May 8, 2011

Well, it is a break from the usual Tomsk Times, because we are currently in Moscow, but Tomsk is home, so we will call it from there.

We have had a marvelous journey this week and while we are gone, learned that a few of our sons will be transferred in our absence. :( We knew it could happen and bade them farewell and gave them the last supper (roast beef feast) before we left. But some of the Russian elders we may never see again and it hurts to say goodbye.

To further explain, we are here because we have to go out of Russia every 3 months as a requisite to renew our Russian visas. This is a complicated process and takes many people coordinating exact times and trips to get ALL the non-Russian missionaries out and back in. If anyone isn't exact in this process they are OUT of here. What an amazing effort the church goes through to keep us here. So we go to Finland and back. Then we are also being sent from Moscow to Turkey for some CES training this week and so we are here in Moscow for a few days in the interim to save the church from sending us on the flight and bus trip back home then back here.

We had so many great events this week, but here goes the top 3:

#3 MOSCOW: We were able to go to Red Square in Moscow. We are here during their celebration of Freedom from post WWII. They calculate that between that and WWI & their revolution & civil war, that 27 million veterans lost their lives. We watched a military procedure in our plain clothes among a crowd from farely close vantage point of an honorary changing of the guards at a mass gravesite and unknown soldier grave at the Kremlin wall. It was solemn and very touching. (The song they played wasn't quite as moving as TAPS though) It was a remarkable sight.

#2 THE TEMPLE: Walking into the temple doors after being SO far away from a temple for SO many months was a rush of warmth. . . spiritual warmth. DON'T TAKE IT FOR GRANTED. We were able to go through 2 sessions at the Helsinki Temple. We had a brother from Lithuania help at the veil and their translation cards were in 5 languages depending on who came through. That day Swedish, English and Finnish were needed. Our names were from Kiev and Estonia and they even asked Marsha how to pronounce the Russian name and remarkably she could do it. John, in speaking to a Finnish brother, discovered he was President Labrum's missionary companion in California just a few years ago and was able to reunite them. Cool huh! Anyway it was great to be back and we look forward to it every 3 months. Hope all of you are able to attend OFTEN!!!

#1 WHAT??? I bet you are wondering how we could top #3 and #2 huh! Well these friends we are staying with here in Moscow are humanitarian missionaries we knew from Montpelier days. He was the HS principal there, Patterson. They were called to a special Moscow missionary meeting which they learned about Saturday evening. It was held on Sunday morning very early. AND there it was announced that in June, an apostle, Russell M Nelson, will be coming to organize the FIRST STAKE in RUSSIA, here in Moscow. What a celebration yesterday was, in all of Russia. You can NOT fully comprehend what this means to them. There will be priesthood keys given and we will have High Priests from Russia and Bishops and they will rise to the level of a stake. We were instructed in expecting opposition, beacuse darkness must now recede. This is a HUGE dream come true! We felt SO blessed to hear it first hand.

That's it from Tomsk Times this week. We send our love & blessings to you all. Especially you mothers which will be blessed for choosing this holy calling. You will change the world! We salute you all.

Love, Elder & Sister, Ma & Pa, John & Marsha Aland