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SOUTH JORDAN — We've seen a lot more blue and yellow in Utah lately. And a lot more attention to a country many people admit they couldn't find on a map just last year.
Julie Christopher sure knows where Ukraine is.
"Never thought it would be this," she said. "It's very personal to us now."
That's because Ukraine is where her son, Parker Christopher, was serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"He just was so excited when he finally got to go and was in Kharkiv, actually," she said.
Some of the deadliest fighting has been in Kharkiv.
It's also where her son made a lot of friends before the Russian invasion and before he was evacuated.
"I was sad for him because he wanted so badly to stay," said Christopher. "Some of his companions became soldiers almost overnight."
However, his mission wasn't over. He wasn't being sent back home to South Jordan.
Instead, Parker Christopher was reassigned to Germany, then Austria.
Since he can speak Russian and Ukrainian, he is now helping Ukrainians who are fleeing from war.
"When he said these refugee women and children were coming up and that he was going to serve them, and help with translating for those who needed it, it was just miraculous for us. It really was," said Julie Christopher.
Ever since, Christopher and her daughters have been to rallies for Ukraine in Salt Lake with a full-size cutout of her son.
"It was actually my daughter's idea. She said Parker would want to be here. She said, 'Let's take him,'" said Christopher.
It's not the mission any of them expected.
But it is service, at a time when many people wish more could be done.
"I'm very proud of him," she said. "I'm very, very proud of him."
