Week of April 25-May 1, 2016
Happy Easter to all of you that celebrated it yesterday and also to those of you who celebrated it a month ago. One of the blessings of living here is working with the Greek Orthodox Calendar. Most of their major religious holidays are different than ours. So we have the privilege of celebrating each major holiday two times. I think I like that process.
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| We love the Ukrainian Decorations Wooden Eggs |
Easter here is a big holiday backed up by their Labor day which celebrates the workers of Ukraine so it is like a 3 or 4 day holiday. Odessa is a tourist town. We have seen a huge increase in the number of people in the streets. As the summer approaches it will just get busier and busier.
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| Spring has sprung |
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| I had to take a picture of the scaffold. Scary! |
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War Memorial by Black Sea
the guards are young kids |
This past week we have had lots to keep us busy. On Monday we took a trip to the Opera House and purchased tickets for a Ballet for our son Daniel and his wife Sonina to attend while they are here visiting May 9-13. It is always fun to buy tickets from places where people speak no English. Our limited Russian makes for a lively hand gesturing and finger pointing experience. Having an iPad open to the date of the performance helped a lot.
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| The interior of restaurants are awesome |
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| All the duct work in here was Copper plated very nice |
We also stopped and visited a new Pizza Place. We must always make sure we know the best places for pizza so that when zone conference is here we know where to buy the best food for lunch. It is a great sacrifice but someone has to do it!
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| Park close to the Black Sea |
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We got stuck in traffic on a Trolley bus one day.
When we got off and walked about a block we found the
reason. It was a street funeral. People were just standing in the
road viewing the body. Interesting tradition. |
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We did find our nemesis, Darth Vader, after
a long bus ride. This was a statue of Lennon
that was going to be destroyed. A local artist
had a different solution. |
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| The before and after picture. Thanks Internet! |
This past week we experienced a little unrest in the area. There was a demonstration about two blocks from our apartment on Tuesday. We avoided that area for a while. Today marks the anniversary of a protest that left over 40 people dead about two years ago. We have other places this week will avoid. It sounds worse than it is, actually we never see anything that even closely resembles unrest and we feel very safe going basically anywhere in the area. Everyone else seems to feel the same way.
This past week we had the opportunity to continue to serve some people here. The Branch President in one of the adjoining areas had a water line break in his apartment and so we had the opportunity to go and help him remove things from his apartment so that it could dry out.
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Branch President next to me, the other brother is the past
district president and good friend to the branch president |
There is a lady in another location that has a leaky roof that we need to go over and repair this next week. We have two missionaries from the area that are preparing to leave on their missions and we get to make sure they have everything they need before they leave. We love doing the mom and dad thing with our youth. We had a great FHE on Tuesday night. We had about 13 people in attendance.
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| Snow scene chowder for dinner |
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| This is our group. One is in the bathroom and missed the pose. |
We always feed them some quick little meal and enjoy their youthful energy and excitement. Sister Mikkelsen taught the lesson this week and she focused on having a positive attitude and making a difference in other peoples lives. One to the activities was that each youth sat in a chair and everyone else took turns giving them complements or some type of positive feedback about themselves.
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| Good friends sharing time together |
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| Receiving positive feed back from great friends |
It was interesting even though we didn't understand all the words there was no mistaking the feelings of love and friendship that were expressed. Some of the feedback was very funny and had all the kids rolling other feedback was very heartfelt and loving. It was a great opportunity for these wonderful youth to feel of each others love.
Our new job as Pathway Missionaries moved into the second week and we had our first class where one of the students was the instructor and lead the class. This young mother of three kids has spent many hours of prayer and preparation putting together a very heart felt lesson. She was so nervous to begin with but she did a masterful job. It will be fun to watch as these students grow and progress in this learning opportunity.
On Saturday we had the opportunity to go to the Black Sea and participate with our Young Adults at a beach picnic. It was a fun time. They love getting together and just playing.
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| Hedge Hog joined the fun |
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| Hedge Hogs are all over the place here |
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| The Black Sea is really Blue! |
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| Picnic time |
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The view as we walked away.
Life is like that. As we move on, we can look back at all the beauty
we have been experiencing. |
Having the youth support each other is so important. There are many struggles that they each face and having someone that understands your life is a great comfort for them. We don't do much. We just sit back and provide a little food and a listening ear when it is needed. These young people have so much talent and ability. The church is in good hands.
On Sunday we had a wonderful Fast and Testimony meeting. We had one young lady that just returned from her mission there. Not only did she have a very strong testimony she also interpreted for us during church! These young native missionaries are so blessed when they finish their missions. Not only is their testimony strengthened, but their ability to speak the English language is enhanced. Elder Bednar while visiting Jacob's mission told the native missionaries there how important it was for them to learn English while on their missions. He stressed how they need to have a strong English language background so that they could study the revelations of the restored gospel in the language of the restoration. He said since the Book of Mormon was translated into English that was the best language to study it in. The Native missionaries here do a great job learning the language. Yesterday was a case in point. We invited some friends over for dinner that work by our apartment cleaning the streets. We see them almost everyday and chat with them in very broken Russian. Sunday morning we went out looking for them and there they were so Sister Mikkelsen had written a little Russian invitation out inviting them for dinner.
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Sister Mikkelsen first attempt at Piroshki meat filled rolls
It was a total success. She filled some with fruit, which was wonderful. |
That evening the missionaries came over and provided a conduit for us to get to know them better. They are very humble people but are very hard workers and make a difference in their little corner of Odessa.
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Our friends sharing dinner with us. The Missionaries were
great to help us. The two sisters are native the two elder are from
USA |
They are so loving and alway have a smile and a hand shake for everyone that comes their way.
Let me just mention what a great blessing it is to serve with these people. We are the ones being blessed as we work with them. We provide so little and they provide so many blessing for our lives. We will never be the same after experiencing these wonderful people and enjoying their lives with them. This week our Bunkerville Bishop's son got his mission call. They asked everyone to make a guess of where he was going on his mission. Well you guessed it. He is not coming to the Kyiv Mission but he was blessed to receive a call to serve the people in Samara Russia. The Waite's just returned home from that mission and now we have another Bunkerville missionary heading back to Russian. We are so excited for him. He will the bless the lives of those good people but not nearly as much as they will bless his life.
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Look what washed up on the beach in Odessa
Elder and Sister Mikkelsen |
Serving a mission in whatever way you can is such a blessing. Don't wait for the perfect time. You need to create the perfect time and just go. It will make a difference in your life and the life of those you work with.
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| Beautiful weather for a stroll on the beach |
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| In a few weeks it won't be deserted like this! |
We hope each of you will have a wonderful week. I know we will. We are where we need to be and are doing the things that we need to be doing right now. We love all of you
Love Elder and Sister Mikkelsen
