Laundry Day......???

Or is it fishing day?????



This picture was taken outside Elder Larimore's apartment building. He said at first glance he thought it was someones laundry but a after taking a closer look he realized that someone had hung fish out on the clothes line!!!

Sergei

Sergei (investigator who has committed to baptism) always walks us out of his apartment to the gate and shakes our hands and stuff. Well this time he came out and told us that lesson was just what he needed. We read 1 Nephi 3:7 with him and it hit him really hard. He said that he knows that God will give him strength and that everything will work out. He said that we bring a light into his home every time we come over and he can see it. WOW that made me feel so good and was one of the best moments since being in the country for me. It really picked me up. Yesterday we went over to his house after church and watched the restoration DVD with him, he loved it. After he testified to us that he was thinking about it and he knows that the Book of Mormon is from God, that man couldn’t have wrote. WOOOW. That is music to a missionary's ear and can I just say golden.

Elder Larimore's Mission Cars (NOT)

Elder Larimore & Elder Newsome Reunited!!!

So I saw Elder Newsome (his MTC companion) this week and guess what, come to find out that this week both of our companions have to go to Kyiv for some training. They are both District leaders, so me and Elder Newsome are going to be on splits together from Tuesday night to Friday morning. It is going to be so much fun but a lot of work at the same time. We are going to be in my area on Wednesday and his on Thursday and we have meetings setup in both areas already. Our Russian skills are really going to be test. I am so excited to be back with him and beteaching here in Ukraine. It’s what we prepared to do that whole time we were inthe MTC.

Family: A Proclamation To You

The family unit is important in Ukraine and extended family ties are valued. The average family has two children and is led by the father. Both parents usually work outside the home. Child care is expensive and in short supply. Many elderly parents live with their adult children, and they often assume responsibility for daily child care. Women perform most household chores. The elderly are treated with love and respect. It is a common practice for parents to support children until they reach adulthood and even after they are married. In turn, children expect to care for aging parents when it becomes necessary. When parents live in the country and adult children in the city, the latter may send their children to live with the grandparents for several weeks during the summer. Most urban families live in a small one- or two-bedroom apartment. Many in large cities now own their apartments due to privatization programs. Some affordable apartments are still leased from the government; as renting from a private owner is expensive. Suburban families have most modern conveniences (electricity, gas, and water); rural people have much simpler houses.

Heavenly Father Has A Plan

This weekend we were able to watch conference I was able to watch it in English which was really nice. I don’t know if conference is just way better as a missionary or what but it was amazing. I really enjoyed all of the talks and am so thankful for a living Prophet today. It seems like that was something they talked a lot about this conference. I also like the talk about what we leave behind and another talk that talked about being thankful. I am SOO GRATEFUL for you family and I love you so much. I really was thinking about you a lot this week. Something that hit me really strongly during conference was that Heavenly Father has a plan for every one of his children every single one. And he prepares us in life for different things. This week we also had Zone meeting. It is pretty much a zone conference but we are doing things a little bit differently in the mission at the request of the area presidency. We have a zone conference quarterly, but zone meeting every transfer. They are pretty much the same exact thing President S talked about how God prepares us in different ways for things that are going to happen later in life. I really believe that to be true. And I know that my mission is shaping me a lot for later in life. I know that it is the same for everyone back home and the people here. It has helped me a lot to be excited about the work. It helps knowing that everyone has a plan and that we are all children of God. It makes a world of Difference to have that knowledge.

Seventh Kilometer Market

The Seventh Kilometer Market, a vast collection of shipping containers converted into market stalls that spread over 170 acres. Most of the shops are neither buildings nor stalls. They are shipping containers, stacked two high in rows long enough to be called streets, though these are little more than overcrowded alleys. The market offers low prices on all sorts of consumer goods, including counterfeits of Western brands. Ukrainians, upon seeing someone flaunting items with Western logos (Adidas, Nike, Rolex, etc.), may dismiss the items as "from Odessa", meaning they are knockoffs.
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Potemkin Steps

One of Odessa's best known landmarks is the Potemkin Steps (as it was named during Soviet times and is still referred to by most, even though the official name was changed back to the pre-Soviet "Primorsky Steps" after independence in 1991). This collection of 192 steps and ten landings runs from Primorsky Boulevard (and a statue of Duc de Richelieu) down to Odessa's harbor on the Black Sea. The steps are famous for two interesting optical illusions. First, as you stand at the top look down you still only the landings (not the individual steps themselves), but if you stand at the bottom and look up you see only the stairs' risers and not the landings. Second, the bottom of the staircase is almost twice as wide as the top (71 feet versus 41 feet), creating an exaggerated sense of perspective that makes the steps appear much longer than they really are.

Fall Is In The Air In Odessa

The leaves are starting to change color.

Babushkas

The old ladies are very noticeable in Ukraine, they're called 'Babushkas' or Bob’s for short. They seem to spend their days outside. They join together for a chat on the benches in front of their homes, or walking their dog or in this case goats (notice the cart she is pulling). Because they are in every public place they contribute to making the cities feel safe. They have even been known to get after elders if they think we are not dressed warm enough.