New Sisters, two Senior Couples, and Elder arrive!

 At the airport, welcoming Sisters Ferguson, Braithwaite, Christensen, Allison,

and Elder Schneider

 At the Welcome Dinner in the mission home

 Elder Schneider meets his trainer, Elder Owens

 At the airport with new CES couple, Elder and Sister Walker.

 Just finishing "brownie sundaes" after dinner with the Walkers. Elder and Sister Chandler (office couple),and Elders Lyman and Christensen (Assistants) joined us. Our meals usually include a Russian dish of "beet salad", a favorite with Russians.

This is the big world map on the wall of the mission home. New missionaries (such as the Nygards) typically stay overnight at the mission home their first night in Vladivostok and receive training the next day after a good night's rest...then on to their assigned destinations.

On November 28, we happily received four sisters and one elder at the beautiful, new Vladivostok Airport (built for the September 2012 APEC Summit). We are thrilled to increase our sisters complement to 18 sister missionaries which will be realized by April 2013. Our one elder, Elder Schneider, is from Billings, MT and has been a convert to the church for just over a year. His best friend introduced him to the church. Our sister missionaries come from Mesa, AZ (Sister Allison), Placerville, CA (Sister Christensen), Highland, UT (Sister Braithwaite), and American Fork, UT (Sister Ferguson). They are a wonderful addition to the missionaries serving in this part of the world.

On December 12, we welcomed Elder and Sister Walker who hail from Idaho Falls, ID. They are a CES couple who will be in charge of Institute and Seminary in the mission and will be headquartered in Vladivostok. On December 14, Elder and Sister Nygard, of Rigby, Idaho, arrived. They have already flown to Irkutsk where they will serve as the senior couple there. This next week, we will receive 3 new elders, 1 new sister, and another couple. More about them in an upcoming post!