Church

               The ILP group decided to go to church at the international branch in Kiev.  Normally they only have about 10-15 members, but when ILP comes in the fall and spring the congregation triples in size.  They were all very happy to see us there and the branch president welcomed us with open arms.  The primary has about 4 kids in it and the youth consists of one girl. Since our group is all women, except one boy, we make up the Relief Society.  It was very different from what I am used to at church, but it is nice to see that the church is growing and reaching all parts of the world.  The meeting was held in a building where the church was given the third floor.  It’s across from a casino.  The church has done a very good job of designing the floor to look like the inside of a normal church.  Testimony meeting consisted of a lot of our group bearing testimony on our journey so far.  I have gotten to know our group a little bit better of the past couple of days and I can tell they will be great friends and examples to me.  We then had gospel doctrine class given by a lady from Ukraine who was transferred to Kiev on a temple assignment.  She was a very entertaining teacher and I can tell she enjoys having the ILP visitors come.  Then we had relief society, which was lead by the branch president because there is no relief society president.  The one boy in our group, Peter, stayed with us that hour because the branch president wanted to get to know us a little bit better.  We went around the room telling why each of us decided to come to Kiev.  Many of the girls said because their families were Ukrainian.  I found that interesting.  Then the branch president told us that in the beginning of October church would be moved to the chapel at the Kiev temple.  I was very excited to hear about that because then we will get to see the temple every week!  They are moving the meeting place because then more people will be able to commute easier.  It will be a long commute for me though, but I am willing to do it. 

            After church, we road a bus and then a metro to the park across from the college.  I am so bad with names that I can’t remember what it was called.  We did some more training and also got to see some more of the city.  We also walked by the opera house.  A few people in my group, including me, really want to go to see a ballet or opera while we are here.  Our group leader told us that we could get really cheap tickets.  That is defiantly something that I want to do while I am here.  When training was done, my host mom and dad picked me up and we went grocery shopping.  I got bottled water finally so I could drink clean water!  Then we went home and picked up the rest of the family to go ride horses.  We drove a little ways down the road to a horse ranch.  Everyone that worked there only spoke Russian so I had no idea what they were saying and they were looking at me like I was crazy.  I could tell that when I was riding around on the path that the workers were talking about me, but oh well!  It was a lot of fun though.  I rode around with Christina and she talked to the people so I didn’t have to.  We came home and then at dinner.  My host mom made what she called pizza, but it was more of a very thick crust with a cream sauce, fish, and olives on it.  Surprisingly it was very good, just as long as I didn’t consider it pizza.