Folk Festival

The Holmes from Moscow were visiting this week so Friday night we took them to a folk dance performance. It was held at the Philarmonic Concert Hall, another impressive building. We had seats in the balcony but there were empty seats on the main floor so they moved us there--on about the 6th row. This team was very talented and we really enjoyed the show.




They played the bag pipes, drums, accordion, violin...

had cute costumes and fun expressions...

and of course danced and sang!!!

Grodna Region Road Trip

My road trip pictures are even more challenging with the rain!!


Sergie stopped to let us take this pictures.

Major form of transportation in the villages.

We still see Lenin every where we go. It was funny in one town his statue was pointing directly at a church--like he was saying, "go to church" when his policy was the exact opposite. I wondered what that church was used for during Soviet times.

FHE Fun

This is the game they play by making "a sign" and then passing it around until the one in the middle catches you accepting or passing your sign.

It was also Lena and Olya's birthday.

It was Sister Chetina and Elder Trasdale's last FHE. They were being transferred to cities in Russia. We will miss both of them.

Guess whos coming to dinner?

Our very fancy table. It's Max's job to set the table. He does a great job!!

Elder Trasdale, Tonya Korolyenya, Elder Putnam, Danik Gorshkov

The Gorshkov family..Olga, Danik, and Sergei. He is a counselor in the district presidency.

Official Duty

We are meeting with some of the officials that work in the social programs of Belarus. Each time we mention the name of the church--hopefully we are laying ground work for the future growth of the church.

They have requested at this boarding house a new commercial sewing machine. They mend over 400 articles of clothes a month, so I really think they need it. But isn't that a cool sewing machine. Reminded me of the one Mom had.

Animal Sightings

I've had so much fun visiting Rodney's blog and seeing his animal of the day I thought I would share some animals we saw this week.

We saw a corral full of horses. This is the first time we've seen more than one or two horses together. We were curious what they were used for.

Sergei knew Max liked horses so he even stopped so we could take a photo that wasn't "from a moving van."

Behind those twigs....

are homing pigeons. We didn't actually see the pigeons, but I thought their house was neat looking. I would fly home to that if I was a bird. These Belorussians love color!

Odds and Ends

Some fun sights on our road trips.

Two out houses faces each other. Max said, "that's so you can sit and visit."

One of the more artistic designs.

Interesting pully system to get water from your well.

Those "clumps" in the tree are mistletoe.

One of the residents of the Retirement Home we visit that house over 300 people. We saw several in wheel chairs donated from the church.