March 17, 2012

Dear Family and Friends

Back again and getting back into the swing of things. Two main activities are occupying our time. One is coming up to speed in missionary work. That is assisting the young missionaries wherever needed and working with the branch members. The Elders are having meetings here with people they are working with. We participate in Russian where possible and English the rest of the time. It is mostly our experiences with various gospel topics. Prayers are answered. God does listen and answer our petitions. These are daily occurrences.

Some are big deals and others not so big. What are your thoughts when the ATM takes your card and won’t give it back? And, oh, there is a line behind you of six people waiting to use the ATM. You punch every button that used to bring up English and isn’t. No one in line admits to speaking English. By now there is some very serious praying going on. Up walks an attractive young lady with her boyfriend and asks in English if she can help. I tell her she is an answer to my prayers.

She punches buttons with no good results and then makes some phone calls with her cell phone and tells me to go to the local Sverbank branch the next morning and they will help. The line is longer now and not one has said anything about my holding them up.

Having an active imagination I know someone will service that machine. Will he find my card or will it have been spit out for some enterprising soul to use. Or will the person servicing it decide his prayers were answered now he has a way to supplement his low wages by using this card. These kind of thoughts are not pleasant.

The next morning, bright and early we are at the bank explaining our problem. The nice lady, bank manager, gives Sister Holmes a flower because it is Woman’s Day in Russia and a good part of the world. She tells us to come back at five with here limited English and our limited Russian.

We get the card back and with careful watching on line find no one has used it. For most people, the first thing they would do was to cancel the card. Most people don’t know how hard it is to get another card into the country and not have it stolen in the mail. You can see a number of prayers have been answered here. People can relate to this.

The other main activity is getting all the things needed or wanted to make life comfortable here. Before we left last time an inventory was made of the things being taken to the Zone Leader’s apartment. Much of that was still there and cut down on what needed to be bought.
We actually live in a gated community with a guard to admit cars and watch who comes and goes. Our apartment is roomy and comfortable. You don’t need to turn sideways to get around anything in any of the rooms. There is a TV with about 85 or 90 channels. There are cultural events like operas, ballets, and such things where language is not so important for enjoyment. We get to watch once or twice a week. We have about 50 cd’s of classical music to listen to.
It has not been real cold with temps a little below freezing at night and a little above during the day. The snow is melting and there are patches of bare ground. People are starting to plant containers in enclosed balconies to be later be transplanted on their dachas in the country.

The members gave us a very warm welcome at Church. Several sisters come over to visit with Sharon and see if there was anything she needed help with. Our favorite potato man still had his booth and we got some very nice, clean potatoes from him. He speaks a little English and we had a great time visiting. His daughter, 13 when we left, was studying English. We gave her most of our Russian/English books.

We love you. Please stay in touch.

Love
Elder and Sister Holmes
Mom and Dad