jeffrey Holland was here in April he renewed that promise. Because of the current status of Russian law, that isn't going to happen for awhile. But when it does, there are a lot of LDS members here who know where they would like it to be built. On the photo at the right, we live and work where the blue dot is. Just north of that is a bridge over the Neva River. The left side of the River is the old city part of St. Petersburg, which is an International Heritage Site and has strict architectural and height limits. On the right side of the river just barely north of the bridge you can see a large triangle of land that is currently mostly empty. Gazprom, the huge Russian gas/oil conglomerate, wanted to build their new 88-story(!) tall headquarters building there. Everyone had fits about it -- too tall too close to the old city. So they built their new tower about 10 km west, out on the Gulf of Finland. Now that land sits empty. It is where the small Okhta River (Охта in Russian) comes into the Neva. We'll see.....
 |
Each Saturday or Sunday evening we try to have one of the companionships in our District come to dinner and invite someone to come along -- from the Ward or someone they are teaching. Last week we had the Assistants to the President, with Erik. He's a fine young man and accomplished pianist. We forgot to take a photo at dinner, so here's one at the Fireside with Sister Bingham on Sunday evening.
It's Transfer Week again! It's only been three weeks, but because the new Mission President is coming on July 2, we had a short transfer. They don't want him to have to organize that when he's only been here for two days. And so this next cycle is nine weeks. Next transfer is Aug 17.
Those going home bring their bags into the office. We have a big scale so they can make sure they are under the 23 kilogram airline weight limit. KLM/Delta changed the rules this week. They now get two free bags!
Everyone else who is moving from one area to another brings all their stuff and stacks it in the front foyer of the church. Suitcases everywhere!
While people are standing around waiting for their new companion to show up, or some such, we like to put them to work. Our project this week is to stamp every piece of printed material in the church building with the official name of the Church in Russia. It's part of the new anti-terrorism law passed last July. Anything that could possibly be distributed has to identify the proper legal name of the entity that is distributing it. So we are doing our best to comply.
Ken made a video of the Elders racing to see how many stamps they could do in one minute.
Click here to see it.
We said goodbye to Elder Christopher Belnap. He was one of the Assistants to the President until three weeks ago, so we knew him well. He's standing with our wonderful Sister Efimova. She is the real wonder woman!
Our other visitors from the USA this week were "The Piano Guys." This is four men from Salt Lake City who started making YouTube videos to promote a piano store. The videos went viral, so the store closed, and now they just make videos and do concert tours. Thursday night, June 15, in St. Petersburg, was the last performance of a nine-country tour this summer.
https://www.youtube.com/user/ThePianoGuys
https://thepianoguys.com/
They like to mix classical music with modern, especially to make videos in exotic places. They played along with videos they've made in Brazil and Scotland and on the Great Wall of China.
This was our Mission Couples outing
Front: Sue, Sister Archibald, Sister Childs
Middle: Sister Roberts, Vladimir (friend of the Church)
Rear: Elder Roberts, Elder Archibald, President Childs
(photo by Ken)
(photo by Ken)
Donating wheelchairs to people in need of them is a world-wide project of LDS Charities. The website says: Last year, Humanitarian Services provided wheelchairs to 57,000 people in 54 countries. They included 430 wheelchairs to Kazakhstan, 1,484 wheelchairs to Vietnam, and 330 wheelchairs to Madagascar.
The full story is here
And this week they donated about 50 wheelchairs in St. Petersburg. We went along to the the hospital to help a little, and mostly for Ken to take photos. First some local Russian people who work with wheelchair recipients spent three days learning how to assembly and repair the chairs. Then on Friday afternoon the recipients came to get their chairs.
There were a couple of young teen-age boys who came in stroller-type chairs, as you can see in the photo. They always had to be wheeled around by someone else. They were so excited to get a chair that they could push themselves. They left with big grins on their faces.
We keep being amazed at the architecture in this city. As we left the wheelchair event and walked to the Metro station, we passed this old fire station. The brickwork is beautiful. And although the style is old, the top of the tower has modern satellite and cell-phone antennas.
They invited Sister Natalya Akolushnaya, a member of the Central Ward. She and her husband each served missions in Russia in the early 1990's! They were the first LDS couple from Russia to be married in the Temple, in Stockholm, Sweden.
It was a beautiful day--very long. The sunset was about 10:20 but it never got dark. Still it's time to sleep. And then Sunday morning at 7 a.m. we heard all the buzzing..... More about that next week.
So exciting to see all your pictures and see what you have been up to!
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