Anchoring Odessa with faithful families
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ODESSA, Ukraine — This seaport/resort city on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine has its pioneers. Among them are three men who joined the Church in 1993 and have remained a firm part of its foundation here.
Oleg Chernikov, Vadim Goncharov and Alexander Trusov are raising families in the Church as it has grown into the six-branch Odessa Ukraine Tsentralny District.
Ukraine has nearly 9,000 members in two missions and will soon have its first stake. It was announced in 1998 that a temple would be built in the nation's capital, Kiev (also spelled Kyiv).
While Kiev, in northern Ukraine, is the nation's capital and largest city, Odessa anchors the south with a population of a million.
Odessa's dominant features are a major seaport and Black Sea beaches developed into resorts. Ships sail to Turkey, the Mediterranean and beyond. Locals and tourists flock to the beaches during the hot summer months.
On a bluff overlooking the sea is the major part of the city itself. It reflects everything from classical Europe to the Soviet era to modern times. Many buildings are a century old or older.
A short way down a building-lined street from the classical Odessa Opera House is the impressive, three-story meetinghouse for the Odessa Tsentralny Branch.
It was there that Brother Goncharov, shortly after baptizing his 8-year-old daughter, Ksenya, on a Saturday afternoon in April, talked to the Church News about his conversion. It was also on that day and in that building that Brother Trusov related his conversion story. Following sacrament meeting the next day, Brother Chernikov told his conversion story. All were among the first to join the Church in Odessa.
As Brother Chernikov rushed to work one day in 1993, a pair of missionaries caught up with him. He remembers they asked him, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ?" He noticed they were carrying a book called the Book of Mormon. He asked if he could buy it. The missionaries said no, but that they would give it to him.
From there, he invited the missionaries to his home for the customary several discussions and was baptized with his wife, Natalia, in the Black Sea on June 6, 1993.
The first time they went to sacrament meeting, they were surprised that there were only six people there — themselves and four missionaries. He was told that he was the first person baptized in Odessa.
In November he was called to be branch president, and continued after the Odessa branch was split in January. He has served in many callings since, and is currently a counselor in the Odessa Tsentralny Branch presidency.
He said one of the strongest testimony-building experiences of his life came when he and his wife had the opportunity to go the Freiberg Germany Temple in 1995. His wife was nearing the delivery date for their first child, and there was some question of the wisdom of her making the trip. At the same time, the next opportunity to make the long trip to the temple for endowments and sealing might be a long way off because they would have a little baby.
Brother Chernikov said he fasted and prayed over the decision and felt inspired to go ahead and take his wife to Freiberg. It turned out that their daughter, Elizabeth, was born in Freiberg the day after Brother Chernikov and his wife were endowed and sealed. Thus, there was much joy in the family as Elizabeth was born in the covenant. Brother Chernikov said the direction of the Spirit of the Lord was a great boost to his testimony.
Brother Goncharov said his life was in turmoil when, as a taxi driver, he picked up a couple of young men in white shirts and ties. At the time, he was separated from his wife, Lydmila, and young daughter. The young men were wearing name tags, he recalled, but the writing was in English and the only word he recognized was "Church." He asked them who they were and they responded. From what they told him, he thought they might have the answers to bring his family back together again.
He talked to his wife and she agreed to get together with him and listen to the missionaries. On Sept. 27, 1993, they were baptized along with their daughter, Marina.
"Right now, if I continued to tell you the blessings we have received, we would be here all day," he said.
He related that the missionaries asked him to pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He said, "I thought, 'These boys wouldn't lie.' I didn't have to ask God."
But about a month after his baptism, he remembered the challenge and did pray. "Angels didn't come down from heaven," he said. "I didn't hear voices. But when I saw my wife and oldest daughter, I felt extreme love. I couldn't live without them. That was the answer to my prayer. I knew the Church was true because of the love I felt."
In 1995, he, his wife and Marina were sealed in the Freiberg Germany Temple.
Since then, he said the Church in Odessa and his family have been similar — they have grown. Since joining the Church, he and his wife have had two more daughters including their youngest, Alecia.
Shortly after joining the Church, Brother Goncharov was called to be branch president and has served in many callings since. His family is now in the Illichivsky Branch outside Odessa.
Brother Trusov, currently the president of the Illichivsky Branch, said he feels it was a fortuitous occurrence that he met the missionaries in 1993. He, his wife, Olga, daughter, Irina, and son, Nicolay, had just gotten off a train after an outing to their summer home outside the city. He said they had had a wonderful time and he and his wife had been talking about their perfect world, the love they had for each other and their happy children. They were dreaming about always living in such a miracle world, he said.
The only other people he remembers being on the Odessa street at that time were two missionaries, assistants to the mission president, who had just gone out to the street for a few minutes while the president took care of some business.
"The missionaries asked us if we felt the love of God," he said. "We realized this was God hearing our dreams and giving us this miracle world, His Kingdom on earth." He said their family has always been grateful that they came together with those missionaries at that moment.
"Our children have grown up in the Church and have really lived in this miracle world," Sister Trusova said.
The family was baptized on Nov. 28, 1993, and were sealed in the Freiberg Germany Temple in 1995.
Brother Trusov said that after the sealing, Irina often said she wished they could go back to the temple someday. It happened in 2000 when the family returned together to Freiberg where Irina received her endowment prior to her temple marriage and Nicolay received his endowment before serving a mission in England.
E-mail to: ghill@desnews.com
