Georgian Conflict

As I was surfing the web for the latest news on the Georgian conflict, I found this picture. When I saw this poor old woman sitting amongst the ruins of her former apartment building, I couldn't help but think what her life was like just a week ago. How quickly our lives can be turned upside down.

We, as you, are hoping that this conflict ends as quickly as it started. We have two branches in Tiblisi, the largest city in Georgia. We feel for the saints there and all of the people of this desperately poor country. On Saturday, as the fighting only showed signs of escalating, the missionaries were evacuated. The mission president was in Tiblisi at the time and was able to organize the evacuation himself. We expect that they are all safe in Armenia at this time.

The Irelands were in Georgia just the week before training our senior missionar couples there. We are glad to have them back safe and sound. We got together with them yesterday for dinner and made an exploratory run to the Tverskaya area. They showed us where Goodman's Steak House is and we took them to the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. We were hoping to find a cultural event to go to, but the Russian language did not reveal much to us on the billboards outside the theater. So we will have to ask our Russian secretaries to help us find a suitable event next week. We also talked about going to the Zoo in the next few weeks while we still have good weather.

We had talked about a having a picnic next Saturday, but there hasn't been much discussion on this subject lately. So, we will have to follow up on that next week, as well.

Yesterday's Area Council came off without a hitch. Most importantly, the video conferencing worked well. Everyone was in there seats and ready to go just a few minutes before starting time!!

After the Area Council (which ran over by about 15 minutes) I came home to pick up David Nearon and we were going to travel to Cokol together (I had the transportation tickets, Linda had taken theirs with her with Chris). But when I got back to the apartment (according to my clock at 2:45) he had already left (according to his clock 2:50). We are going to have to synchronize our clocks!!

I rang and rang the door bell. I thought I could have raised the dead, but no luck with David. I called Linda and explained the situation and her only advice was to try again. I did but with not luck. So I called Linda back and she decided to stay around the Tverskaya area to look for David in case he had already left. They were going to meet for an early dinner at TGI Fridays and then go the Russian Folk Dance performance. She waited her allotted period of time and then decided to come back to the apartment. Unfortunately, the Nearons only have one cell phone. When she got back home, David was not in the apartment (we thought he just might be in a deep sleep). I guess it was about an hour later, David arrived home. He said he had a good meal at TGI Fridays. So she must have just missed him. Since we had been in that area earlier, I went to TGI Fridays to look for him, but I didn't have any better luck. So at last they were united, but I don't think they made it to Russian Folk Dance performance as it turned out. Too much excitement for one day, I think!!