Email Update #2...
Hello again. We had the best email update all typed out to you and then when we hit send, we lost it all and we've been sitting here crying and debating whether or not to try to recapture all of our wit into a remake of what we tried to send before or just do nothing... We're going to send an abridged version of what we just lost thanks to reliable/typical Ukrainian Wi-Fi.
We have really loved Kiev and can only really describe at magical, beautiful, or as Matthew says, "totally too legit! parlez vous!!!!" Actually, that's about it right... but, it would truly take a poet to come up with the right words to do this city justice in written word. We've been to so many amazing churches -- some from the 10th century that have been beautifully preserved. We went into the catacombs underneath on of them yesterday and saw a bunch of entombed saints that were several hundred years old and a couple of them had their hands sticking out of their robes and they looked like really old raisins, but the people say that it's proof they really were saints because their skin hasn't turned back to dust.... hmmm... I dunno... I'm a skeptic I guess, because we saw some really old mummies last year that looked about the same and no one was saying they were saints, so yeah -- that whole thing is still up for debate if you ask me.... But, it was quite amazing, you just have to make sure you keep your candle really close to yourself and under control because it's really dark and crowded in there and with a distinct stench of burnt hair, and an occassional flash burn of light from someone getting their candle too close to the silly big-mullet-headed tourist in front of them. After a while of being in there, the typical claustrophobia unique to our family set in, along with the boredom of being in the same place for more than 10 minutes, and we frantically started scanning tunnels looking for an escape route... at which point we also suddenly felt like none of us could breath (typical panic attacks for our family), yet all the other tourists were still just fine -- burning hair and all... We did escape the catacombs and emerged into a beautiful torrential rainstorm with flashfloods, mudslides and nuns running through it... but, just as soon as it started, it stopped and the city was once again beautiful, fresh, and green.
After the catacombs we went to a World War II memorial... again, a very moving and heartwrenching experience. We saw lots of pictures of Ukrainians who sacrified their lives for the cause and also, perhaps the most horrific display, was pictures of Jewish children escaping to Soviet lands (apparently about 2.5 million of them). It was very educational and we think all American kids should be required to visit places like this and see what has gone on and is still going on in a lot of places on our planet. It's changed us for sure. Fortunately, there's this thing on top of that museum that is called "The BIG MAMA" and she's about fifty times bigger than Lady Liberty, and about 100 times scarier, pointing the way to the Motherland (ol' USSR) with her sword and shield raised high above her already cloud-reachin' man-head (Megan and Matthew were very concerned that she looked more like a man than a lady). You can see her from about 100 miles in any direction and she is OMINOUS! Eli calls her "the statue of oppression" and says he thinks it would be a fantastic idea to put a soundtrack into her head that went off at 3 p.m. every day for 10 minutes straight, with no breath, and was just a brutal blood-curdling scream (rrrraaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr!!!!!!) to keep everyone in line ("just to make sure"). We're positive it would work.
So, after dancing around Big Mama and screaming for about an hour, completely cracking ourselves up, we decided to trek out to the LDS Temple site and track down our cousin Lane Steinagle who is currently the Kieve Mission President. We found him and he sends his love to everyone -- he looks great, is doing great, and so are his wife and kids. The temple site is amazing -- it's going to be so visible and beautiful -- tall and white (like all the other temples we love to see), and the most beautiful building for miles and miles. We're so excited that the church will have a temple in Eastern Europe. What a great blessing for the members here. We all want to come back for the dedictation next summer, but we'll rethink that after our long flight home... it takes a LONG time to get over here!!!
Now, we're just about to head to the airport to catch out flight to Paris, where we'll spend about 32 hours rushing Megan and Matthew to all the sites we feel it's so important to see. After Paris, they'll be able to say that when they were teenagers they went up the Eiffel, through the Louvre, inside Notre Dame, and to a midnight show at the Moulin Rouge!!!
We love you and and will be home Sunday!!!
Matthew, Krishelle and Uncle Will (the others are out shopping for more matroskas...ugh)
