Branch Summer Party

 Irkutsk Branch Summer Party -  lots of food, fun and friends! 

 On the banks of the Resouvior made from the electric dam on the Angara river - which flows out of Lake Baikal through Irkutsk.

 "Fish Pond" we made for the young children to 'fish' for a treat!

 Elder Mildenstein juggling three bean bags - he taught several others how to do it!

 Beautiful day - a little warm - but not raining!

Service at the Farm - again

 We were happy to do another day of service at the Farm ... The elders weed-whacked and Sister Wilkinson ran a lawn mower kind of machine - seniors and Sister Brockbank raked dead grass into piles to be picked up.

 Getting the machines ready to work.

 Raking and raking and raking!

 We also help to paint a room in a dorm they are remodeling - Sister Brockbank used her height to good advantage!

 Both wonderful young volunteers - in paint clothes - doing great service.

Fun after working!

Cookies at FHE

 We had an activity evening for FHE - we frosted cookies for the Branch Summer Party!

 Everyone enjoyed the evening - and we had some creative cookies!

 Pretty cookies and yummy also!

Apples from Wenatchee, WA

 We live in the middle of Siberia, Russia - Irkutsk to be exact.  At our local store we found this bag of delicious apples - and lo and behold the label said:  Grown in Chile - distributed by CMI Orchards in Wenatchee, WA - we have family in Wenatchee and they really ARE the World Capital of Apple growing!  We found apples from Wenatchee when we lived in Jamaica also! 

Fun to have packages of delicious fruit from Chile - and it was also a treat to have English on the packages!

Annual Mission Tour Zone Conference

We usually just sit around the kitchen at the Church and balance our lunch plates on our laps - with the Angarsk Branch closing, we inherited their three tables and had enough room to let everyone sit down at a table - so much better.  We made other things besides the usual pizza and everyone enjoyed the fruit, veggies, salad and sandwiches.

 What an awesome room full of the servants of the Lord in the Novosibirsk Mission - and the Europe East Area - good food and even better company!

  Our Europe Area East President and his lovely wife came to our August 9th, Zone Conference - conducting the annual Mission Tour.  We learned so much from Pres. and Sister Martino.  Sister Lamb reminded us that when we work hard and are prepared - the Lord will be by our side - it is His work!  Pres. Lamb urged our using of the Book of Mormon - one sister missionary had read it through 9 times in her 18 months of service!  He held up a three legged stool, and compared the stability to our growing stronger three ways: 1. prayer, 2. study scriptures, and 3. attend Church.  Sister Martino taught us that Repent in Old Testament times - the word meant: "going closer to God."  President Martino told us about a 'hard' companion he had on his young mission - his District Leader told him to get up five minutes early every morning and shine the elders shoes!  He was obedient and said how that turned things around - when we give service it is the Lord's way to touch hearts!

 We have a tradition to take a picture of the sisters at our Zone Conferences - aren't they lovely?

 Wanted the handsome elders to have their turn!

These darling sisters are both serving in Ulan-Ude and are heading back to the USA in a few weeks - happy rest of your lives - love ya!

more about town - Irkutsk, Russia

 All around town we have these pretty planted flower beds - and there are many flower shops - you see people carrying fresh flowers a lot on the street.  Several of the flower shops advertise that they are open 24 hours!  I asked a Russian sister why and she said for the husbands!!

 Now that the sunrise is after 5 instead of just after 4 - I can be awake to witness the beauty!

 Polly sent us a wonderful 'care' package - included were pudding mixes...I decided to make some for a treat for the Young Adult FHE that we have every Monday evening.  One of the young, long time investigator came over to help me...She speaks good English - she picked up this box and said"Devi''s Food - the Mormons are feeding me Devi'ls Food!

 I pointed out that it is just a name for a darker chocolate and we all had a good laugh about it!

Devil's Food, regular chocolate and pistachio pudding - fresh raspberries!  yummy!

Birthday Party

 This August I decided to celebrate being one year older by having a great Chinese dinner with the young volunteers, and some Young Adult members of the Church.

 There wee eight of us and we had a private room with this table where the middle turns so everyone can try out the different dishes ... all were delicious!

 Getting older is okay when you have wonderful people to party with!  Note the Elders with the new dress standards of no white shirt and tie on the street most weekdays - they really like it and I have to say it makes doing the laundry much more interesting!

Elder M gathered all the left-overs into one take home box - smart man!

Video of our wonderful Young Volunteers - having fun!

Video of Sister W and Sister B having a fun time during a break from the work rebuilding the fence at the Farm.

Rebuilding a Fence

 Last week we were able to go back to the Farm and do more service ... here we are getting our directions.  Their milk cow had a new calf and we needed to rebuild the fence to the corral so when it was a little bigger it could have a safe place.

 Our Beautiful Sister's putting dirt around the bottom of the fence posts - then water and then more dirt and then pounding it in with another board!  It really works... made them more solid before we nailed the cross rails on them.

 Elders working on another post - pretty primitive methods - but it worked!

 Elder Smith and Sister Brockbank shoveling dirt into the wheelbarrow to use in strengthening the fence posts. The young volunteers are all good workers.

 Pounding the bottom of the posts - see the bucket of water?  First time Sister B pounded she got mud splattered all over her legs - then we figured out to put some dry dirt on top of the wet and it worked great.

 We all enjoy coming out into the country and seeing the natural beauty of this land - and breathing fresh smelling air!  See Elder Smith and Ellsworth at the dirt pile filling the wheelbarrow again.

 The old rails on the ground all had nails in both ends - we had to take them out - and save them for later use.

 Here is one part of the fence getting rebuilt - we are pretty proud of the job we did - and the farm people were also!

 Wonderful young volunteers - lots of hard work and energy and skills!

Our attempt at a self timed camera photo - I had to run and just got there in time - and made a funny face!  Sure love these young people and serving with them...oh - and really love that old guy!  See the old milk can in the wheelbarrow?  that's what we brought the water to the pasture in - old things still are useful!