After celebrating Christmas and
New Year we are now getting ready for another
Christmas on January 7 and another New Year on January 14. This is a
great place for the Christmas Season! The market by the metro station
started selling little Christmas trees the
Wednesday after the first Christmas so I got a cute little ‘fresh’ tree for the
next Christmas. I just love Ukraine. If you don’t get it right the first time you get a second chance. Therefore, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year,
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. Actually,
the reason for Christmas on January 7, is that many Ukrainian families and many
Ukrainian churches observe the old traditional date from the Julian Calendar of Ukrainian Christmas on January 7 despite
the pressures of modern society to change. The later date appeals to many
people since, after the commercialism of December 25th, it is possible to enjoy
a quieter and more religious occasion. I
especially like this reason. But for those who leave their shopping for the
last minute the big advantage in celebrating Ukrainian Christmas is that the
big sales start - just in time for Christmas shopping. I like the reason of putting Christ back
into Christmas and making it a more religious occasion.
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| Our Christmas tree 2012 |
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| Trees at the market |
And then there was rain…………….Well the temperatures suddenly warmed up
and the snow turned to dirty piles of snow and slush. The icicles started melting and the icy snow
came crashing off of the buildings. Red
and white warning tape was put everywhere but the question is…………do we really
have a choice not to walk on the sidewalks? The cars on the sidewalks of course park furthest from the buildings as
they don’t want to get damaged, so do we walk in the street or in the hard hat
zone? I have been risking walking in the
hard hat zone. And we are not talking
about minor icicles here. The icicles
and clumps of ice falling off the roofs of the multi-story buildings could
seriously be a death warrant.
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| And then came the rain... |
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| Hard hat zone |
We have been much more confident walking on the sidewalks as a lot of
the ice has been chipped away or turned to water on the walks that have been
shoveled. But confidence is not always
good. Gary made it all the way to work
last Friday and then fell right in front of the office door on the black ice
which is about an inch thick. He hit his
head a good one and bruised some ribs. I unfortunately wasn’t with him to break his
fall (or maybe fortunately) so after the stars stopped spinning around in his
head the parking lot attendant helped him up. He had a really big day so he stayed at work. Luckily he didn’t break anything. One
good thing that has happened with the sidewalks covered with ice is all the balance I had lost with old age has returned.
Either that or I have a lot of angels catching me before I fall.
It is probably the latter.
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| Parking lot attendant's tree |
You are probably wondering by now why I am so obsessed with weather. I think it is because when you are walking in
it for at least an hour or more a day to and from work, to the metro, to the
bus stop, to the temple, to church, etc., it becomes a big part of your life in
the winter.
Saturday was a beautiful sunny day. We received a call to see if we would speak in church on Sunday so we
spent the morning working on our talks. It was good for Gary to be able to stay in so he could recuperate from
his fall. Sunday was another beautiful
day as was Monday, New Year’s Eve.
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| Temple on a beautiful December day |
The Stuart’s came into town for
a little brunch before we went to the matinee of the Nutcracker at the National
Opera. Of course we had Danish sweet
cream roll and amazingly it turned out as good as or better than it does at
home. (The flour here is really
wonderful. It is like pastry
flour.) Several of the other temple
missionaries were also at the Ballet and
it was a wonderful way to spend New
Year’s Eve Day.
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| Danish pastry (picture: courtesy of Lindsay's blog!) |
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| At the Nutcracker with Marcia |
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| Hendricks at the Nutcracker |
I talked Gary into staying up to go to Independence Square (Maidan
Nezalezhnosti) for the big celebration and fireworks. We haven’t stayed up until midnight to
welcome the New Year in for many years. We would just watch the ball drop in New York which was 10:00 PM our
time and then head to bed. Well, this
year was different. About 11:00 PM we
took the bus down to the Square and joined the tens of thousands of people who
had come for the big concert, President’s speech and my favorite,
fireworks. I have never seen so many
people in one concentrated area, and the fireworks were incredible. By the time we got home it was about 1:00 AM
and there were fireworks still going off all over the city. We could see them out the windows in the
front of the apartment down by Babi Yar, across the river and from the bathroom
window we could see them out that direction. They went off most of the night and then again on New Year’s Day
night. This country is really big into
fireworks. I think besides the big
celebration at the Square each oblast was having a celebration. I’ll be remembering this night next year on
New Year’s Eve.
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| Cute little girl I saw on the way to the New Year's celebration |
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| Even little boys in Kyiv love cars! |
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| New Year's celebration at Independence Square |
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| Christmas tree at Independence Square |
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| Fireworks! |
New Year’s Day we met up with the Stuarts and went to the Ocean Plaza
for an early dinner. We ate at a
wonderful Italian Restaurant and they enjoyed seeing the new mall for the first
time. The decorations are so
beautiful. The giant fish aquarium was interesting to view from the floor
above. Gary had just read about one
similar to this exploding in Shanghai.
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| At Ocean Plaza |
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| Giant fish aquarium |
Wednesday morning at 5:00AM the saints (I call them that because that
is what they truly are) arrived from Moscow. Thirty were teenagers who gave up a week of their winter break to come
to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. They had researched and brought over 2000 names of their ancestors. Baptism sessions are running all day long
rather than just at the two scheduled times.
Sister Gulko, a temple worker that I work with on Wednesday, told us a
very interesting story of her first temple trip. Several
of the first members of the church got on a bus traveling to the Freiberg, Germany
Temple. They were supposed to arrive on
Monday evening. After riding on a bus
for more than 20 hours they arrived at the German border. The border was closed so they were in the
bus overnight waiting for the guards to come in the morning to open the
border. They
arrived at the temple early in the morning and were so excited to see the
lights shining on the temple and the Angel Moroni. As tired as they must have been 35 people
finished their final preparations and received their temple ordinances that
morning. Because of the faithfulness of
the people in this Eastern European Area around Ukraine, these members now have
a temple much closer for them to attend.
What is amazing to me is that the people in Kyiv say they miss those
long bus trips. They enjoyed the unity,
the singing, the group testimonies and all that the long bus trip provided to
prepare them for the temple experience. It gives us all something to
think about.
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| Kyiv Temple |
Lately I have been thinking a lot about preparation. Preparation is crucial to everything in life;
preparation for a day, a week- long trip, a career, a family gathering, a
mission and just recently, think of all of the preparations that went into
Christmas, the holiday when we celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the
Savior. It all seems so overwhelming at
times. But then stop and think of all
the preparations that were made for the Birth of the Savior. The first being the creation of this world
and all that is in it; the placement of the stars in the heavens; the events
from the beginning of time that all centered on the coming of the Lord and
Redeemer; the preparation of the people’s hearts and minds by the prophets of
old for his birth. There were so very
many preparations that it is truly
incomprehensible. And with all of our
preparations do we truly prepare our minds and hearts to “Let Him in”. Do we think to celebrate his birth as what made
possible the Atoning sacrifice of the Savior of the World? I could go on and on but I am sure you all
understand what I am trying to say. It is worth pondering.
This year I will show more gratitude for the blessings of this life,
for the blessings of the gospel and for the blessings of the Savior’s
Atonement.
Quote of the week:
As a new year
begins and we try to benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I
plead with you not to dwell on days now gone nor to yearn vainly for
yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be
learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing
experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn
and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead
and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has
to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our
lives……
Keep your eyes on
your dreams, however distant and far away. Live to see the miracles of
repentance and forgivness, of trust and divine love that will transform your
life today, tomorrow, and forever. That is a New Year’s resolution I ask you to
keep.
Elder
Jeffrey Holland
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