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We are off to Vanadzor again today. We've been teaching a self-employment workshop up there on Wednesdays to 10 people - tonight is the final class. It's about a 2 hour drive by taxi from Yerevan and this time we hope to get some pictures along the way. Northern Armenia is very beautiful and I will prove it with some good shots next time I post if we can get out of here in time this afternoon. We are hoping to leave the office by 2:30, but I'm getting my haircut at 2:00 - so who knows what time we'll actually be able to leave? My hair is driving me crazy - time for a cut for sure! It's a real challenge to communicate with non-English speaking hairdressers, so it's hard to tell what the outcome will be. Last time, I told her to leave the back longish and she zinged it off shorter than ever! If it turns out okay - I may post a picture of the results - otherwise - I'll stay behind the camera! :) Wish me luck!!

Botannical Garden

Dad and Gagik picking and eating mulberries - very plentiful here and throughout the city. Some of the mulberry trees are very large and make a sticky mess all over the sidewalks as the berries ripen and fall. There are 3 varieties: black, white, and red.

Don't know what these are, but thought they were too pretty to pass up.

Smoke bush in all its glory!

The Tadevosyans - Gagik is a former Branch President and a retired Yerevan State University professor of Applied Mathematics. Zhenya made us terrific dolma (rice meat mixture rolled in grape leaves and steamed - very tasty!). We ate lunch at their apartment after our garden tour.

Here we are on Wednesday morning - our first time to the Botannical Garden here in Yerevan. You can see the top of Ararat behind us. The garden wasn't spectacular or anything like that, but it is big and we enjoyed the fresh morning air and country-like setting - it was a nice break from city traffic and views.

We enjoyed a returned missionary fireside at President Dunn's on Saturday night. The young man in the foreground is Grigor - he just got home this last winter from his mission in Ukraine. These young men and women are the future of the Church here in Armenia - if we can just get them to stay here! We've lost 6 RMs just this last month to the U.S.

Our lunch! The sister with the curly hair, Ani, has her mission call and will report to the MRC the first of July. She is going to the Russia Rostov Mission.

Our District RS President - Sister Sahteneek (in pink) - her daughter recently married a returned missionary who served here and is now living in Orem. They are being sealed this month and Sister Sahteneek received her visa Friday, so she will be there for their sealing and will visit with them for 2 weeks. She is very happy!

These 2 sisters asked me to take their picture. We had a District RS activity on Saturday - it was held outdoors mostly - we did a sewing project, played some games, and had refreshments.

Our office is brightened by these beautiful roses one of our returned sister missionaries brought to us last week. She picked them from her family's garden.