DINNER WITH THE SENIORS
Last night all the senior couple missionaries in the mission were invited to have dinner with President and Sister Kumferman and their daughter, Maggie in their home. The president hosts this dinner twice a year before General Conference. It's a great way to spend an evening with wonderful people who all have sacrificed their comforts of home and family to serve the Lord in many different ways. It also to say recognize couples who are going home before the next General Conference and for couples who have newly arrived.
We prayed together, ate together, played a parlor game together and then had those who were going to go home to share their experiences and testimonies with us all. Then President Kumferman shared a spiritual thought with us from the Book of Mormon. He focused on Abinadi's testimony of the Savior focusing on His atonement and how during the Atonement He could see those for whom he was atoning and how this gave him the strength to go through this for us all.. A very powerful and thought-provoking message.
There were eight couples (counting the President Kumferman and his wife) with eight different areas of service...mission office support, member leader support, Church Education - Institute and Young Adult Activities, Church History - collecting the history of the Church in Ukraine since the early 1990's with a focus on the first temple built in Eastern Europe - in Kyiv, overseeing the medical care of missionairies in Eastern Europe, Humanitarian Aid and Church Auditing (Vivian and I). We all had things in common - we all left families behind and are missing significant family events, we all came to the mission field with different life experiences, skills and abilities, we all love the Ukrainian people and feel it a prviledge to serve them and most important of all we all love the Savior and are humbled to be serving him in this special way.
President and Sister Kumferman are wonderful people. They are open, loving, gracious and fun and funny. It is uplifting to be around them. We all had a very enjoyable evening. and are looking forward to viewing the upcoming General Conference sessions that start in less than an hour.
And of course, a picture...
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| The senior missionary couples of the Kyiv Ukraine Mission |
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| President Edwin Kumferman and Sister Karen Kumferman |
What a great tradition & good way for you guys to connect with the other couples. You guys look happy & I LOVE that!
ReplyDeleteIt was. We are happy and getting more comfortable each day.
DeleteLove all the smiling faces. You two look well.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great experience! I'm curious about the meal..how's the food been there so far?
ReplyDeleteThere doesn't appear to be an exotic food here. My favorite is borsch. I've had it three times and each one was a little different but very delicious.
DeleteYou both look so happy. Please pray for those who have strayed from the gospel. I pray that will be one of the blessings you will receive as you serve your mission. May God bless you with his choice blessings.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! What time was General Conference b'cast locally??
ReplyDeleteThere is no public broadcast of Conference sessions. Vivian and I watched the opening session of conference via internet at 7:00 pm Kyiv time. We have no sacrament meeting on Oct 8th. We will be watching the Sunday afternoon session of conference in place of our sacrament meeting. We could see all of the sessions live via internet but that means getting up in the middle of the night - 3:00 am our local time. So, we will watch recorded sessions of conference except for Sunday Morning Session - we will watch that tonight at 7:00 pm.
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