Week of January 18-25, 2016
This blog is one day longer because yesterday we had zone conference with Elder Klebingat of the 70. What a wonderful experience, but I'll get to that later in this week's blog. We closed last week's blog with a snow storm that continued on Monday. The rest of the week it has been very cold. The streets in downtown Odessa are very narrow and with all the snow piled up on the curbs the traffic has become very congested.
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| 200 stairs just a little icy |
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| "Sister Mikkelsen come sit by me" |
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| time to shovel the driveway |
It is a blessing we don't have to drive a car and can walk wherever we need to go. The other day we walked to church (Two whole blocks). When we walked out our door there was the #137 bus just passing our front door. That bus drives right past the church. When we entered the church the bus was just over half way to the church. Wow! Cars are really over rated. The other blessing that comes with this much snow is we get to practice our faith. Just as Peter walked on the water, we do too. The water is just a little more condensed than what he walked on but we have to admit it is almost as scary. There is another issue with water that has become apparent this week as we watched caution tape go up around the city closing or diverting some of the sidewalks. At first I couldn't figure out what the deal was. The sidewalks were clear of snow. Then I looked up an saw huge ice cycles, I'm sure they weighed hundreds of pounds, hanging off the roofs.
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| Watch out below |
Yesterday we walked by a place where one had fallen to the ground and there where blocks of ice that easyily weighed 10 to 15 LBS after they fell to the ground and broke. I do not want to see the statistics for the number of people that have perished by falling ice cycles.
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| Lets get rid of this stuff |
The cold has been a blessing. We have a built in freezer right out side our deck door that has helped relieve the congestion in our refrigerator.
This past week was FHE with the young adults in the area. The bad weather curtailed our numbers a little bit but we had an enjoyable time with them.
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| Happy Birthday Uncle David |
They make you feel young and are so appreciative of anything you do for them. We taught from the For Strength of Youth and had a discussion about physical relationships and what is and isn't proper. That day happened to be Uncle Dave's birthday (Janet's brother) so she made him a birthday cake and we recorded all those in attendance singing Happy Birthday to him.
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| This is the new Diet Birthday Cake you only get to look at it. |
It was more like Happy birz-day the TH sound is very difficult for Ukrainian speakers to say. Compared to all the sounds found in learning their language they are way ahead of me in even coming close to some of the sounds we have to try and wrap our tongues around.
Our little Ukrainian that we teach English to, gave her first Institute lesson on Wednesday. She was very nervous but did an excellent job. Even though I understood very few words during the lesson it was obvious she was doing a good job by the amount of participation and the warming influence of the Holy Ghost.
This past week President Packer asked if I would write the message for the mission newsletter. During the week I had the opportunity to write three different messages the first two were of my own creation and were not bad but they just didn't seem right. Finally on Thursday we had the opportunity to participate in the World Wide Mission Conference that the church presented.
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| World Wide Mission Conference in English, Russian, and French |
After listening to the inspired counsel from three apostles I was told what the message should be. Elder Bednar discussed the process of allowing the Holy Ghost to take the gospel into our hearts. He told us we were mistaken if we thought that we could place the Holy Ghost into the hearts of those we teach. He impressed upon us that we couldn't do that. We could only deliver the Holy Ghost "Unto" the hearts of man but it requires each individual to take it "INTO" their own hearts.
The Holy Ghost delivered "INTO" my heart the things that I should share with the missionaries here in the Kyiv Ukraine Mission. We are the vessel that the Holy Ghost uses to go to those we teach and therefore we must be clean and obedient if we want the Holy Ghost to deliver the message of the gospel to the people we interact with. We treasure up in our hearts the words of eternal life through our daily study and pondering and then when we teach, we but have to open our mouths and allow the Holy Ghost the opportunity to bring all things to our remembrance.
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| Treasure up knowledge |
We can then share the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There were many other things shared during that conference training session that are of great importance what a blessing it was to be a part of this training.
That world wide missionary conference was the cake of the week but Sunday and Monday we were blessed to have the icing put onto that cake. Elder Klebingat traveled to our area on Saturday night along with the mission president and his wife and the next two days were filled with addition lessons and testimonies that we were able to take "INTO" our hearts. Sunday the three of them spoke in Sacrament Meeting and the spirit was strong. After the three hour block they came to our house and we fed them a quick lunch. Thanks to Aunt Karen and Sandy (two of Janet's sisters) we came up with menu that was very enjoyable. It was a wonderful experience to have a General Authority in our home along with our wonderful Mission President and his wife.
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| Elder Klebingat back center And President Packer and his wife |
Fun story after deciding that we would serve soup Janet went to her sister Karen seeking for ideas of what would be good. She first suggested artichoke soup. Well, this is Ukraine and we have never seen an artichoke. The next one was Lobster Bisque soup- oops no lobsters here. After several more attempts the right soups were delivered and with Janet using the Ukrainian substitution method she was able to come up with two very tasty (вкусно) soups.
That evening they hosted a fireside and Elder Klebingat spoke for a minute and then opened up the meeting for questions. There were many great questions and the spirit was strong.
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| Standing room only for the fireside |
Then the best question of the night was asked by a 10 year old boy, who happens to be the son of our CES area director. He raised his hand and asked what should I do if I do something wrong and I don't want to tell my mother because that will make it worse. She would be mad and disappointed in me plus it might hurt her feelings. Wouldn't it be best to just keep it to myself. Out of the mouths of babes comes the question of everlasting significance.
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| This young mans question blessed all of our lives |
The discussion was lively as the question was echoed around the room. But as Elder Klebingat brought the boy to the front of the room and placed his hands gently on his shoulders and talked of how we all make mistakes and yes, it will disappoint our eternal parent but that He understood when He sent us here we would make mistakes and that is why he sent His Son so that those things could be overcome. Just as this little boys mother loves him with all her heart, that is not even the beginning of the love our Eternal Father has for each of His children. He too will put His loving hands on our shoulders and tenderly let us know that He loves us. That was a wonderful bit of frosting on our cake.
The next day was our zone conference where we were taught the entire day by this wonderful servant of God. What a great day to sit in council with him and enjoy insights into the Plan of Salvation and to feel the Holy Ghost testifying of the truthfulness of those things that were discussed.
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| Zone Conference lunch time |
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| President Packers Birthday 40 years old |
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| 40 years ago when he was born I was just starting my first mission |
We will be forever better for having spent time together with him and our wonderful Mission Parents the Packers.
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| Odessa Zone conference |
Now just think if you were on a mission, it would be you telling about these blessings and me reading about them longing to be with you. Well not to beat a dead horse but you too can experience these wonderful blessings. Visit with your bishop and 6 months from now you too can be here with us.
We love all of you and yes, we miss you, but this is where we need to be
Love Elder and Sister Mikkelsen.
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I'm so glad when Daddy come home...
Little Riley waiting for her dad to come home |
