March 6, 2013

When we were young the most fun TV shows were the game shows. My favorite segment of  “The Price is Right” was when you had the choice of keeping what you had or taking what was behind curtain #3. I would have collapsed at that point because then I would have had to decide and be satisfied with my choice whatever the result. Life is a lot like that and there is no looking back when you have made that kind of a choice. Sometimes it is better to listen to the audience and let them help you decide.

When we submitted our mission papers a little over a year ago we did not choose for the very reason that I knew I would probably never be satisfied with “my” choice so we let the Lord make the decision and then we would know it was the right one. For instance, what if we had picked Hong Kong, or Philippines, or Africa. Would I have been saying, “what would such and such have been like if we had picked there?” Now we are in Ukraine and we have no regrets. Every day we are seeing evidences of why we were sent here and we absolutely love everything about the choice the Lord made for us. Father always knows best. 

Saturday, the 23^rd of February was International Men’s Day in Ukraine. It is not a holiday as is International Women’s Day which is March 8^th, but there are always festivities in the offices for the men on that day. Since it fell on a Saturday we planned the party for the following Monday. During English conversation class we probably had more fun planning and talking about the games that would be played, or not played for various reasons, than the party could have ever been. But alas, I was not to find out what International Men’s Day parties were like as we found out on Friday that we had a mission zone conference on Monday and we would not be able to attend. I did get to see the pictures and videos and it was such a fun event.

Whereas Men’s Day was a great time, Zone Conference was a spiritual feast which they always are, as we met with all the Kyiv West Missionaries and were inspired by President and Sister Klebingat. Of course it was by far the best choice of the two options we had.  Maybe not the most fun but definitely we were blessed for our attendance there.

Tuesday and Wednesday the temple was filled to capacity with the saints from the Donetsk  Mission. I met so many wonderful new people and one thing about the members from that area, most of them speak a little English and would like to speak better so they help me with Russian and I help them with English.  

Talking about languages……………..

When we got our mission call to Ukraine a little over a year ago we ordered some tapes  and found a teacher and immediately started learning Ukrainian. Then when we went to our seminar in Salt Lake we were told it would probably be better to learn Russian since everyone in Ukraine  spoke Russian but not everyone knew Ukrainian. So we switched to Russian. We’re back to that choice thing again.  

Well,  I’ve decided that one of the worst outcomes of the Tower of Babel was the confounding of the languages, but then again isn’t it kind of fun to know that there are between 6800-6900 languages in the world. And just think of the challenges and the brain development that have been aided by so many languages. And think of all the jobs it has created. I looked up and found out the following interesting facts about languages:

  

•  The population of Europe is about ¼ of the whole world, but Europeans speak only 234 languages.
• About 94% of all languages are regularly spoken by just 6% of the population of the world.
• Most languages are constantly used by less than one thousand native speakers.
• K. David Harrison, a linguist from the Swarthmore College, predicts that by 2050 about 90% of spoken languages will be dead.
• In Papua New Guinea there are less than 5.5 million citizens and about 830 languages      spoken by them.
• The United Nation has six official languages, used in meetings: Arabic, Chinese, French, English, Spanish, and Russian.
• Esperanto is the most popular artificial language.
• The number of speakers of English in China is larger than in the USA.

So getting back to our Russian/Ukrainian dilemma…………after a year of working on Russian with not a tremendous amount of conversational ability, I have determined that maybe we should have stuck with Ukrainian. Not by any means because it is easier but it is basically a more romantic language. (Well, that and the fact that all the signs, billboards, newspapers, magazines etc that we read are all in Ukrainian.) We sing in Ukrainian, we speak in Russian and we basically are getting along with all three languages we know. But…… when we were driving to Lutsk in February, we got into a discussion with our driver about the  difference in the two languages.  He said that Russian expresses best how he thinks but Ukrainian expresses how he feels.   Many words are the same in both languages even though the alphabets are somewhat different and the pronunciations of several of the letters that look the same are different. One area that is completely different is the months of the year. The Russian months were easy to master because they sound a lot like the English months. Ukrainian is a different thing entirely, and this is why I think I like Ukrainian better. I love how they came up with the names for their months.  They all deal with nature and what is happening in nature at that particular time of year. 

No.	English name	Ukrainian name	Transliteration	Ukrainian meaning
1	January	Січень	Sichen'	month of cutting (chopping wood, or biting frost)
2	February	Лютий	Ljutyj	cruel or frosty
3	March	Березень	Berezen'	month of the bereza (birch)
4	April	Квітень	Kviten'	month of blooming/blossoming/flowering
5	May	Травень	Traven'	month of (green) grass
6	June	Червень	Cherven'	red month, meaning month when berries ripe and become red
7	July	Липень	Lypen'	month of the lypa (linden tree)
8	August	Серпень	Serpen'	month of the sickle/scythe/harvest
9	September	Вересень	Veresen'	month of heather
10	October	Жовтень	Žhovten'	month of yellow leaves and grass
11	November	Листопад	Lystopad	month of falling leaves
12	December	Грудень	Hruden'	month of frozen clods of ground

So there you have it….  your first and maybe your last Ukrainian lesson. And since we have now been here during each month of the year I thought I would post some of my favorite pictures from each month we have been here.

Січень 
January

Лютий 
February

Березень 
March

Квітень 
April 

Травень 

May

Червень
June

Липень 
July

Серпень 
August

Вересень 
September

Жовтень 
October

Листопад 
November

Грудень 
December

We have really enjoyed the last year and are looking forward to the next seven months.

Quote for the week from Regrets and Resolutions by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf:

Sometimes in life we become so focused on the finish line that we fail to find joy in the journey.

Doesn't it seem foolish to spoil sweet and joyful experiences because we are constantly anticipating the moment when they will end?

Do we listen to beautiful music waiting for the final note to fade before we allow ourselves to truly enjoy it? No. We listen and connect to the variations of melody, rhythm, and harmony throughout the composition.

Do we say our prayers with only the "amen" or the end in mind? Of course not. We pray to be close to our Heavenly Father, to receive His Spirit and feel His love.

We shouldn't wait to be happy until we reach some future point, only to discover that happiness was already available--all the time! Life is not meant to be appreciated only in retrospect. "this is the day which the Lord hath made...," the Psalmist wrote, "Rejoice and be glad in it." 

Brothers and sisters, no matter our circumstances, no matter our challenges or trials, there is something in each day to embrace and cherish. There is something in each day that can bring gratitude and joy if only we will see and appreciate it.