The Spice of Life

Week of September 14-20, 2015
Change is part of life.  Some might say it is the spice of life.  If that is the case we had a very spicy week.

Things are changing for this building 1/2 block from the church.

Things are changing. They are making it a hospital

It started on Monday morning at 4:06 AM when I rolled over in bed and noticed that the alarm had not gone off yet.  We needed to take Elders Hunt and Golling to the train station because they were being transferred for the last time (in the mission field at least).  Their new assignment was Home!

Heading Home!

 It is so hard to lose missionaries that you have been working with for months and have shared some very special times with.  We are so glad we had the opportunity to work with these young men!  There was a side benefit for the branch.  The missionaries have lived in that apartment for many years and so they did some cleaning out and brought 5 huge bags of left over missionary clothes to the church.  So, now we have quite a nice supply of clothing items in our new emergency store room there.  As long as the person needing clothes is a man between a Med and XL we are set to go.
There was also another transfer that took place this week, our son Jacob was moved to Isla Mujeres which is located just off the coast of the city of Cancun.

It is an island that is 650 Meters (710 yards) wide and 7 Kilometers (4.3 miles) long.  You can walk all the streets in town in about 2 hours.

It is tough duty but someone has to serve here!

It is a tourist town and most people just do day trips from Cancun.

Welcome to church building on Isla Mujeres

So after transfers, Sister Mikkelsen and I were then left on our own in our wonderful city of Vinnistya all by ourselves, with no missionary support.  Several months ago that would have been terrifying, but now, it seems like no big deal.  We had the opportunity to travel out to Medvezha Vooshko and visit with several members.

More changes as the fall season progresses we have wonderful fruit

The potatoes are in and just the pumpkins and corn stalks are left

Sister Rosa was in the middle of making pear juice but she and her husband took some time to visit with us.  They have lived in this little village forever and in  1975 built a very nice home. Her husband was a contractor and by looking at his work I would term him an artist.  He has taken such great care to the smallest details in his home. You should see the grout lines between the bricks on the outside of the home. (you could, if we had taken a picture!)  Even though the home is getting old, it looks new still.  She sent some pear juice and beautiful pears home with us, Sister Mikkelsen made some wonderful pear jam with it.

I took a trip back to the same village the next morning and worked with my good friend Igor on his house remodel.  This is the first time I've been there without an interrupter in tow and it was fun.  It is not too difficult for a couple of old retired school teachers to figure out how to communicate.  We made some good progress on his project.
We had some visitors from Kyiv on Friday.  Elder and Sister Wood, who are the Humanitarian couple, and their interpreter came.

Elder and Sister Wood 23 month Humanitarian Couple

We visited the hospital to which the church has donated lots of equipment.  We were able to talk with the administrator and take a tour of the 4th floor that is being remodeled.  It is quite the change from 3 months ago when I first took a tour of the hospital.  The equipment will make a wonderful addition to the facility.
Sister Mikkelsen went with the Wood's the second half of the day to visit 5 families that the church is sponsoring.  The program is called,  'The Poorest of the Poor'.  These are people that the local government is working with to assist them with their struggles. The families are all very needy and also deserving.  One family was challenged with hearing impairment, another family has 8 kids with # 9 on the way, another family had two families living in the same apartment with very little furniture and another family were refugees from the war zone. I could go on and on but you get the picture.  These 5 are only 5 out of a 100 targeted families that are in just as tough of situations.  The government is doing all it can to assist these people in improving their lives and many of them have made great strides.  These people are very proud and want the very best for their families.  The one stark contrast here is that there is no sense of entitlement (you owe this to me) like we sometimes see and hear about in America.
These people are vey happy with everything they have and are very grateful for any help they receive and know how to get by with nothing.  They are always out trying to better themselves.  Here is a case in point.  Our branch, about 4 or 5 months ago, started the Church's Self Reliance course.  First of all, the church produced this material only in English.  The people in Ukraine could see the benefit of having this material available for church members here so, on their own did a complete translation of all the materials into Ukrainian.  That was no small task.  It is 100's of pages.  On Friday we had a branch celebration where four of our members completed the first classes in Self-Reliance.

First Graduating Self Reliance class

They studied how to improve their education, how to budget their money so that they could afford additional education, and the basics in how to find a job.  They will now begin learning how to grow their own business.  What a great example of making a difference in your own life.
Friday, very late at night, Sister Mikkelsen and I traveled over to the Train station to pick up our new Elders; Elder Kudaibergen from Kazakhstan and Elder Albert (Greeny) from Orlando Florida.

This past week we had 16 missionaries report to the Kyiv Mission.  Three sisters and 13 Elders.  Every elder in the mission received a brand new missionary to train.  This included one elder that has been out for 6 weeks, not to mention that both of the AP's and all zone leaders are also training.  This is a big shift in the work force here in the Kyiv Mission.

The town center with our new Elders. Elder Albert on the Right

We will get an additional 10 missionaries on the next transfer. This is an exciting time for our mission.

New Elder's first Sunday dinner

Branch members over for our Branch Family Dinner

Just so you understand how exciting it is let me share an example. We have been talking to one of our members about going on a mission.  Elder Kudaibergen bore such a strong testimony of the blessings that he and his mother have enjoyed since he has been on his mission.  There were a lot of questions answered.  We would love to see our wonderful member go and serve a mission.  They would be great!
Like I said at the first, change is the spice of life and as you can tell by the length of this blog, it was a spicy week.  We are so blessed to be here and be able to serve.  In closing I would like to share the 8 things President Benson talked about in yesterdays Priesthood lesson on the Elderly.
1. Work in the temple and attend often. 2. Collect and write family histories, 3. Become involved in missionary service. 4. Provide leadership by building family togetherness. 5. Accept and fulfill church callings. 6. Plan for your financial future. 7. Render Christlike service. 8. Stay physically fit, healthy and active.  I have never considered myself "Elderly" but as we discussed these points yesterday they all hit home so I guess I must be getting close.  So to all of our "Elderly" friends out there take note of where you should be and move forward.  I recommend #3 very highly!  Have a great week and keep the faith!  Love you all Elder and Sister Mikkelsen.

Our little grand baby ready to go in Dad's truck