We are in for a stormy week, which doesn't inspire much of a spirit of adventure. But the exciting news is that we chatted tonight with Tyson, who just boarded a plane (in his morning) to start making his way towards us! He will be here Monday evening and we can't wait! So besides church, we napped and hung out at the flat all day. Adam is still handling Bishop things, so he does his Bishopric meeting via FaceTime at 3:30 Sunday afternoons, which is 6:30 am at home. Then he does interviews or other meetings until about 8 pm when Sacrament Meeting starts at home. Yesterday he even did an audit meeting. So he's still getting lots done and hopefully isn't being too missed. His counselors are doing a great job keeping things going.
The sign on the church building.
With a little challenge getting the right phone number for the Jazz Express Taxi company, the company Baltic Film has us use, we were only about 5 minutes late for 10 am church. But they didn't start for about 5 more minutes, so we were right on time! We were met at the door by an Elder from St George. They had met the Kendalls last week, so no one was surprised to see us. However, the Kendalls weren't there today. They went to Estonia for the weekend. We're still trying to figure out a weekend getaway for our family.
There were only 3 missionary companionships in this, the Russian, branch - 1 set of Elders, 1 set of Sisters and a senior couple. The Lithuanian Branch we attended last year meets at 2 pm this year, which doesn't work with Adam's meeting schedule, and that branch had more missionaries. But we'll be with the Russian group this year. I think the Kendalls will be going at 2, so we'll split up. There aren't really any youth either way. We think the American family that was in the Lithuanian Branch last year has moved, making no youth program in either ward. The Sister missionaries are in an interesting situation. The senior companion only learned Lithuanian and the junior companion only learned Russian, but they got put together because there is an odd number of sister missionaries right now in their mission. So the junior companion, who knows Russian, did all of the translating for us. The senior companion goes home in a month, so their situation will change at that point. As for the Elders, one is newer to his mission, so he isn't ready to translate yet. The senior companion speaks fluent Russian and is less comfortable with his English. He did the translating into Russian when one of us spoke in English.
Sacrament meeting had about 30 members. One couple gave the opening and closing prayers and both of the talks. I bet they have to do that several times a year with how small they are in numbers. The Sister missionaries provided all of the music and did the translating for us. I felt bad for our translating sister though. For the first talk, the brother stood up and said he was going to read a parable, but not one from the scriptures. So it was a story with lots of abstract concepts she was trying to interpret. There were many long pauses. Afterward, we told her not to worry! We were just thankful for what she could interpret.
The chapel.
The back wall (not shown) is a divider with another room behind it,
so it opens up to make their cultural hall.
As there is no youth program, we had Jacob come to Sunday School with us. We went to Gospel Principles since that is where the Sister missionaries go, and therefore, our interpreter. The teacher was able to speak English, although her first language is Russian. Between her and the Sister, we got to be a part of the discussion. The teacher, I only caught her first name, though I don't know how to spell it - Tat-ia - really liked Jacob. She asked him to say the opening prayer. He said that didn't make him nervous because he knew most of the people in the room couldn't understand him. She also asked him to share an experience about when he exercised his faith. He didn't hesitate to tell about how he had been comforted by the Spirit when his dad was in the hospital and that helped him to know that Jesus loved him. He helped us all to feel the spirit in his sharing.
Jacob went with Adam to priesthood meeting, and Sarah and I to RS. Relief Society had about 8 sisters plus us. It seems like maybe there is only a RS President without a whole presidency, but I'm not sure. However, there is only ever one person doing everything - even last year. I'll have to ask. The lesson was on being optimistic and strangely was taught by one of the brothers in the ward. We don't know why. And we didn't get to hear the whole lesson because the Sister missionaries had to leave early and we lost our interpreter. We had to just sit and read the lesson. The senior Sister played the closing song, so I didn't have to play this time.
Jacob was feeling picked on for being dragged to classes instead of just getting to go home since there are no youth classes. Then he went to priesthood and learned there is a young man coming to the branch who is maybe 14 and is here at a boarding school from the Ukraine. It is so dangerous in the Ukraine that his parents sent him away to be safe. Unfortunately, he doesn't know English, so there was no way for them to talk. That is too bad because they both could use a friend in the branch. But Jacob saw that things could be much worse for him!
The church building is in a part of the city that was built up primarily during the Russian occupation. I tried to snap some pictures from the taxi of what the area looks like. It's still so unbelievable what these people had to endure under a cruel hand.
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