Week 13-Welcome to Liepaja

Monday was quite the epic preparation day. We went with our super district to Seagolda to see the Turaida castle. In the morning we played on a giant swing by the grocery store and then went into center and got McDonald's (not my idea). We played apples to apples on the long bus ride to Seagolda. From Seagolda we took another bus up to the castle and we roamed around and played in the tower and learned about the history of the castle.

We did end up not getting home on time, but that was an adventure as well. We took a bus, waited for another bus and then decided to stop waiting for that bus and took a train. The train ride was quite humorous. It was just all really funny and quite hard to explain. We found out on this train ride (okay, so maybe I got told sooner) but there is a possibility that the Elders will be taking over our area.

We saw the Harikrishna singing in Center today. They are such a great religion. I wanted to join in their parade and dance and sing. I also wanted to join in with everyone at the WWII Memorial. Latvia was a huge war front so it was a pretty big day for them having the end of that. Everyone flocked to the war memorial and took flowers and wore black and orange stripped ribbons. It was really neat to see young and old people doing this.

Tuesday was our last big District Meeting together. We took pictures together and then Masa and I had a lesson with Andris. It went okay. Inga was our member present and she did not appreciate the baptismal interview questions. She thinks they are dumb. To make up for this she did give a killer testimony when Andris answered that we want him to get baptized so that he would be a member of our church. "No! That is not why! They don't need you, but you need the church. The church doesn't care if you are there or not, but you need the gospel." President Dance called us twice and texted us once during this meeting, so naturally we contacted him afterwards. Transfers!!! I'M GOING TO LIEPAJA!! With Sister Ferrin! She was in the MTC with Sister Sutterfield. Sister Sutterfield will be with Sister Wilson in Center. Elder Taylors will be taking over the Sister's area in Imanta with his new companion fresh out of the MTC. President Dance told Sister Sutterfield not to hit him. Multiple times. I'm just so excited to be opening a new area to masas with Sista F. We went and had our ward mission leader meeting with Gatis. The other highlight of Tuesday was meeting up with the elders and having carrots and hummus, apples and crackers, and telling Elder Taylor about our investigators. The packing has begun!

The packing hasn't ended even though we spent most of the day inside Wednesday. It doesn't help that we are shutting down the apartment so everything has to be cleaned up and packed away. In the midst of our cleaning we had a telephone lesson with Martins. He is still doing really well and hope he'll get baptized without the masas there. We had our last Latvian language with Inga. She made us crepes with homemade apple jam. She is pretty excited for elders though sad that we'll (sisters) be gone. We taught her one last retention lesson and she gave a great prayer at the end in which she prayed for us (and Inga never prays for anyone)!

Sister Sutterfield is losing it. Last week it was the phone in the washing machine, this week it was the keys in the library. I had to call the elders and tell them she locked the keys in the library (the door locks when you shut it) and wait for over an hour for them to come. I'm glad I'm a good sport, I thought it was pretty hilarious. And Sister Sutterfield didn't notice the elders sneaking in, so we got to scare her together.

Thursday we officially closed shop. Sister Sutterfield had TONS of stuff to take to center (see pictures). We took a van to center, hauled up all the junk (it was junk) and then got a new taxi and Sista F and I went off to the bus station where we ran into a herd of missionaries who helped us with our bags and with whom we got to speak. The 3 hour bus ride to Liepaja was beautiful. We just talked as we watched the forest fly by. Elder Lynch (from my MTC group) and Elder Holdaway (from Sister Ferrin's) met us at the bus station and showed us around the greatest place on earth. They took us to meet our investigators and the ward members the past few days.
We gave talks on Sunday and we love the ward. I translated in Relief Society and had a really neat (missing text).

I'M IN LIEPAJA! For all of you who don't know how exciting this is, Liepaja is a city in the southwest of Latvia that hasn't been inhabited by masas for over a year. This means that I won't be serving my whole entire mission in one city. I love this place SOOOOOOOOO much. We live right basically in city center in a VERY nice apartment. It is all wood floors and has a huge room to study in with skylights and a view of an old Catholic church which has bells that ring the morning awake (7:45am). The kitchen is nice and new and the bathroom is like a giant castle. It even has a shower that works and isn't super moldy!

The church in Liepaja is gorgeous. It resembles a new-age christian church because that was the only design plans the city would approve. It has lots of windows and the baptismal font is gorgeous. The youth are often found just hanging out at the church. It is all nice and new and large and I love the design.

The branch is amazing here. It is filled with youth and many women (70% I'd guess is women) since it is a harbor city and the men go off to sea. The people here are tanned to a brown from the sea work and talk with an accent (aka cutting off the end of all the words they say). Their hands are dirty but their smiles are warm.

I love love love Liepaja. The streets are cobbled. In the mornings we can run one way to the lake or in the opposite direction and turn out on the beach.

Being out in the middle of nowhere means that I will not be getting mail frequently. So I'd recommend emailing me if you want to contact me and I can just print it off and read it later. We will only get mail if someone comes down or we go up to Center.