Grocery day is easier now!

Dennis strolling home from the store with his new grocery cart full of groceries. He's so proud of it!!!

Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg Russia

We had a very good and busy week and a half in Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg. We interviewed the two out-going mission presidents and their wives, trained Brother and Sister Gushin who are over Family/Church History for all of the eastern part of Russia (it's actually a land mass larger than the United States, they will be busy), and we gave two firesides. In between all of that, we saw some wonderful sites and had a great time. We interviewed the outgoing mission president and his wife, President and Sister Trejo. After the interview they took us to dinner at a Mexican restaraunt. The Trejos are sitting across from us. Two other missionary couples joined us. Next to us are the McCauley's from Idaho and across from them are the Huffackers from Colorado. It seems that wherever we go the mission president takes us out for a mexican dinner. We love it!! We gave a chuch history fireside for the district members in Novosibirsk. This young lady was my translator. She just put her mission papers in the day before. Here mother, standing next to her, attended a fireside 20 years earlier that Dennis spoke at. That fireside gave her the little push she needed to committ to being baptized.

The Gushins took us to a train musem located outside of Novosibirsk. The men were in seventh heaven.

Dennis trying to control a runaway train. "Don't panick Dennis.....it's really not moving".

Sister Gushina, Sister McCauley and myself in front of a train. We were a little calmer than the guys about the whole train thing.

This is a Russian Orthodox chapel that marks the geographical center of Russia. Of course we had to have our picture taken in front of it with the Gushins.

This is a wedding party having their pictures taken by the chapel. They had 'Russian Mafia' theme for their wedding. Cute!!!

The Gushins took us to the ballet the night before we left. It is a beautiful building that was built during World War II. It took a lot of sacrifice on the part of the citizens of Novosibirsk, but they all supported the construction and are still very proud of it.

Me at the ballet inside this beautiful building.

A beautiful sunset after a wonderful week in Novosibirsk.

The next day we flew to Yekaterinburg.

I had to take a picture of all the trees off in the distance. After living in Moscow....in the winter.... I'm so thankful for trees. I loved trees before, but now I really love trees!!!

More trees in the distance.

Trees along the roadside.

We gave a district fireside on Church History at this church for the members in Yekaterinburg. There's many wonderful people who live there. These are all missionary sisters and a senior couple.

This is Elder and Sister Hassel who are currently serving a mission in Yekaterinburg as the mission office couple. Elder Hassel was in Dennis' Finland Mission back when they were 20. They invited us for lunch at their apartment and she made Finnish meatloaf. You top it with sour cream and blueberries. I was scared at first (I take after my dad), but it was really good.

After the fireside we went back to the hotel, then we went for a walk and got some ice cream at Baskin and Robins, then back to the hotel, and I took this picture at 11:00 pm because it was so light outside. It started getting dark around 12:00.

It was a great trip but it's always good to be home in your own place with your own stuff. :)

Fun, fun time in Armenia!

We flew to Yerevan, Armenia from Kyiv at 11:30 pm April 28, and were picked up at the airport at 4:00 am by President and Sister Carter. They are the mission president and wife of the Armenia mission. We were all very tired, but they said they do it all the time because that is the normal flight schedule for that connection. Here we are with the city of Yerevan in the background.

This is a picture of the mission driver, the man at the far right, and his family. We got 3 hours of sleep then he picked us up to go to the city of Spitak to interview a senior missionary couple who are assigned there. On the way back to Yerevan, he drove the longer, more scenic route through the beautiful country. Then he informed us that we were going to his house for dinner. His wife fixed a yummy dinner of soup, fish, and lavash (I skipped the fish). We had a great time and stayed for hours.

Outside the church where we interviewed the missionary couple. The church is on the first floor of this building.

The pretty countryside on the route back to Yerevan and dinner at the Ghabarian's house.

More pretty country side.

This place is where Elder Oaks and Elder Nelson came to Armenia June 24, 1991 and dedicated the land for the preaching of the gospel. Elder Oaks gave the dedicatory prayer in the grove to the left of the picture. Since then there are 2 districts, many branches, and about 2,000 members in Armenia. You can see that this grove is next to a statue called 'Mother of Armenia'. Until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a bust of Stallin was displayed on this monument. They quickly removed him, after winning their independence, and put up this new statue.

Us in the grove.

The grove with the 'Mother of Armenia' in the background.

A beautiful water show to lights and music in Republic Square, about a 5 minute walk from our hotel.

Once a year the soviet lovers gather with their red flags and remember the the 'good old days'. I took this picture from our hotel window.

This is Mt. Ararat where Noah landed the Ark. It's in Turkey because the Turkey people took it away from the Armenian people about 100 years ago. The Armenians still call it their mountain.

The city view of Mt. Ararat through the clouds. It has snow on it.

View (sort of) of Mt. Ararat from the monestary on the border of Turkey and Armenia. There is always a cloud covering the mountain. We know it's there because we saw parts of it as the clouds would re-position themselves.

The Armenian Orthodox monestary at the base of Mt. Ararat.

Dennis, our driver, and President and Sister Fry inside the wall of the monestary.

They still do animal sacrifices at this monestary. This is the sacrificial alter...gross...I know! Yeah, they're behind the times by about...2 thousand years. We didn't tell them because they don't like Mormons. They usually kick the Mormons off their property.

We really did do a lot of work while we were there. This is the group we trained on Church History for 2 days. They made a yummy Armenian lunch for us.

A memorial from the genicide in about 1912. 1.5 million people died.

This monestary and the surrounding grounds is to the Armenians what temple square is to the Mormons.

Kyiv and Donetsk Ukraine

We spent most of our time in Kyiv, Ukraine interviewing the temple presidency and a few temple missionary couples who were all former mission presidents in Russia. I didn't realize it, but the only pictures I took were of the temple. It is very beautiful. Here we are with the Kay and Diane Christensen first counselor and assistant to the matron in the temple. He was formerly in the second quorum of the seventy.

Dennis in front of the temple enjoying the sunshine.

Next, we flew to Donetsk, Ukraine to interview the Mission President and his wife.

There was a pretty park by our hotel and we spent every free moment we had in it.

A man gives the little kids rides on his pony in the park.

We ate dinner at a really good Mexican Restaurant in Donetsk with President and Sister Fry of the Donetsk Mission and one of the Europe East patriarchs Gary and JoAnne Browning.

Our Adventure in the Baltic Mission April 1 - April 11

We had a wonderful time with President and Sister Dance, Baltic Mission president and wife, for the week and a half that we were there. These first pictures are from our 5 hour road trip in Lithuania to see Matt and go to zone conference the next day.

We stopped and had the APs take a picture of us and President and Sister Dance in front of this old castle.

We had to stop and get a 'stat dog'. It's a hot dog that they push down into a tube bun. I guess it's a 'must have' when you're in Lithuania. It was suprisingly pretty good.

The APs stopped along the side of the road so I could pet the horse.

The countryside of Lithuania.

An old church in this country town.

Old Town in Kaunas, Lithuania. It was really quiet and pretty.

Us and Matt, Elder Neilson, in Old Town Kaunas, Lithuania. It was so good to see him. What a handsome young man he is. (I'm not prejudice)

Us and Matt at zone conference. Tuesday, April 5, 2011.

We took a group picture of Matt's district at zone conference. They are all exceptional missionaries.

Jaci told me to take pictures of what Matt eats (a true mom). So here is lunch at zone conference. Yummy chinese food in Lithuania. He was a good sport to apease his mother.

Matt's dinner at the resturant in Old Town Kaunas. He said it was good but don't ask me what it was.

Us, Matt, Dances, Elder Falk (Matt's companion) and one of the APs at a very good Lithuania resturant.

President Dance being silly outside the resturant. He told me to destroy this picture but......oops, somehow it ended up on our blog. :)

Then we went back to Riga, Latvia.

To the left of me is a cute little resturant we ate at with the Dances in Old Town Riga, Latvia. Behind me is the Palace of the president of Latvia. I think they call it the White House. How original.

This is an old church in Old Town Riga, Latvia.

Then we drove with President and Sister Dance to Tallinn, Estonia.

At church Sunday I met Marina Saarik. She was the first member of the church in Estonia 20 years ago. She has a group picture from back then with herself, dennis, and others in it.

Dennis and I gave a district fireside Saturday night, at this same church building, on Church History. The members are excited to keep journals and share their conversion stories. They appreciated the fireside.

Old Town in Tallinn, Estonia. Wait....is that a McDonalds in the left hand corner of the picture? I don't think that was there in the 1500s. But, you never know!

Here we are at the Baltic Sea in Estonia. It is still frozen in April. To the right, you can see a big pile of ice built up on the shore from the waves. Brrrrrrrrr.

What a wonderful trip it was. We were extremely busy training people on the Church History program, giving a fireside, speaking at the zone conferences, and Dennis gave patriachal blessings. But we found time to enjoy that beautiful part of the world in the Baltic States.