Moscow: March 26, 2011

It's a beautiful wintery Saturday morning. Spring officially arrived some time ago, but it still feels like a typical Salt Lake January outside. We get a little snow about five days a week with no end in sight. It's hard to imagine that we were complaining of the heat last summer. Just the same, we love living here. This morning KLynn is down in the kitchen preparing food for a branch social this evening and for a farewell open house tomorrow for Kent and Janet Rust, who are long time members of the Moscow Branch. The Rusts have been called to be mission presidents in Ykaterinburg (Siberia), and they are leaving Moscow this week for the U.S. to prepare. They will be missed. I spent a week in February in training meetings in Salt Lake and then at the J. Reuben Clark Law Society conference on the SMU campus in Dallas. It was valuable training, but humbling to realize how much I still have to learn. I'm sure I'll still be learning when it is time to leave. The day I returned to Moscow we got word that KLynn's sister Karyn passed away, and KLynn left the next day for the funeral in Wyoming. I'm grateful she was able to go. I would like to have gone, but work did not permit me to leave again so soon. I have matters I'm working on in several countries -- Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Georgia and others. It's a constant challenge to keep up with the steady flow of work, but it is interesting and rewarding. There is a lot of work to be done by a lot of people to keep the Church going and growing. I'm grateful to be able to play a small role. Last week KLynn and I spent a few vacation days in Southern Spain. We stayed in Seville and took day trips to a few other Andelucian cities. It was beautiful, and we enjoyed the warm sunshine!