St. Isaac's

26 Aug 2011

The draw bridge just north of our apartment with the White Cathedral on the opposite shore

Still working late every night. We have been so busy I haven’t really had time to write. I have a feeling that President Clark is not going to be slowing down much, but that is why we are here. He does spend all of next week in Vilnius at an Area Mission President’s Conference, so that might be a bit of a vacation for us and for him and his wife—not a real vacation, just different work. I gave him a bunch of letters to take with him that were used by the old president so that he could rewrite them in his own voice. I wonder if he will even have time to look at them while he’s gone.

Phil going up to St. Isaac's dome.

Last Monday was our 38^th wedding anniversary--August 22nd. I tried to talk Phil into going to dinner at the local Chinese restaurant, but he was a little skeptical. He'd had food poisoning the week before at a local grill. So we went downtown to Carl Jr.’s and had so-so hamburgers, fries and chocolate shakes for dinner. Expensive and not worth it. Since it was a beautiful evening, we walked down Nevsky (the main drag) to the far end and climbed up St. Isaac’s Cathedral to the dome to get a panoramic view of the city. It was really neat to see the whole city like that. I took a few pictures and then my camera’s battery went dead and the backup battery was also dead. Oh well. We tried to take a bus home (Sister Luna had told me that particular bus would get us clear home), but it only went as far as the other end of Nevsky, so we got off and took the Metro to our stop and walked in (about a 15 minute walk). We got home late, but it was a lovely evening.

Looking east from the St. Isaac's dome. The white building right behind the red-and-white spire is where the Mission Home is on the opposite side of the river. Our place is just to the left a little. I really zoomed in so you could see our building.

Regina on St. Isaac's dome with St. Isaac's square behind her to the south.

All that walking bothered Phil’s knee (my foot was fine, just a little tired). Last week he was desperate for some exercise with working so much, so he went over to the church and ran circles around the cultural hall floor while I was still working. Then I came up later and practiced the piano in that room while he ran. The floor in the cultural hall is linoleum that is laid right on top of concrete. Pounding the concrete like that was really hard on his “good” knee for some reason. It has been sore, achy, and slightly swollen since that run. I told him he had to face the fact that his joints were getting old and couldn’t take that kind of hammering anymore. He was worried about how he was going to stay in shape this winter, but President Clark offered to permanently “loan” him the exercise bicycle in the mission home since they never use it. The mission home also has a treadmill, which they use instead. That was really nice of the President. We now have a bicycle in our “bedroom.”

The city to the southwest

We gave up on the bed arrangement and broke down and bought another single bed for Phil. Sleeping corner-to-corner just wasn’t cutting it. We will leave these beds for the mission when we go. We moved the couch into the kitchen and it works just fine there. It is actually a nice place to sit and study Russian or the scriptures. Phil even goes and sleeps on it sometimes when he gets insomnia—just some place different.

Yuri Sinyakov and Phil

We had a pleasant surprise on Tuesday. Yuri Sinyakov showed up at the office to say hello. Elder Sinyakov and Elder Booth took care of us when we first went to Voronezh on our last mission. Yuri is living in his hometown of Omsk now, which is in Siberia. He serves as a branch president there (there are three good-sized branches in Omsk). He says Omsk is either boiling hot or blistering cold with no in between. He hopes to be able to find an engineering job here and move to St. Petersburg. He was up here at the Young Single Adults conference looking for a wife and he heard that we were serving in the mission office. Since he missed his train home and ended up staying an extra day, he stopped by and talked for an hour while he waited for the next train home (a two-day trip). The day before, we had met and talked with a young woman who attended that same conference. She said she had met Yuri and sat next to him for many of the meetings and activities, but he had never asked for her number nor had given her his number. Yuri is so PAINFULLY shy that I told her she had to go after him if she were interested. She said he would make a good husband, but it was the guy’s move to ask for numbers. I told her somebody was going to have to trip him to catch him. She was a cute girl. Maybe she got the message. I also grabbed the two single women in our office named Natasha and made them come up and meet Yuri. One was interested a bit; the other said he was not her type. I asked her how she could tell so fast. She said he was balding. I told her to rethink that one. He would get his hair all back in the resurrection so what did it matter in the long run? She laughed and told me I was funny. I also had Yuri write down his email address and I gave a copy to both of them. It is just part of my nature to be a Yenta.

Sister McArthur and Regina eating lunch at Zone Conference

This last week President Clark held three, day-long zone conferences, something he will do everything three months. The mission is divided into three different zones, North, South, and Central. We are in the Central Zone that takes in most of St. Petersburg proper. The North and South Zones are the edges and outlying areas. It was a busy, long week for everyone.

Elder Berven and Elder Hill going through all the clothes left by "dead" missionaries. What the current missionaries didn't need, we went through and saved out the good stuff to help outfit native Russians when they leave on missions. They just don't have enough money to buy all the stuff they need for two years. The rest went to whomever wanted it and we threw the dregs away. No doubt, most of it was probably scrounged from the garbage anyway.

Phil's study corner. Everything he needs--tissues (the green box), sugar, eyeglasses, church magazines in both languages, scriptures, and Russian books and papers. So Phil.

The Senior Couples also went out and did apartment inspections with Sister Efimova, to make sure the young missionaries are cleaning and taking care of the places. We now do that to help take some of the President’s load off his shoulders—it is something he can easily delegate. Sister Efimova has worked for the mission for a number of years finding and taking care of apartments. (She and her husband served in Yekatrinburg years ago where he was the 1^st mission president from Russia. Unfortunately, he died of a heart attack just six months after they returned home.) Because of the laws, it is easier for her to be the responsible person on the rental contracts for all the apartments. She also pays all the rents, all the utilities and all of the landline phone bills, plus does all the interface with the landlords when there are problems. She is a busy, hardworking woman. She is also a really sweet, good, up-beat woman. She speaks enough broken English to communicate and she is fun to try to talk to (“I looking”). She actually showed up in conservative black pants the other day—I think it is her first pair. Her son said it was time to break down and wear pants to keep her legs warm. Her desk is by mine, so I get to talk to her whenever she happens to come in, which brightens up my day. I think most of the time she is out trying to pay the bills. You can’t just put a check in the mail here. You have to go to the each landlord and every utility company (hours standing in lines). She spends a lot of time shuffling receipts and money around with Phil—he’s responsible for getting her enough money for everything. All this without a church bank account—it’s how we get around difficult laws.

Translation:
"Attention!!! We have in force" Face Control and Dress Code. Administration

This cracked me up. Neither Russians nor Americans can quite get this one.