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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
