October 13, 2012

If variety is the spice of life then our lives were pretty spicy this week. 

After a number of contacts with several of the embassies here in Kyiv, we finally heard back from three, and are waiting for what will be more. We are not sure if it was our persistence, or that everyone finally got back from vacations, or that there is an interest in the elections going on in the U.S. but this week we finally started getting responses. 

Our first visit was on Wednesday with the Embassy of Nigeria. Ambassador Isoh is new to his position in Ukraine. He was an emissary to the United Nations before coming to Kyiv. He had no idea that the Church had over 100,000 members in Nigeria, a Temple, and had given over six million dollars in humanitarian aid in his country. He was very impressed that we weren’t a religion that only takes money and gives nothing back. Our goal is to befriend these individuals and make them aware of the efforts we are making in their country. We do not proselyte however, when he asked us the difference in our Church and the Orthodox Church we were happy to be able to tell him about our living prophet and that we believe in continuing revelation. We also explained the Book of Mormon and left a copy with him which he said he would read and study. We exchanged gifts and left knowing that we had made a friend with Nigeria. He offered his assistance to us if we should ever need it. 

Visit with Ambassador Isoh of Nigeria

Our second visit was on Thursday with the Assistant to the Ambassador, Svitlana Yavorska, of Great Britain. Ambassador Smith is currently out of the country and wanted her to meet with us in his absence. It was a very different meeting but also very productive. Our Church has a long history in Great Britain and is widely known by the people there. We talked about our humanitarian efforts there and also in Ukraine. She made us aware of all the efforts that Great Britain is currently involved in here in Ukraine. We discussed possible ways of working together to help with humanitarian projects and also to support their efforts in enhancing a Rule of Law program that would be very beneficial and greatly needed in this country. It is a very ambitious goal. 

Visit at the Embassy of Great Britain

Next week we will be meeting with the Ambassador of Malaysia and hopefully we will also get more responses to our latest letter. 

We also spent some time sightseeing with the Stuarts and their daughters and friend, Marion Nagel, from Berlin. Our first stop was at St. Sophia’s Museum. We have walked by, taken pictures of and attended concerts in the Square but every time we have wanted to go on a tour, there were so many tourists that we have put it off, so I was really excited to get to go there with a tour guide. The Cathedral was built by the Greeks in 1037. At that time it was considered the most glorious in any northern country and is still considered one of the greatest and most famous of the old cathedrals of Eastern Europe. Originally built by Yaroslav the Wise, it’s walls are covered with beautiful frescos that have only been partially preserved. The mosaics that have survived are also comparable to the ones found in Venice. Over the years, damage to the cathedral was repaired and the cathedral was enlarged.  (Aren’t you all glad that we had a tour guide so I can report all of this?) 

Notice the sun, moon and star symbols that are not only on the top of the cathedral, but inside as well (no pictures allowed inside).

St. Sophia's

Marcia, tour guide, Shelly, Marion, Karlene and Carrie

St. Sophia's

Then we went to the Golden Gate of Kyiv. When Yaroslav built up the city he surrounded it with a wall (similar to the gated walls of Jerusalem and Constantinople) and the Golden Gate was the one of three entrances to the upper city. All three gates were destroyed but the Golden Gate was restored in 1982 with the original ruins hidden within the new structure. 

Inside Golden Gate

Replica of Original Golden Gate

One last place we went was to Babi Yar which I have discussed in a previous post but this time with a guide it was much more interesting.

Friday evening we went to dinner and a wonderful Symphony (with four piano soloists and a guest conductor from Japan) with Georgia and Sherwood Ricks (the Mission Presidents office assistants). It was really marvelous. We have made friends with one of the ushers at the Philharmonic. She loves seeing us there and always moves us to the special row reserved for dignitaries. It is kind of embarrassing but we do get the best of seats. 

Saturday I decided that Gary just had to see everything that he had missed earlier in the week so I drug him around to all the sites ending with going to St. Cyril’s Church which is definitely not on the direct route to anywhere. I think we were the only visitors there in weeks. It has over 800 square meters of fresco paintings from the 12^th Century. We also took the challenge to ascend the steep (and I mean really steep – 2 foot rise on some of the stairs) staircase to the gallery to get a view of the frescos. Quite a feat. 

St. Cyril's Church

Stairs to the gallery

Tanya, from my English class had invited us to go the operetta Saturday evening to see “Welcome to Ukraine”, a love story that takes place in Ukraine and features many of their famous songs, traditions and dances. This operetta is usually held on Sunday but this year it was moved to Saturday so she was really excited for us to go see it. It was really beautifully done and I really enjoyed it. 

Welcome to the Ukraine

Add to that watching whatever conference sessions we could, English classes, temple, normal everyday requests and writing up reports and you can see that this week was full, not only of fun, interesting, educational and exciting days, but of many blessings. Tomorrow we head off to Lutsk for another adventure.

Quote for the Week:

“We cannot repay God for his blessings.  We cannot purchase His blessings by our service and obedience.  He cannot be placed under contract to us.  What he wants is that we acknowledge the ties that bind us to him, and that we accept his generous gifts with a loving heart and ‘confess ….His hand in all things.’” ….Chieko Okasaki