Lots of Stuff in this Post

Hello family and friends. This post has lots of updates on our first day in Vladivostok! Lots of pictures provided by Katie (as she had promised). In advance, I must apologize that some of the pictures are oriented wrong. I am not on my own computer, and blogger keeps putting all my menus in Russian, so I haven't been able to get them rotated. I am really sorry, but at least Katie took nice pictures for us.

First, here is a picture from JFK airport before we headed out. Notice that we do not look travel worn or jet lagged. 

After two very long flights, we did arrive, meet the sisters and Father Myron, and make our way to the church. Once we arrived, all of our jetlag melted away for a few moments as the beautiful church came into view. 

Coming up the walkway near the church, it suddenly came into view

Here is the front of the church

Here is the inside of the church. On either side there are beautiful stain glass windows devoted to Mother Mary.

And here is the team posing in the church. 

After getting all settled in and eating a very nice lunch with Father, the sisters, and the seminarians here, the team hit the town to do some sight seeing. We went to the station where the Trans Siberian Railway ends, did a little shopping, saw the bay, and got a nice view of the city while riding to and from the train station on the city bus. The sisters here make excellent tour guides. Here is a picture of all of the men on the team looking very "stoic" for the camera. 

So needless to say we had an eventful first day. After the tour we returned to church, had exposition for an hour, then Mass. Dinner was just as filling as lunch, but by then the team was really dragging from the long flights followed by a pretty fun day. Tyler ended dinner with a few announcements then a rallying "OK Lets go to bed!" Most of the team is now asleep or preparing for tomorrow. Now that we are finally here and all set up, the real work can begin. 

As always please continue to pray for us. This is gonna be great!