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KYIV, UKRAINE
Mention the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ukraine and the names of Howard L. and Colleen Biddulph will pop up in the conversation.
As they attended the last day of the Kyiv Ukraine Temple's open house Saturday, Aug. 21, they were greeted at every turn by members who rushed over to shake their hands or embrace them. Women wept as they greeted their "dear Sister Biddulph," who is legally blind and in a wheelchair, the result of a stroke seven years ago.
Just as many members feel it is a miracle that a temple now stands on Ukrainian soil in what once was part of the Soviet Union, the Biddulphs feel it is a miracle that they have been able to return to the country that has become a second home.
"Colleen's doctors and others did not feel there was any possibility she could make the trip here," Brother Biddulph said. With the aid of his sister, Marilyn Bradshaw, and her husband, Jerald, they made it to Kyiv.
Brother Biddulph was president of the Austria Vienna East Mission, which included Ukraine. He and Sister Biddulph served there from 1991-1994 and were present when then-Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve dedicated Ukraine for the preaching of the gospel in September 1991.
Brother Biddulph's ties with Ukraine began nearly 50 years ago when he came in 1961 as a student. He spent most of six months in Russia but felt drawn to what was then called Kiev.
"I sat one day in a park in front of Taras Shevchenko University and had the wonderful feeling that the gospel would come to the Soviet Union. I was anxious, wishing and hoping for that day to come. Thirty years later, when we came to establish the Ukraine Kiev Mission (in February 1992), my office was located about 30 yards from where I had sat in that park."
After their mission, they returned to Ukraine many times, mostly through his role as a BYU professor leading study abroad programs.
"We were able to come here to the site before anything was done on it, when it was just a field. We tried to imagine what this temple would look like," Brother Biddulph said.
"It is so wonderful to come back for the temple open house and the dedication, to see the members get the blessings of a temple in their land, and in our lifetime," Brother Biddulph said. "Not many missionaries get to live to see the fruit of their labors. It is hard to imagine that within 20 years of the missionaries first arriving, there is now a temple here."
Brother and Sister Biddulph have been in Ukraine for most of August; they visited the temple when tours opened to the public on Aug. 7. On Aug. 21, they returned for one final visit before the temple's doors closed to the public.
Both visits were packed with emotion. On the last visit, Sister Biddulph reached out for her husband's hand as they entered the celestial room. "I can see it!" she whispered. "It is so beautiful."
Even with failed eyesight — or perhaps through spiritual insight — she gazed at the chandelier and the furniture in the celestial room, pronouncing the scene as heavenly.
As they entered one of the sealing rooms, she noted the beautiful colors streaming through stained glass windows. She exclaimed over the beauty of the baptismal font. As they moved from room to room, Brother and Sister Biddulph wept together, rejoicing over what they called "the tender mercies of the Lord," feeling blessed to see a temple standing firmly on Ukrainian soil.
