Ups and Downs!

Lots of ups and downs around here recently.  The weather went from being below freezing to 81 F in about four days.  We got a few more photos of the river as it was melting and the ice was breaking up.  The ice did not last long after we hit the warm temperatures.  It is gone now!

One guy was wading in the water.  I'm sure it is still too cold for that!

 

Lots of people are out and about on a Friday evening.

 

It was nice to have some beautiful blue skies and sunshine.  Everyone seemed happy to be outside.  We were waiting for the elders so we could try and find one of our members at his work.  While we were waiting, I took a few photos of the children that came by.

 

Isn't she so cute?

 

Well, Dad got his arm in the way, but these were two cute little boys in their summer caps.

 

 

Then these two came by.  It turned out that our friend has changed jobs and we have lost track of him.  His phone number is not working, his wife said she doesn't know where he's staying...... so??

 

We have been having great turn outs at English recently.  We have about 50 chairs and they're almost always filled every Tuesday and Friday evening.  A couple of young ladies came the other night that we had not seen since September!  We did not expect to see them again.  And one of our former investigators decided to start showing up again!  I think we prayed him back!

 

We have enjoyed having the elders teach some discussions here at our apartment.  It is very interesting to see the investigators' pondering what they're hearing, and understanding.  But, then often the response is, but I'm a Muslim, so the Koran is most important to me.

 

And it is very sad when one of our new members has a challenge of faith and as much as you want to help them overcome, it is something everyone needs to work out themselves.

 

We will be losing a few of our members at the end of the school year that are moving on to new opportunities.  New jobs, graduate school, whatever.  So we'll miss them.  But then we receive news that there are new families coming to work at the U S Embassy!  Ups and downs!

 

 









Here the elders are getting a chance to watch Saturday's conference in our apartment.  We showed the Sunday sessions for our meetings at church on Sunday with a pot luck lunch in between sessions.

 

We had a visit from our mission president, his wife and their son who has just completed his mission to Mexico.  He came "home" to Russia to visit his parents and is heading home to Utah next.  So he got to see a different part of the world on his way home.  We had lunch at the mall with them.

 

 

 

As you may guess from our jackets, the weather turned cool again.  Back to the jackets and boots and dodging rain puddles!