From Russia With Love...

a.k.a. Letters from Sis. Lynes in Russia

Letter #67: From the Mission Field in Russia

Subject: #67
Date: Sat, 06 Jul 2002 16:46:15 +0600
From: Shirley Lynes <gma@jacklynes.com>
To: jlynes@jacklynes.com

    Hello from HOT Russia!! I'm definitely not in Siberia anymore!! Yesterday it was really hot, but today is a little better. It's still hot, though. There isn't much air conditioning here. (None that I've seen yet!) They would get to use it so little that it just doesn't pay to put it in. One of the men in my class last Saturday told me that it is sometimes cold in July here! It doesn't show any sign of that so far!! It was hot enough last night to make it very difficult to sleep. From one extreme to another! We met our new mission president and his wife yesterday. They just got into the country Monday. They don't seem to be suffering from jet lag. I really suffered with it when I came into the country. He had interviews with some of the missionaries yesterday afternoon, and finished up the rest today. We had zone conference this morning. President and Sister Gee (Ghee?) are really nice people, and are excited to be here. I know the mission is in good hands. Sis. Burlena and I went down to the reenock to do a little shopping. I like to just go look! It is really different from any shopping we ever do at home, unless you count the yard sales! They have little tents set up, one right next to the next one, as little shops. This is the way most of the people buy their groceries. Maybe one shop will have cookies, another shop will have candy, one will have pastas, one with staples like flour, sugar, etc., one will have soap and things like that. You get the idea. It's funny, but salt seems to be difficult to find. It's really cheap when you do find it. Maybe they don't make enough money on it to take up their little bit of room with it. The one thing that we haven't been able to find here that we used to get in Kurgan is Uncle Ben's sauces. Yes, that Uncle Ben. In Kurgan you could get good spaghetti sauce, and a sweet and sour sauce that is wonderful on rice. We haven't found any yet. Maybe if we look in some real stores, we could find some! We're doing fine, for only two weeks in town! There is another reenock about a block from here. We were over there last Saturday morning before they were ready for business, so we didn't get to see much. I'm not really in the market for anything, except food, and I'm particular what kind of food. One day I saw a two piece dress that I might have been able to wear, but of course there is no place to try things on, so I didn't buy it. I started "teaching" the advanced class last week. So far, that's the only thing I have come up with to do. I think I am going to try to get the missionaries to start a family home evening program for the people who don't have families to hold FHE with. Already the missionaries are divided into six "teams", for the service and teaching at the branch anyway. The way I see it, whoever has service on Monday afternoons could be in charge of FHE. The service rotates so that they only have Monday service once in six weeks. They would only have to do it when they are already scheduled to be at the building anyway. It wouldn't take that much time away from their regular teaching time. In Kurgan, often times, we had many more non-members at FHE than members, so it is still a good place for them to be! I really can't conduct that meeting, since I don't speak Russian. It would strengthen the members, and be a good activity to invite investigators to. I think that would work. I don't know the young people well enough yet to know if having them teach English at night is a good thing. Maybe before I leave I will be able to get that going. When I interviewed with President Gee yesterday, he suggested that Sis. Burlena and I visit the less active sisters in the branch, and if there aren't enough of them to keep us busy, to work with the other branches too. I reminded him that all I can do is sit there and smile, and Sis. Burlena will have to do all the talking. He says that the people will feel the love we have for them and help them to remember how they felt when they first found the church. I haven't talked to Sis. Burlena about it yet. President Gee said yesterday that he would talk to her about it. I know she interviewed with him today, but she hasn't said what he talked to her about. So far, she hasn't done any work of any kind since we got here. I don't think the Lord sent us to Ufa for a three month vacation. I'm anxious to be doing something more than just working one hour a day. I've been getting a lot of reading and scripture studying done, but that doesn't help anyone but me. One day at the end of class, right at 6 pm, someone asked me just what makes our church different from the other classical churches. I really didn't have time to get into detail. I just told them that we believe in modern-day revelation; that we don't believe that Heavenly Father said everything He would ever want to say back all those centuries ago; that He still cares about us and still talks to us. And that we have a prophet as the president of our church, and that Jesus Christ is the Head. That this is His church, and He runs it! The people in class aren't used to just talking. I think the young missionaries were doing all the talking. That's not my way of running this class. It's supposed to be a conversational class. I told them that, and that I don't lecture, and I don't want to do a monologue either! They have trouble even thinking of any questions to ask. Except for that one! They need to get into the mode of actually talking, about anything that comes into their minds. I find in these classes, that I really don't know much!! I can talk about children, raising children, problems with children, anything to do with children! They sometimes ask me what I did, what was I trained for. I just tell them I'm a mother! A stay-at-home, take-care-of-the-family-mother! They really can't relate to that! I have an English teacher (lady), and a physical education teacher (man) in the class. The English teacher speaks with a British accent! That's the way they are taught to speak English, but most of them want to speak like Americans. I can let them listen to me and learn how to speak Southern English! How did you spend the holiday? Cookouts and swimming???? It was just another day here. Work as usual. I haven't seen anything unusual to tell you about this week. The days have already started to get a little shorter. I was up at five this morning (we needed to be ready to leave the apartment by seven, but I was having trouble sleeping anyway) and the sun wasn't up. I watched the sunrise. It was beautiful. And I could tell last night that the days are starting to get shorter, because it was starting to get dark just after eleven pm. A week or so ago it was still broad daylight at 11 pm. Time just keeps moving on. Life is what happens to you while you are planning other things. In a little less than three months I will be home, and then all this time in Russia will feel like a dream. Right now, life at home feels like a dream! I'm grateful for the time I've had in Russia. I never would have thought that I would be here. I pray I have done and am doing what Heavenly Father sent me here to do. I finished the little book I was talking about last week, and now I'm reading in "Jesus The Christ". There is so much to learn! And to understand!! I hope everything is going well for all of you. Kids, enjoy the summer! Mommas, enjoy the kids! You too, daddies! Your little children grow up so quickly! My momma said one time that when she wasn't looking, someone took all her little children away and left her a bunch of old people!! What would she say if she could see us now?! I don't have any words of wisdom to preach to you today. Aren't you glad!!! It's just too hot to think! But if we don't live right, just think how hot it could be somewhere else!! Keep on trying to do good. The Lord loves you, and so do I! Till next week!

Love,
Mom, Grandma, Great Grandma, Sis. Lynes, Shirley, sister, aunt, cousin, friend, acquaintance, email pal, babushka with no air conditioning!!! (Choose one!)