Kyiv Temple, service, and security

    

Week of May 11-17                                            
        This was a land mark week-  and, I'm sorry,  we didn't even get a picture of the landmark.  Elder Brough told us that our EKO Market had супер конті cookies in stock.  We stopped on our way home! This, I know, has no meaning to you all but, several of our language tutors told us about these amazing cookies before we left, but said they would be hard to find because of the war.  They are double layer chocolate covered cookies with a little hole, or dip, in the chocolate on one side.  If you bite another little hole on the other side of the cookie, you can dip the cookie in your milk and suck the milk through the cookie creating a delightful "mush" inside.  I have to admit, it was fun.  Not necessarily the best cookie ever, but fun all the same.  I guess we'll have to buy some more so we can send pictures next week!
     It was kind of a mixed up week this week.  Transfer week seems to always be a little mixed up.  We lost our Dad Elder Kerr.  They sent him up by Kyiv, and now we have another son to take care of us.  (Love these Elders!)  When one Elder leaves they have to go up to Kyiv, usually overnight.  That leaves us with the city all to ourselves.  We're in a city of 400,000.  We lose 2 and it seems a little lonely.  It also means we get to teach all three English classes by ourselves, which is a challenge, but its fun. The beginning group is very grateful for Google Translate and Yandex.  When we come to an impasse, we can always look it up.  =)  We get into some pretty amazing, lively discussions in these classes every week.  With the little kids we just teach English.  (This week it was Friends and the Three Little Pigs.) The adult classes are advertised as "Gospel discussions in English with native speakers".  So, with them, we get to teach English through the 5 lessons in Chapter 3 of Preach My Gospel.  The people love it and come back every week for more.  This week I think we had 8 new people come to join our little family of friends.  They are amazing people.  They are passionate, educated, fun, determined... people.
This is such a wonderful mission that we quite often see returned missionaries who come back for a visit. 

They stopped at a рынок to buy cookies and candy then we stopped at this gorgeous
 campground to put the bags together

       

 One lovely Sister from Germany came back this week.  She and our Primary President wanted us to go with them to a ....hospital/homeless shelter/sanitorium/old folks home/not-sure-what-to-call-it place.  She had raised some money to buy treats to take to the 300 residents.  We bagged up the goodies and headed out to a very humbling experience.  It was in a beautiful town about 1 1/2 hours away.  I wish we had had a huge group of youth who spoke the language and we could have stayed for an hour or 2 to visit, but we only had a short time.  They were so excited to get the little we brought.  It was a good, clean, seemingly happy place, but such a needy place.  There is so much "need" out there, everywhere.  So much work to do! 

    Worked on stump #2 again this week.  Started to dig under the roots.  Maybe 2 more visits and we'll have the thing out so the work can move forward.  I wish we had taken a picture of the path to the farmhouse each time we go so you could see the change in the green from week to week.  You think it couldn't get any greener, but each week it does.  It is absolutely beautiful!  As we were leaving I asked our sweet sister if the weeds we were walking on were the kind you would use to make what they call Green Borsch (the Elders were gone so to anyone watching this would have been a comical exchange).  They weren't but, she took me over to the right kind of plants and started picking.  By the time we left (which was very late.  Ned went on ahead and I had to run to catch up.  If you miss the last bus to town, you are in trouble) I had a huge bag of nettle (yes the stinging kind), sorrel, parsley, and green onions.  Enough to make 2 huge batches of soup.  And it's great soup!  Who'd have thought!

Green Borsch!  Greens,  potatoes, egg all added to the meat and broth.  Umm! вкусно! (tastey)

     I should add something to Ned's parable of these pesky stumps.  ....All I can think of is, "slow and steady wins the race',  even if its only in experiencing the work of removal.  You chop and chop, reach to remove the root to find there is a tap root going straight down holding it in place, or you go to dig the dirt from around the roots so you can get under them and you find that clay, which has been compacting in place for 100 years, has to be shaved off, slice by slice, with a shovel or hatchet, but, you are working with good people singing good music doing a good work having a good time so that you feel bad that it's already time to leave.  I guess, trials and troubles are only trials if you are troubled by them.  (We had to "dig deep" for that one => )

So green and beautiful.  Finally getting underneath!

     We were able to go to Kyiv on Saturday for a branch leadership training.  I loved watching the members of our branch greet their friends from all over the mission.  Ned didn't have a translator in his Sunday School section, but in the Primary group it was sad but interesting to hear their questions and concerns. It was just like being in a Stake Meeting at home.  I decided we are really going to have to hasten the work here though, so that there are enough members to warrant translations of more resources for these stressed out Primary workers.  I do need to shout out a big thank-you to our Ward Mission Leader and to our Elders.  They are so good to translate for us, constantly, and they have to make sure we get to where we need to be- on time (which means getting up early to call a taxi for us then make sure we get to the right train, etc).  They are wonderful! Missions are wonderful! The gospel is true!  Hurrah for Israel!  Everyone come on a mission! You are so needed!
Have a great week
Love to you all

Leadership Meeting- all meetings are at the Temple site.

This weeks guest for Sunday Dinner.  So much fun.  Don't have enough chairs so we have
 to move the table into the living room when we have more than 4 guests.

  

As you can see security is a top priority here.
You can also see how our neighbors door and ours meet.
Hope we never try to leave at the same time.

Our apartment door opens into our neighbor's door.  Quite often, sometimes early
in the morning, we would carelessly let our handle knock their door.  She sternly
corrected me one day(not sure what she said but the meaning was clear)  so Ned
created the wonderful doorstop

The continuing Parable of the Stump

Week of May 4-10, 2015
The week flew by again and now here we sit reporting on all those wonderful things that took place this past week. We have been blessed with many spiritual experiences.  On Saturday one of our wonderful investigators committed to be baptized.  That is so exciting that they will be able to have the blessing of the gospel in their life.  We make decisions each day as we face the challenges of life.  What do I wear, should I go here or there, should I buy this or that, ..... the list continues.  Many of those decisions carry very little weight by themselves but all added together they make up who we are.  We must each look at our course and decide if we are on the strait path. Notice the word is STRAIT not "straight".  The second one denotes a direct undeviating path that we just walk down.  The first STRAIT represents a path that may have many twists and turns.  Boats must travel through straits all the time and it is a very tedious navigational task that requires constant vigilance by the navigator and course corrections by the pilot.  We too in our journey need to make sure we are navigating the "STRAIT" path of life with great vigilance and that we are piloting ourselves very carefully by following the directions of the "Navigator" even Jesus Christ.

This is a river tour boat that we pass by everyday

As we pray each day we are opening that communication line and we need to listen for the course changes as they are whispered to us. For instance this week we traveled to Kyiv to have interviews with President Packer.  What an amazing man!  He gave us several course corrections for our mission ship and now we are making course corrections to be on the correct heading for success as a mission couple.  One of the assignments I have been given is to assist the members in improving their teaching practices. At first I had all these grandiose ideas of things that I could do to teach wonderful, inspirational lessons.  I began to prepare for Sunday's lesson and then in the interview with President Packer he said something that hit home.  He said that these wonderful people are doing all that they can and it is not our responsibility to add to that burden.  Wow I had to go to my knees and seek for guidance in how to approach the lesson teaching concepts.  As a missionary I have lots of time to prepare to teach lessons.  The members are working so hard and have so many other things to do that they could not spend the amount of time or resources that I was thinking about.  So the Navigator gave me some gentle course corrections and I planned a completely different lesson.

A little taste of home while visiting Kyiv.  Notice the Ukrainian by my shoulder

We had the opportunity to go out to the farm to work and enjoy companionship with some wonderful members.  We got there and it was time to go to the other stump that is also inside the boundaries of the proposed greenhouse.  Last week it was a joyous occasion when we finally got the first stump out but now we have an even larger and more stubborn stump to remove.  So here is page two of the parable of the stump.  In life we all have stumps in our gardens and we work so hard to remove them and when we do it is a joyful occasion.  However as in this garden there is another stump that is even bigger and deeper than the last one. I think all of us in life realize that getting one stump out of garden of life is not the end of the work.  We will always have other Stumps that will affect our garden and we will need to remove them also.

Just one more "Stump" we all have them in our life

Farm wagon and springtime vegetation 

One blessing of getting the first stump out is that we know we can do it. We just need to continue to chop and dig at the other ones until we too can remove them.  It's my prayer that each of us will continue to work on the stumps in our lives so that our garden plot of life will be clear and ready to receive the seeds of faith that we can plant and nurture until they spring up and bless us with a sure knowledge of the truthfulness of the gospel.
We hope you all had a wonderful Mothers Day.  Janet was doubled blessed this year she had both Mothers Day and her birthday on the same day.

Birthday sign and balloons at 2:30 AM

Same thing at 8:00 AM (It's the thought that counts)

Flowers and gifts Janet got on her birthday.  The picture is
painted on real papyrus. 

This cute card turned into a bouquet of flowers. The creator is so talented!

So in celebration we invited some people over for a good old Bunkerville-style Bar-B -Que.  I purchased a small portable charcoal stove and charcoal (not the briquette things we have in USA but the real charcoal).

Celebration Dinner sorry didn't git a picture of the new grill.

 The chicken turned out great and we had a wonderful evening with one of the families in the Branch and our investigator.  We also had the biannual phone call from Jacob in Cancun.

The blessings of Skype "Happy Mothers Day"

Oh look it's Daniel holding his new niece.
Happy Mothers day (love Skype)

He is doing great and teaching about 40 lessons a week.  It was wonderful to talk to him and all of our kids.  What a blessing Skype is. It is the next best thing to being there.  Well, thanks for listening to my half hearted attempts at parable writing.  We pray for all of you and hope that you will will have a blessed week. I know we will.
All of our Love  Elder and Sister Mikkelsen.

This is how they cook Georgian Bread
It just hangs on the walls of the oven.

It was Victory day this week. There were lots of celebrations.
This is the local Victory Square.

<= Life is good when you get out of the house and get to work! =>

Week of April 27- May 3, 2015    
Life is good when you get out of the house and get to work! This is a panorama shot from a field where we were helping to plant raspberries. Beautiful!  Life is good! Tuesday at English class our friend Sasha told us there was no better place on earth than Ukraine in the spring.  It is beautiful and getting more so every day.
     Friday we were able to go on a picnic with a wonderful family in our branch, the Elders and our friend Zina.  There are parks everywhere many of which are set beside the river or a lake.  Families go there to just walk, play, feed the birds, swim and to cook up some shashlik.  We thought shashlik was just shish-ka-bob's but I guess it can refer to any meat cooked on a grill, over a fire, outdoors, and eaten with bread and ketchup.  It was so much fun!  We hope we can get branch members together like this more often.

We were taught by this sweetheart how to weave flowers into a crown!  (If you look closely you may not think these to be flowers, but dandelions and pigeons here are thought by most to be delightful, by only a few to be a nuisance.)

On Tuesday we were asked to help at a Special Olympics event.  Teams from all over come here to play soccer.  Other events take place later in the year in different towns throughout the country.  The young guys were assigned to play on different teams and we helped with activities for the participants to enjoy while waiting for their games to start.  We meet a wonderful American couple that have been here for the past 8 years running a half-way house for homeless people.  They have a small farm out in the country that can house up to 8 people at a time.  It was wonderful to meet them and we look forward to visiting with them again.

Our World Champion Elders and Ward Mission Leader

Ned wanted me to make sure to finish his "Parable of the Stump".  

Wednesday we finally got the first one out!!!!!

That has to represent at least two Horse Power.

Holding up one finger dose not mean #1 It means the first one.  One to GO!!

                                            

With hard work, a lot of help, and the Lord, we can get rid of any of those old stumps in our lives.  And look at what joy it will bring.  There is still one more, even bigger one to go, but we can handle it.  Life is good when you get up and get to work!                        

We have been challenged to get out and spend time working on the street each day.  Here are some of the things we see.

The Буг River

A random garden

One of Ned's favorite signs.  He laughs every time he sees it.  I think you get the gist of it, but just in case-- Hot Dog!
There are little shops everywhere selling almost anything.
This one is at the edge of a big park right by a bunch of rides for children.

The birds love this fountain.  sometimes they have a hard time staying on top.

The children's parking lot at the edge of a playground. These little
Battery operated cars are remote control and the parents walk behind with the remote.

Life is good when you get out and get to work but it's also fun working inside when you have great people to work with.  We had some investigators and members over to make вареники (vereniky). We made so many we couldn't eat them all- or make them all. We made potato, cabbage, and meat vereniky with some dough left over to try some with sweet cheese filling.  One little boy from English class says cherry ones are the best.  Can't wait for cherry season!

 These are just a few of the highlights of the week.  Wish you could all be here to enjoy it with us.  I'll add just one more picture.  My favorite.  It was so peaceful there.  In real life the frogs were so loud down in the pond you could hardly hear each other talk and we were all working hard planting raspberry bushes but you hardly noticed cause-- life is good when you're out helping others and getting the work done.

17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.  Mosiah 2:17

2 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.  Psalms 128:2                   John 13                                                                                                                                                                                          34 Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days.D&C 64:13                                                                                                                                                25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.  Matt 16:25

Have a wonderful week!  Love to you all  =)

Our Little Riley Anne after her hearing test this past week. It wore her right out!