Well this week has been an interesting one. Finally, Elder Jewkes and I are starting to see the fruits of our labors here in Smolensk. It is great that we are starting to see some success from our six hour contacting marathons on the street. We have been having a good time, and I really enjoy serving with Elder Jewkes. He's a great guy and we have had some crazy experiences together that give us something to laugh about. Also, on a slightly crazy note, Elder Jewkes knows Breyden Burley, since one of Breyden's first areas was his home town. One day he was telling us a story about how this volleyball playing missionary from Vegas drilled him in the face while playing volleyball. Out of curiosity I asked him what the Elder's name was and he told me Elder Burley. It sure is a small Mormon world.
So here is some of the interesting experiences we have ran into this week, in chronological order. Last Saturday, we handed out a Book of Mormon to a vaguely drunk guy who gave us his number. Then on Sunday we called him to see if he wanted to meet. When Elder Jewkes called he asked for Vladimir but the man who answered told us his name was Ivan. Elder Jewkes was very confused. After not much talking Ivan invited us over to his house because he needed some help learning English. It turns out that this guy is a missionary for a different church who needed help practicing English in order to serve a mission in Africa and just moved to Smolensk! The drunk guy on the street gave us the wrong number and it turned out that the number he gave was a person who actually needed our help. Right now he isn't very interested in the gospel but I don't believe that things like that happen by accident.
Then on Wednesday after English Club we had another slightly shocking experience. For awhile this 20 year old guy named Dima has been coming to English Club. Elder Jewkes and I met him on the street but we wrote down the wrong number (do you see a common theme?) so Dima just came to English Club on his own. The guy reminds me of the kid from the movie October Skies and always tells me about his ideas for rocketry and lasers. On Wednesday we talked about travelling to different countries in English Club. Elder Jewkes and I had planned to talk to Dima about the gospel but he left too quickly. However, he returned about five minutes later because he thought he had forgot his camera and out of nowhere asked us what he needs to do to become a missionary for our church! Of course he doesn't understand exactly what that means to be a missionary (I think part of his motivation is he wants to go to Australia) but that is a desire that we are going to work with.
Finally, on Friday night we had some interesting door tracting experiences. Usually tracting involves sitting outside of an apartment complex calling on the intercom system until somebody lets us in and then knocking on a few doors until somebody throws us out or calls the cops. I love tracting. I always say that the miracles happen while tracting. Elder Jewkes and I had been tracting for almost an hour and having no success. We had just called all the apartments on an intercom system and had started to go the next apartment building when we heard somebody behind us yell: "Hey boys come back here!" One of the men we had called on the intercom had decided to come out and talk to us personally because he couldn't understand us on the intercom. We ended up giving him a Book of Mormon and getting his contact. The next apartment hallway ended with us getting kicked out and as we were walking out the lady was yelling at us out of her window! She was not very happy. I don't like to get dissuaded by stuff like that, so I went to the next apartment staircase and starting calling people while Elder Jewkes tried to calm down this rather unpleasant lady. The second lady I called let us in. Right as we enter the stairwell I hear her yell down 8 stories: "WHO ARE YOU! WHAT DO YOU WANT!" I was sure we were going to get kicked out again. I yelled back up 8 stories: "WE ARE MISSIONARIES WITH THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS, WE HAVE A MESSAGE FOR YOU ABOUT GOD AND HIS RESTORED CHURCH." Down comes the reply: "I CAN'T UNDERSTAND A SINGLE WORD YOU ARE SAYING!" A little frustrated I yell back: "WAIT RIGHT THERE! WE WILL COME UP TO YOU." Elder Jewkes and I sprinted up 8 flights of stairs and arrived at the top, winded but ready to talk to this lady. We tell her a little about ourselves and we offer her a Book of Mormon. She says: "I don't think that this is a good idea, my daughter works in the cathedral so she won't like if I read this..." I thought we had lost the conversation. Suddenly, this ladies face twists up into a mask of firm resolve and she says: "But I'll hide it! I want to read this book!" and she stuffs the Book of Mormon up her shirt (at this point I kind of didn't want the book back)! So she gave us her number, and we called her to come to church yesterday. Unfortunately she had to work but she told us that she told her family about us and now they are all interested to meet! I'm hoping things work out!
And really that is pretty much all I've got for this week. We have been meeting with a lot of our street contacts and a few of them seem like they can become really solid investigators. I think right now has been the most productive and successful I have been on my mission. Also, Vladimir told us that he is finally going to get all the paperwork done and get legally married to his wife, which means he'll be able to be baptized shortly! I am pretty excited for that to happen (and a little scared, because we have no baptismal font, which means we will baptize him in the iced over river!)
Oh, and President Woolley called yesterday. Elder Jewkes is going to be the new Smolensk branch president when Elder Melling leaves next month. I'm not quite sure how he feels about that....
Well live long and prosper my friends.
As Always,
Elder Zachery Brasier
Moscow Time
No comments:
Post a Comment