Happy December

Bob here: Here is a summary of the latest news. Last week KLynn was called and set apart by our Area President as a service missionary for the duration of her stay in Moscow. Her assignment is to serve as an ambassador for the Church to the diplomatic community. This assignment will be a great help to KLynn and give her direction. She was recently released as Relief Society President to allow more time for her work with the International Women's Club, which has been pretty demanding. She is doing a lot of good. The same day KLynn was set apart we left for Hanover Germany to spend the weekend with our son Rick, his wife Vanessa, and their three children. They and Germany are a breath of fresh air, and Rick and Vanessa were gracious hosts. We spent much of the time at the Christmas markets in Hanover and Celle, which were beautiful. Their five year old daughter, Chrissie, is picking up a little German. Her vocabulary and grammar are limited, but her pronunciation is native quality. On Thursday afternoon I flew to Kyiv to give a presentation Friday morning on the American judicial system for a group of law students and young lawyers as part of the Ukrainian Law Week celebration. It was fun to play teacher for a day, and a lot of the students wanted their pictures taken with me afterward. It's the closest I'm ever likely to come to achieving rock star status. They also gave me an exceptionally cool-looking plaque to hang on the wall. I'm not sure what it says, but I'm sure it's something nice. I can make out my name, sort of, written in Cyrillic, and I recognize the Ukrainian national emblem at the top, but the rest of it is pretty much unintelligible. I'm continually behind at work, but hopefully I can get caught up a little over the New Year holiday. KLynn and I have tickets for the "Old Circus" this evening. I hope we can get there. We hear political demonstrations are expected downtown, and who knows what that will do to traffic and metro. Americans have been advised to avoid the downtown area. Merry Christmas to All!