A Temple for Russia!!!

We woke up Monday morning to a bunch of emails all about the announcement by President Nelson at LDS General Conference on Sunday afternoon that there will be a Temple built in "a major city in Russia." Since that session of Conference was from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. our time, we did not stay awake to watch it live. We had watched Sunday morning session from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and then had gone home and to bed. What a surprise on Monday morning! Someone mentioned in the email that it was at the very end of the meeting, so we fired up the computers and watched the announcement of the seven new temples. 

President Nelson really loves Russia. We could tell watching the video how thrilled he was to be making this announcement. He is the one who dedicated the country for the return of the Gospel after the fall of the Soviet Union. He came back in 2011 to form the first LDS stake in Moscow, and then again in 2012 to form the stake in St. Petersburg. [For our non-LDS readers, a stake is like a diocese--usually 6-10 local congregations representing a self-supporting church unit. We have nine congregations in St. Petersburg.] He has been the one of the Twelve Apostles with oversight over Europe and Eastern Europe areas. Has has now passed that responsibility over to Dieter Uchtdorf, a native German, who also loves this part of the world.  

So we, of course, are hoping the "major city" will be St. Petersburg. We have no idea where the new temple will be. But, if it comes here, we have the lot all picked out! This, too, is just our pipe-dream. But there is this big empty lot about 1/2 mile up the street from the current church building in central St. Petersburg. It is right on the river and across from the tall and newly restored Smolny Cathedral where it would be a spectacular site/sight. As we said--it's our wish, but chances are slim... You can go to Google Maps and search for Smolny Cathedral. That's the towers you can see over the fence in the photo. Just across the river and a bit to the south is this large triangle of empty land. The land stretches from this side on the Oxta River to that big fence, which is along the embankment of the Neva River. It was supposed to be the site of the Gazprom tower--83 stories tall. But St Petersburg on the other side of the Neva River is a World Historical Site. It has a 7 or 8 story height limit. So putting something that tall so close to the Old City raised a huge fuss. Gazprom is building its tower 10 km west of the city, and it is still visible from everywhere.

Now, to back up a little. We watched the Saturday morning session of Conference live at the Mission Home with President & Sister Rawson, 6 Elders and 2 Sisters. It was on from 7-9 p.m. Saturday evening, so that's a reasonable hour for watching. Before it started there was speculation around the room about who the two new Apostles would be, of course. President Monson died in January, and Elder Hales last October, so there were two vacancies. Sue, of course, said she hoped it would be Gerrit Gong, who was one of the Presidents of 70. And she was right! Gerrit is from Palo Alto, and we've known him since he came home from his mission, about the time we moved there in 1975. His mother (age 92 and mentally sharp) and his sister are still in our ward, and they were both in Salt Lake City for Conference. Also there was his brother Brian and wife Sue. Sue Peterson Gong is one of Sue Allen's very best friends, ever since our Boston days--long before we knew the Gongs or before Sue knew Brian. They are an amazing family. (The other new Apostle is Ulisses Suares from Brazil.)   

So, the excitement from General Conference has wound down, a little. Our other big event this week was a "Volunteering Round Table" at the Hermitage.  We were invited to participate with others from various Cultural Arts groups around St. Petersburg in a four-hour seminar on Friday afternoon, with a "dress rehearsal" of presenters on the previous Wednesday afternoon. On the way to the presentation we were entertained by "subway musicians." They were pretty good so Sue dropped some coins in the hat they passed before the next station.

As we were walking across Palace Square we also saw several military and police bands with brass and drums marching around the square. It was a fine sight on a blustery day. (Later the in afternoon we had snow flurries!) It had been 55F the day before!

For the Roundtable, Sue had made a slide-show, with input from President Rawson and Ken. You can see the whole thing here.  Click on the Notes at the bottom right and you can read our "speeches." The slides are in Russian, but the English for each one is next to it. We were first on the program that had about a dozen presenters and discussion. It went on for four hours. We were glad we were early while people were still fresh. We were asked to lead off the meeting because our volunteers have been helping at the Hermitage for almost 20 years! The official volunteer organizing group at the museum was only started 15 years ago!

We have two volunteers there each morning and each afternoon from Tuesday thru Saturday. The Museum is closed on Monday, and we all have Church on Sunday. Often we help at the front entrance, but Mikhail will call Sue and ask for extra help when he needs it, or for the volunteers to come for a special project.  Thursday they did an "evacuation drill" for the Hermitage. Mikhail needed our two volunteers to be there earlier in the morning to help with the announcements in English. On Wednesday and Friday he had the pairs who were there helping haul stuff from and to the volunteer office for the special meeting. He knows we will show up and do almost anything.

The Roundtable meeting was for people from the various museums around St. Petersburg to talk about using, recruiting and motivating volunteers. After our presentation about our experiences with volunteering in the USA, several of the Hermitage interns did presentations about volunteers in other countries--Great Britain, Germany/Austria/Switzerland, Hungary, Italy, France. Because of Soviet ideas that everything should come from the State, there is no culture of volunteering, unlike in the US and many European countries. Most museums don't have large volunteer organizations, but they are trying to get them going. The Hermitage is trying to help that happen.

The room where we did the presentation
 had beautiful ceilings, too,
like most rooms in the Hermitage.

President Rawson was excited that we got to do this. It was great exposure for the LDS Church in the city, and we got to tell them that the reason we volunteer is because we are following the example of our Savior Jesus Christ. It was our Easter message to them. (Easter is April 8 this year in Russia.) 

We brought along the Assistants, Elder Scott Jensen and Elder  Zack Franckowiak as our translators. The Mission has a portable translation system with a microphone-transmitter and a bunch of earphone-receivers. We did our short presentation in English, and Mikhail read our translation for everyone else. But the rest of the four-hour meeting was all in Russian. These two young men did an heroic job of keeping us and the Rawsons in the loop of what was going on. During the mid-meeting break, we found two young women who had just arrived in the the last two weeks to be Hermitage volunteers from Belgium and Spain. They both said their English was much better than their Russian, so we gave them headsets too, which they appreciated.

With Mikhail

The Elders from Nevsky who usually work on Saturday afternoons had a conflict, and since we couldn't do our regular Friday afternoon shift at the front because of the meeting, we traded. That meant we spent three afternoons this week at the Hermitage! We were to be at the front entrance from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, but about 4 p.m. Mikhail walked by wearing his full Peter the Great costume and told us to come with him to the Hermitage Theater. We joined a train of people following him--some in 18th-Century dress. It was the opening of a new exhibition!  

Two regular Volunteer staffers

This was for the 60th anniversary of the Hermitage Children's Art School. There were paintings done by children during all these 60 years. People came who were part of the school--whether recently or 50+ years ago. They were welcomed by "Peter" and others of his court. The title of the Exhibition is "We Study at the Hermitage."

Here are a few of our favorites from the children. 

This is the front desk where they check the tickets. It was painted by a 9-year old in 1990/91, so there were not yet LDS Missionaries helping.

There is a long hall full of pictures of all the great Army Generals of Tzarist Russia. A ten-year old boy in 1970/71 painted a real battle going on in that room.

Ken particularly liked this Russian landscape painted by an 8-year old in 1978-79. They must have been learning about Impressionists and pointillism. 











As we left the exhibit and were walking back to find our coats and leave, we walked through the clock room, and Sue said it was her favorite in the Hermitage. It's hard to have a favorite in such a palace, but this room was also a favorite of Catherine the Great. It's all white and gold and light because it has so many windows. It's two stories tall. You can see the staircase in the back-middle of the photo that goes up to the balcony above. The amazing peacock clock sits in front of large picture windows looking out to the Neva River to the right. The windows on the left look out to a long garden in the middle of the small Hermitage that is on the second floor! It sits on the roof of the horse stables directly below. During the siege of Leningrad (1941-44) they took out all the flowers and bushes and planted vegetables. Today, the first day after the snow melt, we could see many tulip leaves sticking up about two inches. Spring is coming!




And then Ken wanted to stop and take a photo of one of our favorite "quirks" of the Hermitage.  





This is Sue walking through from the Grand Staircase to a large assembly room.

This is Sue in the assembly room on the other side of the doorway.

What's wrong with these pictures?
[Answer at the bottom of the blog.]





What a difference one day and warm weather makes! On Friday it was cloudy and the Neva River was all frozen. Saturday was sunny, much warmer, and the river was flowing quickly.  

Then we decided to go out to dinner.  Friday night we'd gone to a "burger and fries' place near the Admiralty subway station with the Rawsons and the two Assistants to the President. When we were leaving we saw a Georgian restaurant across the street. (The country, not the US State.) Rawsons had been in the country of Georgia last fall and Sister Rawson had commented that the food was really good.  So we went there on Saturday night. She's right. It was really good!  




--- Answer to the quirk:  If the right-side door is open in one room, the left-side door should be open in the other. But the left-side door in both rooms is "fake." The architect wanted the doors to be centered in each room. But to do that he had to have just one door in the middle be able to be opened. We had walked through this opening dozens of times before someone pointed it out to us. We'd never noticed it before.