No Matter What Life Deals, You Can Play an Excellent Hand

Early this morning we left Sokol for the outskirts of Moscow to meet one Vladimir Prischepa a retired rocket scientist, the Packards, and Olga our talented translator to all head out of town to Vladimir's dacha (Russian country home or garden). It was a site to see. After spending days in the Moscow Metro system and seeing huge buildings and streets and subways packed with people and cars, suddenly we found ourselves in the open air and scenic pastoral land known as the dacha. After visiting one you can really appreciate why Russians love to retreat to them during the summer months. They are quiet peaceful areas where you can tend a garden and escape the city. Today's visit to the country was not the only refreshing moment of our visit. Meeting with Vladimir, a recent convert to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was truly invigorating. On top of his cheerful quirky expressions, Vladimir's spirit of humility and kindness is really contagious. As a small child of only three and a half years, Vladimir was baptized into a christian church by his mother to save his life and protect him from being suspected a Jew during the Nazi occupation of Belarus in 1942. Unfortunately, in 1944 he and his family were eventually sent to a concentration camp in Dresden Germany in 1944. After the war his family returned to their home only to find it had been burned. Despite having suffered these hardships, Vladimir believes that God protected him. After the war he was able to go to school in Ukraine and earn exceptional grades that led him to higher education in Russia and ultimately to becoming a rocket engineer. During his career he has amassed a staggering 70 patents, helped send some of the first cosmonauts to space, designed rocket engines, and made many accomplishments in engineering--yet you would never know it by being around him. We truly appreciated spending our day with this humble man of faith.

Here are some shots of the crew.