Christmas, Vitaly and Anna’s Wedding

Posted By burtons on January 13, 2010

Dear Family,
We have had a wonderful week, but one that was very different from other years.  This year I had no last minute shopping to do and no last minute wrapping.  Well, not very much at least.  I didn’t get all the missionaries socks wrapped, so had to quickly do those before they left our apartment, last Tuesday.  A good thing I did was memorize Luke 2:1,3-12.  The sad thing was I was supposed to get all the way to verse 19.  I guess I still have a little time to work on it.
The Lord has really been blessing this area lately.  We had 30 baptisms in 2009.  I know that doesn’t seem like a lot, but its more than before, I understand.  But what we can really see is a difference in the number of lessons the missionaries are teaching.  That has gone up a lot from when we first got here.  These missionaries are getting some wonderful training here.  Our area Presidency is really inspired and is sharing great gospel principles.  Because there are so few stakes and districts here, the authorities get out a lot and this really strengthens our branches and our missionaries.  We were in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, for a Zone conference and Pres Schweitzer taught the missionaries to testify of the truthfulness of their message with each contact.  He told them not to wait to testify until they are teaching a lesson, but be bold in testifying at every opportunity.
Thursday, Dec. 24, we spent the day with all the other missionaries in the mission.  One good thing about having a small area in your mission is that we can all get together at the same place for some wonderful activities.  The young missionaries came at 9:30 in the morning to set up the church and to practice for the program. At 11:30 we seniors showed up and the activity/party officially began.  After the opening song and prayer games were played, snacks were provided, visiting went on.  (I don’t know what games were played as I was one of the boring people who just visited.)  At 1:00 the President played the movie “A Wonderful Life” which even some of the old missionaries hadn’t seen and none of the young ones.  It had Russian subtitles so our Russian missionaries could enjoy it.  Most of the Missionaries liked it.  We then had some musical numbers and then we ate. Sister Cranney had meatballs with a variety of sauces to pour over them, steak fries, fruit and vegetable trays, chips and salsa and bean dip.  and Juice and water.  After we ate, each of our districts presented a skit.  They were hilarious.  Our district sang the 12 days of Christmas but of course changed the words to make it about missionary experiences.  One district sang a traditional Russian song about a Christmas tree in the forest and hammed it up especially when the tree got cut down.  One of my favorites was a skit done in silhouette about two unborn babies talking to each other and wondering if there was life after birth.  One thought there would be, but the other one couldn’t imagine seeing with his/her eyes or eating with his/her own mouth.  I am going to try to get transcripts of some of them.  They were great.  One of the districts did one with a spiritual message about giving at this Christmas time.  One thing I am learning is that the church is going to be in great hands, as we get older.  These young people are men and women of strength and testimony.  Pres Cranney gives each of them leadership experiences.  I think all the young men will be district and Zone leaders before they leave.  He is turning all of them into leaders.  Or maybe it is that we get the best of the best here in Russia.  I doubt it though.  The youth of the church are the most valiant who have come to earth so far, at least as a group.
At the end of the day, pres. Cranney showed a video that he had helped write and produce.  I would like to share what it was about.
It was about Mary and Joseph, that period of time after their betrothal and before their marriage.  It started with Mary’s return from visiting Elizabeth. She had just received news of John’s birth and the knowledge that Zacharias had regained his speech when he followed the instructions of the angel.  She invited Joseph over to tell him about Zacharias to see if he could believe that angels still spoke to men.  She also needed to tell him about the angel that had visited her and see what his feelings would be.  She first told him of the birth of John and about Zachariahs visit from the angel and asked Joseph if he believed about the angel that had visited Zacharias.  Joseph said he did believe.  Then with courage, which his belief gave her, she told him of the angel that had visited her and about the coming of the Messiah, finally conveying to him very subtly that the Messiah was on the way.  Of course, Joseph was confused and disappointed, and in despair when he left her.  He then was visited by an angel to help quiet his doubts and concerns.  He returns to Mary to let her know of his acceptance of his call to raise the Messiah and teach him the ways of a good man of the earth. (The actress did a great job of portraying Mary’s joy, trepidation, fear and joy again. The actor did a great job of showing his love for Mary, his mental and spiritual anguish and his acceptance of his role; he did not portray Joseph as ecstatic.  Maybe that would come later.) I don’t think I saw the actors touch each other once in the presentation.  I noted it.  One line that Joseph said at the beginning of the movie that he was not sure he should see her before the wedding.  Jewish customs were very different at that time of arranged marriages. It was a powerful experience to see how these two very human, but very good people accepted the great calls that were given to each of them.  I think it also showed that each one was willing to do the Lord’s will and that were each able to support the other.  Many great lessons taught in a very short video.
Yesterday, DeVere and I went to a reception of a young couple we have met here.  Young people, especially young men here, are as reluctant to get married as many of our young men at home.  But at last we got 2 of our young single adults married.  (The groom is 34 so is past YSA age by USA standards, but that is not uncommon over here…  different culture)
In Russia you must be married by the state.  So the young couple went to the government offices to get married.  We got to see the video of the ceremony.  Because during Soviet times it was illegal to get married in a church, the government had made an attempt to make the government office very nice.  The room was large and spacious and well lit.  The groom had paid for a stringed orchestra to play as they walked into the room.  They came about half way into the room and then stopped.  The official asked two short questions to which the answered yes. Then they sat at his desk and signed their names about 4 times each.  The marriage certificate was in a nice leather looking folder.  Then they went to another part of the room and had an exchange of rings and that was it.  I am not sure if they were married on Saturday or if that ceremony took place earlier in the week.  I’ll ask them when they get back from the temple.  Here in Russia and in other country’s where couples must be married civilly before they are married in a church,  couples may go to the temple within 30 days of their civil ceremony and get sealed in the temple,.  They don’t have to wait a year for obvious reasons.
The reception was help at our church.  They had a theme of creating a new family for eternity is space.  The chairs had white slipcovers over them and numbers on the first chair as if we were going on an airplane or space shuttle.  When the bride and groom arrived, we all stood and clapped for them.  They had a young lady for the emcee and she announced different activities as if she we a flight attendant.  Of course, we understood nothing, but as a colleague from work was there who went on a mission to New York, we got to know a little of what was going on.  Anna and Vitaly had played foosball each time they came to young single adults and the foosball table was in the room and they played a game.  They also played a game where you had to tie a group of people together with ribbon.  I couldn’t get the gist of that game.  Then different people came and made speeches and gave flowers to them.  I think the first person may have been her grandfather, and her mother spoke and then 2 or 3 others.  Then there was a video presentation.  They had made several little skits with friends and family.  The one I can remember was where Vitaly had to bribe his way into Anna’s apartment house be giving the concierge several piece of candy (40) and then he had to cut out a heart with the help of a friend and at last he got to the apartment where he kissed Anna as many times as pieces of candy.  (This is out of order; these skits came before the actual video of the ceremony.)
Finally it was time to eat.  The RS had helped put on a lovely buffet with salads, fish, fresh fruit and vegetable, and bread and rolls with meat inside.  After all had eaten, they had a dance.  It was very nice.  We don’t know what happened after that, we went home. We asked Boris (our colleague from work) if this was a typical reception and he didn’t know because he hadn’t been to very many.  We know that in some ways it was not typical because there was no alcohol or toasts, and that is typical of Russian weddings.  It was raining so I don’t know if they went to famous spots in Moscow and had their pictures taken there.  That is typical of Moscow weddings and we saw a wedding in another town once and they did the picture-taking thing there as well.
Well, this is a little longer than I planned on.  I hope it makes up a little for my dearth in writing lately.  We did go to Ukraine a couple of weeks ago and met some of our wonderful Humanitarian missionaries there.  We also about froze to death in one of our hotels and in the train going between towns.  The trains have attendants and they asked us if we wanted tea or coffee, which we politely declined.  They were worried about us as we sat bundled up in our compartment, but I remembered I had some hot chocolate packs in my suitcase so we asked for hot water.  The attendant sent DeVere back and said she would bring it to us, which she did in very nice glasses in pewter cup holders.  When we got to Dneprop, no one was there to met us so this lady found someone who could speak English to come and call our missionaries.  The attendant kept trying to talk to us.  She is learning English from her six year old and I know a few works in Russian so we did have a short conversation.  We said we would be fine but they didn’t leave us until our Elder’s arrived, and then they had a discussion about the church.  She wouldn’t take a Book of Mormon, but she did take a pamphlet about the church.  As she got on the train that had started to move she kept calling to us, “Drooga, Drooga”  ”Friends, friends”.  I must say that I felt as if I were her friend, she had been so kind to us and had genuinely tried to help us.  How I wish you could meet these good people and see how the Lord works in the lives of all his children to bring out the best in people.  One of the hardest things about a mission is knowing that you will never get to know these people well and knowing that that will be a loss in your life because they are so warm and have so much to give.
I promise I will stop writing now.  We love all of you; we pray for you and appreciate having so much support from home.
We love our mission and we love the Lord and our testimonies are growing.  Russia is a great place to serve.
Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma, Arva and DeVere

Dear Family,

We have had a wonderful week, but one that was very different from other years.  This year I had no last minute shopping to do and no last minute wrapping.  Well, not very much at least.  I didn’t get all the missionaries socks wrapped, so had to quickly do those before they left our apartment, last Tuesday.  A good thing I did was memorize Luke 2:1,3-12.  The sad thing was I was supposed to get all the way to verse 19.  I guess I still have a little time to work on it.

The Lord has really been blessing this area lately.  We had 30 baptisms in 2009.  I know that doesn’t seem like a lot, but its more than before, I understand.  But what we can really see is a difference in the number of lessons the missionaries are teaching.  That has gone up a lot from when we first got here.  These missionaries are getting some wonderful training here.  Our area Presidency is really inspired and is sharing great gospel principles.  Because there are so few stakes and districts here, the authorities get out a lot and this really strengthens our branches and our missionaries.  We were in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, for a Zone conference and Pres Schweitzer taught the missionaries to testify of the truthfulness of their message with each contact.  He told them not to wait to testify until they are teaching a lesson, but be bold in testifying at every opportunity.

Thursday, Dec. 24, we spent the day with all the other missionaries in the mission.  One good thing about having a small area in your mission is that we can all get together at the same place for some wonderful activities.  The young missionaries came at 9:30 in the morning to set up the church and to practice for the program. At 11:30 we seniors showed up and the activity/party officially began.  After the opening song and prayer games were played, snacks were provided, visiting went on.  (I don’t know what games were played as I was one of the boring people who just visited.)  At 1:00 the President played the movie “A Wonderful Life” which even some of the old missionaries hadn’t seen and none of the young ones.  It had Russian subtitles so our Russian missionaries could enjoy it.  Most of the Missionaries liked it.  We then had some musical numbers and then we ate. Sister Cranney had meatballs with a variety of sauces to pour over them, steak fries, fruit and vegetable trays, chips and salsa and bean dip.  and Juice and water.  After we ate, each of our districts presented a skit.  They were hilarious.  Our district sang the 12 days of Christmas but of course changed the words to make it about missionary experiences.  One district sang a traditional Russian song about a Christmas tree in the forest and hammed it up especially when the tree got cut down.  One of my favorites was a skit done in silhouette about two unborn babies talking to each other and wondering if there was life after birth.  One thought there would be, but the other one couldn’t imagine seeing with his/her eyes or eating with his/her own mouth.  I am going to try to get transcripts of some of them.  They were great.  One of the districts did one with a spiritual message about giving at this Christmas time.  One thing I am learning is that the church is going to be in great hands, as we get older.  These young people are men and women of strength and testimony.  Pres Cranney gives each of them leadership experiences.  I think all the young men will be district and Zone leaders before they leave.  He is turning all of them into leaders.  Or maybe it is that we get the best of the best here in Russia.  I doubt it though.  The youth of the church are the most valiant who have come to earth so far, at least as a group.

At the end of the day, pres. Cranney showed a video that he had helped write and produce.  I would like to share what it was about.

It was about Mary and Joseph, that period of time after their betrothal and before their marriage.  It started with Mary’s return from visiting Elizabeth. She had just received news of John’s birth and the knowledge that Zacharias had regained his speech when he followed the instructions of the angel.  She invited Joseph over to tell him about Zacharias to see if he could believe that angels still spoke to men.  She also needed to tell him about the angel that had visited her and see what his feelings would be.  She first told him of the birth of John and about Zachariahs visit from the angel and asked Joseph if he believed about the angel that had visited Zacharias.  Joseph said he did believe.  Then with courage, which his belief gave her, she told him of the angel that had visited her and about the coming of the Messiah, finally conveying to him very subtly that the Messiah was on the way.  Of course, Joseph was confused and disappointed, and in despair when he left her.  He then was visited by an angel to help quiet his doubts and concerns.  He returns to Mary to let her know of his acceptance of his call to raise the Messiah and teach him the ways of a good man of the earth. (The actress did a great job of portraying Mary’s joy, trepidation, fear and joy again. The actor did a great job of showing his love for Mary, his mental and spiritual anguish and his acceptance of his role; he did not portray Joseph as ecstatic.  Maybe that would come later.) I don’t think I saw the actors touch each other once in the presentation.  I noted it.  One line that Joseph said at the beginning of the movie that he was not sure he should see her before the wedding.  Jewish customs were very different at that time of arranged marriages. It was a powerful experience to see how these two very human, but very good people accepted the great calls that were given to each of them.  I think it also showed that each one was willing to do the Lord’s will and that were each able to support the other.  Many great lessons taught in a very short video.

Yesterday, DeVere and I went to a reception of a young couple we have met here.  Young people, especially young men here, are as reluctant to get married as many of our young men at home.  But at last we got 2 of our young single adults married.  (The groom is 34 so is past YSA age by USA standards, but that is not uncommon over here…  different culture)

In Russia you must be married by the state.  So the young couple went to the government offices to get married.  We got to see the video of the ceremony.  Because during Soviet times it was illegal to get married in a church, the government had made an attempt to make the government office very nice.  The room was large and spacious and well lit.  The groom had paid for a stringed orchestra to play as they walked into the room.  They came about half way into the room and then stopped.  The official asked two short questions to which the answered yes. Then they sat at his desk and signed their names about 4 times each.  The marriage certificate was in a nice leather looking folder.  Then they went to another part of the room and had an exchange of rings and that was it.  I am not sure if they were married on Saturday or if that ceremony took place earlier in the week.  I’ll ask them when they get back from the temple.  Here in Russia and in other country’s where couples must be married civilly before they are married in a church,  couples may go to the temple within 30 days of their civil ceremony and get sealed in the temple,.  They don’t have to wait a year for obvious reasons.

The reception was help at our church.  They had a theme of creating a new family for eternity is space.  The chairs had white slipcovers over them and numbers on the first chair as if we were going on an airplane or space shuttle.  When the bride and groom arrived, we all stood and clapped for them.  They had a young lady for the emcee and she announced different activities as if she we a flight attendant.  Of course, we understood nothing, but as a colleague from work was there who went on a mission to New York, we got to know a little of what was going on.  Anna and Vitaly had played foosball each time they came to young single adults and the foosball table was in the room and they played a game.  They also played a game where you had to tie a group of people together with ribbon.  I couldn’t get the gist of that game.  Then different people came and made speeches and gave flowers to them.  I think the first person may have been her grandfather, and her mother spoke and then 2 or 3 others.  Then there was a video presentation.  They had made several little skits with friends and family.  The one I can remember was where Vitaly had to bribe his way into Anna’s apartment house be giving the concierge several piece of candy (40) and then he had to cut out a heart with the help of a friend and at last he got to the apartment where he kissed Anna as many times as pieces of candy.  (This is out of order; these skits came before the actual video of the ceremony.)

Finally it was time to eat.  The RS had helped put on a lovely buffet with salads, fish, fresh fruit and vegetable, and bread and rolls with meat inside.  After all had eaten, they had a dance.  It was very nice.  We don’t know what happened after that, we went home. We asked Boris (our colleague from work) if this was a typical reception and he didn’t know because he hadn’t been to very many.  We know that in some ways it was not typical because there was no alcohol or toasts, and that is typical of Russian weddings.  It was raining so I don’t know if they went to famous spots in Moscow and had their pictures taken there.  That is typical of Moscow weddings and we saw a wedding in another town once and they did the picture-taking thing there as well.

Well, this is a little longer than I planned on.  I hope it makes up a little for my dearth in writing lately.  We did go to Ukraine a couple of weeks ago and met some of our wonderful Humanitarian missionaries there.  We also about froze to death in one of our hotels and in the train going between towns.  The trains have attendants and they asked us if we wanted tea or coffee, which we politely declined.  They were worried about us as we sat bundled up in our compartment, but I remembered I had some hot chocolate packs in my suitcase so we asked for hot water.  The attendant sent DeVere back and said she would bring it to us, which she did in very nice glasses in pewter cup holders.  When we got to Dneprop, no one was there to met us so this lady found someone who could speak English to come and call our missionaries.  The attendant kept trying to talk to us.  She is learning English from her six year old and I know a few works in Russian so we did have a short conversation.  We said we would be fine but they didn’t leave us until our Elder’s arrived, and then they had a discussion about the church.  She wouldn’t take a Book of Mormon, but she did take a pamphlet about the church.  As she got on the train that had started to move she kept calling to us, “Drooga, Drooga”  ”Friends, friends”.  I must say that I felt as if I were her friend, she had been so kind to us and had genuinely tried to help us.  How I wish you could meet these good people and see how the Lord works in the lives of all his children to bring out the best in people.  One of the hardest things about a mission is knowing that you will never get to know these people well and knowing that that will be a loss in your life because they are so warm and have so much to give.

I promise I will stop writing now.  We love all of you; we pray for you and appreciate having so much support from home.

We love our mission and we love the Lord and our testimonies are growing.  Russia is a great place to serve.

Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma, Arva and DeVere

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About the author

burtons

The Burtons have set out on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to serve the people of Russia. They will be seeking partners to find and fill needs of the communities in which they serve. The Burtons have been called for a year and a half and are eager to get to know the people and areas where the Lord sees fit to place them.

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