S'no Foolin'

The highest "hill" in St. Petersburg--15 feet

Finally, snow and cold, with enough of both to play in the park on Sunday afternoon. We had seen this mound in the park near our apartment. It has stairs up on three sides and a few benches on the top. We thought it was just a pleasant place to sit on a summer evening. But no -- it's the highest point for miles around and lots of kids were out on Sunday afternoon with sleds and inner tubes. They had about worn away the six inches of snow in spots.  

Frozen River with icebreaker path

And the Neva River got frozen solid, except for a track down the middle that an ice breaker keeps open all winter.

The temporary freezer

One nice thing about the cold weather outside is the ease of defrosting the freezer. Sue pulled all the frozen food into a shopping bag and put it on the balcony overnight.  

She left the freezer door open and by morning all the frost was gone. This photo almost makes it look big--but this is the bottom half of the fridge, about 23" wide and 30" tall.

Elders Winchester & Jensen, Sister & Elder Allen

Our Monday night dinner ended up being just two Elders. Elders Winchester and Jensen.  The guest they had invited canceled 15 minutes before dinner. By that point Sue had cooked all the food, so  we told the Elders they had better come and eat it!

On Wednesday Sue got to make another trip to "Metro Cash and Carry" with President and Sister Rawson. Yes--that's what it's called, even written in English. This is the local equivalent of Costco. Sue filled the cart with such treasures as salsa, tortilla chips, and peanut butter.  She also bought large bags of sugar and flour, a big pot roast, avocados and bunches of other such stuff. The cart was full and the bags were heavy!  



Friday morning we took off to do an apartment inspection for the Sisters in Shuvalovo Ward--about 1 hour and 15 minutes away from the Office by subway and bus. On the way back, we headed to the Hermitage, so we went through a subway station that we don't usually see. All the stations are beautiful architecture, and this one is dedicated to Pushkin. 






All the walls are marble with fancy light fixtures the length of the station.














Friday afternoon we did our usual service at the Hermitage front entrance. Even in this off-season time the line of those coming in seldom stops for more than a minute or two. It just isn't out the door and across the courtyard. After that, we walked through the museum and found our favorite rooms with religious art to share with the young volunteers. There is so much in the Hermitage that they don't know what to see, such as this 1600's German cabinet.

Cabinet carved with scenes of the life of Christ

The museum map that everyone gets has room numbers, so we made a list of our favorite rooms by number with classical religious art and things to look for there.


Then we decided we wanted to go to the circus! The walk is 2 km, and we only got lost once, so we probably walked 4 km instead. Then we found out there was no performance on Friday night, so we bought tickets for Saturday--see below.  

СПД (LDS) Delegation at the 
Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery

January 27 is "Siege Day" in St. Petersburg, commemorating the end of the Nazi siege of the city in 1944. The siege began in September 1941. (We went to the Victory Day celebration at the cemetery last May 8.) The commemoration is twice each year and is telecast live nationwide. Here we file past the Honor Guard and approach the statue of Mother Russia overlooking the mass graves in Pisarevskoye Memorial Cemetery. It is a huge park of nothing but raised grave mounds, covering unidentified victims. The graves were not dug because the ground at the time was frozen solid... . Very sobering.

Honor guard at the tomb of the unknown

Procession past 470,000 graves of those who died during the Siege

Note the green grass out from under the freshly melted snow. Russian grass is hearty, as are the people. 

It rained on Thursday night and washed away most of the snow!  Whoever heard of rain in St. Petersburg in January?  Temperature has been in the high 30'sF the last 4 days.  The river is no longer frozen solid.

Placing a bouquet at the foot of the statue of Mother Russia

There is a museum at the entrance to the park. We briefly toured the exhibit before departing.

Elder Jensen & Bro. Chudinov study the Siege map

The blockade of Leningrad
continued 900 Days
from 8 September 1941
to 27 January 1944

Elder & Sister Allen allowed to wear our
 missionary name tags in public for this occasion.

Before the show some children got to ride
 a camel around the circus ring.

The circus in St. Petersburg opened in 1877.  The building was very unusual for its time,  because it is a domed structure with no internal pillars.  That makes every seat in the house have a great view.  There were acrobats and clowns and trained horses, elephants, and even camels! 

This woman was hanging by her heels and spinning
on this loop about 20 feet above the ground!

 It was very much a traditional circus, and is unusual because it never travels.  But circus acts from all over Europe come to perform here.  There were lots of families with kids, and it was a very fun show.

The whole cast for the final applause.