Back to Armenia #7

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me. I was really not very excited about my birthday this year. It was the same day as the Seminary opening social up at Lake Sevan. Not only would I have to speak for 30 minutes, but had to come up with games to keep them entertained for an hour. The time when you go to the Lake is usually long (at least a 12 hour day) and we were tired at the end, but it wasn’t as bad as I anticipated. Where else could we have gone that I would get sung to about three times and given tons of hugs and kisses and birthday wishes by about 60 young people?

One of the games we chose to do was a balloon toss with water balloons. I couldn’t believe how long it took to try and get them to understand how to do the game…about 30 minutes. Words of explanation just didn’t seem to work…the next time, we’ll demonstrate…that is if we can get them quiet enough to watch and listen. I guess it isn't a world-wide game. We also did a sponge relay (it was nice to have the water resource of Lake Sevan). They would run to the lake fill up the sponge with water and then run back and squeeze the water into a bucket and the first team to fill the bucket was the winner. We seemed to have picked good games and they enjoyed playing them.

Saturday (28th) afternoon, we took a little bit of a P-day and went to the Genocide Museum with some other Senior missionaries. The museum was a place where one could see “man’s inhumanity to man”. The pictures displayed there reminded me of similar pictures I’ve seen of the Holocaust. It’s amazing with such physical evidence, that the event (beginning in 1915) can be denied by some as ever taking place.

The dancers are finished with their rehearsals and are now in Kiev getting ready for their performance at the Cultural night as part of activities for the Temple Dedication. We can hardly wait to watch it.

Well, we did watch them perform and they did great! The rest of the Cultural Celebration was interesting and there was a lot of talent displayed (from nine different countries)…but I think our dancers were the best…no prejudice here. President Monson did a little piano playing before it officially got started and this amused us all. The dancers even made a brief appearance (very) on KSL News.
Sunday, the 29th August, was the actual dedication day and as temple dedications go, it was wonderful. We were able to watch the cornerstone ceremony. That was interesting as President Monson wanted to make sure all who wanted to participate could. The younger boys, he called “tiger” and he was very complimentary to the young girls. He didn’t want to let the choir do their singing until all who wanted to put some mud in the cornerstone had had the opportunity to do so. It was pretty entertaining.

The inside of the temple is beautiful, a place of refuge and so peaceful. At our session (there were 3) for the dedication, President Uchtdorf conducted. Sister Galbraith (temple matron), Russell M. Nelson, President Galbraith (temple president) and President Monson spoke. This is the 134th temple (the Kiev Temple was announced in 1998, but ground was not broken until 2007), the first one in Eastern Europe and it serves over 31,000 members. The spirit we felt while participating in the dedication is wonderful and we’re excited for the Saints and their possibilities now for eternal families.