A Little About Ukraine

When I read ".....serving in the Ukraine Kyiv Mission...."

I had chills.

I knew it was where I was supposed to be,

but I had NO IDEA where it actually was!

i knew it was far....

but WHERE WAS IT?!

you may be wondering the same thing.

Ukraine is a European country that borders Russia to the west.

It's the actual "center" of Europe.

Ukraine has only been its own country since 1991,

when they became independent of the Soviet Union.

FACTS:

• The main meal of choice in Ukraine is called "borsht," which is a beetroot soup. I'll be eating lots of it. Good thing I LOVE beets. 
• Ukraine is extremely poor. Parts of Ukraine (like Kiev, the capital) are well-off. However, in the outskirts of this town....there is extreme poverty.  In my mission, I will not ever use a washer to wash my clothes, or a dishwasher to wash my dishes. It uses too much energy and water.
• Most people live in apartments that are not equipped with lighting. 
• It is FREEZING in Ukraine. There is incredible humidity and wind-chills. However, it does get warm in the summertime.
• I will be speaking Ukrainian (the official language of Ukraine). People speak Russian and Ukrainian, and in some parts of the country, mainly one, or the other, is spoken.
• It is "Ukraine," not "THE Ukraine."
• Ukraine is the fifth-highest drinking nation in the world. 
• An LDS temple was dedicated in Kiev, Ukraine in 2010. 
• The entire country of Ukraine is a flat plain.
• The world's deepest metro station is located in Kiev.
• You have to pay for plastic bags in supermarkets
• Ukrainians wear their wedding rings on their rights hands, instead of the left.

Kiev Ukraine Temple dedication with all the Ukrainian youth:

"We are gathered here as missionaries and as members, a small group. This gathering is prescient of the tens and the hundreds and the thousands and the hundreds of thousands that will yet join Thy Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in this land. We see the day when there will be scattered in the villages here and there a member and yet another member and then a gathering and then a branch and, in due time, stakes of Zion set firmly and permanently upon the fertile soil of the Ukraine. And in due time, the spires of temples will be seen across this great land. . . ."

(The promises in the dedicatory prayer given by Then-Elder Boyd K. Packer as he dedicated the county for the preaching of the gospel in September 1991).