An American Christmas in Armenia

The Armenian's don't celebrate Christmas on December 25th like we do in America, however, the American's here do.  We really had four days of activities associated with Christmas. The first activity was a party for the over 30 singles.  This was held on December 11th.

Sister Rich and the Single Adult Representatives

A pretty good crowd for the over 30's group.

One of the Branch Presidents and one of the Translators.

Part of the "talent" show.

The second event was a party for the young single adults.  This was held on December 23d.  It was a much louder party.

Elder Rich's 2nd chance to perform.

Unfortunately we forgot our camera that night.  There were about 80 or 90 young people in attendance.  They came from all of the Branches in Armenia and a couple of guys made it down from Georgia.  Most of these kids don't go to Church very often, but they will always attend any kind of social activity.

The next activity was on Friday, December 24th, it was a Zone Conference.  It started out with a very spiritual talk by the Mission President and then his wife read a really neat poem.  This is about a mother sending her son on a Mission.  Sister Carter said that it applies to all of our families, both young and old.  We loved it so much that we are including it in the blog.

Missionary Christmas

I skipped the sales after Thanksgiving. The thrill just wasn't there.
No pictures taken with Santa Claus. My decorating has no flair.
His presents are shoes, shirts, and ties, two suits and socks... no fun.
I've bought him white clothes because... this year I'm giving Christ my son.

I've spent more time in the temple, my testimony stirred.
I've re-read November's Ensign, felt strength come from His words.
Our family prays more frequently. My tears are quick to run.
Heaven seems closer because… this year I'm giving Christ my son.

I wonder how those Lamanite mothers, gave their sons to war?
Or how the pioneers chose Zion, their sacrifice was so much more.
My loss will be his presence, I'll miss his smile a ton.
For two years we will pray for him. I'm giving Christ my son.

I stare at his face when he's not looking. I memorize his eyes, their shine.
He's always hungered for the part of him that makes his soul divine.
The stories and lessons he always heard, his choice and mine are one.
I'll put my faith in God's hand. I'm giving Him my son.

Past gifts have lost their glitter. I think I finally understand.
Christ's birth should be celebrated by giving Him a hand.
It's because I know Christ lives and reigns that all his packing's done.
My gift has taken years to make. This year... I'm giving Christ my son.

I know there's One who understands, the sacrifice I'm making.
Who knows the gift I willingly give, the toll it will be taking.
For He has done it all before, greater love - there could be none.
For years ago God gave to me, His only begotten son.

The hands I washed, the hands I held, the hands I taught to pray,
Now knock on doors to find the ones who will listen to what he'll say.
Because I know Christ needs him, until all the gathering's done,
My gift has taken years to make. This year... I'm giving Christ my son.

 We are thanking all of our family for their sacrifice so that we could come on our Mission, and we do understand the sacrifice.

Now, for a few pictures of the party.

Typical Armenian Food - Sharma Chicken

President Carter with his new hat from the White Elephant Game

The White Elephant Game

Once Again part of the entertainment

This was the "Alvin and the Chipmonks"

Master of Ceremonies 47 second intermission

Santa Rap

Sister Crawford really knows how to play, Elder Rich's violin

The Yerevan Armenia Mission South Zone

At last, December 25th, Christmas day.  It started with a Senior Missionary lunch at the Mission Home. The dinner was pure American, except the bread, which was Armenian.  It was great and Sister Rich made the gravy and it was wonderful.

Part of the Kitchen Crew

Watching bits on LDS.org

The VanDykes playing the Zither.  The fuzzy thing is a Georgian Christmas Tree carved from a stick.

Playing Christmas Carols for a sing a long

Gingerbread Houses. Sister Pincock was a second grade teacher.

Elder and Sister Rich's houses.  The pretty one belongs to Sister Rich

Real pumpkin pie

The second event on Christmas was a Baptism for three men.  What a great event.  The Spirit was in abundance.

One of the Branch Presidents - Narek

She is a very good pianist - Geghetsik

One of the men and the Elders

The other Branch President - Sargis

The third event on Christmas was a party at our Branch.  We were pretty tired by the time we got there, but it was still a lot of fun. 

The Sisters preparing for the Nativity

The Nativity

Ever seen sparklers at a Christmas party?

They have beautiful children

Sorry about the red eye

Our Branch President and Santa

The Shengavits Branch

This was a very unusual Christmas, but one of the most spiritual ones that either one of us has experienced.  It was not as unusual as December 1968 for Elder Rich (Viet Nam).  We have really loved it.  We got a chance to Skype with some of our children on Christmas, either our time or theirs.  We love all of you and miss all of you.  Have a very Merry Christmas from Elder and Sister Rich, Yerevan Armenia Mission.

A Typical Day

Day begins on the computer.

A lot of people have asked us over the years to describe a typical day.  Well, here we are 14,000 miles away in Armenia serving as the Country Directors for LDS Charities, or in other words, a humanitarian mission.

We get up fairly early, about 7:30 a.m.  Elder Rich spends some time on the computer checking email, the news and the status of our projects.  We manage our projects with a Church software system and we communicate with our managers in Moscow via email.  We can do a lot of our work from home and we always get a head start on the day first thing in the morning.

 We head for work about 9:30 each morning.  We take the Metro and then catch the trolley bus. We have a short walk from the bus to the office.  We stop at the Georgia bread maker across the street and pick up a loaf of bread each day.  There is nothing better than having a loaf of bread that is so fresh that it burns your hands.  We typically share the bread with our good friends, Elder and Sister Jones.  They are the office couple and get to work really early.

Breakfast / lunch - Georgia Bread

Sister Rich's Christmas window

Office Meeting

Heart Monitor Computer Project

New Project - village library

 We usually eat the bread with meat and cheese or peanut butter and honey.  It is really good. We normally don't eat a meal until evening.

Typical closing snack

Personal water project

13 - 6 liter bottles of filtered water

Dinner - Sharma chicken

Dinner unwrapped

Village string cheese

Persimmon

Ready to eat

 Time to start work in the office.  We did find a small Christmas tree and there were some decorations left over from the Mission Office tree.  Sister Rich really likes Christmas and decorating.  This tree looked like it needed Charlie Brown next to it.  But the office does look like Christmas.

Sister Rich's turn

Elder Rich's violin debut

Low tech journal keeping

High tech journal keeping

Our home Christmas tree

Daily Scripture Study

Armenian and English

We will normally have some meetings during the day.  These could be with members of the LDSC team or Mayors looking for some Charitable help in their village.  Elder Rich spends a lot of time on the computer.  We have found that the two of us working side by side can really get things into the computer fast.  Sister Rich will dictate and Elder Rich will type.  It works really well for us.

Part of the life cycle of a project is that once it is completed, we go to the location and see the equipment or whatever we have purchased. We always take pictures of us with the people involved and whatever we paid for.  They will normally serve us a snack of soft drinks and fruit and cake and candy.  Sometimes it will be a full meal, typically a BBQ.  This is the Armenian tradition.  They will tell us that if we don't fill up our plates, they will do it for us, and they do.  The food is really good.  We feel bad if we feel that they cannot afford to feed us, so we will always tell them no at least once.

The two closings we are showing here are a Cardiologist that we bought a portable heart monitor for and later got her a computer so that she could analyze the data.

The second project is for some books for a village library.  This small village, about 1600 people, graduate about 35 students per year from their high school and almost all of them are qualified to go to college.  The village people realize the need for an education. This was a typical snack after the closing.  We had the village mayor, director of the school, librarian, Suzi, our translator, and Erik our driver behind the camera. The Armenian's, particularly the villagers are really wonderful people and they are very grateful for any help we give them.


We have on occasions lost our water for a day.  Therefore, we all keep bottles of filtered water on hand.  We decided that it was time to rotate them.  We also did not know if the water in the bottles was filtered or not.


Time for dinner.  On Monday and Tuesday nights, we always go out for dinner with some of the Seniors.  This night we decided that we wanted chicken.  This is a good meal because it is good for two days.  We go to the local Sharma and buy a whole rotisserie chicken and a couple of potato's that have been cooked over the coals on skewers.  They put onion and cilantro on the whole thing and wrap it in lavash.  This is a flat bread that is served with a lot of foods.  BBQ is eaten with your hands and you use lavash to pick up the meat. So, it is the equivalent of our plastic containers, except that it is edible. The cheese is village cheese and it is called string cheese.  It has a slight salty taste.  We really like it.


For dessert, we had a persimmon.  This is a really sweet fruit and they are in season right now.  They have to look kind of bad on the outside or they are not good.



Since Elder Rich did the cooking, okay, I asked for the chicken and potatoes, carried them
home and cut up the persimmon. Sister Rich now does her part, which as you can see is the dishes.


The violin is part of our normal day, because Elder Rich likes to play for about 30 minutes each evening after dinner.  This day he was asked to play at a single adults activity.  This was a first.  He was a nervous wreck, but with Sister Jones on the piano and Sister Rich's prayers, he got through it.

 We do keep our own journals each day.  Since Elder Rich is the Computer person, he uses an old fashioned fountain pen and a book and Sister Rich, who is the artist of the family uses her computer.  We guess that it doesn't matter how it is done, as long as it is done.  It might be interesting some day to compare the two journals and see if we were on the same mission. 


Sister Rich did get a Christmas tree for our home.  As you can see, she is very happy with it.

 As Missionaries, we study the Scriptures every day.  Our method is to read a verse in Armenian and read the same verse in English.  We try to correct each others pronunciation, but that is like the blind leading the blind, because we are not really sure how to pronounce all of the letter correctly.  Our reading skill are improving dramatically.  We have read about 170 pages in the Armenian version to date.  We are recognizing a lot of words and we have a good idea what is being talked about.  We view it as a little bit of progress each day.  It is like being in Church and listening to the Armenian.  We pick up more words each week. One of the problems is that a lot of the members will give their talks in Russian, then we are lost.

Each night we go to bed really tired.  We say all of our prayers in Armenian.  Occasionally we will throw in a little English.  We figure that if we don't say it correctly, the Lord knows our hearts. We typically work at least six days a week.  Sister Rich does a really good job of keeping up the laundry as she can.

We love our Mission, we love Armenia, the Armenian people and we really love Armenian food.  It is great being in the service of the Lord.  We know that our families are being watched over by the Lord and being blessed.  We are thankful for all of the prayers that our children and grandchildren are saying for us.  They really help.