Now that our mission in Ukraine has ended I have decided to continue to share pictures and memories of our time spent there.   Please join us on Gary & Karl's Big Adventure Part 2.

October 28, 2013

One of the things that always fascinated me about Kyiv was the stairs. Climbing stairs was something that that was as commonplace as walking. Stairs to get to your flat (unless you had a lift), stairs to pass under the streets, stairs to enter and exit metros, stairs to get up ascents and down descents. Outside of your apartment, one of the reasons for so many stairs is that Kyiv is built on “seven hills” but really more like at least fifteen hills. So climbing stairs is just an expected part of walking. The thing that was interesting about stairs is that there is no code dictating the rise and the run of stairs so they are just built to get a person from one level to another without much thought to consistency. There is also no city ordinance that stairs have to be maintained. Maybe that is what makes stairs so interesting in Kyiv.

 

I loved all the differences in the stairs. I loved the old crumbling stairs, the centuries old staircases in the cathedrals, the sidewalk stairs and the stairs that made daily walks a bit more challenging.

 

Focusing on stairs I have many photographs of the Stairs of Kyiv so just take a walk through history and take a look at some very interesting stairs.

Hotel Stairs

Stairs to  Education

Stairs to the tree top

Stairs to Vladimir's Statue

Stairs to transfer station

Stairs to Dimitrivska

Stairs out of Metro to Independence Square

Well worn stairs

Historical Stairs

Stairs out of the dacha

Handmade stairs

Stairs not to be forgotten

Stairs to upper floor of St. Cyril's Cathedral

Stairs to Golden Gate

Stairs with symbolism 

icy stairs

not the stairs to the dentist office

Stairs in Botanical Garden

winter stairs

Stairs to apartment

flooded stairs that go under the highway

Stairs from the Motherland Statue

street stairs

stairs to bell tower

New stairs to St. Nicholas Cathedral

stairs to lookout on Andrevska

Stairs from Water Well

Stairs to Podil

Museum Stairs

St. Sophia's Bell Tower Stairs

Construction stairs 

Stairs at Palates Sportu

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Monument stairs

Stairs from European Square to Podil

Museum Stairs

Crumbling Stairs

Stairs in Kyiv Ukraine Temple

 To me stairs are symbolic of many things.  All of the Lord's creations are symbolic and all things are the Lord's creation.  All of these pictures of stairs have symbolic meaning for me. These temple stairs symbolize to me eternity, love and brightness of hope.  

Quote for the Week by Elder John Widstoe

We live in a world of symbols.  We know nothing, except by symbols.  We make a few marks on a sheet of paper, and we say that they form a word, which stands for love, or hate, or charity, or God or eternity.  The marks may not be very beautiful to the eye.  No one finds fault with  the symbols on the pages of a book because they are not as mighty in their own beauty as the things which they represent.   We are glad to have symbols, if only the meaning of the symbols is brought home to us.  

October 13, 2013

The last week of our mission in Ukraine was filled with many sad farewells, and the reality of leaving brought an awareness of just how much I had grown to love so many people in this wonderful country. As I walked and rode through the streets of Kyiv for the last time I felt gratitude for all that I had learned and enjoyed here over the past eighteen months and realized that perhaps I had begun to take for granted the sights and sounds of Kyiv. I walked a little more slowly (people here walk so fast) so that I could appreciate the buildings, the history, the beauty and the common everyday things that had been a part of my world for a time.

Federal Reserve

October Palace

Fire Station and Tower

St. Sophia's

Waiting at the bus and tram stops I thought about how many times I had waited or ran to catch busses and trams to get to the office, the temple, the church or just to meet up with someone to go on an adventure. Did the people recognize me as an American or had I finally blended in and become one of them. I thought about the bus drivers that I had come to recognize and wondered if they recognized me. Did the cashiers not ask me for a ticket because they knew I had a pass or because they thought I was just another old babushka. I will never forget my last day when a new cashier asked to see my pass………she made my day. Did the people on the bus know that after a year and a half I would with a heavy heart be leaving this city. Would they wonder where I had gone. I definitely had become a people watcher and my final days were spent imprinting on my mind their every word, action and mannerism. They didn’t know how much I would miss them.

Tram Stop

Bus Stop

Walking down the streets I absorbed the sights around me. The beautiful old colorful buildings, the statues and monuments, the street ally where I had my Russian lessons, St. Sophia’s, the National Opera, the dimly lit descents, the fruit and vegetable markets and again the people that had been so much a part of my life.

Fountain at Golden Gate

Parking lot attendant at Service Center

One of the greatest blessings of our mission was our heightened capacity to love. The knowledge that we gained about the history of this country and these people - their trials, their previous years of oppression, their great national pride, their resourcefulness, their sacrifice and their love of family – have endeared them to us forever. The beauty of these people has captured and will always hold a part of my heart. Our association with the people of Ukraine has influenced our attitudes in a profound way. I realize just how much they have taught me and how much they have become a part of us. There will never a day go by that we do not think of them and remember them with love. 

Friends at the office

friends at the temple

Herding goats

Final Lunch with President and Sister Klebingat

gifts from the office

We will also miss the dedicated, hard- working missionaries in Ukraine. They are obedient and have been blessed with the gift of tongues. They have this same love for the people that we do. And it is wonderful to think that we will be able to see some of them again and watch the impact the mission has made on them as they move forward in their lives.

final dinner and goodbye

9-11 Broken Heart Memorial with two great Missionaries

On our layover in Amsterdam as we were leaving, there were seventeen missionaries heading to the Kyiv Mission at the gate next to ours. It was so fun to see and talk to them knowing that the work was going forward and only wishing that I could have gotten to know all of them better. Some were so busy talking to other passengers about the gospel that they weren’t able to take time for a picture. Oh what they have to look forward to….

Amsterdam Airport - Missionaries heading to Kyiv

There are so many wonderful memories that I haven’t taken time to document, and thousands of pictures that haven’t been included in my blogs that for a time I won’t let our mission end. I want to share with the world the beauty of what we have seen and experienced.  And if it is only a record for me, it is something I will treasure as the years go forward.   To be continued………………….. пока, пока………………..

Kyiv Temple

Quote for the Week - Homeward Bound by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

In the quiet misty morning

When the moon has gone to bed,

When the sparrows stop their singing

And the sky is clear and red,

When the summer's ceased its gleaming

When the corn is past its prime,

When adventure's lost its meaning - 

I'll be homeward bound in time

Bind me not to the pasture

Chain me not to the plow

Set me free to find my calling

And I'll return to you somehow

If you find it's me you're missing

If you're hoping I'll return,

To your thoughts I'll soon be listening,

And in the road I'll stop and turn

Then the wind will set me racing

As my journey nears its end

And the path I'll be retracing

When I'm homeward bound again

Bind me not to the pasture

Chain me not to the plow

Set me free to find my calling

And I'll return to you somehow

(softly)

In the quiet misty morning

When the moon has gone to bed,

When the sparrows stop their singing

I'll be homeward bound again.