As we've driven to Yerevan I've noticed a new supermarket just outside of the city. Today I persuaded Elder Blunck to walk there after dropping his suit off at the laundry (no dry cleaners, but they do a pretty good job of cleaning a suit however they do it.) As it turned out, what seemed to me to be a short distance as we drive by in a taxi turned out to be a two hour walk.
The market was very attractive, very clean, and very devoid of customers, except for us. We got more cheerful attention than I ever wanted . There were at least 6 or 7 lassies everywhere, happily ignoring my "I don't know Armenian OR Russian" and chattering away and not letting me buy the baklava I wanted to buy---I think they were telling me it wasn't as good as the twinkie-like things I finally bought just to make them happy. And they didn't carry anything I can't find in the 11,0000 shops closer to home. They were relentlessly ubiquitous and merry and bright and I could hardly wait to escape.
I couldn't help but ponder the possibility that even though the Gospel is packaged very attractively---indeed first class is the only way to describe the way the Church does everything it does---I hope we, the members and the missionaries, don't get in the way of people who are interested in the truth but need some peace and quiet while the Holy Ghost works with them.
We found a nice taxi to take us home and I was very grateful for the driver who wasn't interested in talking. (Sorry if this sounds curmudgeonly----I appreciate the fact that these dear people have no privacy their whole lives. The elders even have to sometimes divide and conquer when they're teaching---one sits and chats with the sociable ones who are coming and going and visiting, and fixing food, while the other takes the serious investigator aside and teaches.)