Remodelling

Well, it’s been a week plus a day since we arrived in Armenia. This week has brought more experiences and more change. We made several trips to Armenia as well as spending a lot of time waiting on and helping with arrangements to replace the kitchen cabinets. We were glad to see the old, moldy ones gone and the landlord’s daughter hauled them off to be used in another apartment; they did leave the old sink which is locked in a spare room where the landlord stores things he’s not yet decided what to do with.

After the cupboards came out, we decided we’d better replace the old, rotting linoleum, so out it came, too. Ara and Jora (georgie porgie) did most of the demolition. Ara is a branch president up north and Jora does a lot of work for the Mission office. At any rate it took the better part of two days and the pair spent one night as well as they had worked late into the night. We were supposed to go to some meetings in Yerevan, but had to miss to keep track of things in Ararat.

Saturday, we did go to the Institute/ Center for some meetings. A Sister Diane Lee came from the US to speak about family and relationships; how to make them better and how to do things together that will help. Around 100 members were in the meeting, but the number dwindled as the day went on. Apparently, Armenians aren’t used to sitting for that long.

It was Elder Dutson’s (office elder) birthday so we were invited to go with him and his wife to dinner. It was our first experience with Chinese food in Yerevan and it was okay, but not quite the same as the Chinese restaurants we experience back in the States. The company was nice, however, and we managed to do a little more shopping before getting on board for the long taxi ride to Ararat.

Today, Rog was sustained as 2nd counselor in the Ararat Branch, so that will be interesting. The language is a challenge and we are going to start 2-3 times a week with language training with our elders, Elder Clark and Elder Pulsipher. We’re also going to do some weekly correlation with them as both of us will need to meet with all the members of the ward to get a feel for what is going on and where we can help. I’ve been called to be the Relief Society President and I’m sure that will need greater language proficiency than I now have. There is one sister (one of my counselors) who knows some English which will be a great help.