Minute-to-Win-It

Week of June 22-28, 2015

Had a lot of time for study this week (good thing too cause we had to speak in church and last minute we found out the interim mission president would be there) but in between we had a lot of fun.  These are a few pictures from a walk we took one day while contacting.

Vinnitsa is a city of fountains, I think.  There are little ones everywhere .

These statues are everywhere too.  One day we saw a new one in
the square.  It was cute but then we saw it move.  A man had
painted himself to look like one of the statues, put a hat out in front of him, and
then stood there for hours.  People had their pictures taken in front of
him, then they would leave some money in his hat.

I love the buildings in Ukraine.  They are so colorful and ornate.  Next time
we'll show the ones with more color.

This guy was covered in black plastic all winter.  Ned was pretty excited
the day they uncovered him and now look at him.  All pretty and green :)

the lane through central park

2 months ago

summer time aww nice

a little sunshine makes all the difference

two months ago

These are all pictures from downtown, close to where we live.  We haven't really started exploring the rest of town yet.  We're so excited when we find something new.  You can tell we're not city folk.  

These next pictures are from a trip to a members house to pick cherries. I think he has a little of everything out there, plus more.  We've been able to identify the fruit or nuts on all his trees now but two of them.  We've tried all his books but none of them translate into English.  Interesting! 

One of the Elders picking some of the best pie cherries ever!

Elder Brough trying to get ride of an infection on his face
doctors order grow out the beard.

A cemetery behind the orchard.  It was huge and so fun.  Each family had their own,
fenced in, decorated plot.

Here we are making cherry Vareniki- yum!

You may have noticed that it seems we do a lot of cooking.  Well, yes, we do, and everyone wants the recipe.  Some ladies came over one day to learn to make cinnamon rolls.  We took some to the neighbor, because we had not formally met yet, and about 1/2 hour later, she knocked on the door asking for the recipe.  Later she asked if we'd show her how to make them.  The story or our lives these days.  It's a great way to get to know people better.

Baking rolls in the kitchen

Ned and a wonderful brother in the branch made the soup possible

Amazing pioneer women!

Ammon fighting off the wicked Lamanites

What happens to wicked Lamanites

King Lamoni :)

Didn't get very good pics but cookie face was a hit!

Had to race to knock over the bottles- funny!

a river boat that travels from the fountain by our house clear down
to this park and back.

Patiently waiting for food

Making play dough rolls out on the porch.

Saturday we had a big Branch picnic at a big park just outside to town. ( in собаров ).  It was so much fun.  It was a normal "Mormon" picnic, almost.  Pot luck dinner, spiritual thought, and games but....Bread and cheese, veggie trays, salads, LOTS of dessert,  but, a couple sisters decided they wanted to make a BIG pot of borsch, over the fire.  It took forever, but it was GREAT! and it was a lot of fun.  The spiritual thought was great as well.  They handed out scripture stories to four different groups which got together, created a skit to pantomime acting out the story for everyone to identify.  Perfect!  Everyone should try it!  And then-  the missionaries were in charge of the games!  We decided to introduce Ukraine to our favorite Minute-to-win-it competitions.   It was hilarious and the best part was that everyone participated, young and old.

We ended our week with a wonderful Sunday dinner with the interim Mission President, the Elders and some members of the Branch. I have to admit, I was a little nervous to have them come but it was a delightful afternoon.

Now heres a picture of Elder Mikkelsen's calling in the mission.

He has taken on the roll of mission dishwasher- and he does a GREAT job.  Thanks !

We have learned since being here, that a ward family needs to be a family and it needs to be a loving, forgiving family. People need to visit each other, find out whats going on in each others lives, and tell people what's going on in their lives, we need to step in and be helpful, invite different people over, participate in activities-  each person has an important role at every activity, and most importantly they need to welcome everyone in and help them to feel loved before they walk out the door.  We need to notice who is not there so we can go find out why and help them to feel loved as well.  Who has time, right?  I have a testimony now of how the Lord can adjust time to help us do what we need to do.  I mentioned we were asked to speak in church.  We planned that if we each spoke for 7 1/2 minutes, with translation that would be 15 minute talks, leaving the President 15 minutes at the end.  I tried and tried but I couldn't get my talk to less than 10 minutes.  In fact, every time I went over it looking for things to cut out I ended up adding more.  Finally, I just prayed the Lord would slow the clock so I could fit it all in, and He did!  I covered it all, plus a little, in 13 minutes!  I know that when we spend time loving, serving, and spending time with people, our lives will be richer for it.

4 And in doing these things thou wilt do the greatest good unto thy 

    fellow beings, and wilt promote the glory of him who is your Lord.  (D&C 81:4)

For, when ye are in the serviceof your fellow beings ye are only in

the service of your God.  (Mosiah 2:17)

and, we know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the 

children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them 

that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.  (1 Nephi 3:7)

7 Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak:

 for your work shall be rewarded.  (2 Chronicles 15:7)

With that being said  :),  

We hope you have a wonderful week and just in case you read clear to the end so you could see a picture of our cute granddaughter, we would hate to disappoint you.  Here is our new favorite.

PS  I need to apologize.  As usual, I was having a technologically challenging day.  Every time I added a caption to a picture it sent the picture to a different place in the blog so none of them are in chronological order.

Have a wonderful week Love Elder and Sister Mikkelsen