As mentioned before, we watch LDS General Conference a week late here. On Sunday we watched the morning session from 11 am to 1 pm, then the afternoon session from about 1:30 to 3:30 pm.
After that everyone who serves in the two Center City wards was invited for spaghetti dinner at the Mission Home. After dinner the men all went back to the Church to watch the Priesthood session and the women stayed together to watch the Women's Session at the Mission Home.
We love the Internet! We can watch General Conference anytime, anywhere!
The Sisters had the comfy couches to watch from, instead of church chairs. Here are Sisters Eaton and Mohlman (Center District), Sisters Wilson and DaLuz (Shuvalovo District) and Sister Rawson. Sister Allen took the photo.
This week, Elder Allen studied 1 Nephi 8, the vision of the Tree of Life, or Lehi's dream. It is the first of two descriptions of this vision. There is a monument, or stela, found in Izapa southern Mexico that matches in part the elements of that vision, depicting a man whose name may be Lehi partaking of the fruit of that tree with a river nearby. Whether the stela is really related to Lehi's dream is inconclusive. However, the vision as described is an interesting allegory of how the offering of something good and precious is rejected by the recipients out of peer pressure or just plain contrariness, and how hard it is on the parent to see children as they get lost seeking after the ways of the world. You can read Elder Allen's analysis here.
Church auditors visited Mission President and Ken on Monday, spending the whole day training and then reviewing financial records. Interestingly, one of the auditors, Vladislav Traynin, was a guest in the Allen's home in 2011 while interning at Hewlett Packard Company in Palo Alto during his studies for an MBA at BYU. We recognized each other. The Church is a dorf! [Dorf is the German word for tiny village.]
A few weeks ago we visited Novgorod. Elder Allen found this interesting show on the role of Novgorod in the origin of Russia revealed by BBC documentary:
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20171002-the-town-that-gave-russia-its-name?ocid=ww.social.link.facebook
It is beginning to be autumn. We've had rain nearly every day, but it's beautiful because many of the trees and bushes are starting to turn. This is the little park we see out our office windows every day. It turned from green to yellow all in one day!
The Center District Sisters (Eaton and Mohlman) asked if they could bring two friends over and Sue would teach them how to make chocolate chip cookies. Sue had made them for a Game Night at church a couple of weeks ago. The girls are Yulia (Her dad is the Branch President in Petrozavodsk) and her friend Sasha. They made the cookies, and got to lick the beaters, too. :o) Sue wanted them to make something they could replicate at home, so we had to adapt the recipe a little. You can't buy American-style brown sugar in Russia. But that is really just sugar with a bit of molasses added back in. Oops--we can't find molasses here either. We decided that was mostly for the color. We put in two teaspoons of chocolate syrup--the kind you dribble over ice cream--and they came out perfect! Sue had bought a 5 kg box (11 lbs!) of chocolate chips at the big Costco-type store recently. We used those, but she told the girls they can chop up regular plain-chocolate candy bars, or use M&Ms. Chocolate chips are hard to find here, too, but not chocolate in other forms!
Wednesday and Thursday we had Zone Conferences. Half the mission comes together each day, and we do this once every six weeks. (6 weeks is a "Transfer" time unit in mission-speak.) This is an all-day training with time from the Mission President and wife, the Assistant to the President, the Zone Leaders and the Sister Training Leaders to share their insights. Elder Allen also taught a short lesson on expense accounts.
During lunch, most all of us got flu shots. Sister Allen sent people out in pairs to visit the doctor and nurse while the rest stayed and had a good lunch of Papa John's Pizza.
Sisters Eaton and Mohlman taught a great lesson about how your goals need to build on each other--daily goals need to work from weekly goals, etc. They put a candy bar high on the wall and asked Elder Ward to get it. First they gave him three flimsy cardboard boxes to stand on--but they just broke and were crushed since they were empty goals. Then they gave him this staircase. Aha! It helps when your goals are substantial!
Sister Rawson handed out packages of M&Ms to every one as a reminder of the 'Mighty Miracles' that we see happening around us. And we do! Every pair of volunteers can tell stories of praying for some particular need, and the miracles happen. They write about them in their letters to the President each week. He shares some of them back to all in his weekly email to everyone. We are all bolstered in our faith by the Good Works done by others and through the hand of the Lord.
Here she is giving them to Sister Babskova and Elder Babskov. (And Elder Rodgers who is translating for them.) They are from Ukraine, and will be released from their mission next month. But we will still see a lot of them. Their daughter and family live here in St. Petersburg, and they are going to stay with them until after Christmas. Going back to Ukraine will be hard. They lost their house and business in the recent war. They have a dacha they can live in while they decide how to rebuild.
Sue went shopping Saturday and is now ready for winter. There were winter coats left in the mission office, and some winter boots in our apartment that all fit Ken, so he was set. Sue prowled the mall at Ladozyskaya--one stop south on the metro from our stop. She found a chocolate brown coat and brown boots. Perfect. She really did not want black! She also managed to find the yarn store where she had been with Sister Childs in June. Two people told her it was on the 2nd floor--it was really on the 1st floor. But now she has yarn to knit presents for the volunteers in our District for Christmas. (To Moms reading this: don't tell!)
Ken didn't go on the shopping trip. He spent the last two days in the apartment sleeping and being sick--bad cold. He'll live, but is miserable in the meantime.
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| From bottom left around: Elders Hawkins, Wilson, Parker, Rindlisbacher; Sisters DaLuz, Eaton, Allen; President Rawson; Sisters Wilson, Mohlman, Rawson; Elders Muhlestein, Simmons. Elder Allen took the photo. |
We love the Internet! We can watch General Conference anytime, anywhere!
The Sisters had the comfy couches to watch from, instead of church chairs. Here are Sisters Eaton and Mohlman (Center District), Sisters Wilson and DaLuz (Shuvalovo District) and Sister Rawson. Sister Allen took the photo.
This week, Elder Allen studied 1 Nephi 8, the vision of the Tree of Life, or Lehi's dream. It is the first of two descriptions of this vision. There is a monument, or stela, found in Izapa southern Mexico that matches in part the elements of that vision, depicting a man whose name may be Lehi partaking of the fruit of that tree with a river nearby. Whether the stela is really related to Lehi's dream is inconclusive. However, the vision as described is an interesting allegory of how the offering of something good and precious is rejected by the recipients out of peer pressure or just plain contrariness, and how hard it is on the parent to see children as they get lost seeking after the ways of the world. You can read Elder Allen's analysis here.
 |
| Vladislav Traynin |
Church auditors visited Mission President and Ken on Monday, spending the whole day training and then reviewing financial records. Interestingly, one of the auditors, Vladislav Traynin, was a guest in the Allen's home in 2011 while interning at Hewlett Packard Company in Palo Alto during his studies for an MBA at BYU. We recognized each other. The Church is a dorf! [Dorf is the German word for tiny village.]
A few weeks ago we visited Novgorod. Elder Allen found this interesting show on the role of Novgorod in the origin of Russia revealed by BBC documentary:
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20171002-the-town-that-gave-russia-its-name?ocid=ww.social.link.facebook
It is beginning to be autumn. We've had rain nearly every day, but it's beautiful because many of the trees and bushes are starting to turn. This is the little park we see out our office windows every day. It turned from green to yellow all in one day!
 |
| Ken's tomatoes also got ripe all in one day! |
The Center District Sisters (Eaton and Mohlman) asked if they could bring two friends over and Sue would teach them how to make chocolate chip cookies. Sue had made them for a Game Night at church a couple of weeks ago. The girls are Yulia (Her dad is the Branch President in Petrozavodsk) and her friend Sasha. They made the cookies, and got to lick the beaters, too. :o) Sue wanted them to make something they could replicate at home, so we had to adapt the recipe a little. You can't buy American-style brown sugar in Russia. But that is really just sugar with a bit of molasses added back in. Oops--we can't find molasses here either. We decided that was mostly for the color. We put in two teaspoons of chocolate syrup--the kind you dribble over ice cream--and they came out perfect! Sue had bought a 5 kg box (11 lbs!) of chocolate chips at the big Costco-type store recently. We used those, but she told the girls they can chop up regular plain-chocolate candy bars, or use M&Ms. Chocolate chips are hard to find here, too, but not chocolate in other forms!
During lunch, most all of us got flu shots. Sister Allen sent people out in pairs to visit the doctor and nurse while the rest stayed and had a good lunch of Papa John's Pizza.
Sisters Eaton and Mohlman taught a great lesson about how your goals need to build on each other--daily goals need to work from weekly goals, etc. They put a candy bar high on the wall and asked Elder Ward to get it. First they gave him three flimsy cardboard boxes to stand on--but they just broke and were crushed since they were empty goals. Then they gave him this staircase. Aha! It helps when your goals are substantial!Sister Rawson handed out packages of M&Ms to every one as a reminder of the 'Mighty Miracles' that we see happening around us. And we do! Every pair of volunteers can tell stories of praying for some particular need, and the miracles happen. They write about them in their letters to the President each week. He shares some of them back to all in his weekly email to everyone. We are all bolstered in our faith by the Good Works done by others and through the hand of the Lord.
Sue went shopping Saturday and is now ready for winter. There were winter coats left in the mission office, and some winter boots in our apartment that all fit Ken, so he was set. Sue prowled the mall at Ladozyskaya--one stop south on the metro from our stop. She found a chocolate brown coat and brown boots. Perfect. She really did not want black! She also managed to find the yarn store where she had been with Sister Childs in June. Two people told her it was on the 2nd floor--it was really on the 1st floor. But now she has yarn to knit presents for the volunteers in our District for Christmas. (To Moms reading this: don't tell!)
Ken didn't go on the shopping trip. He spent the last two days in the apartment sleeping and being sick--bad cold. He'll live, but is miserable in the meantime.
Your chocolate chip cookie adaptations were a riot to read. We do have brown sugar here as well as white granulated sugar but they are very coarse compared to sugars in the states. We are wishing we could get a bag that size of chocolate chips here. We’re thinking about having our kids send some out with the next student caravan. Hope Ken gets well fast!
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