Zone Conference Week

We had a busy week--all the way until the end, which is why this post is coming out about 24 hours later than usual.

Monday was "Volunteer Recognition Day" at the Hermitage. This is not just for our LDS volunteers, but anyone who helps out. The museum is normally closed on Mondays, but they opened the General Staff Building (across the square from the main Winter Palace) and had a special presentation for any volunteers who were around. Most of their volunteer staff are here for the summer and are gone home. We had 28 from the Mission who came, and we were at least half of the group.

We were each given a 'crown' of paper, and they were color-coded to divide us into teams. The theme of the party was the 300th anniversary of Peter the Great's visit to France, where he stayed for several months in the summer of 1717.

The Staff of the Volunteer Office put on a special play about this visit. It was pretty corny, but clever. They wanted to demonstrate the great changes going on in France during this time--in art, in food, in clothing. And they tied that to the new ideas and items coming from French colonies in the New World, specifically New Orleans & Greater Louisiana.

The play was also interactive. They had asked people to bring food with a French theme. Sister Rawson brought a big pot of jambalaya from her native New Orleans. In 1717, Louisiana stretched throughout the Mississippi basin and was a French colony, and all the tobacco, cotton and sugar coming from there had a big influence in France.

For the art portion of the play, each team created a work of art from a stack of random objects. Then there was an audience applause-meter vote for the best. The winner: the Elder Scott Jensen memorial. It included some plastic gilded pieces, his red Hermitage volunteer badge, and even his missionary name tag.

This is the piece created by Sue and her team. The paper is a previous project of the play, where each team had to draw a beaver on the Mississippi River. 

When the event was over we all went to claim our coats from the wardrobe downstairs. There are about eight rows of coat-hanging 'trollies' that can be rolled around. It appeared that people started taking items off just one side of the first row of hangers, so that it got heavy on the backside and fell over--and that started the dominoes. That's Elder Rodgers in the back center helping to lift the next trolley up. Our volunteers do all kinds of interesting jobs for the Hermitage! His companion, Elder Derik Jensen, is barely visible in the dark of the back corner. He was hanging up coats and backpacks that had fallen to the ground.

As we left the Hermitage, we stopped to see the fountain at the park there. It is now a light show instead of a water show. You can watch it here:  The string-of-lights fountain at the Hermitage

Nevskaya Zone Leaders Elders Parker and Winchester

Tuesday and Wednesday we had Zone Conferences.  Every six weeks they come along. Half the mission on one day and half on the next. 




Zone leaders teach lessons.

Petrovskaya Zone Leaders
Elders McKendrick and Franckowiak

Elders McKendrick and Franckowiak did a cute take-off on the Sports Center format.

Petrovskaya Sister Training Leaders
Sister Mohlman and Sister Eaton

Sister Training Leaders teach lessons.

We had a great lunch of Chinese food--rice with vegetables, green beans with chicken, and sweet & sour chicken. 

Nevskaya Zone Choir
Elder Rodgers, Elder Adams, Elder Jensen, Sister Yegorova,
Elder Gerratt (pianist), Sisters Camano, Pettit and Pitt.

For each day, Sue organized a special musical number. We got a group from each zone to come a half hour early for a quick rehearsal of "Oh Come All Ye Faithful." That's what we are trying to do! Get all the faithful that we can find to come and worship Jesus Christ. Not just at Christmas, but all year around. Although Ken didn't get a still photo of the Petrovskaya choir, here are videos of both groups:  

The Nevkaya Zone Choir                        The Petroskaya Zone Choir

The lesson from the Assistants to the President--Elder Matthew Simmons and Elder Scott Jensen--included this funny little diddy from Ken--about six times over. The missionaries thought it was hilarious and memorable. Here it is:
"Let's do a role play."

At the end, Elder Matthew Simmons gave his farewell testimony. He is our only volunteer going home in December. But he has an unusual situation, as he just goes from one mission to another.  "Home" for him is the Mission Home in Singapore, where his parents are the Mission President and Mission Mom! He'll be there with them for just two weeks, and then he goes back to college.

And when everyone was ready to go home, Santa's sleigh had come, bearing lots of boxes that came via US Postal Service.  










When Zone Conferences were over, things got back to normal, whatever that is. We went grocery shopping and smiled, because the stores in Russia look just like home. Everything is decorated for Christmas, and you can see the Barbie house with the Lego toys behind that.  

Saturday afternoon we were invited to the Christmas Concert of the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg by Boris Kashin. His wife is a member of the LDS Church in Kolpino Ward, just south of St. Petersburg. She is visiting children and grandchildren in Latvia, so he bought tickets to take the LDS volunteers to this concert, but they had a conflict and were unable to go. They passed them on to us, and we were delighted!


  


The concert was wonderful. There here were lots of families with children there. The second half was a piece written to go with the 1982 animated movie "The Snowman." The movie has no dialogue--just animation and music. It's a modern version of the 1920's silent film. It is based on a children's book of the same name with beautiful illustrations by Raymond Briggs. We recommend it!








After the concert we said good-bye to Boris, as he took the subway home, and we walked to the nearby LDS Institute Building on the Fontanka River Embankment for an evening of games and treats.  There was a good group who had fun playing games. As requested, Ken brought along an adapter and a cable to connect his iPhone to the Institute stereo so they could have Christmas music. (Two days before he had ventured out alone in the dark and snow to walk to an electronics store that had the parts. After trudging a third of the way there, he finally caught a bus. Success. We got to listen to the Mormon Channel and Ken's Creche Concert recordings on YouTube throughout the evening.) We finished with a cake-decorating contest. There was some interesting artistry in the designs. We gave them frosting, food coloring, Gummi Bears, M&Ms, sprinkles and about 20 minutes. When the cakes were done, we ate them all up! Happy Day!