This is the Monument at the Armenia Genocide Museum and the "eternal flame of remembrance".

This is the building next to our hotel in Armenia notice the laundry hanging on the balcony. One year when our family was on a trip to Mexico we hung our laundry on the balcony and the hotel called and told us they didn't do that there. So I guess our family would fit right in with the Armenians.

This is the "Cascade Monument". It was built in remembrance of the independence of Armenia from Soviet rule (communism). It is said to have 800 steps to the top, I started counting them but kept forgetting my count so I will just believe what they say.

These are some of the women in our English Club, the one on the left is working in a laboratory and studying Nemotodes (did I spell that right Dean?). It is wonderful how we do not even speak each others language (they speak a little English and I can say about six words in Russian) but have formed an instant bond of friendship.

Does anyone know what the WC stands for on the top of this cute building? It is a "Water Closet" or bathroom in our language. They have these all over the city but this is the fanciest I have seen. They told me some you have to pay to use it but I have never had the nerve to check it out.

Here is our zone in the Saint Petersburg Mission.

On Wednesday Feb. 4 we had to leave Russia in order to get our visas renewed. We traveled to Tallin, Astonia. We left at 3:30 a.m. and rode in a van, the first time we have been in a car since we got here. We went through two border patrols going there and it was dark,cold and scary. None of the border patrol looked like the slinky blonds you see on the James Bonds movies. Luckily our driver had done this many times before, he was a member of the Church and spoke very little English: "passport, cold and it's okay" were about all he could say. We were only in Tallin for a little over two hours. It was a nice clean town and the people in the store we went into were very nice and spoke some English. On our return we were on a bridge between the two countries, Estonia and Russia and we were awed by the fortress on each side of the Narva River. The fortress was built when Sweden occupied Estonia many years ago. We were home by 7 p.m. Whatever happened to the visa trips we heard about for 10 days in Spain?