Children from all over the world

These are our children we got to spend Christmas with this year. What a fun day we had, good food, good company, good friends. We never know what the end of 6 weeks will bring, it is a heart tugger to lose one to a transfer, but they are our heros and a wonderful source of joy for us. Jane is from Ukraine, she helps us with Russian on Tuesdays, Anna is from Ukraine and helps us with Russian on Thursdays, they have become very important in our lives, they are our friends and know English wonderfully and of course our wonderful district, Sister Fitzgerald, Sister Hudson, Elder Stradling, and Elder Mironchenko and leave it to Elder Bailey to have a goofy face in our picture. We love these kids!

Santa was a bit sneaky this year

We have a new sister in our district, Sister Fitzgerald from Alpine, Utah. It was great to bring her into our missionary family. We had alot of fun this Christmas morning. Santa was very good to us.

Santa Claus came to Ukraine

One of our joys and blessings is to be with the young missionaries. We are so thankful for our missionary family. They are a light and a blessing in our lives.

Lunch Time at District Meeting

This is our second district. Another group of outstanding young missionaries. Sister Hudson in the red sweater is from Canada. She is a sweetheart. Elder Stradling the elder across from Sister Hudson is from Arizona. He is also a very awesome young man. Sister Howell and Elder Meronchenko are still with us for a little while. We love our young missionaries.

The Bailey BarberShop

So the news got out that Sister Bailey has a pair of hair clippers and she can cut hair, so now we've got missionaries knocking on our door each week for a haircut. I made them sign a release form saying they wouldn't be mad at Sister Bailey if they didn't like their hair cut. We will see how many of them come back for a second hair cut.

A Thankful Table full of food and missionaries

This is our table full of food and full of missionaries. It was fun to be able to spend a couple of hours with all the missionaries. It made not being home for family Thanksgiving a little easier to bare.

Thanksgiving Table

This is what our table looked like before we sat down to eat.

Our Thanksgiving Feast 2011

We had Thanksgiving dinner with all the missionaries in Kharkov on Thanksgiving Day. Each companionship made or brought something, pie, mashed potatoes, cinnamin rolls, rolls, jello, juice. They did an awesome job. The senior couples did the turkey and ham. It was a great dinner and a fun time. It's always enjoyable to be with the missionaries.

A group of young single adults put on a puppet play for and children's school/medical facility. It was a puppet play on the word of wisdom. They children were absolutely adorable and loved the show and as you can see loved having their picture taken with the puppets.

This is the Barabashova. It is a gigantic open mall. It is a mile long and so much merchandise I have never seen so much to buy. It is open all year long and there are no heaters. The sellers wear there heavy coats and big boots and hats and gloves. It is an amazing place and we have gotten lost there easily. This is where I bought my coat and they have any thing you could ever want.

The Butter Center

Their are many markets here in Kharkov. People sell their goods often in a big open market. Here you can purchase butter by the pound. They cut it off a big chunk, weigh it, wrap it up, you pay for it and take it home.

Places to go and Things to do in Kharkov

We went hat shopping with the sisters before their transfer. This is a small hat shop in the Rennok. Missionaries frequently shop here for their souvenier Shopka's, Russian fur hats.

Ukraine Kiev Temple

We spent the day at the temple. Here is our night view as we left after a day in the temple with the youth. It was a special day. We took another night train back to Kharkov. It is a good memory.

The church has a wonderful facility for family and youth attending the temple. There is a hotel there for families to stay in at a very affordable price. Some families stay for three days and do temple work, some stay a week, some just come and put their bags and luggage in the hotel foyer and go over to the temple for hours. This hotel has two very large kitchens and a very large eating area. You shop at a nearby store, you prepare it and cook it, you eat it and relax there, you clean up after yourself. It is absolutely awesome. They have several big refrigerators that are sectioned off into small compartments and have the room number that you are staying in on them for those that stay for several days use them for their food. Here is part of our group. They are holding up Ukrainian sausage which is very similar to a hot dog. They got boiled it little bit too long and split open, but it all tasted good. This hotel also has a big play room for children, so with a family that has small children one spouse goes to the temple the other tends the children and then they trade. The Saints here love their temple.

We were able to go with a group of youth to the Kiev Temple on Saturday November 11th. We had quite the traveling experience going there. We went on a night train, we left at 6:30 p.m friday night and arrived in Kiev at 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning. We spent a great day at the temple. The endowed youth did several sessions and the younger ones did baptisms. It was special to be in the temple with them.

Sunday Dinner at Brother and Sister Bailey's

This is our little group. We just moved a few chairs out and a couple of tables in and we all fit perfectly. It was so much fun to have them in our little apartment, for them and for us.

Many hands make light work.

We invited the student council to come for Sunday dinner after District Conference a couple of weeks ago. We filled our large crock pot with chicken, potatoes and carrots before we left for church. We thought we would feed about 10 including ourselves. As we left from our student council meeting we found 4 more youth waiting at the door. We learned that the invitation for dinner got passed around in a manner of about 3 minutes to them as well. We said great! By the time we got home we had a few more join us adding up to 18 including ourselves for dinner. I hoped that the parable of the fishes and the loaves of bread would happen to this meal as well. We boiled a few more potatoes and a few more pieces of chicken. The youth helped make a cake and homemade applesauce. I worried about the food not tasting as good as I like it to taste, but they were all happy to be their with each other and share in our little feast. It was awesome!

English Family Home Evening

Every week we have an English Family Home Evening on Thursday Nights. The Sister Missionaries are very good to invite investigators that want to practice English to it. Starting from the left is our Sister Missionary from Russian, Sister LoVonva, Sister Watts, one of our Ukranian youth and our Russian Tutor, The girlin the red sweater and on the far right are cousin, and investigators. The one inbetween them is our Sister Howell from Joseph Utah. Last week we had a young man from Morroco, raised a Muslem. He is going to school here, speaks very little Russian, but does pretty good with English. We taught a lesson on the first article of faith. It is an awesome experience for us to have investigators in our and home and teach them what we believe it.

Sister Haymond the sister missionary in the middle was transfered to Donestk. Before she left Elder Bailey and myself went shopping with her for a few souveniers. She bought these Russian Shopk's, 2 for two sisters in Donestk and 1 for her dad and 2more for someone else in her family. We had to model them of course. This is in front of our apartment building on our street called Myelneekova. Every missionary takes home a Russian hat from here, actually two or three.

Homemade pumpkin pie from butternut squash

The young single adults had a Halloween party. Yes, they celebrate Halloween, I was surprised. Of course it is not a Ukrainian holiday, I suppose missionaries are responsible for bringing this crazy tradition here. For refreshments they wanted pumpkin pie. We don't see pumpkins here like we do in the states, well at least the state of Utah. And they do not sell canned pumpkin either. But we found an alternative that turned out very nicely. They ate it and loved it. Butternut Squash, alias pumpkin pie.

District Meeting after a good lesson and a good meal

We took one last picture of our district before transfer changes. We have a good time together. These missionaries are so fun to be with. Of course we are not always silly.

Keeping the Kitchen Tidy

Yes this is really our broom. It actually works quite well. We do have a little table in our kitchen. We moved it into the living room for a dinner with a group of returned missionaries.

Roadside Markets are a common site in Ukraine

This is one of many roadside markets. This one is in Sumi. In Ukraine there are a great number of open markets calley Renok's. We have wonderful fruits and vegetables in them. I actually prefer to buy fruits and vegetables from them instead of the stores.

This is a country side train station, one of several that we stopped at on our train ride. The four hour train ride was really quite pleasant. We saw much of the countryside of Ukraine, a pleasant change from the city.

A Step Back in Time

We took a train ride with the elders to Sumi. It is a town about four hours away by train in our mission. Elder Rallison in the tan jacket and Elder Merchenko have been our Kharkov trainers/zone leaders. They have been great! They made our transition from the states to Ukraine very stress free. They have been our guides, our interpreters, and our friends. They are very special young men. Elder Rallison finished his mission here on Sunday and now he is headed for home in Utah. He always had a smile on his face and was so willing to help us in any way that he could. Elder Merchenko is a convert to the church just under two years. He is a wonderful young man. He will still be with us in Kharkov for at least 6 more weeks. I am happy for that. I didn't realize that transfers would be as hard for me as they are. I am sad to see them go somewhere else. They have definately won a place in my heart.

Kharkiv Zone Missionaries

Young elders and sisters come from many walks of life. Their experiences, skills and abilities vary, yet they have a few things in common. They love the Lord and those they serve. They desire to share the good news of the gopsel and they do this with love and the enthusiasm of youth. Each has a unique story of why they are serving. Each has sacraficed for the Lord. They will return with a stronger foundation for life, a more sure testimony of Jesus Christ. The sacrafices that they and their families have made are positively impacting the people of Ukraine for all eternity. God bless these young vailiant missionaries.

Missionaries come in all shapes and sizes

The Sisters don't want to be left out

Missionaries are always Hungry

Our Apartment Building

Flying into Donetsk

Fishing with Dad the Day before we leave

Of course it's Karen that catches the Fish. She says it is because she talks to them.

MTC Senior Couple Missionaries

This is our group of CES missionaries we graduated with. This group of couple missionaries were sent all over the world, Africa, Poland, Chek Republic, France, Hawaii, Wyoming, Texas, and of course Ukraine

Missionary Training Center

Our teachers are young returned missionaries. Full of the spirit and enthusiasm. In a world where many of the young people search aimlessly for happiness in polluted places, those who focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ find the purpose of our existence. It shows in their countenance, it is evident in the behavior and they teach with power and Authority. It is has been a fantastic learning experience. The Lord has blessed us with understanding and strengthened testimony......

Of course our learning has been in English. We pray that at some point there will also be understanding in Russian.....

Days are long beginning around 5:30 (Roger likes those early morning walks) and ending around 10:00. Karen says she needs a "power nap"

A closer look reveals, that this is more than a power nap....

And then we had to come back down. Right after we successfully climbed back over the rock and group of three came up and walked right up and over the rock without holding onto the rope as it they were just walking up a ste of stairs. Boy did we feel foolish.

He's almost there. It's just a small stream. Even if we fell off the rock, we'd only get wet, not drown.

There is only one spot you have to climb up and over a rock. It's not as hard as it might look.

We don't hike in the river on this hike, but we do cross it a few times.

Dad and I found a new hike when we went to St. George last week. The hike is in Red Rock Canyon. It is one of the prettiest hikes I've been on. We'll take you on it in June.

$12.99 a pound? Buy M&M'S at costco, not M&M World.

A week in the sun but there wasn't much sun.

We had a fun get away this last week. We went to Las Vegas and saw Phantom of the Opera. That was awesome. The other highlight in Vegas was the M & M Factory. Fun place to visit, but I'll buy my m & m's here at home. Roger found a state park and of course we went on a hike. We had quite a workout and yes there are some pretty places in Vegas.