Well Hello and Happy Summer Solstice aka LIGO!
On Monday for Preparation day we went out with the elders and Rihards to Cepelini, a small restaurant/bar type place and all got flatted out battered chicken on a bed of a million potato wedges. It was pretty good and very Latvian. We also went around and visited all the churches in Liepaja- the one we look at every day and the Lutheran church with the largest organ in Europe, or so they say. (note: it was the largest mechanical pipe organ in the world until 1968). Good thing that they haven't seen MoTab's organ. We also went around and saw all the statues about Liepaja being the city where the wind starts. They have a really pretty poem about it. We had a family home evening with the Tolmacovi. They have two cute little girls (baby and a 6 year old) and our goal is to get them to the temple.
On Tuesday we found out that Elder Lynch is headed off to Jelgava and that Elder Clark (who has been an assistant stuck in Riga forever) is coming down to spend his last transfer in Liepaja (his first time out of Riga). Sister Ferrin and I will still be in the magical land of Liepaja. To celebrate we force fed Elder Lynch Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. He does not appreciate powdered cheese like we fellow Americans do. We had a meeting with Oskars but he didn't show up. We ended up giving his lesson to Rita, the member who came to help and it was just what she needed. Her brother just got paralyzed and we were planning on talking to Oskars about trials. We also had a miracle with visiting Ena, the less-active. We were up in her area and called to see if we could drop by. She said yes and we had a nice chat outside and she asked for a new Book of Mormon since she couldn't find hers! She also told us that Jolanta, her daughter (also a member), was in the hospital with her baby who has RSV.
With that knowledge after having an entertaining Latvian class with Rihards (he thought we said "Sharks!" instead of "Shucks!") we headed off to the hospital. Sister Ferrin warned me of the sketchiness, so I was pleasantly surprised. Having a nurse in sandals would never fly in America though. It was definitely an older building, but they kept it fairly clean. We talked with Jolanta and then the elders came and gave her and her baby a blessing. We met with Santa today and it was another adventure. The cat (aka crocodile) attacked the dog. My legs went flying and so did dog hair, but we all made it out alive. Definitely scared us all though. She also told us about Ligo and how it is a Pagan celebration and how the girls' wreaths symbolize virtue (and so if a boy takes it or if their hair isn't in tight braids you can assume some things). The boys' wreaths are made out of oak leaves and symbolize power and strength all that manly sort of stuff that you'd associate with oak trees and not really long grass.
Thursday was a great day since it was Ligo. We had some barley mushroom soup and met with Laima! She is back after the disaster with her husband. It was neat because she said she could feel our prayers and that she felt like it was okay to answer the phone when we called. She has such the spirit, I came away edified. She took home the Restoration video and is going to watch it with her husband. We are praying for his heart to soften. We had a small Ligo party at the church. We learned how to make the wreaths (or head gear---I don't know what to call them in English). We also ate, played games, and drank kvass (yuck!- look it up on Wikipedia). It was too windy for us to have a bonfire, but normally you jump over one so that the sun will behave normally.
On Saturday I found something really neat in my scripture study. Mosiah 27! Those hooligan sons of Mosiah who went about destroyed the church followed all six steps of the repentance process found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet. I was excited about this and so we taught Olga about repentance. She doesn't think she'll be in the country for her baptismal date... After our English class we cleaned the church as usual. Sintia cleaned the windows with anti-freeze. Let's just say that the elders cleaned them again. We also met with an awesome church member, Skaidre. She was one of the first in Liepaja and may quit one of her jobs (she has two) so that she can come to church more.
On Sunday we had a great show up to hear the Rubows talk (in charge of CES here). Laima, Liga (baptismal date), Rita (less active), Lidija (less active), the Tolmacovi family, etc. etc. We had to guard Sister Rubow's sloppy joes for the seminary graduation. Literally guard. We had rolling pins. It was awesome food though and then of course there was more missionary work. We went on splits again! Sister Ferrin went with Madara who is here for the week and I took Sintija (aka Cynthia) and Inguss with me. They were fun to go out with; Sintija is very giggly. We did have a great lesson on a park bench with a nice old lady who was willing to talk to us for five minutes! Miracles abound!
Also on Sunday Ieva and Olga dropped themselves. They don't have the desire right now to do what it takes. Later they will get baptized. Sister Ferrin found out she'll be leaving December 16th, so that is when I will begin training! She is a great missionary. President Dance told her in her interview that her mission scripture should be Alma 38:1-5. So I am with a Book of Mormon caliber missionary!
The work is going well, I love sharing the gospel with others. This is God's work and it is His glory.
Reflections on the past transfer...what I've learned.
Being a parent is hard. Infinite love, forgiveness.
Sharing and teamwork doesn't always mean 50/50
Never give up on people
You have to fight harder than Satan
"Do what you want and say what you feel because those that mind don't matter and those that matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss
COMMUNICATION
-it is important to say thank you
-preface your thoughts
-the importance of words
-always think before you speak
-be clear about what you are trying to communication
Monday, June 27, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Week 18
20 June 2011
Hello from Down Under!
Okay, so I suppose I'm really not from 'Down Under' but it sounded like a good thing to say. This week was quite the eventful one, as usual.
On Monday we had an appointment scheduled with a lady that I had called earlier last week. It was like a wild goose chase finding her, she kept on changing where she wanted to meet. We eventually did meet her after running around for nearly 30 minutes and she didn't want to talk about God at all. She did invite us over for pancakes sometime though. Madara came down from her hometown of Saldus and we had lunch together. We split a pizza...a pickle pizza! They grated a giant pickle on to it, and yes, it was sort of good in a really odd way.
The highlight of Monday was definitely our bike gang. The youth have been down lately and so we organized a huge bike ride. We rented bikes and helped rent bikes for those that didn't have bikes. We had a great turnout! Rita's brother came for a little while and he had a tandem bicycle that he let us ride. Talk about companionship unity! Sister Ferrin cannot be trusted in the front...she almost ran us into several things. Next time I'll steer. So we were pretty much this giant bike gang with 10-12 people riding along (Elder Holdaway, Elder Lynch, Sister Ferrin, Sister Lindstrom, Sandijs, Inguss, Rita, Cintija, Madara, and Rihards). We went over the bridge and up through one of the parks and back down through center and then we followed the bike path. The bike path took us past the sea and through some pine trees and all the way to the end of town. We stopped at the giant Liepaja sign and took lots of pictures. We headed back up and Madara got a flat tire! It really wasn't her day (she also broke the light reflector off her rental bike and ran into a pole. She also almost got hit by a bus.) but she was a good sport and after going to a gas station, calling a ward member, we finally found a tire shop that filled it up for free. Cinitia joined our bike gang and took us to the lake. It was quite the ride! It was so nice to be bicycle riding.
Tuesday morning we had a good meeting with President S. and Olga. President S. offered her a priesthood blessing which she is going to think about getting. The best part of the day was most definitely Santa's meeting. We took Rihards with because we were planning on talking about the temple. We did not talk about the temple. We got there and we had Santa tell her conversion story so we could write it (it is something President Dance has asked us to do). This took about 40 minutes during which Rihards kept on trying to get Riksi, the dog, to be by him and not by us masas. Then the cat came. I sat and laughed the rest of the time at the phobia Rihards has for crocodiles, the cat. The cat's real name is Mixie, but she has a tendancy to attack people so Santa calls her crocodiles. She told Rihards the story of the other Santa getting attacked and so he was just paranoid, "I think the cat is out to get me." It was. Mixie is a smart cat, she can open doors. She kept on trying to open the door to get back in so Rihards just reached over and held it shut. Santa thought that women not having the priesthood was discrimination so we had to go over that and then the cat came in for the prayer. It was the longest prayer ever. Santa kept on stopping and watching the cat (or so I heard, I was closing my eyes the whole time). But the cat jumped up on the furniture by Rihards head and he was all nervous and then the cat came between Sister Ferrin and I. Santa had paused praying again and then out squeeks Sister Ferrin, "I'm scared." Then some frog croaked outside and I lost it and started laughing.
After our animal adventure we all headed back to the church to teach Oskars. We got there a little early and we couldn't start the meeting without Madara so Ieva told us that we were playing ping pong with her. It was pretty hilarious since she is still working on the whole hand-eye coordination thing. Rihards was so great, "My dearest Ieva, you've got to hit the ping pong ball with love." WHAP! "It is kind of like dancing." Oh geez!
Wednesday was a very long day. It started at about 2am. Masa Ferina was sick and her moaning and a groaning woke me up. She apparently had a wicked bad headache so I got up and we got her drugs and tea and a massage. We had the priviledge of waking up even earlier than normal to go to Zone Conference up in Riga. The bus ride up was quite uneventful, everyone else slept. The conference was amazing. We all had the opportunity to bear our testimonies. The Spirit was so strong and it was neat to hear from everyone. President Dance then told us the story of receiving the call to be a mission president and what would happen with President Boswell coming in July 1st. He also told us about how missions are ranked and how ours is a three (based on language, climate, distance from home, culture, number of baptisms, health care, etc.). He said this is one of the reasons that Elder Clayton was so astonished that we only had 5 missionaries who didn't grow up in the gospel and were converts. That apparently never happens so it sort of gives you an insight to how hard our mission is. He then proceeded to tell us about the seven things that he learned on his mission.
1. Weightloss! We all carry with us baggage. Forward and outward are the important directions in our life.
2. You seek what you find. Whatever you seek (happiness, goodness, badness) you find.
3. There are no boundaries on our capacity to grow and change. People can always change into something very different, don't ever judge them.
4. When we choose our path (our choice) we choose our destination (the consequence).
5. Obedience is the path that we have to travel. Obedience is a creative act, a creative experience. Obedience creates faith.
6. The hand of the Lord reaches further than we can ever visualize. We don't see the preparation that happened beforehand.
7. The best things happen on the way. Enjoy the journey, we are in the process of becoming.
These are some great things and I definitely agree with all of President Dance's insights. He will definitely be missed.
We had kebabs for lunch as well as interviews with President Dance for about five minutes. He told me something pretty neat about him sending sisters to Liepaja. He said that he has been worried about it because they really need priesthood holders down there but when he thought of the two sisters he was going to send down there he wasn't worried about it because he said he knows we know what we are doing and that we are confident enough to teach men and families. It was a really nice compliment from my mission president.
I ate lunch with Sister Hardy and Elder Lynch along with some other missionaries. Sister Hardy told us to never give up on people and then told us this amazing story about her brother who has lived in his car for many years and never went to college or anything and how, through a series of events, he ended up being found (he was lost to his family for a while) and then got baptized, married, and will be getting sealed soon! It was such a neat and inspiring story about how God really does prepare people. I feel so priveledged to help be a part of that here in Latvia.
On Thursday President S. went with us to visit Ruta, the new Relief Society president. She fed us all a yummy lunch of chicken and rice, tea, and strawberries and cream. We then headed off to Mara (aka Mara and the Janes). It was quite a miracle that we got an appointment with her. We were planning on dropping her since we'd been trying for a month to get a hold of her but I just decided to call her to invite her to the ward party on Friday. She answered the phone (miracle!) and then said, "Finally!! When can we meet?" So we went over there and went back and forth about what to teach her because we weren't really feeling like teaching what we had planned. We decided on the gospel of Jesus Christ and had a great lesson in which we invited her to be baptized and she accepted, at least sort of. She said she supposed that she could get baptized again if she needed to and that she wanted to see a baptism first. It was quite an exciting meeting!
We then caught a bus and went to President S.'s. He invited us over to Sarra's birthday party. She was turning three and they had invited a less active that they wanted us to fellowship. This would have worked out perfectly if everyone there didn't speak Russian except for us! It made it difficult, but I enjoyed listening to everyone jibber jabber away in Russian. President made the pizza and the giant torte that Sarra wanted. It indeed was a giant lemon torte. She was so excited to see it. The little girls loved the noise makers we brought and thought they were the funniest things ever.
Friday is was raining so naturally we got lost. We were trying to find Ausma, an active member. She reminds me of Claire in the fact that she has this old growly sounding voice. She is a hoot. She showed us all of her pictures, including ones of missionaries she knows and of Rihards from the ward. We at first thought that he was her grandson and then we figured out that he was just a nice boy and they are friends. She was so proud of him, "Rihards wrote me while he was on his mission in Utah." "You mean California?" "Yeah, in Utah." She is such a solid member, she has been a member for a long time and is one of the few who has church pictures up. I felt so bad for her though, she lives in a retirement home in a tiny room with like one or two bathrooms for the whole entire hall. It was probably about the size of my dorm in France. Bless her heart. She has a little dog that she likes to bribe with hot dogs to make dance. On the way back I got splashed by a truck! There was a giant puddle and it got me. I naturally screamed and started laughing as the three-year-old in me always does.
We had the special opportunity of going to Madara's High School Graduation. We also had Rihards, Inguss, Sandijs, Cintija, Rita, and President S. and his family there. It was pretty great seeing Rihards, Inguss, and Sandijs in their suits with flowers. They looked like they were competing for a girl they wanted to date or something. Flowers are a very important part of graduations here. I shall attempt to explain what happened. Madara goes to a music school in this awesome old building. We were in a gorgeous concert hall with chandeliers and seating like in theatres. They called the names one at a time and they came walking in their prom-esque outfits (but short dresses) while a little blurb was said about each graduate and pictures of them were shown. There weren't even twenty graduates (and only one boy!) so it wasn't long. There was then a back and forth exchange of speeches, advice, and singing. They had three opera singing girls sing songs. Scholarships were awarded. Flowers were given to the teachers by the students. The national anthem was sung. The graduates gave flowers to their parents. At the end they called every graduates name again and everyone that was there to support them stood up and got in a line to congratulate them and give them flowers (an odd number mind you, even numbers of flowers are for dead people). It was a really cool graduation and it meant the world to Madara that we were there.
We then all went to the church for a ward party. It was interesting to say the least and very last minute. No one told us what is was, we just knew that we were taking an airplane trip to somewhere. Sista F. and I got to be stewardesses and pass out cookies. We were thinking that it was going to be a Plan of Salvation activity (that the plane would crash and we'd die and then we'd go to the kingdoms and such). I especially thought this when I saw someone with angel wings. And a golden curly wig. With a halo. Sadly, it was not a plan of salvation activity. The man with the angel wings was the lei dude from church last Sunday. My favorite part of the activity was watching Elder Holdaway sit by him and keep a straight face as he raised his white-gloved hand and asked, "Our we going to crash? I'm terrified of crashing. Where is this plane going again?" Oh goodness. I. Love. People. Uldiss Frolavs (Cintija's dad) ended up showing pictures from his mysterious trip to Indonesia that he wouldn't tell anyone about. Let's just say we were glad we didn't have any of our investigators show up.
Saturday was a busy day. We had English class (without Baiba, our translator) but Santa came and she helped us pull Mihelijs after the lesson to talk about the Book of Mormon. He is Russian Orthodox but we want him to convert. :) We then cleaned the church with some of the members and some of our investigators and then headed off to pick up the Jacques at the bus station. We took them to their hotel and then to the Pastnieka maja (the postman's house) for dinner. It was very delicious. "Grandpa" Jacques was a sweetheart and paid for us and we all enjoyed trying each other's dishes. The Jacques said it was the best food they have had in Latvia, so I suppose we chose well! (And the best soup that Elder Jacques has had ever). I got won tons filled with shredded veggies, Sister Ferrin some fish, and Elder Jacques got some amazing chicken as well. It was good. We then walked them to the beach and dropped them off there and went back to work since our lunch time was over.
Sunday was a great meeting. Elder and Sister Jacques spoke in sacrament. Sister J. spoke about prayer and Elder J. spoke about things that we need to always be doing. The last one was sing really loud and so we all sang I am a child of God. Ieva (the one who is 5) was belting it out and made us all smile. Liga loves church! She enjoyed sacrament and then was basically stealing my scriptures from me in Sunday School so that she could read what we were reading next. She also took one of all the pamphlets that we had sitting out and now how a copy of the temple issue of the Ensign. We'll just say that she is pretty intersted in the church right about now. :D We got the trolls (Ieva and Olga) to stay for all three hours! We went with them to young womens and had a good lesson about well, us! It was on missionary work and it was a great lesson that the girls were glad that they stayed for.
We came home from church and I made some veggie lasagna. Lasagna is hard to make! I'm definitely going to need to practice that one; it turned out delicious though. We had a meeting with the elders about how to better help the branch and then we met with both Olga and Ieva and told them we knew that they still weren't obeying the Word of Wisdom and that we loved them. We then sent them home with homework to think about how we can help them and that was that!
Another week has flown by as has another transfer. I hit my six month mark this week as Elder Lynch reminded me and transfers are this week. We have almost hit the peak of summer- the sun was up today at 4:29 am and won't be going down until 10:22 pm. There are lots of Linden trees in Liepaja...I actually think it may be the city tree because they are everywhere!
Lots of Love,
Sister Lindstrom
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Week 17
Tuesday was our preparation this week and we wore ourselves out! We were already tired from our bus trip and stay in Riga and then we found a never ending shop. It had multiple floors and all these rooms and we were just plum tuckered out aftwerwards. We had so much fun shopping at the tirgus (market) getting famous Latvian strawberries, carrots, onions, and some potatoes from this cute old man. We popped into the cafe by the tirgus and decided to get some french fries (the only thing that didn't look too scary there) and ketchup! Oh the ketchup in Latvia. It is very sweet. VERY sweet. This ketchup happened to taste a lot like mom's apple butter, nice and cinnamon-y. It was different, but was well embraced by the last french fry.
We met with Olga (one of the trolls as Sister Ferrin lovingly calls them) and extended the invitation for her to be baptized and she accepted! It was sort of an odd lesson because we knew that she was lying to us about smoking, but we just followed the Spirit and we are letting this one play out on its own.
Wednesday we went on an exciting moving adventure. The elders called and said that they wouldn't make it to District Meeting because there was loads of stuff to move at Dzintra's (Amber) apartment. We slid into pants (yay for preparation day clothing!) and went over to help. Latvians are so great. They would only give us little things, like flowers because we are girls. Nevermind that I could bench press Elder Holdaway. We all hopped into the moving truck (Elders and Rihards with Brother Frolavs) in the back and drove to the very very very very very end of town to her new place and unpacked. It was nice to have a service opportunity.
We met with Olga and started teaching her about Personal Progress (goal to get her understanding her personal worth, that she is a daughter of God, etc.) and we met with Ieva and talked to her about God. She doesn't know too much. Her answer was, "He's Jesus' dad." She is a cute one though and with a big heart but she hasn't seemed too interested in meeting.
During District Meeting (which we had around 8pm) a huge thunderstorm came! Guess who left the sky lights open! It has been really hot and it didn't look like rain. We of course didn't remember until it had been raining for 20 minutes. Did I mention that the sky lights are over our desks? Sister Ferrin started screaming about all her books and so we decided to close District Meeting with the longest prayer Elder Lynch has ever prayed. We booked it out of the church and ran off in the rain to our apartment. Sister Ferrin had about 2 dozen books get wet. Miracle being that her journal didn't get touched (and this is what she was very worried about). God was definitely looking out for us. No one's scriptures or journals got ruined. We now always make sure the windows are shut when we leave.
We had a visitor Thursday morning...in the hustle and bustle of the thunderstorm we left our keys in the door! Oopsie! Our nice neighbor kept knocking on the door until I opened it and then just pointed at the keys. :D I was feeling like nutella and banana crepes in the morning so I made some. There is nothing like pure goodness to take you back home to France. I also tried my hand at curry making and it turned out quite nicely (but not for breakfast). It was a hot! day today. Humidity + top floor + no AC = very sticky girls. We tuaght Santa, Oskars, and Olga today. All of their meetings went well.
I was tired on Friday. We were watching Finding Faith in Christ with the trolls (Olga and Ieva) and I was bobbing off to sleep. In my defense it was in Russian and nay pan-ya-may-ew! We met with a super great less active today, Lidija Rubele. She would repeat everything we said to her two granddaughters that could very well hear us. You could tell that her granddaughters weren't members but that she wanted to see that we were doing good things with our lives. We all read together in Moroni 7 about faith, hope, and charity. We got to have Latvian with Marika again this week. She is so great! She went on some crazy rants about organic food being good and about how Latvians always say that they have no time, but they do because they find time to eat or watch TV.
I timed the sounds of apostasy today. If any of you were wondering (because I was) the church bells go off every day from 7:45-7:50am. I always thought it felt like they went on for an eternity and they really do. Sister Ferrin is still sick and has permission to sleep in every day (pushing on two weeks!). I don't know how she sleeps through those bells. Normally I find her in the mornings with one of her pillows on top of her head though... :D. I roam around in the mornings doing my studies and waiting until it is late enough to start calling people and then I just have a phone marathon until she wakes up. I'm thinking I'd be a good little salesman.
We went to visit Liga (the Book of Mormon stealer who came to the Saturday session of conference). She is such a nice lady. She made us salad (aka white sauce + dill + green onions) and peppermint tea and had chocolate. We talked about our lives and she shared about hers. We started teaching about the Restoration and she told us about how she really wanted to get baptized but never had the opportunity. We told her we could help with that! She is getting baptized!!!
We got to walk home from her home through the cemetary. He he. They are like little zen gardens. They are square plots with sand and people rake them. It is gorgeous with all the giant trees and other plants.
On Sunday we met with Ieva and she wants to get baptized now! We did some cookie making and apologizing and some getting to know her and just talked about baptism and the Holy Ghost. We are going to start meeting at her house with her parents! Liga came to church and even for Sunday School- which was on baptism (hurray! Thank you!). She is so solid, and we are so excited for her! Lidija came to church for the first time in forever. Elder Lynch thought is was hilarious that she took my arm to walk around. Elder Lynch is a hoot. The branch he has determined is divided into three categories. On the right side the Laimonites (all the old men, one named Laimonis), the middle is the hooligans (the young people and families) and on the left side the bob squad (bobushkas). It's good to know that some things in the church never change (assigned seats). We harvested into an 80-year-old lady with a pet ferret today...that was pretty great! These are the days!
The Lord has definitely chosen to bless us at this time (Alma 26:22). Three baptismal dates in one week! This is quite exciting and we pray that all will be well with Liga, Olga, and Ieva.
The Church is true and this is His great work,
Love,
Masa Lindstroma
We met with Olga (one of the trolls as Sister Ferrin lovingly calls them) and extended the invitation for her to be baptized and she accepted! It was sort of an odd lesson because we knew that she was lying to us about smoking, but we just followed the Spirit and we are letting this one play out on its own.
Wednesday we went on an exciting moving adventure. The elders called and said that they wouldn't make it to District Meeting because there was loads of stuff to move at Dzintra's (Amber) apartment. We slid into pants (yay for preparation day clothing!) and went over to help. Latvians are so great. They would only give us little things, like flowers because we are girls. Nevermind that I could bench press Elder Holdaway. We all hopped into the moving truck (Elders and Rihards with Brother Frolavs) in the back and drove to the very very very very very end of town to her new place and unpacked. It was nice to have a service opportunity.
We met with Olga and started teaching her about Personal Progress (goal to get her understanding her personal worth, that she is a daughter of God, etc.) and we met with Ieva and talked to her about God. She doesn't know too much. Her answer was, "He's Jesus' dad." She is a cute one though and with a big heart but she hasn't seemed too interested in meeting.
During District Meeting (which we had around 8pm) a huge thunderstorm came! Guess who left the sky lights open! It has been really hot and it didn't look like rain. We of course didn't remember until it had been raining for 20 minutes. Did I mention that the sky lights are over our desks? Sister Ferrin started screaming about all her books and so we decided to close District Meeting with the longest prayer Elder Lynch has ever prayed. We booked it out of the church and ran off in the rain to our apartment. Sister Ferrin had about 2 dozen books get wet. Miracle being that her journal didn't get touched (and this is what she was very worried about). God was definitely looking out for us. No one's scriptures or journals got ruined. We now always make sure the windows are shut when we leave.
We had a visitor Thursday morning...in the hustle and bustle of the thunderstorm we left our keys in the door! Oopsie! Our nice neighbor kept knocking on the door until I opened it and then just pointed at the keys. :D I was feeling like nutella and banana crepes in the morning so I made some. There is nothing like pure goodness to take you back home to France. I also tried my hand at curry making and it turned out quite nicely (but not for breakfast). It was a hot! day today. Humidity + top floor + no AC = very sticky girls. We tuaght Santa, Oskars, and Olga today. All of their meetings went well.
I was tired on Friday. We were watching Finding Faith in Christ with the trolls (Olga and Ieva) and I was bobbing off to sleep. In my defense it was in Russian and nay pan-ya-may-ew! We met with a super great less active today, Lidija Rubele. She would repeat everything we said to her two granddaughters that could very well hear us. You could tell that her granddaughters weren't members but that she wanted to see that we were doing good things with our lives. We all read together in Moroni 7 about faith, hope, and charity. We got to have Latvian with Marika again this week. She is so great! She went on some crazy rants about organic food being good and about how Latvians always say that they have no time, but they do because they find time to eat or watch TV.
I timed the sounds of apostasy today. If any of you were wondering (because I was) the church bells go off every day from 7:45-7:50am. I always thought it felt like they went on for an eternity and they really do. Sister Ferrin is still sick and has permission to sleep in every day (pushing on two weeks!). I don't know how she sleeps through those bells. Normally I find her in the mornings with one of her pillows on top of her head though... :D. I roam around in the mornings doing my studies and waiting until it is late enough to start calling people and then I just have a phone marathon until she wakes up. I'm thinking I'd be a good little salesman.
We went to visit Liga (the Book of Mormon stealer who came to the Saturday session of conference). She is such a nice lady. She made us salad (aka white sauce + dill + green onions) and peppermint tea and had chocolate. We talked about our lives and she shared about hers. We started teaching about the Restoration and she told us about how she really wanted to get baptized but never had the opportunity. We told her we could help with that! She is getting baptized!!!
We got to walk home from her home through the cemetary. He he. They are like little zen gardens. They are square plots with sand and people rake them. It is gorgeous with all the giant trees and other plants.
On Sunday we met with Ieva and she wants to get baptized now! We did some cookie making and apologizing and some getting to know her and just talked about baptism and the Holy Ghost. We are going to start meeting at her house with her parents! Liga came to church and even for Sunday School- which was on baptism (hurray! Thank you!). She is so solid, and we are so excited for her! Lidija came to church for the first time in forever. Elder Lynch thought is was hilarious that she took my arm to walk around. Elder Lynch is a hoot. The branch he has determined is divided into three categories. On the right side the Laimonites (all the old men, one named Laimonis), the middle is the hooligans (the young people and families) and on the left side the bob squad (bobushkas). It's good to know that some things in the church never change (assigned seats). We harvested into an 80-year-old lady with a pet ferret today...that was pretty great! These are the days!
The Lord has definitely chosen to bless us at this time (Alma 26:22). Three baptismal dates in one week! This is quite exciting and we pray that all will be well with Liga, Olga, and Ieva.
The Church is true and this is His great work,
Love,
Masa Lindstroma
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Week 16
Well hello again! It has been quite the week. This transfer is just flying by. I'm just planning on staying in Liepaja until Christmas-time because it flies by so quickly! Doubtful that will happen, but we can dream.
On Monday we went out with the elders (yes there are elders- Elder Holdaway and Lynch) and Santa and Sandis to Olive. It is this really neat restaurant with a floating roof garden and giant fun couches and very very slow service. The food was okay- liked the grill taste and Elder Holdaway's chips (aka fries, but we have Elder Lynch from Scotland) were delicious. We took Santa out because she is leaving for Riga and will be going to the Imanta Branch for the summer. The funniest thing was Sandis eating the sour cream he got to go with his potato pancakes whilst saying, "This tastes weird", shuddering, but still eating it. Latvians love their sour cream. On anything. We also did some shopping. Sister Ferrin found a little red dress for Mission Conference and I found a pretty epic dress right out of the fifties that is most definitely coming home with me. I found a jacket that I am really excited about. I probably won't get to wear it on my mission, but it is to make up for the coat that I never got in France that I am still dreaming about.
Speaking of France on Tuesday I called France. It was awful. I started speaking Latvian to the poor French woman. Elder Lynch laughed. I almost cried. Luckily, I can still understand French perfectly and the woman understood my Fratvian and told me how to get to the church so that some Branch members from Liepaja who are working in France can go to church there. I am so grateful for Elder Lynch and his faith. He always just tells me, "Don't worry about your French masa. God sent you here foreign speaking and he will bless you to be able to speak French perfectly when you get home." If only I had this kid's faith! He is working miracles and doing so well here. Santa, the recent convert said that she always knew what he was saying was true by the Spirit that he brought and how he would testify. I am so blessed for my MTC group- they are angels in suits and I am so glad that I came out with such fine young people. To continue on my Elder Lynch epicness, he had a miracle on Tuesday. One of his investigators is going to quit smoking. He traded his Bible for a lighter (Bibles are quite expensive here). He held them both up in the lesson and said, "Which is more important to you? Which would you rather have?" Martins picked the Bible!
On Wednesday we had a miracle of our own. We went to Ena's home and couldn't find her and her phone was off. We decided to check by the park just in case she was there and we ran into her and her daughter walking home from the store. We were able to teach both of them on a giant park bench with all of our legs swinging as we talked about how to be happy. Ena's prayer at the end was really good- she wants to come back to church. I tried making Dad's pizza- another successful Thor creation! Sadly yeast and Sister Ferrin don't quite mix so I won't be making pizza anytime soon.
On Wednesday we also taught Olga and Leva who we got from the elders. Olga is 16 and has some definite potential and Leva is well, 13. They are both terribly giggly and have a horrible addiction to smoking. They do want to quit though, so it should be a fun adventure with the two of them! We also taught Cynthia and her brother Erik. Erik is the little twirp who locked Sister Sutterfield and I in the library in Imanta. He tried the other week with Ieva to take me to prison, and my elders with shiny shoes had to save me from those jungle monsters. We had a fun object lesson about happiness that Erik loved a lot. They are two great members and I didn't get locked in prison again!
We did get kidnapped in a different sort of way while out knocking in apartment buildings. This "99.99%" atheist woman let us in and talked our ears off for 45 minutes. She even said she got us in "prison" and was talking our ear off and wasn't letting us talk even though she saw we were trying. He he. She was really nice though and actually fairly believing and smart. She just knows that she'd have to change if she believed in God more concretely, so she doesn't.
On Thursday we saw the first fruit of my calling labors. We met with Sanda. She was contacted by missionaries several years ago and brought her cute little runny nosed, bubble gum chewing 4-year-old Dennis to the meeting. She was fairly interested and asked a lot of questions about prophets. She travels a lot for her job though, so teaching her would be very difficult. Rihards, the 26-year-old first counselor helped us with a member lesson with Nodezda. She is Russian and we don't speak Russian. She understands Latvian but often answers more complicated spiritual things in Russian so he translated for us. It was a good meeting.
On Friday I went running barefoot on the beach again and played tag with the waves and let them try to chase me. I love Liepaja. The wind means that we have an excuse not to do our hair and it is cooler because the wind is nearly always blowing. It also gives us the chance to practice our Marilyn Monroe skills. We took Madara out contacting and had several miracles. The first was that a lady let us in and was quite interested and receptive. We are going back to teach her! She is in a hard spot in her life- sick parents, etc. so it is a good time for the gospel. We were continuing contacting in this 9-story apartment building (always start at the top!) when Leva and Olga called saying they wanted to smoke so they wanted to go to the church so they wouldn't. We left the dome with the unbreakable code (it was a miracle the door was open and we just walked right in) and went to buy them grapefruit juice (supposedly makes smoking super nasty and not desireable). At the store there was lo and behold MAGNUM ICE CREAM BARS! For those of you who haven't experienced these, they are a little taste of heaven on a stick. And a little heart attack, but very good. We haven't seen them in Latvia until now. Sister Sutterfield was rejoicing when we called her and told her; they are her favorite. So we went and taught the girls a spiritual thought. They behaved. No giggling. It was a miracle (possibly because we kicked Ieva out of the last lesson for being too giggly and not serious).
I have a confession. I'm in love. The neighbor kid to the church is so stinking cute. He is this little fat kid with glasses and his big pinch-able cheeks. He was also trying to climb over his fence and got stuck. And starting yelling and flapping his arms so it looked like he was swimming in the air. His police dog came and tried to scare him off the fence. I burst out laughing. It was quite the youTube hit quality adventure. He did finally get off the fence and then came over to us doing tricks and jumping and shook his head and went, "bbbbbbbbb!" with his jowels shaking. It was really the funniest thing I've seen in my life. I feel really bad that I was laughing, but things like that just don't happen in real life. I still snicker about it every time I think of Maxims stuck on his fence.
Our English class on Saturday went really well. We had the Russian dentist lady, our 2 way to cute to be in their 30s Russians, and Baiba- our only serious Latvian speaker who translates when the younger Russians ask questions in Russian. We decided to go over the Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet in Russian with them and it went over really well. Sure do wish I knew some Russian! We met with a less active family who just had a cute baby girl, Eliza. They are so nice and their six-year-old girl is a hoot. They stayed for some of the Latvian District Conference. It was really neat, Elder Mills got the buildings wired so we saw it broadcast from Imanta live! Elder Lawrence and Clayton were there as well and Elder Senkans and President Dance (with respective wives). They held a 2-hour Q&A session for the members. They could ask any question they wanted and the panel answered. It was really neat for them to have that. We had an older woman we met on the street come and like it, which was a miracle!
Leva and Olga (or oye! as we call them...previously Moye! until we split them off from Martins [the one who now has a Bible]) called and wanted a spiritual thought so we headed over to the church. We were in the midst of starting said very impromptu spiritual thought when the fire alarm went off. Now you see, we had fire safety for this building but didn't think president was serious about the noisy message in three languages "Uzmainibu Uzmainibu! There is an emer-g-ncy. Please exit this building. a;skldfjawoith (that was the Russian)" We learned how to turn said alarm off but it did not work. About 30 minutes later a police man came. By this time our investigators had left and we were just sitting talking and swatting at mosquitoes. Elder Lynch was fascinated that he had a gun. He couldn't get the alarm off either. So then we waited for another man to come and didn't leave until 9:30 from the church which had the speakers making an odd white sound and some of the rooms not smelling right. Sister Ferrin and I didn't sleep well at all for fear of the building burning down, but we couldn't do anything because the man that stopped the alarm said it was fine and the branch presidency was off in Riga at the District Conference.
On Sunday we got to the church. It didn't burn down. But the missionaries were apparently in charge of getting the branch to Riga. And the bus wasn't coming to the church. And neither were all the church members. Luckily the church is true and we found the bus and what stops we were supposed to pick people up at so we all got there. The most eventful part of the trip was the bathroom break. In the woods. Nevermind stopping at a city. 3/4 of the bus got off. Boys to the right and girls to the left. Seriously, we were just all in shock. Oye! were stinkers and went and smoked a cigarette during the potty break.
The conference was great. Same people as Saturday session. They all bore their testimonies and just talked to the church members here. They spoke often of being grateful, loving your country, counting your blessings, and improving yourself.
We went back with Sister Sutterfield and Wilson and had a chicken casserole (so not for summer heat) and then went off on mini-splits and went out working. Sister Wilson and I talked to some really good people. My favorite was this nice college-age kid who believes in yoga and he was just good to talk to though didn't want to meet with missionaries. We also met a super nice Russian lady who gave us her phone number.
Girls. They were so giggly. I felt like I was at a 13-year-old slumber party and it was warm, so I am still suffering from sleep deprivation.
Luckily MISSION CONFERENCE on Monday made up for it! It was so amazing. The whole entire mission was in the Imanta church together with the Dances, Lawrences, and Claytons. We took pictures with them and then were fed a spiritual feast. They all bore their short testimonies and then Elder Clayton held a Q&A session with us. He talked about getting along with companions, spiritual v. logical thinking, the relationship between faith and agency (Elder Lynch's question), forgiveness, and being a disciple of Jesus Christ. It was all really good and quite interesting to see how many of the scriptures that he used were also used in Preach My Gospel (thanks hand dandy multi-colored scripture marking). I especially like when Elder Clayton told us that it is just the beginning here. He told us that there is harvesting going on, but that we are also planting and sewing for later on. He told us that we are laying a foundation and that it will be great even though it is hard to take the long view. He also told us about the new stake in Moscow that was just formed. The church is growing here!
The biggest compliment was Sister Lawrence came up to Sister Ferrin and I (who were sitting in the front) after the meeting and told us that we had beautiful white smiles and "should be on a Colgate commercial." She also inquired as to if we used those whitening strips.
The senior couples put on a great lunch- chicken salad in croissants with brownies and ice cream. We got to stay until around 3pm and talk and socialize with missionaries from the mission. It was good to see all these faces that I may or may not see again. All the Russian elders are so tall! It is kind of fun to see the different personalities and body types that go with the certain speaking languages. Shorter Latvians, bigger Russians, nerdy Estonians, etc. etc.
The ride home was fun. We went to center with some of the Lithuanian elders and got to talk to them. One kid, Elder Carroll, was actually in a past New Era that we found in our apartment. I only teased him once about it, don't worry. We went into Stockmanns (a store with food from America) and got some bread and yogurt and then talked instead of sleeping on the way home. It was fun to learn more about the elders. Elder Holdaway's family is really into ultra-marathoning. He's done a ton of races and normally runs barefoot. Elder Lynch told us more about his family and it was just good to talk. We crashed once we got home though. It is getting harder to sleep though because it is brighter and warmer. Wish us luck!
Love you all,
Sister Lindstrom
On Monday we went out with the elders (yes there are elders- Elder Holdaway and Lynch) and Santa and Sandis to Olive. It is this really neat restaurant with a floating roof garden and giant fun couches and very very slow service. The food was okay- liked the grill taste and Elder Holdaway's chips (aka fries, but we have Elder Lynch from Scotland) were delicious. We took Santa out because she is leaving for Riga and will be going to the Imanta Branch for the summer. The funniest thing was Sandis eating the sour cream he got to go with his potato pancakes whilst saying, "This tastes weird", shuddering, but still eating it. Latvians love their sour cream. On anything. We also did some shopping. Sister Ferrin found a little red dress for Mission Conference and I found a pretty epic dress right out of the fifties that is most definitely coming home with me. I found a jacket that I am really excited about. I probably won't get to wear it on my mission, but it is to make up for the coat that I never got in France that I am still dreaming about.
Speaking of France on Tuesday I called France. It was awful. I started speaking Latvian to the poor French woman. Elder Lynch laughed. I almost cried. Luckily, I can still understand French perfectly and the woman understood my Fratvian and told me how to get to the church so that some Branch members from Liepaja who are working in France can go to church there. I am so grateful for Elder Lynch and his faith. He always just tells me, "Don't worry about your French masa. God sent you here foreign speaking and he will bless you to be able to speak French perfectly when you get home." If only I had this kid's faith! He is working miracles and doing so well here. Santa, the recent convert said that she always knew what he was saying was true by the Spirit that he brought and how he would testify. I am so blessed for my MTC group- they are angels in suits and I am so glad that I came out with such fine young people. To continue on my Elder Lynch epicness, he had a miracle on Tuesday. One of his investigators is going to quit smoking. He traded his Bible for a lighter (Bibles are quite expensive here). He held them both up in the lesson and said, "Which is more important to you? Which would you rather have?" Martins picked the Bible!
On Wednesday we had a miracle of our own. We went to Ena's home and couldn't find her and her phone was off. We decided to check by the park just in case she was there and we ran into her and her daughter walking home from the store. We were able to teach both of them on a giant park bench with all of our legs swinging as we talked about how to be happy. Ena's prayer at the end was really good- she wants to come back to church. I tried making Dad's pizza- another successful Thor creation! Sadly yeast and Sister Ferrin don't quite mix so I won't be making pizza anytime soon.
On Wednesday we also taught Olga and Leva who we got from the elders. Olga is 16 and has some definite potential and Leva is well, 13. They are both terribly giggly and have a horrible addiction to smoking. They do want to quit though, so it should be a fun adventure with the two of them! We also taught Cynthia and her brother Erik. Erik is the little twirp who locked Sister Sutterfield and I in the library in Imanta. He tried the other week with Ieva to take me to prison, and my elders with shiny shoes had to save me from those jungle monsters. We had a fun object lesson about happiness that Erik loved a lot. They are two great members and I didn't get locked in prison again!
We did get kidnapped in a different sort of way while out knocking in apartment buildings. This "99.99%" atheist woman let us in and talked our ears off for 45 minutes. She even said she got us in "prison" and was talking our ear off and wasn't letting us talk even though she saw we were trying. He he. She was really nice though and actually fairly believing and smart. She just knows that she'd have to change if she believed in God more concretely, so she doesn't.
On Thursday we saw the first fruit of my calling labors. We met with Sanda. She was contacted by missionaries several years ago and brought her cute little runny nosed, bubble gum chewing 4-year-old Dennis to the meeting. She was fairly interested and asked a lot of questions about prophets. She travels a lot for her job though, so teaching her would be very difficult. Rihards, the 26-year-old first counselor helped us with a member lesson with Nodezda. She is Russian and we don't speak Russian. She understands Latvian but often answers more complicated spiritual things in Russian so he translated for us. It was a good meeting.
On Friday I went running barefoot on the beach again and played tag with the waves and let them try to chase me. I love Liepaja. The wind means that we have an excuse not to do our hair and it is cooler because the wind is nearly always blowing. It also gives us the chance to practice our Marilyn Monroe skills. We took Madara out contacting and had several miracles. The first was that a lady let us in and was quite interested and receptive. We are going back to teach her! She is in a hard spot in her life- sick parents, etc. so it is a good time for the gospel. We were continuing contacting in this 9-story apartment building (always start at the top!) when Leva and Olga called saying they wanted to smoke so they wanted to go to the church so they wouldn't. We left the dome with the unbreakable code (it was a miracle the door was open and we just walked right in) and went to buy them grapefruit juice (supposedly makes smoking super nasty and not desireable). At the store there was lo and behold MAGNUM ICE CREAM BARS! For those of you who haven't experienced these, they are a little taste of heaven on a stick. And a little heart attack, but very good. We haven't seen them in Latvia until now. Sister Sutterfield was rejoicing when we called her and told her; they are her favorite. So we went and taught the girls a spiritual thought. They behaved. No giggling. It was a miracle (possibly because we kicked Ieva out of the last lesson for being too giggly and not serious).
I have a confession. I'm in love. The neighbor kid to the church is so stinking cute. He is this little fat kid with glasses and his big pinch-able cheeks. He was also trying to climb over his fence and got stuck. And starting yelling and flapping his arms so it looked like he was swimming in the air. His police dog came and tried to scare him off the fence. I burst out laughing. It was quite the youTube hit quality adventure. He did finally get off the fence and then came over to us doing tricks and jumping and shook his head and went, "bbbbbbbbb!" with his jowels shaking. It was really the funniest thing I've seen in my life. I feel really bad that I was laughing, but things like that just don't happen in real life. I still snicker about it every time I think of Maxims stuck on his fence.
Our English class on Saturday went really well. We had the Russian dentist lady, our 2 way to cute to be in their 30s Russians, and Baiba- our only serious Latvian speaker who translates when the younger Russians ask questions in Russian. We decided to go over the Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet in Russian with them and it went over really well. Sure do wish I knew some Russian! We met with a less active family who just had a cute baby girl, Eliza. They are so nice and their six-year-old girl is a hoot. They stayed for some of the Latvian District Conference. It was really neat, Elder Mills got the buildings wired so we saw it broadcast from Imanta live! Elder Lawrence and Clayton were there as well and Elder Senkans and President Dance (with respective wives). They held a 2-hour Q&A session for the members. They could ask any question they wanted and the panel answered. It was really neat for them to have that. We had an older woman we met on the street come and like it, which was a miracle!
Leva and Olga (or oye! as we call them...previously Moye! until we split them off from Martins [the one who now has a Bible]) called and wanted a spiritual thought so we headed over to the church. We were in the midst of starting said very impromptu spiritual thought when the fire alarm went off. Now you see, we had fire safety for this building but didn't think president was serious about the noisy message in three languages "Uzmainibu Uzmainibu! There is an emer-g-ncy. Please exit this building. a;skldfjawoith (that was the Russian)" We learned how to turn said alarm off but it did not work. About 30 minutes later a police man came. By this time our investigators had left and we were just sitting talking and swatting at mosquitoes. Elder Lynch was fascinated that he had a gun. He couldn't get the alarm off either. So then we waited for another man to come and didn't leave until 9:30 from the church which had the speakers making an odd white sound and some of the rooms not smelling right. Sister Ferrin and I didn't sleep well at all for fear of the building burning down, but we couldn't do anything because the man that stopped the alarm said it was fine and the branch presidency was off in Riga at the District Conference.
On Sunday we got to the church. It didn't burn down. But the missionaries were apparently in charge of getting the branch to Riga. And the bus wasn't coming to the church. And neither were all the church members. Luckily the church is true and we found the bus and what stops we were supposed to pick people up at so we all got there. The most eventful part of the trip was the bathroom break. In the woods. Nevermind stopping at a city. 3/4 of the bus got off. Boys to the right and girls to the left. Seriously, we were just all in shock. Oye! were stinkers and went and smoked a cigarette during the potty break.
The conference was great. Same people as Saturday session. They all bore their testimonies and just talked to the church members here. They spoke often of being grateful, loving your country, counting your blessings, and improving yourself.
We went back with Sister Sutterfield and Wilson and had a chicken casserole (so not for summer heat) and then went off on mini-splits and went out working. Sister Wilson and I talked to some really good people. My favorite was this nice college-age kid who believes in yoga and he was just good to talk to though didn't want to meet with missionaries. We also met a super nice Russian lady who gave us her phone number.
Girls. They were so giggly. I felt like I was at a 13-year-old slumber party and it was warm, so I am still suffering from sleep deprivation.
Luckily MISSION CONFERENCE on Monday made up for it! It was so amazing. The whole entire mission was in the Imanta church together with the Dances, Lawrences, and Claytons. We took pictures with them and then were fed a spiritual feast. They all bore their short testimonies and then Elder Clayton held a Q&A session with us. He talked about getting along with companions, spiritual v. logical thinking, the relationship between faith and agency (Elder Lynch's question), forgiveness, and being a disciple of Jesus Christ. It was all really good and quite interesting to see how many of the scriptures that he used were also used in Preach My Gospel (thanks hand dandy multi-colored scripture marking). I especially like when Elder Clayton told us that it is just the beginning here. He told us that there is harvesting going on, but that we are also planting and sewing for later on. He told us that we are laying a foundation and that it will be great even though it is hard to take the long view. He also told us about the new stake in Moscow that was just formed. The church is growing here!
The biggest compliment was Sister Lawrence came up to Sister Ferrin and I (who were sitting in the front) after the meeting and told us that we had beautiful white smiles and "should be on a Colgate commercial." She also inquired as to if we used those whitening strips.
The senior couples put on a great lunch- chicken salad in croissants with brownies and ice cream. We got to stay until around 3pm and talk and socialize with missionaries from the mission. It was good to see all these faces that I may or may not see again. All the Russian elders are so tall! It is kind of fun to see the different personalities and body types that go with the certain speaking languages. Shorter Latvians, bigger Russians, nerdy Estonians, etc. etc.
The ride home was fun. We went to center with some of the Lithuanian elders and got to talk to them. One kid, Elder Carroll, was actually in a past New Era that we found in our apartment. I only teased him once about it, don't worry. We went into Stockmanns (a store with food from America) and got some bread and yogurt and then talked instead of sleeping on the way home. It was fun to learn more about the elders. Elder Holdaway's family is really into ultra-marathoning. He's done a ton of races and normally runs barefoot. Elder Lynch told us more about his family and it was just good to talk. We crashed once we got home though. It is getting harder to sleep though because it is brighter and warmer. Wish us luck!
Love you all,
Sister Lindstrom
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
