Wednesday, May 1, 2013

The snow and ice are gone and the weather is warmer. Everything is greening up. No more heavy coats and ice tracks. Last Sunday Vlad was baptized. This young man, in his early twenties, was a golden contact. He came up and asked the Elders if he could be baptized. He will be a great addition to the branch.

We are getting more Sisters in the mission. Everyone is excited about the changes. There was one Mission Leader Council meeting already. One of our Sisters in Barnaul was called as a Sister Training Leader. We are getting 15 new sisters. The Sisters are able to reach many the Elders can’t.

Progress here towards Stakehood is being made. We hear the same is taking place in Cambodia too. It is exciting to see the Church growing and be a part of it. We continue to work with missionaries, members, and leaders in a supportive role.

Last week there was a couple here, Elder and Sister Huefner from Moscow training leaders on proper branch financial management. They do this for five missions in Russia and are on the road as much as three weeks at a time living out of a suitcase staying in hotels and eating out. They calculate covering more than 90,000 miles already. As their 18 months was closing in, at their request, they were granted a six month extension. Theirs is a labor of love, much more so than what we did. They had an extra day here and they came over for lunch. What a treat to visit with them about their experiences. The next day we had a cultural event going to one of the museums here. That was followed by their taking us to lunch at the Il Patio (menu in English).

Time is going so fast. Our release date is 1 August, 2013. Flying back in the same direction as the sun means we leave here in the morning and arrive in Salt Lake late the same day. Traveling time is about 36 hours with lay overs. Travel west is much easier on us.

This is part of a talk I gave last Sunday:
You know from personal experience that some things can kill you if you are careless about them. High voltage is a good example. If something goes wrong you will know in an instant. No waiting there for the results.
To be careless with the things of God is even more deadly. Human nature is such we don’t worry so much when consequences are moved back from actions. When we die we will still be resurrected. Physical death is not that big a deal.
When you die spiritually you are cut off from God for all eternity. You are cut off from your family for all eternity too. God gives you time to repent and come back. The problem is when you drift away you may never make the effort to come back at all. With high voltage the result of being careless is so quick we are very careful. Being careless with God is not so swift. Nothing bad happens when we choose to stay away from Church for one Sunday. That was easy so one more Sunday is even easier. Before we know it a habit is started. Bad habits are hard to break and so goes our life. Satan has cheated our soul and we are his.
Life is good and our health is good.

Love,
Elder and Sister Holmes

Sunday, February 24, 2013

We were asked to do some things this past month that were out of the ordinary for us. Three times we spoke at a local linguistic university to English speaking students. The first two were about our family and living a healthy lifestyle by eating right and avoiding alcohol and tobacco. The third time was on either visiting or living in Brazil, Egypt, Israel, Cambodia, and Scotland. All of these included photos using an overhead video projector with a laptop.

We were invited to speak to couples preparing to get married. The law here requires classes on various aspects of marriage. We had thirty minutes with half of the time spent in translation. Our text was from the optional classes for Sunday School on Strengthening Marriage. We could quote General Authorities, but not use their titles. No video here. We threw in some comments on about the problems leading to divorce tended to be mobile and followed a person to the next marriage. Which brought up the next comment, the best place to solve those problems is up front and not kick the can down the road. There were 16 there.

There is also a law requiring couples who want a divorce to attend some classes first. A woman there said she was in charge of that and may have us talk to that group. We will see what happens and if we are invited back to teach another marriage class.

A change in another law now grants three year visas. New missionaries now will never have to make visa trips. The nice part of that for us is we made our last visa trip last week instead of one more before going home. Balance that with us already having made 14 such trips, if our aged memory serves us right. That included two trips each to Estonia and Kazakhstan and 10 to Finland. Sometimes we were able to attend the Helsinki temple. As much as we enjoyed those trips, they were wearing.

Double passports were used for a while to facilitate missionaries going in and out of the country every three months. We were tasked with taking six passports to a travel agency in Helsinki and picking up 20 to bring back. Everything that is anywhere near official in Russia requires a purple stamp to pass muster. We had the purple stamped paper authorizing us to carry the passports out of Russia, but the travel agent inadvertently did not include such a paper for our trip back. There are three choke points where that can be a problem, security, passport control and customs. Anyone of those can question why and want to see the paper with the purple stamp. With some prayers answered there were no problems. Once before a purple stamp was missing and we nearly missed a flight from a strange city to home. Prayers were answered there too.

We still support the members, leaders, and missionaries, by being available for meetings at our apartment, the Church building, and members’ homes. I give blessings to members, non-members, missionaries as requested. All the leadership positions are held by Russians, as well as teaching. Today there was a mission wide leadership meeting for branch and district leadership. The work is moving forward for the creation of a stake. Reports are going in and men advancing in the priesthood in a more timely manner. Records are being cleaned up. The records for those who moved or died years ago are being passed on. More effort is being made to bring the less active back. Since 2006, the talk was a stake in five to ten years. Now it is in a year or less. That is real progress. It has been nice to be part of what is happening.

The time is going so fast. We don’t have a firm release date, but it will be sometime around the end of August. Our health is still good and we are enjoying our time here. We may be road kill on the information highway, but we are on the right side of the snow in winter and grass or weeds in the summer.

Love,
Elder and Sister Holmes

Monday, January 28, 2013

Our winter started being the coldest since 1938. Then the last few days we were above freezing and the snow started to melt making a mess all over the place. Then today, Sunday, January 27, 2013 it drops below freezing and everything is solid ice and treacherous walking without falling. In looking for better foot traction devices I found a website for runners who know how to handle ice under foot. Put sheet metal screws in the lugs of your foot ware. I did and it works. Real men don’t care if the points come up through the inner sole. It keeps them awake and they run faster. No, just kidding. You use short enough screws so that won’t be a problem. Now Sister Holmes wants me to fix her boots the same way. By the way, Utah had some colder days than we did in Siberia. Our grandson, Elder Tanner Martin, who is eastern Wyoming has even colder weather than we do.

Our Branch feels so good about the building we are in, they just had the third open house. That has brought back several less active members and even a family. Our mission goal is to have a stake here by the end of 2013. The Barnaul Branch will need at least five more active Melchizedek Priesthood holders to be a ward.

A few weeks ago we finished our first round of strengthening marriage and family classes. Next Sunday we will start another round. This one will have more members, since it will be held at the branch building. We hope there will still be non-members coming too. Anna Kuznitzova made a very nice brochure for the members to give to their friends. The Klevokens had 1000 printed. He is the former branch president and is now on the District Council.

Next month will be our last visa trip. That one will be good for three years. Up until now, we had to go out every three months. That was very expensive for the Church. The surge in missionaries coming into the field will help us here. Right now we are at about 65 and by the end of the year we are projected to be over 100.

With six missionaries in Barnaul, they conduct all the English conversation groups. These are held for eight weeks, with a four week gap before the next round starts again. On that night Sister Holmes has a return sister missionary over for a meal, visit, and games.

The new primary president worked miracles with the children. They went from wild, boisterous, out of control, to the most well behaved children. Sister Holmes jaw dropped when she went to help and saw a mighty change had taken place. Today they had their Primary Program. It was beautiful and spiritual.

The branch is working on cleaning up their membership records, getting reports in on a timely basis, and improving sacrament attendance. Callings are being extended and priesthood advancements are taking place. This year branch audits will be made by local priesthood from the District. Senior Elders will no longer be involved. The last audit I did was without a translator and my poor Russian. It went better than I thought and the Moscow office didn't complain.

We have one couple in the mission for just 12 months and another coming shortly for six months. Each pays their own way here and back. That is a nice option for senior couples.

Our health and spirits are good. We appreciate you love and support.

Elder and Sister Holmes
our Christmas tree
Mom and Zina and the plant she gave Mom for her birthday
Mom and Zina and flowers
Mom and flowers
Flowers for Mom from Bart
Snowbank in front of chapel

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Christmas is always different on a mission than at home, but we know it is going to be, so we don't mind it. It is a time to serve others. Four of the missionaries came to our house to Skype their families on Christmas Day. It was fun to hear them visit with parents and siblings. Their families want to know all about what missionary work is like in Siberia, the culture, and the weather. Our computer is in the kitchen and I was preparing dinner so I couldn't leave the room. We couldn't find a turkey so we had chicken and cheesy scalloped potatoes, broccoli (I always give them vegetables because they don't fix any for themselves), salad, rolls and apple and pumpkin pie. They were quite happy with that.

That evening we went to our branch Christmas party. It was a good activity with lots of non members there. They had a skit about the animals in the barn when Jesus was born, the choir sang and we had a white elephant gift exchange. Of course there was lots of Russian food. These people like to have parties and eat.

We have had the coldest winter in 70 years, - 39 degrees here and -50 some places. That is very cold, it hurts your face when you go out. The missionaries watch each other for frostbite. We have 2 to 3 feet of snow on the ground and higher in some places where it drifts. It has warmed up and is only - 9 now. We always wear our trax on our shoes to keep from falling on the ice. The single biggest problem for senior missionaries is falling and breaking a hip. One of our cardinal rules is to never run to catch a bus. Everything right now is slick ice.

We were asked to speak to some English classes at the linguistic university about living a healthy life style. They especially wanted it on no alcohol, smoking, or drugs. Three classes came to our first presentation and two classes to the second. They want us to come back once a month to speak about other topics.

Russians have a very unhealthy lifestyle. Half of the men never reach retirement age. The population is dropping about a million a year. The government is working on trying to reverse that trend. There are more restrictions on smoking and alcohol consumption now. Beer is now considered an alcoholic beverage.

We also told about our family. We showed some pictures of the children on a big screen. They had more questions about our family than they did about the healthy life style. They were very impressed with the number of people at our family gatherings. Most Russians only have one or two children. Many choose not to have any. They wanted to know about their activities and hobbies.

On December 30, our branch building was dedicated by Elder Yuri Gushin, an area authority 70. It was a very special occasion for the branch members and several non members were in attendance. The process to buy and remodel a building is very involved here. A meeting of people, who live in this area of the city, was held so they could vote on whether or not the building could be changed from a store to a church. We thought there could be some opposition but there was none, so the Church bought the building. That happened in 2010. When we arrived here in March of 2012, we heard that the building would be finished that spring or summer. Our first meeting in the new building was October 14, 2012. It is so wonderful to have a nice place to invite people to come to.

After Church on Sunday, Elder and Sister Gushin, Pres. and Sister Gibbons and Elder and Sister Webb, the office couple, came to our home for a meal before they drove back to Novosibirsk, a 4 hour drive. It was such a treat to have them here and be able to sit and visit for a while. Serving a mission has many wonderful blessings that come with it. The big goal is for a Stake here in 2013. We appreciate the letters, e-mail, prayers and support.



Love, Elder and Sister Holmes.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

We knew of your continuing interest in both branches and some of the people, so we asked the missionaries serving there. Kemerovo has just few coming out, usually 4 to 6, plus the Elders. Julia is not coming out. There are now just two zones in the mission. At our last zone conference, it was announced that the Zone Leaders would serve in the smaller branches and District Leaders in the others branches. Kemerovo has two Zone Leaders serving together and two other Elders. No couple there.

In Novokuznetsk there are now six Elders. Ivan is the Branch President, replacing Elder Holbrook. Sweet Lena is not coming out. The sometimes have up to 20 or so attending each Sunday. No couple replaced the Holbrook’s.

We know how disappointing it is when people you work so hard with and look so promising go around the bend. We saw that in Scotland, Cambodia, and here. It also hurts when you see return missionaries drift away. The world is so distracting and enticing. It is easy to slacken your grip just a little. Before you know it, you let go and don’t even notice. We work at keeping a grip. I just realized that the only difference between grip and gripe is a little e. We work on not murmuring.

Barnaul will also move up to six missionaries, with two as Zone Leaders and two Sisters. Our Branch will have a dedication 30 December. Elder Gushin, an Area 70, will dedicate the building. Our attendance still runs from 50 to 60. If all the less active came out each Sunday we would average over 60 or 70. The Mission is working on a Stake being created here in 2013. Our Branch needs at least 15 active Melchizedek Priesthood to become a ward. Sometimes we hit 12, even 14 men and boys. Again no consistency or constancy. We do have a full Branch Presidency now.

Our Mission President just sent us an e-mail that Russia is experiencing the coldest winter in 70 years. We are in the banana belt as you know with our temps just down to minus 38 C. Other places are hitting minus 50 C.

This Sunday we teach our last Strengthening Marriage/family which ran for 14 weeks. This class was featured in a local magazine. A TV station interviewed us about that class and what we are doing in Russia. We haven’t seen it yet, but one of members said they would copy it for us. Yesterday we spoke to over 40 university English speaking students about the hazards of alcohol, smoking, drugs, agency and consequences. They had a lot of questions, were very friendly, polite, and gave us three boxes of candy. Sharon checked and found out one of them has alcohol in the candy. Well 2 out of 3 aren’t too bad. Our health is good; we are keeping warm and enjoying our time here. The time is going so fast. We will go home sometime around the end of August or first of September next year.

Love,
Elder and Sister Holmes

Monday, December 10, 2012

Winter is definitely here. This morning the temperature was - 11 F. and - 20 C. We aren't out contacting but we do have to shop and go to meetings. We have to allow an extra 15 minutes to "suit up". We are very grateful for the Trax we wear on our shoes to keep from slipping on the icy places.

The Strengthening Marriage and Family classes we have been teaching have kept us a little busier. Julia Klevakina arranged for a reporter from a TV station to conduct an interview asking questions about the class, why we are here and about ourselves. We were very nervous, but it turned out to be a nice experience. Galina, the interviewer, was very pleasant and friendly. On Sunday, she came with a photographer and filmed one of our classes. We used some of the members as students and taught part of a lesson. It will be aired in January and we hope will create more interest in the class. We will repeat the same classes after the first of the year. It is hoped that after we leave the Branch will continue these classes. The Sisters are meeting with one of the women that come to our class. She was coming to the English program then started coming to the marriage class. We are hoping that more will start meeting with the missionaries.

The members of our branch are enjoying their new building. The missionaries appreciate a beautiful building to invite their contacts to.

Several branch members are attending the Temple this week. At least two will be going for the first time. They will attend the Kiev Temple.

The process for renewing visas is changing. From now on, no one will stay overnight. We will not even be leaving the airport in Finland or whatever country we go to. We think it will be much better. We were spending up to 8 hours in the Moscow airport waiting to catch our flight and we hope that will change. Getting into the city is a complicated procedure, and we haven't done that this time at all. We just read or walk around.

Our branch leaders have urged us to do some act of service during the Christmas holidays. We have been thinking of things we can do for the people who serve us in the apartment complex. The amount of snow they have shoveled has been huge. There are piles of snow higher than my head around the grounds to keep the walk ways open and the street into the complex cleared.

Yesterday there was another baptism, this one was after the block and many members stayed for it, some investigators too.

Some less active are coming back. Now if we can get them to come every Sunday. More callings are being extended. The Relief Society President serving since we first came in 2006 was released and called to teach the investigator class. Another long time member replaced her. A new Primary President was called.

More men are advancing in the Priesthood and helping with the Sacrament. The Branch Presidency is fully organized now. At times there are 12 adults attending Priesthood, though not every Sunday. Two Aaronic Priesthood holders are there nearly every week with three others that come from time to time. Progress is being made.

We love you and appreciate your e-mails. May you have a very special Christmas and Happy New Year.

Love,
Elder and Sister Holmes
Sharon in front of church
Bart in front apartment building
Current district
Maxim mission farewell
Sasha's birthday party
Clothes dryer
Bird visiting sun porch
Icicles
Sun porch window with ice on the inside
Grandma Tatiana
Branch clean up service at park