Moscow evenings

I went for another run last night in the park next to our aparment building. I love our area--so beautiful! Covered in trees and little paths that cross every which way.

It was so nice out (if a little chilly), so I decided to do some of my reading outside. I went upstairs, grabbed my keys and scriptures, and started out the door. Sergei asked where I was going, and I told him it was so nice that I'd decided to sit and read for awhile. He told me it was too late and would be getting dark, but I told him it still seemed light and I wouldn't be gone for long. It was light for another good hour or so, even though it was 10:00 pm!

As I was sitting reading with my head rested against my hand, I heard a man call something out to me from the sidewalk. I was sitting on the steps of the apartment building next to us, so I was afraid he was going to yell at me for sitting on cold cement (Russians are very superstitious about this--they think you'll go barren). But when I looked up and asked what he'd said, he asked if I was okay. "Yah, I'm just reading." "Oh, I thought maybe someone had offended you, and you were upset. Sorry to bother you." We ended up talking for a few minutes. Very nice man. His name is Vadislav, and he moved to Moscow for work. He is from Central Russia. He asked what I was reading and I told him that it was in English, that is was my scriptures (which is holy writings in Russian). He told me that just that day he had seen some holy book at work and leafed through a few pages. "Damn. I can't remember what it was called. The Lord help me to remember." Which I thought was mildly funny. "The Bible?" "No, something else." "The Qaran?" "No, something about Indians." "The Book of Mormon?" Come on, I had to ask :) "No." "Krishna?" "Yes, yes, that's it!" So we talked a little about sacred writings, and I asked if he was a believer (which usually means Christian). He answered that he "was Russian--so, Orthodox, but Orthodox how? Like the rest." I told him that I loved the Orthodox cathedrals and had been to a few. I showed him a picture of the Salt Lake temple, and told him that was my church's temple in Utah. He told me about a beautiful cathedral from his home town that had stood in Soviet times, but it sounded like it had either been closed up or torn down. After talking a bit, he took off to leave showing me the vodka bottle in his hand, half-concealed up his sleeve and told me he was off for a smoke. "Perhaps I'll run into you again," I said, "Nice meeting and talking with you." "The world is round. Do you have that phrase? Any way it means who knows? We'll see. Again, sorry to have bothered you, I just thought maybe someone had offended you." We said our goodbyes and I decided it was probably about time to head home.

Half way to my door, I heard a guy yelling out if I knew what time it was, kind of following behind me. I turned, showed him I didn't have a watch, and said sorry that I didn't know what time it was. He looked defeated and turned to go. I took a few steps forward, then turned around and said, "It's probably around 10:30, I'd guess." So he took courage at this and started up a conversation. "I wanted to come talk to you, but I was too shy," he said after asking where I was from and introducing himself. "Oh, that's okay." He was very nice, and may come and hang out with some of my friends tonight.

Also, Alexei from Ulyanovsk called to see if I was hanging around where Akuli was playing. Glad to see that's the new cool spot to chill haha

Collated the new mission president training manuals, so got a good half-day in at work. Now it's noon, and I'm taking the rest of the day off to go with the study abroad students to Trinity Cathedral!