Visit to Armenia

So, where in the world do you think the photo below was taken? About a year ago, I went to Promontory Point to watch a rocket test firing at Thiokol, and this is what it looked like when looking back at the mountains to the east of Tremonton. When we woke up in Yerevan, Armenia, it was hazy with some snow in the higher elevations. It reminded us of northern Utah with the valleys and mountains. We went to see Mt. Ararat to see if we could help locate Noah's ark, but had no luck.

This is what it is supposed to look like most of the year. The climate is not too different from Albuquerque, but it hardly ever snows in the valleys of Armenia. Armenia is located just east of Turkey. It borders Turkey, Iran, Georgia and Azerbijan. The borders are generally closed except with Georgia, which borders Russia. In addition to Noah's ark tourism, Armenia is famous for great fruit (apricots, peaches, apples, pomogranits, grapes, etc.). Their most famous export is wine.

We stayed at the Marriott Hotel in the center of Yerevan, thanks to Jeromy's discout he got for us. It is the best hotel in Armenia and we enjoyed our stay there. It is located on Republic Square, which is a very modern and beautiful area with a great big round-about.

Our hosts were Margarit and Sergus. They took us around for a day to see many of the interesting sites around Yerevan, including the genocide memorial that pays tribute to the 1915 massacre by the Turks of Armenians. This needle statue is located by an eternal flame. The Armenians still do not get along with the Turks, so that is why the border is still closed. The Turks also took land away from Armenia in 1915, which included Mt. Ararat. They still remember it well.

The Armenian Christian Church is the big player throughout Armenia. We went into a few churches and museums to see what they were like. The Apostle Bartholomew carried out part of his ministry in Armenia, so it has a very long tradition of Christianity, since the 1st century AD. Below is a photo of a bible that was hand scribed in Armenian. There are 36 letters in their alphabet, and we could not read a single letter. It has some resemblence to Thai so maybe Britt and James could decipher some of it. There is a single mission that covers both Armenia and Georgia. The two languages are totally different, but the common language that many speak is Russian.

We went to a monastary up in the mountains that was built into and from the rocks in the mountainside. As you can see from the photo, we were in snow at this elevation. It rained in the valley and snowed in the mountains most of the time we were there. We need to go back during apricot season, and hopefully get a better view of Ararat.

Armenia suffers from many people leaving for better living conditions. There are more Armenians in Claifronia than there are in Armenia. Many go to Russia to find jobs, but many do not return as they prefer to not live in Armenia again. It is quite sad, but hopefully things will pick up in the future.

We cannot leave without a picture of the Kyiv temple, and how it looks in January. Our winter has been quite mild, with a little snow and cold. We do not mind it at all. We have been a lot warmer than the temperatures back home.

We need to go to Bulgaria and the Baltics in the next couple of months. We look forward to the adventures. It is hard to believe that we are nearly half way through our mission.

Bye for now.

Tom and Shauna

Winter In Kyiv

This is a view of our apartment (on the left) just across the playground. They use the playgound as much in the winter as they did during the summer. We had a couple inches of snow, but it warmed up enough that it is all melted. Some of the grass is still green as the snow melted. Another view of the building construction in the middle of our apartment complex. Almost all of the apartments in view are not yet occupied, so we expect the foot traffic to really grow as they build out the apartments. The new construction will be a health and fitness center with swimming pool. There was little construction during the summer, and we thought it was the slow economy. Since the weather turned colder, there is apartment construction work going on everwhere. I count 14 new buildings goin up from where I took the photo. So the economy must be picking up.

We went to the temple Saturday morning. This picture shows an early morning picture of the temple with a new dusting of snow. The nativity scene is on the right. The temperature has hovered around 32 degrees the last couple of weeks, and all the snow melted by noon today.

Time to get some work done.

Tom and Shauna

Happy New Year

We are still celebrating the end of the Christmas season, and the beginning of the New Year. We were surprised at all the Christmas trees, both artificial and real, that were everywhere. The Ukrainians are more festive and really celebrate the new year coming around. It was fun to experience it. These are some carolers from a local church that came by our apartment and sang. They sure had beautiful voices. It was the first time that anyone that we did not know knocked on our door. Kind of surprising.

Shauna's Christmas plant started to bloom and was in full force during the Orthodox Christmas (7 Janaury). Not sure how it knew what country it was in but it really produced.

The day after Christmas, the Stake held a children's party. It was in commemoration of Christmas, but was a cross between our holloween and Christmas. All the kids came dressed up in costumes, with a lot of animals represented. They portrayed a typical Christmas story that involved good guys and bad guys, with the good guys winning over the bad guys. They really had a lot of fun, and it was totally different than anything we had expereienced. We look forward to getting an English version of the storyline and plot.

Now we have to go back to work.

Tom and Shauna

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011

We brought in the New Year walking around downtown Kyiv with Elder and Sister Miner, Humanitarian couple from Bountiful that arrived about a month ago. We are standing in front of a Christmas tree at St. Sophia's calthedral, one of the historical monuments in Kyiv. We then took a stroll down Kreshatik, the main street in the heart of Kyiv. The lights were phenomenal. Thier Independence Square is like Times Square in New York, only larger. Following are a few photos from the evening.

There were bands playing, vendors selling all sorts of Chirstmas things (Christmas is not until 7 January so this seemed like the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S. A light snow falling really shows up when using the flash on your camera.

One of the themes in walking in the underground shopping is the really neat clothes for children. I think we will be seeing more pink and purple from the looks of what is available in the stores.

The streets are full of New Years and Chirstmas lights. They were amazing, and the people really enjoy them. There were many St. Nicholas', Father Frost's, and mor and more Santa Clause's walking and entertaining the crowds. We tried to capture the magnitude of their celebration with a few photos. I believe New Year's celebration is their biggest holiday event of the year, and they really do it well.

We brought in the New Year 9 hours before most of the family. It was a cool, festive time in Kyiv. Lots of lights, people and fireworks. We spent the last couple of hours in 2010 with the Kamka's, the CES missionaries from Idaho Falls that live in our apartment building 4 floors above us. They have a better view looking toward the city and all the fireworks. There were more than 100 different fireworks displays. Seems as though every neighborhood set off fireworks that lasted until at least 2:30. The closest was just outside our window less than 100 yards away. It was fun and people were partying all night long. It is now 8:00 in the morning and things have quieted down.

Tom and Shauna

Christmas Comes Twice a Year

Greetings all,

In Eastern Europe, the regular Christmas Holiday is 7 January based upon the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox religions. So we get to celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December as well as the 7th of January. But the 25th was pretty much a regular day in our life. We are starting to see lots of evergreens for sale as Christmas trees, and a lot of artificial ones as well. We have a 1 meter tall tree in our apartment all decorated. It will have to stay there until about the 10th of January. They also celebrate New Year's a little differently, since they have two calendars. The common one used is what we are used to, but the New Year's holiday goes until after the 10th of January. So we are looking forward to people on holiday for a couple of weeks. This is the card (in English) that we prepared for the Church to send out.

We attended a small Branch in Zhutomyr, which takes us about 3 hours to get to each way. First by metro to the Vaxhall, then Martruska for 2 hours to Zhutomyr, then a 2o minute walk to the house they use as the church. All the young kids belong to the Branch President. There are some young men and women, but attendance is kind of scarce. They held a Christmas program on the 25th and had 40 people attend. So there is potential for a larger attendance. The Branch President used to be a rock star, and his family is very talented.

We are keeping very busy with Public Affairs training. We leave early in the morning to go to the Crimea for a couple of days. We hope to take a few hours and go to the Black Sea, near Yalta. I have always wanted to go there, and this may be our only chance. We chose to fly instead of the 18 hour train ride. We will see how it goes. We previoulsy went to the Black Sea at Odessa, but it was so foggy that you could not see across the pier let alone into the sea.

The Kyiv temple has been very busy since it opened. They say it is too small for the number of patrons using it. That is a great problem to have. They are trying to organize a stake in Moscow, so if that happens then maybe they will announce another temple in Eastern Europe. From expereience we know that it will take awhile to build, however.

We wish all a Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year!

Tom and Shauna

Travel Log to Kharkov

We had a Public Affairs Council meeting in Kharkov, Ukraine, which is a 5.5 hour train ride from Kyiv. We took the day train to see





the countryside, and spent the night in a nice hotel. We spent a little time in downtown Kharkov. It was quite impressive and a very beautiful fall day. Lots and lots of fountains with wedding couples everywhere. One fountain was a little different version of "The Kiss" that we had never seen before with two bronze statues stretching across the fountain.

Another eye catching display in a park was various churches encased in glass. Reminded usof the Temple crystals that have been a tremendous hit over here, at least of the Kyiv temple.

We enjoyed the train ride, but it sure was hot on the way back. They do like it warm inside here, whether at work, on the train or at home. By the way, we had a great Public Affairs training meeting in Kharkov. It lasted about 4 hours and then we had lunch before heading back home. It was a very pleasant weekend.

Bye for now.

Tom & Shauna

Fun Experience in Khmelnitsy

It seems as if everyone wanted an interview at the Blind Humanitarian project in Khmelnitsy, Ukraine. Several reporters from Ukrainian TV and newspapers covered the event. There was one shot of our missionary badge that was shown on the TV news. Two weeks later one of the missionaries serving in Khmelnitsy came up to me in Kyiv during transfers with a big smile on his face. He said everyone in Khmelnitsy saw the news story, and what a wonderful organization the church was for sponsoring it. They recoginized the missionary badge, even the local barber, and compleimented them on the grat example of the Church. Their reception on the street and in homes was greatly improved as a result. We owe our thanks the humanitarian folks who put this together.

Now the Mission President has us going back and speaking in their Branch this Sunday.

T & S