WE'VE REACHED A MILESTONE

Today marks the half way point in our service as senior missionaries.  When we arrived in August 2017 it was the Ukraine Kyiv Mission.  When we leave in July 2019 we will be leaving the Ukraine Kyiv/Moldova Mission.   

As I write this blog I'm looking out on a humid, summer day.  Clouds in the sky, thunder, lightening and rain showers.  The weather has certainly been a change from what we had in California.  Here are some random thoughts on our experiences from this past year.

What We Have Enjoyed

1. The missionaries - both young and older.  We enjoy being with them in district councils, zone and mission conferences and good-bye dinners.  We've enjoyed the companionship of the senior couples both in serving the members in Ukraine and now Moldova and in socializing when time allows.
2. Meeting with the members of the Church throughout Ukraine.  They are dedicated, loving and kind with strong, firm testimonies of the Savior, the Plan of Salvation, the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ in the latter days and the truthfulness and power of the Book of Mormon.
3. Watching Ukrainian families as we travel each day; how they interact with their children.  The children are so cute and the mothers and fathers are so soft and kind with them.
4. Traveling by train and seeing so much of this beautiful country.
5. Seeing our first and second ballets - Swan Lake and Don Quixote.  
6. Seeing an indoor circus.
7. Seeing a concert of Ukrainian dancing - WOW.  What you normally equate to Russia actually originated in Ukraine.
8. Serving in the Kyiv Temple as ordinance workers once each week.  We have met faithful members of the Church from all over Eastern Europe - Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia and Turkey.  They come for a week at a time to serve as patrons and ordinance workers,  The temple is led by President and Sister Roth - from Austria!
9. Seeing beautiful gardens/parks in Kyiv.
10. Having Flat Stanley come and visit us; giving us an opportunity to show him the sights of Kyiv.  
11. Change in seasons - loved the snow as it blanketed the city in quiet and peace.
12. Helping Hands with the Kyiv Ukraine Stake spring cleanup of a beautiful park.
13. Two trips to Moscow for Area meetings.  Took a bus tour of the city and visited iconic Red Square and Lenin's Tomb.
14. Snow Queen on Ice during Christmas
15. Losing 50 pound (Gary) - change in diet and lots of walking
16. Fresh fruit and vegetables.

Some of the Challenges

1. Language - people either speak Russian or Ukrainian.  In the east mostly Russian speaking; in the west definitely Ukrainian speaking; in Kyiv a mix of both but Ukrainian is on all the street signs and stores and buildings.  We studied and continue to study Russian.  We are not fluent since we are not immersed in the language like the young missionaries.
2. Transportation - no car.  We travel by foot, tram (electric street car), marshrutka (small yellow bus) and taxi (Uber).
3. Shopping - combines both transportation and language challenges.  Labels are in Ukrainian and contents are not what you are expecting from the pictures on the jars/packages.  Managing the bags of groceries on a crowed marshrutka.
4. Changing water filters - water is not potable unless filtered. Change three types of filters every other month.
5. No hot water in the kitchen.  We boil the water to do dishes.  But, have a small hot water boiler for showers.
6. Small washing machine - can't hold a full set of towels.  No clothes dryer.  Clothes hang on a drying rack in the living room.
7. Elevator in apartment building very small.  Will only take two at a time. If you add a third person you are playing Ukrainian roulette - you either get stuck between floors or let off at a random floor.
8. Watching out for cars/vans/motorcycles on the sidewalks.  When there is bumper to bumper traffic the sidewalk apparently is another lane.  However, there are no lanes marked on the roads.

What We Have Missed

This is pretty common for all of us senior couple missionaries

1. Our family
2. Thanksgiving and Christmas with family and friends
3. 4th of July in Vernal
4. Baptisms and priesthood ordinations
5. High School graduations
6. Watching our grand kids doing water polo, swimming, basketball, softball, baseball, soccer
7. Our Benicia Ward family
8. Meeting Patrick's girlfriend
9. Peter Pan, Once Upon a Mattress and Lion King - all in Pennsylvania
10. Temple Hill Choir
11. Lamb of God Oratorio
12. Musical Theatre productions - both to see my friends and to be in a show or two
13. Vocal lessons with Ron Pickett (Gary)
14. Gardening (Vivian)
15. My Ford Fusion
16. Sandovals
17. Friday dominoes at the Plasketts
18. Our backyard

Mission welcomes us to Ukraine

Missionaries

 Senior Missionaries/New Friends

Vivian and Gary - Out and About

 

Cultural Opportunities

Helping Hands

Moscow

Kyiv Temple - Winter 

Seeing Ukraine...Missionary Style

I started this blog posting many months ago but never took the time to finish it.  I thought I would go ahead and post it now even though all of this information is over six months old.

Vivian and I are leaving for Kharkiv today as part of our missionary assignment.  Tomorrow we will be attending sacrament meeting in the morning, training the district priesthood leaders and auditors in the afternoon and attending a fireside in the afternoon to hear the new mission president, President Richard L. Wirthlin, speak.  On Monday morning we will do a little sightseeing.  We are looking forward to going to a beautiful park near where are hotel is.  Then in the afternoon we will board a train to take us back to Kyiv.  I will post some pictures from our weekend and you can compare them to the ones you will see later in this post.

And Now...on with the show

In our primary assignment as missionaries in Ukraine we have the opportunity once every six months to travel to a number of the major cities where the Church has established congregations. We train the priesthood leadership in these cities on the policies and procedures pertaining to the audit of Church funds by these congregations.

From December 2017 through early February 2018 we made training visits to Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkiv, L'viv and Odessa.   What follows are some photos of these cities.  We had a great time traveling to these places and see a little more of Ukraine outside of our home base in Kyiv and meeting with faithful and devoted Ukrainian Saints.

Dnepropetrovsk - December 2017

Our first trip outside of Kyiv was to this city.  We traveled by train which took about 5 hours.  This city is in the eastern part of Ukraine and sits along the Dnepro River.  It is the 3rd largest city in Ukraine.  We didn't do much sightseeing on this trip.  Travel Friday,  Meeting on Saturday.  Travel Sat eve back to Kyiv.

In the first class car of the Intercity train to Dnepropetrovsk

 Looking down on the train after arriving in Dnepropetrovsk.  The building is the back side of the train station.  The lettering on the building spells out "Dnepro" in Ukrainian.

So the taxi cab driver took us from the train station to our hotel...

Which was across the street.  Whew!

The view from our hotel room looking toward the downtown area

The Holy Trinity Cathedral on our walking tour of downtown Dnepropetrovsk Friday evening

The Central Branch Church Building where we did our training

 This is Sergei Podol'skii.  The Dnpropetrovsk Mission Audit Committee Chairman.  He made all the physical arrangements for our training meeting and met us Saturday morning to unlock the gate and let us in.  This building is tucked behind retail buildings on a main street in the downtown area.  It is hard to find with a nondescript gate the only way to get in.  He is one of the pioneers of the Church in the Dnepro area.  He spoke very little English and I speak very little Russian but somehow we were able to communicate with each other.

We met with these wonderful brethren to discuss and train.  The man on the left is Aleksandr Cheban.  He is the Donetsk District President and oversees the welfare of Church members who live in the war-torn area known as the Donbass Region of Ukraine.  His faith is incredible and stories and pictures of the members that live in this area are unforgettable.  He acted as my translator.  He served as a young LDS missionary in the United States and he sounds like an American when he speaks.  

This is the way we roll.  On our way to the train station after the training meeting.  

This walking strip is right down the middle of  the street outside of where the Church building.  Note the bus on the left.  This is a common mode of transportation.  It's called a "marshrutka"; a small bus that you pack as many people in as humanly possible and then add 10 more!  It's how we got from the picture above to the train station.

This is the front of the train station.  The letters on either side of the building spell "Vokzal" meaning "railway station".  This concluded our visit to Dnepropetrovsk and was our gateway back to Kyiv.

Kharkiv - January 13 - 15 , 2018

Our next trip was to Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1.4 million.  It is located 480 kilometers (300 miles) east of Kyiv and 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of the Russian border.  We took the intercity train from Kyiv to Kharkiv and back again.  One way took about 6 hours.  We left on Saturday and returned on Monday.  Very nice trip and we saw a lot of the country.

Due to it's proximity to Russia, Russian is primarily the language spoken there.  This city has a great history and I refer you to Wikipedia for all the details.  It is a city rich in culture, education and the arts.  

We did our training Sunday evening so we had part of Sunday and Monday to walk around the central part of the city and take in the sights and sounds and smells.  Our hotel was in a central spot so we saw Freedom Square and the National University of Kharkiv.

Pictures will follow.  Please note, although the sun was shining and the sky was blue the temperature was 5℉.

Central (downtown)

We arrived by train early in the evening and left during the afternoon.  A couple of views of the train station.

 The street where the Kharkiv Central Branch of the Church is located (red brick-like building on the right)

Me at the gate to the Church building (left).  The entrance beyond the gate to the Kharkiv Central Branch where we attended Church on Sunday and then trained priesthood leaders later Sunday afternoon

Priesthood leaders I had the opportunity to instruct on the nuances of performing financial audits of branches (formal, small congregations) of the Church.  These leaders are the auditors and various branch presidents representing various branches of the Church in the Kharkiv District.  Wonderful group of men.  Vivian is taking the picture.

Above left - the Kharkiv Palace Hotel - one of the best in the city.  Above right - Vivian with a metallic snowman in front of the hotel.  Below center - the view from our hotel room of part of the central part of the city.  

The three pictures above are of Freedom Square.  At this time of the year it was dressed up for Christmas; lots of activities, food stands and an ice skating rink.  The picture above left shows one end of the square and the picture below center shows the opposite end of the square.  This is the 6th largest city square in Europe and the 12th largest in the world (according to Wikipedia)

This is the Kharkiv Regional Administrative Building.  During the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution this building was occupied by Ukrainian separatists (sympathetic to Moscow).  They eventually left after not receiving support to have Kharkiv separate from Ukraine.

 I love this picture of a little Ukrainian girl out with her babushka.  This is typical dress for the little kids during the winter time.  They are so cute and really bring smiles to our face whenever we see them.  This was taken on Freedom Square.  I was able to sneak taking the picture.  Ukrainians are very "guarded" in the demeanor and I would not have asked them to pose for a picture since I didn't know them.

This soccer ball was in the lobby of the Kharkiv Palace Hotel.  In 2012 Kharkiv was the host city for the UEFA Euro Championships (Union of European Football Association).