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