Unto the ends of the earth

Jeanie- todays tender mercy
.  Wow!  Is this one amazing church!
We are in on the far north reaches of Moscow in the Zelongrad Ward.  We arrived after taking two busses.  What a joy to enter the lovely building and feel the familiar warmth& affirmation that we felt last week in Kaysville & we feel in L Rock & every building dedicated to helping build His kingdom.    As we stood talking in the foyer before the meeting began, we were enveloped in the love of theses good people, faithful & strong, speaking no english with the few exceptions of missionaries & RMs who served in the US.
The bishop, who speaks English well, asked where we were from.  We haven't found anyone who knows where arkansas is, unless they are from America. The bishop said, "of course I know where arkansas is, we fought you guys in the Cold War.  We knew where all of your bases are."   How strange to think that these warm, loving people were once considered our "enemies".  Yesterday we took the metro to Gorky Park, sit of so much history.  A gigantic statue of Lenin overlooks the park. We went with 2 other missionary couples.  Because my darling companion is always guiding me where we should go, I feel free to look at people.  I'm trying to really LOOK at as many people as I can.  I want to try to see thei worth & connect if I can, if only a bit.
In sac Mtng, As we attempted to sing the hymns, heard the same sacrament prayers (I assume), partook of the bread & water, i felt such gratitude for the Lords blessings in allowing us to renew our covenants in, what to me is the "end of the earth".  Obviously, to them, Arkansas would be the end of the earth.  We all love our home but our covenants unite us.
Sac talks were well prepared and delivered with the spirit, although I understood very little.  Its summer so shirts & blouses are thinner. I'm observing that almost all of the adults I see (I'm sitting in the back) appear to be wearing temple garments.  All of this has occurred in abt 20 yrs.  the work is truly hastening & I feel so blessed to be a small part of it.
Sunday school is the satellite broadcast we watched last week in Kaysville but Elder Holland is talking funny.  The choir is always wonderful to hear.  I can't believe that was just 1 week ago. I seems like a month.

Love of Savior in our hearts

Each day we are creating a bit more connection to our environment. We love the sound of the Russian language around us, understanding precious little and speaking even less but we are succeeding at making eye contact about half the time, rarely getting a smile or even more rarely a "prevyet" but we so want to let all with whom we interact that the love we feel for them is a gift from our Lord & Savior, Jrsus Christ, whose servants we are.  We feel so blessed to be on His errand.

Today is transfer day for the Moscow mission and Sergei is away at a meeting.  The Suttons are at the airport greeting a returning missionary who was home recovering from an illness so the office is very quiet.  We can't seem to get the wi-fi working in our apt so we come to the office to get our communication done. We excitedly got our Skype going abt 10:30 moscow time & called Jedd in Utah, thinking it was 8:30 mountain time, 9:30 central (too late to call). Jedd sleepily answered.  We were 4 hours off.  We assured him we were fine & hoped he was able to get back to sleep.  So sorry, Jedd.  However, we are excited to have Skype or king &'hope to talk to each of you this weekend.

I told my absolutely brilliant &'steady companion that whoever decorated & furnished our apt was a romantic from the 1930s.  I feel like Ginger Rogers.  Our very comfortable bed is round carved faux ivory with gilded mirrored headboard.  The matching side tables &'dressing table are glamorous and fun.  So art-deco.  Not what  I expected in Moscow.  Just 1 bath but it is large with a jacuzzi we could fit half of our grandchildren in.  The kitchen is modern &'functional but what I love most is the abundance of windows we can open to allow the summer breeze to flow.

We will have time this afternoon to explore a bit more. We need to find a store that will sell us some vegetables and fruits.  We have a limited selection is the corner store nearby.  Very nice mom&pop.  They really like missionaries.  They speak no English somwepantomime a lot.

We love you all and are so grateful for your love & support.

Love, Jeanie (mom)

Where am I ?

This is Jeanie.  Yesterday afternoon we found ourselves in the middle of a "Bourne" movie trailer.  We were in the backseat of a minivan driven by a very funny Russian driver who, at breakneck speed, weaves through traffic, utilizing the shoulder, median, creating a new lane of traffic at will.  He pulled in front of yet another cinder block gigantic residential complex, whipped into an impossibly small parking space and announced our arrival at our new home.  Our driver, Sergei Semenov, Area CES director, met us at the airport, and we like him a lot.
   At our apartment we were met by our new best friends, Barbara and David Sutton, with wonderful Boston accents and fun personalities.  They live nearby & had cleaned and stocked our apartment with great food.  They work in the mission office & have such great love for the people & this gospel.
Our apartment is wonderful, once you get inside.  We go through 3 sets of  locked doors to get there.  Our front door has at least 3 dead bolts.  We have 2 bedrooms and a pull out couch so we can accommodate lots of visitors. Y'all come.
   I was a bit exhausted and fearful yesterday.  Big surprise!   Every voice I hear is speaking Russian & every sign & newspaper is Russian.  Did I Think I was going to Iowa?   It was all so overwhelmingly different!   After Sergei & the sutton s left to go back to work we unpacked & my darling companion fell asleep.  I kept poking him because I thought if he died right there, I was helpless. I didn't know where anyone was and I had no phone. Even if I found someone, I could not communicate.  Fortunately, he woke up & we were picked up in a gray van by Alexander, a retired soviet mig fighter pilot who loves to help out the mission office.  He drove us to the mission home where we enjoyed dinner with Pres & Sis Sorenson, who will be leaving Saturday after 3 years.
I was so glad to hear sis Sorenson say that she remembered the day when everything around her seemed " normal".  I'm not there but I kept thinking, in my weeping homesickness, of pres. Hinckleys father's advice to his son who wanted to give up.  "Forget yourself & get to work".  That's what I intend to do.  Today is much better.  The clouds are parting, we feel great, we worked out, walked to the office in the gorgeous summer sky.  Life is great, the gospel is true & we are so grateful.

Step out of the boat

One of the concepts we discussed in our CES training was the need to respond as the spirit directs, even if the direction seems scary or unexpected.  The analogy was used of Peter when the Savior beckoned to him to get out of the boat & test the water.  We have to trust that this is what The Lord wants us to accomplish and, with His  help, we will see it through.
We were just in awe of the MTC.  The spirit permeates every inch of that place.  I am impressed with the excellence of the services and the clockwork organization.  Everyone is happy & kind.  It must be  a run-through for celestialdom.  I could hardly believe I was blessed enough to be there.  We loved the people we worked with for 10 days.  Each day we stepped outside and breathed that crisp mountain air and saw the craggy peaks.  I do love these mountains.
Lindsey asked us to provide a scripture that we would like to have on a plaque in the chapel.  We love so many but the one we chose is D&C 109:22-23.  A bit long but it seems to sum up what we are trying to do.

How grateful we both are for the good hearts of those we are privileged to call family and friends.  We pray that we will be blessed to see what our Heavenly Father sees in each of us.  We love you.

Scriptures deep into our hearts

We are learning & feeling such joy!  We love these people.  Today we are learning how to create depth (getting the scriptures deeply into our hearts) as well as breadth (creating a broad base of context and content).  Both are important.  Eric, we are so excited that you are going to be teaching seminary!  Haven't we always been big fans of  your teaching.  I absolutely love the CES manual we are using.
It is called Gospel  Teaching and Learning, for seminary and institute teachers. It was just published last   Year.   Whoever wrote this manual is so inspired.  The preface alone is worth the manual.  We talk forever about patterning our teaching after the Saviors but I've often been puzzled by what that means.  These introductory pages lay it out so beautifully.  How Jesus used familiar objects and experiences, kept it simple,  prepared well and personally loved and taught each one.  It seemed doable to me.  

We made hopefully lifelong friends, including Jan and Kirk Nielson who are going to Orlando but their home is very near Spencer & Kellies new home so we hope to keep that connection.

We saw Summer Flannery in the cafeteria today & she is so happy.  She is progressing in her Portuguese and radiates love for the Savior & His Gospel, as do all of the 3,000 other missionaries we see every day.  It is truly a spiritual bubble.

As I consider the tender mercies I encounter constantly, I count among them the inspiration I feel and I see in my amazing companion.  We seem to remember more,make more inspired connections as we study the material and am more & more grateful for our testimonies of this work. It is our greatest joy.
We love you and miss you but we are forever grateful for this opportunity to help build the Lords kingdom.
Love, Mom

Armies of Helaman

Last tuesday, we had the privilege of sitting in the Marriott Center with abt 300 other senior couples in a sea of happy, excited young missionaries.  We were being taught by Elder Mervin Arnold and his wife. We felt the power of their testimonies and were inspired by their lives total service.  A choir of over 1800 voices sang "Called to Serve".  I will never get my fill of that song.  I saw and felt the fire of commitment to the gospel in these young missionaries.  As we exited the building and stood back, we loved the wave upon wave of these dear, obedient young people.  They were all so vibrant and happy.  I wanted to hug each one.  The lines went on and on.   That commitment is shared by missionaries all over the world.  We are so proud to be doing our little bit to help The Lord build His kingdom.

Fun & games with PMG

We have had the great joy of digging in to Preach My Gospel.  What a happy, inspiring book!  Beginning yesterday and continuing through tomorrow, we take our knowledge, testimony & love & meet w/ "investigator" or less actives and try to implement the truths we have learned and loved & help bring them to Christ.  It has been more fun than we anticipated.  They bring with them their real stories.  Yesterday, we had an Oregon transplant who moved to Utah with her family a few years ago and sensed something special about her LDS neighbors.  Something she wanted.  Today we had a woman whose husband died 4 yrs ago of a lingering illness at a fairly young age.  She wanted to know where he was and if she old ever see him again.  We felt such power in the message we were able to help each of these good women discover through the power of the Holy Ghost and the beautifully simple truths of the gospel.  Wear are so grateful.  This is all So true!,,

One of my goals in serving this mission is to see the hand of The Lord as much as I can.  Each day I hope to record at least one manifestation each day of God's tender mercies.  I hope to pass at least some of these along:

Here are a few:
1. Since being set apart as a missionary, I have sensed opportunities & inspiration to share the happy truths of the gospel. It has become most important to me to be worthy of the honor of bearing the name of our Savior. I love my name tag
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2. Sunday, after a celestial week of family, food, festivities & hysterical fun, I was pretty down, missed our family already & was a bit apprehensive abt the adventure before us. I prayed that I would just be happy.  In the shower, the song "There is sunshine in my soul, today" kept running through my mind.  I is not one I reach for naturally but it was I was singing it all day.  I know it guided my thinking & emotions.  Again, music lifted my mood.

3. As we were walking back to our classes after lunch today, we met one of the darling Sis. Baileys from Pine Bluff,  one of the 5 African sisters who came to Arkansas as little girls with a worthless, abusive step-father and a mother who was ill and passed away shortly after they got here.  These darling girls were nurtured and taught by the Pine Bluff ward.  All 5 have remained faithful and have excelled in every way.  Seeing Sis. Bailey so excited about her call to Detroit, it made me realize how the Lord is aware of each of His children and provides opportunities for each as we are prepared and keep our covenants.

We are so grateful for this opportunity to learn and grow with this fabulous companion of mine.

Love,
Mom