Russian is Hard

Russian is Hard

This past week we embarked on a new level of language engagement. Ken had to go to a shop to get some photos for his Russian visas. So he took up the challenge to speak only Russian. Fortunately he only needed about three sentences to make himself understood. It wasn't too diffcult. But he did it. Oh and he learned a new sentence: "Мой русский язык плохо." (My Russian is bad. {Moy Rooskee yazeek ploha.})

Last week our tutors challenged us to speak to each other in Russian. So we are at least saying simple prayers in Russian and a few halting sentences. But during our painful language sessions we just don't have much to say to each other. Our passive vocabulary is building up, however. But mostly for reading. Understanding spoken Russian is really tough for us, almost impossible. We catch a few words but not enough to understand a conversation, so it is VERY discouraging. Why can't we learn the language? It seems little children have no difficulty at all. We can do most of what we need to without speaking the language -- with the help of Google Translate on our phones.

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This is Ken in the first person: This past Sunday there were two sermons on subjects that resonated with me: eternal families, family history and the saga of Lehi in the Book of Mormon. Coincidentally it coincided with a little personal family history activity. Daniel Allen was born in upstate New York in 1804 and joined the LDS Church in 1834 in Ohio. He led a storied life and left a huge legacy. Unfortunately, those who compiled the family history decades later mixed up his parentage in the public genealogy records. I discovered the errors over 40 years ago and so spent about 25 years gathering together research, finally writing and publishing an annotated biography in a peer-reviewed article in 2003 to straighten it all out. Daniel's father was born in 1770 in Massachusetts, married in 1793 in Massachusetts and was a country doctor. His father was not born in 1777 in Connecticut, marry at age 15 and die in 1835, as some pedigree records show. Well, people keep following that faulty record to a dead end. One of my distant cousins, Douglas Allen Gould, whose common ancestor with me is Daniel Allen (1804), recently contacted me and asked what I knew. I supplied him copies of my documentation, which delighted him, and we have been exchanging correspondence. Like us, he and his wife are currently serving missions as a senior couple in Nashville, Tennessee. So we have been comparing notes. We will surely get a chance to meet someday.

As for Lehi's family adventure, I have been trying to memorize a key scripture that gives comfort as we face obstacles, the declaration by son Nephi that the Lord doesn't give impossible challenges (1 Nephi 3:7). As I try to memorize the Russian with its difficult to pronounce words and my calcifying brain, I am forced to ponder every word. It gets internalized and gives me hope. So I will describe some of the story of Lehi's family, as found in Chapters 3-7 of 1 Nephi in the Book of Mormon. I am humbled that I have had the benefit afforded to only a few. I have been to the area of Jerusalem--twice. For my retelling of Lehi's early adventure with commentary, here is a link to my commentary about Chapter 3. There are even a couple of photos from our recent travels to the area.

Continuing...



Sue sent a note to her friends on the Ravenswood Education Foundation Board this week to thank them for the bright orange umbrella. It gets used almost every day. We had some summer last week, but now we're back to low-60's and rain. Buckets of the stuff.

Lawn mowers are almost unheard of in Russia. Every month or so when the grass and weeds and general greenery get more than a foot high a crew comes in with weed wackers and knocks it all down to a few inches high. This is the view from our balcony of the spot where Ken planted his zucchini, but they never grew much. They just got wacked.

After the wacking is done they rake it all into small piles, put into black garbage bags and haul it away.

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It was an extremely rainy Saturday afternoon, so we decided we wanted to visit the Russian Museum. Unlike the Hermitage, this museum is devoted solely to Russian artists. The works range from early 13th century church icons to modern works by artists younger than we are. We were inspired to go there this week because of one painting in particular we wanted to see. More comments on that below.

Alexander Pushkin -- Every Russian's favorite author

This is the Mikhailovsky Palace, built 1819-1825 for Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich. He and his wife had large balls and concerts, featuring famous composers of the time. In 1895 Tsar Nicholas II (the last Tsar) made it into the Russian Museum in honor of his Father, Alexander III.

The view out of the front windows, 2nd floor

The original building is on the right, with two
new wings added later to the left

Panorama of the grand staircase

These three photos are the sections of the grand hall, left to right, where the concerts and dances were held.

Empress Anna Ivananovna

The ceilings in most of the rooms are as beautiful as the art work.  The building was designed by Italian architect, Carlo Rossi.















This statue of Catherine the Great shows her with books of the Law and a cornucopia spilling out money to depict how generous she was to her subjects.

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The painting we came to see is "Holy Rus" by Mikhail Nesterov, painted in 1905. Nesterov painted a lot of pictures with religious themes, and also about the lives of common Russian people. Ken was introduced to this painting by his distant-cousin, Doug Gould, mentioned at the top of this posting. He sent us a link to this article about the picture:  "Did Jesus Visit Russia After His Resurrection?"   For those of us who are LDS, this is not at all surprising. We know that Christ visited the Americas after His resurrection -- that is part of the story of the Book of Mormon. That's what the verse in John 10:16 is all about -- "I have other sheep." In the Book of Mormon, Christ says to those He visited in the Americas in 3 Nephi 15:16-21 that they are the other sheep.   

(The Resurrected Christ's visit to) "Holy Rus" by Mikhail Nesterov (1905)

We loved the expressions on the faces -- awe and reverence and worship.

And the painting is really big!

Here are some of the other art pieces that we particularly liked.

"Arriving for Shrovetide"  (week before Lent in February) by Boris Kustodiev
We loved the vibrant colors contrasting with the white snow -- especially the green sky with pink and yellow clouds

"Warm Rain" by Alexander Gerasimov
This is what it looked like outside today.

The Last Day of Pompeii by Karl Brullov

A sense of the scale with Sue in front.

Moses and the Brazen Serpent by Fyodor Bruni
Said to be the largest painting in Russia

Raising of Jairus' Daughter by I. E. Repin
All figures are life size.
We liked the light from the candle on the girl and Jesus.

"First Steps" -- so much movement and detail in marble

"Sunrise in St. Petersburg" by Theodore Vasiliev
but we think it looks like the middle of the night in June.

While we were in the Museum, Sue was also doing a lot of people watching.  It's a very busy place.   Lots of people wear t-shirts with various sayings, logos, etc.  Just like in the US.  But, in Russia all the t-shirts look just like the ones in the US.  They are almost all in English.   In 3.5 hours in the Museum we saw dozens of t-shirts.  All of them were in English, except one in Russian.  It said nothing -- literally.  It was plain white with one black word across the chest -- "НИЧЕГО."  That is the Russian word for 'nothing.'