Elder Tilgner returns home to Germany. Thank you for your service!
We will miss you! We love you and appreciate your parents for sharing you with us!
Elder Tilgner and the Assistants, Elder Ryser and Elder Petersen.
Vladimir(our wonderful driver that we could not have survived without him), Elder and Sister Hatch(our wonderful office couple - the back bone of the mission), Elder and Sister Aagard( our wonderful couple in Sumy the farthest away little branch. They are the glue for that branch!), Elder and Sister Burr(our wonderful humanitarin couple and the country directors for employment. They have helped our members prepare to find jobs and worked with many agencies for humanitarin work). All of our couples also help with missionaries and are a part of a district of missionaries. They help and participate in the Branches as well. We love and appreciate all of their sacrifices to be here in the mission. They contribute so much to the mission and they are so valuable to us in helping and supporting us.
Our first gathering as couples since Elder and Sister Hatch had arrived in Feb. and I guess the last gathering for us. We really love these couples!! Thank you to their families for sharing them with us!!!
The Burrs, the Frys, the Hatchs, and the Aagards. It has been a pleasure to work with all of you!!
Our last night in Kharkov, we visited the Vasiliva's. They fed us yummy Ukrainian food!!! Lena, Mama, Costic, President, Me, and Sveta. They are awesome!!
President, Me, Tanya and Sergey. A wonderful couple. It is very hard to say good-bye!!
Sister Savakone(Kharkov District Historian), Me, President, and President Kotusov and his wife Lena. We love you and will miss you!!
President and I with Alena. She gave us these Ukrainian hats we are wearing. Aren't we adorable in them?
The group that came to our fireside. We love these members in Kharkov. They will always be in our hearts!! We challenged them to stay strong and true to the faith. We will truly miss them!!!
Polena with her mom, Ulya. Polena is 3. She was just a baby when we first got here. She's a little shy but oh so cute!!! When we first came here I would hold her and bare my testimony in Russian to her. It was the only Russian I knew. She didn't seem to mind and it was good practice for me.
Here she is again! Little girls are the same all over the world. They giggle and pose for pictures!
Olya and Masha. Masha is 14 months old and really tall for her age. (Her daddy is really tall).
She jabbers up a storm and I think that's why she doesn't mind that I don't speak Russain very well. We both have our own language!!
She was having a lot of fun in the park today. Her mom was here to do a closing on a Humanitarin project done in this park(new playground equipment). She wandered around while I took some pictures of her enjoying the new equipment. What a great day for all!!!
From left to right top row: Elders Finneran, McArthur, McCallson, Winchester, Demyonov, Clarkstone, Duke, Schoen, and Ryser. Kneeling in front : Elders Kofoed and Petersen and standing in front: Elder Beck. A great group of young men! We have so many great leaders in the mission! It has been a wonderful experience watching all of our missionaries grow! We love them all so much. It is such a bitter sweet feeling. One minute I'm crying that I've missed my grandchildren growing up and the next I'm crying that I'm going to miss watching the rest of the missionaries grow and change. Thank you so much Mom's and Dad's for raising these great young men and women that serve in the Ukraine Donetsk Mission! We love you!!!
