August 1, 2012

We have now been in Kyiv for 4 months.  Gary celebrated the occasion by bringing home the most beautiful bouquet of sunflowers ($12.00) and taking me to Domino’s Pizza for two-for-the-price-of-one night. We feel so blessed to have adjusted to this lifestyle so easily as it is totally different from how we lived in Pocatello.

Anniversary Sunflower Bouquet!

The first adjustment was not having a car. You really have to think of so many things ahead of time when you don’t have the convenience of a car;  for instance, how to bring about 50 pounds of groceries up the hill a mile without a car. Well, you get a little babushka cart and forget about who sees you as you trudge up the hill. Next, you have to leave for your destination not just five or ten minutes early but thirty to ninety minutes early. If you want to ask directions there are not many people you can trust. They all think they know what you are asking but they really have no clue and are just trying to be nice. The other day we were once again searching for a restaurant that Gary has heard about since we got here.  (The Arizona – Mexican) Well, once we got in the general vicinity we asked some policemen on the street thinking they might know. Well, even though Ukraine wants English and not Russian as their second language, no one speaks English. The three policemen that we asked for the directions just shrugged their shoulders. A little babushka came out of nowhere and indicated the way to the restaurant. After we had walked about 5 blocks (Salt Lake City Blocks) she came bustling after us to tell us we had made the wrong turn. She was going to take us there. As she refused to be photographed from the front I got a rear shot of her leading Gary totally astray. Back down the street for four blocks and yes, to a restaurant but definitely not the one Gary had in mind. It was so hot that day but we still got a big laugh out of our gullibility. She didn’t speak a word of English and just kept yapping a mile a minute to Gary in Russian. It was hilarious. We never did find the restaurant we wanted and that will definitely have to wait for another day.

Gary being escorted to the Arizona...or maybe not!

Jobs I have definitely decided that I would never want.  Meat market lady – the smell drives me crazy just walking by the market let alone having to stand there all day selling fresh meat. Metro train driver - I can’t even imagine being underground driving through tunnels all day in the little engineer’s compartment and never knowing what was going on in the real world. Just seeing those masses of people waiting at each station and hoping you won’t crush someone trying to catch the train after the announcement “the doors are closing”.  Those doors have no mercy. 

Saturday in lieu of hiring a driver and going to Chernobyl we opted to go to the Chernobyl Museum with the Stuarts.   It was really quite depressing.  Over two and a half million people were affected by the nuclear explosion and it is really uncounted how many are still being effected by the leaking radiation. Lucky for Kyiv the wind was blowing toward Poland, Russia and Latvia when the explosion occurred as Kyiv is less than sixty miles downwind from this place. Actually you are not allowed to even get out of your car or bus if you go there. It looks like a ghost town (see pictures). A survivor of Chernobyl that has written a book about it was there giving a lecture and had an interpreter so we were very fortunate to get to hear about it by the translator.   

Before and after pictures

Chernobyl Museum

Gary and the jeeps outside museum

Marcia and Karlene in front of museum

We met the nicest man named Steve Hudson from Georgia (USA) at the museum.  When we told him we were missionaries he was so interested in all that we were doing and in the fact that we have a temple here.  He has been to Utah and amazingly drove to Manti to see the temple there and couldn’t believe we had such a large beautiful temple in such a small town.  He is Baptist but if anyone out there knows any missionary headed to Georgia you might put him on your list.  We gave him a pass along card and Mormon.org card.  He was headed back to the US the next day; just here on business.  A month ago I also ran into a man from Boise that was here on some business with radio towers.  His attorney was Mike Rowe which was really amazing that you would run into someone half way around the world that has someone from Moffatt Thomas as his attorney.  Small world….isn’t it.
Gary's work has really picked up this week. His wrist is doing much better and that is a good thing. It was also great that his accident happened during a low work period before the onslaught. It is definitely an interesting business he is in; too bad that it is all confidential or you could hear a few unbelievable stories.


We went to Lutsk on Sunday and had a great time. There are now two sister missionaries there along with Elder Ciminski and Elder Callister. The Sisters Smith and Irizarry fixed us lunch after church. Elder Callister had also made some garlic cheese biscuits that were like the ones at Red Lobster – sort of. I had baked some amazingly good brownies and they were a real hit; especially with our driver. He had four brownies piled high with ice cream.    The branch there is doing great. It is amazing that there are several people that come to church every Sunday and have for many years. They participate in all the discussions, prayers, classes etc. but have not yet been baptized. We’re hoping that they will soon be able to participate in all the blessings of the gospel that being baptized can bring them. 

Gary's new secret pond

Heading down the highway

King of Bunker Hill

House on the way to Lutsk

Lunch with the missionaries

Missionaries Callister, Ciminski, Irizarry and Smith

Satan is alive and well in Ukraine. On Sunday morning at 6:00 a busload of saints left Armenia headed to the temple for the week and hoping to arrive Tuesday morning at 6:00 AM to begin their week of temple work. Nineteen of the saints were coming for their first time endowments. They were stopped at the Ukraine Border during the early morning hours and were not admitted to the country until after 9:00 AM. So after spending 40 hours traveling they then spent the night sitting on bus with the outdoor temperature about 86 and very humid. The border police wanted to get bribe money to let them come into the country but these people could barely afford the transportation to get here. They finally arrived at the temple Tuesday afternoon at about 2:30 PM after being on a hot bus for about 56 hours. When they arrived they were all very tired and hungry but were going to shower and be at the 4:30 PM session.  Faith-  45 , Satan – 0.  That is what I love about serving at this temple; the faith, humility and dedication of the patrons that come to the temple.

Right now the temple sidewalks are lined with sunflowers. I would like to close with a quote from one of my favorite fiction authors Willa Cather. This quote is from My Antonia. 

"All the years that have passed have not dimmed my memory of that first glorious autumn. The new country lay open before me: there were no fences in those days, and I could choose my own way over the grass uplands, trusting the pony to get me home again. Sometimes I followed the sunflower-bordered roads. Fuchs told me that the sunflowers were introduced into that country by the Mormons; that at the time of the persecution, when they left Missiouri and struck out into the wilderness to find a place where they could worship God in their own way, the members of the first exploring party, crossing the plains to Utah, scattered sunflower seed as they went. The next summer, when the long trains of wagons came through with all the women and children, they had the sunflower trail to follow. I believe that botanists do not confirm Fuch's story, but insist that the sunflower was native to those plains. Nevertheless, that legend has stuck in my mind, and sunflower-bordered roads always seem to me the roads to freedom."

I am sure that as the Saints arrived at the temple today and saw the beautiful welcoming sunflowers, they felt the joy of the peace and freedom that they would enjoy for the rest of the week.

                Sunflower welcome at the Temple