Last Saturday we had a YW activity on serving with love with 2 leaders and 2 faithful girls.
Monday we visited the Gantsev family who live in a small village way out in the country. Last week their community had a celebration and awarded them this nice certificate for being such an exemplary family.
The Gantsev family has 4 girls and the 3 older ones who the mom teaches seminary and institute to at home, were in the city attending school and university. The younger daughter did not want to be seen, but kept trying to get our attention and then duck down to not be seen. When we left she had drawn this picture which says "our garden". 
Looks like Elder Beckwith is worn out! (in the marshrutka on long ride back into town).
On Tuesday night we left for Астрахан with Elders Wesemann and Ness. It is a 10 hr. overnight train ride. There are 5 members in Астрахан and the mission president wants them visited every few months. There was a drunk guy in the next coupe who wanted to talk and talk. He was not loud or mean, just annoying. He called his buddies over to meet the Americans and his one buddy said he had a gift for us. The gift was 3 packets of cigarettes! The elders refused and the man said that when a Russian gives you a gift you do not refuse. He finally threw them onto the bunk and this is where one landed. Elder Wesemann....what is that sitting on top of your Bible?
When our train got to Астрахан the next morning, we could have bought dried fish, but we resisted!
It was great to meet with the members. The elders conducted interviews with the 2 new members and then taught the non-member and also taught the members. Our task was to stay awake long enough to testify at the right time. Elder Ness in back, Sharon (baptized last month, a university student from Nigeria), Nastia (non-member, Larissa's daughter), Flash (Sharon's boyfriend and also baptized last month), John, Joyce, Larrisa and Elder Wesemann, in front.The Pringles container was how I transported cookies and the flower painting at far right was painted by Larissa and given to me. Her walls are covered with her artwork.
Later, Galina, the other member, came over. I gave them purses and scripture carriers that Sister Nechiporova had had made for them. They were thrilled! I also have a set, but didn't bring. But they liked this bag I got in Turkey and wanted it in the picture, also.
We took a couple of hours and did some sightseeing and found an internet cafe so the elders could write home. This is a food kiosk. The cannons are trash cans. We were amazed at how nice the downtown area of Астрахан is. It is has more of a European look than a Russian look. If you look on the map it is east and south of Volgograd, very near Kazakhstan. There is a large muslim population in this city.
The two temples we took pictures of are Russian Orthodox.
We waited for a marshrutka on this unique corner. One street in translated Communist Street and the other is Soviet Militia St.
You can see the silhouette of the priest who is pulling the cords on the bells to play a beautiful tune.
The temple that was next to the bells.
People buying and selling along the river in Астрахан . 
If you look at this picture closely, you will see they sell Muslim attire for women. But the woman who is dressed in Muslim attire at the right of the picture is not looking at those clothes, she is looking at baseball caps!
You could find just the right hair poofs for the last day of school! 
7 members of a gypsy family were on one of the marshrutkas we rode on in Астрахан . These are 3 sisters, who were wanting to talk with us and try out the English they knew ( Hello, lemon, good-bye and I love you). Meanwhile the mother was trying to hit up the Elders for money. They pretended they didn't speak Russian. We didn't have to pretend!
We sat in this new and beautifully manicured park for over an hour while the elders were writing home at the internet cafe. We loved watching all the interesting people walking by. We felt like we were somewhere besides Russia. They have lovely parks in Russia, but they are not usually this clean and perfect.
An interesting top of a building we saw while sitting in the park. Must be some kind of gym or athletic building. The carvings below the metal are of athletes participating in various sports.
This is the last place we visited before going to the train station. First Subway sandwich in 15 months for John and me. Yummy! 
