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

Love, Living, Learning, Looking and Lifting.....

Week of February 15-21, 2016
It has been a very eventful week as we have had more wonderful firsts.  But first things first! We are now official Pathway Missionary Graduates.  We completed our BYU-I training and will soon have our own official classroom in the Vidyo system that is used by BYU-I to host Pathway classes.

I love this graphic of the Path in Pathway

The church is inspired and Heavenly Father and His Son are in charge.  In 1971 Elder Eyring promised that the then Ricks College would provide learning to students throughout the world. This program is the answer to that revelation so many years ago.  BYU-I reaches out to thousands of students throughout the world and provides affordable educational opportunities that they could never dream of having without this program. We are excited to be part of it. We just need to sign up ten students anywhere in Ukraine and then on Thursday nights we will all meet together Via Vidyo and have class.   BYU-I has been ranked in the top 25 universities with the most innovative teaching methods.
This week we hosted another FHE for the Young Adults.  They are such a fun group of kids.  We had 15 in attendance.

Fun group of kids  This is a stairway that goes to
the apartment above us.  It belongs to the
landlords daughter.  It is beautiful but she only
visits a couple of times a year. She has a place
in London and New York City

We invited a loving couple from the Central Branch to come and talk to them about dating and finding your eternal companion.  We had given the kids a survey several weeks ago and this couple addressed the questions that the young people were asked in the survey.  Many of the questions are world wide dating challenges, but we had a few country specific.  For instance, here, when you go out with a person, after the first date you are a thing and no one else will date you. Some of the guys said that the girls think 1 date = marriage.  Girls said that the guys don't take it seriously enough.  So as you can imagine the next comment was "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus".

Ok I've never read this book but I'm sure
that there will still be plenty of mysteries
after reading it.

 So, no one has a corner on dating and marriage solutions.  The best solution we could come up with was that you need to be actively engaged in the dating process.
The next first was that a wonderful couple from our last area tied the knot this week.  The man that started the branch in Vinnistya many years ago was sealed to the Branch Primary President.

The Happy Couple.
In Ukraine you must be married by the
state prior to a temple wedding

This is his youngest daughter. 

This was the sealing day. Notice the difference
in his smile.  What a blessing to the church
in Ukraine to have this family sealed together.
She has two younger daughters so now it is a
family with 4 kids.

So, two of the strongest families in the Vinnistya branch were joined together and now make one big happy family.  The oldest daughter of the husband was best friends with the Primary president, so I asked her how it was to have her best friend as her mother.  She is super excited about the marriage.  Both of these wonderful people have always wanted an eternal marriage and now they have it, we are so excited for them.
This past week we have made an effort to get out of the house as often as we can and go strolling around.

You have to love the detail on the buildings

Locks of love.  This was made so that couples could put a lock
on this monument the day they were married to lock their love.
There is a bridge right here but there were so many locks on
it the bridge was being damaged so they removed the locks and
built this monument. 

Street performers are everywhere.  This guy is
really good.

There are lots of parks and lots of statues this
one is awesome

This building looks like it came right out of a Batman movie
from Gotham City. The detail is unbelievable.

We found this guy. He is being restored but he is still impressive

The people here are so kind and loving.  We were гулять-ing (to stroll or strolling) down one of our favorite streets and saying добрый вечер (Good Evening) to everyone we walked passed and one little old man stopped and returned our greeting.  Now that is always a little scary because you know you are going to have to talk to them.  So I threw out my normal do you speak English (вы говорите по-англиьски) and he said Het (no) so we proceeded to use all the normal phrases and before long we had a new friend.  We asked him his name and he very proudly said Ivan Constantinovich.  It had such a noble ring to it I just knew he was a man with a great background and we left him with a pamphlet and we walked away.  I just felt like this was a man that would someday have the fulness of the gospel in his life and our little chat was part of that process.  As it tells us in Preach My Gospel no effort is wasted.  There is a little old poor couple that has a dog and everyday they are on the street cleaning.  We have become good friends with them and again the language is an issue but friendship speaks many words of love.  Sister Mikkelsen has befriended a little lady that sits on the corner every evening with her cup in hand hoping for people to share their spare change with her.  Well we don't give out money but we share what we can.  One day we gave her a bag of mandarins and she was so happy. These people are all so loving and kind they buoy us up each day.
Today at church we had our first Linger Longer since we have been in Ukraine.

Lots of yummy treats

This is the branch enjoying the get together
Cia (tea) is a big thing here and they made pots of
Fruit compote (tea) It is very good.

 It was so fun.  There were many wonderful treats and we were able to spend some additional time visiting and getting to know the members of our branch a little better. This week we received a custom set of Matryoshka  dolls that we ordered several months ago.  So now we have our whole family with us including the dog.

Here is the family as seen through the eyes of a  Matryoshka artist.
Our names are on the bottom of each doll.  Jonathan has always
wanted to the the tallest brother so now it's a reality.

 Today as we had lesson #3 from President Howard W. Hunter we realized that there will always be opposition.  It is the thing that makes us stronger.  He stated that "Our detours and disappointments are the straight and narrow path to Him"  So in your prayers tonight thank your Father in Heaven for your challenges and also for the ability to over come them.

Last week Sister Mikkelsen talked about the statues on the building
carrying the load of the world.  This guy only has to use his finger
tips to hold up his load. You would think he is really strong
until you look at the rest of the building shown below.

Actually it is the ladies that are carrying the majority of the burden
much like it is in everyday life.  Opposition in all things.

Our beautiful returned missionary English student. She is also
the institute teacher for the youth in the area.

Entrance to an indoor mall

Mall interior it is very ornate and fun to wander around in.

Detail of the above picture. Lots of sculptures have a Titan of the
deep type motif. 

Masted ship in the harbor just a couple of blocks from our home.
That is the Black Sea in the background.

Each day is just one more day of spiritual exercise to help us grow stronger. So have a great work out this week.
We love you Elder and Sister Mikkelsen

Part of the Ukrainian Navy?