we had many adventures this week.
Thursday night we went to the sauna. it was a great bonding experience!
Friday Janelle and i went to the Russian art museum. it was all about the Russian fairy tales. a lot of them have something to do with wolves. it was kind of neat to see the stories that their kids hear growing up, i want to look them up and see if they have translations so i can understand some of the art better now! We also went to the university and walked around. it felt very old and distinguished inside and had gorgeous stained glass windows. Interestingly, it was bright red on the outside. After teaching Friday our group went to Kayla's apartment and we played some really entertaining games! I think it was the hardest I've laughed since I've been here!
Saturday morning we went to the temple to do baptisms. we met some elders on the bus ride there and it was cool to talk to them about Ukraine and how the temple really affected the amount of investigators that they had. i am repeating myself, but i really really love the temple. its so peaceful and it just feels like home. i cant wait to get endowed!! (note, that doesn't mean i want to get married or go on a mission anytime soon necessarily!) it is such a miracle to be able to go to a temple here in Kiev!! The temple president welcomed us before we started, and he spoke about these people that we are doing work for, and how if they have accepted the gospel, they are probably so excited for the work you are doing, and they will have invited their families to come witness their baptism... I've never thought about that, about how many people are potentially rejoicing over one baptism that i am able to do, let alone ten! it was very touching to me.
After the temple, we went to the Lavre. while there, we first went into a church that was turned into a museum. it was very similar to a lot of the other churches we have been able to look at, except this one had especially good acoustics. the walls were filled with empty glass bottles and the floor with bottles filled with sand when it was built. we asked the lady if we could sing a couple songs and she agreed, so we sang a couple hymns. when we finished, the lady had tears in her eyes and told us we could take a couple pictures because of our beautiful singing. i thought it was really neat how the spirit of what we were singing was able to touch her. she didn't understand a lot of what we were singing, but it still had an impact. i love the hymns!!!
the lavre was also a monastery for monks back in the day. some guy came to ukraine from greece or somewhere close to there and dug a cave, which became a monastery for a lot of munks. we were able to go down into the cave, which was more like a really small whitewashed hallway with dead mummy monks in glass coffins. apparently they are naturally preserved somehow. in these caves, people used to "dedicate their lives to the lord" by living out the rest of their lives in rooms that were dug and then sealed off from the main hallway except for a small window for food to go through. they would read and pray and whatever else until they died, and the monks who brought their food would seal off the window once they didnt take the food anymore and the room was their grave. i definitely think there are better ways to dedicate your life to the lord!!!
after the caves we went to a service of the ukrainian orthodox church. only three of us stayed for the whole two hours, but i thought it was interesting. the whole service was gorgeous choral music and chanting, with a lot of showy rituals. it was all so empty. the preists were drenched in gold clothing and their heads were adorned with golden hats similar to crowns (like the same shape as the one the queen wears in Alice in Wonderland). towards the end of the service they read from this gigantic golden book, and then painted crosses on the foreheads of everyone who wanted one.
I definitely prefer our book and meetings to theirs. church was especially good in comparison this week. i love that everyone is able to gather together and hear the testimonies of fellow members. its simple and not pretentious, and full of the truth!!! yay!
until next week-ish. <3
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