Christmas in Siberia

Christmas, 2012 was one that we will never forget.  Who would have ever thought that we would be celebrating Christmas in Siberia, Novosibirsk, Russia.  But here we are and loving our experience.  We soon realized that Christmas is not that big a deal here in Novosibirsk.  Not that many decorations in the stores, or music streaming through the malls.   I realized that I missed that part of Christmas.  But thanks to our wonderful children, at least our apartment was decorated for Christmas.  They sent us cute snowflakes with the grandchildren’s pictures on them, and prints of their feet for Mistle Toes.  And some very creative decorations of Popsicle sticks and Q-tips

Our newest Nativity from Finland

Our Nativity from Kakistan

 On Christmas morning we had our District over for breakfast.  We consider them our mission family, so it was almost like being home.  That afternoon we all went over to the Mission Home and had Christmas dinner with all the Novosibirsk missionaries.  They shared their musical talents and then we all left and went to the Nutcracker Ballet.  It was amazing!  To think that we went to the Nutcracker presented by the Russian Ballet on Christmas Day.

Do you recognize the Sugar Plum Fairy?

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It was a Christmas to remember!

Bergst – New Group formed

There are a few members who live in a town about and hour outside of Novosibirsk, so the President decided to start a Group there.  He sent two missionaries there and assigned Elder Webb to be the Group Leader.  The Webb’s travel there every Sunday to hold Sunday meetings.  Elder Webb asked us to speak there the Sunday before Christmas, so we went out with them Friday night after the Branch Christmas party in Novosibirsk.  It is a town of about 500,000 nestled around a lake in a rural area.  While there we visited a historic church and snow sculptures we found on the way.  The city places large cubes of snow in some of the parks and the local people carve their snow sculptures from them.  It is a fun tradition.

Since they do not have Costco here I have not been able to find my favorite treat (animal crackers in the gallon jar) to fill my cookie jar.   So I have been testing every cookie I can find to fill that gap.  It is fun trying, but so far I haven’t found the perfect match.  Although I have found several that are good second choices.  Oh, the trials and sacrifices I am faced with.  I found some alphabet cookies that I hope will help with my pronunciation and vocabulary.  I figure if I eat enough of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet characters, when I speak, the correct sound will automatically come out of my mouth.  So far it hasn’t worked, but I will keep trying.

 

This is only a small sample of the different cookies I have tried.  I think the count has reached over three dozen types of cookie/crackers.  Still no match.

Happy Thanksgiving

One of the primary objectives here in Novosibirsk is to help this new district mature enough to become a self sustaining stake.  Since the Church is very young here, first started in the mid 90’s, the Priesthood leaders are inexperienced and need training on how to handle church affairs.  The mission President who is the presiding authority here has scheduled a series of training meetings to help these new leaders.  Since the President, Elder Webb and I have all had many years of Church leadership experience, he has asked us to help him do the training.  We take various scenarios and role play best how to handle each one.  I think this first session went well and the priesthood leaders appreciated the training they received.  If all goes well we hope they will be ready to create a stake during 2013.  We have loved working with the Russian members. They are wonderful and have strong testimonies.  

For Thanksgiving we spent the afternoon with the Novosibirsk missionaries in the mission home having the typical turkey dinner.  Between Sister Gibbons, Sister Webb and Sister Gundersen we had more food than 28 missionaries could eat.  We ended up having turkey leftovers for our next district meeting.  It is amazing about how talented these missionaries are.  After dinner we had a small program where some of the missionaries performed on the piano or song.  They are amazing.

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Each week a district meeting is held at our apartment, where about eight missionaries attend to report and receive training from the more experienced missionaries.  What tremendous people they are.  Of course after the meeting we serve them one of Sister Gundersen’s famous hot meals.  They love her cooking.  She has already gained a great reputation for providing the best meals in Novosibirsk.

It is hard to believe that four months have already flown by.  We are really enjoying our stay here.  Even the freezing temperatures haven’t slowed us down or damped our spirits.  However, the icy uneven walkways have slowed us down a bit.  I have fallen four times and Barbara twice.  Wherever we go, it is arm in arm.  We can’t count the number of near falls we have had, but thanks to our partner we have been able to recover before going down.  So far our coldest temperatures have been minus 52 Fahrenheit.  So we just dress up really warm and off we go.  We average about 3.5 miles walking per day. 

Life couldn’t be better.  Well warmer temperatures would be nice, but hey, we are in Siberia.

View from our kitchen window.  The white area above the houses is a frozen lake
Everything freezes and stays that way until April.  Our Winter Wonderland.

                   

VISA TRIP TO FINLAND

In Russia, all missionaries only have a three month visa.  So we are required to leave the country every 90 days.  In December we went to Helsinki, Finland.  It was 20 degrees F, snowing and windy and the humidity was very high.  But we thought, hey, we are from Siberia it is going to feel warm there.  Wrong!  We were so cold. Maybe because all the restaurants were cold and even our hotel room was cold.  We could just never warm up (except in the shower).  But, we were there to see Helsinki so we went exploring.  We went to the Helsinki Temple, which was beautiful.  We were able to figure out the train and the bus schedule so we had no problem getting there. It is also helpful that most of the Finnish people we met spoke very good English. We met and talked with several missionary couples from America, which was wonderful.  

A beautiful Nativity outside the Helsinki Temple

We then went downtown.  They had an outdoor Christmas craft fair that we went through, and found the customary magnet.  Then we walked downtown which decorates a lot more than Novosibirsk does for Christmas.

We saw this man playing some music on some bottles.  He was really quite good.

We then went to a Finnish Craft Store and found the most beautiful carved wooden nativity, which looks very nice in our apartment:-)

All in all, it was a very nice trip to a country that we had not visited.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BRIAN!!!

What a great way to turn 65  - in a Siberian Snow Storm.  We started the day Skypeing with Broc and Julie and baby Gavin who was born on Nov. 15.  We love technology!!  It helps us keep in touch when special events happen that we can't be there for.  So Brian opened his presents from me with Broc and Julie and Gavin - beautifully wrapped in colorful plastic bags tied with colorful yarn:-)  We then walked to church.  Even though it was snowing, it really wasn't that cold and it was beautiful.  On the way home, I wanted to get a picture of Brian next to a tree.  I just didn't realize how deep the snow was!











He was much nicer to me.  My tree had a trail leading to it.

We had Elder and Sister Webb over for dinner and birthday cake.  We are so lucky to have good friends to share our special occasions with!!









That night we had a Young Single Adult Fireside at our home.  What great kids we work with.  We had 25 people come and they brought a cheesecake and official Siberian winter boots. We watched a CES Broadcast that we were able to download in Russian and then had Brian's birthday cake and his cheesecake for refreshments.  It was a very memorable birthday




HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER GUNDERSEN

Krasniarsk Training

We traveled to a nearby town to Church Education System training.  It gave us a chance to see some of the country side.  We took a twelve hour overnight train ride to get there.  It was a fun experience and reminded us of our overnight train ride in Australia. Except here we had to share the bathroom with the rest of the people in our wagon (car). 

Since we left at night we didn’t see much of the country side until morning, when we got our first glimpse of the white, snow covered expanses of Siberia, lots of trees and snow.  

After the training sessions we went sightseeing to a park with an overlook point for the valley and river. 

  It was snowing quite hard so we were glad we had already purchased our Siberian winter clothes.  

The snow didn’t stop the wedding pictures.  We watched while the bride and groom posed for several shots and especially in front of the famous “fish” monument.  Cassi, when I saw this I thought of you and how you like to take your pictures of families or weddings in natural settings.  Well this qualified.  The bride was shivering and her wedding dress was dirty, but I guess this is a normal condition for a Siberian wedding.

Notice the famous fish monument in the background

The training was good and we were able to trade ideas with the other people who attended.  Below is a picture of the group we were with. 

 Our ride back on the train let us see the other end of the trip in daylight.  Many of the people have garden spots outside the city where they spend time raising their own vegetables and then store them in underground root cellars outside their apartments.

Garden huts behind the trees.

It is hard to believe how fast time goes by.  It is hard to keep up with everything that is going on around us, especially when we understand very little of the day-to-day conversation.  Every normal task we do, like grocery shopping is a major event since we are trying to figure out what all the labels mean.  But slowly, very slowly we are making headway. 

Love you all, Brian & Barbara

Good Morning Friends and Family,

This week has been a busy one as usual.  On Monday we had our big grocery shopping day where we go to a nice grocery store, stock up on groceries, and then get a ride home.  Thank goodness, we don’t have to take all those groceries on the Metro.  That night we had Family Home Evening with the Webbs.  I am so glad we have them here.  We have so enjoyed being with them.  

Then On Tuesday, we went to English class and met a very interesting lady.  She is a Physics Teacher and came to practice her English.  We had a wonderful conversation and at the end I asked her if she would like to walk home with us since I found out we lived quite close to each other.  Remember we are 20 minutes from the Metro and then another 20 minutes from the Metro to home.  So we started walking and got to the Metro and she said, why are you going this way, I will show you a shorter way.  So we began to walk, we talked and had a wonderful visit and realized that we had walked all the way home.  We were planning on doing this at some point, just to see how far it was.  But we were planning on doing this when it was good weather.  It was snowing that night.  Fortunately, it wasn’t too cold yet.  I am always amazed at how much walking we do and in all kinds of weather – because we have no choice.  Really, you dress warm enough, and you can walk anywhere, anytime and in any weatherJ

Looking out of our kitchen window

On Wednesday, we had some Sister’s from the General Relief Society and General Primary Presidency in Salt Lake City, come and visit our Mission.  They trained the people here who are working in Relief Society and Primary.  It was a very good meeting and helped our members to understand their responsibilities.  Because we are a lay church, with no paid positions, it is up to our members to fill the positions of Presidents, counselors and teachers in the different organizations.  Fortunately we have handbooks (instructions) on how to do everything and experienced people to help train.

On Thursday, we had Institute with the Young Single Adults.  A good lesson on the New Testament, Mark chapter 1.  Of course, we supplied the refreshments.  They love home baked cookies.  

These were some of the pumpkins they carved.  They don't look too different than the ones we have back home.  But these were some of the best ones.

This is Lenna.  She is the District President for the YSA and was in charge of the party.

On Saturday, the YSA put on a Halloween party.  They really decorated it cute, and stayed up all night baking.  They had 13 pumpkins for the people to carve.  However, they don’t have pumpkins here like they do back home.  But they still did a cute job carving them.  I still don’t know if they go trick or treating or where they would go since every one lives in an apt. and each apt. has a locked door to get into the building.  Guess I will find out. That night Lenna asked us if we would speak at the CES Fireside the next day.  Sure, how long do you want us to take? Oh, 40 minutes would be fine.  Yikes! They said they wanted us to talk about our family. So we put together a slide show of our family and then talked about how our family was made even better because of our temple marriage, and how we strive to build good solid relationships with our family because our family is an eternal family. Well, it went ok and we were able to take up the whole 40 minutesJ  They thought we had a beautiful family, which we just had to agree!!

What a busy, fun filled, fulfilling week we had.  Intermixed in all of this was meeting with members of the Branch and having lessons taught in our home.  We love Russia and feel so blessed to be able to be here.

Do Svidaniya,

Elder and Sister Gundersen