This week has been insane: some
really sad news, crazy miracles, and interesting and fun experiences.
First the really sad news: So Russia is shutting down the FamilySearch in all of Russia.
We have to destroy any FamilySearch computer, and any pamphlet or book or
anything that has the logo on it. We also have to destroy and shred a lot of
other Liahonas and books and other pamphlets and so fourth. They really want to
make sure we don't have anything to hand out to people. The government making
FamilySearch unaccessible is more hard on the members than on us; they now will
have no way to do genealogy work for the temple, and it will take away one of
their inspiring desires to go to the temple, which is already a very
challenging task for them. Nevertheless, it is amazing to see that whatever the
adversary may do and whatever forces and power it has, it will never stop the
work of the Lord. His work will always press forward and He will never abandon
these saints in Russia.
SPLITS: I went on splits these week 2 diferent days in 2 different
areas. So one of the zone leaders and I went to mid-center town and brought
groceries to this poor old woman (who is not all the way there). She lives in a
little tiny bungalow or hut that is like handmade and probably a century old.
It's the size of a small room and has one moldy toilet with and stove on top
and a small moldy fridge. Her house is the most disgusting place I have ever
seen; the place is practically rotting, and the stench was so bad it smelt like
the was a farm herd of dead cows in there. This woman had a ton of cats and
kittens running around. She also had a stroke awhile ago and is physically not
able to get out of her house, so she spends her whole life in there which is
just heartbreaking. When we took out her trash we noticed there was a tail
sticking out. Under her diapers there was a DEAD CAT that has been
in her trash bag for over a week!
We went to another bungalow, where
this older gentleman has 16 cats. He has one light dwindling lightbulb and no
source of heat besides his oven that is heated by firewood. His house is
freezing cold, so he crouches down next to the oven for heat. He wants to get
baptized but won't commit to paying tithing because he barely has enough to
survive as it is. It is really sad to see.
Fun stuff: We played football (soccer) Saturday morning with some members and
a bunch of random kids kept showing up and playing with us. It was just awesome
to realize that I was in Russia in the mist and cold, playing in the mud in a
sketchy park surrounded by the tall gray buildings.
We also went to a RUSSIAN BALLET
which was actually way cool! It was a classic one and it was amazing! Another
thing I found which was sooo weird, is that when Russians applaud they all clap
on the same beat, the whole audience! Which sounded so weird cause they have no
way of expressing how enthusiastic they are, it's just one rhythm and
expression. Their culture is super interesting and like complete opposites of
the US.
Here is a crazy story, kind of long
though, but the details are important:
Soooo last Friday on the way home
from game night in Center I was having a quiet conversation with Sweeney about
what we can do to help our investigators as we were speaking in English/Russian
and there was this young woman who came in the marshrootka later and was
sitting right across from me. Elder Sweeney and I were sitting by the driver
and the marshrootka was really full so a lot of people couldn't reach to him,
so they would hand me the money and I would hand it the driver. Anyways, she kept
looking at us, so when I was finally about to say something it was her stop.
Then instead of her just handing the money to the driver, which would have been
just as easy for because of where she was, she handed it to me and told me in
English to please pass it up to the driver. I got so excited and tried to say a
few things back, and when the driver handed back the money to me to give to her
I dropped all the change. In a hurry I tried to pick it up for her and was only
able to give her some of it before she had to run off. So I got the change and
put in my bag hoping I would see her again. I knew right away that I messed up
and God gave me a person to talk to that I didn't even try talking to until it
was too late and I knew I messed up, so I prayed all week that if God would
give me a second chance I would take the opportunity. And what do you know? Exactly
a week later, not even in our part of town, in the huge city of Rostov, out of
ALL the marshrootkas and buses we get into a marshrootka after a rather dissapointing
day to go to our apartment and I'm standing there and I notice that the same
girl with 2 friends is sitting right behind Elder Sweeney in the back! I
couldn't believe my eyes I had to examine that it was her because it was so
unreal. I got my way to the end of the Marshrootka and as soon as I opened my
mouth she laughed and said that she was the same person, and I handed her her
change that I had ready to give that whole week, which she and her friends were
so surprised that I held it for her thinking I would see her again, and it got
us on to a good start and we all had a great conversation. If anything else
comes out of that or not, It is just awesome to see first hand how the Lord
really does answer prayers and how even if you mess up the Lord is patient with
us and gives us many chances. We just have to seek for them.
Elder VanBuskirk
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