The Atypical Week

To begin with, Sunday we spoke in church, on very short notice. We didn't have time to translate and practice in Russian, so we spoke in English. Several new volunteers spoke before us, to introduce themselves (in amazingly good Russian). One of the local sisters spoke on important doctrines. Sue spoke using a native Russian interpreter about sharing our love of the Gospel with others.

Here is the link to Sue's talk.

Ken spoke (with an American volunteer as interpreter) about building a Zion Society based on the principles or truths of Love, Service, Work, Self-Reliance, Consecration and Stewardship. 

Here is the link to Ken's talk.

Both of us spoke a few sentences in Russian at the end. It's best we not distract from our message by trying to assault Russian ears with our bad pronunciation.


Monday was The Festival of Flowers parade and show, preceding the Russia Day holiday which was on Tuesday. Russia Day is a relatively new holiday instituted to celebrate the founding of the Russian Federation in 1991 to replace the old Soviet Union. There was an interesting twist. Since the holiday was on Tuesday and everyone wanted a long weekend, the preceding Saturday was designated as a work day. All the businesses that usually work M-F, including our Mission Office, were open on Saturday instead and people took off Monday and Tuesday. We thought that was a good idea--a three-day weekend and no days when people skip out on work--or want to!

We love a parade. It was small by Rose Parade standards (Sue grew up next to Pasadena), but still fun. We threw together this video if you wish to watch the marching bands, including a Scottish bagpipe band and acrobats on stilts; if not, here are still scenes:

We are so excited that Elder & Sister Peck are now living in
St. Petersburg upstairs from us and can join us on outings.

The parade ended at Palace Square, in front
of the Hermitage.

The city parked these big water trucks across all the intersections
so that no one could drive a truck onto the route or into the crowd.

Of course the other big news this week is the start of World Cup. St. Petersburg is full of soccer fans from all over the world. The opening game on Thursday was in Moscow, and host country Russia won over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 5 to 0. A great start for the tournament.

Friday night we went out for Sue's "birthday celebration." Birthday was in May, but her step-mother sent a check and said to splurge on something, so we spent it on ballet tickets. 

We went to see Swan Lake, music by Tchaikovsky and choreography by Petipa--both the most classic ballet artists from St. Petersburg. You haven't really done ballet here until you've done Swan Lake. This is the poster in the subway hallway.

President and Sister Rawson went with us to the Mikailovsky Theater. He had never been to a ballet before and was pretty amazed by it all.

Of course it is not allowed to video the performance, but Ken got a photo during the curtain calls. The performers are absolutely amazing--high leaps, multiple turns, graceful poses.

Saturday afternoon we did our weekly Hermitage Service, trading with another pair of volunteers who did Friday for us. It worked well because we are swapping our preparation day for next Monday--more about that next week.

After the Hermitage we had an hour before dinner, so we walked down to the Fan Fest area. This is where all the games are shown live on a gynormous TV. There was no game while we were there, so it was a live rock concert. It's just fun to be part of all the hoopla. The fans are there from every country with waving flags and painted faces and wearing their favorite team's shirts.

Then we walked down to a favorite Russian Restaurant--The Literary Cafe. We met two of Ken's former law partners, brothers Barmak and Babak Sani. They are here with eight other friends from Iran, going around Russia to watch the three games that Iran will play. On Friday night they had gone to the Iran vs. Morocco game. They were pleased that Iran won, even though it was during extra time at the end of the game on an own-goal by Morocco.  

Ken says The Literary Cafe is the Starbucks of the 1800's. All the writers and poets and artists in Saint Petersburg liked to hang out here. It's most famous for being the last place Pushkin was before he left to fight the duel that killed him. It was a candy store downstairs and a bookstore upstairs. Now it's all restaurant, and we sat upstairs.

We had lots of different appetizers to share, then some had borscht, followed by main courses of stroganoff or chicken or salmon or a "Pushin." That's chicken inside a dumpling, and said to be a Pushkin favorite. We were all stuffed,but ordered one dessert and twelve spoons. The dessert was another Pushkin favorite--baked apple inside a crust and covered with caramel sauce. Two bites each was just perfect.

We sat next to the grand piano and so were entertained the entire meal by piano, violin and singer. 
Here's the video Ken made of them.  
The songs here are "Those Were the Days" and "Moscow Nights."

It was a great evening--that lasted four hours! We had a 7pm reservation, and left after 11 pm, getting home after midnight. Now you know why the blog is a day late. But that's OK, the sky was still light on the western horizon. Welcome to White Nights in St. Petersburg. More about that next week, too.