All of these events took place during the week of 2-16-10. Sorry these posts are so long, and so un-illustrated. But we are now caught up, kind of, and from now on they’ll be new, and maybe I’ll start taking pictures again, instead of writing 1056 words.
Tigran is a sweet young man who has been staying home from church to care for his dying mother. The Relief Society sisters and I took a solemn walk to his home to pay our respects. She was laid out in the spotless living room–where everything was draped in white, and she was in a tiny wooden casket, blanketed in gold satin. Tigran, and his grandmother, were stunned with grief. But we are hoping that when his mourning has softened he will be able to serve a mini-mission in preparation for a real mission soon. Beautiful Armenian flute music was playing softly, and even though it was funeral music, and even though their traditions are rock solid & they think I’m just plain weird, my sisters will help me get a CD of this lovely music which will be just remind me of Armenia in general, and not funerals in particular.
Anahit is the beautiful daughter of our Branch President. We had taken her to Yerevan to help her with her missionary wardrobe. And more shopping again here, and more struggling to convince her that mid-calf doesn’t mean at the knee, no matter how cute the skirt is. She had wanted to dye her hair blond, but I think we convinced her that blond Armenian girls send the wrong message. Our new American Sister Ferguson , serving in Gyumri, had considered dying her naturally beautiful blond hair darker, because, well, it attracted unwelcome attention. But the minerals in the water are taking care of that for her naturally.
Anahit had several going away parties, and danced until she dropped to get all the dancing out of her system for 18 months. The party we had at her home made me feel as if I’d been initiated as one of the girls. They love missionaries with a fervor and treat us as if we were visiting royalty. But this time they let me into the kitchen to do dishes afterwards! And I saw how they manage to wash a gazillion dishes with no running water. Big pans of water were steaming on the stove, and they have an assembly line to wash, rinse, stack, dry—it took very few minutes to wash very many dishes. I think I was awarded this honor because I had brought a chocolate cake. Yes, I can now bake a cake without burning it. Life is good.
We worked hard to prepare a special musical number for Anahit’s last sacrament meeting in Vanadzor. I accompanied her, Elder Blunck, and Elders Santo and Stephenson, singing “The Olive Tree” (a seminary song on lds.org) and it was amazingly beautiful, even though she had a bad cold. I wanted to do it again for the closing song. Now maybe people will join the branch choir which President Heleyan just called me to lead, as a bribe so that he would allow me to work in the Primary, which just lost their pianist, and maybe be a Primary teacher instead of Gospel Doctrine teacher. I think I can learn more Armenian in Primary than teaching about the Abrahamic Covenant which I did last Sunday, too. I prepared a handout in Armenian —-I have better Armenian handwriting than English, for sure.
We took Anahit and her family to Yerevan for her setting apart. She kept saying “This is like a dream!”, and I kept replying that yes, it IS like a dream to be a real missionary. She is going to Ukraine, and has already served 5 mini-missions. We will miss her lots.
We stayed to attend Elder Tadevosyan’s wedding to his beautiful Christina. (We served with him in Georgia). They will go to the temple as soon as they can. It was a happy time, and we saw old friends with whom we had gone to the Swiss Temple, and talked to his mother who is the Armenian lady who had a conversion story in the Ensign last year. (Different last name—many Armenian women don’t take their husband’s name.)
She is a very strong member, and will have a four-generation LDS family as soon as Grigor and Christina give her a grandchild—-she’s counting on that as soon as possible!
We came home yesterday to join the Relief Society sisters to troop over & meet Araks’ newest grandson—Davit—who was dressed from head to toe in pink ruffles. (More than in the picture, which I took later.) He has two older brothers (age 1 & 2) and they really wanted a girl, and had prepared accordingly. A family of ten lives together—mostly strong members of our branch. His mother is a member, and he has an endowed grandma and a returned missionary aunt, and his little cousins, another boy and a girl, all come to Primary.
We have eaten many Armenian feasts, but this one topped them all. I had brought a little gift for the baby, and the sisters had pooled their resources and brought a nice money gift, but we were completely outdone in the generosity department. I wish I had brought my camera. I’ve been very lax with pictures, because I over did it in Georgia.
If I could do roast chicken and potatoes half as well as Araks and her daughters—well, I could rave all day, and not come close to describing how flawless it all was. They showed me how—-next time I can face a cute little chicken head I’ll give it a try.
Hegine, the daughter who is a returned missionary, spontaneously gave us a lovely dance performance, to music on the TV, as we were leaving. She was as graceful and happy and beautiful to watch, in her jeans and bedroom slippers, as any bride on her Armenian wedding day. She now comes to our home every other day to read the Book of Mormon in English, and to have a private English lesson. She can’t afford to go to the university, and she works 16 hours a day, every other day, as a taxi dispatcher. We told her we would be her university, as best we can, and we love her visits.