Summer in Ukraine

They have wonderful sidewalk cafes everywhere.

   Week of July 6-12, 2015
  доброе утро всем (Good Morning All)  We'd like to start off by wishing our wonderful, brilliant, handsome, твердо и непоколебимо, Daniel, a Happy Birthday!  It was his birthday yesterday. :)
We hope you all have had a great week.  As we look back, we have had a really good one.  It started out slowly but ended well.  We have been introduced to the effects that come from mixing high heat with humidity and no air conditioning. I know most of you do not feel sorry for us but, nonetheless, we felt sorry for ourselves and our poor members who have to work in it. (everyone walks around fanning and saying, "жарко"- uhhh hot!) It didn't last long though.  Mid week it clouded over, rained a little and we were back to wearing sweaters and saying, "нолодно!"- ooooh, cold!   A friend said that was not typical summer weather.
     I feel bad that we rarely take pictures of our day to day business here in the city.  We'll have to change that.  We seem to only take pictures out in the villages which is all you get this week.
On Monday we had Family Home Evening with 2 sisters in our branch (who are so wonderful.  They do so much for us.  If we ever need anything, we call them and they are always so willing to help. We love them) and a Brother and his friend that we are just getting to know.  We sang Ukrainian songs and he told us stories about his life here in Ukraine and Siberia.  The people here have lived through a history of struggle but no one dwells on that.  We never hear negative stories.  We just hear about their work and where they have lived.  We love to hear how they came to the church.  This man said he usually never opened the door to anyone but for some reason, the day the Elders knock-knocked on his door, he did.

He invited us out to his дача-country cottage.  He wanted to fix us a summer salad and to have us help pick his cherries (we thought.  we never really did pick).  It was a beautiful place.  It for some reason reminded me of my grandparents house in Ogden.  Let me give you a tour.

 On the way there he pointed out a lake that was also by his home.  Here it shows him cutting a trail to the lake with his scythe.  After a few minutes we just decided to walk through what we thought would be marshy reeds but ended up being an ? epidemic?-overabundence maybe, of Jerusalem artichokes.  I have always loved walking through fields grown over my head.

 ...and this is what we saw when we got there.  Beautiful!

everyone had to try the scythe on the way back

 In order to fix lunch, he first built us a table where we could fix and eat.  In front you see a stump he is turning into a beautiful chair.  It was actually very comfortable.

 This is our yummy "Village Salad"   You needed 2 tomatoes and 2 cucumbers for every nose, bryndza cheese, green onions, fresh dill, parsley, and basil, and a spoonful of olive oil for each person plus one more for the bowl.  It was sooooo good.  The bowl made it even better  It was his great-grandmothers bowl.  It had seen both world wars there in that village that his grand-grand-grandfather had built. (it is named after that man).  He showed us how to use this type of traditional bowl to make verenike.  So interesting.  

This is his water source.  You see these in every village.

This is his root cellar.  It stays a constant
40  degrees year round

This one is a good depiction of why they love their dacha's.

and this is the ingenious way he has set up to wash.  He cut off the top of a water bottle, attached it to the post, fills it with water, loosens the lid a little and water drips out just enough to wash you hands or whatever.  The pan below catches the water which is dumped on something that needs it. Under the flap above, there is a soap dish protected from the rain, all right there by the well.  Just the older houses are like this and he has just inherited this one and is working on it when he can.

We were able to go to the Relief Society Presidents house this week too.  They are a perfect example of the strength of the church members in this country.  Their testimonies are strong, they are so full of love for the branch and they have caught the vision of what the gospel can do for their country.  Patience is such a hard lesson to learn but it takes patience to be a good leader and they are great.  We've learned a lot about patience since we've come here.  Mostly as we have noticed the Lord's patience with us.  We stumble, miss opportunities, lack faith, and sometimes don't listen very well, but we keep trying and the Lord patiently waits for us to "get a clue".  

Anyway, here are a couple pictures from their village.

Top:  Some storks have adopted them.  These are their three new babies.  This tree is just right at the front corner of their house.  Next:  I need to take this dog home with me.  He could teach Aggie a thing or two.  Last, not only is she a great leader but she is an amazing cook.  We had a cold summer soup- veggies in a kefir broth, stuffed tomatoes, stuffed peppers, yummy bread (they have the most amazing bread in Ukraine), and 4" tall chocolate cake with cherries inside!  We didn't get a picture but we drove past the real Swan Lake.

We went out to the village where we're building the greenhouse and worked for a bit, picked a ton of currents (which make the BEST jam) and then delivered them to members on the way home.  The greenhouse is progressing.  The humanitarian project at the hospital is progressing as well.  We met with investigators this week.  That work takes a lot of time and patience in Eastern Europe.  Patience with the language is even harder.  We have started learning verbs of motion, maybe I should say we have started studying them.  No real learning has taken place yet.  We are recognizing words here and there though, and that is progress. We still have English class twice a week where we meet new people all the time.  Life is good! God is our loving Heavenly Father.  His gospel is here an the earth today and it blesses families!  We are so blessed.  Love to you all. Have a wonderful week!

The Miks

PS  our sweet Riley just waking up :)  She looks just like her Dad and her Grandpa!