A reunion for senior couples who had served in the Europe East Area as humanitarian missionaries was hosted by John and Frances Holmes in Lehi, Utah, on April 3rd. The next evening, the Holmes invited to their home the senior couples who had served in Moscow during the time the Holmes were there, and we appreciate being included.
Our hosts, John and Frances Holmes,
came to Moscow to replace us as the Area Welfare Specialists
when we completed our mission.
Although we met them in person for the first time at this reunion,
we had Skyped with them before leaving Moscow
to help with the transition and had prepared a
notebook with information we hoped would be useful.
We enjoyed meeting them in their home.
Unfortunately, I did not take my camera to the reunion the first evening; but we enjoyed visiting with humanitarian couples we had served with and provided training and
support. It was nice seeing the Abneys (met them for the first time at
the reunion, but had planned on meeting them in Egypt on our
Mediterranean cruise in 2010); Blotters (Yerevan, Armenia); Burtons
(replaced us as Country Directors for Russia); Fifields (Izmir, Turkey);
Holmes (replaced us as Area Welfare Specialists); Looslies (Istanbul,
Turkey); Wades (Minsk, Belarus); and Wellings (Astana, Kazakhstan).
The following photos were taken April 4 at the reunion with the missionary couples who had served in Moscow.
Clark Mason (left) visiting with
Arva and LaVere Burton, who had
replaced us in Moscow living in our apartment and
working in the Service Center.
At the end of our mission,
several changes were made in the Area office.
Vlad Nechiporov had been called to be
a new mission president and his
humanitarian administrative responsibilities
were taken over by David Stapley, the DTA,
with the humanitarian work divided
between the Holmes (Europe East Area) and the
Burtons (Russia Country Directors).
Also, the church began using a new software program
to keep track of humanitarian projects.
John Homes and Renee Mason
Renee's husband, Clark (pictured above with the Burtons),
was the Area Auditor in the Service Center in Moscow.
Rose Marie Childs (left) and Les Childs (right)
have been adopted into the Moscow group
after helping to host our Moscow senior couples reunion
in 2010 in Cedar City. They had become acquainted
with some of the senior couples in Moscow while serving in Samara.
They are a fun couple and did a wonderful job
with our 2010 reunion, and it was nice seeing them again.
Sandy and Dennis Rasmussen
They began their mission as the office couple
for the Moscow West Mission, but then later
were reassigned to serve in another city.
Sandy Rasmussen, Linda Rees, Andrea Cranney,
and Frances Holmes
Linda and Steve Rees live in Salem and
picked us up to go with them
on April 4th for the Moscow Reunion.
Steve had been the Area doctor.
Andrea is President Cranney's wife, the former mission president
of the Moscow Mission. As mentioned above,
Sandy and her husband served in the Moscow West Mission;
and Frances served in the Area office with her husband, John.
Sam is visiting with Steve Rees and Charles Cranney.
Steve's wife and Charles' wife are in the preceding photo.
Steve had replaced Dr. McCune as the Area doctor,
and President Cranney was the mission president for
the Moscow Mission while we were in Russia.
We began our mission assigned to the
Moscow West Mission with President Collins;
but when the boundaries were changed, we became
part of President Cranney's mission.
It was nice reuniting with those couples Sam and I had served with during our mission, and we also enjoyed meeting those who came after our mission ended.
