This last week was very busy. We had three new elders arrive—two Americans and one from Moldavia. One American was tall and as a bright and cheery as a person can get in spite of jetlag. The other one was short and looked amazingly Russian; he was also Russian-gloomy and a little unsure. The Moldavian had swarthy good looks and an open, clear expression. They arrived in the afternoon and dropped their bags off at the office before heading to the President’s apartment for dinner. After what I am sure was a great dinner (Sister Podvodova, the mission president’s wife, is a really good cook), their new companions met up with them and took them out onto the streets to do contacting. We met the Moldavian and his trainer in the evening on our way back from the store. I am not sure how those guys were still standing—although the Moldavian wasn’t suffering jetlag. I guess youth has its advantages.

The next morning, Phil, I, and the Lunas went downtown to the American consulate where I submitted the new American missionaries’ paperwork to apply for their second passports and Phil and Elder Luna went to a bank-o-mat to pull money out. This was my first time doing this so Sister Luna shadowed me in case I needed her help. This part really wasn’t that hard. It will be remembering all the paperwork I have to get in order before I go down to the consulate. Sister Luna has a spread sheet to remind her of what to do at multiple points before the elders get here, starting at four months out with letters to them and their families. She also has a spread sheet concerning the elders going home. If I don’t keep all my ducks in order, it could get seriously bad. There is a large group leaving in six weeks and a big group coming in August.

The church does not have a bank account in Russia, so Phil’s job often entails shuffling money from one place to another to meet needs—literally robbing Peter to pay Paul. The new elders came with bank cards from the Church loaded with funds for our mission. Phil gathered up their cards and pulled the money off of them so he could hand it back out to pay rent, transportation and food costs for all the elders. The senior couples are responsible for themselves.

As is often normal for seniors, we had a terrible time getting our bank card to work in Russia even though we had told our company we were coming to Russia and Phil had arranged for them to allow us a very large, one-time withdrawal so we could pay for our rent. US credit card companies generally block everything but very minor daily transactions coming from Russia, even when they know you are over here. After many calls over a week or two, Phil finally was able to pull enough off our card to pay for our rent. Actually, our rent had been paid up front, we were just trying to pay back the cash fund because it had taken a real hit with having to pay our rent for three months, plus an apartment finder’s fee (one month’s rent) to a company that found this apartment for us (many people refuse to rent to Americans, which is partly due to prejudice, especially when it involves our church members, and partly due to the paperwork hassle for the owner). We also had to pay for our internet and buy food. We went to the bank-o-mat every day for a while. We still have to go every few days. This is generally a cash society.

The day after all the elders and come and gone and the ones staying had all had their area assignments and companionships shuffled (called transfers), the office on Friday was deadly quiet without much to do. Sister Luna had gone to get a massage for her bad back and there weren’t even any emails to answer. She said it was often quiet like that after transfers, so she would do name indexing for the Church’s genealogy site. I may get into something like that to try to continue to be productive. Friday evening we went downtown at the request of some of the sister missionaries. They had a meeting scheduled with someone and they asked us to join them, but they were stood up, so we just went back home. The sisters said it was Friday the 13^th, and since Russians are very superstitious, maybe that it why he didn’t show.

Saturday Phil and I went back downtown again to try to find the Rinok—the big flea market. We finally found it and went in through a back door. It is in the middle of a large block, surrounded by old buildings. It consists of tiny weaving alleyways loaded with vendors. Some parts looked very shady and even though it was the middle of the day, I refused to go where there weren’t tons of people walking around. On our way in through a deserted part, we spotted a purse just sitting on a metal bin. Not a good sign. This Rinok was not as good as the one in Moscow, nor the little ones in all the towns we lived in before. We used to spend a lot of time shopping at the Rinoks for things we needed. I doubt we will go back down there again. I did find a Russian house dress to wear around the apartment in the heat; one that is not offensive to the Western eye. And we found a stopper for the kitchen sink, a comb so I can cut Phil’s hair (don’t know how that didn’t get packed), a scarf, a non-offensive cheap polo shirt for Phil (one that definitely won’t be coming home with us), and I bought a very Russian, black, light jacket that I can wear with my pants or dresses in the spring and fall. It didn’t cost a lot, but the zipper pull broke off the first time I unzipped my jacket. I guess you get what you pay for. Not sure we are going to be able to fix that one. Oh well; it works after a fashion.

After the Rinok, we walked over to the Cathedral on Spilled Blood and took some pictures. It is built in the Old Russian revival style and stands just off the main drag on the site where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. It has never been used as a church—it is just a monument to the fallen Tsar—but it is spectacular to look at. We didn’t have time to go inside, but we did stop and buy a local artist’s pastel rendition of a St. Petersburg scene. He was a pleasant, obviously artistic-type man who said his father was a famous St. Petersburg artist who taught in the city for 30 years. The son does nice work, too.

We rode the subway one stop past our apartment to check out the grocery store down there called Crossroads. It is just a little past the mini WalMart-type store called OK that we usually go to. Crossroads’ prices are not quite as good as OK and it is only a grocery store, but it does have easy access from the Metro. On our walk back home we also found the movie, “Up” in both English and Russian. Last time it really helped our language study to be able to watch a simple, familiar movie in Russian over and over again. When we were here before we watched “Hoodwinked ” and we kept watching it after we got home. This time I wanted something new. Getting an animated movie is better for me. It is very distracting when the lips don’t match the words. Some Russian dubbing is really excellent, and some is just awful, so animation is easier. We also stopped at the nice little bakery we stumbled upon last week. It is down in a basement so I don’t know what possessed us to try going down there, but their bakery goods are great. They have these little buns with apricot, lemon or apple filling that are so good, and the young clerk there is so bright and friendly. She is somewhat dark, so she isn’t Slavic, which is probably why she is so friendly and smiley. I think she will get a lot of business from us.

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Today church was put on by the Primary children—all eight of them. The oldest four (three boys, one girl) all gave really nice, long talks about Jesus Christ. They didn’t look the least bit scared of being up in front of everyone. Even the four little ones got up and said their parts just fine. I could understand the kids very well since they were speaking about religious themes and they were right at my level. They also interspersed the talks with about 8-10 songs. Kids are the same the world over. Two of the boys couldn’t keep still but kept fiddling around up on the stand during the program until one of the women had to go have a talk with them and finally take away whatever paper they were messing with. Then the boys also belted out one particular part of a song in such a way that everyone laughed (it’s too hard to explain why). Normal boys. Two of the kids had to leave in the middle to go to the bathroom; and one little girl (white dress, pink sweater) really got into singing with all her heart, beating time with her head as she sang. Everyone was smiling at her. It was a lovely program. I just love it when the kids take over the meeting. Too bad it only happens once a year. I have included a picture of the Primary kids that I took at the end of the day. By that time, several other kids had finally made it to church. Too bad they missed the program. They were delighted when they were told I was going to send their picture to America. Three little girls came up and asked if they could please see the picture I took of them, so I showed them. They seemed pleased with their appearances. This afternoon and evening we have just lollygagged around. It has been a relaxing day.