Potpourri – A little bit of this……A little bit of that. That’s what I feel like this blog is this week…….. A little of this and a little of that.
The fourth of July was not really a holiday here. I worked at the temple which interestingly
enough, that is what I have done on a
lot of holidays this last year, starting with 4th of July 2012….my
birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving,
Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and now the 4th of July again. And the very best day to be in the Temple is
Christmas Day and now that will never ever happen again. A good friend of mine that I work with in
the temple, Sister Shikolova, started making an alter cloth three years ago
when the temple was dedicated. The
pattern is very intricate and beautiful and I hope that everyone will truly
appreciate this labor of love.
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| Sister Shikalova |
Also, on the Fourth of July we picked up our Russian Visas for our
trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg in two weeks. Exciting!
On Saturday, the 6th of July, the American Chamber of
Commerce had a big Independence Day Celebration and our friends the Barton’s
invited us to go with them. The
celebration was complete with an American Cowgirl, Uncle Sam, the Statue of
Liberty, hot dogs and hamburgers, water balloon games, bungee cord trampoline,
and fireworks. The only difference was
that most of the people there were Ukrainian and the funniest thing of all was
that the VIP attendees which included about 90% of the people had to go through
a security check similar to that in an airport which meant waiting in line for
about thirty minutes to get in. The
regular attendees had no line, no waiting. Interesting.
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| Jessa, Jed and Gary in Line for July 4th Celebration on July 6th |
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| line |
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| Uncle Sam |
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| Statue of Liberty - Striking Resemblance |
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Cowgirl
Earlier in the day I went to the Karina Maria Festival, an
international ethnic festival, down at Spivoche field (Singing Field). It is such a fun festival with all the people
dressed in traditional clothes, performing and making and selling ethnic
products. The pictures tell it all.
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| traditional Ukrainian dolls |
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| Pottery |
It was a really hot day and luckily on the way home I was able to get my favorite seat as money collector at the front of the marshrutka where I could enjoy the air conditioning.
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| Air-conditioning at the front of the bus |
Three of the American temple missionary couples left this week. It was sad to see them go and they will truly
be missed…….. President and Sister Ball, Elder and Sister Callister and Elder
and Sister Stuart. Also, it was transfer
week so a lot of missionaries moved around.
With the temple missionaries leaving and the changes in assignments
made I am now the only American on the morning shift. My Russian is definitely going to
improve. One thing about these wonderful
people is that if they know you want help they all freely give it and they are
very patient with your mistakes. I
already have a whole new group of friends at the temple.
After climbing the Town Hall tower in L’viv a few weeks ago I decided
that the time had come for me to climb the Bell Tower at St. Sophia’s
Cathedral. We go by it a least once a day
and so Thursday was the day. I am a
little afraid of heights and the stairs at the bell tower are a lot more
intimidating than the ones in the Town Hall Tower. It is more of an open stairwell instead of
closed and made me a little dizzy all the way up, but the view was indeed worth
it. Kyiv is such a beautiful city. On the way out I met the most interesting man
from Brazil who is visiting Ukraine for a month. He is an economist and lives in a town that
is called Beautiful Horizon (but of course in Portuguese) and is pretty near
Rio. He said if we ever get down there
to give him a call, so who knows.
We have had a few birthday luncheons the last few weeks at work which
have been fun and there will be more fun
things to come in the next few months.
More on that later.
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| Party Time |
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| Party Time |
The service center where Gary puts in all his time and I work part
time is right across from Shevchenko Park. It is the greatest park and on one end they have an area for senior
activities. They have senior relay races,
senior Yoga classes and senior games including chess, card games, etc. It is the most popular place for seniors to
hang out and have a great time. Next best
thing to a golf course.
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| Serious Chess Match |
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| Seniors in the Park |
Saturday is going to be a great day. Oksana Poliakova is going to be baptized. She has been attending the branch for several
months and the sister missionaries have been working with her. We are so excited for her to have the
blessings of the gospel in her life.
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| Sister Lameroux, Oksana, Sister Sink |
Quote for the Week by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf:
“God’s light is real. It is
available to all! It gives life to all
things. It has the power to soften the
sting of the deepest wound. It can be a
healing balm for the loneliness and sickness of our souls. In the furrows of despair, it can plant the
seeds of a brighter hope. It can
enlighten the deepest valleys of sorrow. It can illuminate the path before us and lead us through the darkest
night into the promise of a new dawn. This is the Spirit of Jesus Christ which gives light to every man that
cometh into the world.”
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| July 7, 2013 |
3 comments:
Beautiful shots from the tower! I never knew you were afraid of heights--now I know where Dave gets it, haha. Wow, so many people going home or being transfered. You guys are next!
I like the "air conditioning" at the front of the bus--lucky you!!
I didn't know that about heigths either. I don't like them. I climbed one Duomo in Italy and have not ever done it again, because it freaked me out so much. Beautiful photos! That international festival looked fabulous...more fun than the 4th celebration.
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