"The Days Dwindle Down to a Precious Few"

It is hard to believe that we are really at the end of our mission but we are leaving in just a few days on Tuesday, August 24th, early in the morning and will arrive in Idaho Falls at 10:30 that evening, having picked up the ten hour time difference on our travel. And just in case you may think that we have had a sort of vacation here with all our stories of the many things we have seen, let me tell you how the Lord still humbles us and throws up a few trials.

On Friday we were informed by the mission driver that he was going to pick us up and take us to attend the Novgrod Branch, some three hours away. That was a place Sister Clements has been really wanting to visit and I have been resisting as it is such a distance. But now that we had a driver, it was fine. This town is the oldest in Russia and is very historic. Late Friday night we found out we were also expected to speak at the branch. Communication here is still the worst.

We got there early and so we had a half hour to visit the historic Kremlin before going to this hard to find and very out of it branch. The branch president, an elder, said they had been having an average of 6-7 attending each week. This day there were 15, couting us and the missionaries. They don't have priesthood meeting or relief society so we were done early. That left us another hour to go back and really see the Kremlin while our driver slept. Then it was off to home.

I thought 2 1/2 hours would do it. Well, we got into this storm which the newspaper later called a hurricane. There were high winds and a lot of things blowing across the road. Then we got in a bunch of slow downs because of accidents. We passed five of them and one caused us to take a half hour to go just a mile. A little frustrating for me but we did finally get home.

This week has been a series of parties and sad goodbyes. When you have spent a year and a half with these young people, it is really hard to say goodby. And they look at us as their American grandpa and grandma. At our last home evening we had over 40 in attendance and they just hung around and hung around not wanting to say goodby. After Tuesday class they also stayed and stayed. Wednesday I gave my last English language class and the five students stayed till after 10 before we could leave. I am turning into a boob.

But Wednesday was a challenge. We had electric problems at our apartment. The circut breaker outside the apartment in the hall burned out. Try to explain that to anyone who does not understand English. They all told us to reset the circuit breaker and we tried to tell them a dozen times that we had already done that, but it is hopeless. Finally the landlady's son, Sergey, who speaks English, got the idea that we needed an electrician. So he came over to wait for the 'master' and we went on over to the institute. I had gone over earlier and Diane came after Sergey showed up. He asked which lock to lock on the door when he was to leave, we have three locks. Sister Clements and I had miscommunicated and he was told to lock the top one. Well, when we finally got home after 10:00 and tried to open the door, we found the top lock, for which we don't have a key, was locked. We were locked out of our apartment! Fortunately Sergey had called me to tell me that the electric problem was fixed and so we had his number in our cell phone. Forty-five minutes later after a long and tiring day, he arrived and we finally got into the apartment.

But the students have been so giving. From a necklace made by one, to some painted cards we can frame when we get home, to the free boat ride one gave us as he is a pilot. They don't have the means for big gifts and the love and hugs they give are so sincere.

We had a day of 'lasts' today -- our last boat ride through the city streets, shopping for souveniors, strolling down Nevsky Prospect, lunch at Carl's Jr. and last evening at the Institute. Goodbye to this beautiful city and beautiful friends.

So this is the last entry in this blog. We leave in just a few days. One more party, at the mission president's home on Saturday, and then the big going away from our branch which we have attended all the time we have been here on Sunday. Hard to believe it can go so fast. But we have loved it, even the trials, now they are over.

Home is sounding SOOO good!

Louis