Dear Family,
This past week was so great! First of all, let me give a shout-out to Parker and his Enactus team from Utah Valley University who placed 2nd in the National Competition held in Kansas City over a two-day period. About 450 universities across the nation entered their ideas and made their presentations before corporate presidents and business leaders as their judges. After winning the Western Regionals in California, Parker's UVU team qualified for the National Level. I LOVE the concept of this organization--encouraging creative ideas and leadership roles in making the world a better place through helping others! We even got to hear their presentation by Skype, which Amy so kindly connected us to.
We were so happy to see Amy and her family who live in Kansas City supporting Parker! Seeing the two sisters together having so much fun, along with the cousins, really warmed our hearts! So very proud of Parker and his wonderful team. All of their hours of work really paid off!
Tuesday, was my birthday and besides having a wonderful Seniors' Meeting, some of the sisters had made chocolate birthday cake and we had ice cream. Of course, I had wonderful calls, texts, posts, and e-mails that evening from so many of you, which made the day complete. A HUGE surprise was when Kyle's driver called me on the phone and told me to come out to the street. I wasn't really even sure who was calling, but Gpa and I went out, and there he was with the biggest basket of flowers I had even seen! They were from Kyle. I was so thrilled! What a wonderful birthday surprise!
George was so sweet and got me a real birthday card this time, but since it was in Russian and it didn't work writing underneath the card with pen, he just attached sticky notes all over it after having the Russian receptionist help him with the translation. I will keep this card forever, for sure!
Kyle's driver from his Jeneusse office. There was so much Moscow traffic, it took him over an hour and a half to get it to me!
Then on Thursday, Gpa and I, along with the Sister Missionaries went the two hours out to Fyodr and Tamara's dacha (a summer house, but they live in it full-time). Again, they had such a wonderful Russian meal, we talked and had such a great visit, then we went for a walk in the beautiful woods nearby. We thought we were all going to a museum, so we weren't exactly dressed for a forest walk, but it was such a beautiful day and the forest was so refreshing.
George just couldn't resist playing with their adopted cat they found on their doorstep. But, it must have lived in the forest and had to find its own food because it was so quick, it snagged George's finger as he was teasing it, and it caused it to bleed. Tamara jut very calmly went and got some disinfectant and fixed George's finger immediately, saying nothing. Hah!
I had forgotten how much fun these young women can be! They were having such a great time in the forest! I couldn't resist capturing this fun moment!
Fyodr and Tamara like to find mushrooms on their walks through the forest, but these are definitely not edible, Fyodr told us!
While we were walking with Fyodr, Sister Mark just flat out asked him why he has never been baptized since he began getting the discussions ten years ago. He said he didn't want to be baptized until his wife could be baptized with him, and she does not understand why she needs another baptism since she was already baptized into another church. He comes about every other week now--travels two hours to get there--but she never comes. We are hoping to get her interested in coming and starting the lessons.
Saturday we had our P-Day adventure. We went to Tsaritsyno Park and Palace. The estate was owned by Catherine the Great who commissioned a palace to be built there. When it was almost finished, she didn't like it, ordered it to be torn down, and fired the architect. Some of the ruins of the first palace are still visible. In 1786, construction started on a new palace, but with Catherine's death, it was never finished for over 200 years. Finally, it was completed and extensively reworked on between 2005-2007. We loved visiting this beautiful estate today.
This painting really touched my heart. This poor little widow at the site of her husband's grave having Christmas with him. Russian was especially hard-hit in World War II with over 20,000,000 casualties!
Paintings of Catherine the Great at different stages of her life. I think she was about 54 in the painting above
Catherine the Great, smiling and looking very confident.
We went inside the Orthodox Cathedral here on the Palace Grounds. They were having a funeral in one of the alcoves where we could see the full body of the tiny older woman laying in a very small box with just a few people and two priests there singing their prayers.
This was absolutely fascinating to me--the entire story of Eve being created from Adam's rib, to them being tempted in the Garden of Eden, their expulsion from the Garden, on to the scenes below where Eve is bearing children and Adam by the sweat of his brow is providing for his family, to Abel offering his sacrifice, his brother killing him, and Adam and Eve mourning the death of their son. Wow! This ceiling painting was amazing!
We got the wierdest hotdogs we have ever had in our life!
And we must have been getting tired and a little zany when we took this pic!
When we got home, we were thrilled to be Skyped into Gavin's baptism in Dallas. He was so excited about getting baptized, and it was such a great day! Fortunately, Anne's parents represented both sets of grandparents at the baptism. In addition, Craig gave the talk about the Holy Ghost and likened it to a caddie on a golf course who steers the golfer away from difficulties and gives him advice on the best thing to do. Gavin could really identify with this because he is beginning to really love golfing! The whole meeting was so inspirational, and it definitely brought tears of joy! Happy Birthday and baptism, Gavin! He is such a happy joyful young man! We surely love him!
On Sunday , we traveled to the Branch we are assigned to visit once a month out in Ramenskoye. It takes us two and a half hours to get there, and of course, the same coming home. Hah! Anyway, it makes for such a long day, but we LOVE going there.
George watching the Warrior highlights while we are waiting for the first bus.
The little chapel at Ramenskoye
The people are so thrilled to see us all the time because the branch is so small, but it is really a beautiful little chapel and we always enjoy ourselves there. We are really trying to work with a young couple who are trying to get back together. They have two little kids ages six and five and are expecting another in September. Even still, they are struggling in their marriage with some problems. He is a flight attendant, is not a member, but he is trying to come to church with her more often, and they are trying to save their marriage. They invited us out to their place for dinner the end of June because we won't be out there again until then. Oh, we do hope their little family doesn't break up. They have so much going for them, so we need to pray for them, for sure!
Well, that's our week pretty much. I wanted to close with a quote that Connor posted on Instagram that really struck me. It is so true and something I think we can all really think about in our lives:
"Living the gospel demands a lot, but 'living in the world' demands a lot more. and it gives us a lot less. The world has an insatiable appetite with standards that are impossible to meet. Unlike finding completeness in Christ, the living water, the world offers us nothing. It will never fill you permanently. You will always come up short and be found wanting. There will always be more and more that you have to do to prove yourself to others." I'm not sure who made this quote, but thanks so much, Connor, for posting it. It has always been true, but especially seems so true in the world today!
I'm sure all the kids are getting excited for school to get out soon. We are anxiously awaiting the graduations of our two seniors: Lauren and Jenna. So proud of their hard work and all their worthy activities they have been in school! Love you both so much!
Love, Gma
