A Special and Extraordinary Experience

     Once a year all the Eastern Europe Area CES couples join together for a training. This year we were privileged to go to Turkey. I never realized before the significance of the country of Turkey. It was well traveled by the ancient Apostles and many converted Saints lived in that country in the early days of the church after our Savior had died. We had wonderful instruction from great men who lead the Seminary and Institute Program here in the Eastern Europe Area. They are all natives from Russia and Ukraine. They are great leaders, men of great testimony, and great faith. This year we had President and Sister Lawrence, the Europe East Area President (right here on the front row, 5 and 6 from the left) with us. Each night they gave a wonderful spiritual and edifying fireside.
    One afternoon of our training conference we took a field trip to Ephesus and walked through the restored and uncovered ruins of ancient Ephesus. The top picture: we are standing in front of  the ancient Library and the bottom picture: we are sitting in the Colosseum, the very Colosseum where the Apostle Paul spoke to the Ephesians. It was a most wonderful experience and one of the most awesome places I have ever seen. 
     Being together with all these great senior couples is also an edifying and uplifting experience. There were 18 couples. Together we had 107 children and 318 grandchildren. One couple even had 57 great grandchildren. The ages ranged from 51 to the late 70's. Wonderful people and a wonderful experience.

Daughters, Angels, Friends, Beloved

As our time here draws quickly to an end our hearts are full and our thoughts are many. This has been a life changing experience. The blessings we have received are many. Our cup is definitely overflowing. With much love and tears in our eyes we spend a few more tender moments together with our Beloved youth. I made each of the girls one of my little crocheted dolls. I was amazed at their joy over these little dolls. You would have thought they were little girls again playing with dolls, creating new hairdo's and adjusting the dress to fit their style and even swinging them by their arms. It was delightful!  We have indeed been blessed in our year and a half here. It is so hard to leave them, not knowing when we can be among them again.

We found the funnest yarn here in Ukraine. You make these scarfs by knitting on your fingers. We planned a service project and made these scarfs modeled here by some of our fun youth and a mother. We spent one day delivering these scarf's to widows and shut ins. We sang a Christmas carol and gave them a gift. Many  shed tears of joy and expressed appreciation as we spent a few minutes with them and it was a great experience for the youth as they witnessed the miracle of giving.

Our District Ukrainian Style

Part of the mission is the regular pattern of change. Every six weeks there is a transfer within the district and zone, sometimes new missionaries coming in and other missionaries going home. This is a picture of our 2nd to last district before transfers. We are all wearing the fashionable traditional winter head wear for this part of the world. It is a must to keep our heads and our ears warm as we tromp around the streets of Kharkov. If our head and ears and necks are warm then usually the rest of us is warm. We as missionaries don't actually wear these hats, only for a picture.