Sunset

Isn't this a pretty photo? It showed up on iphoto, and as it happens Elder Blunck took it from our back window. I don't take pictures anymore, so I'm glad for this one. People here love to have their picture taken, and they always grab the camera to see how it turned out, and they always show you their photo albums when you visit. Even if you've seen them before. Even if you are the one who gave them all the pictures they have. I think it's all about feeling like they really matter and that someone cares. Which I do, very much. And I wish we could do more to have this yearning to be noticed, and approved, translate into yearning for Heavenly Father's approval, and staying focused on the return trip back to Him. When all is said and done most photos we see are of people sitting or standing in front of something, and they are just to prove they were there. (Exceptions: great photos like Casey's and photos of my kids and their kids! This comment about photos seems a little curmudgeonly, and I like the idea of capturing memories, but I'd rather be making memories. This just comes from a lot of picture-taking going on around here and the kind of poignant need they have to be noticed and validated. Sorry---this is a long rambling thought.) We need more out of life than to just prove we were here.

It's not icy anymore. I have daffodils from Armine in my vase from Rusanna. The road to the church is dry for now-----all the ice had covered up the rocks & rubble. My boots are thin and I hope they last 7 1/2 more weeks.

We have the sisters teaching Gagik in our home now. There should be a Preach My Gospel edition featuring them as the perfect missionaries. Please keep praying for him. He understands so much, and is such a good man. We'll be devastated, truly, if we leave in 7 1/2 weeks and Elder Blunck hasn't baptized him. He said the other day "If I decide to be baptized I want you, David-jan, to baptize me." I told him this week that I hate ujanga pyramids, but I do them because I know he knows more than I do about yoga, and he's doing what's best for me. He understood that I was relating that to us knowing more than he does about the Plan of Happiness and that we, and our dear sisters, are teaching him what is best for him. He said it himself.

Hegine is now taking piano lessons, one of my more brilliant ideas. I know she is very talented and can learn most of what she needs to know in 7 1/2 more weeks. She told me when she was a little girl she used to pretend the table was a piano---she has always wanted to play. I have two other new students. One is talented, one wants to keep quitting because she says she can't do it. But I'm going to give her every chance, and every ounce of my hard-won patience. Since this is a music paragraph I'll tell you that the Vanadzor Tab is working on a number for Easter that will amaze and inspire.

We seem to be busier than ever, but I took a minute the other day and packed all my souvenirs for travel. Mention this post and there is one with your name on it. In 7 1/2 weeks. How far away is that plane, Sister Blunck? I hope far enough away to leave things a little better than we found them, although the minute you start thinking that, everything comes unraveled. It's hard to go on a mission. It's harder to come home. And it's hard to sort out all you've experienced and learned, and to hope for a "Well done" from the One whose opinion matters, and whose love you feel so often, and whose grace you need so much.

Hegine

Ordinarily I would struggle with whether or not to tell you about the young lady who is absolutely certain that Armenian is the Adamic tongue. Do I tell you that Mari and Hamo are working on the challenge of not really having gotten legally married? Do I tell you that Gagik's father died a week ago, and that Armenians mourn for an extended period of time so we're doing yoga on our own for awhile, and are hoping & praying that this loss in his family's life will lead to an accelerated embracing of the restored Gospel when we see Gagik again? Do I do a whole post on Armenian nose surgery? Maybe someday, but today's post wrote itself.

Twenty minutes ago we finished reading the Book of Mormon, in English, with Hegine. She has faithfully come on every day off to read aloud with us. She works 16 hour days, every other day, as a taxi dispatcher. The small amount she is paid would be illegal at home. She tried to quit once and her boss simply wouldn't let her. So sick or well, tired or not, she has come for a year.

Hegine served a mission in Russia and there is absolutely nothing about her that isn't wonderful. She is an extraordinary member missionary. On her precious days off she not only reads with us, she attends Institute, she visit teaches, she serves in every possible way. This Monday she cleaned the whole church building by herself. She is our YSA leader, and plans all of the activities for Relief Society. She lives with her widowed mom, who was baptized while Hegine served her mission, her brother and his wife and three little boys (including David, the one who was dressed in pink ruffles for a year, with pony tails, but is now a toddler with a short haircut), and assorted other family members who come and go, and to whom she always teaches the Gospel.

This photo doesn't do her justice--she is very beautiful, and is the only Armenian or Georgian I have ever seen with braces----she is always trying to improve. She's practically perfect already, and we love her very much.