We were told that the rainy season here is April and May, but that's not been our experience. It has rained almost every day for two months now. It doesn't both us much as we have umbrellas and it is almost fun to walk in it. Only one day did we have beautiful, big, fluffy snowflakes for a couple of hours. Other than that day it has been in the 40's. So we are watching the cold temps and snow in Rexburg and wondering what is going on. 
Our mission president is from the Ukraine and neither there nor here in Russia do they celebrate Thanksgiving, of course, but he tried to accomodate the American missionaries. He told us we could celebrate the day with our district missionaries only. (It's handy that it falls on P Day.) The 4 districts which have senior couples in them surely had an advantage. Dinner would be at our place, of course. There are a total of 10 of us in our district right now but the zone leaders were going to be out of town visiting a set of elders who are all alone in a distant city. Now 8 people may not sound like a big deal but our apartment has a table to seat 4 and our kitchen is tiny with very little in the way of pots and pans, dinnerware, etc. to fix and serve such a meal. And then there was the problem of finding a turkey. For some reason they don't seem to have them here. The elders found one for us. It weighed a whole 8 pounds! We later went shopping at the same store and found some turkey breasts to sup
plement.
About 8:30 Thanksgiving morning we got a call from the zone leaders saying they were back in town because of a mix up with their train tickets and could they come to dinner? Of course! but now we had to get a little more creative with the seating arrangements.
Diane did a yoeman job of putting the meal together. We had most of the traditional stuff: turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, stuffing (one of the elder's mom had sent him a package which included Stove Top Stuffing), rolls, fruit salad, and warm apple pudding. We got everyone seated with some living room manuevering. Everyone got filled and a little more. Sister Clements kept saying, "pass things around again." They ate up everything, and I mean everything. She said she had never 'come out even' on a meal before.
Two of the elders insisted on helping with the dishes but first they started picking that tiny turkey carcass right down to bare bones. There was absolutely nothing left of it. And I know they had already eaten their fill.
During the meal we had each one tell one thing they were thankful for and what their family Thanksgiving traditions were. We have only one elder and one sister who are not American in our district right now, so this was all new to them. The church is growing slowly here but they are adapting, and I'm sure they took mental notes of things they want to do in their families. Several members have told us how greatly the Americans have influenced them with our customs and tradi
tions.
After the meal was cleared away most of them played Phase 10 for a couple of hours. They stayed until it was time for them to go home and change so they could go back to work. P Day ends at 6:00 p.m.
Even though we hated being away from our family, this was a Thanksgiving we will always remember. And we did get a Skype call from them the next morning, which was Thanksgiving evening in America. So we got to share with them also. We loved that they were all together even without us. How thankful we are for all our blessings, and our great land of American is high on that list.
Our mission president is from the Ukraine and neither there nor here in Russia do they celebrate Thanksgiving, of course, but he tried to accomodate the American missionaries. He told us we could celebrate the day with our district missionaries only. (It's handy that it falls on P Day.) The 4 districts which have senior couples in them surely had an advantage. Dinner would be at our place, of course. There are a total of 10 of us in our district right now but the zone leaders were going to be out of town visiting a set of elders who are all alone in a distant city. Now 8 people may not sound like a big deal but our apartment has a table to seat 4 and our kitchen is tiny with very little in the way of pots and pans, dinnerware, etc. to fix and serve such a meal. And then there was the problem of finding a turkey. For some reason they don't seem to have them here. The elders found one for us. It weighed a whole 8 pounds! We later went shopping at the same store and found some turkey breasts to sup
plement.About 8:30 Thanksgiving morning we got a call from the zone leaders saying they were back in town because of a mix up with their train tickets and could they come to dinner? Of course! but now we had to get a little more creative with the seating arrangements.
Diane did a yoeman job of putting the meal together. We had most of the traditional stuff: turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, stuffing (one of the elder's mom had sent him a package which included Stove Top Stuffing), rolls, fruit salad, and warm apple pudding. We got everyone seated with some living room manuevering. Everyone got filled and a little more. Sister Clements kept saying, "pass things around again." They ate up everything, and I mean everything. She said she had never 'come out even' on a meal before.
Two of the elders insisted on helping with the dishes but first they started picking that tiny turkey carcass right down to bare bones. There was absolutely nothing left of it. And I know they had already eaten their fill.During the meal we had each one tell one thing they were thankful for and what their family Thanksgiving traditions were. We have only one elder and one sister who are not American in our district right now, so this was all new to them. The church is growing slowly here but they are adapting, and I'm sure they took mental notes of things they want to do in their families. Several members have told us how greatly the Americans have influenced them with our customs and tradi
tions.After the meal was cleared away most of them played Phase 10 for a couple of hours. They stayed until it was time for them to go home and change so they could go back to work. P Day ends at 6:00 p.m.
Even though we hated being away from our family, this was a Thanksgiving we will always remember. And we did get a Skype call from them the next morning, which was Thanksgiving evening in America. So we got to share with them also. We loved that they were all together even without us. How thankful we are for all our blessings, and our great land of American is high on that list.
2 comments:
Hey it sounds like things are going as well as they can be. Thanks for your blog it is fun to see what you are doing. I guess you have heard about Dave and Connie coming to Armenia.
Max
yes we heard from Shelley that everyone got together and was able to vixit with you Thanksgiving. The members there would have been amazed at Milt's family. There were about 50 of us at the Hart gym this year. Then the day after was even craqier. No I did not get up at 4am, just 5 when the girls called us and said they had the items I was looking for. so away we went.
Hope your Christmas is great.
LuAnn
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