Armenia Week Four

November 15-16, 2009
Hard to believe that another week has gone by and can’t figure out where the time went. I tried to make a deep dish apple pie and found that I could do it with some help from the elders who had a little nutmeg. One of the ingredients I needed was Crisco. Well, the Elder thought that a product called Reddy was similar and would work. It was sort of a shock when I opened the container and found a product that was very yellow in color and in a semi-solid state. It did work, however. Rolling out the dough was a little more complicated, mainly because the kitchen isn’t stocked with a lot of things. I had to use the counter top, sprinkled a little flour on it, and rolled out the dough. My rolling pin was a bottle of vinegar. I may try and get a little more equipment if I make the recipe again. It turned out pretty tasty and all eaters seemed to enjoy it.
Another thing we observed this week was what occurs when someone dies. Someone in our apartment building passed away. The missionaries mentioned this to us and I asked how they knew. Apparently, when someone dies, the top cover of the casket is placed outside the entrance to the building. People come to call and lots of flower arrangements, mostly on stands, appear at the entrance and in the stairwell of the building. The door to the dwelling of the deceased is open and a long wooden bench is put by the door for visitors to sit on while they wait to pay their respects and condolences. There were also lots of cars and people milling around outside in front of the building…mostly men. I don’t recall seeing any women. This may go on for a week or longer. I noticed that when our taxi driver brought us home on Sunday evening, that he didn’t pull up to the door but let us off a ways away so he would disturb those paying their respects.
We also had the experience driving to visit some members (Albert, Tovinar and their son) who live on the border with Azerbaijan. I would like to do that sometime in the daylight. We could still see all the fish ponds on the side of the road with their fish nets at ready for any customer who came along wanting to buy a fish. The elders told us to wear our coats, and we were glad we did. Even though it wasn’t that cold outside, inside with cement floor, ceiling and walls, it was quite chilly. They don’t have much but did manage to cut up an apple which she offered to us. We felt encouraged that they might all come to church next week. Elder Pulsipher offered some comments regarding repentance using a Rubix (sp) cube (help me out here, someone?). If you start with a completed cube and make one twist, getting back to the beginning isn’t too hard, it’s even easy. But if you make several turns (i.e. not doing what is right), it’s a lot more work to get back to where you started. So, if you make a mistake or do something wrong, quickly repent and get back to good ways. It’s a lot easier than doing several things wrong and then trying to repent and get back to the correct way of life.