cookies, cookies, and more cookies...

Sister Packard had a great (BIG) idea. A lot of the Russian missionaries are the only members of the church in their families. Some of their parents are not very supportive of their missionary son or daughter. One day while making chocolate chips cookies with Sister Elistratova, a young sister missionary from Russia, one of the senior sisters asked if she thought her mother would like some cookies. "YES! and maybe my mom will be happpy for me." So, to make a long story short, each senior sister was asked to make 4 to 6 dozen cut out sugar cookies so the Russian missionaries could send some (18) home to their families and all missionaries could deliver some to their investigators. Great idea! The adventure begins! I do not have a rolling pin (and have not been able to find one thus far) so I used a can (of spray starch) to roll out the cookie dough! I could only bake 9 cookies at a time and my oven does not heat up to temperature but those were only minor obstacles to overcome. The cookies turned out great! The missionaries all came to the Central Building on their p-day, December 1st, to decorate them. The Russian missionaries each wrote testimonies to put with their cookies to send to their families. The testimony that Sister Elistratova wrote was many pages long - she wanted to share her feelings about the Savior and her love of the gospel and "it just took that much paper to bare my testimony to my family!"

Elder Larsen with his cookies for investigators.

Sister Johnson's snowman

cookies...
cookies...
and more cookies!
From the creative hands of Sister Barash, Sister Elistratova, Elder Bogdanov, Elder Bruev, Elder Nikolaichev, Sister Martyanova, Sister Trunova, Elder Baldakov, Sister Vizitiv, Sister Khmelinina, Elder Perfilyev - the Russian missionaries.