The Sad and the Glad Tidings

This is a lovely natural wooded ravine in Kyiv called Babi Yar referring to a babushka who sold the property hundreds of years ago.  In September of 1941 it became the burial ground of over 33,000 Jews

This memorializes these people who the Nazi's decided to kill within 10 days of their occupation of Kiev.  As in other instances, Jews were told to report to the area to be deported and then, before they could even understand what was happening, were stripped, herded to the ravine and shot.  This was the largest single massacre of Jews committed by the Nazis.  You can read more about it on Wikipedia or other sources.  

Many others were executed here too.  This memorializes two Orthodox priests who were killed because they preached against the killings.   The Nazis killed anyone who opposed them or was beneath their Aryan ideal such as communists, Soviet POW's, Ukrainians, and gypsies.  It is estimated that 100,000 -- 150,000 people were murdered here!

But the glad tidings are that from this wooded area in Kiev, near the statue of Vladimir who made Christianity the state religion in 988,  Ukraine was dedicated for the preaching of the restored Gospel about 1000 years later.  Now there are many who can help even those who long ago lost their lives in such a cruel manner to receive all of the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are so grateful for temple ordinances that can bless the living and the dead. 

Kyiv Monastery of the Caves

This photo of the tourist map of this area gives a good overview of this site.  We entered through the gate on the upper left and wandered on through taking pictures, not knowing exactly what all of this was.  It was evident that it was a monastery and we kept following the signs until we went through the long covered walkway shown winding in the upper right of the map down to the the beginning of the lower caves.  It was good that we followed some believing babushkas through the cave past the sarcophaguses of Orthodox saints which they reverently kissed.  The mummies were all covered with holy clothes and some date back to 1114.  Many of these orthodox buildings are very old; some have been restored.   This area is jointly held by the state and Ukrainian Orthodox Church.  You can get more information on this area on the internet Wikipedia site at "Kiev Perchersk Lavra" which is what we did when we returned home afterwards.  It is a place we will return to when it is warmer; it was overcast and drizzled a bit as we were there but the gold domes shone anyway!  This is only a sample of many of them.  You see them from many points in the city dotting the hillside overlooking the Dnieper River. 

A Nearby Cemetery

We have noticed a cemetery that we walk near as we go to shop at the street market so we decided to go there.  It was a cool Autumn day.  We don't know why there were benches and tables near the graves.  Some were new graves and some were quite old.  But most were cared for with flowers,  either real or fake.  Some had been carefully prepared for Winter.

Many had pictures

Some graves were just simple mounds but most plots were enclosed by metal fences that had been painted black or silver.  The  metal crosses were also kept painted.

Most of the newer graves were marked with this kind of shiny black stone and engraved pictures.  We were impressed with the belief in immortality and Christ that was evident in the sayings and the pictures on the gravestones.  Somehow faith and religion survived in Ukraine in spite of Soviet communism.

A Walk in the Neighborhood

Today on our afternoon off we took another walk around the neighborhood near the temple.   We love to see the great variety of homes.  This is by no means the average living standard in Kyiv.  Most people live in concrete multilevel apartment buildings with only a balcony as their outside living space.  We have seen very modest single dwellings in other suburban and village areas.  For some reason the people living here by the temple are much more affluent.  Here are some of the homes in the area.

We keep wondering who these people are and what they do to have so much money available for their houses and yards.

Most yards are securely fenced.  Many people build their own fences and take a lot of pride in the distinctive look.

This gate and large yard plus the house with satellite dishes gives you a clue about the wealth of this family

Note the mauve and purple paint with the orange-red brick!

This is my personal favorite.  Note that the vines have had a lot of time to grow up to the balcony and the landscape is otherwise full grown.

Don't you just love the nice car in the driveway and the windmill to the left?  And the construction scaffolding?  They do have fruit trees!  Many yards have large gardens.  

After supper when I was taking out the garbage I saw the rising full moon in the east with the the waning daylight in the west and ran inside to get the camera to catch this picture.  The temple is almost unreal at any time of the day.  But this is a reminder of the changing of the seasons and the beautiful day we enjoyed on Sept 23, 2010

A Visit to a Ukrainian Restaurant

We arrived in the temple president's van that we have converted into a 10 passenger vehicle by adding two chairs to the back luggage area--a rumble seat!  We had a great drive around the city as Pres. Galbraith tried to find the location.  It was the perfect end of our preparation day.  

This is the front of the restaurant with one of the waiters standing by the pig statue.  It looked as quaint as it was inside.  They also have outdoor eating in a garden setting.  The food was Ukrainian and the menu was obviously for tourists like us.  We had a great time selecting and eating our good food. 

We were excited to see moonflowers (right) in their gardens.  The hill behind the white van covers an underground portion of the restaurant!

These musicians were very entertaining.  The man on the accordion could whistle through his spaced teeth making bird songs.  The singer had a wonderful tenor voice.  We always applauded and tipped them to come and sing a song for Pres. Christiansen's birthday.  They sang several songs!  

Museum of Folk Architecture

On rolling countryside not far from our temple location is a collection of typical Ukrainian rural buildings moved from elsewhere in the country to become a natural museum.  A group of us temple missionaries went there on Sept 5, their annual day when the buildings are opened up for view with attending people in folk costumes, and a fair.  This is one of several examples of the orthodox church buildings.  The three sections of building are the entrance, the middle open chapel with standing room and front altar with a wall covered with icons which separates it from third section, the holy place accessed by two doors where only priests are allowed. 

This swing was interesting to us!

These are beehives!  Notice entrance/exit holes and slots cut to access the honeycombs.  We also liked the decorative  shingled roofs.

We could see why they would pick Fall for their open house.  The gardens and flowers were at their best.  Sunflowers of all kinds are the national flower.  The homes had been recently painted.  Inside they were festooned with flowers and fresh herbs.  Typically in the homes there were large living rooms with fireplaces for heat/cooking on either side of a front entrance hall and lofts overhead accessed by ladders for storage and sleeping.  There were also storage and barn buildings--all thatched.

There were many groups of these wooden windmills to harness wind power for grinding grain.  Ukraine is known as the breadbasket of eastern Europe with very deep rich topsoil.  Notice the bracing so the wind won't topple the building.

The Day of Dedication---Sunday, Aug 29, 2010

There were 3 dedicatory sessions with President Monson, President Uchdorf, Elder Nelson and Elder Walker in attendance.  The sessions were transmitted by satellite to 55 locations in the temple district which covers Ukraine, Moldova, Belorus, most of Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Armenia.   This is the uplink van parked behind the meetinghouse.  You can see our patron housing to the right and the spire of the temple over the top of the roof.  Because so many of us have been fascinated with the demise of the USSR and the beginning spread of the gospel in these countries, the eyes of church members have been drawn to this temple opening.  Gerry Avant from the Church News and Carol Mikita from KSL Chanel 5 were here for more than a week between the last days of the openhouse and the day of dedication.  A crew of producers were here interviewing youth involved in the cultural celebration on Saturday night and then after the same youth had been at the temple dedication.  They were set up just outside our apartment all day on Sunday and said interviews would be posted on lds.org at a youth site that is new there.     

The saints were so excited to have President Monson attending, being in Kiev.  He was his cheery self in the Saturday celebration sitting and playing a ditty at the grand piano as he walked by, and at the cornerstone ceremony teasing those who were to put mortar between the stones.  As he exited the temple at the end of the day he took time to touch people's hands, chat with youth, note children, etc.  People in this part of the world only see him on the screen in general conference.  They were delighted by his singing the little part of "so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good bye... good bye, good bye, good bye..."in a high voice as sung by the von Trapp children in "Sound of Music"  They saw him as a real, tall, friendly, kind person, not just a face in a picture or on a screen.

Because Nathan Rasmussen served his mission in Kyiv years ago he wanted to return for the dedication of the temple, like many other returned missionaries.  When he began planning the trip, his parents, my only brother David and his wife Sue, decided to accompany him for a tour through the countries of the area.  They arrived in Kyiv on Saturday and we met at the cultural celebration.  They attended a dedicatory session at the stake center downtown Kyiv and then came to spend the rest of the day with us on Sunday.  We had dinner, wandered around our "temple square", relaxed in our apartment overlooking the grounds, watched Pres. Monson and his entourage leave, and took a picture of us together.  They also attended an endowment session on Wednesday morning where we saw them before they returned to the USA.  It was wonderful to have them here with us.

I titled this post "the day of dedication" because not only was the temple dedicated, but the members dedicated themselves to attend the temple and have been showing that dedication ever since.  In the week following we had record crowds on Monday with many new endowments, weddings/sealings and 4 overcrowded sessions lasting until late afternoon.  All week long we had saints who were still in Kyiv from far away doing work for their own ancestors before leaving to return to Moscow, Novosibirsk, Latvia...  They gave us hugs after being in the temple for several days and cried.  We did too.  The Kyiv temple workers who are helping us are wonderfully trained form their many trips to Freiburg Germany and are so excited to be able to come once or more each week to serve.  The members in the area are coming often, again with family cards to do ordinances.  We are most impressed with the many young adults who come and come and come.  We converse in broken English/Russian but we are doing the Lord's work and are sure that many people who are deceased are also aware of what is going on in Kyiv.