Moroni stands tall in Ukraine

On Saturday we had the opportunity to attend the first crowning ceremony of the Kiev temple- the placement of the angel Moroni on top of the temple spire.
У суббота у нас было возможность посещать возможно первое из многих собранных киевского храма- в этот раз помечтали установку памьятника ангела Мороний на самом верху Храма.

This was a well attended event, especially due to the church movie “Legacy” which as you remember- begins with the placement of the angel Moroni on the salt lake city temple.
У этой серемоний было много прихожан, особенно от попюларности церковного филма, “Наследие” который, если вы помните, начинается с сценой установки ангела Мороний на Храме в Солт Лейк Сити, Юта.

Members waited anxiously, talking amongst themselves as the trumpet wielding bearer of the restoration hung precariously from the rented sky crane.
Общаясь друг с другом, Члены церкви ждали пока Ангел Мороний страшно весил крейном.

I met with many of my good friends from the mission as they stood in a crowd, and finally after some small fanfare and pictures with church authorities, Moroni was slowly lifted up and positioned in place, accompanied by a round of applause, and followed up with an investigator baptism in the nearby stake center.
Я встречал много из моих хороших друзей из моего миссий, и скоро после того как снимали несколько фоток, церковные руководители давали слово а поднимался Мороний в небо и поставлен на место,
People gathered from all over Ukraine to see the event, and I hear rumor that an ensign article is up and coming- so look for our faces!

The question was asked though, does the angel Moroni look to the east or the west here on the other side of the globe?

Gogolfest

So we got invited to attend an “ethnic festival” in Kiev by a good friend, which turned out to be “Gogol-fest”, a warp-tour like hippie music festival with art exhibits, sculptors, and dancers.

The festival was held in a soviet-style museum wing that was undergoing renovations, the dilapidated brickwork adding to the rugged local feeling of the event. The best part though was the artist above- singing English translations of Ukrainian folk songs with new beats. About one in ten words was actually recognizable as English, and was reminiscent of foreign karaoke.

In all fairness- she had a really good voice and a good presence on stage- entering the stage by somersaulting through the fog. LOL

Petrovka pirate market

Although you don’t have to have a peg leg to get stuff here, this is the largest pirate market in Ukraine, bringing books, music, and software to the open market.
Notable among many is windows 7 package with Microsoft office suite for around 45UAH(around 6USD) as pictured below.

Downtown

So Ukrainian transportation is different in several respects, including:

If you have ever seen a Ukrainian metro, you may be reminded of a zombie movie. Especially to get on one of the escalators like shown. The escalators will take you severally hundred feet underground, where you will meet the metro train. The trains all are down at river level, so the higher the station, the farther down you have to go. Metros are like sardine cans in rush hour and you have to really look out for your wallet and such as tthis is the number one spot for pick pocketers.

News and Updates from Lottie

-We arrived to Kiev Ukraine Borispol airport on September 9th 2009.
-We left the phoenix airport (PHX) at 6 am on Tuesday Morning flew to New York airport (JFK)
-Jeremy’s good friend Vladimir picked us up from the airport and let us stay at his house for a few days while we rest up.
-I got really sick with the stomach flew from something I ate and Jeremy took really good care of me.
-The place we were staying at was really old and interesting. It had bed bugs so we have been very itchy. But behind the house it was really neat because it had pear & apple trees a beautiful rose garden, and really good grapes!
- One of Jeremy’s old mission companions is here working for the Russian embassy and is staying in an amazing apartment ( would be about $5000/mo. in the states!) but he gets free housing since he works for the embassy so he is letting us stay here this week before we leave for Chernigov. It is so nice and clean and it has a washer dryer, iron and microwave! All or which you don’t come by very often here so it is really nice.
-We got to see the new temple being built in Kiev and the church next to it which it really big and beautiful. This Saturday we are going to see the angel Moroni placed on the temple which we are really excited about.
- On Sunday we got to go to an area that Jeremy served in that he baptized a family and go to church there. Everyone was so excited and shocked to see him. They asked him to speak in church and everyone was either crying or teary eyed. We could feel the spirit so strong. They were thrilled that I could play the piano and asked me to play the hymns for church.
We went to the international ward for FHE last night and got to meet some awesome LDS people around our ages. They asked me to sing and that was really fun. I sang How Great Thou Art. Which come to find out was originally written here in Ukraine!!

LB

Moving up in the world

So to my surprise- one of my mission companions is here doing an internship at the American embassy! We are staying with him in the embassy housing apartment for the week as it is a really nice apartment closer to the center of Kiev and therefore closer to all the tourist things that we want to do.

You can see the view from the 6th story window.