Week 3: Jan. 6, 2011

Hi and hello! Happy New Year! I hope that you all had a smashingly good time. In the spirit of dad and myself, I went to bed at 10:30 pm and did not stay up for New Years. I did wonder what marvelous adventure Amber and I would have been on. Maybe we will have to do one of those "Run in the New Year" races in 2012/2013. I did wake up magnificently early New Year's Day to go and kick box. It was quite fun and I was rather sore.
This Sunday our old zone leaders, Elder Greciano and Baret sang. They had quite a few people in tears regardless of their below Mo-Tab singing skills. Many of the testimonies this fast Sunday were about our love for them and admiration for their example. They truly will be missed. Especially by myself. Elder Baret and I (and Elder Greciano who knows 7 languages) would speak French, which brought happiness to my heart. We got to walk around the temple as a zone on Sunday. Poor Sister Burnham stepped in a puddle so Elder Steggel, who is going to Georgia (the country), traded a shoe with her. They were both quite the sight. Elder Offut and I (another Georgian going elder) have been switching around people's name tags and seeing how long it takes them to realize that they are no longer themselves. It is quite entertaining seeing elders with sister tags on.
On Monday our serviceableness was even more epic. We mopped 10 flights of stairs. Luckily their was some Oldies singing by ourselves going on to keep it fresh. We weren't the only ones singing today though. My elders (by my elders I mean the elders that have to escort me everywhere, that I teach, eat, and learn with, but am not allowed to call my companions, so to make it short are my elders [or bodyguards, your pick]) both lost it Monday night and were monologuing Les Mis. I really wish that I had my camera, it could have had me in tears from laughing so much.
On Tuesday Brother Baxter of the 70 came and spoke to us about not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He told us that we need to live as disciples and that we have to find Christ ourselves before we can lead other people to Him. He said, "There must be alight shining from your eyes because of the burning testimony in your soul." He proceeded to doctrinally/scripturally show how we are different from other Christian religions and how we are correct. Check out "Lost Books" in the Bible Dictionary...who knew that there were so many lost scriptures!! My favorite quote from Elder Baxter was at the end when he finally started to testify and said, "It is true. It is all true." He said this very powerfully and it touched me.
Lately at gym I have been running a lot with Sister Bailey. It is nice to have someone to talk to because it helps me to zone out. Hopefully my knees won't hate me for making 120-some odd really sharp turns on them every day.
Brother Newmann shared a really neat thought with us yesterday about the difference between Satan's lie of good AND evil, and God's truth of knowing good FROM evil. You can check the two out in 2 Nephi 2:18 and 26. Good AND evil implies equality of the two and thus no need to be saved or have agency. Good FROM evil implies that you know evil because you have resisted it. So therefore people who give into Satan don't know evil as well as Christ because He has seen how hard it is to over come it so he knows how truly evil it is. For those of you who are temple goers, pay attention in the film for this, it is quite interesting that the difference with and/from is there as well. Yesterday I taught the Restoration in Latvian with Elder Lynch. We didn't know how to say much, but we were able to testify and invite the Spirit. The two sisters that we taught were very kind and helpful as we were trying to teach them. I am currently speaking Fratvian, this odd combo of French and Latvian. If I don't know a word in Latvian I tend to try to say it in French instead on English. I was praying last night in French and started putting in Latvian words as well- uh oh!
MY ELDERS
Elder Burr is doing most excellently with the language. We had a practice teaching session in Latvian last night and he was by himself teaching a returned missionary who speaks Latvian. This RM told Elder Burr that his language is at the level of someone who has been in the MTC for 8 weeks. Elder Burr is truly a grammar pro.
Elder Lynch is lucky to be Scottish. No one can recognize that he has an accent and he is often applauded for this. Brother Newmann, one of our teachers also feels that his teaching style is perfect and that he just needs to learn how to do it in Latvian. Elder Lynch is showing his 18-year-old age right now. He has a hard time studying because he doesn't really know how, nor has he had to. Some days he is a lot more negative (I want to punch you both in the face kind of negative) then others. Regardless, we had a companionship inventory and are now trying to cator to his needs as we study. This includes 5 minute walking breaks every half hour, which I enjoy greatly. They are good for Elder Burr too, his Arizona skin isn't too thick in this cold!
FOOD
The food is getting better, my stomach is desensitized, or I just know what NOT to try. But this is from the girl who had toast and ice cream for dinner last night...
TEACHERS
Sister Priddis got back from her mission to Latvia a few years ago is married and has a 6-month old boy, William. She is very kind hearted and we normally end up telling her stories about Brother Newman.
Brother Newman is...different. He is wicked smart, going into sound technology stuff. He grew up hindu and is very quirky. He knows lots of random facts and is rather opinionated. He likes Latvian idioms and the game rock paper scissors lizard spock (this is rock paper scissors on steroids). Right now he is doing a lemon/maple/pepper drink cleanse. He loves to cook and even makes his own feta cheese sometimes. I definitely would like to try out some of his creations. Pizza is supposedly his specialty. He called me weird the other day because he didn't think I sat close enough to everyone in prayers....

Anywho...


Love you!
The Church is true and God is our Father!

Sister L