Hello from a convert

[rusalka]

Hi! Just wanted to quickly introduce myself. I am a convert to the Church of a little over a year. I got married at my one-year mark at the Rexburg LDS Temple. I love the Book of Mormon; it has changed my life. I am very grateful that I have found the Church, and that my questions about life have been answered. I would like to have a wonderful and loving eternal family.

I am Russian, came to the States with my mother at age 14, since she got married to an American. Spent about 7.5 years in Florida, went to school there, and got introduced to the Church my last semester of college. Now I live in Provo with my husband.

I studied languages, so I am also fluent in German. I like to read and to draw, and I enjoy doing the outdoors stuff. Don't know what else to say :) I am interested in building a strong family and truly living thee Gospel. Nice to meet you all!

[LocalFarms]

Welcome Ruskala. Does your nickname mean something in russian?

[confuzzled]

Hello and welcome!!

[Roseslipper]

hello and welcome. It is nice to meet you. Some of my family comes from Russia as well. Im happy that you were introduced into the church and now your a member and been to the temple. I think thats wonderful. Looking forward to getting to know you.

[rusalka]

Thank you, everyone! "Rusalka" means "mermaid" in Russian, and I have always had some kind of attachment to the fairy tale about the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but the one by Andersen). So it seemed like a fitting forum name.

Pretty much all of my family is still in Russia, and I am finding doing family history a little difficult in that respect.

[LocalFarms]

Wonderful, I learn something new every day.

[personne]

Hello and welcome M'dame .. I also love this story(Andersen).I studied one year at school, I only remember the rest of the songs .. it was too difficult. have a excellent day..M'dame.

[rusalka]

Thank you! It's hard to learn for many people, I have helped other students to learn it while in college, so I could see that. The story is truly beautiful, even though it is sad. It's great to meet someone from France!

[Connie]

Hi! Welcome to the site! Nice to meet you! There is a Russian lady in our ward. She translates The Friend magazine into Russian and makes the most amazing bread. My hubby is her home teacher, which i love because she tends to send him home with a freshly made loaf of bread. So yummy. And, of course, she has an ultra cool accent.

Greetings from Southern Utah and hope you enjoy your time on the site.

[MisterT]

Priyat, Droog!

[Nelly]

Hello there! :). Did you have a nice time in Florida? I'm a native :) I hope you enjoy your time here =)

[Roseslipper]

nelly what part of fla do u live in??? i live there too.

[Nelly]

nelly what part of fla do u live in??? i live there too.

Orlando Area. :)

[GregO]

hey glad im not the only new one here, kia ora from New Zealand

[GregO]

whats it like in flordia all i know is that its hot, and they have loads of oranges or something, and dont the have a disneyland??

[rusalka]

Hi, Connie! Thank you and nice to meet you too! That's cool about the lady. I wish I can work for the Church and help out with translation some day! Right now I volunteer at the MTC, so I get some translation done that way.

MisterT, privet! Do you speak a little Russian? :)

[rusalka]

Nelly, wow, I was in the Orlando area too. That's great to meet someone from there! I thought the climate was a little too hot, other than that it was good. Nice to meet you!

GregO, yes, it's hot and humid, and there is a big Disney World. It's a few parks all together, and there are also 2 Universal Studios theme parks. I liked those a little better.

[MisterT]

I have some friends that were Soviet Naval Officers; I used to spend a lot of time with them and picked up a few words here and there; along with an appreciation for sala, Borscht, Plov, and black bread with mother-in-law mustard. :)

[rusalka]

I have some friends that were Soviet Naval Officers; I used to spend a lot of time with them and picked up a few words here and there; along with an appreciation for sala, Borscht, Plov, and black bread with mother-in-law mustard. :)

That's cool. I like borscht and cook it pretty often; my husband likes it too. I like introducing people to food that they've never had before. Plov is another good dish, but salo I cannot stand, seems pretty icky to me :) I miss good mustard though.

It's nice to meet you!

[MisterT]

Its nice to meet you as well.

There's some really good Russian markets down by Chicago where I can get traditional raw salo and the boiled version; I prefer the raw stuff myself. I like the chewy fattyness of it.

I also really like the dried carp and sturgeon I can get down there; its especially good when there's roe inside.

I've gotten pretty darn good at making Borscht; I do it about once a month and I make enough to freeze a few extra bowls.. when I don't eat it all at once.

Being in Milwaukee isn't so good when it comes to ethnic foods; there's a very small asian, russian, persian, and eastern european population, but very few stores. When I want something I can't get up here I have to drive the 2 hours to chitown.

I was stationed in Germany way back when, then Korea, Japan, and Central America; I used to eat my way around the world; there are very few types of food I can't stand, I'll pretty much eat anything I can get into my mouth, alive, dead, raw, or cooked. I'm an equal opportunity gourmand.

[rusalka]

Its nice to meet you as well.

There's some really good Russian markets down by Chicago where I can get traditional raw salo and the boiled version; I prefer the raw stuff myself. I like the chewy fattyness of it.

I also really like the dried carp and sturgeon I can get down there; its especially good when there's roe inside.

I've gotten pretty darn good at making Borscht; I do it about once a month and I make enough to freeze a few extra bowls.. when I don't eat it all at once.

Being in Milwaukee isn't so good when it comes to ethnic foods; there's a very small asian, russian, persian, and eastern european population, but very few stores. When I want something I can't get up here I have to drive the 2 hours to chitown.

I was stationed in Germany way back when, then Korea, Japan, and Central America; I used to eat my way around the world; there are very few types of food I can't stand, I'll pretty much eat anything I can get into my mouth, alive, dead, raw, or cooked. I'm an equal opportunity gourmand.

The last thing made me laugh! I love food myself, but I am not a big meat person, just never have really eaten it much. But I really enjoy fish, so I can relate to that. Caviar is good too. I like the salted dry fish, and in Russia it's mostly a beer snack, although I obviously don't use it for that purpose. I just like to eat it.

I like all kinds of seafood, especially squid-related things. Dried, canned, in salad, boiled, fried. I am still new to our area here, so I haven't found any good ethnic food sources. In Orlando there was always an abundance, for example, there was a huge Asian supermarket that sold live fish, crab, eel, etc.

I spent time in Germany as well, went there on an exchange a couple of years ago for a semester. I liked the food there too. Although I will never forget the time when I ordered something seemingly ordinary in a restaurant and got a huge piece of roasted pig. German cookies were the best though.

I love to cook and try new things overall too.

[MisterT]

Roasted pig... probably was Spanfeckle, one of my favorites.

I eat a primarily vegeterian diet most of the year with a fair amount of seafood; practically the only time I eat red meat is during hunting season when I take a few Antelope and a deer or two.

I'm really into south-east asian cuisine; primarily Vietnamese and northern Thai; I love the vegeterian curries and spicy vegetables; plus Vietnamese Pho soup is pretty awesome.

I used to drink (a lot) and I'd get salted fish, pickeled tomatoes, Baltika #4, Youri Dolgoruki vodka, and a big plate of Plov and have myself quite a night..

[rusalka]

I think the pig was called Bauernbraten, peasant roast. Could definitely be something related to Spanfeckle.

I have never had Pho soup, but I love curry too. I have some very good Pakistani friends (we all lived in the dorm during my German program) and they cooked with it a lot. That's how I got into food from that region too. I really enjoy it.

Thai is very good. I have attempted making it, but I think I need a little more practice with it still. We are thinking about getting a fishing license soon (when the semester ends) and trying out some of our own catch, and I really don't mid cleaning and scaling the fish either. I also like the idea of getting/catching my own food.

Pickled tomatoes are the best. My grandpa liked the Baltika stuff, don't remember which number.

[MisterT]

Pickled tomatoes are really good; so are pickled celery, onions, and turnip greens.

I sure miss sauerbraten and jagerschnitzel; there are some fine German restaurants here in Milwaukee (Maders and Carl Rausch), but I can't afford to go there more than once a year. Its not hard to drop $200 on a meal at those places.

[Nelly]

Nice to meet you too Rusalka :).

I agree with you Rusalka it does get hot and humid during the summer time.

So that answers that question there GregO. & yes of course we have Disneyworld. Also as Rusalka said we also have Universal Studios, Islands of Adventures, FunSpot, Wonderworks, Busch Gardens and Sea world. =).

It's very green here.. it doesn't have much of a 'fall look' around the fall or winter time. Although it was the coldest winter we had so far this year.

So cool Rusalka :) I hope you're enjoying doing some MTC translation as well =).