Our finished job

This is down the walking street, I thought it was beautiful
Now we don't see this to often down the walking street but I took a picture then she put a bag in front of me so I could donate.
For some reason I can't get more than 5 pictures on the Blog at a time so here is our finished project on the trees on the road. Elder Perry is tired and we're talking to an old gentleman that came on his bike to see what we were doing. This is our new District. These Missionaries we have are such great missionaries. From L to R Elder Burnham from Alaska, Elder Perry, Elder Rhodes , Elder Kauffman

Service at Pres. Petrichko's

On Sat. the 23 of Aug. two of our daughters birthdays, we had been talking to Jan (one of them) and there was a loud bang and it was thunder. It then started to hail and then rain. Not to long after that we got a call from Pres. Pretrichko saying that he was in Lutsk and he had received a call that part of his roof had blown off, and his mother was there alone and very frightened so we called the zone leaders and we four took a taxi (about a 45 minute drive) out to check on her. She was fine by then and we called Pres. Pretrichko to let him talk to his mother because all the electricity was out and he wanted to tell her he was on his way home (3 hr drive). She was using a candle so we left our flashlight with her.
By Mon. there was a service project organized and about 23 people went to their house. He had to put some roofing on Sat. night because we had a lot of rain Sunday morning. The roof to the house blew off and hit the shed and tore it off. That's what this is, is the shed.
There were about 4 trees down going to his house and I saw national guard there but they left 3 of these so we decided it would be a good thing for the community to cut them up and get them off of the road.
They are trying to get this old stump out on his place next to the river. They finally succeeded
This house is just before Pres. Petrichko's. It lost almost the whole roof. I wish we could have helped them also. Most of the crew stayed from 9:30 a.m. to 7 or 8. We stopped on the way and bought some food and ate around 2:00 so I hope that held them o.k.

Elder Kauffman & Roman

We are still at the village but I wanted to put this on so you could hear Ukranian singing, they do pretty good and Roman loves to sing. I wanted to put another video on which is below because this is the one showing the forest. It's hard to remember which one I want unless you get your camera and then I can still get mixed up. Oh well, that's life and I'm not perfect. (as you well know)

Old Village

On Sat. the Branch had an outing to this 17th-century Museum of folk Architecture and Life, it had houses, churches, schools, and many other buildings. Aug. 24, 1991 was there Independence Day from the U.S.S.R. But the Orange Revolution which finally put their President in, was by the voice of the people in Dec. of 2004. That's not too many years ago. So they are celebrating. This is what the Ukranian clothes looks like that they wear for celebrations. These buildings are over 100 years old.
I thought this was pretty with it's flowers and they had even cut the grass. Here in the city most of the grass is cut with weed eaters, even in the parks. I think I've seen one lawn mower. They have them for sell because we've seen them but no one can afford them. How do you like there thatched roofs?
Just another house but grass is starting to grow on this roof.
This is an old wooden church and we started to go into it and they were baptizing a little baby so we didn't go in. This is our group standing in front of Taras Shevchenko's statue, he is Ukraine's national hero and eternal poet. It was a fun day, Elder Williams got tired however, and our leader Tonya broke her sandal so she had to walk with that flipping around. After we got home I was talking to Jan and we heard a loud boom and it was thunder and lightening. Then Vicki called and by then we were waiting for the zone leaders (third from the left and clear at the right end) to come over. Our Branch President was in Lutsk (2 hour drive) and his mother who is also living in their house called and said that the roof had blown off from the storm so the 4 of us where going in a taxi to be with her (a 45 min. drive in a taxi) until he made the trip back home. He said she was in shock. We had to go around about 4 fallen trees on the road but on our return trip the National Guard had one removed. Some of the neighbors had put plastic on the floor of the attic (1/3 of one side of the roof had blown off) but we had a big rain storm towards morning so they're getting a group together and go tomorrow and help fix the roof.

Trip to Old Village

When we were at the village I remembered it was Ira's birthday two days ago. Jan and her are the same age, she is the one squatting down, so we sang Happy Birthday to her, she didn't know we were going to do that.
Here is some singers on the stage at the village.
We were in this forest in the village with pine trees and birch trees and also the other trees but it was beautiful. I'm sure this doesn't do it justice. We sure had a fun time with these good people.

Store Cont.

You'll see this first, I tried to put it at the end of the last blog but I must not be doing something right. This video is the carts at Vam, the grocery store we go to, we used to go to Arsen but the taxi driver charged us too much so now we get on a bus which starts just around the corner from us and ends up at Vam, they turn the key off and everyone gets out and 5 min. later they fill it up again and go back where we got on. Of course they will pick up and let off anyone along the way. You pay $.75 each time you get on, most buses will take you anywhere they go but you have to get on the right one because there is different routes. It's especially hard for us because we don't know the roads so sometimes we guess and if we start going the wrong direction we get off and walk or get back on another one that's going in our direction. This is the way you get a cart, you put a Kopec in and it unlatches the chain and then when you return it you stick the key in and it gives you back your coin. Alas, no carts left in the parking lot.We were coming home from Vam and I decided to take this. You can tell a little bit from our ride what it's like on the cobble stones and the town.

Store and About

This is just around the corner from us. This picture was taken about a month ago so there is a lot more ivy now, they have this once in a while up and down the streets.
We were going to the Voxall (train station) with those that were here from America and I thought I would take this picture. I think this is what bothers me the most is the pile of garbage they leave in big piles all over. Even the streets in town by night have garbage blowing around. That's why they have the old women and men clean each morning. They do have small garbage cans once in a while and people do use them but there is not near enough. They also remodel apartment buildings and there is always a pile of sand out on the sidewalk. So these two picture are opposites, I guess that's how is where ever you go.

Service and Visitors

This is the bus that they rented for all the people to go to Ivano Frankivs'ka to work on a service project. We had had a lot of rain in July and it flooded the Celo's (villages) outside of Ivano. The houses are only made out of mud and straw with lattice on both sides and wall board on the inside for walls. They say the window structure is the more stable part of the house. It flooded the houses clear up to the ceiling and ruined most of their possessions. The water is contaminated and they have brought in food but have given it to the Renoke's (bazaars) and they have been charging for it and the people don't have the money.
This is a picture of just some of them. There were at least 40 or more, it was spearheaded by Pres. Molonose, the guy on the left front who is the counselor to the Mission Pres. Two of the people from Rivne were together and she got sick so they stayed at our house most of the day until she was feeling better and then they caught a Marshootka home.
These people had served mission's in Ukraine about 2-3 years ago. There were 2 more men who went on to Rivne and came here later. Dave Richards on left, Elizabeth Blumell, from Canada, I think I misspelled her name in my letter and David Gashler from Utah. The two on the right stayed with us one night because they served here in Lviv and spoke in English with the other ones that came from Rivne. They will all meet up in Budapest. They had come from visiting Rome. David Richards is a pilot and was able to get standby tickets for the group. Notice the old lady sitting in back of them. She had a scale sitting on the walk and so they weighted themselves. It didn't cost much but people will do anything. This was a lot better than begging for it which there is a lot of.

Squeeky Door & Filters

We have three filters under our sink. We change #1 which is this one, on the left every month with the the one on the right. We change # 2 (not seen every other month) and # 3 once a year. Because of the drippy faucet in our tub the inside of the tub under the faucet looks this color so I have to clean it often to get it white. We buy water or Elder Williams fills a bottle with the filtered water which is good.
Boy am I glad I took this video. We have been hearing this sound, which echo's because this is not a through street, for almost 6 months now. Well, Elder Williams found some lubricant spray and went down and lubricated the hinges of this door and also the door to our building. It's so quiet I thought the world had come to an end.

Soccer game & Lunch

This is most of our group, two of the other girls were taking pictures. There were three investigators with us this day. Elder Williams didn't go because of his stomach so he told the Elders to take care of me and as we were walking back home, I was walking with Wenja arm in arm and a man came next to me and started walking with us and talking to us, of course I couldn't understand him but Wenja could. All of a sudden Elder Kauffman (two Elders to the right of me) and Elder Fulton came right back, Elder Kauffman took the man and talked to him and Elder Fulton walked with us. Boy, it was just like having two security guards by my side. He wanted to know how to get to America. This question is asked quite often.
Dried fish at the football game (as they call it). I guess they eat it with there drink.
This is the stairs going down from George's place, this is only the first level, there is another one. We had to climb up these. It's a lot worst then it looks. We did this before the football game and before we met the others.
Yes, these pictures got mixed up. On the left is Elder Swiss who just left yesterday (tranferred) to be A.P and had just got hit with a soccer ball at Sports Day that they had just had, he's o.k. now. George is the young man that invited us to lunch (down below). Wenjia (from China) Elders Kauffman, Fulton and Roman our branch mission leader, me Elder Perry and our investigator Roman, Marsha is a member but she is taking pictures also. This is before we go into the Soccer Park. This is the third time I have worn pants, twice for service projects and this time. We didn't want to stand out.
This is at George's apartment. There is a bunk bed at the left and I'm sitting on another one. That's how much room we had. I guess all you need is room in the heart. George is not a member but comes to English class and speaks very well. I think he's about 21 years old and he will graduate from the University in Dec. He always used to catch me at English and ask me the meanings of words. I know he has been taught some but probably not about coke. Two other Elders were invited but of course had to go to the Dr. to get his eye checked, it had red on the colored part of his eye.
Well, here is a video of our awesome event. It doesn't show how hot it was however. We were in the sun all the time. It didn't start until 5:00 p.m. but it was very hot and they took our water away from us before entering the gate. I guess because they wanted us to buy beer. I had candy and gum that I handed out to help with there thirst but I'm sure it didn't help. We did have a great time even if Lviv didn't win. It was 1 to 0 and the other teams name was Deneepro. It only costs us 5 grvn or ($1.00) to get in, maybe that's why we sat in the sun. One of our investigators got us the tickets. ENJOY!!!

The Tower

The other day after a great district meeting we were on our way to eat and decided to walk up to the top of the tower because several of us have wanted to do it. The tower is at the top of the (court house) gov. building. This is the bells at the top and sirens also. We took a tram vie so we could hurry and on the way on the tram, Elder Swiss was talking to a couple of women and all of a sudden an old man with crutches moved up about 3 seats or so, and started hollering at him about you Americans come and take our women and our money ect. Well the women just hollered back that they were just nice young men trying to do good but he just kept hollering. Pretty soon the people behind me were hollering at the man and the lady we give our money to came and started hollering at him, I thought we were going to have a riot right there but they were at least sticking up for the Elders.
Beautiful day at the top of the tower
There were a lot of people so you could hardly move
That radio tower is north of us so it keeps us going in the right direction, kinda like the gospel.