Mission Home Christmas Tree

 Sister Lamb had the mission home decorated for Christmas ... this is the tree - I really liked the ornaments that depicted traditional Russian dolls.

 So I'm going to show you several.

Father Frost - used to be blue but has changed over the years to the red and white of Santa Claus.  The Russian Christmas is January 7th - we'll see what that is about ... the Heiselbetz's say a lot of drinking goes on!

Thanksgiving 2017

 We had a beautiful snow storm on Wednesday ... this is walking back to our apartment after we purchased the last of the ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner ... shared with two zone conferences at the Mission Home.

 When we arrived home our neighbor on our floor has their stroller outside their door ..so I took a picture close so you can see the runners attachment - works great on snow!

 These are true Granny Smith apples ... with freckles!

 This is the pie that we made from them - it was good.

 This is stuffing/dressing made with Russian brown bread - tasted good also!

 I made deviled eggs with bacon and green onions on top - people gobbled them down!

The eggs at the back of the table and pieces of pie - Sister Lamb, Sister Heiselbetz and I all made pie - and everyone liked the selection.  Sister Heiselbetz found two bottles of pie cherries - got them home and they had pits in them ... Elder Heiselbetz's spent his evening taking them out.  We needed pecans for one of the pumpkin cream cheese ones that I made ... only found in the shell ones - so we spent our evening shelling pecans!  It was worth it - they were delicious.

 Happy Thanksgiving to everyone - - we have SO MUCH to be thankful for! 

We glued these two plates together and they stood up on the tables for our decorations!  We had a good Zone Conference - actually two - Left bank on Wed. and Right bank on Thursday ... and we did a turkey dinner for both!  We also did our presentation for the zones about Light The World both days.  The next transfer is Dec. 19th - we are loosing 16 volunteers - including a senior couple serving way over in Vladivostok - and no new volunteers coming until March!  One of the presentations by the Sister Training Leaders was about Companionship Study - one quote I wrote down is: "Pride is confidence when it is coupled with gratitude and humility." We can be proud of our accomplishments - when we acknowledge the Lord's hand and are grateful!  When the AP's were giving a presentation on Language Acquisition - they asked for stories of mishaps with language - one sister said she ordered a 'man' instead of a 'taxi' - the Russians saints were laughing and helped her change it.  One man on a bus - had a little too much to drink - asked an elder if he wanted to be his 'friend' - the elder said yes - and the man had said do you want to fight?  So he got punched!

Around Town

 We took a suit of Elder Smith's into the local dry cleaners this last week ...these old instruments were on display - the iron looks like the ones the pioneer used -but the hand carved scrubbing board? yikes - not only do you need to scrub your clothes on it - - you need to make it first!!  Glad to be living in the age of modern washing machines!

 This poster was up at the Dry Cleaners - yay for Russia hosting the World Cup ! I really like the logo - it will be fun to experience...even though we are four hours away from Moscow.

 This is the ice sheet that forms under the Town Pump - I guess people still need water in the winter. Notice the sidewalks - they throw a little dirt on top of the snow and ice - Sister Heiselbetz's calls it  brown sugar!!

 This is a picture of the stroller with sled rails - baby was enjoying the ride!  Notice the far left of the picture - a whole row of the trees with red berries - I should find out what they are.

 Closer view of the cute baby stroller.

 Here we have a dead Novosibirsk rat!  It is right downtown - notice the building in the background - red M on top?  that is the Metro (Subway) station.  Also notice the brown sand on top of the snow.

 Closer picture of Mister Rat for Emilee Pike - it was a dead mongoose in Jamaica - remember?

Elder Smith talked me into getting my hair cut - - I like it and so does he!

At our local market they had these Koi fish - giant goldfish!  no - we didn't purchase any - the salmon we got there was delicious however!

 We had English Speaking Club at our apartment Saturday afternoon - here is the front entry with all the boots and shoes that the club members took off!

Here are their coats! - we really had a nice time - they wanted to learn about Thanksgiving ... so we printed out an 'ice breaker' get to know you game - one young man asked: We are going to break some ice?  Then we played a "Scavenger Hunt" kind of game - they didn't know what 'scavenger' was - one young lady used her phone translator and told us it said: Trashman!  We laughed a lot.  The last game we played was pictionary - on a white board - with simple English words ...then we had shredded turkey on rolls, two kinds of salads and three desserts - a good time was had by all!

Snow and Cold

 This is one of the small flower beds around our apartment building - only the top of the small pine tree is showing now - and it will get all covered over!

 The flower bed on the other side of the stairs to our building - it is a little bit larger than the other one - but still will be covered up we are told...good thing I like snow!

 We walked about a mile to the Mission Home this afternoon ... we had a presentation to do at the Mission Leadership Council - and this was on the way.  Pretty little pine tree and cool red berries with white snow on them - yes it was cold - 5 degrees!

 We stopped on the way back to get Elder Smith's hair cut - and this pretty tree was in front of the Salon -isn't he handsome?!!

 In the park on our way - love our warmest coats and toasty boots!  Elder Smith bought Polar Extreme socks at the MTC and he really likes them - keeps his feet very warm.

We found another neat street sculpture - a sewing machine!!

Around Town

 We went to Church in 5 degree weather - first time wearing our heaviest coats - and ice cleats on our boots!  we survived and know colder weather is coming!!

 This is a parking lot we see out of our windows - a man shoveled the whole thing with a hand snow shovel.

 Here is a close up of the two handed shovel - he worked eight hours at cleaning this lot.

Some of the street vendors still have their stands open ... this is honey - who knew there was this many kinds of honey? 

Irkutsk Chapel

 We had a good meeting with the Priesthood leaders of the District and Branch - this is a picture of the Chapel for the Irkutsk Branch.

 Seminary poster of the History of the Church in Russia - very interesting.

 Closer so you can see the dates - 1843!

 Landing in Novosibirsk - likes like winter, huh?

Hey kids - here is a Green Bean Machine jet airplane!!  We had our first Ford 12 passenger Van this same color!  This is an airline called S-7 here!  Yes - it was snowing when we landed.  You are unloaded out on the tarmac and taken by bus into the terminal.

Baikal Museum

 This is a very educational museum ... we noticed many more English signs in Irkutsk - quite a destination resort with Lake Baikal so near. 

 Fascinating facts about this largest fresh water lake in the whole world.

 More info.

 Outline of the whole lake - displays were really well done.  We learned a great deal.

 How Lake Baikal was formed geographically.

 Current outline - there are thermal vents at the bottom of the lake.  There was an exhibit that took you inside a submarine and you dove to the bottom!  Learned a lot along the way.

 Russian eagle - small bear to the right.

 The museum had fresh water seals - two of them.  They had claws on the end of their flippers and our guide said to claw the ice and make breaking holes in the winter.  These are only found here, white baby seals when they are born - used to be endangered but not now.

Hard to get a good picture through the glass - they are so fat because they live in very cold water and weather!