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!!!!