Going out West

The question of the day is what is this item that is found scattered around the Ukrainian land? Please give me your reply and then I will tell who is correct.

We will be leaving again, Tuesday to travel to the western side of the Kiev mission. We will have a driver taking us to several cities and then on Friday we will meet up with the President and his wife and travel the next three days with them. Will go to church there next Sunday and then be back home for three nights. Then the 24th of September we will fly to Frankfurt Germany for a 2 day Medical Meeting and then 2 days of touring. Will be at the Temple on Friday. So may not be close to an internet connection a lot of time that we are gone, will try to check occassionally in case someone needs to get in touch with us. So be patient with us.

This week was again a rather quiet week. Taught English 2x, had district meeting at our home on Thursday, with the Pres. and his driver so had a couple of extras for our lunch. Made one of those box cakes, which Dad thought was delightful and even had American Ranch dressing with our salad which everyone thought was great. So thanks Christian for the package. Will enjoy those things that we received but told Dad no more as they cost so much to send. We had an Ukrainian Mom and daughter over for supper and FHE on Monday and just spent 3 hours with a young couple from the first floor of our building. They played Sequence with us and had dessert. They are like Daniel's age and have no children. They are really nice and we met them while they were out painting the side of the building to cover up the grafiti and removed all the glued papers on the side of the building. They said we can come to their place when we get back from traveling.







Oh, a highlight of the week is that on Wednesday we went with a fellow branch member and went to the celo to interview Bro. Gregory, the 96yo member that was baptised last February. He is still kicking and was so excited that we would come to visit him. Is planning to come in to Kiev next month as it starts to get colder.


I quess that Joshua will come on Kevin's birthday as I have not heard that he is here yet. So Happy Birthday Kevin and Joshua. Hope your entry into the world was as exciting as everyone are to have you here. And Kevin your present will be a welcomed addition to your and our family. I also like the selection of the name and the tradition that it represents.


This picture is for Johnnie

He can ask his friend but I do believe this is a picture of Sister Ravsten. We met her at a baptism and have talked to her a few times on the phone. She is down in the Odeassa area so don't see her that much. That is about 4-5 hours from us by bus.

We are both doing fine. The weather is cooler and we are having to wear our rain coats. We are trying to have more Russian lessons and beginning to say more words, now understanding them is a different matter. Sounds like John and family traveled to China. Dad wanted me to make sure that you know to stay away from the Chineese weight loss products as they have caused renal failure requiring dialysis because of the Aristolochic acid found in them!

We hope and pray that you are all doing well, teaching your children to love the Lord and showing them love yourselves. Hope Tayte is recovering from his broken wrist, Paige is not eating to much glue, and school is great fun for all. We love you, Luv M&D, GM&GP, J&J

This is a picture of a stork' nest. They are found in western Ukraine so hope to see more this week as we travel and hopefully will see a stork. They are migratory and will soon head to Egypt and Africa for the winter. They are not eaten here and are "honored" as they bring the babies. Would like to get a picture of some.


This is a picture of Bro. Gregory. He has lost some weight over the summer. Most of the time he has been caring for himself. His daughter-in-law came last week to help him some.

Independence Day Flowers

This is a picture of Independece Square. It is were the Orange Revolution took place in 1991. Today they are still worried that they could loose this freedom that they have waited so long for.


This is the crowds that we encountered as we tried to go back to visit the flower arrangements last Monday, a holiday for Independence Day as it fell on Sunday.





This is a picture overlooking the left bank.


Wanted to show the difference between the pictures we took at night versus the ones that were taken in daylight. We thought they were both beautiful.

Ukraine School 2008

 

We had heard that the first day of school was quite an event here in Ukraine so we ventured out this morning and followed the children to a nearby school. It was a very colorful event for many families, young to old. The uniform that Tanner had to wear (and we thought he was very handsome)was nothing like the suits these young men all had on. The girls were all dressed in black outfits, white stockings and big (the bigger the better) bows in their hair. We understand that when they graduate years later they again wear a similar outfit. Did see one last May so will see if can get that picture off of Dad's cell phone. There were flowers for all the teachers. By the time one teacher receives all of her flowers she must feel like should could open a flower shop. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Trying to figure out how to make a collage like I have seen others do - any instructions would be appreciated. Luv MOM

I Know, We are Here!

See we are really here. I know that I should post more often and will try to do so - some times the thought of sitting down and typing just becomes over whelming, but will try to do better. Several have reported this as a boring blog since we never post, so I will try to keep it updated! As you know we spent nine days in the Donetsk Mission area visiting medical clinics and presenting power points in Zone Conferences. We stayed with the MP and his wife, Pres. and Sister Fry from St. George. We are impressed with all the MPs we have met. They are dedicated, inspirational and sacrificing alot to serve the Lord. They really care about the missionaries and the people of these countries. We saw a brand new medical clinic in Donetsk that was exciting to see as usually on the outside the places look like they are falling apart and they are. It is dismal at times to see all the falling apart buildings. Looks like no one takes care of the outsides, and apparently they don't as the government owns the buildings and they are given an apartment or rent an office space from the goverment clinic for their space. Inside some are nice and most have very modern medical equipment.

In the Donetsk we had an interpreter (think I need one that spells) take us to several cities in a hired taxi. Donetsk is a coal mining region so there is lots more pollution in that area of Ukraine, also more factories. Between clinic visits we had time to run to this park which is full of iron rod sculptures. It was very interesting. Will show more of the work when we get home. Also saw a reproduction of a cannon that sets in Russia's Red Square. Don't know how the ever expected to load and fire this thing. Maybe the size alone was enough to scare people.

I believe in 2010 the Euro Cup will be held in Ukraine, in several different large cities. Here is a picture of one of the new football/soccer for us Am./ stadiums that is being built in Donetsk.

Tonya our guide stated that this was just being started when she left for her mission 18 months ago. Progress is being made and they can finish a project in less than 5 years if they really want to. When the people go pass the temple site they are always amazed at how fast it is going up. They are also impressed that who they consider one of the premier constuction companies out of Austria is building it. They figure it must be something important if that company is doing the construction - oh, if they only knew! This picture of the temple site was taken in June. Have been told that there are now three stories up. We hope to go there in a couple of weeks for a baptism, so will see the progress then.




Just a little to let you know about other things we have been doing. We continue to answer telephone calls for the missionaries' illness. This month we had to send two home with back problems, herinated disc. And you could tell why if you had to travel in a minibus with no shocks while trying to miss the pot holes. Now we have reports that there are rabid bats in the Donetsk area, three reports of bites last week. Rabies serum here is not adequate to use. Mainly we deal with alot of the old N/V and diarrhea complaints.

We have been told that at the present time they have no replacement for Dr. Mc Cune who is over the Russia area, so coming the middle of Sept. we will be fielding telephone calls from there. Maybe with the current situation there, no new missionaries from outside of Russia, they are thinking that the numbers will dwindle and we can handle it all. The reason we are here was to help with the calls in this vast area. The last of foreign missionaries left the MTC for there sometime in June. The reason is that Russia is requiring all foreigners to leave Russia every three months to renew their Visas. This is at a great expense, $400 for a Visa renewal plus the cost of travel and lodging, if they can not stay with other missionaries, so mainly travel. They think that from approx. 700 missionaries in the country they may have only 200 in 2100 if the policies don't change. However, we know that the Lord can have a hand in this if necessary. This may also be a time that the members in Russia will have to step up and do more member missionary work. The Lord does allow for people to use their agency. Ukraine is very nervous about the Russia/Georgia situation we are told. All the missionaries that were in Georgia are now in Armenia. Don't know when they will be able to go back. If anything serious happens here we will be taken care of.

We got home last Saturday and immediately went to the Lee's for a Senior night out. The Reber's, from St. George, were also here along with their daughter and son-in-law, as they went home this past week. This was also Independence week end for Ukraine. By Big Mama, I sent her picture before, they make flower sculptures so we decided to go visit them on our way home, about 9:00 at night. Charlene tells us that it is interesting to watch this process. This starts about about a week before the event. They start digging up large areas of grass and replace it with flowers and more grass. They are then all torn down after about a week and grass is replanted. We went when it was dark and several of these were lit up, they were fabulous. Like a rose parade without the floats. The colors were outstanding and just really nice. Went back on Monday around 4:00 because we wanted to see the difference in the lighting. Boy, that was a mistake. The walk ways were wall to wall people trying to go down and up in a small area with no directions. And to top it all off there were also a few cars trying to get down the walkways as vendors were on both sides. Not a smart move, took us almost an hour to get down there and then could not really see and we had to be back at a dinner by 6:00. So basically went down and came right back. Did get a few pictures but will have to show them later as I forgot to download them before I started blogging. The swans are out of white chrysantheums (sp).





Tuesday and Thursday evenings we are teaching English classes which we really enjoy. Not so much because we are great teachers but because we get to interact with the local people and they love to talk English with us. (Even if I have an accent.) Hopefully we will get some investigators out of this. It is a great finding tool, so pray for our success. We also get to put fliers out, which we did for about 2 hours this week. We tape them on the buildings and on the bullentin boards. I enjoy doing this, next time you go by it is fun to see if they are still there and how many tear offs are gone.

Monday we had to go to the store as we had to take a salad for the dinner that night. We wanted to make a cabbage salad and there were no good ones to be found in the store nearest us. So we started to the renick near by and dad went in while I waited outside. A half hour later I decide I had better head home as he did not show up. Half way home he comes walking towards me. Couldn't find me when he came out and thought I had probably walked home thinking he would catch up with me. Don't know why he thought that as I had no keys and also no phone. Will always try to remember to take that for occassions like this.

We have decided to have district meeting in our home when we are here. That way right after the meeting we can have lunch with the District and they don't have to make another trip back for a night dinner. We have a Elder Higgins that is in our district that lives in Riverton, right next to the high school he tells us. We had a big spaghetti dinner this week. I enjoy them coming and it is nice having a mid afternoon meal that is always appreciated. We continue with bi-weekly Russian lessons. Dad is getting where he can understand quite a bit, me it stills sounds like all the words run together.

We are amazed at how fast it is now getting dark. In a week we have lost over 30 minutes of light. They said soon it will be getting dark here by 4:00. The leaves are also starting to fall off and for them fall starts here the first of September.

Today we will be going down to the Metro area to do contacting with the members. Have not done this previously so want to see how it goes. We have also been invited to attend an Area Medical meeting in Germany the last of Sept. but still waiting to see if the Area will pay for the cost. Right now our plans are to travel around the Kiev Mission to find medical facilities in the outside cities.

Have tried to talk to most of you sometime this week. Hope all is going well in your families. John is moving again! Ivana will be having a new boy soon. Julie and Mom are back in MO. School has started for the little ones. Life continues to go on without us but we love you all and miss you tons. Give hugs and love to all. Luv M&D, GM&GP, J&J

Post trip to DNP

As you know we took a 11 day trip through the DNEP mission, in Southern Ukraine, with Pres. and Sister Abraham and the APs. We took the train to DNEP and then made a car excursion with them. Right outside of the city the first thing we started to see was fields of sunflowers. So natuarally we asked them to stop and get a picture. We stopped in the best field of the whole trip. These sunflowers are as tall as we are. So we all took pictures among the flowers. They use the sunflowers in Ukraine for cooking oil. Haven't ever seen this many sunflowers before even in the state of Kansas. They were beautiful - took a couple of pictures for Julie.


Besides taking in a few attractions we mainly went to access and prioritize the medical clinic and hospitals in the area. We also visited a few dental clinics. We go through LIC, an insurance referring company, here in Kiev because they can talk the language. They have contracted with clinics to see the patients but it is amazing some of the clinics they contract we. We wonder if they have ever done an onsite visit with them. We also gave a few power point presentations at Zone Conferences. Hope the missionaries are getting the message - have TB skin test done on return home and to watch what they eat - and bleach their food. Three out of the 4 missionaries in our district now report they are bleaching. We tease the 4th and tell him he is just waiting to happen. Since we have been back have been teaching English again, had a going home meal for the District last evening, Elder Weissburg, our Lamanite missionary, will be heading home next Tuesday. He has been a great missionary working hard till the end, but Elder Jacobs has been trying to make him trunky this past month. Will have the MP's three sons over today. They are becoming "bored" as they have not received their household good from the states and they have been here for a month. There is a river near us with a small recreation park; slides, paddle boats, trampoline, etc. so Dad volunteered to watch them. We will see how that goes. Trying to give them a break from the city life of sidewalks, metros, and rentinks.

On this trip I found that Sister Abraham like to also take pictures of the local life so see pointed out a lot of new sites to me. The following is a picture of a wedding car. They decorate the cars and travel to the cival authorities to get married. Once married they then travel to a lot of the city's points of interest to take wedding pictures at the different sites.




The following pictures are to give you just a little bit of the local color of the country of Ukraine. The first picture is in Kherson and is one of a local open market "rentink". This one was interesting to me as it was all under one roof and a large area. In Obalone our rentinks are not as large as this one.


This is a picture of the women milking the cows for the evening - and it is all done right out in the open fields. Just had to get this picture!


The following is a picture of the "goat lady". She is taking the goats out for the day and this was in a pretty big city.


These young men were not to excited about us trying to get a picture of them - they really had scows on their faces but we thought their mode of transportation on the highway was interesting.

And as always, where ever we go they are just piles of trash. No one seems to think of putting it in the bins or to clean up that which is just littering the land.


We saw several old Greek Cities that started about 600 BC. Just a few pictures of the ruins, will have to tell more about them once we get home and I sort out where we were for sure. The names of these towns become very confusing, to me at least.











These last pictures are from the Yalta area. The palace is where Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt signed the Yalta treaty. Roosevelt stayed in the palace that was one of the living places for the Romanoff family before they were all killed about 1918.




This is the table they sat around to sign the treaty - was not actually in this room as they still use this as a meeting place and they needed a larger table.

This was the headboard to Roosevelt's bed - he liked this room so much that he wanted to recreate it in the White House. However, he soon died after making this trip.


This is the palace - they used it to accomadate Roosevelt's health problems.


Must close for now. Need to get ready for the MP'S children. We are both doing well, just getting a little older - John's BD was yesterday and mine will be soon. Hope all is going well in Pocatello. We did get to visit the Orr's from Poky will on our trip to DNEP. Had the Lee's over - it is good to visit with them when we start to feel lonely. Have a senior gathering tomorrow night that should be fun. Will leave for the Donestk mission about the 14th for a nother tour. Want to show you one more picture of the doorway to a clinic we visited - and we wonder about the health care.


Sorry failed to rotate it before I wanted to post. And then above the reception desk to the surgical center.



Only in Ukraine is our response. Luv you all, M&D, GM&GP, J&J

Leaving for Crimea

The hot water is back on. This is the condition of the water for about two hours after it came on. This is after cleaning the pipes!










The new Mission President and his family arrived the first of July. They have 3 sons that they brought with them. Jordan 17, Morgan 14and Slade 9. It will be a real challenge for them to keep the kids busy and to get all the mission work done. Sister S. will probably not travel as much as Sister Davis did. But this first week they have been gone. The Pres. left last Sat. and are traveling with the family throughout the mission field, so the boys will get some idea of the area and meet the missionaries. The Davis traveled almost 3000 miles every six weeks to hold interviews, zone conf, etc., don't think the Stin. will do that much together.



The normal metro cars are these plain blue and yellow ones. But every once in a while you can see a colorful one. This white one is decorated with computers. We have also seen one for Snickers and another for Rochen product, mainly cakes. Will have to see if I can catch their pictures. They come in and leave so fast one has to be ready for the snap!



We will be going by train back to the Southern end of Ukraine. Will be gone for almost two weeks. Will be giving our health presentations and visiting hospitals and clinic. It should be a busy few days. The last day will be in Yalta Crimea. That is where the WWII treaty was signed so will be doing a little historical touring for one day. We will then fly back into Kiev. We pray that you are all doing well. We know that a lot is going on - but stay in contact with each other.




This is a KBAC truck. They are all over the city. They dispense a drink made out of bread, water, sugar (maybe some barley seeds) and yeast. They start appearing the first of the summer and the liquid is just added to as it is depleted. I can only imagine what you are drinking by the end of the summer. It probably really ferments good from all the heat. Some of the missionaries I hear are drinking this stuff! Sounds almost like a beer receipe to me. Sometimes I wonder if missionaries really don't do STUPID things. We tell them no --- but!



Thought this was a interesting fountain.

We went to the Lee's for a fourth of July celebration. The Senior couples met at their home for a potluck dinner. We then played a game and then just sat around telling about our most embarrassing experiences and then one of our most spiritual. It was a good time together - there are some great senior couples here. Give the kids hugs and kisses for us. Luv, M&D