Christmas in Lviv

 We had a white Christmas in Lviv. It snowed Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. The city center was busy with tourists, vendors, and good old Christmas music... (mostly Bing Crosby) all day and night.

St. Nicholas Day is a very special holiday for Ukrainian children and adults. Unlike Western Christian countries, where it is celebrated on December 6, Ukraine and other Eastern Christian countries celebrate St. Nicholas Day on December 19. The tradition to celebrate this holiday came to Ukraine with the Christianity during the rule of the prince Vsevolod Yaroslavovych (1088-1089). Saint Nicholas has always been considered to be a patron saint of children.

St. Nicholas Day had been one of the main holidays in Western Ukraine for many centuries. The tradition of giving gifts to children, relatives and those in need was specifically celebrated on December 19 (St. Nicholas Day) and not Christmas or New Year.

Lviv is one of our favorite cities in Ukraine with the European style buildings and the warmth of the people. 

It seemed like all of Kiev came for the holiday. It was busy at the restaurants and all the streets were full of tourists and excitable children. Everyone was bundled up and the streets were very slick. We woke up Christmas Day to 9 degrees F and walked to church in 13 degree F.

Lviv’s opera house is built on top of a river. The Poltva River flows beneath the stage and continues through centre deep beneath the asphalt. By the end of the 19th century Lviv was an increasingly rapid growing city with intentions of opening a European-class theatre. The project was put up for bids and many top European architects tossed in their bids. It was Polish architect Zygmunt Gorgolewski - designer of Kaiser Wilhelm Bridge in Berlin, the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden and the Vienna State Opera - who proposed the radical and intriguing idea of burying the small river beneath the opera. His plans also included the use of a concrete foundation, a first for Europe. The Opera House was completed in 1900. The building began to sink right away, but settled in the decades that followed. The Opera house seats 1,002. There are over 700 employees and over 200 performances are given annually.

Tour of Opera House

On Christmas Eve we helped the missionaries put cookie plates together for members. The missionaries delivered them later. 

Elder Blau helped cook breakfast for the Lviv Branch on Christmas morning. We enjoyed a breakfast, music, and the movie "Klaus" (in Ukrainian) with the branch members.

On Dec. 27th we ate dinner at a fun restaurant in the city with the 4 Lviv missionaries. One Sister was on her way home to Utah the day before. We missed her at the dinner. 

Ukraine celebrates the Christmas holiday all the way through January 7th. 

We wish everyone a Happy New Year.

May 2022 be filled with Health and Happiness.

Humanitarian in Riga, Latvia-- Motis Vita, and Children's Hospital

 MOTUS VITA is a nonprofit voluntary organization for people with limited abilities founded in 2009 in Riga, Latvia, to support persons with limited abilities affected by neuromuscular diseases (NMD) and their families.

LDS Charities provided mattresses, a medical bed, wheelchairs and parts, therapy equipment and other medical equipment to this organization.

We have not been able to get into the country because of COVID restrictions, but we hope to soon. 

"The main goal of our association is to prolong life of persons with limited abilities and to improve their quality of life."

Children's University Hospital in Riga, Latvia

LDS Charities is providing a Cardiotocography machine for the continuous recording of a fetal heart rate via an ultrasound transducer placed on the woman's abdomen especially for high-risk pregnancy.

"Specialists of Children’s Hospital provide a wide range of treatment and health care in the treatment of complicated and complex illness cases. All the processes in our hospital are organized so that the patient receives the most effective, safe and the best  quality treatment and care. It is realized through following the international experience and achievements in medical science and research, and by implementing these principles in the practice."