5 years ago, I was living in Voronezh, Russia. I was about in the middle of my two-year mission for the LDS church. Because we did not use the internet, watch tv or read the newspaper, everything that we ever heard came from word of mouth.
My companion at the time was Elder Jackson from Arizona. He was also our district leader. At about 6:00 pm (Voronezh time) we went to a small indoor pool to meet with the owner to see if we could rent it for a baptism. We met a branch member (Anna Tichinina) there because she knew the person that we needed to talk to. While Elder Jackson and Anna were renting the banya (pool), there was a tv on with the sound turned down. The television kept showing pictures of the burning World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the White House. I had no reason to think that it was anything but a made for TV movie. I wasn't paying the closest attention to the TV because I was studying some Russian words that I was trying to learn for the day.
Once the banya was rented we went with Anna to her family's house for family home evening and dinner. I don't remember anything unusual about our visit that night. When we returned to our apartment that evening and were preparing ourselves for bed, the AP's (Assisstant's to the President) called and told us that there had been terrorist attacks in the United States. We were told only the most basic details and that anywhere from 10-50,000 people had perished.
It was quite some time before we knew that the number killed was actually quite smaller than that. What a relief. That night, Elder Jackson and I prayed, cried and prayed some more. We prayed for our families, humanity and the families affected by the tragedy. It was one of the very few nights that I was not in bed by 10:30 (as I was supposed to be). We stayed up late talking to each other and writing in our journals.
The next couple days we were not allowed to proselyte and for more than a month after that we were not allowed to wear our nametags for fear of retribution and anti-Americanism. We did not notice any specific threats or problems because of the attacks.
I still pray for the families and for humanity. I wish there was a way for us all to learn to get along and live peacefully in this beautiful world.
1 comment:
Funny, I wrote about being on my mission during 9/11 on my blog too. And about being in NYC for the 5th anniversary. You should check it out: jennandben.blogspot.com. By the way, we put a link to your blog on ours--hope you don't mind. You can link ours if you like. We're going to update it fairly often (we hope). Best, Ben
Post a Comment