Thanksgiving in Armenia

The Mission President's plan for Thanksgiving was to have the Missionaries eat by District or in some cases combined Districts.  The Seniors that were part of the District would also eat with them. Sister Carter wanted the Elders and Sisters to prepare the meal rather than depending on the Seniors to do it.  Of course, a lot of the Senior Sisters had to bring something.  We were to meet with our District at the CES building.  This is in the basement of the building where we attend Church.  We were to eat at noon.  That would allow the young Missionaries to get home on time.  Some of them had to travel a ways.

Sister Rich decided to bring some Jello-O salads.  We have to take the Metro and a bit of a walk to get to the building.  Naturally, we traveled Armenian style. That means that you transport everything in plastic bags. 

Traveling Armenian Style

The Elders and Sisters did almost all of the food preparation.  Some of them were really familiar with what to do and some of them appeared to be completely unfamiliar with the kitchen for anything other than eating.

Peeling Potatoes - 10 to 1 (favor of  Mini Missionary)

Note:  A Mini Missionary is not a small person, however, this one is.  It is an Armenian that has been given a calling to serve with a full time Missionary for about two months.  We don't always have an even number Missionaries and the local members help out.  This one is Siaranoush and she has about three years total service as a Mini.  She is a wonderful person. We'll bet that Noelle knows her well.
 

A rather small kitchen

They are happy

 But look at what a bunch of determined young Elders and Sisters can do.

Dolma and Matsoon instead of dressing

The pot of green stuff is Dolma or stuffed grape leaves,  the white sauce behind is Matsoon with garlic.  It  goes over the Dolma.  Both are really good.  Matsoon is the Armenian answer to all health problems.  It is unflavored yogurt.  We both eat some every night.  We would swear that we sleep better as a result.  I eat it plain and Sister Rich likes almost equal parts of jam in it.

Swedish Meatballs instead of Turkey

We did have mashed potatoes and gravy.  One of the Elders made 4 liters of gravy early in the morning and brought them in on the train, in a plastic bag, naturally.  It was good gravy.  We also had chicken from the Sharma across the street wrapped in lavash. One of our Elders is Swedish and those are real Swedish meatballs.

 It was not all work for anyone.  The Seniors didn't do a lot of work.  It was difficult for some to let the Missionaries do it all but they did it and the Missionaries felt really good about doing it.  This was also P-day for the Missionaries, so they did get a chance to play and relax.

This was their P-day

These are the two Sisters in our Branch

Sister Rich and Sister Peterson (intense)

 I had no idea that Sister Rich was so competitive.  She did beat the Elders.

 It was now time to eat.

The Cooks

As they said in Men In Black, "the best of the best Sir"  These truly are the cream of the crop of youth from America, Sweden and Armenia.  We really feel privileged to be able to serve with them.

Let the feast begin

We are about to begin.  The food was really good.  We didn't eat until about 2:00 PM.  Sister Peterson had made some pies for dessert.  We were really full, and we still had the Senior dinner at the Marriott Hotel at 6:00 PM.

As soon as someone brings out a camera, everyone hands the person taking the picture their camera and asks to have one taken.  This is standard.  Sometimes our driver will have 5 camera's hanging on his arm.

Here - will you take one with mine?

After dinner!
There must be games.  The object of this game was to get the cookie from your forehead to your mouth just by moving your facial muscles.  It was not easy as you can see from the sequence of pictures.

Elder Peterson, the Senior, was the first to accomplish it. It is amazing the talents that you develop as you get older.

You don't feel nearly as stupid doing it as you do when you see the pictures of your attempt.

I didn't quite make it,  the cookie found the floor.

It was time for this part of Thanksgiving to end.  It was a lot of fun.  We now walked to the Marriott Hotel.  It only took about 15 minutes and it is a very pretty part of town.


We met all of the Senior Missionaries in Armenia except the Bluncks and President and Sister Carter, at the Marriott Hotel for a Thanksgiving dinner.  The Bluncks are almost 3 hours away from Yerevan and the Carter went to the other part of the Mission, Georgia.  We had a traditional American turkey dinner, almost.  The turkey was really good and very American.  It was probably imported from America as attested by its price.  The dinner was much more sedate than the noon gathering with the Elders and Sisters.  But these are all our really good friends and we love being with them.  Their callings are really varied, we have the Office couple, the Employment couple, the CES couple, the Humanitarian couple (us), and one Leadership Support Couple.

Thanksgiving night at the Marriott with the Seniors

This was a Thanksgiving that we will never forget.  The Spirit of the Lord was really with us for the entire day.  At noon we went around the table telling what we were thankful for.  You could really feel how close those young Missionaries are to the Lord.  We were really thankful to be here on this day and we are really thankful to be serving a mission in this wonderful country.  Given our choice, we will take Dolma and Matsoon over turkey any day.  Sister Rich says "that is pushing it".  We hope all of you had a really great Thanksgiving and you are in our prayers every day.  We hope the Lord understands Armenglish, because that is what we say our prayers in.  Actually, it is almost all Armenian.  Menk seroom enk qez.  (We love you).

Elder and Sister Rich

Armenian Fashion Part One

 Hope you enjoyed this small sampling of Armenian fashions.  Our special thanks to our two dear friends and co-workers, Suzi and Karmen.  They both really go all out when it comes to clothes.  The men really love their pointed shoes and the women really have great taste in shoes.  Unfortunately, a lot of the girls are really camera shy and said no when Sister Rich asked if she could take their pictures.  We will try again next summer when the fashion show is in full bloom.