Death, Missionary Farewell, Wedding, Baby Shower

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.

Barev Dzez

I can’t figure out why the older posts don’t show up, even in “archives”, and why we can’t get pictures on right. My girls have such snazzy blogs, but their skills are their own—they certainly didn’t get them from their parents. We are having a million adventures a day, but blogging is at the bottom of my list of things to do. The local priest stopped the elders and literally ripped their name tags in half , so now they have unique souvenirs to take home. I imagine he thought he had done something important to stop the work, but, His Honor, the Priest, only made them more determined to get the Truth to these children of Israel. Noah literally landed in Armenia, because Mr. Ararat used to be here—-now it’s in Turkey. The mountain didn’t move, but the borders did. We do have mountains of tradition and indifference, and I get the feeling that the clerks at the supermarket make fun of us every time we walk in, but we’re all trying to do our little part which will add up to having a temple here someday. And we all hope that they will honor the architecture and incorporate some of the unique design of His Honor, the Priest’s, beautiful churches.

I have to tell you something we thought was funny. I made a burrito last night for David (it was very tasty), but I made it with lavosh, so the wrapper was roughly the size of a cheap bath towel. It was so huge that when I set it before him he asked “And what are we going to name this new baby?” Have we been here too long? Is that funny at all?

Bela's Feast

Bela invited us to attend her activity at 1:00 on Thursday. She had just been called as the Single Adult leader, for those 31 to 110. When we arrived she was in the kitchen preparing the hospitality. That’s what they call refreshments.

In a tiny kitchen, with two ity-bity tables, she had prepared plates of a carrot and pepper relish, plates of preserved cherries, and more plates of pickled green tomatoes, carrots, hot peppers and cauliflower, a potato salad, bread, and bottles of homemade cherry juice. She had a lovely cake waiting, potatoes boiling merrily on the little stove, she was cutting up cilantro, and tiny red onions. Everything was tidy, no messes anywhere and she must have hauled everything from home, including stacks of the saucer sized china which all meals are served on in every home. You eat little dabs on little plates and end up more full than when you eat way too much food on the manhole cover-sized plates at any American restaurant. Part of that is because Armenians never serve less than eight separate menu items, usually many more.

I have noticed two things during the brief time, and many meals, we have shared with members: #1 they are confident and good cooks, #2 I have a lot to learn from them. They work with the least amount of equipment and ingredients, and cook circles around anything I ever thought I could do. I think my cooking here is getting the elders ready to deal patiently someday with new brides who are learning to cook, and serving forgettable meals.

When everything was just about ready to serve she drained the whole potatoes, sprinkled them with a little salt (if you notice the salt shaker on the table of leftovers you’ll see that the lid has been pried off. There is something very appealing about the way they don’t shake salt—they strew it with their fingers in a very grand manner. I have started a collection—10 so far—of Armenian salt dishes) and then she piled them onto a tray with a flourish, festooned them with onions and cilantro, and served them steaming hot.

Bela is also a Gospel Doctrine teacher and a branch missionary, and she is also married, which makes me wonder why she has this particular calling. And since I wrote this she has disappeared—apparently to Yerevan to the hospital for her heart, but no one will really give me a straight answer. (As it turned out it was for her heart---she was leaving her husband, and we've seen her many times in Yerevan where she is happy, has new teeth and clothes and is loving life. And her former husband is a member who the elders love, and who occasionally shows up for church.) For this activity we read 1 Nephi 1. Then we feasted on Bela’s good food and visited. I sent poor Elder Blunck home for the camera—too late to take a picture before we had eaten most of it.

The members have all been challenged to read the Book of Mormon, and we have another activity where we all read together weekly, and Elder Blunck is in charge of that. The first time we read 1 Nephi 1 AND 2 and played “Old Kentucky Fair”, and had cocoa and bonchiks—only two menu items, American style. We’ve tried all kinds of hospitality combinations—raspberry tea and hot dogs for instance—but the Branch President doesn’t want people coming for just the hospitality, so he discontinued that, but now and then he surprises us with lamajos, or some other little treat. As of today we are now well into the Isaiah chapters. The members are mostly from the lost 10 Tribes—Gad and Asher, etc., and they don’t have any problem with Isaiah.

Memo to myself: It's probably best not to prepare a big meal on a no-water day.

(Kept the picture small so as not to frighten the grandchildren.)

January 8, 2010

We got up right at 6:30 and studied all morning then met the Elders at the Church so that they could translate some of my Sunday School lesson for me. (We don’t have manuals in Armenian.) They did a good job, and at 11:00 I met sweet Ani to give her her second piano lesson. She is doing so well, and is teaching me to say “right hand, left hand, play it again” & all those things a piano teacher needs to know. I already knew how to say “very good” & “well done”.

At noon Seda and President Helelyan showed up—actually he showed up first to tell us that he had found an internet provider for us. And Seda was planning to take me to buy a stove. So the four of us took off and went to the internet place first. They will install the our hook up tomorrow. Then we went to the stove place, and bought a stove, just like that. The stove fellow gave me a new year discount of about 10,000 dram and insisted that I needed the model with a rotisserie feature in the oven, at no extra cost. He tied it to the top of an old car and we all drove home together (free delivery includes the buyers & their entourage), whereupon he untied it, set it by the front door of the building and drove off. Elder Blunck & Pres. Helelyan toted it upstairs, and we were soon joined by Seda’s husband who works as an electrician at the school nearby. He and President had to run off to buy a fitting, but that gave Seda & me time to peel off all the labels.

I then learned how to buy a chicken. (It’s intimidating because you have to ask the chicken clerk to give you the one you want out of a big bucket of chickens—and how do I know which one I want or how long they’ve been sitting there?) When you get it home cutting up a chicken is a whole nother thing when it still has feet and a head. Actually I didn’t see the head until I started to cut off the feet, & let me tell you it was startling.

I figured it would work well to just cut up some vegetables, stuff the poor little chicken with a lemon and some bay leaves, wrap it all in foil & bake it. I learned the hard way how this new oven works. It’s both gas and electric. The electric version doesn’t get hot enough to melt butter, so I switched to gas and promptly burned all the vegetables due to the fact that it’s a very small oven & I had the pan too close to the gas. I’m not sure there’s a thermostat, although I had asked & asked, & I think that they thought a rotisserie was enough of luxury, so what on earth was I babbling about. I’m really not very confident about trying to bake cookies or rolls. They’ll either burn on the top or the bottom. But if these people can cook with their stoves, I’d jolly well better learn to cook on my deluxe model.

So what does all this have to do with missionary work? First of all, we have to live, & I’m trying to have it not take up the whole day. But the huge part of my day, and all day tomorrow, will be to try to prepare to teach Moses Chapter One in Armenian. I will be kind of like a trained speaking monkey, and have to read most of it, and understand very little of what I’m saying—except I know the lesson in English, and I believe what I’m teaching and love it, and the members are so sweet. They’ll be patient with me, and they’ll think I actually can understand Armenian. Not only am I having to write the whole thing down in Armenian, but I’m having to switch from the Armenian printed alphabet, which I was barely confident in, to the handwriting style, which has enough differences to drive me crazy. For instance the printed “z” looks just like the handwritten “g”—so I can’t get away with handwriting z’s for g’s. And President Helelyan has instructed us to use the blackboard every time. Thank goodness I only teach once a month. (Except he wants me to be prepared every week in case someone doesn’t show up.)

And it’s a no water day, which means I have a kitchen full of greasy dishes. (The meal turned out ok—the chicken was very fresh & tender.) I’ll have to wash things in the bathtub, tomorrow , where I can get hot water. What does all this have to do with missionary work??? I ask myself this question 50 times a day. (I’ve asked it twice already in this post.) The answer is “baby steps”—we’re building relationships with people, we spend a lot of time walking, and we both are conscious of trying to have loving countenances which will somehow spread the Spirit into the hearts of the people we pass by, (it’s really hard even to learn people’s names, & who they’re related to & when you speak one word of Armenian to them—like hello—they assume you can understand everything they say, and chatter away—-and then you learn later that they’ve been telling you that they want you to get them a new pair of trousers, or that their son is in jail, no the hospital, no really jail. They have names like Gago—-or maybe it’s Guga, or Goga, it’s all strange on the tongue, & easy to forget from one minute to the next) but somehow it’s all doing us more good than anyone else, and we’re very grateful for the experience.

The Branch Christmas Party

We're still playing catch up on the posts, but at least now we're actually writing about things that have happened this year. Many stories are in the works, such as "Vanadzor Tabernacle Choir", "Chicken Feet" and "Bela's Feast". These have all been written when we were so green---now Vanadzor itself is turning green & we are feeling adjusted and more like real Armenians.

January 6, 2010

This is Christmas Day in Armenia. Church bells have been ringing and we've spotted people walking with lighted candles, but we didn't have time to wander over to the New Church nearby (which we had wanted to do) because we were busy with our own branch party which was spectacular and should give you some good ideas. President Helelyan had announced that the party would begin at noon because he really wanted it to begin at 1:00 and he says everyone is always late. And he's right. When we arrived about 12:00 almost everyone was already there. But we did actually begin at 1:00 with a well prepared nativity pageant by the Primary. Their costumes were imaginative and they all knew their lines and it was done with reverence and enthusiasm. They had a manger surrounded by stuffed animals and they sang Silent Night with gusto. They then sang a cute Christmas song in English which Seda had learned from a CD she has used to teach English to herself and her children. President Helelyan had introduced the program with remarks about the true Church, and how we should love and care for one another, and how grateful we are for the birth of our Savior.

The Young Men and Women then did a little play about how the spirit of Christ is the spirit of love and forgiveness, and about two girls who were mad at each other, but on Christmas Day they reached out and became friends again.

Ani, who was translating for us, said she had just done the same thing and that if she died she'd go straight to the Celestial Kingdom because she had repented. Both little programs captured the true essence of what the Gospel is all about---both what happened historically, and what we should be doing every day.

Then the games began. I'm not a fun person, but these were very clever and even I had fun. The first was for all of the tatiks, including me, to divide into teams and wrap one team member as fast as we could like a mummy, with rolls of toilet paper. It was hilarious---and we should have used the cheap toilet paper, because it's, um, much stronger, and we all had problems with the paper breaking. It was a good lesson in team work.

The YM/YW then played a game where they had to dig through a bag of popcorn using only their noses and tongues to find a piece of paper which told them where to find their prize.

We played "Name That Hymn", as I played snippets from hymns, and the ones who guessed correctly then sang the hymn. There are only 45 hymns translated into Armenian.

Then Santa came!
He was dressed beautifully, with a sack full of presents. He gave a little speech about how he's just Santa Claus, but we really worship Jesus. Each child came one by one and gave a little recitation for him before receiving a gift from the sack and a bag of goodies. The children were well-behaved and happy and content with their very modest treasures.
Then out of nowhere (actually out of 5' x 5' kitchen) came people bearing trays of food. This was after two blessings. They were too noisy during the first one I think. I mean a tray for each person with bread, cheese and sausage, an orange and a mandarin, a cup of Fanta and a chocolate marshmallow cookie.

I helped to wash the dishes later---in a simmering pan of soapy water on the stove. (I'm getting over my prissy hang ups about sanitation. They don't always wash the dishes in hot water, or with soap, or dry them with a clean cloth---sometimes it's been a little scary.) It was all very efficient and tasty. The food, not the soapy hot water. I think they took the left-overs to hungry members,once again practicing what they had preached. They are kind and generous people and we are often told that Vanadzor is the best branch in Armenia.

After lunch the music came on, and the dancing came on. These people love to dance, young and old. This is Azgush dancing. (She died the next year and I dressed her in her Temple clothes for burial.) Some of the members apologized to me about the spirit switch, but I assured them that there was a good spirit during the dancing, too.
It was after the dancing that we had recitations---some sang solos, some recited old Armenian poetry and it was all very theatrical and interesting. Armine told me that after the earthquake Armenians seemed to develop a need to be noticed.

When it was all over I gave Ani her first piano lesson. It went well, although I had way too many helpers hovering around. She is a serene and precious angel, and she'll do well, and I think she's used to chaos. Armenians aren't used to privacy. The Church has developed a very good keyboard course and I'm going to try to make good use of it. Thanks, Mom, for piano lessons----they're finally paying off.

Shnorhavor Nor Tari!!

Armenians celebrate New Year's with a passion. Then on January 6th---tomorrow---they celebrate "Christmas" as a religious holiday. We'll have a branch party which will take most of the day. They have so much planned I don't know how they'll get it all in. The branch president's office is filled to the brim with barbie dolls and games. There are more barbie dolls than there are people in the branch. But knowing Armenians, & Georgians, too, they'll just stay in a box and be put up on a shelf. I could write a whole dissertation on how children here aren't covetous and wanting the latest toys endlessly. In fact, this is as good a time as any to say how content and grateful the people seem to be with what life is giving them. (I told my grandchildren about our 10 year old friend whose sister asked him what he wanted for Christmas, and he shrugged, and said "Nothing!"----it wasn't something he ever even thought about.) Vanadzor was in the big earthquake 20 years ago---not hit quite as hard as some areas. But everything, still, is torn up and raggedy and in terrible repair. (Part of that is because it's so expensive to go to Home Depot and fix things up--wait, they don't have Home Depot. But if they did they couldn't afford it. Remember these are people who buy parchment paper by the centimeter. ) BUT the point is that they remember when they had NOTHING--no water, no food, no nothing, so they are very grateful for things as they are now.



So, now, a quick trip through New Year's. January 1 we spent about 5 hours with the branch president's family. This is the formula: They have a lavish spread, in his case a roast pork, and a roast chicken, and plates full of dolmas, big displays of fruit, nuts and dried fruit, small bowls of salads (not as we know them--usually very mayonnaisey potato, or carrot salads) pickles, olives, platters of sliced sausages, bottles and bottles of drinks, pastries, blinis. It's quite tasty. We stayed so long because we were having such a good time. They are the only actual family in the branch--with father, mother, son and daughter all active. We talked about many things, mostly about how the Gospel has blessed their family. His occupation is selling fruit on a little part of the sidewalk--he has a lot of competition, but we talked about how keeping the Sabbath Day holy, and closing on Sunday, and paying his tithing and going to the temple has blessed their lives. (p.s. Since I am blogging very randomly, and after the fact, you need to know that since New Year's he has found a good job as a meter reader--another blessing. And since then he has lost that job. If I edited everything I've posted it would literally never end. ) He was very proud of the fact that, unlike most of the people here, he didn't have to go into debt to provide his New Year's feast. Even the head of the Armenian church has chastised the people for borrowing money so they can impress their neighbors with big spreads at holiday time. (An Armenian joke: "What would an Armenian do if he won a million in the lottery?" "He'd pay off debts." "And how would he pay off the rest?") I told them Americans do the same thing--only it's with big houses and cars and toys. There is nothing quite like a Georgian or Armenian dinner. We sang Silent Night (Loor Gisher, Sourp Gisher) and the time really flew. I was embarrassed that we had stayed so long, but they seemed to think it was fine---they are very gracious.



Then on Saturday we went to Seda's. Seda has been to the Temple, and has two wonderful teen-aged children, who stayed at the table and were sweet the whole time we were there. Same menu, basically, and her daughter, Maneh, had made the pastries. They all end up with tons of dirty dishes, and no dishwasher, but this is their big, once a year thing. Her husband is very, very nice and they have a happy and very loving family. All of her family, in Russia, are members. She is the Primary President and does a wonderful job with the children. She is the kind of person who, if she lived in Salt Lake, would be on the General Board. I have hired her as my housekeeper, at the branch president's request, and against all my own inclinations, and when I came home early yesterday she was washing my windows on her own initiative. She is very thorough, and she's teaching me Armenian, too, and helping me find my way around the city. (p.s. I am now her 2nd counselor, and loving Primary.) She's going to help me go buy a stove on Friday. Her home is actually much nicer than mine. I can take bucket baths all day, but I''ve got to have a stove. (p.s. my new stove burns everything, but I'm working on my stove skills.)

Sunday we went to Rosannne and Roland's. He used to be the Branch President and they''ve been to the temple several times. He's the rare Branch President who doesn't go inactive after being released. Only menu change was that they had a whole ham, which was very good. And she made 5 different pastries,including baklava. After that we went to Armine's. She has two daughters--Arax and Ani--and they are something straight out of Pride and Prejudice. Arax is wild and crazy, beautiful and funny. Ani is serene and industrious and beautiful and sings like an angel. I'm going to teach her to play the piano. They have both served mini-missions. Their father is a character. He and Elder Blunck hit it off, after a brief tiff when Elder Blunck refused to drink wine with him. But the inspiring thing to me was how they all adore him, and even though I know Armine yearns for him to be baptized (which would involve giving up much in the way of lifelong habits), and take her to the temple (she's been, and she says "The Church is my Life!!) they all treat him with great respect and love. We had a very kind of Dickensy time---people took turns singing and dancing, and we ended up with Christmas caroling---Elder Thylin is a Swedish Jew, and he sang Swedish songs, Elder Stephenson sang O Holy Night, Ani sang a plaintive mid-Eastern song, there was dancing, & it was a beautiful evening.

The Branch Christmas Tree

And why I''m posting this in March: This is catch up time ---it's going to take about five more posts to get current. The Christmas tree was put up in the branch foyer early in December, but then came the huge celebration on New Year's Day, and many days thereafter, and THEN on January 6 some people celebrated Christmas as a religious holiday. We did, and the branch did.

I popped five batches of popcorn---the old-fashioned way--- and brought them to a Young Women activity where the YW were going to make a cake, and the primary leaders were going to let me help make sugar cookies for the children to decorate on Saturday. It was bedlam. (I'm adapting rapidly to the unhygienic way of things. I may have to be retaught when I get home.) We had to leave to run many blocks to the marketplace to buy parchment paper for the cake pans---they buy it by the centimeter because that's all they can afford to do. But after going out into the hall to mix cake batter, and cookie dough (because that's the only outlet that worked) and an interlude where they paused to laugh uproariously over my Ikea measuring spoons (these people find great delight in the simplest things, such as Elder Blunck telling them in a branch counsel meeting that unless they were going to talk REALLY fast they'd better allow more than 15 minutes for the meeting) anyway, we had a frenzied noisy chaotic jolly old time, and ended up with a quite pretty and tasty cake, which we then gobbled down, and two trays full of kind of lopsided sugar cookies and a clean kitchen. This activity took place on Wednesday. By the time our meetings were over on Sunday the little tree, with magical LED lights, had transformed into a very charming Christmas tree with strings of popcorn, and cookies decorated with magic markers, and sprinkled with sugar.