Allens [not] in Russia!

First, thank you to all our loyal blog readers. It's been quite a ride! We have had almost 23,000 page views in the last two years. We can't believe that so many people are interested in our adventure. We've done this mostly for ourselves to record this time and to share it with our children and grandchildren. But we know the word got out, and there are a lot of families of volunteers who read and watch for their loved ones to appear in Ken's great photos. (He took thousands.) The good news for the families is that the Woods are going to keep up the tradition:  https://russianwoods.blogspot.com. [They are having the same font issues we have. Blogspot just changes fonts when it wants to. Ken has gone back and fixed them after the blog is published.]

Second, we are giving our homecoming report in church next week. Anyone is invited who lives in the SF Bay Area.

Sunday, 10 March, 9 a.m.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

3865 Middlefield Rd.

Palo Alto, California

We have had quite a week!  Not one of those quiet ones, for sure.

Sue spent a lot of time with Sister Wood. She's done most of six weeks of work in two weeks. We prepared arrival and departure packets for the next transfer, which is a month away. And a lot of other stuff. Sister Wood is feeling like she doesn't remember anything, but she took lots of good notes, and Sue wrote lots of instructions, so it will all come together. We had a couple of months of  ??duh?? at first, too.

And Ken had similar trainings with Elder Wood. They had a couple of glitches, of course. Elder Bohman's card is damaged and just won't work, so Elder Wood learned how to call and order a new one and to use the newly enhanced emergency fund. We just wish it didn't take a month to get here.  But Elder Bohman won't starve. Elder Wood can just give extra money to his companion.

We also kept working on cleaning the "new" apartment. It's not "Golden Sponge Award" clean, but it's better than it was. At each Zone Conference, Elder and Sister Peck, who inspect the apartments, give out an award to the cleanest apartment. The award is a yellow sponge tied to a Teflon-safe plastic spatula with a gold ribbon.  

Here is a picture looking north of the complex at Malookhtinskiy prospekt 16/1 from the courtyard of the new apartment at the south end. The complex has about 400 apartments and offices, including a smaller three-story-tall building at the far end to the right that is the LDS Church Stake Center and Mission Office and Regional Administrative Office. Looking through the arch you can see another arch down the block. Our old apartment was to the right of that arch and faced west. The new apartment entrance is just to the left in this photo and faces south on the sixth floor with ariver overlook.

Here is the entry hall. The front door is on the right. The living room is on the left at the back of the photo, and the kitchen is on the left at the front.

This apartment is much bigger than our old one. It has an enclosed balcony, and a living/study room which we didn't use much at all. The young Elders get a bigger apartment because when it is Zone Conference or Transfers they often have four to six extra Elders staying over one or two nights.

And it has a roomy kitchen; but it's a long walk from the refrigerator--last cabinet on the right--to the sink, just out of the photo on the left.

L-R:  Sister Peck, Pres & Sister Rawson, Sister & Elder Wood, Sister Efimova, Vladimir, Andry
Veronika, Tatanya, Elder Meek, Gennady, Igor, Elder Thieme, Sue and Ken

Monday was a special luncheon put on by the office staff to welcome the Woods and say farewell to the Allens. These Russians know how to put on a great spread! We had corn on the cob, vegetable plates with peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers, bread, juice, baked potatoes and broiled chicken. Have we mentioned that the cucumbers and tomatoes you buy in the store here are really, really good? We're not sure where they come from, but they taste great!

Tuesday was just more training all day.

Wednesday and Thursday were Zone Conferences. It's so fun to have all the Elders and Sisters come through the office. We only attended the Conference on Thursday with our Zone, but we came for lunch both days, because all us Senior Sisters did the cooking.  The Mission Leadership Council Elders and Sisters decided the week before that they wanted lunch to be pulled pork sandwiches that Sister Rawson makes so well. So she went to Metro Cash and Carry and bought eight big pork roasts and some large tubs of BBQ sauce. She and Sue cooked two roasts each for Wednesday lunch. Sisters Peck and Wood cooked two roasts each for Thursday lunch. It's pretty easy--just a few hours in the "multi-vark." That's Russian for a fancy crock-pot gadget. (We gave every apartment a new one last year.) And Sue made tossed green salad with Ranch dressing for 25+ people each day. Afternoon break was cinnamon rolls hand-made by Sister Rawson. Yummy!

After lunch we got each group together for a photo. Someone said we needed a silly one, too, so here are both:

The Assistants taught a lesson about "Finding Joy in the Work." We loved this analogy: The work here is not like Christmas, where everything is sitting under the tree. It's like Easter where you have to go out and FIND.

Each day the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders gave a lesson about what is legal and what is not when conversing with strangers. Then they broke into small groups and practiced. We can talk to people all we want, but we cannot initiate conversations about religion. If people ask questions, we can answer all we want, so that helps.




One long-standing tradition is that those at Zone Conference for their last Transfer will bear their testimonies to the Zone. President Rawson asked us to come and speak both days, as we have worked so much with all the young volunteers in both Zones. It was a time for us to share our love for the Mission, for Russia, and especially for our Savior Jesus Christ and His Gospel. It has meant a lot to us to be able to support the Work of His Church here in Russia.








On Thursday Elder Brown, from near Knoxville, Tennessee, also bore his Testimony. He doesn't go home for another month, but this is his last Transfer. He's been a terrific volunteer, serving a lot in small branches. He started out up north in Petrozavodsk, then a good chunk in Pskov over on the Estonian border, and his last Transfer living in Saint Petersburg, but commuting every day to Sestroretsk. That is a small branch about 90 minutes north of the Mission Office that hasn't had any volunteers serving there for a year or so.

And then we took a lot of photos both days with many of our favorite volunteers--but aren't they all our favorites?  

Elder Packer and Ken

Elder Packer served as Assistant to President Rawson, so we got to know him well. Now he is Branch President in Novgorod.

  

Sue and Elder Packer

Sister Anania-Matafai and Ken
She is from New Zealand,
 and Sue taught her to knit.

Elder Jensen and Ken
He's from Lewiston, Utah, and we hope to meet his family
when we are there with Ken's sister in a few weeks.

Ken, Elder Mortensen, Sue
He gets the prize for talking to the most people
about The Church while we were in Finland.

Elder Baptista and Ken
He's Portuguese and German, joined the Church about
two years ago in Dresden, Germany, while in college there.

The Office is a fun place when full of these happy faces
Front:  Elders Thieme and Ershov
Rear:  Elders Herrod, Owens, Baptista, Brown, Meek, Otterson,
Sisters Kosmynina and Drake, Ken & Sue

And finally, the Zone Conference photos from Thursday. Equally serious and silly.

Thursday evening is always Floorball for Church members, volunteers, and friends they invite. It's a serious street hockry game in Northern Europe. Ken went up to play and gave his camera to Sister James, so we got some shots of him playing, too.

Friday morning was the usual weekly office staff meeting. It's usually on Thursday afternoons, but it gets either skipped or moved to Friday on Zone Conference week. Not skipped this time as we're in transition. Lots going on!

Ken, Sue, Elder & Sister Peck, Sister and President Rawson,
Sister and Elder Wood, APs Elder Meek and Thieme

St. Petersburg is shedding great fluffy tears for us. We've had some crazy weather this week. Friday morning started out sunny. Then about 11 a.m. we looked outside; it was snowing great big soft flakes. No wind. Just one of those picture-perfect beautiful snowfalls. Watch this video.

Friday night we went out for our last night on the town in St. Petersburg. We took the Woods with us to the classic Mariinskiy Theater to see the ballet "Giselle." We bought the tickets last-minute so were sitting almost in the rafters. But ballet, like football, is best viewed from above.

The Mariinskiy (formerly Kirov) Ballet is one of the oldest in the world and does magnificent productions with fabulous dancers. It was a beautiful evening and a fitting finale for us.

Saturday was our last Preparation Day in St. Petersburg, and we wanted to remember the highlights. It was the day to revisit some favorite spots.

Sue really wanted to go to the Russian Museum and see "Holy Rus" by Nesterov. When we get home we will get a print of this to hang in our home as our reminder of our time in Russia. We've talked about this painting before, but it means a lot to us that the Russians recognize that Christ visited them after His Resurrection, just as He did those of His people in the Americas. We have The Book of Mormon as a record of the American visit. Maybe someday there will be found a more permanent record of His Russian visit. For now it's a folk legend perpetuated for many centuries.

While in the Russian Museum we saw some other favorites, too. This is the largest painting in Russia--Moses with the fiery serpents, as told in Numbers 21 in the Old Testament.

We also like this painting of the resurrected Christ and Mary Magdalene. Russia has such a strong Christian spiritual tradition. We pray that it will re-awaken in these times, too.

This painting reminded us of the present we received from Sister Efimova. She gave us two chocolate "plaques" with the image of  St. Isaac's Cathedral on one and the horse statue of Peter the Great on the other. Even with Sue's love of chocolate, we're not sure we'll ever be able to eat them.

After the Russian Museum we walked to the nearby Savior on the Spilled Blood church. This is the memorial to Tsar Alexander II who was assassinated on this spot in 1881. He was a great reformer, trying to democratize Russia. He freed the serfs from slavery in 1861. There were several attempts on his life, so his royal carriage was reinforced to be bomb proof. Someone threw a bomb under the carriage at this spot. It went off, but did not hurt the Tsar. The Tsar got out of his carriage to see the damage, and someone shot him! It was all planned as a double-try. His son, Alexander III built this monument to his father, patterned after St. Basil's in Moscow, which is about 300 years older. This model shows its splendor.

Photos of the interior of Savior on the Spilled Blood 
before restoration

It was dedicated in 1903, but then abandoned after the Russian Revolution in 1917. It was used for storage for theater props for a local opera company.  







Here is the restored interior of the church.  Every surface is a mosaic -- not a painting.  It is amazing!

Savior on Spilled Blood, St. Petersburg, Russia. 2 March 2019. Every surface is mosaic, not paintings. - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

The restoration work goes on. The central dome structure is currently under renovation and is all covered in scaffolding. This dome was re-opened in 2014.

Last stop was the General Staff Building of the Hermitage Museum Complex. We hadn't spent much time there. It has the 20th Century art, and also a big display about when this used to be the headquarters of the Foreign Ministry of Russia in Tsarist times. Several of the rooms are re-created as they were used in those days.


As we went home on the bus, Ken took lots of photos going down Nevsky Prospekt--too many to post here. But we also got some of favorite places we want to remember.



The white door to the left of Sue's head leads to a staircase down to a basement treasure-trove. It's the local craft store at the corner of Novocherkasskaya where we catch the Metro. Sue has bought a LOT of yarn there! She thinks she knit about 50 hats over the last two years, and lately has done about ten pairs of knitted knockers.




And here is one of the staircases going down into the Metro at Novocherkasskaya. It's also the only way to cross the street here. There are twelve staircases around the circular passageway underground. To go from knitting store to home Sue would go down stair #12 and around and up stair #3. They are all well-marked or you could really get lost down there!

Here is our favorite Marshrutka--the freebie to Okhta Mall. We weren't getting on it this time, but if you look carefully you can see it is standing-room only. We've crammed us and our rolling babushka grocery cart in there many, many times.






And then there's the #7 trolley-bus. We have a love/hate relationship. It's the best, easiest way from our apartment to/from the Hermitage. But it runs haphazardly.  One won't come for 30 minutes and then there will be two or three just a minute or two apart.  So we only take it when we aren't in a hurry or can see one coming soon on the Easyway phone app.














We got home in time to get dressed up and have dinner with the Woods at their apartment before going across the driveway to the Saturday evening session of Stake Conference. We have taken many dinner-party photos in this spot, and now it is the Wood's turn. They are carrying on the tradition of inviting a set of volunteers each week and having them bring friends or Church members with them. We met a lot of wonderful Russian people at these dinners.







We planned our departure well to have our last weekend in St. Petersburg be Stake Conference. The Church members from the wards/branches near the city all come together. Vyborg, over by Finland, even hired a big bus to bring many of their ward members. And the outlying branches of the Mission in Kaliningrad, Pskov, Novgorod and Petrozavodsk joined the meeting via video conference.  


The Murmansk group came via Skype, as usual. Except Anna H. She came in person! We've had so many Skype conversations, we were glad to see her "live" for once.  

View from our new apartment across
the Neva River after the snowstorm.

We had a great surprise after Saturday night session of Conference. We walked the 300+ yards from our apartment to the Woods and then to the Church on mostly clear and dry sidewalks. Sue wore her little slip-on ballet-flat shoes. No need for boots. Hah!! We looked out the window after Conference and there were lots of big fluffy flakes coming down again! And there was about four inches of snow all over everything. It looked beautiful, but the sidewalks were no longer ballet-flat friendly. We stayed after Conference in the office for a bit to work on last-minute projects with the Woods. Sue and Sister Wood were ready to leave, and Sue was considering "borrowing" a large pair of men's boots left in the office cupboard. But then Ken said, "Go through the basement." Brilliant! The underground parking garages run the entire length of the building. The Church elevator goes down to the basement, so Sue took that, then walked the 300 yards underground and came up onto the building courtyard about 50 feet from our front door. Much better!!



Sunday morning conference was wonderful. The first two speakers were Vova, age 14, and Daniel, age 17. You can look back a few months in the blog and see their baptism pictures. They are both outstanding young men and will be leaders in the Church for the next generation.

Here is the whole Stake Conference congregation -- at least those who came 'live.'  We had lots more via video conference!

Saint Petersburg Russia Stake Conference, 3 March 2019 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

And after the meeting we had time to talk with many friends and take photos. Our farewell greeting to everyone was, "We'll see you at the Temple dedication!"  In General Conference of April 2018, President Russell Nelson announced several new temples. One was "a city to be determined in Russia." It was a total surprise to everyone! But we are all excited for it to happen. Right now Russians' nearest temples are Kiev, Ukraine, or Helsinki, Finland.  Visas and flights/trains are expensive. And currently because of political unrest between Russia and Ukraine, no Russian between the ages of 18 and 30 can go to Ukraine, and visas are difficult to get for those who are older. We really want to come back and see the Russian temple!!

Our wonderful Sister Efimova!
The Mission could not function without her taking
care of all the apartments.

And Sister Ventsova is smiling in the background

Alyona was baptized in February and is an amazing new friend. She is so dedicated to the Gospel. She gave us this beautiful cross-stitch tapestry that she made herself. She said she's been working on it for 1-1/2 years and just worked hard to finish it last week to send with us. It's an amazing gift from her heart.  













Ken with Brother Zaretsky. He is the Stake Patriarch, and President of the Church's legal corporation in St. Petersburg. That means he signs the leases on all the apartments and Church  buildings. He and his wife, recently released as Stake Relief Society President, are also often found working in the Helsinki Temple. They are amazing people.  








After services we went down to the office to work on this blog--hah! You saw the previous post from Sunday. Too many visitors, and even more last-minute things with the Woods.

Sue and Sister Woods had their "Transfer Meeting." The most important item of business at all Transfer Meetings is the exchanging of the telephone SIM cards. Two weeks ago when the Woods came, we gave them Ken's phone, and we kept Sue's phone. That way each couple was reachable. Sunday afternoon it was time to make the transition complete. That itty-bitty little piece of cardboard and electronics is a modern-day miracle. It lets the super-computers in our pockets communicate over a telephone network started over 150 years ago. But this left Ken and Sue totally off the grid once we got back to our apartment. No phones, no Internet. We told the Rawsons that if we weren't downstairs to meet their car to go to the airport at 4 a.m. the next morning, they needed to call the Assistants, who lived next door to us, and have them come and pound on the door.  

And we had lots more of our beloved volunteers coming through to wish us well and take more photos.

Sister Anania-Matafai, Sue, Ken, Sister Davis

Sisters Stockman, Gursch & Drake, Sue, Ken

Elders Otterson & Herrod, Ken, Sue, Elders Thieme & Meek

Sunday evening we went up and had our farewell dinner with the Rawsons in the Mission Home. Sister Rawson is an amazing cook--green salad (our favorite), jumbalaya over rice, carrot cake. All yummy!! And we had a good visit--time to reflect about the mission for us, and as a whole. Such good things are happening. And they are the right people to be here at this time and in this place. The Lord knows who He calls. Ken and President Rawson are both so good at taking photos on such occasions--but we were so engaged, we forgot!! Besides Ken had no tripod to remind him. 

So here's the "selfie" in the car at the airport, lit by the brake lights of the car in front of us. They picked us up just before 4 a.m. and we got to the airport just fine, inspite of very icy roads.  

We managed to wrestle all our bags through the terminal. Sue put her big Russian coat and boots into one of Ken's less-full bags. We sent the big bags on their way, and then the woman said, "Your carry-ons please." Oh, no!! They weighed them!! The only other time we've had that happen was on our way home from our first mission in 2006. Ken's was underweight because he gave away a lot of stuff, but Sue's was over. She pulled out her computer and put it in her backpack. She gave Ken her bathroom bag with all the little bottles and tubes and lipsticks and toothpaste, etc. We were good to go. Whew!

We had an uneventful 2.5 hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany. Then when going through security there, Ken was pulled out for an extra random security check. He waited about 15 minutes and then they spent another 15 minutes going through all his bags. Sue was sent ahead and was waiting for him at the gate. Frankfurt airport is HUGE! Our gate was Z69. That's a long ways from anywhere. And then we almost didn't hear the announcement to board the plane.

We made it to SFO and were greeted by our son Keith, who flew down from Utah to represent the family. We are going to visit the other kids and grandkids in the next two weeks.

Our first day home we spent the morning at the DMV getting drivers licenses renewed. Ken's expired two weeks ago, and he couldn't renew it online. Sue's expires in May, so she did her renewal while we there there.

Then the most important part. Sue is now really home! She got her feet back into her beloved Pacific Ocean! We drove over the hill to Santa Cruz and made a quick stop at Natural Bridges Beach. It's a favorite spot for us, but not really beach weather. That didn't matter. California is home!

Natural Bridge State Park, Santa Cruz, Calif 5 March 2019. Home from Russia! - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

We are glad to be home, but we are missing St. Petersburg, too. We loved our time there, and the opportunity to serve with so many wonderful people. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints really is God's kingdom on earth, no matter what land or language. It is the true path to eternal happiness.