We made some cookies this week and went around our big building we lived in trying to drop off a free calender from the church and some food, but the dialogue went something like this "Who's there?!?" "Hi! We're your new neighbors. We have a free gift and some food to wish you happy holidays" "WHO" "Your neighbors" "GO AWAY/DON'T NEED/SCREW YOU" haha. Yeah, not too much christmas cheer here.
The Christmas program went great! We didn't meet our goal, because a lot of people came down with colds (who could have guessed). However, the good news is that we had several investigators show up and, 7/9 recent converts (in the last year). Of the two that didn'tshow up, one was working and one was in Kiev so we're doing pretty good on the RC/LA front. I practiced and practiced, and in the end people said I did a really, really good job. President Campero and his wife came up from Donetsk to see it, and so it was nice to see them there.
Blessings: Yesterday as we were tracting, a drunk guy came out and started yelling at us. He was furious! His cat ran out of his apartment door and he punched the wall, stared at us, and was like "Stay here" and went inside his house. Instead of running away, we just sat there. He came back out surprised to find us there. He said that all the other missionaries just ran away, and we were the only people to stay. As soon as he found out we weren't Jehovah's Witnesses,. he liked us even more! He really had a change of heart, it was really cool. I honestly thought he was going to come back out with a knife or something. He was sooo mad. Our conversation ended with us laughing together and him inviting us over for new years. Interesting guy. So yeah, I guess it was a blessing that 1) he had a change of heart and 2) he didn't try to kill us :P
This week: This week Jared was baptized! Jean Gerard Leonid (Jared) is a WAY cool guy from Nantes, France. He's studying Dental here in Ukraine. He's the first guy I ever met in Gorlovka, I'm super happy for him. Also this week, we tracted into this way cool guy named Andrei and his mom. They were super friendly, and invited us in. We talked for a while,. and when we left they gave us some homemade raspberry jam. It's super good! We've had a lot of cool tracting experiences.
Random: Ukraine Christmas is on Jan. 7. Soooooo I still get to look forward to another Christmas in a sense, haha.
Scripture of the week: I don't have it on me, but it's about Lot and his wife leaving Sodom. I think it's in Gen 15? The moral of the story is DON'T LOOK BACK! Don't be like Lot's wife and look back at all the regrets of this past year. Look forward! She probably didn't even consider that the grass was greener on the other side. INstead, she longed for what was already there. Go forward into the new year running. Set goals, and strive to keep them! Look forward with positivity and happiness! Happy new year!
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