The Wedding

This is Tonya, she is the one that helped me find a skirt when my seam came apart, she is leaving to go to America to be a nanny. The lady in the pink shirt is the wedding planner and she really did keep things going.
This is Natasha and Volva, she was so beautiful. Each couple or person stands with them to have their picture taken.
They had salads, fruit and sandwiches and a drink. I think the Relief Society President did a lot of this or helped with it. It was very good. Below-- is the video as they came into the church. Some of the girls had spent all day decorating. They were married at the Gov. building at noon and then they came to the church. The church is not dedicated because they are only renting it so they have there activities in the chapel. That's alright but we still feel we must keep the standards of the church which sometimes things get out of hand. They left the next day to go to Frieburg Germany to be sealed in the Temple. Enjoy a Ukrainian wedding.

Symphony & Train

On our train rides we get a whole Koupa, the picture above is what it looks like after they give us some clean (we think) sheets and pillow cases and the picture below is what it looks like when we first get there except the beds are up and you have to unhook them to let them down and then we put a mattress on them to make them softer. Sometimes there is a window down the aisle outside the door to this Koupa and you can pull it down to get air but their is usually only about two windows per car. It gets very hot and stuffy sometimes but it gives us a chance to rest and study or read. There was a baby next to us on this trip and he was so good and so cute.

This is a better picture than I put before of the men or women that stand out at every crossing or station.
Ira, is the lady that helped us everyday when the Patriarch was with us. Her Mother wants to meet us but we can't get her to come to things, she's not a member, so this next week we're going to go and see her. Ira is about 43, she's a dear.

The Symphony was so good, of course, I didn't get a video of the very best part when the drums and horns where all there. This orchestra is from Lviv and the conductor is from Switzerland. He was very good. They have this special event twice a year with special Opera singers and chorus' Enjoy a little bit of Ukraine.

Couple Conference in Lviv

The morning of our Couples Conference we had a zone Conference. Thatcher's, one of the couples who are our good friends from Page, Utah came the day before and stayed with us. I was able to get her an appointment with my hairdresser, she even was able to get her nails done. They stayed with us the one night so we had to leave them to go for half of the day to this conference so she put the chicken oriental salad together for me to be used for the next day. I love meeting with these wonderful missionaries. They are so good and work so hard.
That night after supper, the couples conference began with introductions and we had a program. This is only some of them. Sister Olsen is playing the Bandura. She just bought it when she got here and is taking lessons, she does very well. President Steinagel is playing Sister Olsen's violin and I'm playing an old trainer one that I borrowed from Tatiana, a lady from our English class, who still won't listen to the lessons but reads the Liahona's in English and knows who our Prophet is.
Sister Steinagel is so accomplished, I love to hear her sing. She used to sing with the Young Ambassadors at BYU. She also served a mission in Argentina (I think). We had several other parts and they were so good. We just had a good time together and none of us worried about how bad we did. Elder Williams did the poem "The Touch of the Master's Hand"
This is quite the sculpturing on this building. You can click on it and see it better.
This was near by the statues of the man and the kerosene lamp. I think it must be a museum, check out the guy in blue.

Walking tour and Opera

On our walking tour these are sitting out in front of a building, they depict the kerosene lamp. The picture below was of a statue just hanging out the window above. I'm not sure why but it surprised me when I saw it.

Some of our people where sitting on the front row to the right of these. These are box seats. Elder Williams and I split up just because that's how it worked out. We all had good seats. We saw "The Merry Widow". It was a Operetta so there were dancing, singing and a story line. It was fun and I think most of us enjoyed it.
The costumes and scenery are always beautiful. I can't understand a word they're saying but when there is dancing and songs and I printed the story line for everyone in English then it's enjoyable. It's a beautiful building constructed similar to one in Vienna.
We have some of the best couples in our Mission, it's fun to rub shoulders with them.

Monastery

On our castle tour we went to Zhovkva to see a castle but it was not in good condition. It turned out that we had been here last summer with Elder Swiss ( he was looking for names for family history). So we went to this church in the town which was a nice one. Each church usually have a lot of icons of saints.

This is the entrance to the Monastery and is called Krekhiz. It is a working one and the monks live here still. Here are some of the pictures around and inside the walls of the Monastery. It was beautiful and well kept.

Mother's Day Weekend

We were asked to go to a city which is located in the Southern part of our Mission called Chernivsi. There had to be a change in the Branch Presidency and Elder Williams was put in as Branch President. We left Sat. morning on a (fast) train which took us 6 1/2-7 hours to get there. We were able to have our own Koupa or compartment with a door and 4 bunks and a small table so we were comfortable. You have to learn to take books, scriptures and anything else to take up your time. We loved to look out over the fields as we went through the Villages and the fields, they were beautiful this time of the year.
The meeting went very well but he only has one councilor and he's a missionary. He was kept busy interviewing Presidencies and we spent time getting to know the members. There are some wonderful members there and we hope we can help this branch to grow. We will head back to Lviv and stay there during the week and then on Fri. head back to Chernivsi. We're not sure just what we'll do the whole time, what ever works I suppose. It was so nice, as one lady came in she had an arm full of beautiful lilacs and daffodils and she gave me the lilacs, so I found a clear colored pitcher in the kitchen and put them in it and then set them on the piano for Sacrament Mt. so everyone could enjoy them.

On Mon. we headed back and I'm still not use to reading these train tickets and so we had some time before our train left so we walked to a park and then I went shopping which I hardly never do because I never can find anything, but I found a pair of shoes and a skirt, I couldn't believe it. Usually they never have my size of shoe because it's small but they found one so I bought them. Elder Williams spent his time at the church while I shopped (not his thing to do) and the Missionaries came for a while to teach a lesson which didn't show up so it was fun to visit with them. This is there P-Day so they had lots. to do.
This is the Hotel we stayed at. It's called the Kaiser. It has a restaurant inside where we ate breakfast, but on good days I guess they feed you out here. It's beautiful with a water wheel and pond and in the upper right hand corner is a wind mill. Up at the top of the stairs are tables in these wooden patio things. The food was very good and the atmosphere was excellent.
It was a wonderful Mother's Day for me because before we left to come here all our kids were in St. George together and they called on Skype so I was able to see each one of them except Blair and 3- 4 son-in laws who were taking an early tee-time on the golf course. Hope you had fun guys, I'll catch you later. I sure hope all my daughters and daughter-in-laws had a good one also, in St. George.

Cobblestone Road

Brownings, Cobblestone Road

A few days after we had our Open House, our Europe East Area Patriarch came for a week in Lviv. They stayed in a Hotel just around the corner from our apartment so it was very handy to help them. This young lady is married and has children and is from one of the cities that came for a blessing. I wanted to take her picture because of her coat. If you double click on her you can see it better. Most coats here are very European, fur with a hood, they are very stylish.
This is a cobblestone road being laid right in front of our church. If you double click on it you can see the difference where they have finished putting the sand over it and where they haven't.
This is certainly better than it was. It seem like with as much rain as they have they always sink in spots.
They must get a crew to work on them, I'll show you a little more in the video which you have already seen.
Brother Browning is our Patriarch. What a blessing it was to have them here. We had 7 different branches come into Lviv to receive blessings for the week that they were here in Western Ukraine. The people would sometimes come on an over night train and get in Lviv in the morning and then wait for their time to receive a blessing. All of them besides our two branches here came on bus or train. The shortest bus ride was 3 1/2 hours. The longest was about 12 hours on a train. What dedicated people. Brother and Sister Browning came from Provo, Utah and will be here in Ukraine for 3 weeks. We would go from 8:30 to 4:00. Sometimes he would get a half hour break. We were very tired, I can imagine how tired he would be. We had a member, Ira help us with translation and to read their recommends and make sure all the names and dates where right. I don't know what we would have done without her. What a wonderful experience we had.