Ken and Stacy in Russia: October 22, 2012

Last week was temple week for us which was great. It was time for our every-three-month visa trip again, and this time our group went to Kiev, Ukraine. We had not been to Kiev yet and were excited to visit the temple there. Unfortunately, flight schedules and temple session schedules didn't work well together, and the group was unable to even leave the airport in Kiev. So we requested to go a day early in order to attend the temple. Our next visa trip in January is during the scheduled maintenance closure of the temple so we thought this might be our only chance to go to the temple. We flew into Kiev on Monday afternoon; the church made arrangements for a driver to pick us up from the airport and take us to our hotel which was within walking distance of the temple. Victor, the 23-year old driver, proved to be quite invaluable for us, as he agreed to spend the following day with us showing us points of interest in Kiev. He also speaks very good English so we had the best of both worlds--knowledgeable local who we could communicate with! We visited the place where Christianity was brought to Russia in the late Eighth Century, the first-built cathedral the following century, a reconstructed village of how the people would have lived hundreds of years ago, and a famous enormous metal monument called the Motherland.

Kiev is a big city that looks more European than where we are. The buildings are very large and ornate, dating back hundreds of years ago. The streets are more narrow, cars are allowed to park almost anywhere (even on the sidewalk, as long as they leave room for pedestrians), and public drinking is forbidden. Ukranian language is evidently similar to Russian, but they have some different letters and some of the letters that are the same are pronounced differently than Russian sounds. Their currency is different. Elder Peterson thinks it looks like monopoly money. The bills are different sizes and colors.

Traditionally painted eggs likely displayed in parades or just decorative purposes of today

Elder Peterson and our driver Victor at a wooden windmill in the same village

The gated entrance into the city in the Eighth Century

An old wooden church in an Eighth-Century village

Building in the central square of Kiev

A protest group in downtown Kiev

Cathedral in central square of Kiev


Offices of the Kiev President

Kiev Cathedral

Prince Vladimer monument commemorating him bringing Christianity to Russia in 988 A.D.

Historical park in Kiev

Motherland Monument

We loved the opportunity of attending the temple. It is out of the central district a little ways but still right off a main highway. The mission office, ward building, distribution center and guest housing are also on the property. Yes, they actually have a ward there in Kiev with close to 200 Saints who attend--what a miracle!! We know some day it will be like that in many more parts of Eastern Europe. The ward building closely resembled an "American" chapel. The missionaries who were showing us the building were excited that they would soon be getting an organ. The temple is beautiful! The mural paintings are beautiful, the chandelier in the celestial room is one of the prettiest I've seen, and the workers were so kind and helpful. We attended one of four sessions available that day, quite a difference from sessions every half hour in our temple district. Every one of the approximate 40 chairs was full. They have nine missionary couples who are assigned to the temple. One of them whom we met is from one of the branches in our mission; another has a grandson serving in our mission. We realize there are many, if not most, missionaries who are unable to attend a temple while on their missions so we feel very blessed to have been able to attend both the Frankfurt, Germany, and Kiev, Ukraine, temples. Our temple recommends needed to be renewed recently so we now have recommends in Russian; they will be a keepsake.

Kiev Ukraine Temple

Kiev Ukraine Temple night view

Victor picked us up from the temple and took us back to the airport where we met up with the rest of our visa group, including President and Sister Sartori, Elder and Sister Connell (the office couple), and four other elders. You get quite the interesting looks from people in the airport when they see such a peculiar-looking people as us all together. Our district president picked us up in Samara to bring us back home which was very nice because our flight didn't arrive until 11:30 that night. I know the church is working with government officials to hopefully eliminate the need for missionaries to leave the country so often. It really is disruptive to the missionaries, as many of them have to travel long distances just to get to the airport and then lose sleep to accommodate flight schedules, etc. Hopefully, things will change soon.

We had district meeting for the first week in three weeks due to zone training and I can't remember why else. It was good to all be together. Elder Glavatsky from Ukraine is back in our area. He served here several months ago and is a terrific missionary. Two investigators he was working with when he was here and subsequently had been difficult to meet with after he left have come out of the woodwork again simply because they love and appreciate him. There is definitely a HUGE advantage to "talking the talk and walking the walk" of the people here. Besides, Elder Glavatsky is such a genuine person; it would be difficult for anyone to not like him! We have a new sister in our area as well.

We have been helping our missionary family this week work through last-minute details and paperwork to be ready to leave for their mission on Saturday. It has been stressful for them. They have needed to get new international passports, re-ticketed airline tickets to match their new passport numbers, settle housing agreements, etc., etc., to the point where they have wondered if they should even be going. We were grateful for our past experience that we could share with them to let them know we knew exactly how they felt and that we were confident Satan was trying his hardest to keep them from going. Shortly before we were to leave on our mission, we had several problems with our rental properties, our own home had a flooding problem, Elder Peterson's shoulder surgery didn't go as planned, funds that we were depending on were not becoming available...we realized that Satan was fully employed trying to make it difficult for us to leave. I'm sure our situation, along with this family's, is not unusual. But I am also sure that as we exercise our faith and move forward, we can thwart Satan's ways and fulfill our callings as the Lord wants us to. Eventually, things get taken care of and the Lord provides a way. The branch had refreshments and nice sentiments for this couple after the block of meetings yesterday. They will truly be missed.

The big Fall Ball district activity was Saturday night. The committee worked feverishly organizing all of the details, and it really turned out great. If only the members had shown up! It is so frustrating that we can't get people to these activities to socialize and unite together. Thankfully, there were about 15 members from Samara who came down and then about 40 additional people. The theme was movie stars. They taped stars on the stairs that go up to the cultural hall, had movie posters taped up, pictures of movie stars with the faces cut out that you could take pictures in, a "stuffed" Hollywood oscar statue to pose with for pictures, bouquets of star balloons. They divided the group in tables and gave them a genre that they had to act out a scene to, such as western, comedy, melodrama, India, alien, horror, super heroes, and detective. They awarded each group with some kind of academy award. Then they had a Charlie Chaplin scene acted out by a couple of the youth, and they also danced a waltz. Then Sister Peterson taught the "Boot Scootin Boogie." We did the Macarena, some Russian dance, and then had a disco at the end. Elder Peterson was in charge of all the music except for the disco. He searched iTunes for each of the appropriate themes, as well as fanfare music, Frank Sinatra mingling music, etc. Our next big activity will be in December when the young single adults plan the Christmas party for all of the kids.