March 18, 2012 Armenia with Jim

The opera house in Yerevan is a favorite and impressive site.  The weather was so good for the visit with mostly sun and clear sky.  The wind made the walking in the city pretty chilly, especially for Jim coming from Sacramento.   At Khor Virop we had a good view of Mt. Ararat.  We climbed down the old metal ladder into the well where Gregory, a Christian, was held for 12 years.  In 301 AD when Gregory was brought out of the well and was able to heal the king of a disease the king made Armenia the first Christian nation.

March 11, 2012 Tbilisi, Georgia

We traveled the 5 hours to Georgia on Friday and came back on Saturday afternoon to do an audit.  Tbilisi has about 1 million people.  It is an interesting city with old churches and castles.  The first picture is from a window in the hotel where we could see 5 churches.  There is one McDonald's which we enjoyed (none in Armenia).  There was an interesting monument which Reece's the humanitarian senior couple, called "Stonehenge".

March 4, 2012 The Opera House

The Opera House is a famous landmark in Yerevan and a cultural center.  The dance program we attended was Armenian dances.  As we walked back to the apartment we went through Republic Square which is the center of Yerevan. You can see the lighting is amazing.

February 26, 2012 Another Baptism

The first picture is Mt. Ararat.  The Armenian Church is in Yerevan.  The next pcture is the National Art Gallery.  The baptism was Friday and this is Gayborg who was baptized and his sister, Ina.  The group is Sister Kohler, Gayborg's non-member brother, Gayborg, Elder Gerber, and Sister Bailey.

February 19, 2012 Trivia

The first 2 pictures are some art work in Yerevan.  They are metal sculptures:  Carl with a bull and me with a big spider.  The other pictures are a few items I have gathered.  Many tourist items have pomegranate designs.  The Russian stacked dolls and the St. Basil's Basillica decorations are from Moscow.  The church ttower turns and has music.

February 11, 2012 The Baptism

Carl had his first baptism today on our mission and gave the prayer in Armenian.  I learned it too!  The pictures are Carl and Sara and then Sister Kohler, Sister Bailey and Sara.  The group is us, Sara, the sisters, her cousin, her mother, and a little boy in the branch who happened to run by.  The last picture is Sara with the yellow rose the sisters gave her.  She was wearing a CTR ring one of the elders gave her.  Pretty nice!

GOOD BREAD February 5, 2012

Bread is a main stay in the Armenian diet and they bake great bread.  Every morning Carl walks downstairs to a very little store and they have fresh bread.  They are strange little hard loaves, but Carl thinks they are great.  The first picture is a kiln for baking bread.  We saw it in a little village we visited with the humanitarian missionaries.  One of the workers reached way into the kiln to put the bread in and then later to take it out.  The other picture shows some of the shapes of bread.  The Gook Will sign is the name of a grocery store (still small) where we buy some of the basic groceries.  The dancer was at a Georgian restaurant we went to with the senior couples when Elder and Sister Stone arrived.  Georgia is one of the neighboring countries and is part of the Armenia Yerevan Mission.  At the dinner we were able to meet Elder and Sister Reece, the senior couple serving in Georgia.  They are from Elk Grove where Jim and Kathryn live and attend church in the same building in a different ward.