August 23-27, 2012 Simferopol

The third weekend the training was in Simferopol, Ukraine which is in the Crimea.  It certainly was one of the most challenging training session as it was Russian as were many of the others, but we also had 2 branches participating on different screens with SKPYE.  The local branch and the 2 branches about 1 1/2 hours away were at the building and the branches on SKYPE were 350 km. away.  We had the materials in Russian and in English.  The elders were very kind to help with translating, however the finance terms are not in their usual vocabulary and they had not been out too long.  One of the SKYPE calls was not able to talk over his SKYPE and had to call on the phone with questions.  Each sunday we attended church in the branch where we had completed the training that weekend.  In Simferopol the branch president asked both of us to talk about paying a complete tithing and to share our testimonies.  Some of the missionaries translated.  They also needed a piano player for sacrament meeting.  We spent some time on Sat. with senior couple serving in that city.  The track and stadium in the picture was built onto the back of our hotel.  The hotel is to the left.  The old Russian tank was a monument in the city.  The flower stalls were in shops under the main streets when we crossed under.  The little girl was looking out of the window of a local bus.

August 17-20, 2012 Plotava

The second weekend we taught in Plotava, Ukraine.  There is a branch in Plotava and some of the missionaries traveled the 1 1/2 hours by bus from a neighboring branch for the training.  A funny experience was that when we said we from Bountiful one of the elders said he had met a young man at BYU who became a good friend and he was Bountiful.  His friend is the young man from our ward who moved our lawn and is now serving a mission also.  We traveled the 3 hours on a very modern train and could see the speed on a monitor which was up to 160 km. an hour.  It would stop at a town for 2 minutes.  The church were some of the sights in Plotava and the Holy Cross Exaltation Monastry was across the ridge.  I am sitting in their famous "Dumpling Monument".  The city is well know for the dumplings.  The White Arbor (white comumns) is a war memorial from one of their wars.

August 20-23, 2012 St. Petersburg

We had permission to visit St. Petersburg for preparation days as it is in our area of Europe East and we have a multi-entry visa.  We were teaching in Ukraine on the weekends and St. Petersburg was as close as Armenia.  You can see the McDonald's followed the theme of the city.  There are no McDonad's in Armenia.  It is a 300 hundred year old city built on a swamp so it has many rivers and canals and bridges.  The rivers reminded us of Stockholm and the canals reminded us of Venice.  Some of the highlights were the Kazan Cathedral with the columns and the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood which is similar to St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.  You can see the canals which run throughout the city.  The green onion domed church was just along our walking path to the subway.  The chariot statutes were across the square from The Hermitage.  St. Petersburg is well know for The Hermiate which is a mssive art museum in an old palace.  There was a section about the history of Egypt.  There were numerous paintings from Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, Rubens, Rembrandt, de Vince and others.  Very amazing!

Aug. 10-27, 2012 Training trip to Ukraine & Bulgaria

We did training in the Ukraine Drepropetrovsk Mission on 3 weekends in August and attended church in branches there.  In the city of Dneropetrovsk the mission president invited us to stay in the  mission home.  We were able to get up and run along the river in the morning.  The bridge has locks put on by couples when they get married.  We saw many fields of sunflowers which they harvest to make cooking oil.  We were in Kiev on our 45th anniversasy and were able to attend the Kiev Temple.  We saw a couple os sights in Kiev before we caught the train for the 3 hour ride to Poltava.  The statue is of a famous Russian poet and church was also in the city. 

July 18-30 Turkey (Istanbul, Ankara, Adana, Izmir)

The first picture is the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.  The next picture is inside Ava Sofya in Istanbul.  The tram was very modern and convenient for traveling in the city.  The fort and Turkish flag were on the Bosphorus River cruise.  We liked the view from there.  The last mosque was in Adana.