General Conference blessing lives!

Week of March 28-April 3, 2016
General Conference Week! It is such a blessing to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.

To have a living prophet and apostles to give us direction for the next six months is such a blessing. Over the past few weeks, as we worked out in the mornings, we have taken the opportunity to listen to past conferences that have taken place over the last few years.  As we have grown up with conference we often don't think much about it.  Here in Ukraine, these wonderful people are so excited to get the words of the Lord through ordained and inspired leaders, they hang on every word.  We just sit back and listen and they have to endure the process of watching lips that are out of sink with the words as the translators present the words that are spoken.  I remember the first time we viewed conference when the brethren were allowed to speak in their native tongue. We had to read subtitles or listen to a translator that just didn't have the same inflection in their voice as the person we were listening to.  Daniel had just returned from his mission in Mexico when one of the brothers gave his talk in Spanish.  He expressed to us his delight to listen to inspired words coming in a language he loved and understood. Even yesterday, as we listened to Sunday morning session live, when Elder Uchdorf gave his little quote in what he termed the celestial language of German. we were left not quite enjoying the little rhyme as much as if we would have understood the original language it was written in. We were talking with Mike and Lynette Waite the other day and discussing how difficult it is for us old people to learn the Russian language.  They told us they were saying good bye to all the people they have worked with this last 18 months. She said how wonderful it will be in the future when we are all speaking the Celestial tongue and we will all understand each other.  We see the people here.  They just love the church and the conference experience. We see the sacrifices they make to do all in their power to take a trip to the states. They will almost, without exception, travel during conference time so they can be there to participate in conference sessions.

Recently returned missionary Elder K and his mom

Good Friend and returned missionary from our last area

Mission Driver and his wife at conference 

The rest of us that have the opportunity to have conference broadcast right to our living room, or out to our RV in the mountains, we lose out just a little bit on the importance of this wonderful bi-yearly opportunity. I remember the old days when we went to the stake center and when I was young we would listen to General Priesthood Meeting Via a phone line broadcast over the PA system and then years later we would travel to the stake center and watch it live on a tv or if your stake was lucky you would have a video projector to show it big on the wall.  My boys grew up looking forward to the Saturday night session and the dinner or treat after.  Now you can stay at home and watch the session with your wife and kids right in your own house.  That is a great blessing but hopefully the love and companionship with those after conference treat sessions is not lost.

Family home evening with RS President and her family.
Son is Elders quorum President.  Our two wonderful Sister
Missionaries in the center

This week flew by as we had a Tuesday night FHE with our Young Adults.  It was a very small group but they have such a strong spirit of the gospel.

FHE Small group but powerful Young men!

Introduced Big Ed's to the group

They had to eat lots more to make up for the people that didn't show up.  We had two fun announcements this week. One I can't tell about yet till next week but another one is that one in our group got engaged the other day.  Of course being involved in the YSA program you feel totally successful when this takes place.

Newly engaged couple far Right

To watch these young people move forward with their gospel center lives is a great blessing.
We had the opportunity to teach English the other day.  We pulled a bunch of pictures from the church library and gave one to each person. They then had to explain their picture in English.  Each picture was from the old or new testament.

This was one of the story pictures
You should try pronouncing their names in Russian!

After that we discussed the real story and then we had them come back up again and relate how the story had modern day application. They got lots of opportunity to talk and also felt the spirit of the holy scriptures.  Some of the people knew all the stories and others had never heard any of them.

Example of wall art this is very common around town

Spring has sprung

We love the churches they are beautiful

Inside an old hotel, the Hotel London. Very pretty building

Local Mexican Restaurant. The decor is a little interesting
I had a Chimie Chonga made with Rabbit. Interesting

We had the whirl-wind trip to Kyiv this week, up on Friday and back on Saturday. We rode the train both ways which is a little over 7 hours one way.

The home made sandwich on the train

When you purchase your own tickets you are not sure what
you're getting. This was our private coach on the way back

If you had dirt like this at home, wow! could we grow stuff.

These little crossing houses are everywhere they stay in them
and switch tracks and lower the gates to stop traffic while the trains pass

The scenery is breath taking

You speed through many towns

That is the fast train. Some trains make the same trip but take 12+ hours. We had the opportunity to get to Kyiv early enough to head downtown to Visit our friend Alex who is more than happy to sell us souvenirs from Ukraine. The short taxi ride from the train station to the Souvenir alley cost us about 130 Grieven or about $5.

We ordered one of these. This is a custom
nativity 7 piece stacking set.

That was the American tourist price.  Then we took a taxi from the souvenir place to the presidents home, which is like 15 miles and the price was the same.  The difference was that our Russian speaking friend ordered the taxi for us.  There is alway the American price and the Local price.  One downside of not being proficient in the language.
We had a nice dinner and conference at the Presidents home. He has all the couples together twice a year at conference time.

The mission couples dinner.  The Humanitarian couple was
not there Elder and Sister Wood

The mission home is very comfortable

Sister Packer made Enchiladas for dinner yummy 

 It is wonderful to get together. We are the outsiders.  The rest of them get together quite often.  So for us it is a wonderful opportunity. President and Sister Packer reminded us that our first responsibility to to be missionaries.

To the temple Saturday morning

Fun restaurant for lunch

The Callister our good friends they are the office couple
they head home in 6 weeks we will miss them.

We all wear different hats but our main one should be to share the gospel.  He encouraged us to plant the seeds and try different things.  He told us of Elder and Sister Halvorson from his mission in Saint Petersburg Russian.

Great Missionary

Elder Halvorson (IE The Candy Bomber) was one of the most successful missionaries in his mission.  He said he visited with everyone even though he couldn't speak the language.  Sister Halvorson's cookies opened many doors.
So I guess the message this week is to open your heart and your life to those around you and go out and make a difference in their life.  If you have done it unto the least of these my brethren you have done it unto me.  Put off the fear of man and just go out and make a difference.  We hope each of you enjoy re-watching and or listening and reading the conference talks over the next few weeks and months.  It won't be long and October conference will be here and we can start the process all over again.  Have a great week we love all of you
Elder and Sister Mikkelsen.

We get our smile muscle workout whenever
we Skype with this little one. She makes us laugh!