Each morning when we go to work, we travel by Metro, an underground subway and then we catch a Trolley Bus to take us up the hill to work. This lady is there every morning and she is still there when we walk back down the hill after work to catch the Metro. She sells some sort of a brown liquid that is not heated or cooled. Someone told us that it is made out of bread. We will probably never know.
Our favorite food over here is bread made in the Georgian style. In case you don't know, Georgia is the country directly north of Armenia and it is part of our Mission. The first picture shows him loading the dough into his oven and the second picture shows him holding a freshly baked loaf. It costs 200 Dram a loaf. It is usually so warm that you have to move it from hand to hand. We eat it plain or with meat and cheese or with honey. It is wonderful. He hands it to you with a piece of paper so that you don't burn yourself. These pictures don't show it, but he usually
has a cigarette hanging out of his mouth during all
phases of the operation. We think that the ashes add
to the flavor.
This is our wonderful Mission President and his
wife, President and Sister Carter. They have been really wonderful to work with. We belong to them, but we work for the Area President in Moscow.
While we were at the MTC we met two Sister Missionaries and four Elders that were on their way to Armenia. We studied a little bit of the language with them. They finally arrived. The Sisters, the two in the middle are shown with their new mothers, trainers. The four Elders are shown one of their trainers. The other fellow is Elder Jones, he and his wife are the Office couple and really good friends.
Next to the Mission Office there is a Golds Gym. Jim is the manager and a good friend. We eat lunch there quite often. He has been here for 3 years and is full of stories about the place. We can be having a bad day and go eat lunch with Jim and always come out smiling.
This is the package that my sister Mary sent to us from Russia. It was packed with all kinds of goodies that are really hard to get here, like brown sugar, chocolate chips and peanut butter. It is the largest care package that any of the Missionaries had ever seen. We really appreciated it. The other seniors were also really excited because we shared with them.
One of my goals over here was to try and find a violin. I was afraid that if I didn't play for 18 months, I would be back to Twinkle, Twinkle again. This is Gregetzik. She served her Mission in Chicago, and is called Sister Chicago by some. She is also a musician and was able to find this old German violin from a prominent violinist. It was made in 1939. We had it looked over by a noted Luthier and he gave it a clean bill of health. We had to get a passport for it so that we can take it out of country when we leave. We also had our lawyer draw up a contract so that we are protected. It has a nice sound, but until we heard the seller play it, we had no idea how nice the sound was. It will never sound that good for me, but it is nice to know its potential. The picture below is its passport photo. It is nice to be able to play again. We just need to solve the problem for Sister Rich. She needs a piano.
