Back to Armenia #6

Gratitude is such an important principle of life and the gospel. I wonder sometimes if we get experiences to make us more grateful for what we are blessed with. Case in point has been a problem I’ve been experiencing the last couple of weeks with my eyes. I’ve become really grateful for good eyesight especially since the floaters and flashers have decided to take up residence in my right eye. I’m also learning another principle…that of patience as I wait for things to improve.
We were able to attend our first baptism in Yerevan. We all gathered, that is, everyone except the one being baptized. I think he must have been on Armenian time, because he was about 30 minutes late. He’s an 18 year old who dances with the group preparing to go to the temple cultural celebration and a lot of his friends from the group were there to support him. He was so happy and the spirit there was strong, almost tangible.

We also enjoyed a great Zone conference with the South Zone. It was so wonderful to be able to see Elder Clark and Elder Pulsipher again. They were the elders we had worked with when we first came on our mission and lived down in Ararat. There were some changes in reporting: no more keeping track of convo’s (the goal had been 10 gospel conversations/day and because it is against the law to proselyte, a missionary might be more focused on the finding the conversation than teaching), but a greater emphasis is now on meetings with the most important key indicators of success being the number of investigators who attend sacrament meeting and the number of lessons taught to investigators with a member present. The biggest reason for this emphasis is that they have found that the higher these indicator numbers are, the greater the number of baptisms.

We observed something rather different the other day. We came down the elevator and noticed when we got off that someone had started a fire in one corner with what appeared to be plastic of some sort. The cobwebs that hang there and the walls were now all blackened…sort of like walking into a spook alley. We were glad when we came back several hours later, it had all been cleaned up, and no more cob webs…that is, I guess, until the spiders rebuild.

We were able to enjoy a dinner with some of the senior couples for Family Home Evening and checked out the one restaurant (called Corner Café…but not on the corner) where you can get steak. It was quite delicious, but a little on the expensive side (the two of us ate for about $30.00). When I think that we paid about the same price for a couple of hamburgers, fries and milk shakes, it doesn’t seem too bad. I think the statement that says, “you get what you pay for” is probably true.

We were participants recently in what was termed “Education Days”, sort of a take-off on BYU Education Week, except instead of 1,000 workshops, we had nine classes per session. We did workshops in Yerevan, Vanadzor and Gyumri. We probably averaged about 40 people the first couple of days, either listening or presenting. In Gyumri, the attendance wasn’t great and we think it really helped to have the PR the senior couple did in Vanadzor to boost attendance. The question was posed if the people were coming more for the refreshments at the end than anything else, but we’re hoping they came for the learning as well.

As we were traveling to Vanadzor, we passed through a town called Spitak. This town was 90% destroyed in the earthquake of 1988, and so all the buildings we saw were new since then. There is still of lot of evidence of the destruction that occurred. One brother, who was riding with us, said he had lost over 50 relatives in that quake. We know how hard it is to lose one loved one, let alone 50 times that.
I realize this posting is getting a little long and I apologize. I just didn’t seem to have time to post before we were off to another event.

We ended the week with the Institute opening social up at Lake Sevan on the 21st. It was another day-long activity and we were certainly glad to get to bed around midnight. I don’t think I’ve noticed as many achy places for a long time…but then 15 hour days mostly on the feet aren’t occurring all that often…thank heavens. We learned some things from this experience and we’ve survived and it’s amazing. The young adults decided that they would prepare the chicken barbecue in the Institute kitchen (and hopefully that will never happen again). They had chicken pieces all over, in different states of thaw and they decided they needed to use hot water to thaw them more quickly. In the middle of this preparation, they left for a couple of hours for dance rehearsal (not refrigerating the chicken).

The chicken in the meantime was thawing and we had chicken juices everywhere, in the cracks of the table, on the floor, etc.) They came back and cut up onions and greens and put the chicken pieces to marinate in every container they could find, as well as filling the fruit hydrator of the refrigerator. At least it was refrigerated, some 4 hours after they started.

The YSA’s cleaned the kitchen pretty well (at least it appeared that way until it had dried) When the chicken was taken out the next day to take to Sevan around 8:30 a.m., the inside of the refrigerator was now a little on the greasy, oniony smelling-side. We couldn’t do anything about it at the time, so it just had to wait until we got back. We did enjoy delicious barbecue around 5:30 p.m. and the chicken wasn’t refrigerated during the whole time…that’s why I say we survived or maybe our stomachs are getting used to the Armenian ways.

Besides eating a couple of meals, the YSA’s did a lot of dancing. Artur and Samvel provided the music (taking speakers and mixer from the Institute) and it was going the whole time. The mission president, President Carter and his wife, came and gave a short spiritual message about marriage (a topic of great interest and need here) and then taught some dances. We did the Hokie Pokie, the Chicken Dance and a little bit of the Virginia Reel. The group caught on pretty quickly. The dancers going to the Temple Dedication cultural event also performed their dance. Monday, we’re hoping to see their dress rehearsal. The costumes look great.

The YSA’s also managed to get registered for Institute, swim some and get a lot of sun. There were some a little on the “crispy” side including Elder Peterson who is very rosy today, maybe even red would be a better description. I also discovered that they have stinging nettle in Armenia, but effects are mostly gone.