Yesterday the temperature was 98 degrees. Today a cool front blew in and it only got up to 55, and the low was 40.

Friday & Saturdays are wedding days.  Every time we passed the war memorial there would be a new wedding party taking pictures.  It is a tradition to leave flowers there to remember those who lost their lives in the war.  We were told every family in Barnaul lost family members in WWII.

While I was taking a picture of a bride and groom, all of a sudden a car caught on fire right in front of us.  The poor guy who owned the car was trying to put it out.  I was afraid it was going to blow up with him right beside it!  Engulfed in flames, the fire truck arrived and the guy grabbed the hose to put out the fire himself, while the firemen stayed in the truck.

Since we found out Russian sushi is good, we ate it again for lunch to celebrate Natasha's birthday.  Restaurants have very slow service and no one ever gets their food at the same time.  So some finish eating before others get their food.  Now we were running late to make it to a violin concert that Joseph & Sonya's son, Mason was performing in.  Natasha said it wasn't far.  That is a relative term in Russia...we ended up running without stopping for 20 minutes to make it on time after Joseph said the doors were about to be closed.  You can't get in after a performance starts.  It was now 40 degrees outside and Mac was sweating.

Next walk was to buy handmade scarves and then on to Arkasha & Natasha's flat to eat birthday cake & ice cream.  Then one more breezy walk back to hotel to counsel with more church members.  They are so hungry for guidance.  People wanted to meet with us even while we were packing.  We finally had to say that was all we could do and prayed over them and said our goodbyes.  There will be more conversations with them on Skype in the future to continue encouraging them as they lay the foundation for their CR.