Taxi RIDE & Our Apartment

The Craziest Ride Ever

This wasn't the taxi we took the ride in, but here is the story!

Thursday Bob and I had to go to some government office and get a work permit. Felix our Visa clerk took us. Or rather he got a taxi for us to take. It was the craziest ride we have ever experienced. The wheels were so out of alignment that our whole bodies were shaking. Literally our shoulders were swinging back and forth. We just kept laughing and smiling. I had to hold on to the handle that was above my door, so my flabby arm was shaking like a bowl full of jelly. I am again so grateful that there are millions of members every day praying for the safety of the missionaries. There would be no way we could all survive this craziness.

The driver took us down a cobblestone, or I should say a cobbleboulder road. It was so steep, I thought the car was going to do a back flip. Then the driver was hilarious. He kept getting mad at every little thing, hitting the steering wheel, making weird noises, and swinging his arms around.

I just had to try hanging out my clothes on this ancient clothes line.  Mine are the towels/rags up high.

View from inside.

My new kitchen and NEW Washer, only takes 2+ hours for one load.

Russian Microwave! This is interestinig, I burned my popcorn and had to hang it on my nifty clothesline outside. The kitchen curtains are new and cozy looking. (not shown)

A tired missionary in our bedroom.

Living Room

Armenia has very few real pianos, but of all things our apartment has a very nice one - Sister Jones is VERY happy!

Over all it will be good. We will have to get used to the big city street noise, urine smelling alleys and garbage strewn streets. The bedroom closets all have locks on them. You have to unlock them every time you open them otherwise they just swing open. I live in a world of keys.
The apartment is only 64 steps up and 64 steps down. (Mehk, yerkoo, yerek, chores, heeng, vehts, yot, oot, eena, dahs...)  I count the steps in Armenian, but I can only get to 10, then I start over... 


 The kitchen curtains are new and cozy looking. There is a nice grocery store (SAS) really really close by. Walking distance to work! Great!

Kyiv Ukraine Temple Dedication and Cultural Celebration

From the ldsnewsroom:

"The Church’s first temple in the former Soviet Union was dedicated 29 August 2010 in Kyiv, Ukraine, by Church President Thomas S. Monson.
The Kyiv Ukraine Temple, which was dedicated in three sessions Sunday, is the Church’s 134th operating temple worldwide and will serve approximately 31,000 Church members living in nine European countries." (One of them is Armenia)

The Dedication was broadcast to our chapel.  I bought some flowers and decorated a table trying to bring a physical templelike atmosphere.  It looked nice.  After the first session, someone stole my flowers.  (A different culture here!)  Aside from that, it really was a wonderful experience.

The night before we sent 20 dancers to the Culture Celebration.  The kids had been practicing for months, and it really was the highlight of the evening to see them dance. The Cultural Event was Broadcast to the church as well. Performers retold the rich cultural history of the region through song and dance.

I know and have talked to several of these kids, so it was even more fun to watch.

 

Vanadzor & Alaverdi

We traveled to Vanadzor and Alaverdi a couple of weeks ago.  This is in Northern Armenia, near the Georgia boarder.  We got to see some beautiful country and meet more great people.  This is a cabbage field.

The road to Vanadzor
  It is about a three hour drive. Beautiful country, but Ohhhh the roads, windy and rough. Lots of switch backs as we got closer to Alaverdi. Already some of their leaves were turning autumn colors. It is a higher elevation located a long a river. Alaverdi actually produced 40% of all of the copper for the Soviet Union back when Armenia was part of the Soviet block. The copper plant is still running, but only at about 10%, which is probably a good thing, because there is no EPA and the emissions are terrible. The Elders say that in the winter you can actually taste copper in your mouth when the pollution is bad. President does not leave Elders here for very long periods of time, so they won’t develop breathing problems.

Nearly to Alaverdi

Neat looking church along the way.

Looks like home - Nevada Power???

Front of Church - Small but just a few years old. Alaverdi Branch

AND this is the view out the back of the church!  Beautiful!

The Elders live up this hill and ride the tram everyday.  Soooo Elder Jones & I did also, just for fun???  We only went one way.  Pres & Sister C. drove up the hill and picked us up.  I'm pretty sure no one had inspected the safety of this thing EVER..

View from the top

Back in Vanadzor.  We came upon the Joseph Smith Monument! We don't know who he really is, but don't you think it looks like Joseph Smith?

We got to see President C. in prime Missionary mode. He saw a guy on the street when we first got to the church in Vandazor and he stopped and shook his hand. When we came back through about six hours later he saw the same guy headed the opposite direction. President grabbed a missionary and started talking to him and the next thing you know he is headed off with the Elders to teach this guy. It was already 7:30 at night and we had a two hour drive ahead of us. Anyway the guys wife wasn’t home so the Elders made an appointment to go back to their home later.
What a great example. 

Odds & Ends

Elder Jones outside the Mission Office/Church. Apparently just this year they planted the grass and fixed up the outside better. Elder Scott came to visit in June before we arrived.

Our apartment still isn’t quite ready for us to move into! This is a picture of the outside, NOT KIDDING. I showed this to the other Senior Missionaries and they laughed and said, "it looks better than ours!" The inside right now needs some work, so in two weeks it will be done. I have heard, “In two weeks it will be ready,” for lots of weeks now. Good news, the concrete steps going up to our apartment look deluxe compared to a lot of others we have seen.

There are statues everywhere.  According to our taxi driver, George, this guy was famous for having something to do with nuclear bombs. I couldn’t quite understand what he was saying.

Through a lot of hand signals at a little store, the lady told me that these were the best Kleenex. I guess hand signals don’t talk in color. In real life every other tissue is either BRIGHT pink or FLOURESCENT green. This was worth a giggle. Oh if I could only read Russian… I can sound out the words on some packages, by reading Armenian, but I don’t know what the words mean… Oh, shucks!

I wish you could see how bright these colors are in real life!

This is who watches me exercise every morning! I try to do my best and Choose The Right exercises….

There are lots of Noah’s Ark pictures, t-shirts, etc here in Armenia. Even a store named "Noah's Ark"  They sell office supplies. These pictures are in the Mission Home. Bob loves this one. I don’t like it. To Science Fiction looking for me.

I like this one better. Kind of cool!

Serious note! "All because a young boy prayed." This is why I’m nearly 8000 miles from home, hoping to be a little part of bringing the Gospel to those that don’t know the love and peace that is available to all.

Love to all my friends and family that read this crazy little blog!  I appreciate your kind and loving comments.
Love, Barbie/MOM/Sister Jones

Artashat & Ararat Journey

Last Sunday we attended the Artashat and Ararat Branches which are just outside of Yerevan.  We went with President and Sister Carter. 
 
The building in Artashat was actually built by the Church, which is unusal in Armenia.  Usually they remodel or just use an existing building.  Note there is even a steeple (red) on the left end. 

These are some of the Branch Members and Missionaries.

See the sign, we know it is our Church.

We traveled in more rural areas to these two branches.  It was great to see farmland and open spaces.  What was even more awesome was seeing Mt Ararat!  These pictures were taken out the window of the van going 60 mph so they aren't the best, but it was spectacular.

Mt Ararat! It is beautiful. Armenians often call it Masis (Մասիս). (16,854 ft) elevation is a snow-capped dormant volcanic cone The Book of Genesis identifies this mountain range as the resting place of Noah's Ark after the Great Flood described there. Archeologists are said to have found remains of the ark here.

 

 

The smaller (12,782 ft) cone, is called Sas.  The Armenians say that Noah named it, when the Ark rested between its two peaks, and looking forth at the receding waters of the Flood he saw the first land emerge and exclaimed, "Yerivan!" which means, in Armenian, "It is seen!".

This is where the small Branch in Ararat meets. There is no airconditioning in this building.  It was hot.  But the members were so excited to see Pres Carter, and the District President who came with us.  It was fast Sunday and they bore their testimonies for 1 1/2 hrs.  They had lots of hugs for me!

Inside the Church

The neighborhood...

We gave these members a ride part of the way home.  They live a few miles from the church.  They told us how they are both refugees from Azerbaijan.  As they were forced to leave the country the Turks were throwing rocks at them and they left with none of their pocessions.

Back to the City!