Week 18: Leaks, Rugs, & Sauna Hats!

This week. Well, it's been a long one. A looong one. It started off with our ceiling leaking. Yeah. So last tuesday we were sitting in our living room doing studies, and I hear rain drops coming from the kitchen. I go in and look up, and lo and behold water is dripping out. As I"m watching it, the water spreads in a line, and more starts coming down. We pulled out every pot, pan, and dish we had to try and catch the water. The worst part is the the water dripping down was a nasty yellow color. Once we did all we could, we called our landlord, and went back to resume studies. All we needed was good food and the sound of birds chirping and our apartment would have been like Rainforest Cafe.

This week during our district meeting we took some pictures to give to the branch president. You'll find them attached in a separate email.

Oh! One of the highlights of this week was beating our rug. I don't know if you've seen in pictures, but outside all of the Dome's (apartment buildlings) are big metal things either used for gymnastics, or beating rugs. Ours was looking pretty dirty, so we took it outside, hung it up, and beat the crap out of it. I have a video of it that I wish I could send, but all you really see is me hitting it and the camera gets blurred because of how much dirt is coming out of it. 

Another funny part of this week has to do with some sauna hats we bought. Long story short, an investigator showed us theirs, and we really wanted to buy some for ourselves. These hats are used when they go into sauna's to protect their hair. Groot bought one that said king, and I bought one with a Ukrainian guy giving a thumbs up that says "Kym". (Godfather).  Good stuff. Needless to say, I enjoy wearing it around the apartment sporadically. 

This week as I study the life of Christ, I have started the Beatitudes. Right after Christ promises all of the blessings, he turns and says " You are the salt of the earth". It is interesting to note that salt can only be used if it is purified. When I went into the salt mines, we were surrounded my salt on all sides. BUT! The only salt that they would use is the clear, clean, pure salt. I picked some up off the ground, and was able to get some pure salt while I was there and it is interesting to see the difference. The pure salt is clear, and seethrough. The other salt, unfit to be used, is white, and although it still tastes like salt is not like the clear salt. How do you define the taste of salt? I can't think of how to do it other than "salty". It's unique, just like we're unique. It needs to be pure, just like we need to be. As our souls get cleaner through the atonement of Jesus Christ, we become fit to be used by  him to do his will, just like the salt becomes fit to be used. Salt is used as a preservative, something that helps save something. I know that we have the power and ability to help save other people. Maybe not in a physical sense, but I know that every single person has at least one person in the world that looks up to them. It is our responsibility to be the "pure salt" that Christ asked us to be so He can use us to help preserve and purify other people.

I don't know if that really makes sense, but it's a cool analogy if you can decipher what I"m saying, haha.

Love you all! Hope you have a great week! Shoutout to Oscar, James, and Sebastian. I've been thinking about my brothers from different mothers! But yeah. I hope you all have an awesome week. Make sure to make the most of it! Make a difference!

Regards,

Kyle

Pictures from Zone Leaders Conference!

Pictures taken throughout the past week!

"Beating the rug"

"As you can tell, my smolder has been failing miserably"

"Late night pizza while waiting for transfer calls. Thizzzzzzin" 

"As you can tell, I feel cool wearing that hat" 

"Godfather" and "King"

"Yes, I had blast with the mopping!"

"Our stuff in the kitchen trying to catch the water"

"We used every dish on the drying rack to catch water as it rained in our apartment. We even had more than that drying on the counter!"

"This road sums up why it is IMPOSSIBLE to have clean shoes in Gorlovka. No matter how hard you try!"

"Every missionary needs a railroad picture"

"Ira Gordeeva, Jean Gerard, Myself, and Sergei Agarkov (coolest Branch President on this side of the Hemisphere!)"

"Danil is a recent convert who is one of the coolest cats around. I love this kid"

"This is my favorite little girl (Katya) in Ukraine! She's like a little sister to me!"

"Elder Moss and I as we do our "Dazed and Confused" faces while composing a song. Ha"

"Our District! Top: Elder Moss, Elder Lubeck, Elder Groothuyzen  Bottom: Elder Nuzman, Elder Packard, and myself."

"Just outside of the Kvartal where I'm at"

"There's always light at the end of the tunnel!"

"An old abandoned night club from the 50s or 60s that has some cool graffiti on it"