Back to Armenia #2

Back to Armenia #2
This week has been interesting as we’ve been in the moving mode. We didn’t know we’d be leaving Ararat so quickly, but had to work with schedules of others, so on Wednesday, we departed Ararat for Yerevan. We took our last look at Mt. Ararat from our balcony and we were afraid that would be the last possibility for seeing that great mountain every day it’s visible…but would you believe, from the balcony of our 7th floor apartment in the center of Yerevan, we can still see Mt. Ararat.
We are living in a large apartment complex, but this time we do have an elevator (when it’s working) and it’s much appreciated. I do have to say this about the elevator…it holds whatever smells come along so it can be pretty rank, but we hold our noses for the convenience. We also have some air conditioning in our apartment which is great for the hot days we seem to be experiencing. We’ve taken some pictures which we hope show you what the apartment looks like. The location is great as we are about a five minute walk from the Institute, a 30 second walk to a yummy bakery and about 30 seconds to a little stand that sells fresh fruits and vegetables. The closest market is also about a 5 minute walk, so we’re going to have to get our exercise by morning walks.

During the past week, we were able to attend a Young Men/Young Women conference up in the mountains, similar to the Young Adult conference of the previous week. We traveled there with the new mission president and his wife, President and Sister Carter. They both spoke and Sister Carter even bore her testimony in Armenian which brought a standing ovation and the youth leaders trying to tell them it wasn’t appropriate. It was nice to be with the youth and watch them perform skits that only 14-18 year olds can do. The highlight was having a group perform the dance that they will be doing at the Kiev Temple dedication activities in August. It was electrifying. They were full of such energy and pride to be doing the dance.
As I mentioned, this was also the week for the changing of the guard so to speak. President Dunn returned home and President Carter arrived to begin his 3 year stint as Mission President. We will be getting more new couples in the office, humanitarian and elsewhere. The senior of the senior couples is now one that came out in October with us. Hopefully, we’ll soon be doing regular get togethers for family home evenings and other activities.

We had our first class with the young adults of the institute and decided it would be good to get acquainted and learn a little more about them and them, about us. We also taught them “Aunt Virginia’s game” and enjoyed a freshly baked apricot (got to take advantage of the world famous Armenian apricots) cobbler ala mode. We will be doing a class weekly on marriage for this group or an activity…but I don’t think I’ll be baking cobblers every time.