Pioneers

The 24th of July is Pioneer Day in Utah, this year being the 170th anniversary of the arrival of the first Mormon refugees from the United States into the desolate Great Basin in the Rocky Mountains. The epic 1000 mile trek over a period of 22 years is fascinating and instructive. For example, the first journey started when The Great Basin was still a part of Mexico. By the time of arrival, the US had taken it from Mexico by force. The focus of modern-day remembrance is on the trek itself. All around the world young Mormons reenact the trek each summer by walking through the countryside or wilderness pulling handcarts. This week, even the Russian Mormon youth had a summer camp and remembered the trek. Yet they themselves are modern Mormon pioneers in their own land.

This past Sunday marked a “pioneering” event for us. We gave talks in Russian for the first time, short sermons in the Sacrament Meeting worship service in St. Petersburg. We wrote the talks, translated them, and spent hours and hours each week reading and reciting the words we had written to try to get the pronunciation close to right. Afterwards we were told it was pretty good. People could even understand us. Still we know we have a long way to go to understand and remember even the Russian we recited.

Sue spoke about her family experience as pioneers in Southern California and compared it to Russia today, pointing out that Russia is going through the same thing exactly 100 years later. This is what she said:

Ken spoke about the acts of faith and how to make things happen, comparing the process to his efforts to grow tomatoes.

This is what he said: Faith in Tomatoes

Here is a photograph of our first attempt at growing tomatoes in Russia. We have faith that the plant may bear fruit before the cold sets in.  But you never know when in Russia.

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Ken works in the office here, managing money. Monday it was time for his trek to the bank for cash to pay apartment utility bills. It was very frustrating at several levels. First, the bank he normally visits did not honor withdrawals at its ATM machines, any of them! He discovered that to be the case with another bank and for many of the other volunteers, too. (That’s disconcerting.) So he next went to the big savings bank. It has an $83 per withdrawal limit and costs about $5 per transaction. He would have had to make eight withdrawals to get all the funds he needed. He made one withdrawal at that time, just in case.

His temporary workaround for more cash: an “emergency fund” currency exchange from US$ to Rubles. That worked! But it took an extra trip between the office and the bank. And that was an adventure. About 4:30pm Ken left for the preferred bank, about a half mile away up the river. He thought about an umbrella. The sky was overcast but dry, temperature in the high 60s. The walk was pleasant enough. He was in the bank about five minutes. When he stepped outside, it was pouring buckets! Big buckets. You could hardly see across the river. The streets were awash. He called Sue and warned here he would be late for dinner. She offered to walk over and bring an umbrella. Ken demurred. “You won’t want to go out in this downpour.” There was thunder all around. So he stayed and waited. Twenty minutes later, braving the now-heavy drizzle, he put a sheet of paper over his head and stepped out. Down the block he grabbed a broken board from a junk pile and walked the rest of the way home. He arrived only semi soaked.

After dinner, we went grocery shopping. We walked the mile or so to the new Okhta Mall, dropping off suits at the cleaners, buying the grocery list, filling up our new wheeled cart, a babushka’s shopping companion.



At the mall we found an ATM machine to make yet another attempt at withdrawals. (We made two small withdrawals from the savings bank ATM, but the preferred bank's ATM still didn’t honor our cards--or any of the other cards of the volunteers.) As we walked outside to catch the shuttle bus toward our place, we noticed the wet ground: during our sojourn in the mall, it had again rained, stopped and dried out! Fickle weather.

A new dishwasher--at last!

What a project! Monday and Tuesday our kitchen was rebuilt to accommodate a built-in dishwasher to replace the cabinet-covered microwasher. When they say built in, they mean you have to really build it in. It was a major project, required hiring two different installers and adding 50% to the cost of the machine purchase. It was finally finished Tuesday evening--matching sliding furniture door on the washer, a side panel installed to cover the opening, extension cord to the now-hidden power outlet.

We ended up with a very solid installation to the floor and a matching extension to the countertop with the former dishwasher cabinet installed where the refrigerator had been. We have more counter space but still needed to move a few things around. Saturday Ken drilled new holes in the concrete wall and remounted the wall shelves that had to be moved to make room for the hutch and the refrigerator.

Wednesday afternoon we joined six young volunteers in a concert at an assisted care facility where a couple of Church members live, along with other tenants. The place has a piano but no one ever played it. We sang to the appreciative seniors. Here is a sample:

It was fun. The assembly of ten or so enjoyed good music and heard humble young Americans speaking fluent Russian. We visited a bit afterwards, and Ken spoke with a cute 90-year-old man who spoke a little English and German. And we have been invited back.

It’s now time for us to study Russian in earnest if we are to make any progress. Our tutors are with us for only12 more sessions, and then we are on our own. Ken is trying to memorize words and verses and study grammar. His memory is not holding up well. But he is having nightmares in Russian. We guess that’s a good sign.

The Cathedral Of The Vladimir Icon Of The Mother Of God

Thursday afternoon we met the President, his wife and two senior volunteers for dinner at our new favorite Mexican restaurant Tres Amigos near the church where Dostoevsky and his family attended. While we were waiting we sat in the garden between the church and the bell tower and enjoyed the 6 o'clock bell concert. Click here to listen.

Pres. Rawson, Elder Hallstrom, Elder Coleman,
Sis. Rawson, Sis. Allen, Elder Allen

And then we walked over to the restaurant and ate. The portions were huge! The Rawsons declared it not quite like Texas, but not bad at all.

This weekend is Russian Navy Day in St. Petersburg. There are sure to be large crowds, so out of precaution we are being told to stay away from the big military parade. However Friday morning Ken watched the Navy gunboats on the river in front of our building, guarding the upriver end of the area against unwanted watercraft visiting the naval armada down the river a few kilometers.










Here is another amazing late Friday afternoon story: About 6 o'clock, while Ken was still in the office and Sue was home in bed fighting a little fever, a man dressed in work clothes covered with paint, came to the office door asking about the Church. Not understanding enough Russian to be useful, Ken called back in the hall for two Elders visiting from the Northern Zone to help out. They spoke with the man for a few minutes, learning that he was one of the local construction workers who had seen our office and was wondering about the Church. And then he left, vowing to come back on Sunday.  A half hour later he appears again, all cleaned up and dressed nicely, wanting to talk some more! The Elders happily obliged and spent some time with him, expanding on the earlier conversation and learning about his unbelievable struggles in life. He was searching, hoping to find something to better himself. Who knows? This could be the beginning of a major transformation in this young man's life.




Saturday was unusual because it rained all day and night, but that didn't dampen our spirits.  The office couple from the Russia Rostov Mission, Elder and Sister Taylor from Smithfield, Utah, was passing through St. Petersburg on their way back from  Helsinki, so we invited them to join us in a walking tour of a few sites and then out to dinner. 

Despite the rain we had a good time comparing notes and learning from them.  They particularly wanted to see the Summer Garden -- we've talked about that before.  It's a special place for LDS people in Russia.  Here we stand before the monument to Catherine The Great--in the evening rain.

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Ken has been reading scriptures in three languages, including different English translations of the Bible. In the coming weeks Ken will share some remarkable things he has discovered in his scripture study.