Vot nash dome (here is our home). Our apartment building. We are on the second floor behind the tree with no leaves. I started taking pictures of the inside and the battery on the camera went dead. I'm recharing it now. So...inside pictures to come.

Me in front of our apartment building. This is a nice apartment building for Russian standards. I'll post pitures of the inside in a couple a days when I have more time.

This is one of the little neighborhood grocery stores (there are many of them) . . . .

. . . .and the neighborhood clothes store.

This is in our neighborhood. It is a picture of a crew chopping the ice and shoveling it and the snow off the road. What a hard job but good job security for Russian winters.

Dennis standing by a snow bank in our neighborhood. They do a good job of snow removal, but there's just so much of it they have to pile a lot of it up on the side walks. It's so cold here, and there's not too many "thaw days" like in Salt Lake City.

Monday we went on a tour in the Kremlin Palace, the yellow building, with the missionary couples in the Moscow Mission. It was absolutely gorgeous, I wish we could have taken pictures of the inside. We were very fortunate to arrive in Moscow in time to join them.

We Made It Here

Well, after 20 hours of traveling, we made it to Moscow. The plane ride was nice once we got in the air. Leaving Salt Lake City, we started taking off but quickly slowed down and taxied back to the terminal. The pilot then announced that the right engine "didn't kick in" and it was probably only a computer reset problem. He was right and we left 45 minutes later. Everything was smooth sailing, or flying, after that. We arrived in Moscow Thursday, 11:00 am just as planned. Elder and Sister Larry Lawrence, member of the area presidency, and Dima, tech guy, met us at the airport and we had a delightful rest of the day with them.

The mission home that we will be living in is much more than we could have hoped for. It has 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, an office, formal dining room, living room, and a large kitchen area. I think we'll turn one of the bedrooms into a study/reading room for dennis. The apartment building is in a nice gated area with 24 hour security.

Today, Friday, we spent the whole day shopping for groceries and odds and ends that we needed for the apartment. It was exhausting trying to do that all day with jet lag, but at least it's done and we can move on to other stuff tomorrow. All the cold weather gear we bought, coats, boots, gloves, and Smartwool socks, works well in the 1 degree weather.

I can't log into my yahoo account to e-mail everyone, but as soon as I can I will e-mail you.

Three More Days and Still Counting

We had a wonderful day today with family and friends. We spoke in sacrament meeting and then gathered at our house for a continental breakfast and visited with everyone. Thanks to everyone for all your love and support.
This is a picture of our friends Jeff and Mona who went with us to Russia in June 2010. It was nice to see them today at sacrament meeting.

Still Counting Down - 14 more days

This picture is from our Russia Trip in June 2010. This is Dennis and me in front of a beautiful palace that Catherine the Great built just outside of Moscow. In person the palace and the grounds are like being in a fairyland, the picture doesn't do it justice.