Update from Nizhniy 22 March 2012

A trip to the train station with friends and luggage and we bid good-by to our friends the Gays, who after 18 months of faithful service have gone on the midnight run to Moscow and then home Monday night.We were sad to see them go and know for sure that they have ambivelent feelings about leaving.  They were loved and in turn loved the people here.  They have earned a deserved rest.

We got on the train at midnight the following night for a trip to Moscow for meetings with all of our local missionaries on Tuesday night.  None of us slept very well.  I think that it wasn't the best wish for 2 elders to be in the compartment with me and Grandpa any more than it was for me to be in there with them for the night.  However we made it and were all up by around 6 AM and left the train by 7 AM.  We had a short walk to the metro station and then rode the metro to the Central Chapel by 8AM.  We had glad reunions with some of the missionaries we have served with previously, and bid good-bye to some who will be returning home in a month.  One of the 5 returning sisters is one from our lot.

We rode home on the Sapsan, fast train, and got in around 11:30 PM.  By this time we were short on sleep and had many short nights previously so slept in a bit this morning.  It felt good.  Today Grandpa went to help remodel the apartment with Jenya and I cleaned the apartment and washed the laundry.

We have visited this week with a couple who are adopting 2 little Russian boys with special needs, after a long time of negotiating, fall backs, and redoing paper work. They now  have custody of their little ones and are in Moscow with the final stages of preparing passports for the trip home to Florida.
They both have heart problems and the youngest needs medical attention very soon.

We still have winter here, after a false start to spring for 2 days, which gave us hope, it fell into a winter storm with 2 or three days now of more snow.  Luckily not much snow, and we hope that is the end of it.  The temp is up a bit and even with the storm, some of the ice was beginning to melt off in some degree or other.  There are still ice fisherman on the rivers near here, and the snow is still on the rooftops, alleys, and in the parks and open areas.

We are healthy and happy, doing what we can to help the work along.  We made some candy for passing out to different individuals who have helped us, and have felt blessed to do our part.  The Lord is blessing us and we count it a blessing for us to be here. 

We will start being more involved with the lower branch now that we are the only senior couple here.  The lower branch president speaks pretty good english and we hope to be of assistance in the branch to reactive and strengthen where we can.

The missionaries here have some good people they are working with and we feel confident that the work is going to pick up and we will see some fruit from the labors of all of us.