Under Lock and Key

At each Zone Conference Sister Podvodova asks the misionaries to tell of a miracle that happened to them during the past transfer (a 6 week period). Well, on Saturday we saw the one that the sisters in our district will surely tell about (for a long time to come). It concerns a lock and a key. Let me tell you about it.

On Friday afternoon we got a call from Sister Barlow (a cute blond from California) and Sister Voutekovich (a beauty from the far eastern side of Russia). They wanted to know if we had some pliers and how soon we would be coming over to the institute building. They were there to teach an investigator and their key had broken off in the lock. They said there was a tiny piece still sticking out but they couldn't get hold of it. We went over with pliers and a screwdriver thinking it was going to be an easy fix. Not so. First, you have to understand that this is a very formidable 10 foot tall, steel door with two locks. It is not an outside door but opens off a rather dark hallway where there are stairs going up to the other floors. No windows could be reached without a ladder even if we wanted to break in.

This is a picture of the institute building. There are two very distinct styles of buildings in the downtown area -- those built before the revolution mostly in the Baroque or neo-classical styles,

and those built in the Stalin or 'Commie' era, which are drab, plain and austere. This is one of the latter styles but quite a nice looking one. Our Institute is through the arched doorway and on the first floor.

We tried the pliers and the piece of key barely sticking out promptly crumbled. The sisters said their key just 'crumbled' when they went to turn it. They didn't force it. We worked at it for some time with no progress. The next step was to call Sister Efimova who works for the church and is in charge of all the real estate rentals. She happened to be in the area and was there in just a few minutes. She had some tools and tried the whole process again. Finally she called the landlord of the building. He was not happy and there was much loud conversation over who was responsible to pay the 'master' that he would have to get to come over. She said it was his fault for giving us bad keys. He, of course, said it was our fault and the church would have to pay. There does not seem to be locksmiths that you could get to come drill it out. No, he would have to call the maker of the lock. He called back after a few minutes and said he could not get hold of the 'master' and didn't know when he would be able to get him over there. We would just have to wait for his call. (Whatever did we do before cell phones???) So we left a note on the door for anyone who might come and went home.

The next day, Saturday, was our P Day and Lou and I went on an excursion to yet another cathedral and cemeteries of St. Petersburg notables.

These are the tombstones of Dostoyevsky and Tchaikovsky that we saw that day. Tchaikovsky's has his face sculptured on it and angels watching over him.

We had walked a long way and were beat when we got home. We had just gotten in the door of our apartment when we got another call from the Sisters. They wanted us to come over to the institute right then because they had a "surprise" for us. Oh, how my feet protested! And I grumbled that "Couldn’t they just tell us that the door is open now?" But, heck, what's another mile-and-a-half? That's nothing, so off we went. And when we got there, sure enough, they were standing by the inside door to the institute, but it was OPEN and they were all smiles. The surprise was not that the door was open but that they had opened it themselves! They said they felt so badly about it when they got home and they thought a lot about it and they found several girl-type tools in their apartment – crochet hook, a long, thin hair pick (used for pulling hair through a cap when coloring), tweezers, nail clippers and a small flashlight. Then they prayed that they would be able to get the broken key out. So they came over with their arsenal of lock picks and successfully removed the tiny piece of key that was left in the lock! It was amazing! The lock was not damaged and we were back in business.

Sister Barlow and Sister Voutekovich, the lock pickers!

It was surely one of those tender mercies of the Lord that President Bednar likes to talk about.