An Exciting Morning at the Church History Library

This morning was undoubtedly the most exciting morning I've had in the Church History Library.  This must be why I forgot it was my turn to write to the kids and grand kids yesterday.  I just wanted to get in my story about today.

First of all, here's the way the patriarchal blessing requests are handled in our department.  Hundreds of new requests show up in the main queue each morning.  Sister Erickson is the one who then divies them out to the queues of the 14 or so of us who are there each day.  She just puts an equal amount in each person's queue.

So, this morning one of the other sisters in the department comes over to me from another cubicle and says I need to come to her computer and see something.  What I saw on her computer screen was this request from someone in Japan.  It was from Kyle!!! Requesting Grandpa Hegsted's blessing!!!  With a note in the comments box saying something like, "Dear Sister Clements (Grandma),  I hope you are the one to look this up. . ."  He said he was just checking out the features of the church website and realized that this is what I do so he thought he'd test it out.  I was so excited I could hardly stand it.

But there's more to the story.  I wanted to have Sister Erickson transfer that request to my queue so I could look up the blessing, so I went to her and told her what I wanted.  She brought it right up and proceeded to send it to my computer, but then she and I looked further down her list to see if Kyle had sent any more requests.  And what should I see but a request from Shaun!!!  She put this in my queue and I see that he was requesting Grandpa Clements' blessing.  Now, what are the odds of both those requests coming in on the same morning?  That was SO fun.

And just before all this happened I had been sitting there thinking about looking up Grandpa and Grandma Clements' blessings.  For those of you who weren't there, we had a great cousins get together on Saturday at Kelley's.  Sometime during our visit, Kelley or Stacie had asked about getting copies of their blessings for everybody.  I said it would be best if someone requested them through the church website and then could make copies for other people, if they wanted to.  So I was just thinking about that and had just decided I might as well just get them and send them out to whoever wanted them.  So, now I'm asking who of you out there would really like to have and would have a place to put copies of their blessings?  I'll send them to whoever responds and save you the trouble of requesting them.  On the other hand, if any of you do want to request some blessings, be sure to put some little note in the comments box to Sister Clements so that whoever it goes to will give it to me. 

But there's still more to my story.  Lou's desk is just across the cubicle wall from that sister who called me over to see Kyle's request, so, of course, he heard my excited voice and came to see what was going on.  But then he went out into the library and wasn't there to hear about Shaun's, so a short time later I went out to tell him about it.  He was in the library reading room looking at Stacie's mission pictures and journals!!!  Again, on Saturday Stacie told us about someone from the Church History Department calling her years ago and asking if they could come see her.  Because she was the first sister missionary in Greece (and, I'm sure, because her mission president was SO impressed with her) he had asked the Department to have someone contact her to see if she would let them take her journals and pictures to copy and place in the archives.  She was wondering where they would be now and in what form, since they were all given back to her in fine order.  Stacie, your journals are beautiful!  If I kept such a neat-looking and beautifully-written journal maybe I wouldn't mind it being preserved for the ages.  (Louis will send you another email telling you more about them.)  But it was amazing to see how beautifully preserved and filed all those hundreds of pictures and thousands of written pages were.  They are not on the open shelves but are something you can find in the card catalog and request be brought out of the archives, if you are in the library.  Which is same way you would be able to see Grandpa John Scott's journal, if you ever wanted to.

Well, you can see that it was a pretty fun morning.  It was also great to see all of you who were there on Saturday.  I guess I've said it before, but I love this mission that lets me have both kinds of experiences!

This sums it all up:  "Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous."

Love,
Mom, Grandma, Diane

The Falcons Have Flown

We’ve had almost more excitement than we can stand during the past two days.   The falcons have flown!  Bet you didn’t know we were falcon watchers.  It started during our first week here when one of our trainers mentioned the peregrine falcon nest box that is on a ledge near the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and has two web cams in it.  The church, in conjunction with the US Wildlife and several other agencies, has participated in wooing a falcon pair to nest here for many years.  We started checking in on the birds once in a while.  There were four eggs the parents were taking turns sitting on.

About five weeks ago three eggs hatched and the fun of watching them grow began.  Luke gave me the idea to keep the web came open in the corner of my computer desktop and I have done that at work every day since then.  It has been great fun watching them grow, the parents bringing them fresh birds to eat, and them fighting over the food, etc.  We learned that when it is time for them to fledge (see, it has even broadened my vocabulary!) that there would be trained watchers on the plaza watching and ready to rescue them, if necessary.  The brick and glass buildings and traffic of a city pose great hazards as they are learning to fly.  There were even large, yellow traffic signs put up on each street around Temple Square which say, “Falcon Bird Watch – Prepare to Stop.”  This past week the three birds, who are big by now, have been spending a lot of time flapping their wings and looking out of the box.  Just trying to get up courage, I’m sure.

Friday was the day.  When Lou turned the web cam on at 6:15 a.m. one of them was gone.  We watched them off and on as we got ready to go to work, and he saw the second one take off about half an hour later.  I watched #3 all day at work.  She acted very anxious, but just didn’t dare try her wings.  At lunch we sat out on the plaza and talked to one of the watchers and learned that #2 had taken the longest fledgling flight they had ever seen.  She had flown across South Temple Street to the roof of Macy’s in the City Creek Center.  So he had been named Macy.  The first one out was named Primo and he was hanging out on the Church Administration Building just a short distance from the box.

But later that evening I read the sad news that Macy, who had taken several short flights during the day, had then taken off and crashed into the Key Bank high rise building and died.  I was so sad. 

But that’s not the end of the story.  Yesterday morning  #3, who has been named Boxer because she was staying in the box, started acting very strangely.  She was extremely agitated and flailing about in the box.  Finally, the wildlife guy, Bob, who is called a ‘rehabilitator’ carefully took the back off the box from inside the building and reached in with a towel to try to capture her.  Instead, it scared her and she flew out very quickly.  So I was reading blog posts all day keeping track of her.  They later caught her and took her to rehab and even took an x-ray of her gut.  Said she seemed fine but they kept her there overnight and will likely release her sometime today.  So that is a bit of the story of the SLC falcons. I see on the internet that there are similar falcon pairs and boxes and web cams in several cities in the U.S.  Another interesting perk of this mission.

On another subject, I just want to tell you about an interesting experience I had at work this week.  One day I received an email from our dear friend, Monday, in Nigeria.  My kids will remember us talking a lot about Monday and his family.  He is an exemplary church leader and is educated and ambitious, but couldn’t (and still can’t) find work and can barely feed their six kids.   He asked about what we are doing on our mission here, so in reply I told him about what I do in the patriarchal blessing department.  I was surprised to get another email right back from him saying that he wanted to get a copy of his blessing.  I thought, “Oh no, this likely isn’t going to work.”  I have watched for but have never yet seen a request come in from Nigeria, and I didn’t have much faith that the patriarchs would have sent in their blessings regularly.  But I told him just how to go to lds.org and where to  find the request form.  I thought it would be several days before he would get to a computer again so I told him to email me when he sent it so that I could try to arrange to have his request put in my queue.  (There are 16 people in my department all answering requests.)

I was, again, very surprised when I had another email early the next morning saying that he had sent it in.  (I later learned that he has a laptop computer and a modem now. The only problem is that they don’t very often have electricity!  This just blows my mind that he could scrap together enough money for a computer.)  So as soon as I got to work I had my coordinator look for his request and assign it to me.  I was so excited just to see his name, but almost afraid to open it.  Imagine my delight when I saw his blessing appear, already matched by the computer.  The system works!!!  Obviously, it worked because his patriarch had done his job correctly.  The blessing was given way back in 1998.  Monday has been a faithful member since the very early days of the church in Nigeria.  Those faithful members have so little and expect nothing (because the fast offering system didn’t really work there).  Yet they know the gospel is true.

I hope many of you were able to watch Music and the Spoken Word today.  It was their Independence Day special, with the orchestra and bells, and it was magnificent!  What a great way to start this week. Wishing everyone a good 4^th of July.  We have so much to be thankful for in this country.

Our Mission Assignment

Dear Family,

We have decided that, in the spirit of missionary letters, we will send the same letter each week to each family and to Kyle, Drew and Rhett. If we need to add any other emails just let us know.

We have been here just over two weeks now and are finding it really lovely and exciting to live in Salt Lake City. We have already been visited by some of each family except for the Tanners.  That is a real perk of this mission. We live on the 11th floor of an apartment building just one-half block east of the Church Office Building. It is a very nice apartment and the whole west wall of our living room is glass. Here is the view from our west-facing balcony. The Church Office Building is on the left, of course, and if you look carefully at the middle, right side of the photo you see the forest that is on the roof of the Conference Center. The building between here and there is the new Church History Library.

One of the biggest differences that we comment on each day between this mission and our past missions is that everywhere we go, both inside and out, is so beautiful. (There was not a single thing of beauty in Nigeria, except the temple.) The temple grounds, or more specifically the 'Church campus,' is spectactular this time of year with blooming trees and flowers. There are many water features on the quad: water falls, fountains, pools and streams. And our days have been spent mostly in the Joseph Smith Memorial building, which is amazing. Truly, "there is beauty all around."

We have survived our first two weeks! In lieu of the MTC experience the senior couples and single sisters in this mission have two weeks of training in the Joseph Smith building, mostly with a one-on-one trainer, working on just the first 5 generations of our own family history. For both of us that meant just finding sources to prove the events for people we already knew. As you can imagine, that gets a bit tedious after awhile, but certainly not for lack of new stuff to learn.

I was especially fortunate to have Ellen Barzee, from Rexburg, as my trainer. Lou taught her kids in high school and she taught Cheyenne and Natalie in kindergarten. They loved her. As do I, now. She has the patience of Job and great teaching skills.

We even attend church in the Joseph Smith building. The branch we are assigned to is one of two mission branches composed of senior couples and single, senior sisters. Now that's a big change, also! (In Nigeria and in Russia there were 3 or 4 other couples.) You may remember that this building was once the very elegant Hotel Utah built in 1909. The magnificent foyer has marble floors, beautiful rugs, crystal chandliers a mezzanine and the 9 foot statue of Joseph Smith. I remember when I was in high school coming to Salt Lake to Conference with my dear friend, Julina Hart, and visiting her grandfather, then-Elder Joseph Fielding Smith, who lived in the Hotel Utah. Many of the general authorities lived there.) We meet in what I call the Italian Renaissance chapel because of it's architecture. The ceiling and walls are white with ornate wood carving trimmed in gold. Even the organ is white. I'm sure there's no other LDS chapel like it anywhere.

Thursday it was raining so we used the underground parking when we went to the cafeteria for lunch. As we were coming back we saw several of the brethren being driven through the parking lot in a golf cart. Then, a short distance behind them we passed right by Elder Robert D. Hales, who was being pushed in his wheelchair. As dictated by one of the cardinal rules of this mission, we just smiled and said hello and kept walking, but under my breath I added, "cousin." If I had dared to blurt out, "I'm the grand-daughter of your Aunt Edna Hegsted," he may have stopped to talk. But I'm proud to say that I maintained my decorum.

Our most exciting day was last Friday when, having completed our training zone, we were given our assignments of where we will be serving. There are 22 different zones in this Church and Family History Mission, each doing entirely different work, but you don't normally move between zones . We are assigned to work in the Church History Library (not to be confused with the Family History Library). Yeah!! That was what we had hoped for. More specifically, we will be working on the first floor with We will now begin another two weeks of training, but this time it will be on what we will be working with.

We are loving this place and being missionaries again. We especially love that you can come visit us. Everyone, have a good week.

"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

Random Thoughts

We just had the privilege of going to the Helsinki temple for the second time. Being in the temple again was wonderful but seeing my dear friend Ronda was the highlight of the trip. Ronda Groberg and her husband Dick serve as temple missionaries there. It is about a 6 hour drive from St. Petersburg and another hour was spent getting through the border rigamoral. The differences between Russia and Finland are so pronounced, beginning with the landscape. As soon as you drive into Finland you leave the forests of Russia for beautiful but rocky farmland. The temple is built high on a rocky outcrop and appears to me like a fortress of God.

The church members here are struggling to deal with a tragedy in their midst. Two weeks ago an active family was boating on nearby Lake Ladoga when a sudden, violent storm came up. The mother, father and three sons have not been heard from since. Search crews combed the waters for days and have finally found only the body of one of the sons. It is very hard for everyone to understand how this could happen to good people. And the family had not been sealed in the temple. They especially mourn for that. It is a trial of their faith.

Last week we had a baptism for another wonderful, young West African man. There is getting to be quite a group of them in the church here now. They are so receptive and humble.

Our time here is rapidly drawing to a close. We will be leaving for home in a little over two weeks so are experiencing many "lasts" already. We are in touch by email with our replacement couple who are coming from St. George, and I'm writing up notes to leave them to hopefully spare them some of the trauma we have gone through in learning things the hard way. But then I realize that everyone has to learn much through experience. This Russian experience has been amazing. As we walk the streets of St. Petersburg we still marvel that we are even here. The experiences a senior couple can have can be had no other way. I have loved learning the culture of a new country and it's people through the medium of the gospel and to feel that I have had a small part in building God's kingdom here and strengthening the members. There is nothing else like it. The gospel is true and to see it blessing the lives of the Russian people is just a further testimony to me.


This is a beautiful cathedral very close to our apartment where Dostoyevsky was a parishioner.

Ah, Kool-Aid!

At a recent social at our Institute for the young adults Lou and I were in charge of the food. Geri had brought us a bunch of Kool-Aid when they came so we decided to use that for our drink instead of the warm juice they always serve. We didn't have any serving pitchers but we had a couple of big, 5 liter water bottles and we made it in those and put in the the fridge overnight. We filled the cups in the kitchen rather than put that big jug on the table so the drink was rather a surprise when they got it. What a hit it was! Some started asking what this was they were drinking and then told the others that it was a great new American beverage. Chalk one up for the Americans!


This was our second year of enjoying the beautiful 'white nights' of St. Petersburg. They just make such a big fuss here about how beautiful and romantic the city is during the white nights, and it does have a special feel. The sidewalks are busy with people just out strolling at all hours, as seen from our apartment windows in the middle of the night when I can't sleep.

The elders and sister missionaries complain about how many of their investigators and members are gone to their dachas (small summer homes) now or have just left for their month-long vacation and how it disrupts their work. What we see with the young single adults we work with is that many of them have left to spend the summer months at home (which is somewhere else) with their families or have gone to the US to work or are getting married. None of this is bad but our numbers are depleted and we miss those good friends who are gone.

We had some fun recently when Rich and Millie Andrus were in the city for a short time at the end of a trip. Their hotel was just a block from our apartment and we were able to have dinner with them and show them around for a few hours. It is always fun to see folks from home.

We just got a new pool table at our Institute. Our district president decided to spend much of the budget he had for young adults on this. It is a "Russian" table, meaning that the pockets are smaller than on an "American" table, but yet they bought the larger "American" balls. So it is a challenge for the players but it is getting a lot of use. Especially by Elder Clements and Sasha, our Institute coordinator.

But lest you think it is all fun and games here, I'm including this picture of us being honored at the Institute graduation. The gospel is true, the work goes on, and life is good.

Just Like Christmas

It had many of the best aspects of Christmas, this past week of ours --

much anticipation, family coming to visit, presents, special days doing fun things together, the let down when it's over, and, finally, the good (New Years') feeling of getting back to what we're supposed to be doing. Our son and daughter-in-law, Brad and Geri, and our grandsons, Kyle and Mitch, actually came to St. Petersburg, Russia! We had timed this visit so that it fell on the week between semesters at our Institute so there wasn't really anything going on there. (Actually, the building was supposed to be closed for remodeling at that time, but that didn't happen.) So we were able to basically be tourists for a few days and to show them some of the palaces, cathedrals and museums of St. Petersburg. How cool is that?
The weather was cool and we got in rain a couple of days, but didn't dampen our spirits at all. One day we were standing in line in front of one of the palaces when it began to rain. As the umbrellas unfurled I noticed a couple of blue and white ones bearing the BYU logo. We had a visit with those folks.

They brought 4 huge suitcases with them, much more room than they needed, so that they could bring goodies for us --foodstuffs and baking items we can't get here -- such as chocolate chips, powdered sugar, Karo syrup, and licorice. Also clothes I had ordered sent to their house. Oh, happy day! Something new to wear! After filling my list of things Geri still had room left over so she packed Oreos and potato chips (in shoe boxes so they weren't squished). Then we filled those suitcases with our heavy winter coats and souvenirs for their trip home.

Here's the men waiting for the women in front of the Winter Palace. (Geri and I had stopped off in the museum gift store.)

You ought to try ordering from those menus. The blinis pictured are typical Russian fast food fare. The one on the left is served with caviar.

Right after the kids left we went to Estonia for a day to renew our visas. This was our last visa trip. (We have to leave the country every 90 days to renew our visas.) I was very disappointed that we couldn't go to Finland this time to visit the temple and my friend Ronda. It all depends on where your visa is in the renewal process.

This past weekend Elder L. Tom Perry and some members of our Europe East Area presidency were here visiting. They held a Saturday meeting just for the missionaries and then a district conference on Sunday. On Saturday Elder Perry had us all line up to come and shake hands and tell him where we were from. He surprised us all by how tall he is and what a booming, robust voice and manner he has. When we got to him we had only to say our name and that we were from Rexburg, Idaho, when he said, "Are you related to my friend, Ray Clements?" We were totally expecting that (he and Lou's father were buddies in the Marines during WWII), but what was funny was that it took him a minute to wrap his head around the fact that this old man he was talking to (Lou) was his friend's son, not his brother. He said, "How can that be?" We all got a laugh out of that. Then he told everyone how this man's father was his good friend in the Marine Corps and later in his talk he was talking to the missionaries about the importance of companionship study and he had to digress and tell about his worthy 'companions' in the Marines and how he and Ray Clements and a couple of other members of the church built a tiny chapel on Saipan and were able to attend meetings there only one week before they were shipped out. On Sunday he talked mostly about church history and about each of the presidents of the Church he has served under and how the special talents and emphasis each of them had were exactly what was needed at that era in the church. Stories like these are very interesting to the members here, many of whom don't know a lot of this history. At the age of 88 Elder Perry is still a magificant witness of the Savior.

Fun mission call

At 4:00 a.m. on Thursday morning in St. Petersburg, Russia, we skyped with our older son and watched his 2nd son open his mission call to Fukuoka, Japan, in the midst of family and friends. It was 6:00 p.m. in Ceder Hills, Utah. This picture is one that Brad or Geri took of us on their table. Diane said it is just like that old tv show of The Adams Family where they had 'Thing' who lived in a black box on the table.

This was the climax of an exciting week for us. Our missionaries here were excited to know that we were expecting to hear about our grandson's call. So on Monday at our district missionary meeting the eight of us gave guesses and we wrote them on our white board in the institute classroom. At the top it said, "Where is Kyle going?" That night at home evening two of our district elders were there and so they got the fifteen people there to make guesses also and those names were added. We ended up with twenty-two guesses. Two of them were for Japan, my guess and the Russian zone leader, Elder Zubkov. It was quite a fun week to anticipate and we have had several follow-ups from Russians on facebook wanting to know where the call is. We have grown quite close to our Russian friends and they always want to know all about what is happening to our family.

Last night we had an nice visit with Galea. She is a Russian investigator who is really interested in us and our family and how families are so important in the Gospel. She was raised Muslim but has a belief in God. She was met by the sisters street contacting and has been coming for lessons with them. But she speaks good English and loves to come and talk with us. Since getting to know her, we have found that her attitude has changed quite a bit and can tell that she is being touched by the spirit. Her idea of wanting to improve her English language has changed to her wanting to know more about the Gospel and to understand it more. We showed her the movie "Emma" and she loved it and understood it. She came last Tuesday and watched the "Legacy" with us and felt the spirit. Now she wants to see "Emma" again and then we will watch the "Work and the Glory" series with her. She wants to find a guy who will treat her like she observes in our church. I feel she is going to progress to eventually be baptized and sure hope it happens while we are still here.

We have come to an end of the institute year and classes have finished. We have two weeks now before we begin our summer classes. This summer we will have home evening on Monday, "Words of the Living Prophets" on Tuesday nights, and "Principles of Leadership" on Wednesday nights. We will still be at the institute from Monday thru Friday from 4-9, and it will be a place for the missionaries to teach lessons all that time. It is hard to think of where they used to teach before they had this building available to them. It is rewarding to us to have the knowledge that we have made a big difference in the programs of the youth here in St. Petersburg.

Last week we experienced summer at its best. Warm days and nights beginning to get shorter and shorter as the sun stays up longer. People out in all their summer clothes and complaining about the heat. But this week it turned cool (60's and 50's) and has been raining just to remind us that we are in St. Petersburg. Surprising how nice weather affects our outlook.

We had a special zone conference this week and Elder Sweitzer and his wife, counselor in the Europe East Area Presidency, were there to talk to us. They are both great motivators and, IT WAS IN ENGLISH.

Saturday I had the privilege of baptizing a cute young lady. She has been taught by a couple of sisters, usually at our institute building. So we have visited with her there each time. When they asked her who she would like to baptize her she asked for me to do it. So that was fun. Her name is Alyona Alexandrovna Bakolova. I have been practicing it all week because I always tend to put the emphasis on the wrong syllable.

Next week Brad and family are coming to visit us! Now, that's going to be a fun week!!!

Louis

Good Idaho Folks

This past week two senior missionary couples visited our mission sent from Moscow by the Europe East Area presidency. One is the area humanitarian couple who came to train our new couple here, and the other was a specialist in marriage and family relations who came especially to train us couples and the mission leadership on the new Strengthen the Family course. Imagine our surprise to find that both couples are from Southeastern Idaho. The Burtons are from Twin Falls and the Lees from Pocatello, formerly Rigby and St. Anthony. We keep noticing that there is such an abundance of good people from our area here.

Last Sunday we had an excellent example of the Lord's tender mercies guiding lives. On Saturday evening one of the sister missionaries called and asked if we would meet with them on Sunday morning before church as they were going to teach a young man who normally brings his wife, but that she couldn't come that day. So, of course, they just needed to have someone with them.

The next morning, Sunday, Sister LeBaron called again. Plans had changed. Right now these sisters are in a threesome. One sister was sick so Sister LeBaron was going to stay home with her while their other companion, Sister Kelnick, came to do the teaching. Sister Kelnick is Russian and doesn't speak any English yet. We wondered about that but it was Lou's understanding on the phone that we were to meet them at the chapel and he was to give the lesson since this guy speaks good English. Oh, and his wife was coming, after all. Well, it turns out that he had misunderstood a little.

We set out for church waiting for the bus, as we always do. But the bus didn't come. After waiting awhile we decided we better start walking to the metro. We wound up going on the metro and when we got off it on the underground level there was Sister Kelnick and the ward member who was with her. We were surprised but even more so when she managed to tell us that we should stay there and wait for Sergei and his wife while they went on to the church to teach someone else. So we waited only about 5 minutes and here came this young man and his wife who we didn't really know but they recognized us immediately. The chances of all this 'meeting up' were just so unusual (if you didn't realize that it was the Lord's hand guiding them and us).

So we went to the church and visited and taught them for 30 minutes or so before Sacrament Meeting. He let us know right off that he is an atheist but he is not working right now so because he is not very busy when he met up with our missionaries he just decided to find out what we believe. He is a pilot and he and his wife are an extremely nice looking, clean cut young couple expecting their first baby. After Sacrament Meeting they were going to leave but said they would stay longer if we would just meet with them alone some more. Which we did, for another hour. They will, of course, continue to be taught by the sisters but he wants to come to the Institute often to visit with us, supposedly to improve his English. It will be interesting to see where this goes. He doesn't believe in God, the Bible, faith, prayer etc. etc., but yet we know he is being led by the spirit. Will the Lord continue to get through to him? We are anxious to find out.
Diane

Time is flying by

Two weeks ago we went to the baptism of three African men who are here in Russia studying the language and going to school. It is so interesting to us to see these wonderful guys who have the same spirit that we saw when we were in Nigeria, take up the Gospel with such enthusiasm. Since we have been here we have witnessed close to a dozen of these guys enter into the Church. We feel we have been a small part of each of them coming in as we can talk to them about their homes in Africa and relate to what they are missing there. The elders always make sure we are introduced to them and it is so fun to meet and visit with them. We instantly become "papa" and "mama" to them. Several of them attend our home evening each week and the English language Book of Mormon class that I teach.

Spring is here now. It actually got into the fifties several times this past week and even though it is raining today, it is fifty-two right now. This is hailed by many with great excitement and changes. The grass is beginning to get green, the buds are out on the trees, and the dirt of winter is being swept up. Since tourist season is upon us now, buildings are being painted, wrought iron fences and gates are being painted, and the boats are now plying the canals. Yesterday in a half hour as I passed the windows of our institute I saw five different boats loaded with tourists going by and saw four more in a convoy, empty, but headed for their loading points. And a sure sign of spring and the upcoming season is the change in the fashions. It seems like the Russian women get their fashion ideas from watching MTV and the short skirts are flourishing.

We had one quite exciting by product of our trip to Turkey. On the last evening there we got to sit at the table with President Paul, our area president. In the converstation with him and his wife, we talked about our experiences and his. In the conversation we mentioned that we had written and produced the Nigerian cultural event for the temple dedication there. We also talked of how fun it was to be on the committee for the same event at the Rexburg temple dedication. He asked us if he could send us a copy of the Kiev cultural event script to read and make suggestions. What a fun honor for us. We read it and made some suggestions to that committee. Who would have ever thought that we might have a part in three temple cultural events, small as this one might have been. We are looking forward to seeing it performed, video, of course, or the written account to see what might have been altered from our suggestions. This may happen in August, at least that is the time being planned for now.

We went to the May Day Parade on Saturday, which wasn't up to much. Not even as good as Rexburg's parades. But here is one colorful group. Most were just civilians marching with banners of their organization, which we couldn't read.

We are looking to the future being quite hectic. In June, the plans are right now, to close the institute for major remodeling. They are going to put in new windows and paint the whole place. We will move our efforts to the mission office complex and have home evening and summer classes there. But instead of going there from 4-9 each day, we will only go at about 7 till the class is over. The rest of the time we will have to be creative in what we do. This, of course, depends on the Russian construction schedule. It seems like here the quality of work and the time schedules are sort of based on a whim. They work when they want to and in summer often take time off for holidays and visiting their dacha's out in the country. But we love the work and love being with the young people.

When the president told us to get all the young people married, we laughed and wondered how we could even be a part of this. But maybe getting the institute open has contributed. Last year we had 22 marriages and so far this year we have had students get married. In the plans, right now, for the next few months there are 7 more students in the planning stage. People getting married here have to have a civil or 'registered' marriage before going to the temple. They have this civil wedding at a registry building of which there are many all over the city. Then they travel all over town and have pictures taken of the couple and the wedding party at different historical sites and cathederals. Then they have a dinner and program at the branch building. Then three days or so later they travel to Finland and go to the temple to be sealed. Quite the process. We have gone to two of these weddings and they are grand affairs. Any weekend there are many limo's passing us with wedding parties on there way here and there.

We are looking forward to visiting a few of the historical places, museums, and cathedrals we have not been to yet and to revisiting some of the ones we have been too. This town is so full of history and our understanding of the past and particularly World War II has grown a lot. May is a celebration month with Victory Day (or sometimes it is called Patriot Day or my favorite, "The day we won the War") at the beginning and other celebrations during the month.

Here's our new friend, Sister Hazelwood, and her grandkids. (Just kidding. These monkeys were on the street with a guy and we snapped a picture.)

Life Goes On

I haven't written here for a long time because it seems that missionary life goes on here with nothing happening that I think will be of interest to folks at home. Yet for us every day still brings new people and experiences. Of course, as at home, the biggest change in our lives is that it's spring, albeit with forward and backward spurts in temperature. Nothing can make you appreciate spring like a hard winter!

The Iceland volcano has affected us only indirectly. We are still waiting for the ash to hit us but so far the skies are blue. There is a new humanitarian couple who were to arrive last Saturday, but they are stuck at the MTC until they can get a flight in - hopefully on Wednesday. It will be fun to have new friends join us in this venture.

One of the highlights of our days is meeting the investigators that the elders and sisters bring to the Institute building to teach. Those who speak English really love to visit with us because they are always looking for English-speakers to practice their English on. This week there was a good-looking Indian guy (from India). He is going to be coming each week for a piano lesson. He speaks good English so that will be fun, but I have been teaching another investigator who is quite talented on piano but speaks very little English. That's a challenge! But he told the elders last week that he didn't want them to come back so he will not be coming to piano, either. I've had a steady stream of young people (members) come and ask to take piano lessons but after 3 or 4 lessons, when they find out that it requires more than just coming to lessons, they have all dropped out. This is frustrating because the whole point of it is to train pianists who can play in our branches. I've not had much success there.

The elders continue to find West Africans who are interested in the gospel. They speak English, of course (if you listen VERY carefully), and we love to get acquainted with them. We were told that one of things our mission president was going to bring up in his interview with the area president last weekend in Moscow was the possibility of creating an English speaking church unit here, mostly because of the group of Africans who have been baptized. There are 7 or 8 of them who come regularly to one branch and the elders teach a Sunday School class in English for them. Then there are also a few Chinese members and investigators and the American kids who come for the Inernational Language Program who all speak English. It would be interesting to see such a unit created, but I don't expect it to happen while we are here. The picture below is us with Kobe on his baptism day. Looks just like our pictures from Nigeria.

It's really fun to get the emails from our missionary grandson Curtis who is in Los Angeles working with Spanish speaking people. He and his companion have so many baptismal candidates to work with right now that he said they have no time to do other prosleyting. How our elders would love to have that problem! But Curtis is having some very unique experiences working in the 'hood. It just makes me realize how different every mission is. It's nice to know we were each placed where we are for a reason known only to the Lord. It is an awesome responsibility to try to live up to what He expects of us and hope that we are making a difference in someone's life.

Better and Better

I thought last week in Istanbul would be hard to beat but this week, well, just amazing. Except for Monday, when we took our every-90-day visa renewal trip. We went to Tallin Estonia, and it was worse than driving to Salt Lake and back in one day. We left at 5 in the morning and got back around 7:00 at night. All that time in a van to the border, then a bus to Tallin, then the bus back, and then the van back home. Of course, it's easier for us than for many who have to travel much further. One 'fun' part was the border lady on the Russian side when we came back who seemed fascinated with my passport. She kept studying it and then looking at me and scanning at and looking at it. She even went to the other passport booth and scanned it there. I was sweating bullets. Finally she let me pass through, but about two minutes later, as we were waiting for the other couple to come through, she came out and demanded my passport again. She took it back in and studied it some more. But I passed somehow! Communism may be gone here but the red tape is just as bad as ever. We have heard such horrer stories.

Picturesque Narva, Estonia. I have done puzzles that look like this.

Tuesday we were finally back with our students. It was so fun to greet them and have them welcome us back. Grandpa and Grandma we certainly are. I love my English speaking class and our African students were especially happy to see us back.

Wednesday the classes were cancelled as the teachers and most of the students had gone to Finland to the temple. One of the teachers was getting sealed after having been married on Saturday. (That was our second fun wedding experience here.) So we thought it would be quiet. Then in walked a guy who introduced himself as Dima. He had been given a pass-along card and followed up with calls and had been directed by the office elders to our building as a place he could go to English Club on Saturday or to speak with the American couple there. He mostly wanted to speak English with Americans and then maybe hear about the church. So for two hours we talked with him, gave him an 'unofficial' first lesson and played some ping pong with him. He came back on Thursday and visited some more. Then came to a fireside on Friday and said he is coming to church on Sunday.

We had an interesting firside Friday night. Our Eastern Europe Area CES supervisor, Henry Kosak, was here visiting. We spent the day with him. He visited the institute, took us to Pizza Hut (ah, real American pizza!) and then a dinner at the mission home. The mission president had decided that all the branch presidents should personally invite each of their inactive young adults to this dinner and then to the fireside with Henry.

Henry Kosak enjoying a song with some elders and some of the African members.

The fireside was very well attended. The best we have ever seen. Henry is a very charismatic speaker. He is German, speaks pretty good Russian, but gives his talks in English. Dima actually found his way to the fireside, although he was late. Don't know how he felt about it but it must have been okay because that was when he asked about coming to church.

Henry Kosak on the right with our coordinator, Sasha, translating for him. Good looking guys, aren't the?

It was one of those 'journal entry days.' Now it will be interesting to see how many of these inactive youth come to an institute class during the week. What a life we live. One adventure after another and loving it all.
Louis

Istanbul and Ali Babba

Europe East Area is one of the two areas of the world, we were told, that still gets to hold CES and humanitarian couples training conferences once a year. We have just completed our 4 day CES conferece in Istanbul, Turkey. Both the conference and the location were terrific. Our area president Elder Wolfgang Paul and his wife came and spoke to us two days. It was inspiring and uplifting, a real 'shot in the arm' for all of us. We are ready to go back and support and strengthen the youth and young adults in Russia (and Armenia, Latvia, Lithuania andUkraine) with renewed vigor.

I think it is pretty amazing that out of the 13 couples at our conference there were 3 from Rexburg. Pretty good odds! They were Ron and Brenda Jacques, Vic and Ann Forsnes and us. But also serving in this Europe East area, although not in CES, are Dave and Connie Pincock and Max and Deanna Wade. Kenton and Marilyn Andersen in Czech Republic are in the Europe rather than the Europe East area, but are not far away. And the Crittendens and Fluckigers have returned home from this area not long ago. Have I forgotten anybody? That just seems like a lot of of folks from our little town to be here when there are so many areas to serve in. It seems that there is a lot of emphasis on this area recently. We must strengthen the pioneers here so that upon this base the church membership will explode within the next 10 or 20 years.

The Rexburg Contingent in Istanbul


Some of the couples had a long trip to get to Istanbul. The couples in the eastern part of Russia are actually closer to Rexburg than they are to Moscow or St. Pete. It was just a 3 hour flight for us. But Turkey is the spot of choice for all the conferences this year because they said it is cheaper to go there than anywhere else, such as Lithuania where we went last year.

Well, it's got my vote. It was a fantastic place to visit. We were definitely not there spending any extra time as tourists, but at the same time they arranged for us to be in a hotel right in the heart of the old city, very close to the Grand Bazaar and the most famous palace and mosques. Our flight even got us there the night before most of the others got in, so we had some extra sight-seeing time. It was amazing! Right out of Aladdin. I even bought a genie lamp. The bazaar was so fascinating. I just wish I could have bought a Turkish carpet. At least two of the couples did--for a hefty price--and had them shipped home. There were carpet shops everywhere, and belly dancing outfits and the turned up shoes with tassels on the toes and wonderful lamps, vases, leather etc. A shoppers paradise.

Shopping at the Grand Bazaar

It's spring in Turkey. The flowers in the parks and along side the roads were beautiful. It was rainy and pretty chilly our first 3 days and the people kept apologizing for the weather, but for us women who for the first time in months were liberated from our long undies, heavy tights, tall boots, hats and gloves, it felt wonderful. And the last day the sun was out and it was about 50 degrees.

Me and Ali Babba

We were told not to wear our name badges in that country or to hand out pass-along cards or to talk about the church to people there, which was rather hard for this group of dedicated missionaries. We heard the call to prayers from the minarets of the mosque five times a day although we didn't see many people actually praying. Their culture is fascinating and beautiful. We saw in the palace/museum Moses' rod with which he smote the Red Sea and Joseph of Egypt's turban. Whether you believe this or not it is so interesting to think about where the beliefs of our religions differ.

Does anyone remember the movie called Topkapi from the '60's, starring Peter Ustinov about a jewel heist? I didn't remember it until someone mentioned it, but while we were in the Topkapi palace/museum we saw an 89 carat diamond and jeweled daggers, etc. and I commented that this seemed like the perfect place for a James Bond type movie. Someone else seems to have had the same idea. :)

A guy on the street started talking to us and asked Lou how old he was and how many children he had. When we threw in the grandchildren statistics he said, "Oh, you are Ali Babba!" So with that I jumped on a magic carpet with Ali and our genie lamp and flew back home to the real world.

Extreme cold is gone

The really bad weather, the below zero for 4 weeks, seems to have passed us by. It is now lows in the teens and highs in the twenties and that has made an impact on life in general. Suddenly the heaters in the apartment and the institute are putting out enough heat to make the rooms warm. So we are doing great.

We watched them chip the ice off the building roofs with my thoughts being on how much damage they are doing to the roofs. Seems like all that walking around and then slamming down the hard metal spikes to break the ice must be doing something to them. These guys hang on with ropes tied around them and are all over the roofs of the city. The road below is roped off so no one gets hit by flying ice and it makes for precarious walking at times, out in the road. But the traffic seems to be aware and careful too. Been snowing again though and we have these enourmous piles of snow that I am sure my grandkids would know what to do with, although I haven't seen any slides or activity from the Russian kids. Maybe they are just not used to knowing what to do.

We have two investigators that we are really enjoying right now. Nicoli comes to home evening and to the English Book of Mormon class. He is really studying the gospel, is being taught by the office elders, and it is a delight to see him come in the door. Has this big smile and will be at the top of the list of eligibles for the girls when he joins. But he is also talking about a mission so that may be on hold for a while. The girl is Ann or Anna (pronounced On-ya). She walks in and sees us and has this wonderful smile. She is tall and likes to talk with us in English. She teaches English. The sisters are teaching her and she seems to be progressing quite well. She doesn't play foosball very well, but likes to play it. We are glad to be able to be a part of their lives and feel we are contributing to their success in accepting the gospel.

This Sunday the mission president will be setting apart 6 missionaries to serve in the Ukraine and in other parts of Russia. That will really deplete our institute numbers when added to the seven marriages that are also being planned for this spring. But we are getting the other students to recruit so that our numbers attending the classes and the institute will stay up. That is one of the best parts of this mission. We had 36 people in attendance at our Family Home Evening this week. That is about twice what we would prefer but it was fun. They were very enthusiastic playing the games, maybe a little too much as it got a little wild. (When elders play "Do You Love Your Neighbor" they get a little too enthusiastic.) We also had 15 to our Book of Mormon class in English. That was a record number and it is so fun to talk with them about the scriptures, as most of them know so very little.

So things are moving along great. We are healthy and enjoying our mission very much. We do miss you all but know the Lord is blessing us and our family with our being here. And maybe winter is almost over, wooooohooooo.

January Baptisms

There hasn't been much to write about lately. Maybe the January blahs are the same everywhere. Surviving the cold and not breaking our necks on the icy, snowy streets has been formost on our minds for the past few weeks. I don't know how we were so lucky as to be here during a record cold and snow winter. It's probably because I was so hung up on going to 'somewhere warm.' The temperature has been below zero for at least three weeks, usually between 9 and 15 below. I keep thinking of the obituary that could run in the Rexburg paper with the heading, "Local Missionary Couple Impaled With Icicles in Russia." The icicles have gotten so dangerous that there have been men up on all the city roofs chopping them down. We are told that the men they hire have to have a license to climb to go up there. But here is a picture of a beautiful, frosty day. I loved the frosty filigree on the palace fence.

We had a dirty trick played on us on Saturday. We were out late, having been to dinner at one of our friend's place. So it was just after 10 pm and we had to wait in the cold about 15 minutes for our second bus. We were about frozen by the time it came. Then, about a third of the way home we realized that the driver wasn't taking the usual route for some unknown reason. Maybe because it was after 10 pm? Who knows? Anyway, we could see that he wasn't going to go down our street. Yikes!! There was nothing to do but get off and walk. So here we were at night, at minus 15 degrees, hoofing it home. Suffice it to say that we were a couple of popsicles by the time we got there!

We did have some heartwarming hours before that, though. We went to two baptisms. And there was one the week before. That's pretty unusual. We haven't heard the total for this past year but in 2008 there were only 44 baptisms in this whole mission. We were told that was the lowest in the whole Europe East area. Certainly nothing to be proud of. And I know our missionaries are out there working hard.

One of the baptisms was a Nigerian guy. We now have 6 or 7 West Africans recently baptized. They all attend the same branch so they can have a Sunday School class in English. We still love those black faces and love talking to each one as the elders always bring them to meet us. They are so humble and receptive to the gospel.

The other baptism was a cute, fiftyish sister in our branch. Svetlana has been a faithful 'dry member' for 12 years now, just waiting for her husband to give her permission to be baptized. Practially the whole branch turned out for her baptism. Soon after we got here last spring Lou and I went with some other branch members out to their dacha (country home) and helped do some spring cleanup in their yard. Then we had a bar b'cue. Her husband speaks pretty good English and we enjoyed talking with him. They said that was the first time he had agreed to have any of the members of the church come visit them. After her baptism Svetlana told us, "When you came to work with us on May 1st I felt your faith was so strong and I knew that I would be baptized while you were here." We are thrilled that we got to see it happen. That is the kind of day that makes this all worthwhile.

Country Mice Go To The Ballet

We've just accomplished one of my greatest non-missionary goals for being in this city -- that of attending The Nutcracker ballet in the Mariinsky Theatre at Christmastime. Now these two little country mice have never attended a ballet before (nor has at least one of us ever wanted to), but in my estimation this was to be the ultimate ballet experience. And it truly was! Lou even liked it, but he's quick to let me know that I shouldn't get any mistaken ideas about ballet in the future. There are many ballet/opera theatres here but the Mariinsky is the most famous because of the ballet troupe that began there. And The Nutcracker premiered there in 1891 with Tchaikovsky in attendance. The music and scenery was fantastic and the story so fun. We went to a Saturday morning performance (that's our P-Day so it was 'legal') and there were many children there all dressed in their beautiful Christmas clothes. But there was not a sound out of them. Obviously, they are already veteran ballet attenders. I could almost see the ghosts of all the beautifully gowned and jeweled ladies from past centuries sitting in the boxes and, of course, the Tzar and Tzarina in their own box. The theatre, like their palaces, is all elaborately guilt ornamented.

This is a picture of the Mariinsky taken in the summertime and of the curtain call of the ballet.

Cold St. Petersburg

Everyone here has been telling us that St. Petersburg usually had really mild winters. The newspapers are saying the snow we have been having for about ten days now is very unusual, something like the worst snow this city has had in 130 years. It caught the town quite unaware and they are being very slow at removing any of it. Today it was 9 degrees below 0 and the snow is just piling up and not melting like it usually does. Some of the merchants have come out and moved a little of the snow from in front of their shops. It think the city came by and moved some from some of the sidewalks also. Our two city workers who are in charge of garbage removal at our apartment shovel a path from our containers out to the road so they can wheel the garbage out each day. We are making friends with them and get a nice hello each time we meet them.

We walk two long blocks in sort of snow-scraped sidewalks. They put sand and salt on the sidewalks and the roads. This helps some, but the sand mixes with the dry snow and makes it hard to walk in. The third block is the worst. The sidewalks are built up in places with ice and none of it is shoveled. So now all the foot traffic is in the street. It is a one way road so when we hear a car coming, we step off to the side till it passes and then we trudge through the loose sand/snow. It is very tiring walking. It is also scary at times as the drain pipes from the roof have built these ice ridges every so often and they are hidden under the snow and very slick. We cling to each other and hope that when one slides the other is steady.

Then yesterday I noticed the icicles hanging from the roof tops. They are hanging over all the area we walk. I have asked several Russians if they are a problem when warmer weather comes and they all seem to not know what I am talking about. Now that could be a bit of the language problem, but I think they just haven't experienced this type of situtation before.

We had a party/service project at the institute on December 26th. It was great and over thirty of the youth came. We watched a movie on giving service and then they all assembled around the ping pong table and made Christmas cards to take to an orphanage on January 7th, Christmas day, and sing Christmas carols to them.

What a wonderful time we are having in spite of the weather. We had a wonderful New Year's Eve as we picked up from the post office a package that our children and grandchildren had put together for us at Thanksgiving time. It had pictures and goodies and almost made up for not being with them at this wonderful time.

Christmas Wishes

We want each of you, our friends and family, to know how much your comments and emails mean to us throughout the year. It really is a support just to hear from you. Our Christmas this year may not be exactly 'merry' but we are filled with love for Jesus Christ and His gospel and thankful for the privelege of serving in the land of Russia among some wonderful people here. We send our best wishes to each of you for a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year.

Elder and Sister Clements (aka Louis and Diane)

It got cold

For this past week the temperature has gotten quite low and we are really feeling St. Petersburg weather. Not cold like Rexburg, but with the wind and the humidity, it is feeling cold. And we leave home at 3:40 in the almost dark to walk to the institute. The cold is because the sky has cleared some and we are able to actually see a little bit of sunset. So our missionary day begins in almost dark and it is really dark when we come home. But the streets are well lit and even some of them have decorations across them. They don't celebrate Christmas as we do. They have only been able to recognize Christianity for not quite twenty years now. So the Christmas traditions we are used to are not here. No music on the radio, which some of you would be cheering about. But we took some Christmas music on our computer so we have it. We are having a white elephant gift exchange at our zone conference on December 28, and we will be having dinner with the mission president and the other couples on December 25th. The big holiday here is January 7th, which is the official New Years date.

Just so you have an idea what the cold is like: This morning it took me a good five minutes to go from white shirt and suit pants to entering the cold weather. I am wearing themals now as my first defense. Then I put on my shoes, which have an insert to guard against cold. Next comes a heavy scarf around my neck, then my hat with ear flaps to pull down. Then comes my long coat with a heavy lining. This zips up to my chin and is quite comfy. Then I have to adjust the bus money in my coat pocket so I can find it easy when we get on the bus. Then on go my heavy gloves. Last I adjust my hood over all the top to break the wind. Diane is doing the same thing and by the time we are ready to go it is pretty hard to see who is there. So we set off.

We catch the bus in front of our apartment. I wave my hand, the bus stops and we get on. Diane goes to find us a seat and I turn and pay the driver. Then I turn, spot her and go sit down. A block later I began talking to her, but she had her hood up and didn't hear me. I commented a couple of times and decided she really couldn't hear as the bus was quite noisy. When we near or stop, I get up and walked to the front of the bus, and let the driver know we want to get off. When he stopped, I turned and Diane was not moving. Then I glanced back and saw that she had been sitting at the back of the bus and not where I was sitting. So I had spent 20 minutes talking to the wrong lady! I am sure she was really glad to get rid of the guy who had been sitting by her and pestering her talking in this foreign language. We had quite the laugh as we moved on to catch our trolley to "get us to the church on time".

We don't have quite all our 'gear' on in this picture but you get the idea, except that with her hood on instead of that hat Diane was not as recognizable.

Dark Christmas Days

Some of you may remember reading my post back in May about the 'white nights', which is one of St. Petersburg's claim to fame. (Not that they are the only city who has them, but they make the biggest deal about them and how beautiful the city is then.) The white nights are when there are only a few hours of darkness because we are so far north that the sun barely slips below the horizon before it is up again. Well, of course, there has to be a flip side of this phenomenon and we are smack dab in the middle of it. I'd call it 'Dark Days' but I had to laugh when I read a travel brochure trying to drum up winter tourist business call it 'White Days.' They said it was the splendor of the snowy winter days and the white skys. Well, there's no 'splendor', in the city at least, of snow but white days is appropriate in that the sky for the few daylight hours is sort of white, actually I'd call it grey. Sunrise is now about 10:00 and sunset is at 4:00, so when we leave home to walk to our Institute building every day at 3:30, it is dusk. And we have seen absolutely no sunshine, because the sun never gets very high in the sky and is obscured by clouds anyway.

But the city is all decked out in Christmas finery. There are huge Christmas trees every few blocks decorated with large decorations and lights. These are 'fake' trees but a native told us yesterday that until a few years ago they used to use live trees. And the main streets have large Christmas decorations strung across the street. Nevsky Prospect, the grandest street, is a sight to behold. And the store windows are all sporting trees and decorations.

We think Christmas in Russia will be an interesting thing to observe since they don't actually celebrate 'Christmas.' This was, after all, an atheist country just a few short years ago. But they celebrate the new year in grand fashion, which means, evidently, mostly a lot of drinking. From January 1st through 15th is the new year holiday, with the 7th being what they call Christmas, although it is a much lesser holiday than the 1st. They tell us that people are about celebrated out by that time. Missionaries have to stay in their apartments on the 1st and the 7th because there is so much carousing and drinking going on. But the church members are learning how to celebrate Christmas and are very influenced by the American missionaries and former American mission presidents, so the branches are preparing for parties or programs. The members here are really blessed by having our hymn book now translated into Russian. They haven't had it for too many years. So they do have our Christmas carols to sing, but there is no Chrismas music on the radio. I have asked several people if the Russian people have Christmas music, or did they sing carols before they were in the church, and the answer seems to be 'no.' Because Lou is teaching a Book of Mormon class in English to those few who can speak English, we ordered some English hymn books. Oh, it is good to sing in English once in a while! Can't tell you how much I miss singing the hymns in words I understand. At our last Family Home Evening we sang some Christmas carols in both languages at the same time. The kids seemed to like that.

We actually have a Christmas tree in our apartment. It brings some cheer to the room. Our landlady, a fiftyish, blond, stylish woman, asked if we would like her to bring us one. She owns also a small storage room adjoining our apartment and she used to live here. So she has kept her tree there. On the agreed-upon day she showed up and got out the tree and decorations. We had that tree put together and the decorations and lights on it and tinsel thrown up on the pictures on the wall, etc. and she was out of here within an hour. Never did my Christmas decorating so easily. And it's not half bad.

Hope you are all enjoying the season and are very thankful to live in American, no matter what is going on there.