I just read Kissing Kelli, by Kathy Carmichael, which was pretty much wasteful. I read it on my Kindle, and mostly just because it sounded fun and it was good on breaks of housecleaning. It's about a female vet, from a royal wealthy family who ends up falling for a wealthy cowboy from Texas. It's fun, but not wonderful.
I just read a wonderful book called The Silence of God by Gale Sears. It is a historical novel about Russia. I had not realized the depth of the rough religious history of Russia. The book covers the time period from 988 A.D. when Prince Vladimir introduces Christianity into Russia, through the Orthodox Christian churches who kept the light of faith alive - but mostly focuses on 1905 - 1918 explaining the Bolshevik group that threw out the Tsar (royal family) and who also wanted Russia to be cummunial or all equal. They were going to force the Russian people to be good, and to love their brother and to share everything. Communism wasn't as wonderful as the Bolsheviks had told everyone. One thing they did was to shut God out. They said they didn't need a God, they could make their own life on earth better and equal to all.
The book tells all this from a family's viewpoint, the Lindlofs, who were a real family living then, but the author has added fiction to their family story. The children were taken to a work camp.
In 1988, Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev broke with Soviet ideology and its traditional stand against religious worship and allowed the Russian people to have a religious celebration honoring one thousand years of Christianity. In April 199, Elder Russell M. Nelson offered a prayer of rededication in the Summer Gardens in St. Petersburg. In July 1990, the Helsinki East Mission was responsible for sending missionaries into Russia. In February 1992, this mission became the Russia Moscow Mission. At the same time, the Russia St. Petersburg Mission was formed. In 1998, an LDS temple was announced and is currently under construction in Kiev, Ukdraine. The temple site is only six miles from the place where, in 1996 AD, Prince Vladimir erected the Church of the Tithes. What miracles!
