November 21, 2012

Thanksgiving has always been our favorite holiday. I have been excited all week even though we won’t be home for Thanksgiving this year. Our memories of years past will have to do for this year but we will also be making new memories to carry with us over the years ahead.

 

Just why is Thanksgiving such a great holiday. Is it the fact that autumn has been put to bed and you are looking forward to enjoying time inside out of the cold; the ending of one season and the beginning of another. Maybe it is that we take the time to reflect on our blessings of the last year. Hopefully it isn’t the only time we show gratitude. Gratitude is something that should be a daily event in all of our lives. Someone has said that “gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others, so isn’t it great that we have a holiday to help us focus on our blessings. Or maybe it is simply good food, family, friends……..and great leftovers. Whatever Thanksgiving is, we remember it with fondness and happiness.

 

This past week was a wonderful week. A girl I met last spring, Maria Bystrovo, from Tomsk Russia (about 4 hours from Moscow) returned to the temple to be sealed to her family.  Her mother died when she was fifteen and she did her temple work while she was at the MTC in Provo.  Her father passed away last November and her greatest wish was to do his work and be sealed to her parents on her birthday this year, November 15. It was so fun to see her on Tuesday and then be with her on her birthday Thursday to witness her sealing.  She is such a happy, positive person and blessed the lives of many people while she was in Kyiv.

Maria Bystrovo

We had many people from Novosibirsk Russia here last week, which is in Siberia and takes five days by train or 5 hours by air to get to Kyiv. What dedicated people. Also there was a group from Rostov, Russia which is a lot closer. One of the couples here from Rostov were especially interesting to get to know, Sasha Kozyrev and his wife. Although Sasha is from Russia and went on his mission in Russia he speaks perfect English. He has gone thorough a lot of difficulties in his life but has such a bright outlook on life that it is a joy to be around him.

Sasha and wife

Thursday was transfer day at the mission office so when I stopped in I got to see many of the missionaries that we have known and loved. Sister Smith and Sister Van Stokkom were in Kyiv to pick up their new companion Sister Filipovska. We will see them on Sunday when we go to Lutsk. Elder Grange was heading for a warmer climate in Odessa. Saturday our branch had a “Pie Party” at the Page’s home. Steven Page is a diplomat for the US and they live only a few blocks away from us. It was a great party, lots of good pies and fun to be with ward members that had traveled to our side of the city for the party. It is so funny to think that people will travel for 1 ½ hours to go to a ward party. Traveling time is something that you adjust to here in Kyiv, but when you put it into an American context it is something that would never happen.

Sisters Smith, Van Stokkom, Filipovska

Transfer Day

Pie Party

More of the pie party

Natasha Loboda

We got up at 4:30 AM Sunday morning to travel the five hours to Lutsk. I had spent most of the day Saturday making dressing, rolls, fruit salad, brownies  etc. for our quasi Thanksgiving Dinner with the missionaries in Lutsk. When we left for Lutsk it was dark and it was dark for most of the trip there. When we left to come home it was dark. Kind of sad to miss all my favorite scenery along the way but I did get a few pictures. We had a great dinner with the missionaries there. There are two elders and three sisters. One of the sisters is from the USA, one is from Holland, and the other is from Italy but was born in Ukraine and lived here until she was nine. They are amazing, hardworking, happy missionaries who have what I am sure are pretty typical living conditions for missionaries.  I have said this before but I will say it again, I have a different appreciation for these young people than I ever did before our mission. They have mastered a very difficult language, get by without complaint in sub-standard living conditions and are relentless in their efforts to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and his Atonement to all they meet. We love and admire them so much.

Hoarfrost on the way to Lutsk

Mistletoe

Thanksgiving in Lutsk

Great missionaries

Monday Gary was the devotional speaker at the office. He spoke on the importance of being happy. And then on the way home we saw Valentya for the first time in over three months. She is the little lady that sits doing cross-stitch all summer and selling walnuts and “knots” (a very delicious cookie). I was so excited to see her and know that she was all right. I had worried so much about her over the last few months when she had just seemed to disappear out of nowhere. I was so happy that she was back and that she will be sitting there to brighten our day whenever we pass by. I really didn’t think we would see her until next spring, if ever. What a great way to start Thanksgiving week.

Gary speaking with translator at devotional

Valentya

 

And now a little Thanksgiving quote from Richard L. Evans:

Thank God for all this: for life and what sustains it, for loved ones that make it meaningful, for faith and purpose and continuance, always and forever. Thank God for all of this—and much, much more.

Kyiv Temple, Nov.14 2012

November 12, 2012

It’s raining so it must be Tuesday. For the last four weeks every Tuesday it has rained. My friend Jill and I think it is a test of our faith since that is the day we go to the temple together. It isn’t too bad until we get to the final walk down the highway that leads to the temple. We are usually pretty much cold and wet by the time we arrive but it is always  a nice reprieve from the weather to go inside and enjoy the peace that one gets from being in the temple.  

Tuesday Rain

Last week at the temple I had a wonderful opportunity. Sasha Cheremnova from Tomsk Russia (in Siberia) came to the temple for the first time to receive her endowment and I was able to be her escort. It was very gratifying to be with someone that was so grateful to have the opportunity and to be able to share the joy with her.   Although she left to go back to Russia I will keep her memory in my heart.  Also, Lena Cantor’s mother was at the temple all week. Lena is from Ukraine but now lives in Pocatello and was our Russian teacher the month before we came to Ukraine. She also visited here last summer on her way to stay with her parents in Zaporizhzhya. It was great to finally get to meet her sweet mother who spent every waking hour in the temple doing proxy work for her relatives. 

Lena's Mom, Sister Hripco

Sasha Cheremenova

While I was at the temple, Gary was sporting a pizza party for the office staff. It of course was two for one day at Domino’s and we usually order two large pizzas and get two free.  Well, when Gary had the receptionist order four large pizza’s and get four free the word got out fast and about twenty five people showed up for the party. It was a lot of fun and I was sorry to have missed out, and since I wasn’t there, there are no pictures.

  

Wednesday was a great day to be working at the temple.  I had a break in my schedule and got to visit with one of the Temple Matrons and she told me the most wonderful story about how sometimes God answers our prayers in a different way than we expect. Her 92-year old mother had a dog that she loved more than anything. One night during a horrible thunderstorm the dog got lost. It was gone for over a month. She was heartbroken. During the time the dog was gone she developed  heart problems and was admitted to the hospital.  Everyone continued praying for the dog to return. While she was hospitalized a mother and a little seven year old boy came to the house with the dog. It had come to their door during the storm and they had been taking care of it ever since. The little boy had fallen in love with the dog. When they went to get it clipped they found the computer chip which had the owner’s phone number. The little boy was then the one that was heartbroken. Linda’s father couldn’t bear hurting the feelings of the boy, and knowing that his wife was in serious condition and would not be coming home he told the little boy he could keep the dog. It was a time of great joy. The one request of the ill mother was that her daughter go to the boy’s home and take a picture of her dog with the little boy. When Linda went to take the picture the mother told the story of how the father had left their family the day the dog came to their door. The dog had been a great source of comfort for the little boy at this time of sorrow. Sometimes God answers our prayers by letting us be the means of comfort for another person’s needs. We never know what He has in mind when we put our faith in him.
 

Saturday we had the wonderful opportunity of participating in our first Mormon Helping Hands Activity. We know we would have had this opportunity last summer after the fire in Pocatello but we weren’t there so we were excited when this opportunity came up. Our International Branch and two other Ukrainian Branches met at Babi Yar (see previous post)  at 9:00AM to rake and clean up the main area of the sixty or more acre park. It was a cold morning but there were no complaints as we gathered to get ready for our day of work.  The city delivered us the rakes and we donned our “Mormon Helping Hands” vests and cheerfully began raking. While we were raking many people passed by but one lady stopped and asked what we were doing. When she was told, she asked if she could help so she was given a rake and a vest (that she didn’t want to relinquish at the end of the day.)

Loving to help

Mormon Helping Hands at Babi Yar

It was fun to see the huge piles of leaves and debris at the end of the project. And we were hoping the same little truck that brought us our rakes would come back to haul off the leaves after we were gone.

Sunday was our Primary Program “Choose the Right” in Sacrament Meeting. Although we only have nine children in our Branch Primary the program was inspirational and the Spirit touched the lives of the members of the audience. I love my work in the primary as teacher, chorister and counselor but we have some new families that have moved in so now I am down to just being the Counselor.

 

Our Primary

This week our scripture study has focused on Faith. (Alma 14-32)  There are so many examples of great faith in those chapters. As we look around us there is also much evidence of faith among the saints at the temple and at the office. We love their great examples.  There are some Russians that can speak perfect English without any accent at all. They have never even been to America. When you ask them how they learned to speak English so well they answer that it is a gift from God. You can ask any one of them what their greatest possession is and they will say their testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They love the scriptures and scripture study is a major part of their lives. They have so little and have amazing gratitude for the really important things in life. Their faith has kept them strong during the trials of their lives. The one thing that they cherish above all is the love that our Heavenly Father has for them and that he hears their prayers. Their exemplary lives are a blessing to us.

The quote for the week by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland echoes our sentiments completely.

“My thanks to all you wonderful members of the Church—and legions of good people not of our faith—for proving every day of your life that the pure love of Christ ‘never faileth’.  No one of you is insignificant, in part because you make the gospel of Jesus Christ what it is—a living reminder of His grace and mercy, a private but powerful manifestation in small villages and large cities of the good He did and the life He gave bringing peace and salvation to other people.  We are honored beyond expression to be counted one with you in such a sacred cause.” 

Kyiv Temple 11-7-2012

November 4, 2012

How many times before a beautiful symphony do we hear the words, “This concert was made possible by a gift from………………..” When I hear that, I wonder if maybe it sometimes should be said, “This concert was made possible by hundreds of gifts from God…………..” This past concert I was thinking just how important just one of those many gifts really is and that gift is “hands.” Yes, hands. As I watched the piano soloist, the string musicians, the brass, the percussion and even the maestro, I thought of how silent that hall would have been without hands. And speaking of the hall, could there have been a hall without hands to build it with its intricate columns, cornices, the sweeping stairways, the inlaid floors, and the hand-woven floor coverings?

Is it possible to calculate all of the hands that it took to create all the parts of the instruments, the mother’s hands that raised their children to not only play beautiful music but to appreciate the importance of making it a part of their lives. Oh, did I forget the composers who wrote the music with writing utensils guided by hands. I could go on forever but I guess by now you are seeing how important hands are.

Do we ever stop to think about all the things our hands make it possible for us to do. They are just one of the many things we take for granted until we have something as minor as a paper cut or as major as a broken wrist which make it difficult or impossible to use our hands.

 

I love all the metaphors associated with hands: loving hands, healing hands, waving hands, gentle hands, kind hands, praying hands, working hands, helping hands, clapping hands, raised hands, shaking hands, outstretched hands, clean hands, Hand of the Lord, holy hands, hands that hang down, and hands that lift up. Hands can be used for either good or ill. Is there anything that we can do that can’t be done better with the help of hands?  Hands are just one of God’s many miracles. I’m sure that to each of us there are many more miracles which we could name if we really took the time to ponder. And that is what is really important…………..taking the time to ponder and show gratitude for all that we have been given. Quoting  Elder Ballard in October Conference, “great things are brought about and burdens are lightened through the efforts of many hands anxiously engaged in a good cause.” We have witnessed over and over and even this last week on the east coast the importance of “many hands.”

Another Halloween has come and gone. Halloween is not a big holiday here in Ukraine. I saw some carved pumpkins in front of a restaurant. I saw one sign on the metro advertising a Halloween Party on the 27th of October, and on Halloween day I saw only one person of thousands dressed in something that might have been a Halloween costume. Therefore, I decided to add a few pictures on this blog of my favorite trick-or-treaters back in the USA.

Halloween decor outside a restaurant

 

Hal and Owen

Evan and Charlie

Sylvie, Jack and Annie

Caden, Sara, Molly and Beckham

Nick and Olivia

On Halloween I worked in the temple and after went to Babi Yar with a few friends that have recently moved to Kyiv. As you all know, Babi Yar is the name of a deep ravine in the northern part of Kyiv.  The name is known today as a symbol of the inhuman fascist genocide of originally Jews, but also gypsies, concentration camp prisoners, communist underground members, and Ukrainian patriots. The total number of victims was about one-hundred thousand. In 1976 an official monument in memory of the murdered Soviet citizens was built, and in 1981 a monument in the shape of the Jewish Menorah was set up much closer to the scene of the tragedy. The cold, dreary Halloween Day added to the solemnity of the area.

Looking down the head of the 2 mile ravine

One bright spot at head of ravine

Sunset at Babi Yar

Monument at Babi Yar

Menorah Monument

Babi Yar

On the way to the office on Thursday I decided to take the bus part way to pick up ticket orders and was fortunate to sit down next to a beautiful lady and her baby from Indonesia.  She was on her way to find a place to buy souvenirs for her office staff and I was on my way to Independence Square where they have a lot of what she would be looking for so I showed her the way. Nadia Said is a diplomat for Indonesia in Sophia, Bulgaria and her husband is a diplomat for Indonesia here in Ukraine. She was here visiting him for two weeks with her baby and three year old son. She was such a wonderful, gracious person and I was sorry to hear she was leaving on Sunday. She said she would be coming back soon for another visit and would give me a call. She would be a wonderful person to get to know more.

Nadia Said

Saturday I convinced Gary that he needed to go with me to find out exactly where Marshrutka #527 went. We see that particular bus go by our house several times a day and I was just curious what would happen and where I would go if I ever mistakenly got on it. It went  down to Khreschatyk, past the Philharmonic, past the Parliament Building and the Art Museum, past the Famine Museum, past the Lavra, the World War II Museum, the Arsenal, the Botanical Garden and then it headed across the Dnipro River. I told Gary to pretend we were just on an afternoon ride around the city (with fifty people on a bus with about 20 seats). I was really wondering if we were ever going to turn around. I was glad that I had been to most of the places we were passing so I knew where we were. About the end of the city limits we finally turned around and headed back to Artema, the street where we live. It was about a three hour ride and sure enough, we did find out where bus #527 went after it passed our apartment. I’m sure this bus route was around long before the metro was built. It is amazing that it is still a part of the circuit but I have to admit it was fun to see things above ground rather than always  wondering what is above you when you are underground on the metro.  

  

Crossing the Dnipro on the martrushka #527

Quote of the week by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf: 

"When I think of the Savior, I often picture Him with hands outstretched, reaching out to comfort, heal, bless and love. And He always talked with, never down to, people. He loved the humble and the meek and walked among them, ministering to them and offering hope and salvation.

This is what He did during His mortal life; it is what He would be doing if He were living among us today; and it is what we should be doing as His disciples."

Kyiv Temple on October 31, 2012