Week 14

Soooooooooo

It was another wonderful week in Liepaja. We met a lady, Ieva, when we were out contacting Sunday night. She said that she would meet with us so we set up an appointment for Monday afternoon (during our preparation time, because that is when she said she could). So we went to the church in the afternoon to meet her. She didn't show up, but we had about 4 or 5 people come to the door and ask us about free English, our worship services, or both. One of the ladies that came asking actually showed up to English class on Saturday and she seemed really quite interested in the gospel. She had a lot of questions. We had a fun preparation day walking around the center and seeing what the city has to offer. We went to family home evening at the Stake President's home with his two cute little girls, Ieva and Sarra. They were both terribly shy and hiding for most of it until they came out to blow bubbles. We gave the spiritual thought and then President showed us pictures of his wedding and such. They met for the first time 2 weeks after he got home from his mission. It was at a regional YSA Conference. The second day of the conference (and of knowing of her exsistence) he proposed. Crazy!!! Madara, Santa (the young Relief Society President) [both putting in their mission papers soon], Inguss (~15 year old member) and Sandis (17-year-old dry member...his mom won't let him get baptized) were also there and we all played Charades together. It was a lot of fun.

Tuesday was our first district meeting with our new group. We also celebrated Sister Ferrin's birthday late with some Coconut Heaven Cupcakes (just as heavenly when made in Latvia, if not more) and princess candles. Elder Holdaway is a professed pus-masa (half sister) and Elder Lynch is the kind of kid who would tell you to go roll in mud. They are so different but get along so well. Elder Lynch is growing up! Elder Holdaway does ultra marathons and runs barefoot. He likes high school musical and shopping. Elder Lynch loves satanic-esque (in my opinion) rock music and hiking. They make quite the pair going back and forth with America and Scottish bantering. We love them and all the help they are to us. We got to learn about fire safety in our Methodist-esque church building designed by a local (and Methodist-esque so that the city would let it be built). The elders also took us to declare that we were living in Liepaja and to pay rent. We met with Laima (her name means happy in English), a woman who got baptized a week ago. She is so beautiful inside and out. She works with some Christians should be friends with Jews group and has been to Jerusalem. She was talking about the gathering of Israel and is more golden than gold. She showed up at church one day and then later asked when she could be baptized. We are planning on converting her husband. We have an appointment at her house (she hasn't let missionaries come there yet!) this upcoming week. We also went and met with Santa and had a nice little tea party and talked about prophets. We read the talk about Thomas S. Monson's birthday service. She loved it and now has a testimony that he is a prophet of God.

Wednesday we went over to Aivar's home to give him a talk to speak about in church. We called his house and his legitimately, certifiably insane wife answered. "Why are you calling him?! He is at work. What do you want?!" "To give him papers." "What do you want?! Wa ha. Ha. Ha. (for about 2 minutes)" We are glad she didn't come outside. We went over to Zelma, another member's home who lives by us. We weren't sure if she was active or not, so we thought we'd stop by. She is :) . Her sister was over who lives in Jelgava so we were able to teach her. Zelma was so cute. She was just like, "Tell her girls. I've been trying to tell her but she doesn't believe me. Tell her about how you can't swim and have to be in at 9pm etc. etc. etc." Santa had her interview today. She had it with Elder Jakes over the phone with Elder Holdaway translating. She did it! We are so excited. I almost forgot my most favorite part of the day...running to the Baltic Sea! (which we just call the ocean) You can actually find amber washed up after lots of wind. Amber is huge in Latvia, you should wiki about it. But anywho, so we were running back and crossed the street to avoid a group of intoxicated persons our age. One of the boys came over running, his medal around his neck bouncing and started running with us. We exchanged pleasantries and then he left.

Sister Ferrin woke up sick on Thursday. Never fear, I am a pro soup maker now. I just make too much. Which was fine because the elders have been terribly ill and spent most of the week indoors. But I tried making dumplings, and they were amazing. They made me think of Grandma, as do all of the lilac bushes that are in bloom. We did get to visit Santa in the evening with Sandis. Sandis thought it was hilarious that Riksi got all his white dog hair all over me and that he kept licking my leg. My favorite part was when Santa was reading a scripture about baptism and water and she stopped and exclaimed, "Ak Dievs!" (also known as Oh God!) Her fear of water is pretty big.

Friday was another special day. We had the Dances, the Hardys, our district and a Lithuanian District (Cleipata) up (or down) for a district meeting. President Dance taught us about planning lessons, using the scriptures in our teaching, and asking the right questions with scriptures. It was all really helpful and we have some new things to apply. I really learned the importance of asking a simple question first before they read the scripture and then go into the more complex application "why do you care" "how does this apply to you" questions after. We ordered Cili Pizza and had lunch together. The Hardy's drove us the whole block to our apartment so they could do checks on it. Sister Ferrin left her coat at the church. Her coat has a pocket. Inside the pocket were the keys. To everything. We ran back to the church. It was locked. They all had left! We had to call the elders to come rescue us and unlock the church and then go back to our apartment. We met with Oskars, a man who got baptized in November. He has no living relatives and really wants to do their work but doesn't know all their birth/death dates, etc. It is really sad. He has a great faith though and great knowledge. He gave the talk at Santa's baptism and did really well. I love the ward member Marika. She is cute, maybe in her 40s or 50s. She fed us chocolate cake and a rhubarb drink and helped us with our Latvian.

English went well on Saturday as did helping to clean the church. We are planning on making some of the English students investigators. The baptism was the highlight of the day. I made some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and Neka's sugar cookies with almonds (which are Sister Ferriņ's new favorite...thanks Neka!). Elder H. gave her a great blessing of comfort beforehand and she did it! She pumped her fist and shouted "Yes!" when she came out of the water. We were holding back the tears. It was a very nice service. So apparently it was supposed to be the end of the world on Saturday.

There were tons of cannons or something that went off while we were trying to sleep. So we survived the end of the world.

Sunday Masa Juna and her family came and visited. She and her mother bore their testimonies. I replaced Masa Juna in the field. Ieva and Sarra are no longer shy- they are silly girls and Ieva is a boss! We found a new investigator, "Mara and the Janes" (she has cute girls according to the elders) and a lady basically took my Book of Mormon because she was so interested in it. We also went with Santa the young and Madara to visit Ena, a less active lady. She let us hold her kittens and we will be meeting with her often.

Times up, love you, enjoy the pix!