Missionary Service of Elder Benjamin Moore: Victory Day Festivities, Mother's Day Skype

Happy Mother's Day

I just got off Skype with most of you just a few hours ago. It was good to see you all! One month from just a few hours ago and I will be landing at the Minneapolis airport and we can see each other for real!!

The weather this last week was fantastic! Last P-Day after we got done with everything, we went out to the park behind out place and played some frisbee. Having Elder Kovrigin around all the time is pretty helpful. He answered a question of my soul... what on earth are all of these trap doors by the side of the apartment buildings. Is that where they keep their dogs? Is that access to utilities? Is that some sort of Russian imprisonment? Turns out they're just a bunch of cellars. It's just a big pit in the ground and they often come with an apartment. People use them to store potatoes and food they grow out at their cottages in the country, or to put food storage. So I thought that was pretty cool.

Having Elder Kovrigin around also brings some interesting stuff. Like Akroshka (Окрошка). A cold soup made from cut up hot dog like sausage, boiled eggs, and dill, with a broth of Kvass (Квас), mixed with a decent amount of mayonnaise, and mustard. yum. I bet you can't wait for me to prepare Russian cuisine when I get home. :) I will say thought that the pasta dish he made with some weird canned meat turned out pretty good.

We had 9th of May festivities all week which just meant that we had an earlier curfew. We were in at 6 from the 8th to the 10th. On the 9th at 10 pm we heard all the fireworks from the park down the street, but could only see the reflections on windows of our neighboring building as out window was on the wrong side. The day time festivities were almost on par with the 4th of July stuff in the states. Just made me think about the coming up 4th of July.

We met this week with quite a few different members, and even got a meeting with Noor who we haven't seen in three weeks! Armen is now signed up for a Patriarchal blessing along with his brother Arman. They were both baptized last June.

President Williams will be coming back on Thursday. Elder Gardner had his operation and will hopefully be back in two or three weeks. He may make it back before the end of the transfer. ( I kinda hope not thought, because serving with Elder Kovrigin and Hatch in a tri-panionship is a blast.

Until next week!

Elder Moore