Update from Kyiv

From visiting the temple site to participating in Humanitarian project closings, we seem to be quite occupied here in Kyiv. We have been working with the Ukraine National Public Affairs Council and the Regional Speacilists to put together a plan for next year. Long range planning is relatively new to most of the people we work with, and it has been fun to help them see a vision for the future.

This lovely lady with the hat works with young children that have medical problems. She and her family do "performances" three times a week to the children and their parents. They were asked by the local adiminstration to take these childern from various hospitals and build up their outlook on life. Many will have struggles throughout their life, so instilling a little joy and making them smile is a tremendous accomplishment. They are to be commended for thier work, and their dedication.

We are planning to spend a few days in the Crimea covering Humanitarian Project closings and meeting with leaders to help them in their plans for the upcoming year. When we leave, we hope to have an approved plan in place for them to execute next year. One of the events will be two Helping Hands Days, one in the spring in April and the other in the fall. Every member is encouraged to join in on service projects during those days. The last one, and first one for that matter, was on 2 April. It was a tremendous success. There were many uplifting stories and a common desire to do these on regular basis. It so happens that it fell right in line with the day of service talks of General Conference.

We did spend 4 days in Chernivtsi, a city about the size of Ogden in teh southwestern part of Ukraine. (this is the 15 hour over-night train ride each way). We were able to spend time with Branch members and also participated in a Humanitarian project for wheelchair repairs.

We think there may be a couple designated to replace us. If that is the case, we will be able to determine our departure date. Theya re still awaiting their call, so things can change easily.

Bye for now.

Tom and Shauna

Riga, Latvia on the Baltic Sea

We enjoyed a lovely trip to Riga, Latvia where we met with the Public Affairs directors for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Riga is a European city that reminded us of Stockholm with a variety of different European architectures. It is at the mouth of the Daugaua River as it opens to the Baltic Sea. With more than 700,000 people, it is the largets city in the Baltic countries. They speak Latvian with many who also speak Russian. Many also speak English and it seems to be used more as time as that is becoming the common language for the European Uniion, which. Their currency is LATs, but will eventually become the Euro.

Even though it was May, the Baltic Sea was quite inviting. There is a large Bay that enables the water to stay quite warm and less salty. We enjoyed walking on the beautiful sandy beaches.

During WWII, over 100,000 Jews were killed in a concentration camp on the outskirts of Riga. They now have a huge memorial park and museum to rememeber what took place.

We were treated to huge palaces built for royalty as summer palaces. They were gorgeous and the gruonds were spectacular. The lilacs were in full bloom and one did not want to leave the gardens tehy were so pretty.

Although small, Latvia was a very pleasant surprise on how modern it is, its beautiful and colorful architecture, how clean and upkept everything was, and what a great place to go as a tourist. We would go there in a heartbeat.

Our host was the Baltic Mission Public Affairs Director, Inara Jegina, who also runs a travel service. So we were well taken care of and saw lots of beautiful sites, including castles, restored palaces, new and renovated sity buildings and structures, and a gorgeous city. We even managed to obtain a Monopoly game in Latvian. Photos are of the city, the Russian palace built 200 years ago, a view of the old town.

Tom and Shauna

Sofia, Bulgaria

We made a short trip to Sofia, Bulgaria to obtain a new visa to complete our mission. While there we took in a few sights of the city. Bulgaria is in the European Union, and was more westward looking that what we have experienced in Ukraine. At the same time, that means things cost more ther than in Ukraine.

This is a picture of a square in downtown Sofia in which there were hundreds of bears, all the same size and shape, but painted to represent each country in the world. Altough we did not look too closely, we assumed the bear painted as the Statue of Liberty represented the USA.
There were many very colorful and artistically painted bear statues.

The biggest cathedral is known as the Gold Dome, which is the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and represents SOfia as a substantial landmark.

One of our (my) highlights was a visit to the Bulgarian Military Museum. There were lots of military hardware that stems from the Soviet times.

One was the illusive Scud missile that was used by Iraq in the first Gulf war against Israel and the Allied forces.

Most impressive, however, was the lengthy history of Bulgaria and the excellent displays that were housed in a 4 story museum. Bulgaria was at the crossroads of many invaders and/or occupiers of their land. Located in the Balkins they have been subjected to the Russians, Ottoman Empire, Romans, Hungarians, Germans, etc., etc. They sided with Germany in WWI and WWII, but ended up on the Allied side in WWII. They were a satellite country in the Soviet Union days, but not part of the Soviet Union. They do claim that they protected all the Jews that lived in Bulgaria from the Nazi exterminations.

We enjoyed our brief visit to Bulgaria. We even found a Bulgarian Monopoly game and an Anti-Monopoly game. It will be fun to see what that means.

Bye for now.

Tom and Shauna

All Ukraine Helping Hands Day 2 April 2011

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ukraine contributed more than 3,000 hours of community service on 2 April 2011 as part of the first ever All Ukraine Helping Hands Day. Some 50 communities were served by over 1100 volunteers throughout Ukraine. Projects included children’s playground repair and painting, repairing park benches, riverbank and park clean-up and many more things. Wearing the distinguishable Helping Hands white and yellow vests, volunteers worked with community leaders and other organizations to make Ukraine a better place to live.

In Chernivtsi, 30 volunteers refurbished the square near the monument to Maxim Gorky, clearing the park of debris, clipping the shrubs and planting flowers to welcome spring. Among the participants were community leaders: the district council chairman for Sadhirskoyi, George Burega, and Head of Environment District Councilman Sergei Melenchuk. In Sevestapol, a children’s playground was renovated with other congregations offering to join in on future projects to better serve the community. Project zaklyuchavsya located at Ivano-Frankivsk was the repair, cleaning and painting children's playground Danyy Maydanchyku. The cemetery in heart of the city of Rivne was readied for spring by cleaning the grounds, removing dead leaves, fallen branches, the winter buildup of trash, and other debris. In Lviv, the weather cleared just in time to clean, repair and paint the benches in Ivan Franko park, located in the heart of the city. City leaders were very pleased with the work and want to encourage such cooperative efforts throughout the city.

In Kiev, more than 350 members and their friends wearing vests with the words "Helping Hands” served in 9 locations, including the traditional clearing and cleaning of Babi Yar park joined by other congregations. Other places were determined to serve the local State Administration and utilities for maintaining green space. In Lutsk, invited friends and acquaintances numbered 35 people, who removed debris in the park Lesya Ukrainka and cleaned the beach on the river bank Stir. In the Mining District of Makeyevka, 25 members of the Church managed to clean the Square located around the Palace of Culture and remove garbage. In Donetsk, volunteers cleaned the territory of the city park, removing the debris accumulated over the winter months.

In Billa Tserka, a well organized group of 40 members cleaned the large park area, inviting other organizations to join in and participate in cleaning up the surrounding areas and festivities. Although in somewhat rainy conditions, 14 joined forces in Zhutomyr to clean the park in commemoration to Yuri Gagarin, removing over 25 bags of garbage and debris, making the grounds presentable and attractive for taking a stroll across the wooded areas. In Maripul, 20 combined their efforts to clean the large housing area that surrounds the church.

That same day, Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints asked all members around the world to perform a “Day of Service” to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Church’s welfare program. President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency, made the announcement during the Saturday morning session at the 181st Annual General Conference. Local Church leaders decide the details of each project and Latter-day Saints are encouraged to invite neighbors and friends of the Church to participate. “The feelings of unity will multiply the good effects of the service you give. And those feelings of unity in families, in the Church, and in communities grow and will become a lasting legacy long after the project ends,” President Eyring said.

His words were demonstrated in deed, and fully realized during the All Ukraine Helping Hands Day, 2 April 2011. The consensus from participants is that this should become an annual event in Ukraine, encouraging cooperation with local communities and other organizations within the communities.

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