Saturday we went to the new temple in Kiev. It was amazing!!! We had to take the metro for twenty minutes and then a bus from the metro stop to the temple for another 15 minutes. The temple is on a main road and just kinda pops up on you. It's so beautiful and it sticks out so much in the middle of the Soviet Union drab apartment buildings and run down stores.
We were able to do a session which was awesome. The session was in Russian so we had the English headsets on. It was such a cool experience and the temple is beautiful!
Then we made our way over to the Lavra, which is the biggest tourist attraction in Ukraine. It's a huge monastery on a hill by the main river through downtown Kiev. Underneath all the cathedrals are tons of tunnels and caves where the monks used to hang out as a sanctuary. Their mummified bodies are still there in glass cases Snow White style, so now tourists can go down in the tunnels and look at their bodies. So we did.
We bought candles and made our way down their. It wasn't the Indiana Jones kind of thing we were thinking, but it was still way cool. The Ukrainians actually kiss the glass cases out of respect for the mummified monks. Yum.
Some cool war memorials
Ukraine's version of the statue of liberty
Hi Guys! These pics are so great - I had no idea you were so close to Kiev! Is this really just a 20 min train ride from Moscow? There was a really nice tv special in between conf sessions on the dedication of the Ukraine temple - it made me cry because there were 2 great sister missionaries on the special serving in Kiev. Did you get to do a session in the temple? in English? I got to talk to Jordan a little from the SLC airport just a few minutes ago - I read her what you wrote on the email today. She will let you know what her email status is soon - or if you have to send her snail mail. She sounds so good - ready to get going and get blown away with the language. She said they teach traditional chinese at the MTC, but in Taiwan there is a very heavy accent, so others will be able to understand her, but maybe not so much the other way around. Keep her in your prayers! Are you learning any Russian? is it similar at all to Mongolian? Keep safe, and keep enjoying life!
ReplyDeleteLove, Kelly
Hi Kelly!
ReplyDeleteWe're actually not that close to Kiev, we are an eleven hour train ride away. :-( But going to the temple there was awesome! We loved it. Im so jealous that you got to talk to Jord!! I hope shes loving Taiwan. We are trying to learn Russian (it has the same alphabet as Mongolian, but a very different sound)... its pretty tricky! Talk to you soon Kelly!
-Kelsey