December 29, 2012 2 Christmases

The first picture is at the missionary Christmas party in Georgia which was Fri., Dec. 19th.  We attended church in Tbilisi on Sun., Dec. 21st and Carl and I were asked to be the speakers just before the sacrament meeting started.  We needed to be in Yerevan Sun. to turn in our applications and passports to apply for a Russian visa early Mon. so we made the trip to Yerevan with President Carter after church.  The Armenia missionary Christmas party was Mon. so the group picture was taken that day.  On Wed. night we took the 10 hour train trip from Armenia to Georgia.  Busy week!

December 17, 2012 Georgia On My Mind

We made the trip by mission van today to Georgia.  It takes a minimum of 5 hours.  It took a little longer today as we had snow covered roads over the mountains and there was a wait at the border crossing.  The first picture is at the bottom of the stairs in our apartment building.  We are on the second floor and a pipe had broken in the apartment across from ours so the water was rushing down from that apartment and we used an umbrella to go up the stairs.  The second picture is the traditional Georgian bread.  The little white trees are made out a branch and then carved with long shavings.  They are a Christmas decoration.  We spent Mon. with the senior missionary couple from Georgia who have completed their mission and the office couple from Armenia.  We had a progressive dinner featuring the 4 Mc Donald's in Tbilisi.

Nov. 29-Dec. 7, 2012 U.S.A.

On Nov. 29th we flew back to the U.S. for a cancer skin check.  We flew Air France to Paris, New York, S.L.  The plane from Paris to New York was one of the new Airbus A380 with a capacity of 516 passengers.  We were grateful for the exam as Carl had 2 basal cells removed and the one I had removed was a squamous cell.  We made good use of the U.S. time and stopped by In-N-Out and Costco.  Mon. we were able to drive to Idaho with Nancy, my sister, to see Mom and had lunch with Ralph, my brother and his wife, Brenda.  We also visited with Carl's aunt and uncle, Don and Iris.  We had one week to adjust to the jet lag before we left to come back.  There is an 11 hour time change so when it is day in Armenia it is night in the U.S.  Hard for the body to comprehend!  Nice to be back in Armenia.  Today, December 10th we put up a few Christmas decorations.

November 26, 2012 1st Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving dinner was with 19 missionaries.  There were 6 senior missionaries in the group in our zone.  We had turkey which 2 of the senior sisters cooked and then each set of missionaries had some assigned food.  We had the regular foods like mashed potatoes, gravy and corn.  Then we got a few unusual things like fudge, fancy popcorn balls and something similar to pumpkin pie.  The sisters had cook a squash and then put the pie crush in a square pan.  The young missionaries were so excited to have something similar to a home Thanksgiving! (and so were we).

November 14, 2012 Close to Thanksgiving time

The first picture is the park where we run.  There are quite a few oak trees.  The trees form a canopy over the sidewalk.  Some of the local people pick up the acorns.  We hear they feed acorns to the pigs.  The building is a vodka plant close to our apartment.  Vodka is one of the products exported.  The apartment build is where we live.  The apartments are named Glendale Hills.  Many Armenians live in Glendale Hills, California.  The golden fall tree was in a park.  Not many of the trees had bright colors.

November 6, 2012 Fall Walk in Yerevan

The flower peacock is not far from our apartment.  The picture of the subway entrance shows a good perspective of how deep it goes.  The Great Britain picture was in front of their embassy which we passed on our walk.  The statue is a famous man named Mashtots who actually invented the Armenian alphabet.  The alphabet is on the slates behind him and he is teaching his alphabet to a student.

October 29, 2012 Armenian Humor

These pictures are reminders of the Dave, Dan, Jonna visit in September.  Dan posted a great video on their blog!  The first picture is Carl and Tatev Monastery, then Dan in a "changing room" by a little spring in the canyon near Tatev where we had a picnic, a Delta advertisement, and Jonna by the new KFC that opened last month.

Sep. 15-24, 2012 Yerevan with Dave, Dan & Jonna

We took a long walk from the mission office to the Mother of Armenia memorial on the hill above Yerevan.  We then walked down The Cascades which has about 600 steps.  The next day we went to the Genocide Memorial.  We are lined up on the escalator going down to the subway.  Dan took a ride in the amusement park by the big church.  The family picture is at Tatev and Dan & Dave are in Republic Square in Yerevan.

Sep.22&23 Echmiadzin Monastery&Khor Virap

Echmiadzin Monastery is similar to the Vatican for the Armenian Apostolic Church.  It now displays the spear which is said to have pierced Christ's side at the crucifixion.  The next picture is a framed piece of wood said to be from Noah's ark.  A small piece of the wood was given to Russia.  You can see the bottom left corner is gone.  Khor Virap is at the foot of Mt. Ararat.  There is a well here where pagan King Trdat III imprisoned St. Gregory, a Christian for 12 years.  Christian women secretly lowered bread to him through a small hole.  When Gregory was able to heal the king, Gregory was released and Armenia was declared the first Christian naion in 301AD.  Dave, Dan, & Jonna were able to go down the narrow ladder into the well.

September 20,2012 Tatev & Noravank Monastery

We left at 7am for the long drive to Tatev (about 4 hours each way) over bumpy mountain roads and got back about 8pm.  We hired a young adult member to drive his van and invited 2 senior couples.  Tatev Monastery is built on the edge of a steep canyon.  We took the gondola one way and came back in the van.  You can see the road is steep and winding.  Noravank Monastery is built in a canyon with rocks that are colored like the red southern Utah rocks.  There are narrow stone steps to get to the dome.  Tatev is from the 11th centruy and Noravank was founded in 1105.