Wednesday, June 20, 2012

June 20, 2012

The Euro Cup 2012 has brought a lot of things to a standstill in this country. Many of the locals who can afford to have gone on vacation or to their dachas (summer homes). With all of the holidays in May and June plus World Cup, we are learning to be patient and wait to accomplish some of our tasks. One thing that is always open is the temple. This week a group of sixty traveled sixty hours by train (and not the Orient Express) from Novosibirsk, Russia to do work for their ancestors for the week. To quote Elder Holland, “Now,  I don’t know what it would be like to be on a train for 60 hours, but I do know that some people complain if they have to drive sixty minutes to get to the temple.” Yes, that was probably me before this mission, but never again. I won’t even complain about the hour metro/bus ride to get there. Four sisters received their temple endowments yesterday while I was there.  It was such a wonderful experience to see the joy this brought to them.

Gary and I traveled again to Lutsk this weekend. I was one of the speakers but the other speaker didn’t show up so Gary filled in and of course did a fantastic job with no preparation. I had spent all week getting ready. I did pass one milestone. I bore a very simple testimony in Russian. I kind of felt like Peter stepping out of the boat (Oh thou of little faith) and going one step on the water and sinking.   Maybe next time I will be able to take two. There are a lot of really quirky things when you learn a foreign language. Say a word with the accent on one syllable and it means one thing, on another syllable and it means another. For instance, redeemer means “to save” if you say it one way and “to kill” if you say it another. Just a little difference. It was a wonderful day and we love the branch and the missionaries. The missionaries had us for lunch and believe me, I am gaining an even greater appreciation for missionaries and the conditions in which they live. Senior missionaries get much better living conditions. I really appreciate my apartment. We had a great rice dish and then they taught me all the things I could do to save money on groceries.  Even though it is a ten hour drive, I love every minute of it.

The countryside here is totally enchanting. The drive to Lutsk makes me feel like I am walking through one of my favorite novels by L.M. Montgomery. As we pass by the little villages at 6:00 AM we are able to observe the simple lifestyle of the people in the villages in northwest Ukraine. Their cottages are simple but neat, surrounded with seasonal flowers which are now roses, hollyhocks, daisies, delphiniums and poppies.  There are trees that shade the little homes and then their gardens are amazing.  Little square plots of potatoes, tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, and in the bigger gardens even wheat. There are chickens visible in the yards and even an occasional goat. A babushka is working in the garden, picking berries, or gathering eggs, always in a dress. It reminds me of the ‘50’s when our mothers wore housedresses all day, even to mop the floors.  The morning light captures the wonder of this lifestyle.

Later on you will see a single dairy cow or a small herd of cows being led to pasture. Sometimes there will be a man or a woman walking and leading with a rope, sometimes a person on a bicycle leading a cow or cows to pasture and sometimes they are led by a horse drawn wagon. Men are raking the hay in stacks by hand. Just over the hill comes a hay wagon loaded with hay. Where there is a visible stream running through the village women are washing clothes, to be dried later by hanging them on a line strung between trees. There is a distinct feeling of living close to the earth and being sustained by what God provides.  Since we are all sustained by what God provides it is sad that we get too busy to notice that in our lives.





The barns are small but picturesque. An open door into the loft reveals a supply of hay. In the fields  people are harvesting crops by hand and the new, rich, dark soil is being tilled for yet another crop with a horse drawn plow.   

There is a peaceful calm about the way they live.  It is almost like watching it in slow motion, even going 120 KPH down the road. We are in a car, but there are no cars to be seen off the main road and no roads except those made by horse and wagon in the villages. Neighbors stand visiting over fences and later in the day when all the chores are done you see them sitting on common benches that have been placed outside of their fenced yards. This is such an opposite lifestyle of what we observe in the city.  

Even though it is only the 16th of June the potatoes are blooming and the corn is much higher than knee high. The garden plots outside of the villages look like beautiful patchwork quilts. There are the same crops as in the smaller gardens. It is a delight to drive along and observe hundreds of these patchwork quilts. Further out in the country the wheat fields stretch for miles. New crops are added. Sunflowers (just starting to bloom), canola fields which have given Ukraine their flag (canola fields against blue sky) and most magnificent of all, the bright red poppy fields.  Pictures cannot portray the beauty of these fields nor words describe. 





The mode of transportation is mostly walking, but then there are a lot of horse drawn wagons and bicycles. In the countryside there are a lot more bicycles on the road than cars. It is funny to see parents  “pumping” their children on the back fender or the “sissy” bar of their bikes.  No fancy pull along little children carriers.  

I love the willow woven fences and the picket fences. 

On the drive home in the evening we saw many cows staked randomly in the pastures and several empty wagons in the fields with their horses untethered and grazing. Where did the farmers go? Every river, every pond, and every stream you can observe fishermen enjoying their day, but I am sure expected to bring home a great catch for dinner. No catch and release in this country. Also there are people along the roadside selling whatever they have in excess, which isn’t much.  Maybe a few jars of  blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, herbs, mushrooms, whatever. They are enjoying each other’s company and happy when someone stops to make a purchase. Other people are now returning from the fields. A horse-drawn wagon with an older man and woman hurries across the highway(as fast as a horse can pull them) as cars race along at 120 kmh. I can feel the wives fear at her husband’s daring move. I really want to escape to the village and live there for about a week.

Our driver’s wife is visiting her grandparents in the country and in two weeks when we go back we will pick her up and I will get to see inside one of these quaint cottages. There are no roads but just a wagon path to their home so that will also be interesting.

Back to city life and one more interesting story from the week.  In April, Denton and Daisie sent Gary a jar of Costco Smoked Almonds for his birthday. Well, it had been two months since they sent it and we hadn’t received it. I probably would've just forgotten it, but they paid $25 to mail it so it was a $35 jar of almonds, so I decided to take the bull by the horns and see what had happened to those almonds. It took going to three post offices that were situated in a fairly close proximity to Gary’s office before we found the package. The post office was about 1200 square feet. A little counter and then a back room.  In the area where the counter was there were several large bins filled with letters. The back room was filled with similar bins and no sign of an automatic sorter. After Gary showed his passport they retrieved his package. I was feeling hopeful so in as few words possible (don’t know that much Russian) I asked if they had the two letters that we also hadn’t received. They went to the back room and started sorting through one of the bins. In about five minutes it turned the magical hour of 2:00 PM.  They kicked us out of the post office, locked the doors and all left for lunch. Later I learned that postal workers expect to be tipped and we hadn’t done that so I don’t know if I will ever see those other letters. One thing that has been amazing is that we have received letters at our apartment. The first few took about three weeks, the next one ten days, and the last one we received in 6 days. I think we have a little better service than downtown.

And to close this blog ……a quote from President Joseph F. Smith. “We are told that we should remember Him in our homes, keep His holy name fresh in our minds, and revere Him in our hearts; we should call upon Him from time to time, from day to day; and, in fact, every moment of our lives we should live so that the desires of our hearts will be a prayer unto God for righteousness, for truth, and for the salvation of the human family.”

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