our way to Sumy

anticipation

Here we are, bouncing around in a 9-10 passenger van with Vasalie, Natasha and Vladmir. I will try to type in today’s events. We are having a wonderful time and breezing along with no problems, except for not beable to connect to the internet at Moody’s to post or to send emails.

This morning we slept in for a little bit, showered and ate breakfast with the Moody’s. We cannot express enough gratitude for them and their hospitality. It has been wonderful to be with them these last 3 days. It was hard to say good-bye, but we will be back in a few weeks.

After breakfast we walked to the Mission office in Kyiv. It was so wonderful to walk in and see President Davis who is currently serving as the Mission President. He was our previous Stake President when Steve served as bishop and he was also Cort’s Mission Prep teacher. We have great love for the Davis’s. We had a wonderful talk with him and he told us many interesting thinks about the mission, Ukraine and some of the amazing things happening there. Sis. Davis came over and we took some pictures together. That will be fun to share back home with the ward and Stake. I also took advantage for a couple of minutes and used the mission office high speed internet to quickly check email and copy and paste the blog I wrote last night.

We walked back through down town Kyiv to there apartment and it is great to be in the surroundings of Kyiv. To cross a street, the traffic is so congested, cars driving on sidewalks, so you go underground and see a whole other city, stores and stores or everything you could ever need or want are underground and then you go outside, up a flight of steps and you are back on ground level in downtown Kyiv. If we thought they were overwhelmed with what they saw in America when they came, this is even more overwhelming. It is incredible and impressive.

Natasha told us today that she has been trying to call L and hasn’t been able to get through. We’ve tried a couple of time with her also and no luck. She said that Vladimir got a call from another boy in the orphanage and he said that L wanted to know where we were and if everything is alright. It sounds like she is excited for us to come.

We had packed up our belongings earlier and Natasha met us at our apartment at 2:30 and we all went to lunch/dinner together. We walked several blocks to a wonderful buffet (the name is translated to Belly Hut, meaning if you ate a lot there you would have a big belly.) It was incredible, lots of food and was cheaper than the baked potato we got yesterday at the food court. I had a potato/vegetable/ham salad, borsch, garlic bread, apple stuffed crepes with apricot sauce, Steve also had some breaded chicken with egg in the middle, the same salad and borsch. All of that cost 30 grivna which is less than 6 dollars. There is no tax in Ukraine, and you don’t tip in restaurants. We are still full. As you walked into the restaurant, there were sinks and soap to wash. It was very clean.

We exchanged some money, Natasha said that the exchange rate is a little better in Kyiv that in Sumy. We walked back to the apartment. Oh by the way the weather has been incredible. I have gotten hot the last couple of days, the wind has been blowing and that definitely gives a chill, but today it was sunny all day long.

Vasalie came and picked us up at our apartment and guess what – the lift was fixed. It only worked when we came and had all our luggage and then broke, so we’ve had six flights of stairs to climb along with all the walking. But it worked when we had to take all our luggage down. We are definitely being watched over.

We tried calling Cort tonight, no answer. His companion called back and said he was teaching English class tonight. His last night as a full time missionary. He spent the day with the last of his group. I’m sure it was hard to say good bye to them. He will call us later and let us know his travel plans tomorrow up to Sumy. That will be a long ride for him by himself. I bet in some ways his life and mission will pass before his eyes.

I am filled with so much anticipation for tomorrow. It is really unbelieveable and I can’t even imagine how wonderful it will be to see Cort. He has served his mission well and he is certainly returning with honor. And to see L on the same day. Both in Sumy. A place so important to the both of them in such different ways. Both of their lives were greatly influenced by the happenings in Sumy. What a contrast. Right now it is something neither Steve and I can comprehend, but we will hopefully come to understand as they both share with us their lives in Sumy. I hope I can take it all in, I don’t want to miss a minute, I don’t want it to happen too fast that I can’t feel all of the experience and emotion to be able to cherish every second. I really can’t believe that this is happening.

I’ve got to end, I’m getting carsick from all this bouncing around. I hope to post it tomorrow. Thanks all for your support and prayers. Don’t stop – they are being answered and/or in the process of being answered. Not only for this, but for what ever you are praying for. As would Natasha would say – Don’t worry, God is in charge.

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You won't want to miss tomorrow post, it has been a wonderful day, and the best part is yet to happen. we are on our way to the bus station to pick up Cort - he had a 11 hour bus ride by himself from Donetsk to Sumy. It will be wonderful to see him. We can hardly wait. We will try to figure out how to post some pictures tomorrow.

Thanks for all your support, love and prayers.

Those following Garrett's they left this morning for Poltava and are spending the night. we got in after midnight, so haven't talked much to them. Make sure you ask Vern about his shower experience was!

more tomorrow!!! All is well!