History and History in the Making: Day 1 in Kiev

After getting some well-needed rest and adjusting to a very Ukrainian shower (sans shower curtain, among other things), we set off for our first day in Kiev. My friend Zoya, one of the first members of the Church in Kiev, organized a tour of Church history sites in Kiev. Most of the people who came were the very early missionaries in Kiev--we felt lucky to be with them. It is funny to think that the entire history of the Church here is within the memory of returned missionaries who are just a few years older than me. It was fun to hear there stories, for example, about being here during the August coup.

At the start of the tour, we got to see Sister Colleen Biddulph, wife of Howard Biddulph, the first mission president in Ukraine. I spent a summer with them in Kiev when he led a study abroad program for BYU. She has not been in good health and we were so glad to see them! (You can hear them talk about the temple at about 2:50 in this video.) President Biddulph came with us on the tour, and it was fun to hear some of his memories and testimony. To spare those that aren't quite as excited about this as me (hard to believe that there is anyone like that, I know!), I'll put the details in a separate post.

After trekking to a restaurant recommended by our guide book (it wouldn't have been a trek, if they would have correctly positioned it on their map) for some traditional Ukrainian food, we went to the Palace Ukraine for the cultural celebration in honor of the dedication of the Kyiv Ukraine Temple. When President Monson arrived everyone stood up and clapped--the people were so happy to have him there! That's one of the ways they express happiness, so there was much clapping as all the visitors were announced. President and Sister Uchtdorf, Elder and Sister Nelson, and Elder Walker from the Temple Department are all here, along with the Area Presidency and some area seventies. President Monson also gave his traditional recital at the piano, which everyone loved (more clapping).

They announced an opening hymn, and I was so excited to sing in Russian again, but they didn't have the words anywhere, and all the words are different since they got a full hymnbook, so I couldn't sing along. Then President Monson gave a few remarks and talked about how wonderful it was to all be together and to celebrate the temple.

The program was beautiful. They told some of the history of the Gospel in Ukraine, from the Apostle Andrew, who according to legend travelled the area around the Black Sea and prophesied that a great city would be built where Kiev now stands and that it would be a city of many Churches, to Cyril and Methodius, to Prince/St. Vladimir, who first brought Christianity to Rus. And finally they had all of the currently serving missionaries come on stage. The saints gave them a standing ovation. Margo and I commented that there is a such a great love for the missionaries here where everyone can remember the missionaries who brought them into the Church. This was one of the most touching moments of the program for me to see the love and respect they have for the missionaries. Then, many of the countries that will be part of the Kyiv Temple District (Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Romania, Russia and Ukraine) performed dances or songs from their national traditions:

Ukraine

Russia

Armenia--they were very enthusiastic and the crowd loved them
Kazakhstan
More Russia
Bulgaria
Belarus--after their number, they ran back on stage with the Belarusian flag, as if to say "Don't forget about us!" (The Church has no official presence there, as far as I know)

A lone singer from Romania

More Ukraine--the hopak!

The Grand Finale!

Afterwards, we hung around, hoping I would run into some people that I knew, and happily we did. I saw some missionaries that I served with who are from Kyiv, and members of the Church from all the cities where I served! I saw one of the young women from the branch where I was a branch president--she is now married and has a son! Hard to believe how long it has been. She said "I'm going to ask my bishop if he has any extra tickets for you to be in temple for the dedication." Turns out, her bishop is the father of the family that I stayed with during my semester abroad--we were happy to reconnect and the bishop did have two extra tickets for us--we feel quite lucky and are looking forward to tomorrow.

We topped off the evening with dessert at Semadeni's--the family name of Margo's mom. Some of her relatives, the Compagnonis went all over the world as restaurantuers, so maybe we're related!