Man On A Mission!: Week 10: Museum, Knives, Locked Out, & Numbers

Week: So last Monday we went and stopped by the Gorlovka history museum. For being such a small, run down town it was AWESOME! They had so much stuff there! In short, it talked about how it started off and still is a mining town, and how there was a huge revolt here, and how it was occupied by fascists during world war two. They had a ton of memorabilia. I was going to take pictures, but the lady got mad at me. They had one room of "ancient Ukrainian lifestyle", like clothes and stuff from the 1500's. As far as I could concern, almost every single thing I saw in there I've seen in people's apartments today. I felt like I just walked into someone's house. I didn't know that it was part of the museum, haha. Later that day as we were walking, some crazy guy came up to us and got super upset that we were missionaries. He demanded to know why we were getting paid, and when we said that we weren't getting paid a penny to be here, he got even more mad. We started to walk off and he ran to us, grabbed Smith and hit him in the stomach. We kept walking, and he grabbed him again and hit him again. Of course at this point I want to hit the guy in the face, but since I"m a missionary we have to be representatives of Christ, and I can't picture Jesus hitting people in the face. So as he grabs Smith's coat (I towered over this guy, so he was picking on Smith), he pulls out a knife and says he'll kill us if we try to leave again. Some people are walking by, and we ask "Hey, can you help us? This guy is..." But they just put their heads down and walked by. It was getting ridiculous. Even if we did something to this guy, we would probably be thrown in some dank prison. So anyways, Smith has about had it and says, rather loudly "We're here to preach to people the word of God, and you come here and try to kill us? We are representatives of Jesus Christ, and our only purpose for being here is to serve others!" The guy just let go and walked away, and we continued on. I forgot to mention we had a member that was contacting with us, but when he saw the situtation he walked off on his phone. Haha. Ahhh, I love Ukraine. The next day, as we were trying to get into our apartment (it was nighttime), we found the first door to be locked. The apartments here are arranged so that we have to get into the first door, and it opens a little room that leads to our neighbor's door and our door. SO yeah, that door was locked, and we didn't have a key. We called our landlord and well...yeah. Long, long story short he didn't come. He didn't want to help. We ended up having to go all the way across the city to stay thenight at Elder Porter and Moss's place. The door remained locked all through the next day, and finally one of our investigators used his shoe repair tools to help us get into our apartment. So yeah. Although it might not sound that crazy in retrospect, it was. I don't want to go into too many details, but you get the idea.

In other news, our mission is no longer the lowest baptising in the world! Before, it would average .8x-.9x baptism per missionary per year, but this last year it hit 1. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a numbers guy at all, it's just cool to see that the work is progressing.

Oh, Elder Moss and I also came up with a really, really cool rendition of Nearer my God to thee. I'll try to get it onto audio and send him home somehow. It's super cool.

Random: "Cossack" means "first" or Freeman. Pretty cool. Courtesy of the Gorlovka Museum ;)

Scripture: This week I thought I'd share one of the lyrics to my second favorite hymn, lead kindly light. I think it speaks for itself.

Lead Kindly Light

Lead, kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom, lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home; lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path; but now lead Thou me on!
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years!

So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still will lead me on.
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till the night is gone,
And with the morn those angel faces smile, which I
Have loved long since, and lost awhile!

Meantime, along the narrow rugged path, Thyself hast trod,
Lead, Savior, lead me home in childlike faith, home to my God.
To rest forever after earthly strife
In the calm light of everlasting life.

I love you all! I hope you have a fantastic week! Thanks for the constant support!

With Love,

Kyle