One by One

Sometimes I feel like Alma when he declared “Oh, that I were an angel….!”  I so want to be more effective.  I wish that I had the energy and stamina of an angel and didn’t need to sleep – or take the time to prepare and eat meals!  So much to do!  I feel an urgency to make our time here really count, especially after so great a sacrifice to be here.  But alas! I do have to sleep – and eat- and struggle to get things done when I don’t speak or read the language here.  Then I review the week and realize that we’ve made a difference in a few lives – one by one.

We enjoyed a meeting in the home of the very first person baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here in Ukraine – Valery Stavichenko.  He chose to be baptized in the Dnieper (Dnipro) River in November 1990.  He talked about the ice floating there at the time.  This was the place where over a thousand years ago Prince Volodymer orchestrated the baptism of the populace of Kyiv because he had converted to Christianity (and of course, his people did too).  It was at the Statute of Volodymer that Ukraine was dedicated by Elder Packer for the preaching of the Gospel in 1991. Howard conducted that historic meeting where Elder Oaks and Elder Neuenschwander also spoke.  Valery’s sweet wife, Tetyana, shared pictures of some of the events and people in the early days of the church here.  What memories for Howard!

Last Sunday we met with Bishop Ruslan Lapshin and learned the names of many of those who no longer meet regularly with the Saints.  We set out to contact them – one by one.  After many no answers, wrong numbers and dead ends, we found a few who were delighted to hear from the former President Biddulph.  This coming Saturday evening we will be attending the Gala Concert celebrating the 25^th Anniversary of the opening of the Ukrainian Mission and will be either taking with us, or meeting there, some of these people.  It was interesting to me to hear each of them reminisce with Howard their conversion experiences.  We experience this at church too.  Many come to greet us and reminisce about the experiences they had with Howard and the “his” missionaries.  I believe it is a good reminder for them and makes me contemplate my own conversion.

As I picture the two of us pouring over these names, Howard squinting through a magnifying glass, and me trying to sound out the Cyrillic letters, I can’t help but think of how the Lord goes to great lengths to reach each one of us individually.  One of my favorite scriptures teaches us how He ministers to us one by one.  3 Nephi 17: 21:  “And when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them.”  I know that each of His children is precious to Him and that our Savior died for each of us individually.  How important is each child of God – and how vital it is that we reach out to reunite in love with those who, for whatever reason, have lost their way.

The Kyiv temple has received its first outside cleaning since it was dedicated six years ago.  It has also been thoroughly cleaned inside.  We had some wonderful one-on-one interviews with Kyiv Stake President Kirill Pohilko and Kyiv Temple President Frank Trythall inside the temple, who each took the time to meet with us.  It was a spiritually moving experience for Howard to see again the rooms he and Colleen viewed together at the time of the temple’s dedication.

   

Church meetings today were wonderful.  We could feel the Spirit from the moment we entered. The Saints here are mature in the gospel.  It is truly a miracle that has occurred over the past 25 years.  We met a visitor from Logan, Utah, by the name of Mark Bennett, who was visibly moved by this miracle.  He had studied here in the late 1970s and it seemed then that the oppression and spiritual darkness of that time would never lift.  Yet now, there are scores of Latter-day Saints who love the Lord who meet each week to renew their covenants and strengthen one another.  They talk about the strength they receive during times of adversity through their faith, they speak of His love for them, and they speak of their love for one another. That love is palpable. How I wish you could hear them sing! They do it with great enthusiasm and with the Spirit.  It is truly wonderful to hear and feel it, even though the words are foreign to my ears, the melodies and the Spirit are not.

The Aaronic Priesthood holders had not prepared enough water cups and ran short by just four.  We all quietly waited while more were prepared, blessed, and administered to the last four persons.  I loved this experience.  I pondered the importance of each one of us to our Heavenly Father and His Son and how much they desire for us to covenant with them and stay within their protective care.  Howard and I had a similar experience in the hospital when one Sunday two Saints came into Howard’s room to administer the Sacrament to just us.  I was moved to tears by that experience and renewing my baptismal covenants each week since has taken on great meaning as I contemplate the way in which we are blessed individually – one by one.