Chance is 4, 17 Feb, Sierra is Baptized, 19 Feb

Chance turned 4 this week and we missed talking to him and when we did get hold of his Dad, Chance declined the opportunity to talk on the phone.  We love Chance and hope that his birthday was a great one.  Happy Birthday Chance!!

Sierra turned 8 in October last year but sadly her Daddy was away in Afghanistan and so she waited to be baptized.  She was richly rewarded for her wait when on  Saturday 18 Feb, 2012 she was baptized.  She had a lot of people come and she was so happy to be with her friends and family.  We wish we could have been there but send our love.  We talked to her and she was very happy that day.

Hyrum got new glasses.  We love your new glasses and hope you can see lots better at school. hyrum has a new remote control helicopter that he enjoys flying. 

We are having a great week.  We had a great district meeting.  Our English club came later in that evening and we showed the video Johnny Lingo.  The club were all men that evening and I think only one is married but all probably have been married.  I didn't know how this would work out or if the conversation would pan out.  We did find that they were interested in the thought of an 8 cow wife and it was pretty singular for them.  We had a good conversation and ended by saying we should make all of our loved ones feel like 8 cow people.
We did our apartment inspections and the outcome was very spectacular!  Nice clean apartments and clean sheets.  Even clean refrigerators!!
We have tried to get the water filter for one of the sisters apartment working but the connecting adapter is too large.  We were going to just buy a new faucet but the landlord didn't want that.  So now Andre, our driver, is going to get a friend of his that has a pipe threader and other tools to make a new adapter that will fit the faucet.  We hope that this won't take too long.  All missionary apartments are fitted with water filters for their health . 
I put a quilt on the frame for a small baby blanket for the sisters to help tie.  No one came and so Grandpa and I tied it.  We did a very good job.  I think it was his first time to tie a quilt and he did an outstanding job.  We can give it to a sister in the branch who is a new grandmother.  We will do another one for the branch crib when the sisters can come help.  It is hard for them to come, they have work, school, and other activities that interfere. 
Dad had an opportunity to help Andre, our driver, with a service project.  He and the missionaries went to the kindergarten run by Andre's mother-in-law (a member of the branch) to shovel snow and chip ice off the sidewalks and the roof tops of some play gazebo's.  The snow stays pretty long here and just adds up and then it becomes very heavy.  We haven't had a tremendous lot of snow but it all adds up.  He was pretty tired, but it was worth the effort.
I finished the quilt while he was shoveling and then found some information and pictures for our Sat English Club visit.  On  US holidays we are usually invited over to this club to talk about the holiday, this one being Valentines day.  We shared what we know about how it is celebrated and what is done.  With the internet they pretty well know all about it, but the first hand experience we have is pretty special to them.  They seemed interested in what we had to tell them about Valentines Day and our comments about love and family unity.  We gave them each a copy of the Liahona and explained to them that there were articles in it for children, teenagers and adults, all good information about how to live lives that are centered around showing love to those around us.  My Valentine braved slick walks to go out and buy me some valeintine candy.  I made him a large heart shaped cookie.  Out of that batch of cookie dough I made a bunch of heart shaped cookies.  I think Dad likes those cookies, even though he doesn't care for frosting he still eats them.
We hosted a meeting here for the making of a card that will show the different facets of the church
and programs we offer.  It will be on cardstock and will be professionally done.  Should be a good tool for the members who want to reach out to the community.  After the meeting they enjoyed  quite a few of the valentine cookies.
We attended the funeral of a man whose wife is a member of our branch.  It was quite different from funerals we have in the US.  We didn't know her as she has been home tending to her husband for quite a while.  We were glad to be of support to her.  There were 7 of us from the branch.

We just got this picture so here it is for all to see that Celeb was baptized!  We love you Caleb.
He had lots of friends and family come.  Wish we could have been there!  We did get
to talk to Caleb and he was a very happy young man.

Feb 14- 15, 2012 Happy Birthday Raenie and Happy Valentines Day

Here we are fully covered from foot to head!!  We are in front of a large
snowbank in back of our apartment building.  Such snow piles are
quite common here and help preserve winter and diminish the parking spaces.



Here we are quite comfy in our Sapsan seating. 
We were warm and quite surprised to learn that the
temperature outside at this very minute was -28 C



A very cold looking picture of Lower Nizhiny from the 17th floor of
a missionary apartment.  To the left in the picture is a
frozen lake used now for sledding down the banks.

We want to say Happy Birthday to Raenie. 
 We  WARMLY wish you a happy
celebration.   Love you much.

Our past Sunday was the coldest daytime temperature down to -25 as we walked to church.
 We have hunted for and acquired a new apartment for two of our sisters and they are safely tucked away in their new dwelling.  We had them with us for about a week or so and they were very fine house guests. 
They assured us they would miss all of Elder Foutz's breakfasts.  We miss the conversation and special spirit they shared with us while they were here.  They are in a good area, close to the chapel, their finding area, shopping, and mass transportation.
Yesterday was spent sharing our computer time with the elders and sisters here, and shopping for the dinner we cook for on District day.  We tried to find a piece of plumbing for the water filtration system for the sister apartment.  We spent quite a bit of time here and there trying to locate this adaptor, but to no avail.  The current thinking is that maybe we should just get a faucet that will fit the apparatus for the filter system.
Our small branch had a small turnout on Sunday, probably because it was so cold.  Those of us there were warm and enjoyed  a nice block of meetings.  Our Sunday School class had only one person but we had a good discussion.  We had  many teachers and leaders missing so following the Sunday School topic the elders used a video for the 3rd hour to explain more fully the principle of agency. 
We didn't get to teach our young lady this past week because she is out of town. 

Here is a classic Russian made car that we saw in a museum that
is shown here probably more for the benefit of our grandsons.

This is an early Russian made car and if it looks like a Ford that is because
Henry came over and helped start the factory.  Thought the grandson
would like this one too.

Here is a puppet show scene for the kids to enjoy.  The shows are put together by
the missionaries for use in the country of Belarus.  The missionaries cannot
openly teach religion so they teach health and good eating
in schools, libraries, and in good weather, they are on the streets.
 They can answer questions about the show.  Teaching is allowed
when  people initiate  the inquiry. 

                                      Happy Valenitnes Day to all.  Don't eat too much chocolate.

February1- 10, 2012 Lenae's BD 02/03-1963

  Well here we are on the first day of February and soon it will be my sister Lenae's 49th birthday!!  Can't hardly believe that.  We all get older and that is better than the alternative, for most of us anyway. 
  We are into a cold spell and I guess that is expected to happen here.  We had a fairly blustery day today making the temperature seem colder.  Everyone is cold and we have turned on some space heaters in the apartment to keep the temperature up.  It stays very nice inside.  We had a bit more snow and have seen more and more of the ice chipped off the sidewalks so the walking path to church is getting more and more clear.
   The sisters apartment in the Lower Nizhniy is being vacated tomorrow.  We need to drive down there and pack them up and probably drive them to our apartment.  They are homeless for a few days anyway.  We have an apartment picked out but the owners are nervous about the church connection and will let us know sometime today if they will rent to us.  We have wanted to get them out of the apartment they are in because they commute over an hour to visit many of their appointments.  In a different location the travel could be cut to a third or more.  Housing  is one of our many responsibilities, along with checking the apartments to make sure they are clean and orderly.(We have since moved them into our apartment as the landlord declined their moving into this above mentioned apartment.)
  Last Friday we taught a young lady in our apartment.  She is a fine person and we are hoping that she will
be persuaded to see things in the light that we teach.  She seems to be very well grounded and has many friends and loves to dance and perform in Salsa, Contemporary, Latino, Ballet, and probably others too.
She has very good English and we are hoping that she will read, study, and pray.  Isn't that every missionary's wish for their investigators.  We love the people here and find them intelligent, informed, friendly, and the young kids are so kind to us.  They love to have us be included in their games at the family home evening and are very competitive, but fair.  They love to play hockey with the young missionaries, but we stay away from that.  Too many lost teeth, gouged eyes, bruised shins, etc. Although, I must say , that in the last 4 months I am not aware of any injuries.  I have a hard enough time staying on my feet as it is and do not desire to put my well being to that big a test.
    Here it is Feb 10 and we have not had much time to finish this post and will hurry to do so.  We have had considerable more cold and wind.  It has been down as low as -30C at night and the other night on the Sapsan (fast train) we saw on the digital thermometer -28 C.  We have been warm enough and if the wind whips up we will put a scarf over our faces.  We saw on the train a digital readout of the speed of the train, which we had not noticed before, that the maximum speed it arrived to was 130 km/ hr.  The maximum speed it can arrive to is 250 km/hr.  We didn't get that fast.  I think that they slow down when they come to little villages and so we could see that the train was slowing and then speeding up again all during the journey.  We had another overnight journey too.  The rooms,called coupe,were dark enough but quite warm.  At least we can lay down and stretch out. 
    We had great meetings in Moscow and felt quite motivated and ready to go to work again.  We met Elder Bennett from the 2nd quorum of 70 who is a very good motivator and speaker.  He loves the Lord and over and over again assured us of his and the prophets love.  We felt that too.  Dad and I had the unique opportunity to go for a tour of Nizhniy with our driver and Elder and Sister Bennett.  We saw the kremlin, a good overview of the two rivesr and the lower city, and saw the older part of the upper part of Nizhniy.  We stayed in the upper part on the tour because it is more colorful and the lower part is industrial with not so many sites to look at.
   We have recently had the good fortune to meet a kind couple who are adopting two special needs kids from here and one other city nearby.  This couple are very special to reach out to a select part of the children waiting to be adopted who have health disabilities.  Their two year old is needing almost immediate surgery for heart issues and will soon be in the USA to receive this treatment.  The five year old also has heart defects and will need some supervision but as he has had surgery his need is not nearly so critical.   They have all the clearances to adopt but have to endure a 30 day wait.  So, as they have 3 children in Florida, they have returned home and will come back in March to finish the paperwork, visas, and passports and then take formal custody and return to the states.
   We are teaching again tonight, have a missionary planning meeting this afternoon, have a meeting with the landlord of the new apartment for the sister missionaries later.  So will need to finish this and get going.  I'll try to affix some photos at the end of this.

Babushka Ina who just broke her arm.  Sweet small lady
who loves the Gospel and her missionaries. 

Babushka Ina's living room, really her bedroom too.  She has only the one room
to herself and shares the bathroom and kitchen with a 2nd and maybe 3rd
apartment.

A famous Russian scene in the art museum in Moscow.  Features
the 3 bogatera.  They are heros in Russian folk tales.

Christmas day 2011 with Johnson, Kenneth, and Joseph.  We really
had a great time.

This is the Sapsan train.  The letters you see on the side say it in Russian.

Here we are in our winter gear in front of our Apartment building.  Don't we
look like natives?

   A thought; when all is said and done, at the end of our lives, the most important thing for us to report to the Savior of the world is the relationship with our spouse, the relationship with our family, our endurance in doing good, and our personal repentance and desire to do the Lord's will.  Will we be perfect, of course not, but we can move that direction, more each day we hope.  The Lord is not so concerned as to where in the journey to perfection we are, but the direction we are heading.  Are we on the Lord's errand or are we sidtracked somewhere or turned around and heading somewhere else.  The Lord bless you all, know that we as grandparents love you grandchildren, and as parents we love you children (including the in-laws) , and as brothers, sisters, friends and family we love you all too.  We love you and miss you and pray the Lord be with you all.

Gorky Square and Sapsan Train

Lights in Gorky Square 20-11-12



Lights on Gorky Square 2011-12




Lights on Gorky Square 2011-12




Elder Foutz in front of the Sapsan Train. The letters that look like
 'cancah' are really Sapsan in Russian!




Sister Foutz in Ukraine Keiv Airport Jan 2012
 keeping warm.




Sapsan engine and cars in Moscow 2011



25 Jan 2012

     Hey everyone!  It is getting colder but we are managing just fine.  We senior folks don't get out in it that much and we bundle up really well. It has been around -10 thru -20 at night.  We have a porch outside the office and keep some extra food items in there and a few things have been freezing.  We try to keep a watch on the liquids and keep them some place else.
Jerry has been a companion to one of the elders here in the city because his companion went home.  He actually went home a few days over his two year committment but not in sinc with the rest of the transfers. We thought that there was a young man from another city who would come and be with him but that didn't work out.  He is staying here with us for two days while one of the young elders here travels to another city to work.  The other elder here is traveling to Ukraine for his visa renewal.  After his visa renewal he will travel back here with his own new companion and a new one for our elder here.
     This past week we have had our english club and did a demo about time using the jar with large rocks, gravel, and sand in it.  We then observed that at last it could hold some water.  We talked about how it would be impossibe to fit the largest things in unless we fit them in first.  We can't be successful unless we do the most important things first, then fit in between those the good but not vital things and then do the other things and so forth.  All the people seemed to like the message and one asked us to please let him have a copy of the message. We have been asked to speak at another english club meeting here in the city in February about Valentines day and traditions in the USA.
     Some other activities during the past couple of weeks include, helping out a couple who are here from Florida to adopt two small children with special needs, attending the games night with the youth and family home evening. 
We visited a young woman who is not currently attending church, hoping that she will start up again. She has lost contact with the missionary who baptized her back in 1994, and we hope to help her.  Her information was on a cell phone that was lost or stolen and she is now moved and has a new phone number.  I went to a meeting with some of the sisters and we decorated envelopes and paper to be used for invitations for a celebration of women that is pretty important in Russia. Linda's artistic endeavors were pretty sad, but not that much different from everyone else's.  Jerry continues to help with the apartment remodel with Jenya, on occassion as time allows. 
     Linda was asked to speak on Sunday for about 10 minutes.  That is a talk of about 5 minutes length for me and 5 minutes for the translater.  I find it more difficult to do a good 5 minute talk than one that is longer.  You really need to come to the point and then make it and close. The talk was on charity, who better to talk about that subject than Sister Foutz!  She did a great job.  The young women in the branch that Linda had the sisters over to tie a quilt for had her baby monday and is doing well, as is the baby.  She loves the quilt. 
     Jerry was asked by the Mission President to get the leadership of the two branches together for a meeting to discuss the statistics and see how we can improve.  In 2011 the average Sacrament meeting attendance percentage was almost half what it was in 1999.  It was an eye opener for the priesthood leaders.  The purpose of the meeting was to make them aware and get them committed to a plan of action to move the work forward.  They committed to do that and I think we will see some improvement.  One of the problems is that the membership records are in bad shape.  There are many that are still on the rolls but not here any longer or have died.
     We are doing well and thank the Lord for His patience with us and this opportunity.  

Jan 19 2012; Alayna is 1

So far we have missed the birthdays of our grandchildren Stan who turned 5 on the 18 Oct, Dallin who turned 6 on 19 Oct, Sierra who turned 8 on 24 Oct, Ruby who turned 7 on 24 Nov, CJ who turned 5 on 28 Nov, William who turned 4 on 17  Dec, Andrew who turned 10 on 21 Dec, Caleb who turned 8 on 1 Jan and then was baptized on the 7th, Emma who turned 7 on 11 Jan and  Alayna who turned 1 on 19 Jan (today).
I think we have managed to at least talk to the parents and let them all know that we miss them and are so glad for their progress.  We wish Happy Birthday to all. Alayna has taken to walking behind her little push toy and her Mom says she can walk anywhere.  She just holds onto the handle and it balances her.  She has even taken two steps on her own so far.   Way to go Alayna.  Stan is excelling in his preschool and the teachers say he should skip preschool next year and go right into Kindergarten.  We shall see how that goes.  All the grandchildren are of course: smart, cute, sweet, handsome, beautiful, fun, intelligent, clean, thrifty, brave, and reverant.  I'll stop there but could go on as of course all grandmas think the same about their grandchildren. 
    A little about us here in Russia.  We have received letters of Christmas greetings from our home ward in South Jordan and was so good to hear from all of them.  Thanks to Bro Reed Nelson for forwarding them on to us.  We miss our ward and hope all are doing well.  For the first time in our 2 missions I have a visiting teacher, Jennifer Walquist!  She e-mails and I appreciate hearing about her and the encouragement she provides.   I guess now we need a home teacher who e-mails too!!
    The ideas as to how to serve are coming to us slowly.  We do appreciate the help of the Lord in reaching out to our friends with whom we can converse only very little.  They are great people here and just need a little encouragement and direction.  We will be busy implementing our various activities.  Our best bet is to go slowly and let them catch the vision.  Don't want to overwhelm them in any way.
    We still have snow and got more last night.  The temperature is dropping but so far not significantly.  We still sleep with the window open at night because that is they only way to control the heat in the apt.  We do keep plenty warm. 
   A few ladies and 2 missionaries came over to our apt and we tied a baby quilt for a lady who is due soon.  We also made no-bake cookies and it was fun teaching.  They enjoyed learning about the no bake technique.  I have been called as a counselor in Relief Society.  They can't speak more than 10 words of English and i can't speak more than 10 words of Russian it will be a fun exp.  Dad spoke in church and did a good job with the help of a translator. 
    Missionary work has been slow as the new year celebration is continuing.  School is out and the banks were even closed from Dec 30 thru 10 Jan!  Things are beginning to come to life again.  Today is a holiday and is celebrated by the state church as the day of the baptism of John the Baptist.
   We continue to do weekly meals for the 8 missionaries and the two of us couples each week.  The other couple help out so it isn't all on us alone.  We roasted 3 chickens yesterday and did vegetables in the crock pot and had dressing and gravy and thanks to someone who mailed us jello we had a jello fruit salad.  They thought it was thanksgiving and really enjoyed the meal.  Not much left over to clean up. 
    We continue to feel the hand of the Lord in our work and know that He is interested in what we do and are thankful for that. 
    

Trip to Moscow and Ukraine

January 9, 2012

We had a great trip to Moscow for our annual Mission Christmas party.  We had a great time visiting with the other senior couple missionaries who serve here in Russia Moscow West Mission (RMWM) or MWM).  We are serving far from each other and see each other only when we all go to Moscow.  However our little district has 2 couples the only city that does.  We have two branches, we prosylete they are working with the youth. 
Our trip to Moscow began at 11:30 in the evening in a sleeper car.  We did manage to sleep some.  Up by 6:20 AM to leave the train by 7AM.  We caught the Metro and went almost as far south as one line went.  We then walked about 1 mile or so to the chapel.  We had good food, lots of visiting, a game for the young missionaries, a movie, and skits.  We left with the office couple and settled in for a short night.  We made it fine to the airport  and after some help we found where to go.  After walking about a mile we found the gate. We made it into Ukraine just fine.  We had a bit of a wait for our return ticket but all was good.  Our plane waited for a connecting flight that had about 20 passengers to join us.  We got to Moscow just fine but about 40 minutes late.  We had some good coaching so we were somewhat prepared from here.  We found the marshrutka to the aeroexpress.  Luckily the marshrutka let us off at the door of the aeroexpress office.  We bought tickets and boarded for about a 30 minute ride to the metro.  We decided to follow the crowd to find the metro. It is a bit daunting for us but we just walked in the only direction we could go and found the escalator going about 3 stories down. 
Right in front of us was the line we needed and it went right to our stop in about 11 minutes.  We found our Sapsan (fast train) station and they were just boarding.  All in all it turned out good and we felt blessed to manage through a lot of new territory in such a smooth way.  
We are back to our routine and are prepared to cook for the missionaries on Wed. We have apartment checks tomorrow (Tue) and some appointments after that.  All is good (AG).  

All of the Russian missionaries are limited to a 3 month visa.  Each 90 days We leave the country, get the visa stamped and come back and start the process over again. To be legal in the country you have to have a passport, a current visa, a commuting paper, and a community paper.  All except the passport are only valid for the period of 3 months.  So we leave and come back all in the same day just to renew the visa.  When we return we see our person who takes our passport with current visa to get us the community paper.  She returns it to us and we are legal.  While she has our things we have a copy of our passport and visa and the flight coupon from our flight into country.  That makes us legal inbetween time. 

 we are the couple who prosylete and the other couple here do CES or in other words working with the youth.  They are a great couple and we really like them.  They are from Joseph, UT.  We had never heard of Joseph before, just a little place not far from I-70 at Cove Fort.

GAZ Factory

We toured the GAZ car factory in Dec and this is a picture of the more recent cars made with the GAZ model called Volga.  They stopped making the Volga 2 years ago.  They make tractors, trucks, and SUV's now.

This is an older GAZ model car.  It looks like an old Ford because Henry Ford came over here in 1929 and helped start a car factory.  They started rolling off the line in 1932 if I remember right.  The original cars all looked like the Ford models.  During WWII  they made tanks, planes, and other war implements and the factory was bombed several times.
They still find scrapnel of various sizes even now on the grounds, especially when digging for expansions.

Beautiful hand work

A beautiful drink dispenser.   All hand painted work!

This is done at the doll factory as well.

The finished product

Dad said I should have included pictures of
finished dolls.  Here is a selection
of the Christmas variety.

A shot of several finished dolls.

A doll that is made for the 2014 olympics.

Christmas Decorations



Our Christmas tree, about 4 feet tall.  All white
and silver decorations.




Small 10 inch Christmas tree we purchased
at the doll factory.  The base comes off
and the center is hollow so could hold a small gift.




A view of our large dining table and lights above the south facing window.




This is the west facing window with lights and greenery.

 We are doing well, and have had some success in teaching and visiting with some members.
As we remember whose errand we are on we quietly remember His birthday.  We are so
blessed with all that are around us and feel to give thanks for all. 
So far the weather is holding out never been below -12C and usually around +3 to around 0C so
can't complain.  We still have snow on the ground, but it has been melting.  The roads are mostly
clear and most sidewalks are free of the ice and snow buildup. 
We haven't seen the sun nor any blue sky for weeks, but it doesn't seem to bother us.  We have noticed that
we have pretty short days.  We don't get any light outside until about 9AM and then it is dark by 4:30PM.

Tour of the Martrushka doll factory Thursday 1 Dec 2011



A tray full of little fat men that I really liked.



A close up of a worker smoothing up a swan figurine.



Factory floor, machinery and wood materials in back.



Starsheena Foutz standing in front of the massive amount of wood amased for the factory work.



Not only do they produce the dolls but this beautiful close up of metal work and the detailed painting
The master painters receive recognition and good pay and an apartment for their work.



Selection of the many dolls that are made.  We saw that the artist will paint one
part of the doll and then pass it on to another artist.  Here she is painting
the blue clothing.

We enjoyed our tour very much.  We were wanting more time in the factory than we got.  Dad especially wanted to spend time there, but all was fine.  We saw all kinds of items they make and some
of it takes weeks to paint I am sure.
We arranged to have lunch at the factory cafeteria and they had a special room set up for us and had a very good menu.  The bus ride out there was about 1 1/2 hours north of here.  Saw some beautiful scenery much
like we would see in the mountains.  Lots of snow, evergreens along the road, and pretty little houses, too.
We took all the elders and sisters who serve here with us and by the way it was our p-day so no time lost
teaching.
We find people here curious about our home in Utah and about our seemingly large family.  We take our picture
book with us occassionally and show off the family.  We don't like to talk about our home, as there is nothing even remotely like it here.  No grassy areas around apts, and the apts are small and not in best
condition due to lack of funds to repair or remodel.  Some families have only 1 bedroom or no bedrooms, they sleep in the living room.  Beds are often hard and not many have more than a stuffed couch in the living room if that.  The people are happy and feel grateful for what they have.  It makes me ever grateful for all I have and the
restored gospel on top of it all. 

Our apartment and some activities

I have taken a few pictures of our apartment. It is actually pretty nice compared to a lot
around here.  We are safe, happy, and clean.  The apt is warm so far, but it hasn't gotten too
cold yet.  The lowest, I believe, will be tonight at -12 C.  If I figured it right that is about 10 F.
 So it's cold, but when we think of the -20 or lower, then it isn't so bad.  They tell us those lower temperatures are coming. We have some snow and so far ever since it fell it has stayed. 
There is about 6 or 7 inches on the ground in places.  The sidewalks are mostly swept off
with only a sheet of ice in places, and snow in others.  In the driveways and other places
 not driven on or walked on so much the snow is deeper.

Our dresser and bed.

Elder Foutz ironing in the living room.  You see
the pictures of members of our zone on the left
bulletin board.

Kitchen stove and cupboards.  Fridge is on the right.
Pink is the hand towel in front of oven.

Kitchen from the other end.  Table and drinking water with
the cupboard on right for extra storage.

We had a great experience this evening with Sister Galena who is a new member.
She has really been blessed with the spirit and has tremendous potential.  We
are truly blessed toteach her. 
The branch want us to teach cub scouts, family history, visit the
branch members, teach piano, and I don't know how many more things. 
The branch is in need of lots of help
and they are worthy of more than we can give.
We also helped Sister Ireena clean her new apartment that her family will move
 into pretty soon.  It is in sad shape.  Our apartment looks like Eden in comparison.
 Sometimes we don't realize our blessings until we see someone else in worse
 circumstances.  There are many in that situation here.  We are very blessed and
have much to be thankful for during this thanksgiving season. 
Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Here is a link to the the Current time in Nizhniy.

http://www.worldtimeserver.com/current_time_in_RU-NIZ.aspx    Thanks to my brother Alan for the link.  I would have not thought of it.

A journal entry

I have a little time today to write.  It is our preparation day but still have many things to do. I am going shopping with the sisters to find some boots for one of them.  They don't have that much money with them, so I go to pay and then in 3 days the reimbursement will come in from Moscow.   
Jerry will go to one of the investigators to help him in his apartment remodel.  He loves to help, and to get out to do something physical.
We had a great street contacting activity on Sunday afternoon.  We were actually asked to leave one area, because we didn't have the paper that would give permission for the activity.  We had actually tried to find out if the activity were permitted in this area, and I guess no one really knew what was permitted.  Well, we found out!  Not a bad thing, the man who related the news told us kindly, and we left.  We travelled on the subway (metro) for a few stops and then got on a rickety old tram vi.  I don't know exactly how old the trams are but I think they have been around since the 40's!  It is an electric trolly car.  We had among the 8 of us in the group, 4 plastic table tops and the 4 legs for each of the tables, some Books of Mormon and pamphlets, some paper to put over the tables, so we each had something to carry.  Jerry was carrying a plastic bag with 4 or 6 of the table legs and the bag developed a hole in the bottom.

I need to learn how to blog better.  This picture was supposed to be added at the end of the dialog.
It is a picture of our group on the first full day in Nizhniy.  The mission president and his wife are seated by us. 
Seated on the ends of the couch are the sisters we worked with until the one on the far right,  departed for another assignment.
Sister Lovett is center in white shirt and her husband is 2nd from right on the back row.  We replaced them here.  Sister Gay is behind Jerry and me and her husband is 1st on the right, back row.  The tallest elder 6'7" in back and his comp on his left are still here,  and only one of the other elders are still here. 

The table legs started sliding out the bottom of the bag, so he stooped over to pick them up and legs start coming out of the top of the bag.  We had table legs going every direction and I got to giggling about it, and so did the man who was sitting behind me.  The tram is a fairly jerky ride and Jerry wasn't seated.  So he was trying to keep from falling, and filling up the bag which kept emptying.  The man offered Jerry a seat so he could contain those table legs and as soon as the man stood up, a woman got on the tram and very smoothly sat in the seat just vacated!!    I would have helped Jerry with those legs but he was standing right by me and at times half sitting in my lap as the tram was josteling us around.  Jerry gave the helpful man one of our cards and we got off the tram with all table legs in tow!!  The change in location lost us an hour of light.  We found a good place to contact, and a few stopped to talk to us.  It got so cold that people were just hurrying on to get to their destinations.  It made a difference when the sun went down. 

Pictures from Russia

Moscow Red Square Oct 11

MTC map showing Nizhniy

View from our apartment office window

Detail on building across from our apartment bedroom window.

Looking out apartment living room window.

Elder and Sister Foutz, Elder and Sister Lovett, Elder and Sister Gay
along with Kenneth, Stanisloff and  Fidel,  university students from
Africa who joined the church while here.  They had just hosted
an African culture night activity.

On our way to Nizhniy we stopped by this Russian Orthodox
church that was built around 1170 AD.

President and Sister Woolley in front of another
old Russian church built in 1170 AD.  We
were on our way to Nizhniy.