Dear Family,
First of all, a big Happy Birthday to Natalie, our DIL (not to be confused with Natalie, my sister--and to make it more confusing, their birthdays are only two days apart!), whose birthday was yesterday. In addition to keeping very busy with her ow family, Natalie helps out so much in the community and at church, as well as taking in foster children. She's such a dear wife and mother, and we really appreciate her many kindnesses she has shown George and me while we have been living close by their wonderful family!
On Wednesday, we will have two important events: John and Alison will celebrate their 26th wedding anniversary and Ella will celebrate her 12th birthday. We are so grateful for John and Alison and the wonderful family they have. They have truly made a home where the gospel is taught and their family can feel their love.
Ella--well, what do I say about her--she is so much older than her years--she has a heart of gold, so much fun, and is always thinking of new ways to help others out. Happy Birthday, Ella!
This past week was so busy. On Tuesday night, we had Senior Night. We invited Kyle's area manager for Jeunesse to be our guest speaker, talking about growing up in Russia. Wow! He did not disappoint! He did such a great job and the people just kept asking him questions. He talked about what a great boss and company he was working for. I so appreciate that we got to hear from him. He is Russian Orthodox, but I think he had to be impressed with the Area Office and the volunteers who work there. We had a pot luck dinner afterwards where they continued to ask him questions. And Gpa George presented him with a FIFA World Cup soccer ball, which he seemed pretty pleased with. (Some of the volunteers want him to come back again!)
Thursday we had our Area Meeting with Elder Golden of the Seventy. It is always so nerve-wrecking to make the hour-long presentation and discussion. We always pray it will go well. This time, we felt so good about it. We felt very good about positive results that are showing in the area's audits and with the participation we are getting. Gpa George works very hard with the AAAs in each area, as well as the Audit Committee Chairman in the countries we are over. Elder Golden seemed very pleased. The end of July, we, along with Elder Cook and his wife, will go over to Armenia to do the ten audits there, since they have so few priesthood holders to do it, and then afterwards will go to Turkey to do five audits there, since there are no volunteers at all there now. We have received permission from the Area Presidency to do so, and hope everything goes well for that.
On Friday, after work, and all day on Saturday, Gpa and I went out to make sure we knew how to get to all the activities and venues that we have planned for the next six days while Kevin, Hannah, Kent, Natalie, Ethan, Ella, and their friends, Jory and Kathy, come to Moscow. We have so many fun activities planned, so we didn't want to ruin it by not knowing how to get to everything. We took buses and metros and used our feet! We ended up walking nearly six miles each day and were dead tired when we got home at night. But man, are we excited to get them here on Friday! We hope before we leave in August 2019 that everybody in the family who has a desire will be able to visit! Everywhere you go, you feel the excitement in the air about the World Cup. And Red Square is just crazy! It is packed with people who are singing, painting their faces with their team colors, and just having a good time. They have set up a huge place inside Red Square where fans can go and have fun playing each other on a tiny field, and whatever. We didn't go inside, but saw it there. I'm sure everyone will want to try it out when they get here.
Then on Sunday, we had one of the craziest days ever! A trip that regularly takes 2 1/2 hours to get to a small branch we have been blessed to be assigned to visit once a month, turned into a 5-hour trip! Yes, we got on the wrong train and when the train police found out we were on the wrong train, they put us off (kindly though) in the middle of the boonies! They wrote us a note (in Russian) how to get on the correct train (Hah!). A tender mercy was when the next rain came along, we met a young lady who helped us make the transfer! We arrived at church with ten minutes left of the whole block of meetings. We were greeted by the young people, the leaders, ad the young volunteers! They hugged us and acted so happy to see that we were no longer lost They were sooo sweet and made us feel so good!
The Branch President was so kind. He had the Young Volunteers bless and he gave us the Sacrament because he knew we were so sad not being able to partake of it. Also, a young woman who is going through a lot right now because she is pregnant and the doctor is worried the baby might come too soon is so stressed. In addition, her husband, who is a flight attendant, stepped out on her (while she was pregnant!), but they are trying to work together to make their marriage work. Anyway, she requested that Gpa give her a blessing of comfort and healing, which he did. Fortunately, she understands a good deal of English. So, with all this, we knew we were supposed to be here at Ramenskoye today, even though it was such a round-about way of getting there.
On the way home, we just happened to go by the Spartak Stadium and took a few pictures. It was a beautiful day when we looked back, but our efforts to go to church today turned into ten hours by the time we got home.
Well, better close. We are going on a picnic tonight with the little family we met on the metro a few months back, and I told them I would bring chocolate chip cookies to the picnic. So, I'd better get baking! We had another very exciting incident with a girl we met on the plane to Switzerland, but I will tell you more about that next time!
Love, Gma Laura
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