Yesterday, Saturday, was our Preparation Day. We cleaned house and worked on laundry in the morning. In the afternoon we walked to the store with our two bob-carts (small pull-behind-you grocery carts). It is a 35-minute walk one way, but on the way home we actually had some sunshine! The sun is already very low in the sky, but it was out. It has been chilly and rainy since the middle of August. I already miss the sun.
Natalia and Vadim's wedding reception invitation
After we unpacked the carts at home, we got dressed and went over to the church for a wedding reception. A 30-something woman who works in our office as the accountant was getting married for the first time. She is one of the three single Natashas in our office—all lovely, single women. Her husband has been married before and has one child, Anya—a lovely, responsible young woman of 17 who is mature as most 30-year-olds. Anya’s mother took off when she was small and Anya stepped up and took care of the household. Her father Vadim always hoped that his wife would return one day so he waited. A year or so ago Anya came to him and told him that it was time to forget about her mother, that he had waited long enough—she was never coming back. Anya wanted him to go out and find a good woman and get married and sealed in the temple. Anya wanted to be sealed to her father and a new mother—she wanted an eternal family. So he listened to his daughter and found Natasha. Anya is very happy for him and really likes Natasha. But Anya has to wait until she comes of age, I think 18, before she can choose to be sealed to them. So now she is the one waiting.
It was fun to go to a Russian wedding. The guests come for dinner and stay the entire evening. Since this was a Mormon wedding there was no booze, so it didn’t get wild and didn’t last until midnight or beyond. They had decorated the gym/cultural hall as best they could without putting out a ton of money and it looked fine. The guests are already in the hall before the couple arrives. Just before they come, the guests form two lines facing each other and join hands with the person across from them to form a long human archway. The newlyweds come through the human archway and arrive at a table set aside just for them. Then all the guests sit down at their tables to begin the dinner. Being a Mormon wedding, we also started with a prayer. Natasha’s parents and two brothers are not LDS. I bet they thought we were a little strange starting a wedding with a prayer and no booze at the tables, but they did have the traditional wedding bread. The parents present the bread with salt (the salt is in a small reservoir at the very top of the bread) to the young couple. It is the highest form of Russian greeting and it represents long life and good health. Her mother held the bread while the couple broke off a piece and dipped it in salt and took a bite. The person who takes the biggest bite will be the head of the family! That bread is a work of art it is so intricate. The picture just doesn’t show it very well.
One of the men acted as MC and tried to liven things up a bit. He also had us out on the dance floor trying to get to know each other. Brother Leostrin, who is pushing 70 and is a big, tall man and works as the all-around handyman for the mission, dressed up like a Latino senorita and did some kind of pantomime to some song. It was funny and a little disturbing to see him in drag! They also had a 3-man band playing music so the guests could dance. To my surprise, Igor our mission driver (a very spiritual, sweet man in his late 40s) was the drummer and backup singer and he was pretty good. The things you never know about people!
After a couple of hours they brought out the cake and had them cut it and we all got a piece. Then we were told we could now approach the couple and personally congratulate them. Everyone goes up and gives them their gift and congratulations, one by one. After our turn, we headed home. It was a fun evening, but definitely a little sober for Russians (pun intended). Sister McArthur said she had never stayed long enough at a wedding before to get a piece of cake. The cake isn’t usually brought out until after 11 pm or after. But this wedding needed to be over sooner so they could clean up the hall for church the next day.
The actual wedding took place the Saturday before the reception. The Communists did away with church weddings, so now all you do is go down to the registrar’s office and sign the marriage book together and you are married--period. No words or service of any kind. Russians normally have the wedding party right after the book signing affair, but Natasha and Vadim had to postpone their party until a week later because there was a big conference being held last weekend at the church. They did go to the Finnish Temple on Tuesday to be sealed, so it worked out just fine.We have been going out with the missionaries to help teach a few people lately. It is nice to get to talk about how the gospel has blessed or changed our lives, or how living certain principles have had a positive influence on us, or just to testify about Christ and the workings of the Holy Spirit and the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. It is really great to feel the Spirit there testifying to these investigators that what we are saying is true. We don’t get to do that a lot because we work in the office all week long; we certainly enjoy it when we do get to go with the missionaries once in a while.
Regina and Sister Anastasia Bryshtel
This week is transfers, so it will get wild and busy. We only have one new missionary coming in this time, which is unusual ,and we are sending home seven missionaries—some of my favorites. I guess you shouldn’t have favorites, but some I have had the opportunity to get to know some better than others. Sister Bryshtel is a great, hard-working young woman from Belarus. It has been a hassle trying to get everything lined up to get her home properly (long story), but it all finally came together on Friday so now I can happily send her off (I was not happy before Friday, but it wasn’t because of her at all). I shall miss her. And Elder Beck is leaving. He reminds me of my Dad even though he doesn’t look like him at all. I can’t quite put my finger on why he reminds me of Dad, but I shall miss Elder Beck nonetheless. And Elder Berven who has been taking us to meetings with him and has been our district leader lately and one who enjoys a good laugh; Elder Anthony who is such a sweet, good young man, so concerned about others; Elder Nelson who I told to quit always making faces for the camera because he may not think so, but he is a good looking young man; Elder Domansky (Russian) who has a hollow leg and refused to let his health issues send him home early; and Elder Broadhead, who I know the least because he hasn’t served close by, but he has such a nice feel to him. I guess I like them all.
Dinner at our place with the missionaries. This is blurry, but I like it anyway.Post Script—
Today is Monday, 7 November, and I still am not positive Sister Bryshtel got home, but I assume she has. Her plane ticket was for last Friday about 10:40 am. On Friday, Phil went with our mission driver Igor and took her down to the airport. Phil now says he made a mistake he won’t make again—he didn’t stay long enough to make sure she actually got on the plane. Apparently, they wanted to charge her way more for her extra bag than their website says is the charge (this is a common scam in St. Petersburg Airport). We didn’t give her quite enough money to cover it. So she called the office somehow (she didn’t have a cell phone on her) and said the plane was delayed and she didn’t have enough money for baggage. Phil took the call and told her to find someplace to leave her extra bag for us to pick up later, but to get on the plane and head home--we would send her bag to her later. Well, she didn’t do that.
Since she didn’t have a phone, we didn’t know if she was able to get on that first plane or not. We tried calling the airport to have them page her, but they said she wasn’t there. She finally called back again later in the afternoon and said she’d missed the plane and didn’t know what to do. So Phil and the President drove to the airport again, took her out to dinner (she’d had a hard day and they were all hungry since it was now dinner time) and we all scrambled trying to figure out how to get her to Minsk and then home. She had already missed her 5-hour train ride from Minsk to her hometown (lost the money on that ticket—had to give her enough money to cover another ticket), but we could apply her missed airline ticket to any other flight the same day. We called the missionaries in Minsk and got a senior couple serving there. After several calls back and forth, they agreed to send someone out to the airport to pick her up from the late flight and let her spend the night at their apartment. They would help her get to the train station the next morning to go home. Whew. Even at that, if Phil and President Clark hadn’t stayed there again, she still wouldn’t have made the plane. When she tried to board with the old ticket, they said she had to go buy a new ticket and they would refund the old one later. Funny, they didn’t mention that before. So the President and Sister Bryshtel ran down to the ticket counter and bought a new ticket. After all this hassle, the lady at the desk didn’t charge her anything for the extra bag this time, which is what started this whole problem to begin with—she said Sister Bryshtel had had too rough a day! They went back to the gate, and Sister Bryshtel left. Phil and the President noticed she went the wrong way, but they couldn’t go get her so they had to talk some of the gate attendants into going after her and bringing her back to the right place. She actually made the plane finally! Phil got home just before 10:00 pm. She honestly is not as ditsy as this account sounds. She is just very inexperienced with this sort of thing.
Her mother had prepared all these special foods for her arrival—oh well. The next morning we got a call from her mother wondering exactly when she was to arrive. We didn’t know, so we called the senior couple in Minsk again to find out. Sister Bryshtel had heard that the mission president over Belarus, President Woolley, was flying into Minsk that day so she decided to wait and take a later train so she could meet him before she went on home. Argh! That is all well and good, but Phil told her to PLEASE call her mother and let her know what was going on and exactly when she would be home! We haven’t heard anything else, so we assume it worked out somehow. She is such a sweet, fun young woman to leave such headaches in her wake! Phil and the President have agreed that someone will now sit with these young missionaries at the airport until they actually get on the plane—or at least with certain young missionaries.
Elder Gerard and Elder Luskotov with Elder Gerard's threadbare suit jacket.Missionary clothing and shoes are often completely worn out when they leave here. Elder Gerard actually doesn't go home until March. I think his shoes have holes.
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