Russia and LDS missionaries

As a former LDS missionary in St. Petersburg, Russia, I was saddened to learn about the restrictions that Russia is putting on foreigners being allowed to stay in the country lately. It is affecting the missionaries in a big way as no new missionaries from North America are being called to Russia. The speculation, although not commented on by the church, is most likely due to new restrictions placed on visas. As of Oct 2007, all non-Russian citizens must return to their native country every 90 days to renew their Russian visa. As it was, non-Russian missionaries had to leave the country once a year to renew their Russian visas and then travel back to their prospective missions. Not always the recipe for success.

I was called to the Finland Helsinki East mission and arrived in Helsinki in Sept 1991, about 3 weeks after the coup to depose Gorbachev failed. It was a scary time and my mission president, President Gary Browning (God bless him), sent my by myself on a train going from Helsinki to what was then Leningrad (now called St. Petersburg). I was never so scared in my life, when we arrived at the border there were Soviet military with dogs on the train and I was sure they were going to throw me off and leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere. I arrived at the Finlandski Vokzal (pictured on the right) later that evening and the all of the missionaries in Leningrad (12 of them!) were there to see me. Little did I realize I was carrying all of the mail from the mission office that they had not had in almost a month. And I thought they were so happy to have a new Elder in the city . . .

I immediately gave up my visa and passport to a member of the church there to have the proper forms filled out and done for me. They didn't give it back to me for over a week and I was so scared that the police were going to stop me on the streets and ask me for my papers that I didn't have. Later my papers were off to Helsinki to get my visa renewed, it became a constant problem throughout mission with these visas.

Later in my mission I became the 'Visa King' as I was given responsibility for all of the missionaries visas in St. Petersburg. If a missionary visa ran out then it was my responsibility to pay the 'fine' to the proper official to get that renewed. As the AP I became responsible for visas not only in Russia but Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania where we had missionaries. The relations between Russian and the Baltic States were not very cordial so negotiating between these two countries as an American became impossible. We would regularly send sister missionaries who were crossing the border with $200 US dollars in the pockets to bribe any border guard if they ran into any trouble.

With these new visa restrictions in place the work will slow down but will not stop. Russia is afraid and it feels like they are resorting to old tried-and-true Soviet methods to try and stop the floodgate that is open. It won't work, they will just flail helplessly while the Lord moves about his business. Russians are good people and they have seen worse in their time, this too shall pass and the work will go forward. Pray for them and for their leaders. One day Kathryn and I will go back to Russia and it will be a lot of fun, perhaps it will be sooner rather than later but all in good time.

Greg Book Review - Into the Tunnel : The Brief Life of Marion Samuel 1931 - 1943 / Gotz Aly

I picked this book up from the SL Library when I saw it on the recently released shelf and I immediately thought of another book that had a tremendous effect on me in graduate school. At Ohio State, I read a book that helped me to focus on what I thought was going to be my dissertation. The book was This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski, a fictional, although autobiographical, collection of stories about life in Auschwitz. I read this in a Polish literature class at the same time I read Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov, about the Soviet prison camps in Siberia. The raw emotion and incredible decision-making abilities of the characters in each of these books stunned me look few others have in my life. I couldn't imagine making these decisions myself under the circumstances that they faced, reason would have failed me. Into the Tunnel is a similar sort of book, although it is not fiction like the other two books. Gotz Aly had won an award for another book he had written about the Holocaust and he was going to be presented with the award that is named after a faceless death of the concentration camps. Aly wanted to know more about Marion Samuel so he researched everything he could about her and then presented it in this book. Marion Samuel was just another Jewish girl growing up in eastern Germany, near the Polish border, when the Nazi persecutions started affecting her family in the early 1930's. Her family was eventually torn apart, her parents killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and Dachau, along with Marion at the tender age of 12. Aly shows pictures of the family before the Nazi's came to power, German documents showing the repossession of their apartment and the goods contained therein, and a haunting train list with their names on it as they depart to the camps.
Unlike the other concentration camp literature, this one is factual but still left me with the questions of "How did this happen to so many people?" and "How was it possible for one human being to do this to another?" I also found myself saying "Never again, never again." If you want to gain an understanding of what concentration/Soviet gulag camps were like- read these three books plus other works by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Elie Wiesel. Powerful works, you will never be the same.

Conclusion - two somber thumbs up

Accident Update

It has been a week since the accident and it seems that outwardly things have not changed. However, inwardly it has made a world of difference. One of the things that both Kathryn and I were worried about after the accident was the way it would affect the children mentally - would they be afraid of getting in the car, would they be timid and in fear that something bad would happen? Brennan was the child we were most worried about, that boy thinks about things that never occur to us (his latest is what style of tux he will wear to the prom and on his wedding day, he is only 10 now). Our concerns were unfounded as Zachary, Brennan, Lauren, Joshua, and Isaac have all been busy with swimming lessons each day this week and it is a miracle that nobody drowned although Josh came close by diving off the diving board without knowing how to swim back to the side. I think he just wanted some mouth-to-mouth from the cute lifeguard on duty ala The Sandlot. All of the kids have really enjoyed playing with their friends this week, especially Elias, Isaac, Lauren, and Dallin as the kids next door have been very good with them. Many thanks to Kennedi, Bridger, Boo, Mikey, Mason, Shelbi, Jackie, Mike (loved Nanny McPhee, didn't you?), Kori, Nick, Timmy, Dino, Stacey, and a host of others that have watched over and cared for the kids.

Kathryn continues to struggle with her injuries, she has whiplash, a lot of back and neck pain (I swear I am not the cause of the neck pain), a nice bruise on her left hip, and her left hand, particularly her thumb. We visited with our family doctor yesterday and he told her that it will be several months before she begins to feel like she is functioning normally. The muscle relaxants that the hospital and Dr. Abarca have prescribed for her make her very drowsy and has probably slept at least 18 hrs/day since the accident. The first few days she was up for a total of 1-2 hours a day and it has gotten better since then. We continue to pray for her physical recovery and know that will come with time. Her emotional recovery will be a little harder in coming as she tends to take the world on herself - she feels very guilty about the accident and putting the family in danger. I have told her that in her situation I would have reacted the same way. Her brother Dave, who was driving behind us before the accident, nearly did the same things until he saw our vehicle off to the side of the road. The other driver reacted the same way so there is nothing she could have done differently to prevent it under those circumstances. It will take time to sort her feelings out and understand that she did what she could, all things considered. She is charged up about fighting her citation given by the West Jordan police (failure to stop at a blackened intersection). When she called today to get her court date the clerk said it was a red light run citation- couldn't be because there was no light to run in her situation.

We are so grateful for all of those who have called, brought meals, remembered us in their prayers, inquired about our health, and made tremendous sacrifices for our family. We love our family, they have been such a great help during all of this. Our ward has been wonderful, it makes us want to stay here for the rest of our lives and it is good to know that you have friends who will drop what they are doing to attend to your needs no matter how much they have to sacrifice. These are the experiences that build ties that bind us together for eternity, this is what Zion is like and I am so glad to be a part of it. Thanks to all of you. Today, the top picture of Elias and the bottom picture of Isaac are courtesy of them stealing the camera and taking pictures of themselves and each other when we were not looking. The middle picture of Kathryn is her at youth conference during one of the few unstressed moments. We will keep you updated as to how we are doing!

Accident

On Friday night, July 4, the Nelson family was involved in a serious car accident. All of the family was driving home from dinner and fireworks in South Jordan on 7800 South approaching the Bacchus Highway. Kathryn was driving and Greg was in the passenger seat when he noticed something was not right at the intersection. 7800 South that far out is long stretches of dark punctuated by lights where there is something significant - you will assume that it is just another stretch of road if it is dark up ahead. We have driven this route to get home to Tooele for the last 6 years and we chose to do it this night because it offers a spectacular view of the Salt Lake valley and the numerous firework shows. There is a light at the intersection and it usually well-lit by street lights as well but we found out later that they were all completely out. Kathryn and I were confused as we unknowingly entered the intersection - she was expecting to see the traffic light. As soon as I realized that we were in the middle of an intersection without a working traffic light or street lights I told her to go forward and we would turn around and go back to the intersection from the other direction. As I was saying this I saw the other car's headlights about 5 ft from Kathryn's door and knew we were going to hit each other. Kathryn also realized it and turned the wheel slightly to the right - this probably saved her life and Savannah's. Our speed was about 10 mph while the other car was going about 40-50 mph, normal for that part of the road. We impacted on our left front corner and their right front corner, more of a glancing blow than anything and both vehicles were able to pull away from each other.
All of the kids were fine but we were all in a state of shock, I got out to see if the other car was OK and they were shaken as well. I called 911 and the police and fire trucks were there within minutes. Fortunately we had Dave and Stacey plus Julie and Jason behind us as we were going back to Tooele so they stopped as well and helped us to get the kids out of the car. Kathryn was still in her seat but wasn't moving - although she was awake but in a daze. She was complaining of neck and back pain so they took her out on a stretcher and took her to the hospital in South Jordan. Some of the kids went with family to Tooele and the rest went to South Jordan with my parents. I went to the emergency room with my father and Kathryn's parents to see what kind of condition Kathryn was in. Kathryn was diagnosed with some whiplash, some clavicle bruising, and her back will be sore for a while but nothing permanent or serious. We gave her a blessing and were back in Tooele around 2:30 am Saturday morning.
This accident could have been much worse - if Kathryn hadn't turned slightly or had sped up when she saw the car then it would have T-boned us in the intersection and those on that side of the vehicle (Kathryn, Savannah, Dallin, and Isaac) could have been severely hurt. The Lord certainly had his hand in averting a much worse situation and we are so grateful that nobody was seriously injured. We are also extremely grateful to those family members who stepped up and took children, diverted their attention while the paramedics removed Kathryn from the car and I filled out accident information, and watched over us in this situation. We are grateful to the members of the West Jordan police and fire departments for their quick and professional reaction to the accident, they may do this every day but that is what makes them so good. We will get through this and hope to learn the lesson the Lord would have us learn.

Greg Book Review - The Appeal / John Grisham

I love John Grisham books and anxiously await new ones. The Appeal appeared on the shelves of the SLC library recently and I picked it up last week with great expectations.
It is the story of the a small town in Mississippi that has their drinking water polluted by a large chemical company, which resulted in the death of several citizens. One of the widows filed suit against the company and won $43 million in damages. The head of the chemical company does not want to pay and is appealing to the Mississippi Supreme Court but is not certain he will win the appeal. So he makes a deal with a shady, but powerful, company that will finance the campaign of a business-friendly lawyer to be elected to the court. The book goes on to detail the pending appeal and subsequent election of the duped candidate to the court. I won't reveal the ending for those of you who would like to read it.
Grisham's style is one that I enjoy with short chapters, a lot of good, developed characters, very few long diatribes, and varying points of view. The Appeal had all of this and it built up wonderfully to a point at the end but I felt let down at the end. It failed to tie up loose ends and didn't leave me with a good feeling. I can see how this scenario could be entirely possible as more and more public positions are becoming politicized and those with the funds and lack of scruples are willing to do anything to advance their view.
CONCLUSION - One thumb up, one thumb down

Priesthood Video

I ran across a wonderful video earlier this morning and thought I would post it to the blog. It is very well done and has some great clips. The opening with President Kimball reminds me of watching General Conference as a boy, that voice is so distinctive. I hope that you enjoy it as well.

Home for Sale

I know that there are so many of you out there that would love to buy a nice Tooele home for a great price . . . Kathryn and I put our home up for sale last week and we had a 100% increase in the number of people that have looked at the home in comparison to last fall when we had it up for sale. Kathryn and the children worked very hard to clean it up and it looks as good as it has been in a long time. We have a video tour of it so check out the link when you get a moment. Tell all of your friends and neighbors, especially those that are looking for a nice 5 bedroom, 3 bath, great neighborhood, nice yard (100's of roses in bloom right now, the photos don't do it justice), and is close to schools.

Here is the link to the video tour - Video Tour of Greg and Kathryn's Home.