By assignment of the mission president we went with the elders to their branch in Chernigov. The city is about as old as Kyiv and 90 miles to the north. We took a taxi bus to the subway and then went from the west end of the line across Kyiv to the east end of the line. Here we are with the elders (a threesome) in the subway (aka Metro). On Sunday there aren't many passengers. We caught a taxi bus to drive us north to Chernigov through wonderful interesting countryside with farms and small rural dwellings.
We still had to take a city taxi up the main street and got off at this great location to remember! It is an orthodox church. Here with us are the Parks, the mission office couple from Benton City, WA, who were attending to take care of branch business. We walked a couple of blocks west to arrive at a small, almost unremarkable, location where the branch of about 30 members meets above the stores.
In spite of the location, the branch was full of wonderful faithful saints. They gave great talks and lessons. We had missionaries and members who sat behind us for translating although we were understanding part of the Russian. They were surprised that we could speak and understand a bit of the language. We hope that we continue to be assigned to this branch. The meetings began at 11a and went the full 3 hour block. Most of the young adults that were in the branch have left for school or work. The counselor to the young branch president has 3 younger children still at home who probably comprise most of the Primary.
Returning with the Parks we took the city taxi bus to this memorable spot to board the taxi bus to Kyiv! We had to wait until the bus was full of passengers before the driver would leave. We were glad we had brought sandwiches with us for a late lunch or we would have been more tempted to buy ourselves something! Then we had the ride through the country back south to Kyiv.
On our return subway ride, going above ground over the Dnieper river that runs through Kyiv, I took this picture through the window of the famous Motherland war monument state and Orthodox church on the hill.
Our travel time was 3 hours each way, but we loved the opportunity to get out into the Ukraine countryside, to see the crops growing and the rural homes. We also loved the strength and spirit of the Chernigov saints.
