The best Christmas program ever

This week we did our first migration trip.   Every six months we all have to leave the country and re-enter.   Until this year it had to be done every three months.  Our more senior missionaries who started on that program have to continue going every three months throughout their missions.  Also in the past the church had lots of problems with missionaries unable to get back into the country.  All of that is streamlined now and it only has to be done every six months.   They don't allow the missionaries to leave the airport now.  It makes a very long day.   We got up at five am to catch an early flight to Kiev, Ukraine where we had an eleven hour layover before we could catch a return flight to Yekaterinburg .We had Elder Baboshka with us, who is from Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.   He is a delightful young man who has been a member for about ten years.  He absolutely loved having the day with Dad.   His English is not very good, so he loved being able to speak Russian with Dad

We found a delightful Ukrainian restaurant in the terminal.  The waitresses in native dress served us wonderful authentic dishes and were kind enough to let us continue to sit at the table for several hours while we worked on our laptops.  They had a beautifully decorated piano that I'm sending a picture of.  I'm thinking it could be adapted to our piano at home.  

Finally back in Yekaterinburg we went through customs and received a new migration card that is good for six months. They couldnt find Dad in the system so it took four people 45 minutes to get him cleared. By the time we got through customs and drove to the mission home it was 5 am.   

We were able to get a couple hours of sleep and then headed to the office for our staff meeting and other meetings.  We were back at the airport late that night for the arrival of Lane and JoAnn Christensen, Dads cousin.  They will be serving here for 18 months as a senior member leadership support couple, working in one of our branches, and also helping with the addiction recovery program throughout the mission.  We are so excited to have them here!

We spent Wednesday and Thursday training and orienting them. We helped them with a lot of shopping.  The apartment we got for them is nearly unfurnished and needed to be outfitted with basic supplies. Ikea was the jackpot.  It wore us all out.  They will live at the mission home for a week until we can get them settled.  

Thursday night seven missionaries arrived at the mission home for their migration trip. We gave them dinner and then gathered in the living room and sang every Christmas carol in the hymn book. They sounded like angels!  Then Dad taught them about how the story of Amulek Is a perfect parallel example to having a member present at a lesson - as is being encouraged in the Work of Salvation church wide emphasis.  It was a wonderful evening with a few of the missionaries that we haven't been able to see as much. They left early the next morning and by noon we were on the road to Tyumen.  Six hours of unbelievable bumpiness!  

The last time we visited Tyumen they asked us if we would come for their Christmas party.  They said they had not had a mission president at their Christmas party for fifteen years, and were elated when we said we would come.  We did regular interviews and zone meeting Friday evening and Saturday.  Then Saturday night was the most wonderful party you can imagine.  There were no decorations set up except for a simple paper manger scene on the sacrament table.  The choir was six missionaries and five members, led by an investigator.   They acted out the  story of the Lamanites and Nephites  reacting to Nephi's teachings at the time of the sun not setting,   and that story was woven into the nativity in Bethlehem, interspersed with songs.  it was very simple and stirring.  The spirit was strong.  Afterwards we played a russian circle game with lots of laughing and switching places and then went upstairs where they had spread a table with tangerines, apples, cheese sandwiches and cookies.  It was wonderful, simple, and focused on the true meaning of Christmas.  We felt privileged to have been able to share the evening with this little branch of wonderful saints on a very cold night in Siberia.  

((This is a sweet sister who is returning to activity.  She showed me these pictures of Elder Dom Moore who was one of the first missionaries that taught her 12 years ago.))

We are learning about the Russian Christmas traditions and find that we like their simplicity.  They celebrate Christmas on January 7th and it is purely a religious holiday.  (This means that not everyone celebrates it, because many are not religious). Those who do attend a church service and gather as families to have a special dinner.   Their Santa Claus is called Father Frost. 

((Performing each night at the restaurant in our hotel was Father Frost and his beautiful granddaughter.  We happened to walk into the lobby just in time to get a picture))

He comes with his granddaughter and lots of animal helpers to leave a treat on New Year's Eve    Recently he has begun to leave a gift, but people in their late twenties remember just receiving an orange, some nuts, and a handful of sweets.  The new prosperity of Russia is affecting everything, and some think it is not all good.  We are often pleasantly surprised at the simpler basic values that pervade this country.  It sometimes feels like the USA in the 1950s   Some of our members have expressed curiosity at the frenzied commercialized American Christmas they are learning about on the Internet.  The mad rush of shopping on the day after thanksgiving is amusing and incomprehensible to them.   (And, I assure them, to some of us!).   It has been a wonderful thing for us to be so immersed in the work of salvation, of finding and teaching, and of training and encouraging our missionaries, that all of the commercial aspects of Christmas have been relegated to the "maybe later, maybe never" bin.  

Today in Tyumen Dad and his assistants presented the third hour to the combined branch.  They talked about member missionary work and that this is the gift we can each give the Savior.  They showed a wonderful new video that you may all want to show for a FHE this week.  It is found on Lds.org  in the video section and is called "What shall we give?"  The link is:
http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/topics/christmas?lang=eng.      This brought a wonderful spirit into the meeting as we all discussed how we can show our love for the Savior by sharing the gospel message with others.  It was a great ending to a wonderful weekend of focus on the true meaning of Christmas.   

We love you all so much!

Mom

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