The Church of the Savior on Blood designed in the Russian revival style commemorated the place where Alexander II of Russia was assassinated in 1881, he was mortally wounded by a terrorist bomb. It was erected in 1882-1907. Translations of the church’s name vary between guidebooks and include The Church of the Savior on Blood, The Resurrection Church, The Church of the Resurrection of Christ, Church of the Redeemer, Tserkov Spasa-na-Krovi. But I have only heard it called the Church on the Spilt Blood.

We went exploring the streets of Saint Petersburg today. This whole town is an architectural wonder. Peter the Great was the founder. It was built from a swamp by serfs (slaves) and Swedish prisoners of war.

December 28, 2008
It is cold today. The Neva River is frozen over. Here are some pictures of the river close to the mission office, one from across the street looking at the bridge and one from on top of the bridge looking down. I can't believe how fast it froze over from yesterday. We decide to take a new way home and after walking about two hours (at least 5 or 6 miles it felt like 500) we finally found a street that led to our street (Nevsky Prospekt). Tom wants you to all know that I dawdled and took lots of pictures while he froze,I want you to know he got us lost because he wouldn't go the way I said. Did you ever hear the reason why Moses wandered in the wilderness for forty years? They say it was because he wouldn't ask for directions. I say it was because he wouldn't listen to his wife!!!!

On Saturday, December 26, 2008, Tom got out his maps and decided we were going to get around the city so we rode to the end of the Green Line Metro then walked to the end of the Yellow Line Metro about 5 miles. We walked by some apartments on the other side of town and there was a huge rat probably 6 inches that ran in a hole under the huge steel door, I guess that rats aren't deterred by those huge doors. We crossed the Neva River and there were huge blocks of ice in. We then caught a bus that took us to the Mega Mal, the bus was so crowded we had to stand and were jammed up against the other passengers, my face was right in the fur on the coat of the lady next to me. The windows were so dirty we could not see out. Tom said he had been on some bad bus rides in his life when living in Mexico but this was the worst he had ever been on. I felt like one of those cows you see going down the freeway crammed into a semi-truck. Once we were on I thought "what are we doing they could be taking us anywhere and we would not know where we are at". But we made it to the mal and it was huge and very busy. Were we ever glad to get home. Here is a picture of the ice in the river. I tried to take a picture of the rat but he would not cooperate.

Merry Christmas everyone!! Hope you Christmas was wonderful! Ours was different to say the least we spent an hour traveling to an open house and an hour stuck in traffic in a bus so we decided to walk because the Elders were coming to eat with us in less than an hour and just a few minutes after we stepped off the bus it rounded the round-about and took off sailing down the street and there we were walking.But we walked fast and what would usually have taken us 30 minutes we skimmed down to 15 or 20. But we had a nice meal of tacos with the four young Elders in our district. Then we were able to talk to all of our kids over Skype and see them and Caleb in Guatemala over the phone (we couldn't see him) but using Skype (which is way cheaper than the regular phone). Christmas in St. Petersburg is celebrated on January 6 and some businesses and the government offices are closed from Jan. 1 to the 12, talk about an extended holiday. So it was a different experience to see everyone doing their daily jobs on Christmas. Well again hope you season was wonderful.
We love You!!!!

For the past two weeks we have rode bus #187 to the mission office, church etc. and on Sundays we go about 9 a.m. catch the bus and get there for Sacrament at 10 but today we waited until after 9:30 and no bus 187 ever came. It was snowing and cold and my feet felt like planks of wood. Finally we went back to the apartment got a Metro map and rode the Metro we were worried because we have never done it coming from this way and usually it takes us awhile to find the station once you get under ground however we did it pretty fast but by the time we got to the Church building we were 40 minutes late. When we got to the Church the building was locked like it always is but usually there is someone sitting on the couch so they push the button and let us in but today since we were late no one was there so we had to push the doorbell there were four of them and we didn't know which one to push. The Church has three floors plus the mission office is on the one side of the first floor and each has a button but we didn't know which button for which place so we just pushed all four buttons over and over again. While we were standing there Tom said "Whatever happened to the slogan-everyone welcome-come in-kneel down-pray". Finally the door unlocked. So we didn't get into Sacrament until 10:50, Church starts at 10:00, needless to say Church went very fast today. After Church we waited around for about an hour to get our water filters from the office couple then we walked the 20 minutes to the bus stop and got on bus 187 but it turned down some side roads and finally stopped and said "all off" (well I guess that is what he said because everyone got off so we did to) and the bus turned around and went back the way it had came. We were a long ways from our apartment so we had to walk another 30 minutes but I think that solved the mystery as to why there was no bus 187 this morning it doesn't come down our street anymore why not I have no clue. So we left for Church at 9 a.m. and didn't get home until between 3 and 3:30 p.m. Just another typical day in Russia!!!

We go shopping for groceries about once a week. We take a little cart called a "Babuska cart" (babuska means grandmother in Russian). Notice my nice warm hat it was knitted by my friend Maureen Gordon, boy has it been a lifesaver. We either walk about 1 1/2 miles(one way) or ride the Metro (subway) 9 stations (one way)to get our groceries. Groceries are expensive, especially if they are imported, a bottle of Tabasco sauce costs about 274 rubles or almost $10.00.

Our apartment is just off the main street of St. Petersburg, Nevsky Prospekt, which is very busy with people walking, cars and buses driving all the time. We live just a little ways off it on a walkway called Malaya Sadovaya. To get to our apartment you have to go thru a locked gate which you unlock with a "black" magnet key, thru a little tunnel, then into a courtyard with several apartments and a few businesses. We even have a tatoo parlor in our complex. To get into our building you go thru two doors which you have to unlocked with a "gray" magnet key, similar to the one that you open the gate with. We live on the third floor behind a front door made of steel which has to be opened with two locks using two different keys. We then have another steel door but we have no key for that lock so we just lock in when we are inside. All of this for two people who have homeless men living in their house because they never lock anything in Wapello. If anyone ever came to see us they would ring a doorbell out by the gate and it would open the gate. Then when they got to our building they would punch in our apartment number on a keypad and it would ring a phone by our front door and we can talk to them (that is if we could understand them which we can't) then we would push a little button on the phone and it would open those doors then when they got to our door they would ring a doorbell and we would look out the little peephole and see them, but we have no light in our hall so we can't see anything out there. So I guess it is a good thing we have no visitors but if any of you come to visit we will be sure to open our door (that is if you speak English). Taped on our front door is a paper with Russian written on it and if anyone ever knocks on our door and says they are the police we are supposed to say what ever it says on the paper. But since I can't read it or say it, I am just going to hide, behind those two big steel doors.

First Post!!

We made it to Russia and are doing great! Here's an update:

At last we have internet service in our home office. We have been having to travel to the mission office to do it, which takes an hour each way. We have also had limited access time there.

We have not seen the sun for two weeks. It gets light around 9:00 and dark at 3:00. They say that in summer it is just the reverse so we will have to close the blinds to sleep. I'll let you know of that when the time comes. I am starting to understand why the alcoholism rate in Russia is so astonishing. It has been overcast all of the time. Two storms, which melted off soon.

The people here are very interesting. There are many tall, blonde, thin people. Andrei Kirelenko would look very typical here. All of the women wear tight pants and tall, spike heel boots, and go by the name of Natasha. Everyone here walks a lot because that is necessary to get around. The women in the spike boots can really cover a lot of ground. We are getting our fair share of exercise too. I'm glad that we did all of that walking before our mission now.

We know how to catch one bus line, ride the metro, and shop for groceries.

Our supervisors, the Irelands, were here last week to go over our proceedures. They are from a little farming community is Southwestern South Dakota. Joe Cannon has been to there home many times, because that is where the branch resides. We can now start to meet with people and review grant applications. We will meet with the mission presidency on Thursday evening at 6:00.

We have now attended church twice and several mission meetings. The missionaries are great to interpret for us. There are several native speaking missionaries that have excellent english skills. There are also a lot of returned missionaries here in St. Petersburg. Most of them have excellent english skills as well. In a church setting we are able to communicate 0K.

The price of food is about double what it would be at home. We spend about $200 per week for groceries. Eating in restaurants, of which there are many in our neighborhood in the heart of St. Petersburg, is totally off the budget. A hamburger and fries costs $10. Potatoes are good and cheap. I like to nuke them and fry up an egg to go with it. I found a source for picante suace, so happiness reigns here. They also have what is called an Armenian tortilla. It's about 2 feet by 4 feet. We cut them up into useable sizes with a pair of scissors. Of course they are made from wheat, so I'll have to wait to get a good corn tortilla. We were just happy to find a store with peanut butter. Transportation is much cheaper than operating vehicles at home. All of the walking should make us live to be a hundred if we don't get run over. Our needs are small. For Christmas I will get a scarf for Pat and she will buy me a hat. These are bonefide needs in this part of the world.

This city, at least the part where we live, is phenomenal. The original city was built by Peter the Great. The palace of Catherine the Great, his grandaughter, is right across the street from where we live. I have never seen so many huge buildings with ornate facades, and statues on them. Most of the buildings are between 5 and 7 stories. The main level is commercial and the other levels are apartments. I have not seen any single family dwellings yet, except for Catherines Palace. There are around 5 million people in St. Petersburg, most of them are trying to get on the metro at the same time as us. We will try to get some pictures loaded up to send out. This area is crisscrossed with canals that tie from one point on the river to another. Lots of beautiful parks, monuments, and cathedrals as well. I have really never seen anything like it before and in such a huge abundance.

The members of the church seem to be very well educated. They are friendly. Each member is a valued asset, there have been around 60 convert baptisms this year. Last Sunday was the primary program. There were only 6 children in the program. They were beautiful. The church owns the building which houses the office and the mission home. There is large chapel and recreation hall, classrooms, and offices as well. It would be of a similar footage to the Wapello building. It uses up 3 floors. All is very new and modern.

The missionary situation here is getting very difficult. There were 136 missionaries here a year ago. There were 68 when we arrived. Since then 6 have completed their missions and returned home, and 3 who were serving local missions have now been called away to full time service elsewhere in Russia. I think that this conversation about us being available to serve in another country boils down to desperation here. They will close three more apartments this week. There are several native missionaries here. The visa trip is to Estonia. It takes a long day over and back. They take a van full, go to a parking lot there, give their money and papers to a man, putter around town for 6 to 8 hours, meet him back at the parking lot for their new docs, and drive home. It takes about 18 hours.

We are finally getting over the 10 hour jet lag. We have had to completely reverse our day. All of the loafing has given me plenty of time to read. I have finished 1000 pages of War and Peace, which is about 1500 pages.

I expect to be able to start to function now that we can commucicate some. So we will now see what kind of trouble we can get into.

We pray for each of you and carry you with us in our hearts.

Love,

Tom and Pat