Там (there's) нет места, (no place) как дома! (like home!)

We don't take pictures of the most important parts of our life here that we would like 
to share with you. Photos seem to come in the "lull" in between.  That said, the photo 
below represents something dear to our hearts that has been filling our time and requiring 
a great deal of our efforts.

Using a gift of family history as explained in Preach My Gospel, is being promoted in the 

Donetsk Mission.  All, from district, branch and elders' presidencies through family history 

center directors and consultants as well as missionaries are learning how to use family history 

as a wonderful and effective finding, retention and activation tool.  We believe that "we'll sing 

and we'll shout with the armies of heaven" and thereby quadruple our numbers of missionaries 

to the degree that we are able to enlist the assistance of those on the other side of the veil -- 

those whom we know are interested in this people.

Our days are full of teaching and traveling.  

Six AM Monday found us at the Lugansk Poezd Autovoxal (train station) 

with Elder Brimley and Pulsipher, headed out for Donetsk and a week of  training.

Our first stop was the mission office.  Elders and sisters were lined up for interviews 

and took advantage of Elder Hatch's shoe-shine kit to make themselves presentable.

We took advantage of the time between meetings to let our missionaries know 

that we care about them and their surroundings...cleaning checks.

    

We found time to visit with friends we miss from Donetsk.
Monday was Masha's birthday.  She just turned two.  
Her baby sister, Margaretta, was born 12 February.

We even found time to visit one of the largest outdoor markets in Ukraine 

and the largest in Kharkov, Barabashova.  No one left empty handed.

A special part of zone conference in Kharkov was reconnecting with Elders and Sisters serving there.

While in Kharkov there was an Easter celebration organized by the district. At the end they had prepared a tribute to Elder and Sister Burr, our friends and the Humanitarian senior couple who have been serving there. 

This was their good bye. It created tender feelings because we know of the sacrifice the Burr's made to come here to serve and of the family they left behind; and because we will be the next senior couple to leave.  

All week we shared, taught, were instructed and were inspired.  In this last weeks' whirlwind through the mission we met with consultants in four cities.  We taught missionaries in Donetsk Zone conference, then traveled to Kharkov and were received by an enthusiastic district presidency and local leaders and consultants.  Sister Hatch opened the training meeting with a talk in Russian.  The large group appreciated our presentation and some really caught the fire.  

We will return there in a few weeks.  The next day we taught missionaries how to help investigators feel the spirit of Elijah as they offer family history help with a "free initial search of family roots."  Next week it will all be repeated with Donetsk district leaders and missionaries as we hold meetings in Lugansk, Gorlovka and Donetsk on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.  After that we will travel to Mariupol, then back to Kharkov.  That means trains, buses, taxis and hotels with hard pillows.

The train ride back to Lugansk late Saturday took seven hours.  We paid too much to the taxi driver who took us from the train station to our apartment because we were too tired to dicker and did not want to wait to call another taxi to come for us.  As we opened our apartment door after the walk through the mud and up the dark stairs, Elder Hatch said:

 "There's no place like home."  

Sister Hatch looked up at the deep blue bedroom ceiling, and at the fish decorating the entry wall -- at this lovely place -- so foreign to her tastes and to our remembrance of home -- and thought, "Yes. For here and now, this IS home.  How strange it is that hard work and service make us glad, here in this far-away country, to be "home."

Time is precious wherever we (or you) are.  We are learning to value each segment of time that we serve here.  Each minute that we must be without your association and companionship has been dearly bought and must be wisely spent.  We hope that you, too, will not waste a moment of time that might be spent with spouse, with children, or in service to the Lord.