Wednesday, April 22, 2009
A BAPTISM PICTURE
Please go to our blog titled "News from Khabarovsk, Russia" to see our baptism picture that I was able to blog.
THIS IS OUR KHABAROVSK !!
This is one of the pics of the city while were up in the Bell Tower of the Temple/Church. I think we told you that there are tons and tons of apartment buildings!!
Sister Sartori Ringing the Bells
Here is Sister Sartori ringing 3 of the 8 bells. This tower is one of the tallest points in the city. The bells are normally rung at the beginning and ending of their service.
This is our new ward house !! ...Just Kidding !!!
This is one of three Russian Orthodox Temples that we have seen so far. This is the one we went in today (Wednesday) and had the nice experience with a 'sister' to help us be able to climb the stairs to the Bell Tower. What a nice experience it was..to ring the bells and see gorgeous views of our Khabarovsk city.
Khabarovsk Beach on the Amur River on April 20, 2009
These look like waves, but they are actually ICE !! Let's go swimming...never mind!! At one point China is 30 kilometers away on the other side of river.
Ice on the Amur River on April 20, 2009
We took this picture of the beach with ice pushed up on the sand from the force of the waves and water. We were glad that these young men were on the ice so you can see a perspective of size. The young men were about 5 feet tall.
Khabarovsk FireTruck
This truck was right by our apartment one day..a perfect opportunity to get a picture! We think this is how our fire trucks in Salt Lake City looked when we were kids!!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
A Walking Tour of Khabarovsk, Russia
We had a walking tour of Khabarovsk, Russia.....OUR KHABAROVSK !!! We want to share with you our lovely city and some of it's famous sites. We still do not understand all of the history of Russia (because it is much!), and we do not know all the names of the leaders at different times, but we do appreciate the beauty, the architecture of the buildings, the love of the people and all of our experiences that have been so special. I know 'special' is not a unique word, but it does describe our feelings of this beautiful city. We did our walking tour on two different days...on Monday, our 'P-Day' we walked from our apartment down to the Amur River. (This is the river that separates China from Russia at some points.) Elder Sartori figured out our total walking distance on Monday and it was 7.5 Kilometers (4.5 miles)!!! We walked down to the Amur and walked around this huge park that had walkways, a statue and it was fascinating. I will include a picture of the ice in the river that was on Monday and another picture with most of the ice gone today!! Amazing! We will also include a couple of pictures of the buildings that are the center of Khabarovsk. It is beautiful here and is only getting prettier! They are Spring-Cleaning the whole city! They rake-up, plant or get ready to plant grass & flowers, the trees are beginning to bud, and they are painting the concrete garbages along one of the main streets.
Today, which is Wednesday (it will be dated Tuesday, because of time change - and because I always want to know what time it is at home, I am not changing my computer. I know it sounds strange, but my computer is still 'in Utah'! - go figure!!) we rode the bus and then walked a mile. Our dear friend, Lena Kocyx, told us that in her Russian Orthodox Church, the stairs to the Bell Tower are unaccessable to the public except one week during the year...that week is the week after Easter. Easter in Utah was April 12, 2009 and Easter in Russia was April 19, 2009. So we went to this beautiful church and when you first go in the huge doors (it is a temple for them also) you enter a large, huge, room with icons and candles all over. You can purchase candles, light them and place them in one of many holders - the icons are pictures of Saints, and it looked likes stories from the bible. I asked in very broken English if we could go up the stairs. This sweet, sweet 'sister' understood my gesture and couple of words, took a few minutes and found a young man to escort us upstairs. We walked up about 300 ft. or 95 Kilometers (about).When we got to the top, he rang 7 or 8 bells and then let us ring them. The view over Khabarovsk and the Amur River was breathtaking. I couldn't help but feel a beautiful peace that in their own way, they are seeking our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Oh how we need more missionaries to help people all over the world to 'Come Unto Christ'...to come to know Him as we know Him, as our Savior and Redeemer.
We hope our work keeps us here in OUR KHABAROVSK! There is much work to do. We love you all and think about you often. Elder and Sister Sartori
Today, which is Wednesday (it will be dated Tuesday, because of time change - and because I always want to know what time it is at home, I am not changing my computer. I know it sounds strange, but my computer is still 'in Utah'! - go figure!!) we rode the bus and then walked a mile. Our dear friend, Lena Kocyx, told us that in her Russian Orthodox Church, the stairs to the Bell Tower are unaccessable to the public except one week during the year...that week is the week after Easter. Easter in Utah was April 12, 2009 and Easter in Russia was April 19, 2009. So we went to this beautiful church and when you first go in the huge doors (it is a temple for them also) you enter a large, huge, room with icons and candles all over. You can purchase candles, light them and place them in one of many holders - the icons are pictures of Saints, and it looked likes stories from the bible. I asked in very broken English if we could go up the stairs. This sweet, sweet 'sister' understood my gesture and couple of words, took a few minutes and found a young man to escort us upstairs. We walked up about 300 ft. or 95 Kilometers (about).When we got to the top, he rang 7 or 8 bells and then let us ring them. The view over Khabarovsk and the Amur River was breathtaking. I couldn't help but feel a beautiful peace that in their own way, they are seeking our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Oh how we need more missionaries to help people all over the world to 'Come Unto Christ'...to come to know Him as we know Him, as our Savior and Redeemer.
We hope our work keeps us here in OUR KHABAROVSK! There is much work to do. We love you all and think about you often. Elder and Sister Sartori
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
WHERE KHABAROVSK BEGINS
We have walked down here twice. This is close to the Amur River and also close to where the Philharmonic Orchestra performs. This is also a Spring Picture! This is how our city looks right now.
POEZD VAXAL - TRAIN STATION
This is the Poezd Vaxal - or the train station. We have been here lots! We have ridden the night train twice (sleeping in the koope) and we have caught the tram-vies to go out to people's homes in the other areas. We think this is an older pic, so maybe we can share a newer one later.
OLD CITY KHABAROVSK/NEW CITY KHABAROVSK
This shows 'old city Khabarovsk' in the foreground and 'newer city Khabarovsk' in the background. Now look at that Trolley-bus on the very bottom of the picture. I believe this picture is NOT NEW at all, and that bus looks in pretty good shape! Some of them are even older looking!
CENTER OF KHABAROVSK CITY
This is a great photo showing a portion of the center part of our city. Notice the MANY apartment buildings! Notice the trees, this is how it looks right now, coming into Spring. We can't wait until Summer brings grass, leaves, and flowers. However, there is a tsbeti (flower) shop on every block where you can purchase real and artificial flowers. Hooray for Russian Men who buy flowers for their special ones!!
INTRODUCTION TO OUR KHABAROVSK
Now that we have lived here for two months, we want to share what we know, where we have been and where we want to go. Khabarovsk, Russia is a very cultured city. Russia as a country respects and loves cultural aspects. Khabarovsk is a city of 580,000 people and it has many museums, theatres, parks, squares, universities and institutes, and wide sidewalks to walk any where you need to. The buses include: regular buses, trolley buses (they run on wheels and electric attachments up on top of them) and tram-vies (they run on metal rail with electric attachments up on top of them). We have experienced all of them and they are very needed to get to our "south, north and central areas". These are areas that our mission has used to divide up the city. This week two of our elders will be going home (We are not aware of others in our mission who will be doing the same) and it is necessary to close our south area and combine it with the other two areas. To give you an example, one of the farthest people we went to teach with the elders was a walk to the bus stop, then a 30 min. ride on the bus/or trolley bus then a 15-20- min. walk again. We are so grateful that we are in pretty good physical shape, because we are exacting it out of our wonderful bodies!!! Khabarovsk is across the Amur River from China. Khabarovsk was named after a Russian explorer named Yerofey Khabarov and started as an outpost in 1858. After WWII, Khabarovsk was the site for War Crime Trials of the Japanese.
We want to share our sites now. When we first looked out our apartment, we noticed that the power poles and power lines run on top of the apartment buildings. There are tons!!...literally tons of apartment buildings! Our apartment building is 15 floors and we are sure glad we are only on the 3rd floor - especially when the elevators don't work! We are relatively lucky as we have found as we visit our investigators and less actives sometimes they don't even have an elevator in their building! (We have a small one and a large one!!) Now let's think about this and get the right perspective.... to shop for anything, you must walk and carry it home! When Bro. & Sis. Williams told us about their living in Vladivostok (which is basically the same) with their 7 children we really did not understand the whole picture of the shopping thing, the carrying home thing, and the apartment living thing! We now do. We have a whole new love for our home and our cars!!! We did not bring our exercise weights with us, but purchased some here and it is a good thing that we did!! We walk a lot! We love it! The sidewalks are W I D E which is nice, but many of them are extremely uneven and the stairs EVERYWHERE are totally uneven... this makes for an adventure whenever we go out...so you see, we are always on an adventure!! :)
Our Spring sounds like yours...warmer and drier, then that very morning or afternoon, it snows!
However, the snows do not stay long. All our sidewalks and roads are dry now. All snow has melted!..and we had 4-6 foot piles ALL OVER! We are so thankful that we got to have snow and a little cold (we missed the -40 below weather) and see the beauties of this city blanketed in snow. There are few single dwellings, but there are some. They are away from the city center which has only apartments buildings and offices and theatres. Many people have 'dachas' which is gardens. The people in the city have dachas 20-30 min. drive/bus ride away, the single dwellings/homes have them in their yards like us. The single homes are very old, very worn & tattered. There is no extra money to fix up homes and apartments, so most people cannot do it. Now, picture a home 50-80 years old and never having anything done to it! Some of the single homes have no running water, so this has to be carried in. Some homes, buses, tram-vies and buildings are just old. They definitely live like the prophets have told us to do... "Fix it up, wear it out or do without". The people are inventive in using everything and fixing so they can use. We guess they don't fix-up homes because they feel they are 'good enough'.
The people, ah yes, the people. We have met W O N D E R F U L people...right on the street! Last night we were walking home from English Club at the church and three young-single-adult-age people called to us, we stopped and talked. It is mostly the younger ones who call out in English "Hello!" or "Americans!". We stopped and had a delightful visit with them, handed out the English Club invitation with the address on it and shared our family photos. They were fun, we talked in English and Russian to them. Even though the youth learn English in school, they do not always have the opportunity to speak it, so they seem to enjoy talking to us and practicing their skills. On another occasion in this same park, we were called over to them by an older woman who spoke English. We again had a delightful conversation in English/Russian and we always walk away with our hearts lifted. Why? ..because these nice people have accepted us and basically welcomed us to their land by talking to us! We are complete strangers, walking on foreign soil and they say "Hello". The Missionary Badge is a wonderful thing to show the presence of our Heavenly Father in these goodly lands. We love you all. We think of you often.
Thank you for your prayers and your faithfulness in serving in the Kingdom of God. Our love we send to you....Elder and Sister Sartori aka..Ctapehshena ee Cectpa Captopi
We want to share our sites now. When we first looked out our apartment, we noticed that the power poles and power lines run on top of the apartment buildings. There are tons!!...literally tons of apartment buildings! Our apartment building is 15 floors and we are sure glad we are only on the 3rd floor - especially when the elevators don't work! We are relatively lucky as we have found as we visit our investigators and less actives sometimes they don't even have an elevator in their building! (We have a small one and a large one!!) Now let's think about this and get the right perspective.... to shop for anything, you must walk and carry it home! When Bro. & Sis. Williams told us about their living in Vladivostok (which is basically the same) with their 7 children we really did not understand the whole picture of the shopping thing, the carrying home thing, and the apartment living thing! We now do. We have a whole new love for our home and our cars!!! We did not bring our exercise weights with us, but purchased some here and it is a good thing that we did!! We walk a lot! We love it! The sidewalks are W I D E which is nice, but many of them are extremely uneven and the stairs EVERYWHERE are totally uneven... this makes for an adventure whenever we go out...so you see, we are always on an adventure!! :)
Our Spring sounds like yours...warmer and drier, then that very morning or afternoon, it snows!
However, the snows do not stay long. All our sidewalks and roads are dry now. All snow has melted!..and we had 4-6 foot piles ALL OVER! We are so thankful that we got to have snow and a little cold (we missed the -40 below weather) and see the beauties of this city blanketed in snow. There are few single dwellings, but there are some. They are away from the city center which has only apartments buildings and offices and theatres. Many people have 'dachas' which is gardens. The people in the city have dachas 20-30 min. drive/bus ride away, the single dwellings/homes have them in their yards like us. The single homes are very old, very worn & tattered. There is no extra money to fix up homes and apartments, so most people cannot do it. Now, picture a home 50-80 years old and never having anything done to it! Some of the single homes have no running water, so this has to be carried in. Some homes, buses, tram-vies and buildings are just old. They definitely live like the prophets have told us to do... "Fix it up, wear it out or do without". The people are inventive in using everything and fixing so they can use. We guess they don't fix-up homes because they feel they are 'good enough'.
The people, ah yes, the people. We have met W O N D E R F U L people...right on the street! Last night we were walking home from English Club at the church and three young-single-adult-age people called to us, we stopped and talked. It is mostly the younger ones who call out in English "Hello!" or "Americans!". We stopped and had a delightful visit with them, handed out the English Club invitation with the address on it and shared our family photos. They were fun, we talked in English and Russian to them. Even though the youth learn English in school, they do not always have the opportunity to speak it, so they seem to enjoy talking to us and practicing their skills. On another occasion in this same park, we were called over to them by an older woman who spoke English. We again had a delightful conversation in English/Russian and we always walk away with our hearts lifted. Why? ..because these nice people have accepted us and basically welcomed us to their land by talking to us! We are complete strangers, walking on foreign soil and they say "Hello". The Missionary Badge is a wonderful thing to show the presence of our Heavenly Father in these goodly lands. We love you all. We think of you often.
Thank you for your prayers and your faithfulness in serving in the Kingdom of God. Our love we send to you....Elder and Sister Sartori aka..Ctapehshena ee Cectpa Captopi
Thursday, April 9, 2009
A Walk in the Park Dynamo
This is the beautiful park that we walk to church through. We chose to take this picture right after one of the late Spring snows and then we hope to take one when it is nice and green! This is the same park that was full of ice sculptures. Tonight as we walked home - two weeks - after this pic was taken, we saw all the many walking paths down through the trees. It was amazing, because snow has covered so much, we didn't know so many paths existed!!
Garages in Russia
One day we were out with the Elders and we said,"Could we please take a picture of these garages so we can share the experience here?" Notice the 'row' of 'garages'. They are not next to the house! The owners park their car, if they have one, lock the garage, then walk to their home which could even be a block or two away! Wow, are we spoiled or what? We get to park right next to our home!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
NEWS FROM KHABAROVSK, RUSSIA
THIS IS OUR DEAR FRIEND TATYANA GOLOOB. She asked Elder Sartori to baptize her on April 6, 2009. She has a great spirit and testimony. Tatyana is our very first baptism for Elder & Sister Sartori. Elders Allen and Hanson taught her the gospel. Others also taught her, so many touched her heart, but the Spirit taught her. Dear Friends and Family....I will now try to repent and blog more often!! You know those 'day planners' that all the missionaries carry?...I carry one also and I have now written down to enter our blog news regularly. I have found that the hours and days go by quickly. We have been involved with lots of wonderful things that all entail 'doing the Lord's work'. Every Tuesday and Thursday we attend English Club in the evenings. It seems that alot of people want to learn English here in Khabarovsk, Russia....young and old!! We have met wonderful people here. English Club is where Russians can practice speaking Russian for an hour. The missionaries make this so much fun, so when we had to lead it, we also tried to make it fun. We have a beginner's group and an advanced group. They meet separately. Then we take a 5 minute break and reconvene with an invitation to hear a spiritual thought. Elder Sartori conducts the spiritual thought on Tuesdays and Sister Sartori conducts the spiritual thought on Thursdays. This part is only 15 minutes long, but strong truths are taught here, testimonies are shared and the spirit is strong. We share in the advanced group and some other elders do a spiritual thought in the beginning group. It is amazing how just sharing gospel truths then the Spirit teaches hearts. The missionaries then are able to make appointments for more teaching as the people ask.
MISSIONARY WORK IS AWESOME!!! You know what?.... it was awesome when we did it in our ward also!!
We have had two Zone Conferences with our Mission President and his wife. They are really spiritual people and have helped the Russia Vladivostok Mission to become. The mission is relatively new and Satan knows how important this work is all over the world, so he is doing all he can to stop it! We are working as hard as we can to try to invite people to 'Come Unto Christ' so that He can help them in their lives here on earth through His Gospel and also through eternity. We are so thankful to be a part of this great work in these latter days.
A note of interest....when on a mission for our Lord, Jesus Christ, we are called upon to do many things, even things that seem to be impossible! They needed someone to write the 2008 Khabarovsk Branch History so I said that I would do it!!! WE WERE NOT EVEN HERE IN 2008!! The Lord provides a way for us to accomplish His work! Two weeks before two choice elders were tranferred out of Khabarovsk, they shared the Branch happenings with me including pics and then Elder Beecher even typed up some of the commentary that he knew from personally being in attendance at some of the events! Angels walk the earth today?.... You bet they do and we work with them daily!! May you each see angels working in your lives!
We have had dinner at a sweet lady's home (she is a teacher of English..lucky us!), gone to the Philharmonic Orchestra with an opera singer, met a doctor who just received a special machine to help with her work in gastrointestinal problems (there is only one other machine like this in Russia and it is over in Moscow), met another lady who works at an Institution for Teacher Training plus all the inactive members who we are trying to invite to come back to church. We are truly blessed each and every day!
The lady, Galina, who trains teachers, asked us to do a service project for her. It involved reading into a microphone for recording of a text that they will use in the schools. The text is written in English and so they wanted a native American - us- to do it. Pres. Everett okayed the project and we have begun! It is only hard when we have to read the Russian names! We are so thankful for the little tutoring that we had before we left. It has helped us so very much. Learning a foreign language is tough, it takes hard work, it takes a long time....but is so worth it!!
Seminar and Institute is held weekly here in Russia for the Young Single Adults. It is such a vital part of the members here. It is a great way for testimonies to be strengthened and training for future leaders of the church. We will be planning the S & I (Seminary and Institute) graduations and attending them next month. There are five cities to fly, train and drive to. The YSA are totally awesome!!! We have been blessed to meet them.
We had a great Branch activity that was a Talent Show. It was so fun preparing for it and doing it. We invited anyone we met to come. The elders made Mexican Tacos for dinner after and about 50 people came! What a success! We were asked to make tortillas and we had never done that, but what a great opportunity!..and they worked, they were good!
HOORAY... WE HAD OUR FIRST BAPTISM!! ............AND...........WE ARE HAVING ANOTHER ONE!!! Two delightful sisters (sisters in the gospel)... Sister Tatyana and Sister Svetlana. Tatyana's was Monday night and Svetlana's will be Saturday between General Conference sessions. Yes, that is what I said! You see, we were not able to hear conference, so our Zone Leader recorded it and our branch will see it this Saturday and Sunday...in Russian and in English! These choice women are very spiritual and so sweet. We have loved teaching in their home. I must tell you that we have no baptismal font here in Khabarovsk, so we must find a hotel with a sauna-type containment, rent it for an hour and perform the baptism there. We have a huge river here in Khabarovsk, but it is too cold and too dirty. The spirit was strong as we closed the door of the sauna at the hotel and prayed and sang songs from the hymn. Elder Sartori was asked by Tatyana to baptize her. He felt very strongly that he wanted to say the baptismal prayer in Russian. He spent all day (that is how long he knew about it after she asked him) studying the words and with the help of our sweet elders, and our Heavenly Father's help, he did great! Now you must understand, we still must study hard to understand, pronounce, read labels, etc. He tried so very hard........and he was blessed!!
The Church of Jesus Christ has been restored! We testify of this truth! Our love to all, Elder and Sister Sartori
MISSIONARY WORK IS AWESOME!!! You know what?.... it was awesome when we did it in our ward also!!
We have had two Zone Conferences with our Mission President and his wife. They are really spiritual people and have helped the Russia Vladivostok Mission to become. The mission is relatively new and Satan knows how important this work is all over the world, so he is doing all he can to stop it! We are working as hard as we can to try to invite people to 'Come Unto Christ' so that He can help them in their lives here on earth through His Gospel and also through eternity. We are so thankful to be a part of this great work in these latter days.
A note of interest....when on a mission for our Lord, Jesus Christ, we are called upon to do many things, even things that seem to be impossible! They needed someone to write the 2008 Khabarovsk Branch History so I said that I would do it!!! WE WERE NOT EVEN HERE IN 2008!! The Lord provides a way for us to accomplish His work! Two weeks before two choice elders were tranferred out of Khabarovsk, they shared the Branch happenings with me including pics and then Elder Beecher even typed up some of the commentary that he knew from personally being in attendance at some of the events! Angels walk the earth today?.... You bet they do and we work with them daily!! May you each see angels working in your lives!
We have had dinner at a sweet lady's home (she is a teacher of English..lucky us!), gone to the Philharmonic Orchestra with an opera singer, met a doctor who just received a special machine to help with her work in gastrointestinal problems (there is only one other machine like this in Russia and it is over in Moscow), met another lady who works at an Institution for Teacher Training plus all the inactive members who we are trying to invite to come back to church. We are truly blessed each and every day!
The lady, Galina, who trains teachers, asked us to do a service project for her. It involved reading into a microphone for recording of a text that they will use in the schools. The text is written in English and so they wanted a native American - us- to do it. Pres. Everett okayed the project and we have begun! It is only hard when we have to read the Russian names! We are so thankful for the little tutoring that we had before we left. It has helped us so very much. Learning a foreign language is tough, it takes hard work, it takes a long time....but is so worth it!!
Seminar and Institute is held weekly here in Russia for the Young Single Adults. It is such a vital part of the members here. It is a great way for testimonies to be strengthened and training for future leaders of the church. We will be planning the S & I (Seminary and Institute) graduations and attending them next month. There are five cities to fly, train and drive to. The YSA are totally awesome!!! We have been blessed to meet them.
We had a great Branch activity that was a Talent Show. It was so fun preparing for it and doing it. We invited anyone we met to come. The elders made Mexican Tacos for dinner after and about 50 people came! What a success! We were asked to make tortillas and we had never done that, but what a great opportunity!..and they worked, they were good!
HOORAY... WE HAD OUR FIRST BAPTISM!! ............AND...........WE ARE HAVING ANOTHER ONE!!! Two delightful sisters (sisters in the gospel)... Sister Tatyana and Sister Svetlana. Tatyana's was Monday night and Svetlana's will be Saturday between General Conference sessions. Yes, that is what I said! You see, we were not able to hear conference, so our Zone Leader recorded it and our branch will see it this Saturday and Sunday...in Russian and in English! These choice women are very spiritual and so sweet. We have loved teaching in their home. I must tell you that we have no baptismal font here in Khabarovsk, so we must find a hotel with a sauna-type containment, rent it for an hour and perform the baptism there. We have a huge river here in Khabarovsk, but it is too cold and too dirty. The spirit was strong as we closed the door of the sauna at the hotel and prayed and sang songs from the hymn. Elder Sartori was asked by Tatyana to baptize her. He felt very strongly that he wanted to say the baptismal prayer in Russian. He spent all day (that is how long he knew about it after she asked him) studying the words and with the help of our sweet elders, and our Heavenly Father's help, he did great! Now you must understand, we still must study hard to understand, pronounce, read labels, etc. He tried so very hard........and he was blessed!!
The Church of Jesus Christ has been restored! We testify of this truth! Our love to all, Elder and Sister Sartori
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