A Slow Weekend

We stayed in this entire weekend, trying to overcome my cold and Chris's stomach issues. We are both dressed this morning (Monday) and we will see how it goes. It rained on Saturday and was mostly sunny on Sunday and Sunny again this morning. We are enjoying weather in the 50's. We hope this will continue for another two or three weeks.

Today, I have the devotional. I will speak on the Articles of Faith.

Market is down in a major way today. It doesn't look pretty.

All Quiet on the Western Front (of Russia!)

All of the Area Presidency have now made there way to SLC for October General Conference. It is very quiet here this morning. Our devotional group was about half our normal size. It is a time for working on projects, the kinds of things you don't get to work on when everybody is in Moscow. We are still working on documenting our processes and I would like to create a planning calendar that will show all of the major recurring annual events that must be addressed over the course of a year. Now that we have been here a year, I am ready to tackle such a project.

The devotional, today, was given by Marina. She gave a summary of a talk given by Presdient Monson which had been published in a recent edition of the New Era (the church's magazine for teenagers). President Monson described three gates that we must pass through; preparation, performance and service. I was impressed by the picture painted in my mind, by a metaphor President Monson used to describe the result of not working toward a goal. Imagine running up and down the field, but never crossing the goal... of life. How often we fill our lives with activity, but never accomplish our goals!

Chris stayed home today, her stomach was feeling uneasy, not her normal issues, but more flu-like uneasiness. Hopefully, it will pass quickly.

The markets are waiting for the passage of the bailout package. The DJIA is at about 10,800. Warren Buffet made a big purchase $5-10 billion dollars in GS (Goldman Sachs) and said that he was behind the legislation and expected it to pass. He said if he had $700 billion dollars he would be buying some of these distressed securities too. That seemed to have a positive affect on the market. Only a 30-point loss!!

We have finally been able to print out our English patriachal blessings and will get nearly one hundred of them mailed out this week. Once these are completed we will be nearly caught up, with just a very few remaining unanswered questions, out of over 1,000 blessings that have been given in the past year. This is real progress.

Well, it's time to get to work. The sun is shining. It is in the forties! Life is good.

We Could Use a Leader like Abraham Lincoln

This morning's post I was waxing a little philosophical, if not a little irreverent. This afternoon's post is a more sober reflection of current events. I would recommend jumping ahead to this morning's post first (Hank Paulson for Czar!), then come back and read about Lincoln.

Recent events have caused me much reflection. I am saddened by the current state of affairs. I am disappointed that our elected leaders who have been given our trust have not honored that trust. We trusted our leaders to protect us from the scallywags that have brought so much disruption and carnage to our financial systems. We trusted the Boards of Directors of those companies wherein we became shareholders. They failed in their fiduciary responsibilities. We trusted that regulators would provide a voice of warning, but they seem to have lost all sense of purpose. They all seem to have forgotten an important proverb, that from those to whom much is given, much is expected.

I think it important for us to remember that free markets exist because of the liberties that we as a democratic nation enjoy. These liberties are often referred to as inalienable rights, but it must not be construed that they are free. Thousands of others, who have gone before, have paid a mighty price for the liberties that we enjoy. Should we ever forget Lincoln’s letter to Mrs. Bixby?

"I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom." A. Lincoln

And as citizens, can we say that we have done all that we can to honor their sacrifice? Have we acted responsibly? How will we explain to our children how we lost our way? Pogo must have been a student of Lincoln when he said, “We have seen the enemy and the enemy is us.” Lincoln warned us over 150 years ago in his address to the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois:

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reaches us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” A. Lincoln

We'll Mr. Lincoln, He has saved us more than once and I believe God will yet preserve us a great nation, as long as we are on His side. We can do better. We must do better.

"...I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side." A. Lincoln

Let’s get on his side. Let’s act responsibly. We must learn to live on less than we earn, only then can we begin to pay off our debts. Let’s hold our government responsible for doing the same. As for our financial institutions, we will need more regulation, more reporting and more transparency. And if we follow Warren Buffett’s sage advice, “Don’t buy anything you don’t understand,” we will save ourselves a lot of headaches.

News Flash: Hank Paulson Write-In Candidate for Czar

If you are having a hard time deciding between Obama or McCain, how about bypassing the office of President and write in Hank Paulson for Czar. (A little Russian humor!)

We now know that our Treasury Secretary is asking for $700 billion dollars to buy toxic securities that the banks and other financial institutions hold. According to Senators Dodd and Boehner, on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, the crisis is too grave to even attempt to discuss it on national tv. This morning you will learn that Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the only two remaining investment bankers of any size or consequence, are becoming bank holding companies. There is fear that unless they have access to the same Federal Reserve window that the big money-center banks have, they will not make it. This might be a little deja-vu for those who are 90 years or older!! It seems that banks were playing pretty fast and loose in 1929, when shortly thereafter the Glass-Steagall Act was passed, to separate investment banking from insurance companies and banks. Things worked quite well, until 1999, when Congress repealed that legislation in favor of deregulation, clearing the way for the destructive forces of irresponsibility and greed. Now the pendulum is swinging the other way. But don't get too enamored by the prospect of federal regulators coming to the rescue. According to Warren Buffett, we had one agency with a $100 million annual budget and 200 employees looking over the books at Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae (they only had to oversee two companies!!!) and look at where that got us. Nonetheless, we realize that regulation is not such a bad thing if we are to try and make our financial system more transparent and well-collateralized. In the future, won't it seem a bit nostalgic when a bank makes a loan that goes bad... and they actually have to take the loss?

Here is another perspective based on my life's experience. Anyone who has ever sold a big ticket item knows that there is a balance that must be reached, between detail and brevity, when writing a proposal. Most of my old proposals were typically 8 to 12 pages long asking for no more than a few hundred thousand dollars. I used to think that was a big deal. Sometimes I would spend the better part of a week putting the proposal together. Now,imagine knocking out a three-page proposal in an afternoon, and asking for a commitment to $700 billion dollars!!! And for all of you aspiring consultative sales professionals, he added that he wasn't even sure his solution would work!! This must be the ultimate proof that fear is a greater motivator than greed!

I predict that this will be a tense week. The markets will go down some, but not a lot. We have been accused of irrational exuberance in the past, but the true character of the American investor is his resilience. There won't be any despair as long as there is a possibility of a solution. There will be plenty of partisan politics until, in the end, the democrats and the republicans will have to give in to the Treasury Secretary. Then we will just have to wait and see how benevolent Czar Henry will be.

Did I mention that his plan includes hiring a bunch of Wall Street portfolio managers to dispose of the toxic securities!! He won't have a hard time finding them. All he has to do is put in a call to Lehman.

As you can probably tell, I find writing therapeutic. It's hard to bite your nails when they are tapping a keyboard!!

The Power to Convince

Earlier this week, Vladimir, one of the young men who works in our law office, gave a devotional message to start off our day, as someone does every day. Vladimir and I share a special relationship. He and I have had some very good discussions contrasting life in Russia and America. He is very bright, he has a quick wit and can never just let a sleeping dog lie!! When we engage in our discussions, we don't really contend, but we often end up on opposite sides of the fence. He has a curious way of explaining his points of view that Sister Shepard and I find quite charming.

As I listened to his thoughful discourse on family history, I was impressed at how aligned we are on gospel topics. His beliefs are really my beliefs. You might say that we are synchronized!! I began to think about some of the other discussions that we have had in the past and began to question, how we could see things so differently.

Then the answer occurred to me, as I began to think back to a time before I was a member of the church. I remember teasing a young girl in my Spanish class in college about her religion. Not to hurt her (she was much too sweet and kind) but just to have some fun. She was quite a bit more mature than I was at the time. She listened to my outrageous statements with much grace and aplomb, before she sat me down to try to respond to some of the issues I was having with her religion. I spoke to her as if I was some kind of authority on her religion, that was, at the time, just as much an enigma to me, as Russia was to Churchill. She, like me and Vladimir, were not going to agree on most of the topics we discussed. Today, however, if she and I were to meet again, we would find that her beliefs are really my beliefs. You would say that we were synchronized! She was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

As members of the church, we know that the power of convincing lies in the Holy Ghost. By the power of the Holy Ghost we may know the truth of all things. We must rely on the Holy Ghost if we are going to move the church forward. It means we must submit to the will of our Heavenly Father. We will not be successful, unless we confess that this is his work and it is to be done his way. Great oratory will not accomplish his objectives. Submitting to the power to the Holy Ghost will. On that point, Vladimir and I are in complete agreement!!

A Week that Was

This has been a crazy week. I have watched, most intently, the market activity this week. The Dow down a thousand points and then up a thousand. I don't think that has ever happened before. I felt a little bit like the cat on the 1970's poster that showed a cat hanging on the end of a rope, with caption, Hang in there Baby!! The darkest hour came when money markets were reported at less than par value. People began fleeing money market accounts and started buying t-bills which at one point, resulted in actually paying the government to hold your money...the return was so low it was negative! Today, it still only pays .25% for a thirty-day t-bill. Earlier in the week, Meredith Whitney, a Senior Market Analyst for Oppenheimer, said it was really going to get ugly, if the government didn't intervene in a big way. I guess Bernanke and Paulson were listening, because the government intervened in a huge way. I have read some heartbreaking stories of just ordinary people, in retirement, that have lost all confidence, and much of their savings, as a result of this current economic malaise.

10 Amazing Facts about the market during the week of September 15, 2008
- No. 1 is described above...t-bills with negative interest!!
- No. 2--Money market accounts fail to hold a $1 par value...they traded at .97!!
- No. 3--After falling from $147 a barrel to just south of $91 dollars a barrel, oil bounced back to $104 a barrel.
- No. 4--Gold was up one day about $80 dollars an ounce setting a record for the largest one day gain (within the last 20 years). In the same week, Gold was off $68 on Friday, setting a record for the largest one day loss!!
- No. 5--BAC (Bank of America) signed an agreement to purchase MERril Lynch for $29 a share. MER was at $17 when the market opened the next day. At the end of the day, MER closed at $17.01. How is that for confidence?
- No.6 In one week the DOW was up and down nearly 1,000 points each way to end with no gain!! Up a trillion and down a trillion dollars in value in one week!!
- No. 7 Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy, three or four days before the biggest government bailout in country's history. MS (Morgan Stanley) was heading in the same direction until the Government stepped in and suspended short-trading...their stock went up from a low of $12 to high of $35!! How would you feel if you were a Lehman shareholder or employee!!
- No. 8 Wells Fargo defied gravity by hitting a 52-week high ($5 a share higher than the previous high), in the middle of the greatest financial failure in the history of the country. The CEO ought to declare a holiday on Monday, like Pepsi did when Coke changed their formula!!
- No. 9 I learned more about ARSs (Action Rate Securities), which major Municipal Bond Funds use to create preferred bonds which they sell. They buy cheap short-term money (ARSs), use the municipal bonds as collateral (They borrow against 1/3 the value of the municipal bonds), and then package and sell a preferred bond with a longer term, making money on the spread. ARSs were previous perceived to be as liquid as cash. They are sold in Dutch Auction on a daily basis. In nearly twenty years of trading, there had never been an auction failure, until it seized up the beginning of this year, creating all kinds of damage in the trillions of dollars invested in municipal bonds. The cost of these ARSs went a little haywire (spiked) this week. At the same time, this week Nuveen executives were educating Congress on the fallout. On Friday, they recovered about 5 percent, thank goodness. (Full Disclosure: I own municipal bond funds!!)
- No. 10 I didn't buy or sell one thing!!

Other than that, its been a busy week. Mostly meetings and minutes. In addition, I got hit with a bad cold. With not much of voice on Thursday, I stayed in the apartment on Friday and worked through my email and finished my minutes. Chris was out on Thursday and busy all day Friday in the office trying to catch up on her missionary applications.

Tuesday night was FHE. We said good-bye to the McCunes. Craig and Lorna are going home next week. We had a dinner at their place and listened to touching testimony from the two of them. I have a nice group picture of our senior missionaries that Sam and Irene took that I will post next week.

We are supposed to go to the Museum of the Romanoff Boyers tomorrow. I hope I will be feeling well enough to go.

Well, I need to get to bed. I succumbed to sleep a little too early tonight, which meant I woke up at about 1:00. It's now close to 3:00, so I should try to get some more sleep.

Chambers of Zaryadye (aka the Palace of the Romanoff Boyars)

Today, we went to the Chambers of Zaryadye or commonly referred to as the Palace of the Romanoff Boyars. When we arrived at 11:30, the cashier told us to come back at 12:30. So, we went out onto the courtyard and noticed some people who appeared to be touring the palace. I went up to the door where we saw the people and asked if we could come in. She told me I needed to have a ticket. I told her we tried to buy a ticket but were told to come back an hour later. She told me to wait and went in and called the cashier and told her to sell us some tickets. While my group was getting impatient with me, as I tried to negotiate on their behalf, they were duly impressed with the results, given that the only language spoken was Russian (and I must confess a lot of charades)!!

My camera batteries were both dead, so I had to take my pictures with my cell phone, so check back next week and I will post some of them (Acia is the only person who can download cellphone photos).

It was a very interesting tour, and certainly an unpretentious palace. Any of us live better than the boyars of the 16th and 17th centuries. Small doors, narrow stairways, and beautifully arched ceilings added a bit of quaintness to our experience. I was most impressed with the "svetlitsa," a room dedicated to needlework. Here is a brief description of, what must be, Russia's oldest museums:

Chambers of Zaryadye is one of the first museums in Moscow, situated not far from Kremlin on the territory of the former boyars Romanovs estate. The progenitor of Russian tzar dynasty M.F.Romanov was born here. In 1856 one of Romanov posterity - Emperor Alexander II ordered to restore the old building and to found a museum in honor of his noble ancestors. The Museum was opened in 1859. In the course of centuries the exterior and designation of the chambers have changed several times and at present the chambers are a rare monument of the Russian civil architecture of the 15-17th centuries.
The Museum in the chambers is the only museum depicting the ancient Russian mode of life on the authentic monuments of the 16-17 centuries. All the premises are decorated as typical interiors of a rich Moscow house. In the cellars one can see the household premises and the repositories of valuables. The house is divided in two parts - men's and women's. There is dining room, the boyar study, library and a room for senior sons in the men's part. In the women's part one can see a boyar woman's room and "svetlitsa" - a room for needlework.

We had lunch at Sbarro's (the lines were too long at McDonalds). We then walked back to the Tverskaya metro station, just for the heck of it, and headed for home. It was a cool fiftyish or so, with a very light mist, just as we were getting on the metro. Along the way we stopped in at the Ritz-Carlton hotel which is just off Red Square. Moscow is one of our possible venues for the next Mission Presidents' Seminar. The basic room charge is $37,500 roubles a night, or about $1,530 per night based on today's rate of exchange. Who said Moscow was expensive!! I don't think we will be staying there!!

In the afternoon we had a nap and then had a homemade meatloaf sandwich for dinner. Since then I have been working on the blog, while Chris works on tomorrow's spaghetti dinner.

A Slow Sunday

A cold hit me on Friday night, so we have stayed close to home over the weekend. We did have Chris' friend John and his friend Natasha over for dinner. We had a nice time. John brought flowers and we served meat loaf. John was overjoyed to have a real American meal!!

Sunday we stayed home, nursing my cold. I worked on my blog book when I wasn't sleeping.

Hurricane Ike came and went, leaving the refineries closed and gas prices up (over $4.00), while oil dipped below $100 a barrel for the first time since last April.

An Aeroflot plane that took off from Moscow crashed in Perm, which is in the Novosibirsk mission. All aboard died. It was sobering to know that the week before we flew to Spain a plane crashed there killing most of passengers onboard.

Later we talked with Sarah and Nick. Mom tried to get a hold of Jessica to see what action, if any, resulted from President Uctdorf's meeting with the Allen Stake.

We're Back!!

The day started at 7:00 a.m. in Spain. It ended at 9:00 p.m. when we walked through the door in Moscow. If I hadn't set the alarm based on Moscow time, we wouldn't have awakened at 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m.!!! So it was a long day, but a safe and pleasant flight.

We had a nice time in Madrid, but it is good to be back, even though we left nearly 80 degree weather and came home to 40 degress and rain, the same forecast that we can expect for the next 7 days or so!!

However, on Tuesday night we did get a big thunderstorm in Madrid with marble size hail. In some parts of the city the hail was several inches thick. Here is some of the aftermath that we saw as we were touring the city.
Hail as it was happening, taken through the window from inside of the hotel.
The next day's leaves hard pressed on this Police car.

On our last day in Madrid we went to visit the Royal Palace, a massive structure that sits high on a hilltop with an expanive view of the city, only to find that it was closed because of some special governmental meetings. But the grounds were nice and there was a large cathedral on the same site that we were able to visit.

Chris picked up a small purse, a pin and earrings made of silver to enhance her memories of Madrid.

Day 1 and 2 in Spain

Day 1
On Sunday, we made our way to the MTC and dropped off our passports and had dinner there with the MTC Mission President.

Metro in Spain, midday Sunday! Not quite like our Russian experience.
Chris on the Temple grounds.
Yes, that's me, standing in front of the Temple.
Special lattice marble on the outside of the temple.
Old gnarly olive tree in a grove of marigolds.

The next morning we had a nice breakfast at the hotel and were out on the streets by 9:30 on our way to the Parque de Retiro, also called Madrid Park. It is beautiful park, well maintained, lots of fountains, waterfalls, a big lake and wonderful trees. Rows of Magnolias and Sycamores lined the lanes.

Chris with waterfall in background.
Greg on the trail.
Doorway of an ancient church.
One of many statuaries and fountains.
Greg impersonating his mother's pose that has been since immortalized in a piece of granite, she received when we celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary at Niagara Falls.
Columns and monument to a great Spanish hero known as the Peacemaker (or Pacificador).
Statuary of the same.
Chris posing on the rail of the monument, with large pond in background.
Same monument taken from the far end of the lake.
Surprising fall leaves turning colors (way ahead of Moscow!!)
An apartment we fantasized living in (if we were assigned to Madrid) overlooking the park.
The lobby of the Ritz Hotel (Built in 1910).
Outside, looking back at the Ritz hotel from the Prado Museum.
Across the street, between the Ritz hotel and the Palace hotel, Neptune statuary.
The main hall of the Prado Museum.

We found out later that we missed more than half of the park, when we got hold of a city map, so tomorrow after the going to the Temple, we will probably head there before going to the “Royal Castle” and then the Prado Museum. The Prado Museum is closed on Mondays, so we went to the Botanical Gardens instead. There, most of the blooming flowers were already spent, but still there were a number of interesting plants and trees to look at. We did find a “grove” of three coastal redwood trees. Not quite your father’s redwood forest!!
Walkway in the botanical gardens.
Evergreen exhibition.
Outside of Palace Hotel (built in 1912)
Lobby of Palace Hotel.
Special Exhibit area in Palace Hotel.

We discovered that the Prado Museum is free from 6:00 to 8:00 in the evening.

After the park we continued on our way through the streets of Madrid and found some stunning architecture. We found the city to be absolutely charming. We stopped in at the Ritz and the Palace Hotels for a few photos, pretending that these were the hotels that we were actually staying in. You see, each hotel has several guards at the entrance to ward off roaming tourists.
Communication Building Tower
Communication Center Building
Closeup of the outside of the Communication Building
Large gate/
Looking from the Ritz Hotel across the Neptune foundatain towards the Palace Hotel.

For lunch, we ate at Burger King in the afternoon and then found a little outdoor restaurant a few blocks away from the hotel for dinner. We had a very nice tossed green salad, split a small (four pieces), but tasty, four-cheese pizza, and two diet Cokes for just 33 euros or just over $55 with tip. I would have expected to pay $20 in the states for the same thing. The two 6oz Cokes were $7.50!



We were in early and just read our books. I am reading Natasha’s Dance, a cultural history of Russia. It is an excellent read. I will just share one quick story. The monied Russians in Moscow were known to be gastronomes. They could set a table of up to 200 varieties of foods for a meal, open their doors and all were welcome. At one family’s home a visitor came everyday for thirty years, but they still did not know his name. On the one day he didn’t come, they sent someone out to the nearby village to see if he had died. Indeed he had died. He was run over by a cart on his way to lunch!!

We had the internet for the first day, but since it is $17 per day, we are just using it every other day, so we will get it one more time, at the end of day Tuesday.

Day 2
Today we went to the Temple. The Madrid Temple is exquisite on the inside. It has a beautiful Celestial Room and interior appointments. We enjoyed our time there. We even got in a special tour of the entire temple with three elders from Novosibirsk.

Later in the afternoon, we made our way to the second half of the Parque de Retiro. It was a continuation of a beautiful park. They have a very special Crystal Palace with a large pond and fountain. I will post some pictures when we get back to Moscow.

Next, we made our way to the Prado Museum. It was very nice. We got two hours for free!! Yes, an actual bargain in Europe. Then, we stepped across the street to get a couple of large softdrinks at Burger King, for 5 eruos or, again, about $7.50, but this was better than what we paid at the restaurant the night before!! At least this time we got enough of a drink to quench a thirst!!

We walked back through the park after dark. It is very nice with beautiful lighting throughout. This park really is hard to beat!!

Sunny Spain

5 1/2 hours in the plane. Another 2 hours taxiing to the gate, walking forever to get to customs, then forever to get to the metro and then a couple stops to the hotel. A quick phone call to Sam and we found the hotel just on the next block in the direction that we were walking. Right next to the Starbucks he told me to look for!!

Our Hotel.

Europe needs a ADC (Americans with Disabilities Act 1990). They need less stairs or there will be more of us who are disabled. Whatever happened to escalators that go up instead of just down (or not at all). But the stairs and walking did help us burn calories for the snickers bar that we split right before we got off the plane.

Our room is nice. I hauled the laptop so that I could finish my decision point minutes and track some emails that need follow up for General Conference meetings. I was concerned about bringing the laptop because my screen is going out. I don't like to move it, or should I say it doesn't like to be moved! Anyway it came right on today with no problems. The wireless internet at the hotel works well.

Chris just got up from a little nap and we are going to head for the MTC to drop off our papers and have dinner.

We should have the best of three days to explore, while the paperwork gets completed. We are scheduled to come back on Thursday. So we will be back in the office on Friday.

Two Picnics in One Day

Today, was Kokoy Prekrashney Dyen (a beautiful day). About 79 for the high. After we paid our rent, we headed for Cokol and walked to the Service Center. We met the Irelands at 11:00. We were soon joined by the Masons and the rest of the Service Center and their families. After welcoming the crowd, David Stapley, our Director of Temporal Affairs turned the activities over to his secretary, who proceeded to break us up into two groups, on our way to experiencing a Russian Picnic. As a result, I got a number of ideas for our next backyard get together with our grandkids. Below are a few pictures from picnic No. 1.

Acia with a friend from the Service Center.
Elena Nechiporova and her daughter Lisa
Coat hanger game. How far can you walk without losing the coat hanger (remember, no hands!!)
Charades. This young man is trying to get me to say toilet paper!!Pew!
Jack Sparrow painting his pirates.
Two worthy mates!

After eating lunch (Shashleak, salads, fruit and cookies and candies) we headed off for Rosinka for the International Branch's Picnic (No. 2 for us). We were supposed to meet Sister Brown at the metro, but she ditched us. She found the ILP (International Language Program) girls, but the seniors were left in the dust. Then Sister Ireland spotted some Elders coming out of the metro and we followed them to the special shuttle that goes to Rosinka. There we found the ILP girls and Sister Brown. The ILP girls teach English to young Russian children. They are generally here on three-month assignments. There were 26 of us on the bus! The picutures show us in Rosinka walked toward the picnic. I had such a good time at the picnic, I forgot to take any other pictures!!

Andrea being dramatic!
The rest of the crowd!
Ray Whitesides (our controller) getting a little hug from his daughter.

We had a great day, except that Chris had to leave after the Service Center picnic. More stomach problems. We missed her!

A Sad Day for the Europe East Area

Yesterday, two young elders were on their way from the city of Kazan in the Samara Mission to the city of Tagliatti, also in the Samara Mission. About 18 kilometers outside of Kazan, their driver lost contol of the vehicle, trying to avoid road construction that was, apparently, not clearly marked. The car ended up under a large transport vehicle. One young elder was lost, the other elder and the driver escaped with minor injuries. This young Elder had recently served as the Branch President of the Samara Branch. The young elder is survived by his mother and his brother and a sister, all strong members of the church. The mother and the brother will fly to Kazan for a memorial service. The service will be attended by the local members and missionaries, and President Bennett, the Samara Mission President and President Pieper, the Europe East Area President.

I don't know of any parent who has ever sent a son or a daughter on a mission who hasn't had the thought, "What happens if he/she doesn't come home?"

Often, our missionaries are sent into parts of this world that are a lot less safe than the neighborhoods where they were raised. Sometimes, we lose a missionary due to local violence and sometimes we lose one by an accident, as was the case yesterday. When we first heard the news yesterday, bloodlines were of no consequence. We had lost one of our own. Quickly your mind races to take a quick inventory of your own family and give a silent prayer for their safety. There was an emptiness and melancholy that set in almost instantly. Then almost as quickly, items began to be set in motion to respond to the crisis. Calls were made, individuals were dispatched to Kazan, facts were gathered. We knew that everything that could be done was being done for all the parties involved.

So, Why? Where was God? Why didn't He protect His missionary? In my humble opinion, as I have learned on my mission, here in the Europe East Area, God has a great challenge. He wants to help us but He will not abridge our agency. He wants us to be safe, but He wants us to progress even more. He will not intervene in every instance. We must learn to do His will, even when the consequences don't always turnout the way we might expect. What we do know, is that our eternal status has been guaranteed by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. All we have to do is our best, choose to do His will, and when we fall short, repent so that the Atonement of Jesus Christ will have affect in our lives. I trust that this young elder was doing his best. I know he was doing God's will. I trust this young missionary was ready to meet God.

Life is not about how long we hang around on this earth. It is about what we have learned and developed from our experiences, learning humility, charity and submitting to the will of God. When we learn to do that, then we will all be ready to meet God. For some of us, it just takes a little longer.

Family Home Evening

We had Family Home Evening tonight at the Irelands. Brother Curbishley taught us the first verse of I am a Child of God in Russian. I must say, we sounded pretty good. It was slow enough and simple enough for us to pronounce. We talked about the mysteries of life and ate ice cream and homemade oatmeal raisan cookies. I ate too many! But I walked home to burn off a few extra calories. Chris stayed home, with a little stomach problem. The Masons also attended.

The First of September

Yesterday was a wee bit cool. Only in the 40's. Today, it is going to be a brisk 33 degrees (this accounts for a little wind chill) as we walk to work. We are supposed to get a few more 70 degree days toward the end of this week, then I think the summer is over. The high today will be 59. I should also say there is not a cloud in the sky (it rained last night). The sunrise is simply stunning.

We have watched from afar as Gustav hit the gulf coast, thankful that Nick and Abby were spared a direct assault. Sarah says the rains from Gustav are due in Dallas tomorrow.

Yesterday, we tried to catch up from being gone last week. In the afternoon, we went grocery shopping at Metro. Prices continue to go up but the exchange rate is a little better, so it is probably pretty much a wash. A ribeye steak, that would probably pass for good stew meat at home is 350 roubles a kilo. For sure, it is not your father's ribeye steak!! That translates to about $6.36 a pound.

I was able to finish my minutes (49 of them), from the last round of meetings, yesterday afternoon from the apartment, over the internet. We start a new round of meetings today. It feels good not to have additional minutes hanging over my head.

It feels much better, though, having the seminar behind us. Our next and our last seminar is scheduled for sometime in February. Free at last, Free at last!!

But there is still much to accomplish. Many initiatives will need to be followed up on as a result of our meetings in St. Petersburg.

I may have mentioned that we bought a coffee table book in St. Petersburg. I was reading some of it last night. The photography is wonderful and the history is interesting. You'll have to come by someday, when we get home, and read it too!!

Yesterday, Sister Shepard had to present an impromtu devotional message, because she failed to publish her September schedule, which she had prepared weeks in advance (a little seminar brain fade), but she did a masterful job. She talked a little about some of the beautiful church buildings we visited in St. Petersburg, as well as our temples, and why people desire to build these special buildings as places of worship. I thought she did a great job.

We fly to Madrid, Spain on Sunday for our visa trip. We are looking forward to going to the temple for the first time in over a year. We hope to see a museum or too while we are there. It is a five hour flight, one I am not looking forward to!!

A Day of Rest

Yesterday we ended up with a spaghetti feed at our place with the Irelands, Masons and the Nearons. We got together around three and broke up around 9:00. We like to talk. It was a great day of relaxation.

The St. Petersburg post is the mother of all posts. I began working on it on Saturday and finished it Sunday night!! So if you read it Saturday, you probably missed about half of it!!

Today, we went to church and ate left over spaghetti for dinner. It never got about 49 degrees and it rained coming and going. But the real downpour occured while we were in church, thankfully.

Video conferenced a little with Sarah today. We have our eye on the Gustav and praying for Lousianna rather than Alabama.

Hope all is well with you!!

Back from St. Petersburg!

It's a quiet Saturday morning. Chris is still in bed. Just got off with the phone with Sam and we discussed getting together sometime later in the day.

We got back from St. Petersburg just before 9:00 p.m. It was beautiful in Moscow. They had had some rain earlier, but it was all blue skies for our ride from the airport. The seminar came off as planned. It was a pleasure to be in the company of Elder Rasband and Elder Perry. Elder Perry is now 86 years old, but he is a vibrant, enthusiastic, witness of Jesus Christ. He needs no microphone when he speaks!

We got in on Monday morning with no delay and our drivers were there to take us to the hotel. We met with Lilia, our event coordinator and after some arm twisting got her to let us get into the confernce room after dinner, instead of setting up the next morning before the conference started. That was important from my perspective, since I was to be the scribe for an Area Presidency meeting with Elders Rasband and Perry from 10:00 till noon; I wanted to get as much accomplished as possible the night before.

We actually had about a one hour window to take a little tour before dinner, so we called President and Sister Harrison (of the Russia Rostov Mission) to see if they wanted to go to St. Isaac's Cathedral, a 100 yard walk from the hotel. They were in the lobby in seconds flat. We also called President and Sister Bennett (of the Russia Samara Mission) to join us, but they were already on the streets and were lost, so there was no way they could get back to join us.

This cathedral looks more like a government building from the outside because of the massive display of columns. These are huge marble columns. We saw one that had quite a scar on it, and with further inspection, we could not find any seams in the marble and could only conclude that they were one piece and solid to the core!!

Outside of St. Isaac's.
Close up of columns.
Looking out from on top of the cathedral, from the base of the dome. To the left was the Fusion restaurant and to the right was our hotel.
Sister Harrison and Sister Shepard walking around the base of the dome.
Inside view of the cathedral ceilings.
More inside the Cathedral.
Mosaics done in stone.
Close up of mosaics.
A panel from a door to rival Lorenzo Ghibertti's baptistry in Florence.

I didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked in the cathedral. I received a phone call from the St. Petersburg mission. They had arrived with the paintings of Amin. So I left the Harrisons and Sister Shepard and returned to the hotel. Amin is a local artist who was commissioned by the church to paint the 1903 scene of Elder Francis M. Lyman of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicating Russia for the preaching of the gospel (two prayers were given, one in St. Petersburg and one in Moscow. I should have taken some pictures of his artwork, but I didn't. We had about 10 of his paintings displayed in our meeting room.

Later that evening we enjoyed dinner at a "fusion" restaurant (which interpreted means many different varieties of mostly eastern, but also Italian cuisine!!) It was great. We had quite a walk getting to the restuarant in a downpour, but the rains had subsided by the time we were ready to return to the hotel.

By the end of day Monday we had set up the conference room three different times, then on Tuesday morning, we set it up one more time. I called President Bennett and he came down and helped me rearrange the tables for the fourth and last time!

At 11:00 a.m. the sound people came in to install the microphones. They were finished about 10 minutes before the start of the meeting!! Not the way I would have planned it, but that's how it turned out. Just before I was ready to go into my meeting with the Area Presidency, I was asked if we had name tags for the visitors (all of the Mission Presidents, of course, already have name tags). (Sister Shepard had asked earlier in the planning process if name tags were needed, but at that time it was thought they were not.) So while I was in the meeting, she ventured out to find some name tags in gale force winds and rain (her umbrella turned inside out!!), but to no avail. Then, about 30 minutes before our meeting began, the St. Petersburg missionaries showed up with name tags (earlier they said that they didn't think they had any). So these are a few of the experiences that kept us on our toes on day one.

Later that night we went to a concert of Russian singing and folk dancing. At the intermission, I realized that I had left my wallet in a bag which I left in the meeting room. So Chris and I went back with a driver and I found it. I had earlier been asked to redo the table name tags and make them larger so Elder Perry could see them better, so I spent the next hour in the business office typing and printing new name tags. I finished just about the time everyone arrived back from the concert.

Wednesday was our day to go the the Peterhof Gardens (in the afternoon). But it had been so cold and wet, we were concerned that we would have to cancel this activity and go the Hermitage instead. At 10:00 I went outside to check the weather and it was very brisk. We checked with the sisters and they shared our concern about the temperature and the rain remained a wild card. So, we began to make plans to go to the Hermitage. Then we found out that much of what we had invested in the Peterhof trip would be nonrefundable. So we went back outside at just about noon to check the weather one more time. It was a little warmer. One of our concerns was that many of our participants didn't bring coats (after all this was August!!). So we checked with the hotel and they had blankets (for rent, of course). So at 1:45, after lunch, we headed to the Peterhof Gardens. It warmed up even more and the rains never came. The sun came very close to coming out! In fact, with the walking we were doing, the weather ended up being nearly perfect. Most just carried their blankets! Elder Perry tramped through the gardens with us for two hours. He is amazing.
Our group heading for the bus to take us to the hydrofoil. These are boats that have ski type bottoms that lift the boat right out of the water in the front, reducing the drag and increasing the speed!!
Elder Gibbons, with President Cranney (our mission president) and his wife Andria, behind.
Sister Shepard and Sister Gibbons.
On board with Elder and Sister Rasband (left), President and Sister Pieper (center) and Elder and Sister Perry (right).
Sister Shepard and Sister Steinagel.
Fountains in the Neva River on the way to the Peterhof Gardens.
Small canal engineered to take visitors to the palace from the river, which has by now become the Gulf of Finland. This part of the bay has a depth as little as 6 feet and no more 20 feet. It was sometimes referred as Peter's Puddle! A deeper canal was engineered in the middle of the river to allow cruise ships to get to St. Petersburg. According to our guides, these ships have to be navigated by Russian sailors to keep from hitting the bottom.
Our group heading out with one of our three guides. We had two for English speaking visitors and one for our Russians.
Along the canal heading for the Palace. These fountains are over 300 years old. They are gravity fed and require no electricity or pumps. The water comes from a place about 80 kilometers (60 miles) away. There are fountains everywhere, even on the roofs of buildings, as you shall soon see!!
Main cascades.
Central Fountain.
My Eternal Assistant!!
My Eternal Assistant with her Eternal Executive Secretary!!
The church (which we have seen on every large estate). Only this one is a little glitzier!!
Fountains on the roof!
President Bennett and President Steinagel.
Another Fountain!
Flowers. There were many varieties and enough to cut!!
Flower designs!
Whimsy! This was a fun tree that sprinkled water everywhere. Adjacent to this is a stone path that children walk on with their umbrellas held high thinking that there is a magic stone that turns on an arching fountain that shoots over their head. Little do they know that there is a man in a little shed that provides the majic. Peter the Great must have been a bit of a jokster, because there along one of the main garden paths is a series of about 100 jets running for about 50 feet on both sides of the path that shoot toward each other forming an arch. It turns on randomly. We walked across the wet crushed granite path, but managed to miss the fountains overhead.
Another fountain and statuary.
Two little babuskas having fun.
They are still having fun!!
Our mini-group picture. You can see the blankets we rented from the hotel to keep a few of the sisters warm. PS: I just learned how to make my pictures larger, but to make today's post larger, I would have to re-upload every picture. So from now on they should be larger, but I can't bear the thought of going through and re-posting these pictures. Sorry.
One last look before the boat ride back to the St. Petersburg.

Before dinner we gathered our group together and took our traditional group picture. There was a nice stairway that accommodated our group quite nicely.



AFter dinner, I worked on my minutes from the Tuesday morning meeting. When I finished I had 5 pages of typed notes.

By Thursday morning we knew we were on the downhill side. There were a number of changes to the departure schedule, but nothing that couldn't be accommodated. The first group departed at 1:00 p.m. A group that had a later departure schedule, went to the Hermitage. Sister Perry went with them, while Elder Perry stayed in the hotel. The day before was quite a hike for him, so I am sure he had had as much fun as he needed. A museum, as you know, is all walking!!

Sister Shepard and I left to go to our hotel for our extra night's stay at 2:00 p.m. We arrived without incident and were back on the streets in no time to check out the Hermitage, ourselves. We only wanted to find the Hermitage, so we could go back the next day, but when we got there, there was still two and a half hours till closing, so we went ahead and went in. The museum was very nice, but the building (The Winter Palace) is even more so. There is nothing quite like it in world, I am sure. The pictures will tell the story, better than I can.
Canal along the way to the Hermitage from our hotel.
Arch leading to the Hermitage.
The Hermitage under construction.
Looking back from the Hermitage to the arch.
The Hermitage without construction.

The Hermitage is made up of several buildings including the famous Winter Palace. The contruction was begun by Peter the Great, elegantly completed by Elizabeth his daughter, and actually lived in by Catherine the Great, who was devoted to beautiful architecture. It's heydays were the 18th and 19th centuries, beginning with the death of Elizabeth in 1761. As you can see once we got in, we, like Catherine the Great, were more interested in the architecture than the art!!










That completed our touring for Thursday. We took a stroll down Nevsky Prospect (the main drag in town) and ate dinner at Sbarros. The next morning, after breakfast we headed for Christ Church on the Spilt Blood. This church looks very similiar to St. Basils Cathedral, but it was built much later (completed in 1907 vs. the 1500's for St. Basil's Cathedral) and it is made out of stone.

Here is a little history from Wikipedia:

Construction began in 1883 under Alexander III, as a memorial to his father, Alexander II. Work progressed slowly and was finally completed during the reign of Nicholas II in 1907. Funding was provided by the Imperial family with the support of many private donors.

The Church is prominently situated along the Griboedov Canal. The embankment at that point runs along either side of a canal. As the tsar's carriage passed along the embankment, a grenade thrown by an anarchist conspirator exploded. The tsar, shaken but unhurt, got out of the carriage and started to remonstrate with the presumed culprit. Another conspirator took the chance to explode another bomb, killing himself and mortally wounding the tsar. The tsar, bleeding heavily, was taken back to the Winter Palace where he died a few hours later.

A temporary shrine was erected on the site of the attack while the project for a more permanent memorial was undertaken. It was decided that the section of the street where the assassination took place was to be enclosed within the walls of a church. That section of the embankment was therefore extended out into the canal to allow the shrine to fit comfortably within the building and to provide space on the exterior wall for a memorial marking the spot where the assassination took place. Inside, an elaborate shrine was constructed on the exact place of Alexander's death, garnished with topaz, lazurite and other semi-precious stones. Amid such rich decoration, the simple cobblestones on which the tsar's blood was spilled and which are exposed in the floor of the shrine provide a striking contrast. (We missed the cobblestone shrine.)

In July 1970, management of the Church passed to Saint Isaac's Cathedral (then used as a highly profitable museum) and proceeds from the Cathedral were funneled back into restoring the Church. It was reopened in August 1997, after 27 years of restoration, but has not been reconsecrated and does not function as a full-time place of worship. Right now, it is a Museum of Mosaic. Even before the Revolution it never functioned as a public place of worship; having been dedicated exclusively to the memory of the assassinated tsar, the only services served in it were panikhidas (memorial services). The Church is now one of the main tourist attractions in St. Petersburg.

It is very impressive, inside and out. The inside has about 6 feet of marble wainscoting and then to the very top of the catherdral it is covered with stone mosaics of saints and images from the new and old testaments. It took 14 years just to complete the mosaics. As you can see from the history referenced about that it took twice that long to restore it!!

From a canal bridge next to Nevsky Prospect.
Close up from the same direction.
Close up of gables.
Mosaics.
More mosaics.
Before and after restoration.
My eternal assistant, along the canal!!

All in all, St. Petersburg is quite a place. We had a busy, sometimes hectic week, but we had fun just the same!!