Three weeks ago (082610)...

Sariah woke up yesterday morning and said, "Mom, I have to tell you about my dream." When I pulled her up on my lap and looked into her eyes she said, "This is a true story." I couldn't help but laugh and say, "A true story?" Matter-of-factly she said, "Yes." and told me about her dream. Isn't that so funny?

Hyrum just woke up early from his nap, not happy, and when I tried to console him, he wouldn't have it. He deliberately walked into the boys room where Sampson the turtle resides. I lifted him up for a better view, he indicated I need to feed Sampson, I did. I laid him on a pillow at my feet and now he is asleep again. (Thankfully.) Now there's a boy who feels strongly about taking care of his pet.

On Thursday, August 26th, we woke from our restful night's sleep in separate beds and the window open (no AC again) to gather our things, take a walk to the meetinghouse in the center of the city that I'd never seen, and head for the bus station. We were headed to Zaparozhe, the area where I served the last 4 months of my mission as the first sister missionaries in the city. (Almost celebrity status.)

Before we left, I wanted to make the walk and see the church building in center. There is something about seeing that plaque with the engraved words, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" that is miraculous to me.





Lyudmila Bodabetz escorted us to the bus station where we discovered our bus was more like a 15 passenger van without any luggage compartments. We were in for a 5 hour ride in a hot van with 19 passengers, and all our luggage on our laps.
19 people, no kidding!

Our view most of the time since the curtains were closed to keep out the scorching sun.

From time to time someone would get off and there would be an empty seat for a suitcase until someone else got on. Most the time we just let our luggage take up the tiny aisle. Between head-bobbing naps we saw freshly turned dark soil:



fields of sunflowers:
We would even stop at random places and pass packages off to people. It's a little bit of an unorthodox system, but they've got it figured out. AT such stops, this is what we'd see:



By this time, it all seemed pretty routine. What I was much more worried about is that I still didn't have an address or time for meeting anyone in Zaporozhe and this was my one night to see people. As we drove into the city, nothing looked familiar except Prospect Lenina, one of the longest main streets in Europe.



I was so relieved when we didn't have to look far to find a familiar face in the crowd.

Valentina Golyenko was the first person my companion and I talked to on the streets of Zaporozhe after we dropped off our luggage the day we arrived. She and her granddaughter, Arina, came to church the following Sunday. We worked with her and watched her grow in the gospel for the three months I was there. She was baptized the Sunday after I left. She, another sister, and a brother with a face I knew but couldn't quite place at first, were waiting for us. Within a few minutes I knew the brother, Valentine Evashina.

Twelve years ago, Valentine Evashina, his wife, and toddler daughter seldom made it to church. My companion and I decided to work to strengthen their testimonies. We visited them in their basement apartment, read the scriptures with them, shared our testimonies, and challenged them to live the principles of the gospel. We also taught them how to make an all American rootbeer float except with orange soda. Valentine now serves as the branch president, his wife serves in the young women organization where his daughter is one of a few young women. He also said that now they hardly eat ice cream any other way. This was his daughter then:



The YW in the sunglasses on the left is her now:

It's not a Mormon get together unless you have refreshments---in any part of the world!

The man in the picture at the right is Andrey Novikov. We also worked with him and his family as less active members. He worked long days at the open market selling honey.



When we would go to buy honey he would place a dab of each flavor one after another on the back of our hands until we decided on one. His small apartment was filled with boxes of papers and documents---family history and geneology was his hobby. But this was before the internet in Ukraine and the work was laborious. As the internet evolved, and he was able to accomplish more research faster, more and more people came to him for help---member and non-member. Finally, he couldn’t keep up his honey business and do geneology. Now he is a full-time genealogist traveling from city to city in Ukraine gathering the links to the chains of Ukranian families as the hearts of the children turn to their fathers.

Also there that night was Yekaterina Vyelichko. She was present at the very first Relief Society homemaking night held in Zaparozhe. Her, one other sister, my companion, and I.

First Homemaking in 1998.

With Yekaterina 2010.

We all reminisced together. I asked about others who weren't there. We told them about our family. True friends once upon a time, are true friends forever.



When we made it to our hotel (with A/C!) our balcony looked out over the fountains that I would see every night on our way home. Sometimes they had even been lit up with colorful lights. It wasn't too late, so we went down to walk around...



and found another pizza place!