Countryside

This was coming home on the train, I think you can hear the sound of the train tracks. It was beautiful scenery with their little villages and the green mountain side. Elder Kauffman stuck his head out the window so that he could smell the clean fresh air and also the flowers along the way. We were all in one room just the 4 of us so we had a good visit.

At the Castle

Coming from the church, going toward the castle we passed a lot of people carrying plates of food and flowers. When we got to the castle this is what we found. I guess they have a lot of receptions there also. So we didn't go into it because there were so many people.

video's

This is a picture of a wedding that we saw when Olena was taking us on a tour in the city. This bride has two white pigeons in her hands and I shut it off a split second before several people clapped their hands and made the pigeons fly, (just my luck) of course they were taking photographs but it was quite the wedding because of the music and the pigeons. After this party left the Priest came out to get the next wedding party. He had a great day. We were told by Olena that they only have weddings on Tue., Thurs. and Sat.

Train Ride To Uzhhorod

This was our train ride going to Uzhhorod. These folks came through and sounded just wonderful and of course they had their can out for a little donation.
This church was just down the street from our Hotel. It's quite colorful don't you think?
Here are these good saints. We met with them for two hours on Sat. and gave the hymn books and Liahona's then were able to give them the Sacrament on Sunday in Sacrament meeting. We each gave talks to try and strengthen them. We then did Sunday School. They were very sweet.
Most train stations look better then most buildings but this is the best one I've seen. The Government takes care of them so they always look good. This is Elder Kauffman & Swiss. As you remember we went to a village with Elder Swiss where his Great grandmother was born. He just found out from the Archives here in Lviv some dates and information, he was excited.

Uzhhorod

After meeting with the other sisters, Olena the investigator took us to a place for lunch and to see the sites. Check out the back wall. Storks are a big thing here and there are two storks in the nest. Olena is a very sweet lady and seems to have a strong testimony, I'm not sure why she isn't baptized.
Weddings in Uzhhorod. They go all out. When we were coming down the elevator in our Hotel there had to be at least 250 people going up the stairs in front of us going to the wedding dinner. I will put on a video at a later post if I can figure it out.
Even the cars are dressed up with flowers and bows
A scenic view off of the bridge going into the old part of Uzhhorod which is only walking streets down center. Look how muddy this river is.

Baptism & Opera

Ira is a lady that is such a sweet lady. She is Jan's age and not married. Her birthday is Aug. 21, 1966. We feel a kinship to her because of this. We were so happy for her. She was baptized last Sat. night. Elder Swiss is the one that baptized her. We even had the font water warm for her. Elder Williams talked them, (those filling it) and asked them to heat it, and amazingly enough they were able to do it. I can't figure out why they don't always do it.
Some gave her flowers, we gave her a card and wrote on it. The sister on the left is the Mother to Lena the one on a mini-mission. She and Ira and the lady in flowered jacket went with us to the Opera Sat. night to celebrate the day. Svitlana Malonos is the one in pink, she is the wife (mother of 4) of Pres. Malonos, a counselor in the Mission Presidency.
Nastya Gnatyshyn is the girl that went with us to the orphanage to translate for us. She is 25 years old, has served a mission here in Ukraine. She spent time here in Lviv while on her mission, she was born in Sumy, in Eastern Ukraine and now is a nanny for some people from England and lives in Kiev. I found out that her and Candice has some of the same questions about life. She is a very strong member of the church.

Baptism & Opera

After the Baptism the Elders and us took Ira, the one baptized and some other members to the Opera to see two of our members dance. The one on the far right is Ira and second from the left is Nasya.
We invited our dear friend and tutor Lena and her husband Orest who is also a counselor in the Branch Pres. They are a wonderful couple. These are the parents of Uri, who is 21 years old, and is the boy whose picture is in the July New Era.
Our wonderful Missionaries and four young adults, two in the middle are members and the blonde wants to be and the one on the right is working things out so she can be. We're two rows ahead of them.
This is in the Opera House in a room called the Hall of Mirrors. Does this remind you of anything?

Orphanage

They have 4 cows to give them milk, cheese, and butter. Elder Williams leaned over and milked this cow just like he used to do when he was young, they were amazed. They also have a hector of potatoes, a green house with cucumbers and they used to have 3 pigs but they ate them.
This is the reason we went. This is their toilets, located 36 yards out from the back of the house and down 10 steps. Some of them can hardly walk and it's very slick in the winter time.
Sister Chemazova, the sister that took us. She just got her drivers license 1 month ago. She went very slow and was careful, we even used our seat belts.
Inside the out house, there is this hole in the floor in which you just straddle it. Surprisingly enough there was another hole in front of the big hole because it was so old. They want to build an indoor bathroom off of the house with two for the women and 1 for the men and two showers. Yes, they do not have showers, they bath in a large tub in the kitchen that they fill up just like we use to do up at the ranch. I don't know why these pictures get mixed up, I don't put them on this way.
Three little kids watching us. This is next to where we were milking the cow and it looked like this is where they lived. Well it was very interesting but the church does not do construction for projects so I don't think we can help them. It really tore at my heart strings to see these good people.

The Carpathian Mountains

On Wed. we went with another lady and a girl to translate for us up into the Carpathian Mountains. It was beautiful but a little cloudy and ended up hailing on us. This is how they take care of their grass. They cut it with scythe and then with a pitch fork they throw it up on this pile with a pole in the middle of it. They let it dry and them come with a wagon and pick it up and store it at home. We went to the Oeoblast (Region) of Uzhhorod which borders Hungary and Slovakia (Cheq Republic). We drove from lviv to this little town of Nyzhni Vorota in a little valley of Uzhhorod which is about a 3 hour drive on a very good road I should add, and it is in the Carpathian Mountains. This town is 130 kilometers from the Hungarian border.
The reason we went was to look at an Orphanage, they call it, for old people (or old folks home) to see if the church could help with a humanitarian project. Elder and Sister Lee who is in charge of that in Kviv asked us to check it out. It's occupancy is 25. They only have 20 right now because two of them passed away last week. 13 women and 7 men.
It is a very old home. There are 4-5 people in 4 rooms. I'm not sure where they put the rest of them if it's full. They even have a T.V.