Moscow

Dear Family and Friends,

The biggest part of our week was a three day trip to Moscow and back. We took the over-night train with our missionaries for a Mission Conference and then took an extra day and did some site-seeing around the city. I love Moscow! There is so much history and so many incredible things to see. We had all of our missionaries with us, so the ones who had been places before took us around and we had our own personal tour guides.

First of all, our Mission Conference was really great. President and Sister Woolley both spoke to us which is always a wonderful treat. They are both wonderful speakers and fill everyone up with a renewed energy to work harder. We love the Woolleys! Then President and Sister Switzer, the Area President of the Europe East Area, spoke to us. They were also wonderful and so warm and friendly. Sometimes you think of the "President" as this untouchable person who you can't relate to very well, but they are both just normal (extremely knowledgeable and spiritual) people. They each took time to talk to EVERYONE there, listened as we talked about ourselves, and quickly became good friends with each one of us. He is from Ogden, so he and Norm had lots of stories to share of people they both know. Then when it came time for President Switzer to "teach" us, we were excited to listen. It was a wonderful day.

We ended our Conference about 4:00 and quickly went over to Red Square to get into as many places as we could before they closed at 6:00. We went through St. Basil's Cathedral which is amazingly beautiful. According to legend, Ivan the Terrible had the cathedral's architect blinded to ensure that he would never again create anything to rival it's beauty. We watched the Changing of the Guards at the "Eternal Flame" and then ran to go through the Kremlin and got there just as they were closing the gates. Too bad! We'll have to see that next time. We walked around Red Square for about another hour, shopped in the little outdoor shops and then went to the famous "Arbatskaya" street and had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. By the time we got to the street it had started to rain and we got drenched in a downpour, but we still had a great time. The street is for pedestrians only and is full of shops selling souvenirs of the Soviet era. The buildings and the shops were beautiful and fascinating. The street reminded me a little of walking the streets in Park City. Very much an artist community. We stayed overnight and spent the whole next day touring more of the city.

We started back at Red Square and waited in line to walk through and see Lenin's body. Creepy! He died a little over 60 years ago and they have preserved his body in a glass case for people to see him and pay their respects. The rest of the Russian Leaders are buried at the foot of the Kremlin Wall, including the famous Russian Astronaut (the first man in space) Yuriy Gagarin, and an American named John Reed who wrote "Ten Days that Shook the World" a story of the October Revolution. Very interesting!

We spent a few hours in one of the biggest Renuks (outdoor markets) in Moscow where the missionaries bought many $3.00 ties. They had a hey day. I even bought a few to send to Eddie, along with a few Russian t-shirts, and a Matroiska (stacking) Doll and a few other souviners. After lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon going through "Victory Park", an amazing museum of dioramas, models, maps and weapons from World War II. It was the most beautifully done war museum that we have been through so far. One of our missionaries, Elder Lenkersdorfer, is a history expert and he gave us information and answered every question we could think of about the war. So nice to have our own personal tour guide. We finished our day with another over-night train ride and got home on Saturday morning. It's so fun to spend time with our missionaries and be able to see the sites of this beautiful country we are in. It also helps us to understand more about the people and appreciate the hardships that they have had to endure. I can't believe how much suffering and loss of life there was during that time of war. Going through that museum really opened up my eyes.

Norm, being the good Humanitarian Missionary that he is, spent one morning going to the wheelchair factory to begin the process of having them make wheelchairs for us to distribute. Dima and the Pattersons were with him and I stayed with our missionaries seeing the sights. I felt a little bad about not going with him, but someone had to stay with the missionaries and since I like shopping more than he does, I got to do it! He joined us for the War Museum and was happy to see that. We are excited about the wheelchair project getting started here. That's a big important accomplishment for this area. Another major milestone for Russia is the formation of the First Stake in Russia. Elder Nelson will be here on June 4th and we get to go to Moscow and witness a very exciting moment in history. I'll tell you all about it in a few weeks.

Before I end, I just wanted to congratulate Eddie on his 1 year anniversary of serving in Ghana. The time is going by so fast. I love hearing about all that he is doing and seeing his growth and love for the Gospel and the people in Ghana. What an incredible blessing for him and our family. We love you Ed!

I hope you all have a wonderful week. I am posting pictures of our trip to Moscow on facebook, so you can look that up if you want. I love you all!

Love,
Sister Frost, Michele, and MOM