kinghorn's called to serve: Open House for Kalininsky Building

Just a few of the Happy Faces we saw at the Open House today.

This is a group of guest watching the Puppet Show

Elder Fedotov (our Puppeteer) and some of his fans
You could tell these little guys adore Elder Fedotov

Elders Beus, Dorman and Gwynn

The missionaries made this box and some cards for people to fill out if they would like to learn more about the church. They also had a sheet for people to sign if they would like a free DVD that the missionaries would bring to their home.

These two displays were in the Young Women Room which is where the Young Women ages 12-18 meet for Sunday lessons.

This display was in the Young Men's Room which is where the Young Men Meet for their Sunday lesson

I think this was in the Primary Room

This was the display in the Priesthood room where the Men meet for Sunday lessons

This was the display that was in the Relief Society Room where the Women meet for Sunday lessons (The women from many of the Branch's brought handmade items to display on this table and there was another table of photo albums that were from several years ago)

Lilia and Deema

(They attended our Strengthening Marriage Class, aren't they cute!!)

Tanya, Nastia, and Olga

Tatiana, Laressa, and Natalia

Ludmilla and Annya in the Primary Room where the Children have Sunday lessons

Deema and Sister Cechov

Today was a huge success. They estimated about 200 people toured the building. The members of the Branch really did such a wonderful job. When people arrived they were escorted to the area where we had a Humanitarian Display and the Puppet Show. We welcomed them and then gave a brief summary of the Humanitarian Program. Then they watched a short Puppet Show and then went on with the tour of the building. They had members of the church assigned to be tour guides and the people left our area as a group and stayed in the group as they toured each classroom. The last room they toured was the room with the Baptismal Font. This is the room where the missionaries had their display.They had some Church literature and DVD's. They had a two beautiful posters with pictures of recent baptisms. When they finished the tour they went to a room where we served some excellent food and then were entertained in the Chapel with some live violin music and piano music by members of the Church.There were two missionaries in each room along with a member who told the groups about their organizations. The missionaries, tour guides and guides in the classrooms said that they had so many people ask some wonderful questions about the church. It was a fantastic day and we were so happy to have seen the building full throughout the day. It was a successful day because so many of the members worked very hard before and after the event. We had a wonderful group of ladies who worked in the kitchen all day keeping the food on the tables and cleaning up the refreshment room. The Missionaries came over a day or two before the event to clean the building and the grounds. What a great experience for all of us to work hard to put this event together and then see it be such a success.

THE VIP NIGHT FOR THE OPEN HOUSE WAS WONDERFUL. WE HAD 22 VIP's which included the Minister of Religion, 2 Priest from the Greek Orthodox Church, a Government Official, A Reporter, Heads of Departments of some of the Hospitals we have worked with, The Director of an Orphanage, the Director of an Aid's program, three representatives from the International Relief Development, a Representative from the Public Library, 2 Representatives from the Largest Humanitarian Organization in Ukraine, and many others that I did not know. The Branch members each set up their classrooms with displays representing their organization such as, the Young Women's Program, They Young Men's Program, Relief Society, The Priesthood, and the Institute Program for Young Adults as well as the Family History Library. They did such a wonderful job with their displays. I will post more later. We are off again to the Open House for the Public.