Belarussian Christmas Party

The best part of a Christmas Party is the children!!

Elder Minikof, Sergei V., and Lena put on a cute play.

A visit from the Snow Queen and Father Frost.

The girls put on their Christmas dresses and....

they walk around the Christmas Tree. Some Traditions are the same no matter what part of the world you are living in!!

FHE Christmas Party

For FHE we exchanged gifts. I received a CD with the music of Sergei Rachmaninov and Max received a wall plaque of Belrus.

Lena made all the missionaries some very cute Christmas cards.

Christmas Tea

The Adult English Club invited us to their annual Christmas tea...

with lots of good food. I took some banana nut bread they said was "vakoosna" (tasty).

Julia, the teacher, speaks German, English, and Russian. She taught German in school as a profession. She is such a fun lady and made us feel so special.

Then we attended the dance performance of one of the students (the lady on the far left).

This group was asked to perform at the India Embassy.

Sofia Staff Christmas Party

Sergei, Olga, Deanna, Max, Natasha, Lena, and Eugene. A great group to work with!!


Lots of good food. Max did the meat and cheese platters. I didn't realize he was so artistic!

Olga prepared the best chocolate cake dessert. It was delicious.

They gave us a linen tablecloth with a runner and six napkins. Belarus is famous for it's linen table cloths. They also gave us some Christmas ornaments made out of straw which is also a traditional art in Belarus. It was a great evening.

Merry Christmas!!

Our little Christmas Tree...


with postal packages from home and England.

This is a tradition gifts from England that Gary and Laleene sent.

Inside is a joke and a.....

small gift. What a fun tradition!!

Cooking Lesson

Olga Zubovich came to our apartment to teach me this Belarussian dish. It was delicious and I want to try it on our family when we get home.

Olga, Joseph, and Sergie Zubovich all bundled up ready to go out in the cold.

Sunday our dinner guests were Victor Kudin and

Elder Millett. Elder Millett returned to Minsk for a few days to do some member research for President Woolley. It was good to see him again.

First Edition Book of Mormon

President and Sister Woolley presented a fireside to the branches about the Book of Mormon. He brought his copy of the first edition and let the members look at it.

Vitaly Solodky

The Zubovich Family

Lena Liudvikovskaya

Kostya and Tatyana Lokhanov

There were many members that were able to look at the book--these are just a few I took pictures of.

Group Activities

This past week we visited an English Class for adults. They were so friendly and excited to have us visit. They asked questions about our family and we asked about theirs. (As you can see they all looked at our family book.)


For FHE we had everyone over to our apartmen to make Christmas Cards.

It was a fun activity with a fun group of young people.

Road Trip to Grodno

We closed two projects the the Grodno Region this past week. The Dobrovolsky Boarding House for Adults and Handicapped is located inside the National Park of Belarus. This is the sign to the entrance of the National Park.

It felt like we were driving in West Yellowstone or Island Park.

After checking the equipment donated by the church (8 kilo washer, gas stove, and electric meat grinder) they treated us to "herbal tea" and cake which turned out to be a full meal. They served mashed potatoes, homemade sausage, open faced sandwiches (which is the way they eat their sandwiches here), home made jam, fruit, cookies, and herbal tea from the herbs found in the director's yard. Max liked the tea, but it wasn't my favorite.

Everyone has a beautiful tea set. The Department Chair, when we told her we didn't drink tea, commented, "Well what do you do when you go visit people."

Eating Again???

Seems like a lot of our activities involve eating. This past week we had an inactive family over for dinner. Sadly the mother and father could not come at the last minute, but we enjoyed visiting with Kira (18) and Maxim (15) Zatrutina.

The sisters have really been working hard to get some of the less activies involved in some of the church activities. Kira comes to English Club and speak english well enough we could have a good conversation with her.

Natasha, Sofia's accountant, had a birthday last week and as is the custom in Belarus she brought a birthday cake to share with the staff.

We gave her a scarf which she commented was just her color. She is very nice, efficient, speaks very little english, but understands quite a bit, isn't a member of the church, and a great assest to the office staff. She keeps all of us informed as to the laws of the country and how it effects our humanitarian work in the country.

Galina, Deanna, Natasha, Lena, and Sergie. Max is taking the picture and Eugene was at a health fair--which is sad since he really loves to eat cake.

FHE with the Zubovich Family

We had dinner and FHE with the Zubovich Family. Valya, Olga, Sergie, and Dasha. Joseph was taking a nap but....

not for long.

He was watching a cartoon movie on the computer and laughing so cute he had all of us laughing.

We were pretty excited because he won't let us hold him in church.