Church ~ Day 4

Today we were on our own.  It was great.  We got up and ready and set out to walk to church.  It was nice that Natasha had walked us to church the night before so we knew 100%  where we were headed.  It was great to be there.  There were 3 families there from Utah and the missionaries were wonderful accomidating all of us.  I really just hope that we weren't too disruptive.  The people were very welcoming and wonderful.  The meeting was amazing.  The talks and lessons were so great.  The perspective of the people is inspiring.  I loved it.  It was funny to me how some of the talks in sacrament meeting were in Ukrainian and some in Russian.  My favorite part of Relief Society was the discussion after the teacher asked for volunteers to read several verses from the scriptures and they were trying to decide if they should read in Ukrainian or in Russian or if they could have volunteers with different languages.  Funny and amazing.  The people in this area mostly (from what we are told) speak both Ukrainian and Russian.  A lot of the members of the church also spoke some English.  One sister in the ward who taught Gospel doctrine also speaks French.  Crazy.

I got brave and took a picture of the ramp going to the underground crosswalks.  No way would we ever attempt this with Mase!  So scarey.

Our walk to church was nice I quickly snapped a few picutures of these buildings.  As I mentioned before there really aren't many crosswalks and to cross the major streets you cross underground.  It is nice and there are malls and shops under there to explore.  It was interesting because they were closing the road down to get ready for a big event but they still wouldn't allow people in the street - at least not yet.  It would be more interesting to see these buildings if I could actually tell you what they are, but I can't.  Just pretty buildings. 

We walked over to St. Michael's church after our meetings and walked through and around.  It was so interesting and beautiful.  Just being in a building that has survived so many years is humbling to me.  It makes me feel as if I am so unaware of all of the history in the world and all of the history that builds these cultures.  I think we get so proud of our country that we don't realize how new it all is and definately don't realize all of the history each city in the other parts of the world has.  My parents talk about our home town when they moved there and there was nothing around.  These buildings go back 11 centuries.  Thankfully during the war a lot of these historic churches survived.

We were wandering around with some friends who are also here which made it nice to get a picture together.

I love the big plaza's and all of the statues.  I wish I could read the plaques about who they are. 

A better picture of St. Michael's.  Inside was very ornate and had a lot of people worshipping.  There were no pews to sit and stay, just a long medium sized room to wander and light candles and worship.  The people are all so respectful.  We women had to cover our hair.  I was grateful my coat had a hood.

 Another statue on the side of the building.  So pretty.

 This is for my mother-in-law.  I love how diet drinks in Europe have all been 'light drinks'.  It sounds so much better to me.  The only thing that I don't think I will get used to is the warm drinks.  I thought the label would be interesting.  It is nice that there are so many brands that I recognize.  I haven't really needed too much help distinguishing what the products are because of the bottles and brands.  Tonight we had dinner at this crazy busy cafeteria place.  It was very interesting to have a buffet style setting but the ability to order pizza and other things made to order.  It was a madhouse.  Luckily Spencer is charming and found someone who offered to help him.  He took our drinks to the wrong side of the cafeteria and would have been in trouble if it wouldn't have been for his tall gorgeous Ukrainian helper friend.  We ordered a 12" margarita pizza and 2 bottled drinks and it was 28 Hryvnya which is $3.50.  Doesn't get much better than that!