Tolstoy Estate

These pictrues are taken at the Leo Tolstoy Estate which is located about 3 hours bus ride from Moscow.  Then we rode a small van a few miles out of town and walked about 1/4 mile to the Estate.  The top left picture is a memorial we passed on our walk to the Estate, on the right is a large pond as we entered the Estate and adjacent is the actual spot where Leo Tolstoy was buried.  Just as he wanted it to be, with no names or markers, just a private little plot.

Summer Adventures

Summer in Moscow has been wonderful!  We are sorry that it has been so long since we have posted anything on our blog.  I guess we have been busy and enjoying our time here.  The weather is amazingly pleasant.  This is a park that we walk through on our way home from church on sunday. Often there are Grandpas showing their grandchildren remote control speed boats on the lake--this one is really fast!!   Moscow has many beautiful parks to enjoy and  they stay green because of the frequent rain storms.  Sometime we get caught without an unbrella and get a little wet while walking home. 

On the 15th of February, the Russians celebrate women's holiday. They take a three-day vacation Thursday Friday and Saturday, and then have all employees work on Sunday make up for the day taken off. Not too much sense, but a great time when they show respect to the women with lots of flowers and niceties.

We had a lot of fun out in the mountains riding on the sleigh and roasting weenies around the fire having sandwiches and drinks. It was a fun event with Bob and KLynn.There were three other young families with children so there were lots of activiies.

Inside the Cathedral of the Resurrection

Even though oneCathedraldiffer significantly from the othersin the type and qualityof theirart work ormosaic workit all centers aroundstories in the New Testamentand some oldTestament depictions.

Picture on the right here is looking straight up into the dome of the cathedral and the art Work is amazing and goes clear up into the dome.

The exterior of this cathedral was so decorative and immaculate but it was hard to believe the details on the outside of the structure

This cathedral was built in the 17th century and yet as you can see it has weathered the storm of time without virtually any deterioration. These types of cathedrals are symbols of National Russian architectur of the time.

This is a more traditional Cathedral in St. Peter'sburg call the Cathedral of the spilt blood. Interesting enough its real name is Cathedral of the Resurrection.One of their ruling leaders was killed on this very spot and they built this magnificent Cathedral where he was killed, thus the Cathedral of the spilt blood.

The picture on the left shows the Extremely expensiveOr for mental decorations even on the outside. Underneath each dome On the inside There are places repeats to stand and worship as there are no benches in their cathedrals. One can hardly fathomat great expensein building these structures.

On the left we are in Hermitage and if you look closely inside the cage behind us is a medal pheasant in a tree that rotates in a full circle built by a watchmaker as a circulating clock.
On the left is another cathedralThe Kazan and as you can see it is huge. They charge an admission but you can go in virtually anytime of the day if you pay the admission price, even though there may be services taking place.

Millions of dollars are raised each year from tourists.

Catherine the Great Castle-Hermitage

Because of Catherine's desire to be left alone this whole structure is now called the Hermitage Museum. These places are huge display of enormous wealth used for the benefit of

a few.

In the background you see another mansion built and lived in by Catherine the Great. She was a Russian Czar leader after Peter the Great, the build statutes and reverence these great leaders even though there was

significant restrictions and poverty among the working class. One roomin this castle where there is 17 miles of inside hallways to view this castle.

This was a much smaller Castle earlier in her ruling period. Toward the end of her life a relativehad a significant Art collectionbut was struggling financially, so she purchased the collection , added on to this building and brought the art collection had to this castle.

With all of this she would order her meals to one room then ask all all of her maids and serve to leave so she can eat a lone. This is now a public Museum with fantastic displays.

Exterior of St. Isaac's Cathedral

The exteriorof St. Isaacs isthe huge columnswhere they built scaffoldsin rowsand then stood thecolumns upin between the scaffold.The cathedral ismore than 200 years oldbut still in great shapebut showing someblemishes from the harsh weather.

Inside St. Isaac's Cathedral

This St. Isaac's Cathedralas more of a Romantype structure with large pillarsso the roof didn't walk into an onion dome like their traditional cathedrals.The artwork,the rock and marble sculptures,and considerable bronze and brass adorn the insides of these great structures.

St. Isaac's Cathedral-St. Petersburg

One of the more famous cathedralsis St. Isaac'sthese are some of the interior photoswere they clearlyMajor artworkand Major mosaic artwork I'll be difficult

stories. Obviously large expenditures went into these projects And for the ways the worldThey are some of the greatest.

Beautiful St. Petersburg-Russia

In 1703, the Ruler of Russia Was Peter The Great and he was a lover of Holland and its access to the sea. So he went from Moscow to St. Petersburg with the determination that the only way Rush would be great as a nation and to be able to compete with other nations economically they needed a strong seaport He therefore decreed that St. Petersburg was the ideal place for that port to be located on the Gulf of Finland. St. Petersburg therefore is one of the newer cities in this part of the world is this area was surrounded by lakes and high water table. The battle that Peter the Great ordered all of the stonemasons stop building anywhere else in Russia and that further only stone buildings could be built in St. Petersburg.

Many lives were sacrificed, as is consistent with history of these nations to build a new seaport city, which he did. There are modern buildings, but the zoning regulations in St. Petersburg require that the exterior surface of buildings be maintained in their original historic State.

Peter build many significant buildings in his day and then other rulers and starred dictators have continued to pay special attention to St. Petersburg. It is therefore a beautiful city of several million people with some amazing old historic buildings. I had one picture here but it went away during my dictation so I will bring it back page.

Inside the theater waiting for sound of music

We braved the cold weather and went to see the sound of music. It was in Russian, but none the lessit was absolutely fantastic. We loved every bit of it. I hope this blog hasn't been too boring, but it's hard to get pictures to showhow things really are.

Modern Russians shopping mall

The last event of that January 2, 2012 was to visit one of the most modern Russian shopping malls. American private business, and private business enterprise is very prevalent over here.

Mosaic of brass

Here is yet another type of artwork-Mosaic brass. Much of this work was done in the Soviet era and those leaders were able to convince people that the communistic system looked after every aspect of life and was designed to bring prosperityto all.

As we know counterfeits seldom work, but we talk to peoplewho interesting enough, still look back on that era with fondness and claim that life was good.

More art

Some of these mosaics cover the whole end wall. The senior couples spent about three hours that day going from one station to anothe, just amazedeverything that's depicted through this artwork, military, family, public life, recreational activities,different types of industry, gardening, and many other aspects Russian history. It's a grand tour in and of itself. When it was finished most of us went to dinnerat the American sonic diner. It was a great day.

Garden theme mosaic

These pictures only show a small part of what's depicted. These were sculptures out of marble.

Mosaic art

Here is a different kind of Mosaic in a different Metro station usually centered around a different type of thing or life style.

Metro tour continuing

They have bigger than life-size monuments, statute, and marble sculptures.

Art Museum continued

I had to get a picture of us making his tour and the amazing Metro station in the background.There are presently about 14 senior couples serving here in Moscow in all different kinds of responsibilities. CES directors, humanitarian services, financial auditors the train local stake and priesthood leaders, Mission home assistance, substance abuse Directors, legal assistance, and several others. We have some great activities together approximately once per week.

Metro station-Art Museum

You saw us looking up in the last blog picture because on the ceilingof that and some of the other metro stations you have mosaic artworkof amazing quality, realizing,these stations were were built in themid-30s through the 1940s.They are right up in the oval ceiling and detect all kinds of life in Russia. This one depicts a church steeple with airplanes flying overhead. It is amazing to see the great variety with the amazing beauty.

Tour of the Brown Metro lines January 2, 2012

If you look at a mapof Moscow, you will seea ring around the center, which is one of the main roads which circles the city. Underground, one of the more elaborate of the 10 or 12 Metro lines is the brown lines which circles the city in a complete circle. It has some of the most amazing Metro stations I think anywhere in the world.

This pictures just one of those stations where a Metro trainmade up of about 10 big passenger cars comes every minute and a half every two minutes and loads with passengers. You will note it is fairly empty so the people you see there are the senior couples toured with us.The rest of the Russians were still sleeping after their big New Year'sthe party.

Fireworks from the 18th floor of our apartment building

I tried to upload a little video taken out of our apartment window looking south over the city of Moscow. It was an absolute beautiful sight at night with all the fireworks going off in different places in parts of the city. They were huge displays, some close but most of the big ones along his way, but you can hear the cannons blowing one after another. Apparently there was trouble with the upload however so there will not be a picture unless it miraculously appears somewhere .

Russian Christmas festivities --huge fireworks

Mom and I finally went to bed around 1:30 a.m.but the missionaries. On for another hour or so having a great evening together as a district. We spent some time reviewing and talking about some of the great successes they had had in their missionary work. We have two couches which making into beds and others slept on other parts of the couch, or the pillows.
All in all they have a great evening and woke up in the morning feeling well and strong and attended our church meetings.

New Year's festivities continue.

The mission president required that the district elders stay together for the New Year's activity. Few of them have a big enough apartment for the them all join together and anyway we love to have him over to our apartment. All six of them plus Elder and sister Johnson, the new executive Secretary for the area presidency spent the evening with us. We had a great meal with two kinds of soup and homemade bread and everybody loved. Later in the evening we had tapioca pudding furnished by one of the missionaries then a little later chocolate pudding we made and finally popcorn and scones just before midnight. We had a great event, with the Johnsons leavingabout 10:30PM and the missionaries stayed overnight as required by the mission president.

New Year's Eve activities-guess who

Again a question,which is the most beautiful?Easy answer, they are beautiful flowers. Each morning as we walked to work along the main road there is a little flower shop right along the side walk and we think the little lady takes care of it sleeps there all night, at least some of the time.

It's a miracle that you can buybeautiful flowers over hereat this time of year, but you can as there aren't many flower shops. They cost 120 rubles each. You can buy 30 rubles for one dollar, so they're still fairly expensive, but they were worth it for my beautiful wife.
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Starting new year in Moscow, Russia, January 1, 2012

The only Christmas present mom let me buy for her were these beautiful roses and then I really had to do without her consent.You can easily tell who's the most beautiful, she is without question.

Great History and Buildings Here in Moscow-Red Square

These Next Picturesare different viewsof Red Squareone of the most prominent visitors attractionof Moscow. St Basels Cantederal in the background

Red Square covers a lot of acres along one of the rivers. Here you can see through the Arch way the above Cathedral in the background. These huge old buildings were part of the Kremlin where the ruling Communist Party controlled everything. Many of the buildings have been preserved but are used for high end offices or very elaborate shopping malls.

The big building in the background is part ofRed SquareAnd the administrative buildingsUnder the communist rule. It is now probably the most elite shopping mall in this huge city.For example, Two vehicles on display sold for over $260,000 each. Much of the Communist military power would be put on display in this part of Red Square.It is huge.

This is a brief Picture summary of the historic year of 2011 for us.Our experiences here have been many firsts as outlined in some of our earlier e-mails. We have loved and cherished every part of our mission here.We miss our wonderful family and loved ones, but have kept busy with many things here which has brought us great joy in our service.

Teaching in Ukraine-Odessa 2011

One of our highlight experiences here in Moscow has been to teach for the Leavitt Institute, first Simphrople and then in Odessa, both a part of Ukraine.Here I taught in two different law schools two students who were in their fourth and fifth year in the study of law.This was a long oval-shaped table with students all around,with about 25 in class. We were very impressed with the quality of these young people.

We sent earlier pictures Of the Opera House in Odessa. Inside that Opera House however There is a Left side of the stage and the right side of the stage With these little boxesWhere the high society Visitors enjoy the Opera. This was an absolute amazing experience and the Opera Hall is one-of-a-kind.

While the buildings are great,The traditions are also very interesting. This display contains weddingHearts and Padlocks of different people Married in Odessa. There are literally thousands of them along this bridge Built by a wealthy prominent man over a Large ravine as his mother-in-law lived on one side and he lived on the other. The bridges is several hundred yards long and contains thousands of padlocks, until the law changed prohibiting any new padlocks because of the weight.

This is the town square in Odessa and in the background are some amazing old buildings 200 to 300 years old but well preserved. The statute is of Catherine the great, one of the rulers who liked and sent manyMillions of dollars To build a lot of this town.The rulers and Wealthy Vacation here in Odess on the coast of the Black Sea

Moscow and Kiev-2011

When Communism ruled in Russia,the dictators tried to shut downbelief in God and even destroyed many churches. However but, behind closed doors and in homesChristianity remains strong.Like this church you see in the background many churches were restored , preserving the great beautyof these historic buildings.

We found this statute in KievVery interesting. It represents Andrew, an apostle at the time of Christ And by their tradition He visited In Ukraine And brought Christianity.

The city of Keiv Was, at one time in history, surrounded By a massive Wall To protect
The people. There were large ruling and powerful families that sought power and control.This structure is a large arched gate, the only remaining part of the wall still standing.

This is president Galbreath and his wife, president Of the Keiv Temple,He and I were in the elders quorum many years ago at BYU. The world is much smallerAs we servedIn these far-off countries where we have met many and enjoyed association of people we have knownin the past. One of the great Wonders of the GospelIs to be clear over in this part of the world and find faithful members serving with great diligence.The Galbreath left 10 children and a few more grandchildren than we have, first to serve as mission presidents and then Now as Temple President.

Full Summer-Erinn's Graduation

Fortunately We Returned Home from New York, Morgantown, and Louisiana to join in the festivities of Erinn's graduation We Have Loved so Much Living Close and enjoying Erinn's great Spirit, sweet loving personality and exceptional talent on the piano.

Erinn quickly gaines the love of everybodyShe's around And it was a great example for her family and friends And influence the whole community.