1 Thessalonians 5:8-9 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
I wish we'd had a breastplate and helmet on today. We needed it at one house. It was like having Satan himself opening the door.
We drove out to this home we'd been asked to visit since the first week we were in England. The first address we checked back in February and the people living there said the residents we were looking for had been asked to move because the man was abusive. We felt concerned for the wife, since she is the most likely abuse target. No one knew where they had moved to, so we couldn't do anything more about it.
Fast forward to today. We previously had obtained a new address for this couple and had tried to catch them at home, but they never answered the door even though it looked like someone was home. We had no previous luck calling either. Today, I tried the number again and this man answered and said it was a wrong number and hung up on me when I identified myself. So, we drove out to the home again. We could see someone was there. Elder Blain knocked on the door, we listened to the Jack Russell yapping his head off (there was a "Beware of the Jack Russell" sign on the door); it turns out it wasn't the dog to beware of. Elder Blain knocked harder on the door--still no answer. I walked back to the car and wrote a nice note and shoved it through the mail slot. The note asked them to contact us and let us know if they wanted any contact from the Church.
I started walking away from the door and the door flies open and this huge man with wild black hair and a face screwed up in rage is standing there ripping up the note, which he throws to the ground as he yells at us at the top of his lungs while he gestures threateningly, "Go away you bl---y (bad English swear word) strangers!" He is a rabid devil on a rampage--scary monster! We are both standing there with our mouths open not believing this guy is real. He slams the door and about shakes his house down. I say, "Well, there's our answer--no visits." The door flies open again and he is STILL so angry I think he could kill if he had a weapon. He says he is going to call the police if we don't f----in' (universal swear word) leave (well, what does he think we were doing as we were walking directly to the car since our first encounter with him?)!! He rants on with more threats and bad language and slams the door again.
People in the neighborhood can hear this maniac well by now with the scene he is creating. He probably won't last long there either. Crazy person. As we drive away, it is apparent he has run upstairs and yanked his curtains aside so we can see him yelling through the closed window and flipping us off. I will have nightmares over that face, I'm afraid. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a face so full of hate like that before and we couldn't help but have concern for the poor woman who is married to him. I hope he didn't beat her after we left. She already has health problems that probably were caused by him. It was such an unbelievable show of pent up violence that we were stunned enough to not react as we just sorta walked back in a fog completely detached and stared at all of it playing out. It was like watching a bad movie and I'm sure our faces were neutral. We said nothing to him. Maybe that fueled his fire.
A few minutes down the road, I had a flashback to my childhood and then the emotional part hit and it turned into trauma. To think that evil man had an effect on me made me feel weak and vulnerable. I didn't want to give that to him, but it just happened. I ask myself, after all these years, how something so ridiculous as some stranger screaming at us can upset me? My head was reeling as memories of scary episodes from long ago flooded my mind. Then, I realized it was more than that. The emotions also had to do with feeling helpless to protect anyone in that household he may be harming. Lastly, seeing that level of hostility brought to my mind's eye a glimpse of what it may have been like for Jesus Christ, the early and latter-day Christian saints throughout all history, and Joseph Smith when men just like that in mobs looked into their face before they did their evil.
Several hours later, we pulled up to another home and could see Little Miss Sunshine Angel standing in the doorway waiting for us to join her for "tea." This remarkable woman we joined for dinner will celebrate being a member of the Church for one year in October. She is a lover of people and animals and is one of the angels on earth that some people are fortunate enough to meet at least once in a lifetime. She goes about freely serving and loving her neighbors--which means she is there for people in whatever way that will cheer them up, help them along their way in life, encourage them, comfort them, keep them going, and let them know they matter. Her face shines with good will and radiates the love of the Savior. She glows with the Spirit. Our bruised souls were healed as we enjoyed a lovely meal in the company of this beautiful woman so full of light and faith. Yes, the Lord does care about His missionaries and is always watching over us.
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