My Adventures Where in the world is ….

On Sunday, October 15th, we traveled via a big bus to Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine.  It is three hours north and east of Dnepropetrovsk and most of they way it is just driving through the country.  It could have been anywhere in the US until you saw a sign in Russian (and often in English as well – it was so interesting to see somewhere we had not been before.  We have heard that going south is even different from this – perhaps sometime we will get to see that as well.  Please asked what we thought of Kharkiv – well, what we saw from the bus is just fine.  Also the Church building they have is very nice and much bigger than the one in Dnipro.

The missionaries were very well behaved – they had better have been as they had Sister Sullivan telling them how to behave and me reminding them before we got to Kharkiv and in fact when we got on the bus in Dnipro.

Here are some pictures I took on the drive up from the bus.  The passengers sit very high above the driver so we could clearly see out the front window.  Sorry they are a little blurry – it was raining and the bus ride was quite bumpy – bad roads abound.

Country side from front window.

From side window

Missionaries clustered in the back of the bus.

More countryside

The road goes on and on

Along the side of the road – lots of power lines

Dark fertile soil

I couldn’t get a clear picture but the sign points to the left to Kyiv and to the right to Kharkiv.

After passing the sign the traffic suddenly increased and continued to increase until we got to Kharkiv which is a very busy city.

And the same style buildings we have in Dnipro

Lots of traffic – here they often make their own lanes and their own rules.

I don’t know if you can read the back of this car but it clearly says “Mary Kay.” Mary Kay cosmetics are very popular here.

Once inside the Church Elder Bates began playing – he just went home this last week and he will be greatly missed as he can sit down and play anything – fortunately we have a couple of new missionaries ready to pick up where he left off. The Elder next to him is Elder Dinehart who is taking Elder Bates place as acting Branch President in on of our branches – he plays the violin and does so beautifully. He turned pages for Elder Bates.

Sister Busath and Sister Horne practicing the musical number they were going to sing a duet of “Come Thou Font of Every Blessing” and “If You Could Hie to Kolob” which was absolutely incredible – it had Elder Kearon in tears.

Before the meeting began we were told there would be a receiving line so we could all meet Elder Kearon, Elder Golden and Sister Golden.  We were to tell them our names and where we were from.

Elder Morgenegg and I with Elder Kearon. He took our hands and thanked us for being there – he said of the thousands of seniors who could come on missions we would be great blessed for being there and that he was so grateful for our service – something he repeated several times and spoke of again later when he was talking to all the missionaries. He made us feel very special. Having him hold our hands was electrifying.

So as on Sunday the 15th this was our entire mission with President and Sister Sullivan, Elder and Sister Golden and Elder Kearon. Then on Tuesday seven of these fine missionaries went home and between Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon fourteen more joined us.

After the meeting and a quick goodbye to all we reboarded the bus and headed back to Dnipro.  We left at about 11:30 am and returned about 10:30 pm.  It was a long day and by the time we took the tram and walked home it was after eleven pm – we were tired and glad the day was behind us.  The memories are very special and the Spirit was so very strong.

We started our Saturday a little late.  Elder Morgenegg needed a haircut and although we did not bring our hair cutting supplies our mission president’s wife supplied us with a set they had but did not use as President has a very chic haircut and his wife is just too busy to do it for him.  So I am back to cutting Elder Morgenegg’s hair – but it is not too bad and it is better than trying to find a barber that we could communicate with that would not butcher his hair – many of the missionaries sport butchered hair.

Then after showering we were off to the store.  We have a plan.  The carts are different sizes but the size we like to use allows Elder Morgenegg to mount our cart on the rail of the cart and then hold it on as he pushes the cart.  I just move along and put things in.  He is very patient as I pick and choose produce, meat, cheese and other things.  His main job is to remind me when we get close to capacity as our cart to carry home groceries does have a limit.  Mostly he just follows me around as I shop for what is on my list (and other things I think look good).  Sometimes he offers suggestions as well.

Today, I thought I would share what our cart looks like.  Here it is after we got home – it is full.

Our full cart – actually super full today as we had two large bags in it and a little.

Side view of our very full bag. We have bungee cords that we use to hold it all in.

When we come home we unload all the groceries and put them away.  Today I put them all on the counter so you could see what we bought today.

The size is not apparent but these two bags held all our groceries for today. They are bigger than the ones I have bought in the States.

All of this was in our two bags and in our one cart. It includes a 5 kg bag of flour, meat, milk, juice, cheese, eggs and so much more.

After we put them all away we folded up our cart for storage in our coat closet near the door ready for next week.  I actually keep one of the grocery bags in my bag that I carry to work.  It is what I use to carry mail in when I have a lot to carry like the last two weeks when I have filled it up and then some.  Here is our folded cart.

Our cart all folded for storage.

Side View – it is quite compact!

Now I had cooking and baking to do.  First I used the tomatoes I found in the clearance basket to make a large pot of sauce for the lasagna I would make for the couple who are coming to dinner tomorrow night.  I used onion, garlic (the cloves of the garlic here are huge – in one large bulb there are usually only four or maybe five cloves), red pepper, carrot, and spices to make a good beginning sauteing them in olive oil.  Then I chopped up about twelve tomatoes and put them in with some water and a little tomato paste.  I let it simmer while I made oatmeal cake for our dessert and then the dough for cinnamon rolls for breakfast (tomorrow is our general conference Sunday), wheat rolls for dinner and wheat bread.  After all the dough was ready I began to make the lasagna and got it into the frig.  By then the oatmeal cake was done and Elder Morgenegg was cooking his peanuts (we can buy them raw here very cheaply and then he roasts them in our oven – they are really a great snack) while I worked on the dough.

In between somewhere we stopped for dinner and now as I write this (it is now 6:10pm) Elder Morgenegg is almost done vacuuming our apartment and all our little rugs.  I still need to clean the bathroom and mop the kitchen floor and, of course, we need to do all the dirty dishes I have piled up.

Here is a picture of the rolls raising in my new silicon baking cups.

Rolls raising in our new silicon baking cups that Andrea and Andrew sent us. One set is in the muffin pan I found a month or so ago and the other on a cookie sheet.

And here is the end result of my day so far.

A half a days work! the cinnamon rolls are in the round pan, the unbaked lasagna is in the middle, the oatmeal cake is on the right in the back and the bread for our week on the right front.  I hope I have room in the freezer.

So now I am off to put it all away, clean the bathroom, mop the floors, and crash – oh, we also did two loads of wash which are hanging to dry in our hall so Elder Morgenegg will probably be ironing later as mostly he irons his own shirts and other clothes here – most of my things just hang and don’t need to be ironed – yeah for that!

As soon as we finish out cleaning we plan to watch another session of General Conference.  Probably the Priesthood session and then tomorrow we will watch the last Sunday session.  We have seen the others but love that we can watch via the internet or downloads.  What a wonderful blessing to live at this time.

The couple we are having over tomorrow are very young.  His name is Pavel (there are lots of Pavels in our branch – and lots of Sergeys and lots of Igors – very common names here).  Her name is Sondra and she is so gorgeous – she is a model but right now she is on “vacation” as they just had their first child – a darling little boy – in June.  Sometimes she leaves him with her mother – I hope tomorrow she brings him.  They both speak enough English we hope it works out but we will love having them here no matter what.  He sent me a text this morning saying they look forward to tasting our delicious meal – I hope they like it.

Love you all!  Hope you enjoyed seeing my homemaker day.