Auschwitz

I will probably never experience a day like this one again. Friday morning we woke up early to go to Auschwitz, the most famous concentration camp from WWII. (When I say woke up early I mean early. We forgot to change our clock and so Laria and I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and knocked on everyone's doors worried we were going to be late....let's just say they weren't too happy with our mistake.) I have always had a fascination with the Holocaust. WWII has always been one of my favorite subjects. This has led me to read many books written by Holocaust survivors. I've always wanted to go to the Holocaust museum in DC and got to do that last March. I never even imagined it would be possible for me to visit a real concentration camp.

The gates to enter. They read "Work Will Set You Free."

Our tour guide

Used for the gas chambers

The execution wall where many were shot

Entrance to the gas chambers

The inside of the barracks

Remnants of a gas chamber the Nazis tried to blow up before liberation

Auschwitz was a very unique experience. People warned me how awful it would be. When it came down to it, I was actually really scared to go. They were right, it was awful. But the experience I had there was not the one I was expecting. I was expecting only pain, despair, and sorrow. The things that happened there are truly unfathomable. I walked through gas chambers, torture rooms, gallows, starvation rooms, suffocation rooms, walls where people were shot. I saw a fraction of the things Nazi's took away from the Jews. Shoes, glasses, clothes, luggage, dolls, hair brushes, every single thing you can think of. It was there in piles taking up whole rooms, and it was only part of what was left. The most disturbing was probably the room of 2 tons of human hair. It was absolutely awful. And although I did feel so much sorrow for everything that happened to these people, I walked away without despair. I felt peace.

I often question my emotions, wondering if I should be feeling something different than I do. I was asking myself this day why I wasn't more upset or disturbed? Staring at these things was unreal. It did hurt, it made me sick. But I realized why I felt an unquestionable peace. It was because I had asked for it. I had been praying to Heavenly Father asking that I would learn from this experience and take away hope. I asked that I would feel peace and have a better understanding of why He let such awful things happen. While there, I knew it was a part of God’s plan, for whatever reason it needed to be. I didn’t doubt that. I felt peace because all I could think about was the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I saw it in a new light and realized how all encompassing it really is. The Atonement covered the sufferings of every single person in Auschwitz. The Atonement covered every single sin of those inflicting the pain. My testimony of the Atonement was strengthened so much. I have learned throughout my life that Christ has felt my sufferings, and that is an important part of my testimony. But to know my sufferings are so small compared to these, and that Christ suffered for all of that too, because He loves us. It was an incredible experience. I did leave the gates of Auschwitz with peace and more gratitude for Heavenly Father’s plan. I’m so grateful to have the gospel to give us hope. There is so much despair in this world, but we can find hope in everything, even something as awful as Auschwitz.

Salt Mines and Schindler's Factory

We met our driver, Sergay, and drove through the night to Krakow. 18 girls squished onto one bus. No one wanted to take the front seats next to the driver, so of course Laria and I got stuck there. We drove through the night and got woken up a few times at the border. Early in the morning I woke up to us parked in a random lot. I looked to my left and there was the bus driver, sound asleep right next to me. What a nice surprise. But it was ok because after we woke up we went to the Wieliczka Salt Mines. They were AWESOME.

Let's just talk real fast about my obsession with salt. Remember how I am addicted to salt? Addicted as in I add salt to everything and pour salt into my hand to eat it plain. (I've been trying to hold back the past few years) Point is, I've always loved salt. Everything in this mine was made of SALT! And we were allowed to lick it! Heaven? Yes. This place was made for me. Not only that, but it was beautiful. The deepest we went was 130 meters underground. That is about 425 feet. And that is only the 3rd level down...there are 9! It would take 6 months to see all of the mine, so we only saw 1% in the few hours we spent there. It was the freshest air I've breathed all month, in fact, probably all year! People go there for asthma treatments, so the air is the best you can get! Pictures won't even be able to show how cool this place was.

Going down never ending stairs to get there (much better than going up!)

The group!

Salt...you better believed I licked that!

A statue carved from rock salt

More stairs, made of salt!

This is a chapel made completely of rock salt! (Do you get the picture that everything was salt yet....ok just checking!) It took 3 miners 67 years to build. Each one worked on it up until the point he died then the next began. The chapel is surrounded by carved pictures depicting the life of Jesus Christ. Church services are held there each Sunday and they also hold weddings here. So cool!

You can see the carving of the Last Supper on the left.

Even the chandeliers were salt. Get me one of those please!

The group again

The lakes inside the mines. They used to have boat tours until one flipped over and people died inside. They were stuck under the boat and died of suffocation because they couldn't dive under the salt water to get out.

Inside one of the ballrooms where they hold banquets.

So basically if you go to Poland you HAVE to see the salt mines for your self! I'm so glad I did.

We got to our hostel in Krakow after the salt mines. Laria and I were so hungry that we went to the nearest market and found a bag of cereal. With nothing else but spoons in my backpack we just poured the milk right into the bag and ate the whole thing! I have missed cereal!

With nothing else planned for the day we decided to go to Schindler's Factory. I've never seen "Schindler's List" so I was afraid I wouldn't really understand it much. It was a museum inside the actual factory where Oskar Schindler employed thousands of Jews to save their lives. The museum did have a section based on this to see Schindler's office and learn more about his story. The rest was filled with the history of the invasion of Poland through 1939-1945. I have learned a lot about the Holocaust, but never really much about the invasion itself. It took you deep into the life in the Jewish ghettos before concentration camps. The museum was like a life size scrapbook to walk through. We found out was only opened a year ago! It reminded me a lot of the Holocaust museum in DC. We spent almost 3 hours there and I could've stayed longer. I learned so much!

Schindler's desk

"For some, war leaves no choice; for others, it makes choosing a must. A small gesture can yield irreversible consequences. It can either save a life, or ruin it."

It begins! Lviv

I just returned from an amazing trip to Lviv, Ukraine and Krakow, Poland. I've always dreamed of traveling in Europe, so it still seems unreal to me that I'm here! It is everything I imagined and more. But no need to be jealous, I will share a little piece of it with you through my overload of pictures divided into a few posts(one post was just too long).

The journey began at 11:58 p.m. Tuesday night as we boarded the night train to Lviv, Ukraine. I loved the night train in India, even though it was pretty sketchy. I figured this one would be awesome compared to that! Well, it wasn't much better....just a little bit. But I still LOVED it! Seriously, I wish we always traveled on night trains. I might go home and build a night train from SLC to Disneyland since that is about the only traveling I do in America. That way I can enjoy night trains and go my happiest place on earth. Family what do you think?

Waiting at the train station

Hanging out before bed

Like I said...not much better than India. Your waste still goes directly to the train tracks.

Oh just curling up for bed.

On Wednesday morning we got to Lviv, Ukraine. We were hungry after our night on the train. Luckily we found Lviv's famous secret restaurant. You knock on the door and someone opens it with a gun and asks for the password. Kind of scary! We learned it from a local and recited it the whole way there so we wouldn't forget. "Slava Ukrayini."

Laria and I shared this delicious fried entree filled with mashed potatoes. And some cheese pancakes that were absolutely disgusting.

We walked around the streets of Lviv where we heard music like this..

and found random statues like this...

and ate chocolate like this...

and I found a piece of Clara there.

We got lazy and took a tour of the city by a little train with headsets. We listened in English of course.

And Laria fell asleep.

We climbed the most stairs I've ever climbed at once to the top of a clock tower. You could see the whole city and the view was so worth it! I wish pictures could capture what it really was like up there. One of the best things I've ever seen.

On the way down we signed a wall covered in signatures. Of course I added my own!

Here I am next to it showing my Wild Wild West pride, Ukrainian style!

After a wonderful day exploring Lviv we were finally headed to Poland. Here we are waiting for the bus to pick us up.

To be continued.....

Highs and Lows

Things I'm not loving about Ukraine right now:
-Learning how much I don't like cats. This time I woke up to cat throw up all over the sink. And poop down the hall. It smelled lovely.
-My host mom's dogs. Now I know why I am not allowed to see them. They weren't locked up when we got home today and our host mom was gone. Kalley opened the door and one of the dogs tried to kill us! Seriously. We hurried and closed the door on it and sat in the dirty hall outside our apartment for almost an hour waiting for her to get home. The whole time, even with our silence, the dogs growled and barked their heads off. We ended up just leaving anyways to go to Institute.
-Walking down the stairs to the metro station and being overcome with the most muggy, smelly feeling of my life. So much for showering. Then you get closer to strangers then you should ever get to anyone. Smashed together with a mix of b.o. (seriously Europe, please hop on the deodorant bandwagon), alcohol, bad breath, and smoke. Not something I've gotten used to. The metro itself is a cultural experience.
-Being in charge of planning trips. When it looks like everything is working out perfectly, something falls through. And being an accountant for 18 girls money on the said trip...scary business.

Things I am loving about Ukraine right now:
-Doing baptisms for the dead in Russian. My first time in a temple in another country! I got to go to the Kyiv temple on Saturday. It was beautiful, wonderful, peaceful, amazing, and perfect. Everything I needed.
-Institute/FHE with the young single adults. Our last young single adult activity we played catch phrase with some Ukrainians that spoke pretty good English. One boy started humming the tune "born on a mountain top in Tenessee..." This conversation proceeded in the intense settings of catch phrase!
Me (yelling with much excitement): Davy Crockett!
Antolly: Yes! I mean no....it's Betty Crocker!
Me: Betty Crocker? Do you know who that is?
Antolly(completely serious): You mean that song ISN'T about Betty Crocker? What?!
Me (now laughing hysterically with everyone else): That song is about Davy Crockett! A mountain man! He killed a bear when he was only 3! Betty Crocker is a brand of cakes mixes and stuff!
Oh the laughs language barriers bring.
-Knowing the Russian alphabet and feeling awesome as I read signs everywhere! Even though I can't understand the words, reading them and practicing the alphabet is like cracking a secret code! It is awesome.
-The Pecherska Lavra, a monastery where mummified monks lay in glass caskets and you walk around with candles to see them. More to come later.
-McDonalds in Ukraine. I finally went and boy was it wonderful. My favorite hot fudge sundaes....they put in cups made of cone! Why do we not do that in America? And it was cheaper. I'm such a sucker for McDonalds, and I'm willing to admit it.
-Babysitting for an American family in my ward who provided me with salad, pizza, and root beer floats(perfect for remembering Clara). And I got to make a surprise phone call home with their international phone.
-BREAD. I'm addicted. I crave it all the time. And it is so cheap here. Our host mom provides it with almost every meal but Kalley and I still find ourselves sparing 20 cents on a loaf at the supermarket just to snack on!
-Being able to find my way around my apartment here in the dark! It feels more like home when you can do that.
-The peace the gospel brings us wherever we way be. The happiness we can choose to have no matter what is going on around us.
-The fact that I am leaving for Poland tomorrow night!

Do'svidaniya! (goodbye in Russian...impressive I know). Talk to you later once I've been all cultured in Krakow, Poland!

Highlights of week 3

Here is what has been going on the past week:

Watching random break dancers downtown. They were actually pretty good. We asked for a picture with them afterwards and as we were leaving they said "peace of you!" I think they meant peace to you or goodbye or something.

I've officially gone to a European soccer game! Ukraine vs. England. It ended up being 1-1, Ukraine scoring in the last two minutes, luckily. It was insane!

Yes, we got jerseys!

Katya had a birthday! She turned 4 and her mom brought cake to share with the class. So delcious.

Brittany's host mom invited some of us girls and her friends over for a sleepover! They dressed us up and wanted me to wear this...

Eating sushi at the sleepover.

They took us to an old football field and surprised us with floating lanterns! Like in tangled!! (Yes Ann Marie, be jealous.) We lit them and watched them float across away in the sky, in UKRAINE! So magical.

The next morning Laria and I woke up early to go clean the church. 2 hours of sleep? Not a good plan. We got to church and found out most of it was cleaned during the week. So all we did was take out the garbage after our hour and a half trek to get there. Luckily our Branch President's family was awesome and dropped us off at Babyn Yar. Babyn Yar is a sight where tens of thousands of Jews were killed in WWII. Many people don't know that Ukraine was hit hard by the Holocaust. This is the memorial sight.

We went downtown to hang out with our new Ukrainian friends, Karina and Lera. They are 15 and speak awesome English and love to show us around and take pictures. Here we are with Spongebob! Random, I know.

It was some fireman day in Ukraine so they had a bunch of fire trucks lined up on the street for pictures! Laria's dad is a firefighter so we had a little too much fun with pictures!

Karina and Lera took us to some random park that was really cool. Here we are in a cat's mouth!

And now in a bunny's! It reminds me of an ugly doll.

Please look at this playground? Mosaic in every piece! It was beautiful and super nice. I think it was based on Alice and Wonderland.

Notice I'm wearing my University of Utah shirt! It was the day of the Utah BYU game. You better believe I was representing the Utes here in Ukraine!

The flower Laria brought me for Clara. Such a sweet friend.

To read Clara's obituary go here

Thanks to everyone for their emails and comments this past week. I love you all so much! I'm so lucky to have such awesome support, even halfway across the world! I'm so grateful to be here. I'm grateful for everything Ukraine is teaching me. I'm grateful for such amazing family and friends back home. I'm grateful for the gospel. I'm grateful for my life. :)