Preparations and .....

Week of February 22-28, 2016

We hope your week was as great as ours.  There is one good thing about having a short memory, when you look back,  all you can remember is the good stuff.  Couldn't ask for a better beginning to the week.  It was our job to arrange lunch for Zone conference this week.  We decided it was a time for a change from the usual pizza meal so, we had to try out several different restaurants to see what would be good.  Lucky us!  Finally found the perfect place- 400 g chicken дьонер sandwiches from Il Paso but (we love these sandwiches!), when we mentioned the switch to the Elders at District meeting (who had never been to Il Paso), they said the only time they get pizza is at Zone Conference and they really didn't want to change.  They told us their favorite place, which was confirmed by the sisters, so, you guessed it! We got to go out for lunch one more time to see if their wish was possible.
Being a Sr Couple definitely has it's perks!

Found a cute little Italian Restaurant almost across the street
from the church that serves the missionaries favorite pizza.

The restaurant had a different name so, it was tough, but the sisters
agreed to go with us on P-Day to make sure it was the right stuff.
Lucky Sisters.

The rest of the week was filled with many adventures as we prepared for the conference and then two training meetings on Saturday.  I love it when our weeks are busy and filled with many reasons to go exploring and meeting new people.

The harbor has been busy the past couple weeks. Two Little Toot's
at work :)

Walking past the Potemkin Stairs a young man talked Elder
Mikkelsen into a photo shoot with his bird. Mistake make sure
you ask how much before the photo shoot!

Another shot of one of the sculptures atop the Opera house.

This is a cute little sidewalk cafe that looks like its probably only
open in the summer.  It has bistro lights and there will be
an awning across the top 

You can almost hear Tour de France music, or maybe
"Bicycle Built for Two"

Couldn't pass this one up.  These poor guys are really having
trouble! A beautiful night shot.

Way past time for apartment inspections!  At their last inspection
this Elder had just put his tree up, and, its still there!

The meat market at the рипок (Renok-market) is such a
fascinating place! If you go early in the morning the counters
are lined with chickens like this.  Sometimes they have
little blindfolds wrapped around their heads.

These are some of the murals painted on the walls at the meat
market.  

Meat markets are quite often inside while the produce and
everything else are outside.

 I LOVE Zone Conference!  I think my favorite part is watching all the Elders and Sisters arrive.  Beautiful Sisters, handsome Elders, looking clean and neat and so happy as they greet each other.  Then, one by one, they all sit down and start studying, waiting for the meeting to begin.  The Packers were a little late.  As Sister Packer walked in, all the Elders stood up.  I was so proud of them.  They have so much love and respect for her.  She is a wonderful woman.

Didn't get any good pictures at the conference.  These are all
such great young men and fine missionaries.  Our sisters are
all wonderful as well.

A very talented musician! Played a gorgeous
rendition of "Praise to the Man"

A cute sister sharing her last words before
going home.

Our whole Zone

These are pictures from the Priesthood Leadership Meeting.
They were introduced to the Self Reliance Program.  Its an
amazing program that helps members find work, get and
education, start a business, etc.

During the training Ned was able to give all the leaders some
information about the Pathway program.
While the brethren were meeting upstairs, the Primary sisters
were meeting downstairs.  

 The area has prepared some beautiful
and much needed Primary materials -CD's with Russian
children singing,A supplemental songbook of songs
from the Friend,  Info found on the English ads.org but not in
Russian, cute little things for singing time....
WONDERFUL!  We had a fun time at the
training and I'm so excited- they finally have
"Scripture Power" in Russian!

We were taught some great lessons from the Packers and from the AP's.  We started with a quote from Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky

We saw photos of the cisterns beneath Istanbul and were taught from Jeremiah 2:13 about the Israelites who were more worried about their cisterns than about calling on the Lord.  Had they knelt in fervent prayer and asked the Lord to save them, things may have turned out in their favor.  Instead, they were more worried about their cisterns and making sure they had water during the siege.

The cistern hasn't been used for centuries, in fact, it was only
recently discovered.  in the 50's, I think, people had been using
an odd fishing hole, someone opened into it, found the outer edge
of the pool, it ended up as a dump for garbage, dead bodies, etc,
until an exploration of it began in the '60's.  It was renovated
and opened to the public in the '90s.  It is said to have held
over 21 million gallons of water. 336 marble pillars 9 ft high,
12 feet apart, 12 rows of 28 columns.  Incredible!

We were taught a parable of the piano.  A sister who had never played the piano was asked to sit at the piano and play a song. She smiled, shrugged and said I can't.  She needed to be taught the laws.  Without law, agency doesn't work!

Didn't get a picture of the parable at conference
but we found this cute one the other day.  Just thought
I'd throw it in here. :)

We were taught the importance of the quality of doing what needs to be done without being asked.  We need to be a people who act and are not acted upon or who don't always have to be told what to do.  And much, much more.

This is kind of an old picture.  No glittering domes or gargoyles
but the is a picture of the outside of our church.

Today was an Amazing Sunday!  We've been able to go to the same Branch two weeks in a row! The meetings were awesome!  I think I even knew what was being discussed in each one! As we walked into church, the Branch President asked Ned if he would speak- just 10 minutes, one of the speakers was unable to come (He did great, as usual) but the most exciting part was the flurry of preparations as they were getting ready for a baptism after church.  Actually, they had been working all week to get ready for this one.  A sweet 91 year old babushka wanted to be baptized.  But there would be some challenges.  She lives 1 1/2 hours away by marshrutka, she is basically paralyzed from the waste down and fairly feeble.  The Elders had to go to her home two times during the week to teach and to figure out with the family how they could make it all happen.  They arranged for a ride, brought a couch up from the basement of the building into the back of the chapel where she could lay down during the meetings, they planned how to get her in and out of the water, how to keep her warm, and how to make her as comfortable as possible.   Branch members helped to make everything accessible.  As the car drove up you could hear the "She's here" echo through the building.  As her grandson and their home teacher carried her in she was just beaming!  Gradually through all the meetings I think she was able to meet almost everyone.  They all came up and visited for a minute, welcoming her and helping her to feel loved.  It almost looked like they all knew her already.  Her grandson was going to be the one to baptize her.  When he and one of the Elders carried her into the baptismal font, it was the first time she showed any signs of being nervous.  You just wanted to reach out and help them hold her up as she called out her grandsons name over and over. I think she was afraid they would drop her.  But, they held her steady.  I honestly think there had to be angels helping them as they immersed her in the water because when her head went down, her feet came up and it looked like there was no way she would be fully covered. But, they did it, and now she can be at peace.  The spirit was strong and the lessons and love expressed throughout the service strengthened the testimonies of all who were there.

A past missionary speaking with the sister getting baptized.
She was such a sweet lady wth an amazing Ukrainian story.

This sister has come to Ukraine to work on her Doctoral
thesis from Harvard.  She will be documenting the oral
histories of the Babushka all across Eastern Europe.  These
were young women at the end of the first war, lived through
Stalin.... They are the rock of theses nations and she will
document  as much as she can before they are all gone.  How
awesome is that!  I would love to go with her!

Let me end with a quote from Taras Shevchenko which depicts so well the spirit of Ukraine

Our soul shall never perish.

Freedom knows no dying.

And the greedy cannot harvest

Fields where seas are lying.

Cannot bind the living spirit

Nor the living word.

Cannot smirch the sacred glory

Of th'Almight Lord.

We have much yet to learn from these valiant people!  I wish we could bring a few of them home with us.  Maybe they could straighten us all out!

Have a wonderful week.  Hope all is well.  We would love to hear from all of you.

The Miks