Thursday, February 26, 2009

Sophia, Bulgaria

On Feb. 14th, Valentines Day, we had a party with both branches and the next morning when we came to go to church, a couple of our members had built this, I don't know how they did it. We loved it.
The next Tue., Feb. the 17th, we left this snow to go to Sophia, Bulgaria to renew our visa's. We only have to go once a year unlike Russia where the Elders and Sisters have to go every three months. We landed in Sophia at the Musseldorf airport (doesn't that sound like a Harry Potter place?) It was pretty nice in Sophia when we got there and everyone took very good care of all of us. There were 6 of us.
After getting settled in our apartments and after having dinner we went to the Jorgensons apartment and had ice cream and the Elders played games and we visited.
The next day the Jorgensons took us on a tour of the city. This is Alexander Nevski Cathedral, named after St. Alexander Nevski, a Russian tsar who saved Russia from invading Swedish troops in 1240, and is without a doubt the most spectacular building in Sofia.
The Presidential building in Sofia which is the administrative quarters of Bulgaria's president. There are always two guards as you can see at the doors behind us. I'm not sure how often they have a changing of the guards but they are well worth a snapshot.
Here is the St. George Rotunda. Set among the excavations of ancient roman ruins, this charming round red brick church dates back to the 4th century and is Sofia's oldest preserved building, it didn't become a church until the 6th century. They did some major restoration work and it was reopened to the public in 1998 for the first time in 70 years.
This is a sculpture of Sofia and overlooks the main intersection there in Sofia.
This is the former Communist Party Headquarter (until August 1990). The red star which I didn't get in the picture is not there. It was removed after the collapse of the communist era.
We all went in to see the Banya Bashi mosque built in 1576. It is the only mosque in Sophia and is quite small but they want all women to wear a head scarf, so luckily they let me in, we also took off our shoes to show respect, it was also carpeted. It was a very interesting day but when we woke up the next morning there was a lot of snow and it snowed all day. Then on Fri. the day we left, the plane was 1/2 hour late departing because of the blowing and drifting snow. It was an enjoyable trip.
Now the video below is what we did after we got home. Elder Williams is always making home made chicken noodle soup and he's really getting good at it.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Wood & Arsenal Museums

This is the Arsenal Museum which was built about 1575. It is a rectangular structure building with eight-foot-thick walls that are stone on the outside and brick inside. On display are weapons from more than 30 countries from the 11th to 20th century. I would hate to be hit by one of these balls.


These were very interesting. Some of them reminded me of Camalot time.
This was in the wood furniture museum. It must have been the throne for the Count.

Wood & Arsenal Museum

We have been checking out a couple of museums here in Lviv to see if anyone would be interested in seeing them. The end of April we will have a Couples Conference here in Lviv and we need to find out activities for them to do. There will 22 people here from the Kyiv Ukraine Mission. It's always fun to see everyone.
This museum is the Museum of Furniture and China and is located in the former Count Liubomirsky palace. These are instruments, the first one is a Bandura, which is an authentic Ukranian instrument. I'm not sure about the second one and the third one is a harp.
They are from the 15th- the 20th century. Chinese, Italian, English Wedgewood and French.

This museum is the only one like it in Ukraine.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Two More Baptisms

Andrea, which is the 4th to the left of me, was baptized about 3 weeks ago and these were all the people that supported him. He has since passed the Sacrament, blessed the Sacrament, given a talk and prayed. He is such a great guy and the gospel has made such a difference in his life. He is being such a wonderful example to his son, sister and niece who he lives with.

These great missionaries are the ones that work so hard and change so many lives for good here in Lviv. They are leading in the mission and we love rubbing shoulders with them.
Our Branch Mission leader's Mother (Olena) was baptized a couple of weeks ago and I didn't get a picture of her. She is an awesome lady so I can see why her son is so awesome. Dave her son is always such a good example to everyone especially the youth. He has been a member only 3 years and is only 18 years old and is hoping to go on a mission sometime this year. This younger generation is truly instruments in the Lords hands. Just like the 2000 stripling warriors.
This is Andrea before his baptism, he invited us over to his house with 2 other missionary companionship that evening and he had cookies and juice for us to eat and we met his family.