Dnepropetrovsk

From an article on the internet "Dnepropetrovsk – simply Dnepr, as it is called by local inhabitants is a dynamic and lively city. The city is surprisingly green along the wide and slow-moving Dnieper river (Dneper in Russian, Dnipro in Ukrainian). The city has remarkable embankments, long boulevards and spacious parks. It is also the center of high-technology industries, education, machine-building, metallurgy and trade. The city is not only famous for its commercial industry, but also its green hills and deep history. The city is very warm in the summer and cold in the winter. The best time for visiting is the late spring and early autumn. The central streets of the city were renamed during the Soviet time in honor of the outstanding revolutionaries. It is interesting, the largest of them is in honor of German figures. The central street of the city has the name of Karl Marx. It is very beautiful, wide, and long parkway, which stretches east to west through the central part of the city. The city was founded in the XVIII century and pars of its buildings are the actual decoration of the city. In the nucleus of he city is Zhovtneva square, on which is the majestic Cathedral that was founded by order of Katherine II in 1787. On the square, there are some remarkable buildings: the museum of history, Diorama “Battle for the Dnieper River (WW II), and also the beautiful park in which you can rest in the hot summer. Walking down the hill to the Dnieper River, you will arrive in the large Taras Shevchenko Park (which is on the right bank of the river) and on Monastyrskiy Island. This island is one of the most interesting places in the city. In the IX century, the Byzantian monks based a monastery here. It was destroyed by Mongol-Tartars in the XIII century". Dnepropetrovsk was our favorite city for material things. The main street had the best Ecco shoe store in the mission. There was a mink store near the Dneper hotel that had some awesome coats and hats. Great restaurants throughout the city. We started by doing all the interviews and zone conferences at center branch which was up a few flights of stairs and then into a two room area. The one room was small and the other much larger. The nice thing was you could look out the windows or get a breeze blowing through the room. Some really good zone conferences were held in this room. Once the “remont” was completed in Pobeda, we started holding all our meetings there. This place was great. We had a number of rooms and a kitchen. It wasn’t the easiest place to get to by car but we really liked the privacy and holding meetings in our own place. There were numerous spiritual moments in that place. We remember one meeting where a missionary was testifying about some very tender moments in his life and President McQueen stopped him and in a hushed voice asked if everyone could feel the change in the room? He then went on to explain that the change was the spirit. It was one of those times when you could really feel the spirit. President McQueen really enjoyed conducting interviews in Dneper. He really liked the walking interviews out in Pobeda where you could walk up that one lane for 15 minutes and then switch companions and walk back for 15 minutes. We tried to conduct interviews and shed a few pounds all at the same time. We loved all the members and particularly the leadership in Dneper. The district president and the branch presidents were all wonderful people. We never worried about a district conference in this city. President Davydov was as capable an individual as we have ever seen in the church. We could call him late in the game with changes to the district meeting and he took everything in stride. There was one conference where the visiting authority was very anxious about starting on time. The bus from Zap had not arrived yet and it was getting close to starting time. President Davydov wanted to wait 10 or 15 minutes but the authority wanted to start on time. President Davydov explained that the bus being late was not the fault of the members and that starting late would not be a problem and we started late - right after the members from Zap arrived. Never fazed him. When we first met him, President McQueen asked him if they had met before, he had a strong feeling that they had met some place before. President Davydov replied that they had probably known each other before coming to earth. We got along so well together. President Davydov in now a counselor in the Kiev Stake. There is no doubt in my mind that he will be one of the leaders of the church in the Europe East Area for years to come and if he learns a little more English he could very well be a general authority. He has leadership skills that are outstanding. A modern day pioneer. The members in Dneper always treated us kindly. Whenever we came to the city people would show up to talk to us. After district conferences we would stay afterwards and talk to the many people who wanted to say something about their lives or just bear their testimonies. President McQueen would often have to do temple recommend interviews in the most unusual locations – on the stage, in a hallway, or any other place where he could get some privacy. The Pobeda branch president was always willing to let us use his office for interviews. The Dneper Hotel was one of our least favorite places to stay. It was cold in the winter time and hot in the summer. It was also windy inside our room. We usually got a room facing the river so the view was nice but that was about all. The ladies who checked us in did every thing possible to make us feel unwanted. We were extremely happy when they opened the Academia Hotel. The people at that hotel were wonderful. The rooms were great. The bathroom was wonderful. And we had heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. The ladies at the desk treated us well and the men who carried in our luggage and watched our car at night loved to see us arrive. They also had a telephone hock-up where we could use the internet. It was located near the center of town and close to the Euro Mart and Melrose restaurant. When thinking about each city, our thoughts almost immediately turn to zone conferences and interviews. Sometimes we would have small zone conferences and other times we invited Zap and the Crimea. We liked either way. We liked giving the people from outside Dneper the chance to live the good life. Three of the four most trying events of our mission took place in Dneper. Elder Pixton died, an Elder decided to quit his mission, and at the very next conference, one of our most humble and courageous missionaries asked if he could go home for medical reasons. We cried buckets of tears during these events. There were times in the mission where our mental, physical and spiritual strength was tested to the very limits of endurance. Thank goodness for missionaries who helped us through the hard times. There were numerous missionaries who helped us through the death of Elder Pixton but we will always bless the names of two individuals who helped us the most through these times – Elder Morrise and Elder Isaacson. If we remember correctly Elder Isaacson was with us, in one way or another, in each event and we could not have survived the death of Elder Pixton without Elder Morrise. We feel Elder Isaacson’s calling was to be the behind the scene strength to keep us going. The drive to Dneper was really fun. We went through some great country side. We really enjoyed driving fast on the country roads. During the winter time, to keep our window washing fluid from freezing we would use Vodka instead of water for our wiper fluid. Driving home from Dneper one time we ran out of wiper fluid and we had Elder Redko go into a little place and purchase some Vodka. When we poured the Vodka into the windshield washer container, a Ukrainian was watching us in awe. Elder Redko mentioned that the Ukrainian thought we were performing a great sacrilege using Vodka as wiper fluid. Another time we came upon an accident just outside Dneper. We asked if we could help or if the police needed our cell phone to call for assistance. Sister McQueen was getting ready to administer mouth to mouth resuscitation on the individuals who had been thrown from the car when we looked closely and realized they were both dead. The policeman thanked us but said he wouldn’t need our cell phone. One of many spiritual experiences we had in Dneper, involved the police. We were traveling to the hospital one day to check on Elder Pixton. We had lots of people in the car and our Ukrainian translator told us we needed to let her out because if the police stopped us we would get in trouble. We told her to stay in the car and Sister McQueen said a prayer asking that we could get to the hospital without any delay or problems with the police. On our way up the hill from our hotel to the hospital, we passed a police officer who looked directly at us and did nothing. Our translator did not ride back with us to the hotel, but as we were returning a police officer pointed his black and white baton at us and we pulled over. We had done nothing wrong and he let us go without incident but it was a huge reminder to us that the Lord was in control and we all felt a great relief that our pray had been answered on the way to the hospital. President McQueen was speaking at a district conference meeting for all the leadership in the district at the Pobeda chapel at about the time we were getting ready for the Nauvoo temple dedication. Prior to his talk, a Ukrainian member was speaking, and while he was talking President McQueen keep getting the feeling that he should talk about Joseph Smith. As some of you might remember, President McQueen gave a number of impromptu talks. The assistants or whomever translated for him often wanted the talk written out but he would change the subject material so often he simply stopped writing his talks and the translators did the best they could. Topics like the parachute talk and faith, or the cat and dog story, or translating the “getting your arms around the issue” seemed to cause some translation problems. Anyway, President McQueen after thinking so much about Joseph Smith, stood up and began his talks by almost yelling “Joseph, Joseph, Joseph, they are building the temple in Nauvoo” and then went on to testify about Joseph Smith being a true prophet and a person we should all praise for his accomplishments. He was really sad that not very many missionaries heard this talk. Oh, well, just another time you had to be there and feel the moment.