Last night our young women made dinner for the Branch leaders. Here pictured are Diana (an investigator), Reima, and Ani - they are sisters.

This is the Chobanyan family on the day of Astrik's baptism. The parents are Armen and Gayane (our YW president). Astrik is often the only child at Primary on Sundays - she and I have a good time doing activities together between Sacrament Meeting and RS. She is very bright and understands some English - her Dad has very good English skills. I am one of Gayane's visiting teachers - they live in a village outside of Yerevan. The last time we were at their home, we were served ice cold apricot nectar. It was so delicious, I made the mistake of exclaiming how good it was - then she absolutely insisted I take a big 3 liter jug of it home with me - and now she has promised as soon as apricot season comes we will have more - so generous of her! Great family!

These are our missionaries, Elders Larson and Ellison - the guy in the middle is Iranian - great guy! We like him so much! Elder Larson had a lung collapse in the MTC in March - but he recovered quickly from the surgery and came with his group as planned. We love our missionaries - they have several investigators at Church every week!!

More pictures from T'bilisi - the top one is the Parliament Building - many protestors there in the evenings. I don't know what the other building is - I just thought it looked interesting.

We went by this McDonald's while in T'bilisi Georgia a couple of weeks ago - I just had to snap a picture!

Thanksgiving "Armenia Style"

Sister & Elder Dow, Sister & Elder Dutson (office couple), Kate (Peace Corps volunteer), Sister & Elder Smith, Jim Campbell (standing - Gold's Gym project manager), and Cliff Barton (USAID).

Here we are 27 November 2008 at the Hotel Marriott Armenia. The menu wasn't traditional Thanksgiving - more like elegant gourmet - we enjoyed it all.

I am finding that missionary duties often get in the way of blogging - I check all our kids' blogs every time I get a chance, but finding time to actually blog myself is rare. For the first several months we were here, our internet connection was sporadic, and now that it has improved over the last couple of months, we have been busy doing remote workshops in Gyumri (Northern Armenia) and T'bilisi Georgia. Next week we do a 3 day career workshop in the village of Ashtarak - about 40 minutes from here. We were invited by our Mission President and his wife to a 7:00 PM Thanksgiving dinner at the Marriott Hotel Restaurant in Republic Square here in Yerevan. I am trying to post some pictures Sister Dunn took as we were arriving that night, but my computer is not cooperating. I'll try again when I get time.