This week was a lot more mellow than last week. It made it seem like it was forever ago that I was off on adventures in Lithuania. On Monday we didn't do much. I sat and listened to very funny Latvian pop songs for an hour and a half while Sister Ferrin got a pedicure. She really liked it and it made her happy. The cepelini from Cepelini did not make us as happy forever. We were quite excited to try this Lithuanian dish of meat in a potato shell with sauce after our excursion there but it wasn't very good. I'm sure it lives up to its reputation in Lithuania though. We did some shopping and I found a pretty awesome Vera Mode cardigan (for all you people who have been to Europe) for $1.50 which is quite the steal. It was definitely the highlight of my day. (That and that the color is, and I quote, "shark blue.") We did lots of calling in the evening (to be continued....)
Tuesday we went and visited former investigator Astride. She is an older lady that I called on Monday. She is sick and lonely and wanted us to come over right then. I told her that we couldn't Monday night, but that we could the next day so she said, "In the morning!" She is a sweet lady who has back problems and is going blind. She can't read but her kids bought her a plane ticket to England and she is going to get a laser eye operation there. We enjoyed visiting with her. She was pretty great. She wants to come to our church once she is back and she told us that we have beautiful teeth and that we need to get married. She also couldn't believe that we had to be in at 9pm. "That is the best time for dating! You should go out. No one would know." This was later followed by, "Latvian men are awful. They all drink and smoke." We visited with less active Ena who is still less active. At least she knows what she should be doing, that is always a good start. We taught her about Jesus Christ. I really like how frank she is. "No I didn't read the Book of Mormon. I could have, I had time, but I watched this new serial on TV instead even though I should be reading." We also met with Oskars and taught him about becoming gods (he asked for it!). It went much better than we were expecting and then we met with the Frolovi and trying to control Uldis, the dad, and Eriks, the son. We were talking about the armor of God. "I'd rather have a tree!" interrupted Eriks. And then in English Uldis starts, "Do you know what super hero is more powerful than spiderman? What is the word for cibas in English? Ah yes, slippers. Slipperman!" Oh goodness!
We feasted on homemade pizza on Wednesday and visited with Rita. She is still doing well and then we had sports night with the youth, which mostly consisted of Rita throwing a volleyball as hard as she could at Sandijs and vice versa. Madara went with us contacting. She is hopefully going to serve a mini-mission so we are pretty excited for her. The hooligans that are normally at the church were out where we were knocking. One of them has a crush on Sister Ferrin (he is maybe 12) and his older friend came into the apartment we were knocking and yelled, "We love you sisters!" while we were talking to this lady at her door. Jinkies!
Thursday was quite the day (conclusion of Monday). I called a potential investigator, Vineta, on Monday and she wanted to meet. Even more of a miracle was that she actually showed up, and with her two adorable kids. Her girl is probably around 4 or 5. "You speak Latvian bad. It sounds like Russian." "Well we aren't from Latvia." "Oh, that makes sense." Her little boy was a very big two year old who loved to play with the lights. So we were attempting to teach Vineta a first with all this excitement going on and watch The Restoration film. "I've seen this film before with other sisters. They came to my house and we watched it." Later on, "I have that book (pointing to The Book of Mormon) but it is black and it is bigger." "Does it have The Pearl of Great Price? Are you a member?" She was! It turns out that Vineta is this inactive member that has been missing for several years. How insane is that?!!? She doesn't have a correct address on the ward list and the phone number is wrong, so no one could ever find her. Her cell phone number was on a potential investigator list though. I love finding lost sheep! It is so sad that they get lost though. On Friday I went through the ward member sheets to try to find hers. It was sad to see how many lost sheep there are. About 2/3 of the teaching records are people who are no longer on the ward list because no one could contact them.
After our mind boggling appointment with Vineta we went to the new Relief Society President's home. Ruta had yummy "bab food" as Elder Lynch calls it. Zelma, another member had come over for a visit so we taught both of them the importance of visiting teaching. "It is summer. We don't do that here during the summer! No time!" Jinkies! We gave her a list of all the women in Relief Society so she can make assignments. She and Zelma were looking at it and started telling us all the info on everyone. It is sad how many people don't come to church because of a miscommunication that offended them. Santa's meeting was eventful as usual. We were talking about the ten commandments. "Oh! I know those! Word of Wisdom, go to church, give talks, celibacy..." "It is the law of chastity Santa, you can get married and stuff." "Yeah, yeah, celibacy." We then taught her the real ten commandments, but I won't lie, I really liked hers. Thursday we also went to try to find the referral that Uldis gave us. Problem is he lives in a large apartment building and we don't know his apartment number, nor his native language, Russian. It should be quite the adventure trying to find him!
Friday was my name day! (My real one, not in April like we thought). Happy name day to me! I made myself cupcakes. We met with Astride again. She was so much happier and looking better. She still wants us to go with her and take her to the airport and live with her though. I'm worried that if we did she would lock us out and make us go out and party in the evenings. We had a neat district meeting. We learned some of the new mission rules. First rule: smile once each day. (tangent: I'm kind of sad it is only once a day. I'm just going to pretend that it means wake up and smile and keep it on until the end of the day!) The other is more news. 1. We are all getting DVD players for our apartments. We will be able to watch The District, The Restoration, and one or two other church films. Moscow mission is getting to do the pilot programs with ipads. I am so jealous! They are going to do area book work online so that the mission president and stake presidents, etc. can have access to it as well. I hope that happens for everyone soon. I think we youngsters would keep a lot better track of people if it was on a computers [and save the trees!]. We learned that a new focus we will have is having good studies. I really like President Boswell's focus on Preach My Gospel. It is such a great resource we all have as members of the church.
Saturday we got to go out running again (after a very long period of not running which caused much sadness in my land) and so naturally something interesting happened. There is a huge music festival and so there were many drunk young persons roaming around the streets at 6:30am. And pretty much all weekend. English class was only Santa and Viktoria again. They are a fun little class. We went and visited Lidija, a member in the evening. She fell in her kitchen "Like a ball! I've never fallen like that in my life. I don't know how I did it. Ha ha ha." She was pretty epic in the best sense of the word. Her head was still hurting so she tried lying on different pillows and then wrapping a scarf around her head. At that point Sister F. just burst out laughing. By the end of our visit she had born a sweet testimony and her head was feeling better. So neat!
Sunday was good. No surprises. Church was fine and dinner was lovely, naturally (cous cous with carrots and carmelized onions if you were wondering). We went out contacting. No one too interesting to report on.
I love you all! The church is true!
Bisous!
Soeur Lindstrom
Monday, July 25, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Week 22
Mari and Sister Ferrin
Monday was the best preparation day lunch ever! Madara came with us and we ate at the Pastnieka Maja. I love that place and their garden outside was so beautiful. I got some carrot and spinach soup that was to die for as well as Rataouille that had olives in it (odd). Madara showed us this store run by Indians (from India). They had clothing and incense and all sorts of stuff from India. Sister Ferrin found some pretty epic genie pants for 30$. Rita helped us go to visit Artvis, that cute old man we contacted into last week whose wife passed away. He was the nicest fellow ever but not interested in the gospel, just having company. He was so cute though! He bought us cookies and chocolate and cut out a picture from the newspaper to show us. He also told us about his crazy downstairs neighbor who goes swimming in the sea every morning and comes to visit him every week and tries to convert him. It was the exorcists! It was pretty funny talking to him about his special neighbor. A funny drunk Russian man was hitting on Sister Ferrin the way there. "You have wife? You wife?" "I don't understand." The man then proceeds to ask Rita how to say husband in English. "You have husband? I be husband!" You've got to love when members help people hit on your companion. It was pretty darn funny; glad it wasn't me!
On Tuesday in District Meeting I was practicing with Elder Holdaway. He did a great job. He replaced my investigator name in the sacrament prayers. It was a really powerful experience. I recommend doing it (in your mind) next Sunday as you hear the sacrament prayers. It makes Christ's sacrifice for us all a lot more personal. Oskars forgot what time it was so he was 30 minutes late to his meeting. Luckily Sarra and Ieva kept us entertained. They insisted that we dance to MoTab. They were so hilarious, wanting to be dipped and twirled. We also had some good chit chats with Madara and Rita.
Wednesday morning (far too early for my liking) we headed up to Riga so Sister Ferrin could get some blood work as well as her migration done. I got to head off with Sister Stout (my favorite Russian-speaking sister ever!) and my bubbly blonde friend Sister Wilson. Sister Stout did a great job teaching a lesson in Russian about the prophet. We then met up with the sisters at the doctors; they had taken the apartment keys and Sister Stout was sick. We found out we were staying the night! Sister Ferrin was supposed to fast. I knew I should have listened to that prompting and told her to fast anyway! Needless to say, it made for a fun adventure, no clothes, no toothbrush, no worries. I got to go out contacting with Sister Wilson for a little bit and then I stayed in with Sister Stout while the other three went out and we got to talk and eat brownies and ice cream with raspberries...mmmm! Poor Sister Ferrin came home quite ill. We had to call the assistants to give her a blessing and then she spent a while more bowing to the porcelain throne. Priesthood blessings work wonders in making you puke!
Thursday morning we headed out to get the blood test done as well as a donut. Yes, there is one donut shop in all of Riga and naturally the missionaries know about it. We finally got home later in the afternoon to a rainstorm, our hot water still off (had been since Tuesday), and our phone not working. Luckily we were meeting with Santa, so none of those factors mattered. We watched the Restoration with her. She is hilarious! "Ciao Joseph!" "Did he really like horses?" "Wooooww!" (when Joseph saw God).
Friday was another special day....we went to Lithuania! We took a bus and headed down to Klaipeda to meet with two sisters from Kaunus to do a switcheroo for the weekend. We got to go around rainy Klaipeda trying to find all the different statues and such randomly hidden throughout the city. I found an amazing restaurant called Le Cle (the key in French). The chef there has a new menu every week and they have this awesome garlic spread and bread station. The waitress gives you a cutting board and you can go and get more whenever you desire. If I ever own a business of some sort, I think I will call it Le Cle too. We headed back to the bus station through the sculpture park (over 100 sculptures) and met the sisters. We went with them to get pizza and ice cream and headed back to the bus station. Sister Ferrin and Edgin left but Sister G and my bus didn't come! It came two hours late so we got to go out and see more of the city and then come back before our bus got in. The bus driver stopped in Palanga, this beach town where everyone and I mean EVERYONE goes during the summer. There were so many people walking down the sidewalk by all the restaurants and booths that we couldn't get to the beach fast enough to make it back for our bus. We bought waffles on a stick that were dipped in chocolate syrup instead. I guess I really liked Palanga, because I left my tag there. We noticed that it fell off but there were really sooooooooo many people we never would have found it. Lots of families and couples were there. I guess it is tradition in Lithuania to bring your date a flower so there were many girls selling very long stemmed red roses in Palanga. Sister Grinevachute (sounds like green apple juice) and I got back home a little bit before 11pm and headed off to bed.
We woke up for an exciting day of Russian! Sister G. taught me some Russian and I taught her some Latvian and then we went out contacting and taught Santa and her friend Viktoria in English. We couldn't get Viktoria to take a copy of the Book of Mormon...bummer. We did teach them head-shoulders-knees-and-toes and they also loved drawing monsters to practice using body part vocabulary. We met with Nadezda and Sister G taught her in Russian about service. We came home to a smelly house. I started heating up some beans this morning and forgot to turn off the stove when we left. Oopsie! Well, we had black beans, that was for sure! I double check the stove now. We met with Rita and gave her some ideas for her talk tomorrow and then we went out knocking. We did pretty good picking Russian domes...only one person spoke Latvian that answered the door (and they were Russian). We had one lady who said we could come back next week. Too bad she only speaks Russian! It was nice to get out and work though. I didn't really have to clean the church today. Sintija came and was helping and told us that her dad was in Greece. EEKS! Her dad was supposed to be driving us to Lithuania tomorrow. Elder Holdaway went into battle plan mode and the last member who owns a car said they could help us. God answers prayers!
Mari and Sister Grinevachute
After church Kaspars, the ward mission leader, drove Sister G., Madara, and me to Klaipeda. Twenty minutes in he realized he didn't have his drivers lisence so we had to go back. And then there was traffic. In the woods. THE WOODS. So we were stuck in the woods for about 30 minutes stop and go traffic (reason? PALANGA!) but we made it to Klaipeda to switch partners and take Elder Hengst up with us. He is a nice elder from Germany who is going up with our elders to a training meeting on Monday.
Church was quite the event. That angel wing/lei man came. He took off his wig when he got inside today and the elders had four investigators! I sat with this sweet old 83-year-old that they invited to church last night. She was hard of hearing and basically yelled right before the sacrament prayer, "I'm hard of hearing but I can feel God's peace." While they were passing the bread she asked me if she could take it. "I've been blessed and baptized." "Of course!" I helped her take the water since her hands were so shaky. It was quite a humbling experience. The poor woman feels like she is dying and her daughter and granddaughter died. Rita's talk was amazing! I wanted to get her a standing ovation I was so proud. It was the best talk by far during sacrament meeting. Relief Society was interesting. We were talking about family responsibilities and we got talking about peoples' childhoods and during Stalin's reign and such. I am glad I was born where I was with the wonderful family, ward family, and friends that I have. May God bless you all.
Love,
Sister Lindstrom
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Week 21
Monday July 11, 2011
I'm so glad that you all have a wonderful Fourth of July. It sounded much more epic than ours. Rihards showed up to lunch at Fontaine's for hamburgers with a striped jean shirt, an American flag tie, and socks that said USA on them. It was the most awful thing I have ever seen in my life. He said that people kept on staring at him as he was walking. I don't blame them. We ate our hamburgers and fries out on the dock and Rihards got us all talking about music because he wanted to know to what we liked to listen. Sister Ferrin and I were very close to convincing Rihards to get a pedicure with us. Sister Ferrin has been wanting one since April and we didn't have anything to do so we asked him where you can get pedicures. He then recommended the place which he frequents. I may or may not have started laughing. Out loud. He then proceeded to tell us how healthy it is and how it is normal for men and women to get them. He also said if men don't go out they'd still probably do them and not let their wife know. He proceeded to act out a scenario of a husband giving himself a pedicure in the bathroom and trying to hide it from his wife. He's a funny Latvian. We went out with Annika to go visit a Russian less active that lived in the middle of nowhere after we met with Oskars. She wasn't home!! Annika didn't seem to bothered by it and she brought us Fourth of July gifts (as did Rihards). Funny Latvians. I'm pretty sure they were more excited about the holiday than we were with our glowstick bracelets. We are enjoying the cooler (cross your fingers) so far summer weather and fruits. Strawberry season just ended and now we are on to cherries and blueberries at the market.
On Tuesday I found my favorite talk for the month, "One Step After Another" by J.B. Wirthlin. We had a lively district meeting about to be and to do (based off of the talk from the past session of conference). The highlight of my Tuesday was visiting Daina. She is a member who served a mission, but we haven't felt that she likes us very much. Sister Ferrin used her mad friend making skills though and now we are just buddy pals. I was so nervous to go to her apartment at first, but it all got worked out.
Wednesday was a fun day. In the evening we got to play floor ball with the hooligans and Ingus and his brothers (Lauris and Raivo). Maxims my favorite 10-year-old friend was out pretending to be an airplane and then a cat. He then proceeded to make faces at me. I wish he could come play with us, his parents won't allow it. I scored a goal or two even! Woot! I also used my mad phone calling skills and called about 40 former English class participants and asked them if they wanted to come to English or visit with missionaries. I could totally work in a call center. We met with Rita and went over the Plan of Salvation before sports and before that we went and had a little tea time fun at Zelma Golta's apartment. She made us pancakes and we had them with honey and tart cherry jam. It was an interesting lesson...Zelma somehow got on a tangent about this lady in Latvia who would see people's deaths before they happened. Our lesson was on charity and missionary work. I'm still not quite sure how that happened. Liga got interviewed and passed! Woot! She was pretty funny when we were going through them with her before. "Of course I believe that otherwise I wouldn't be here." Well duh!
On Thursday we had planning and I did some piano practicing. Santa is a hoot and a half. We were talking about the plan of salvation and she thought that when we are ressurected it will be like zombies. She then proceeded to act like a zombie. We cleared that up. It is so fun to watch her grow! She is getting happier every day and is letting her sparkling personality show..
Friday was spent trying to figure out our lives....at least how to get to Lithuania! There is a sister from Lithuania serving there and they are having a big party and she can't go because all her friends will be there so she is coming up to Liepaja with me and Sister Ferrin gets to go down to Lithuania for a few days. There aren't a lot of busses or anything that go there so it takes a lot of planning, especially since it is going to a different country! We had an eventful night contacting. We went to Dzintara iela (Gold Street...how fitting). This one old lady, Sofia, let us straight in, regardless of her lack of clothing (Thank you whoever invented bathrobes) and wants to read The Book of Mormon (although she wouldn't take it). She wants to meet with us again so that is exciting. We also had two men invite us in. We couldn't because of the rule of three (curses!). One has had missionaries over before, but he doesn't believe and his wife died. We told him he could live with her again and that we wanted to talk about it. It is hard having to tell people you can't come in and teach them something that would make them so happy! The second man was a Lutheran in his 30s with shoulder length shiny brown hair. He has a family and with Sister Ferrin's looks and my persistant testifying he was like, "Okay, fine. Come in. I'm interested now." The next apartment we got invited into we shouldn't have gone in either. It was this Pentecostal prayer group who were well versed in the Bible and Book of Mormon. Just so you all know, I have a different bad spirit about me, but I told him he couldn't perform an exorcism and that I'd just tell my pastor person about it instead. We did stay for a prayer though. They were so very kind and asked God to forgive us since we don't know what we are doing. The head hancho man (it was this cute 50 year old peppy lady who answered the door) spoke in tongues, asked why we couldn't and wanted to touch my head when he was praying. It was interesting and I was glad to go. I am so grateful that we don't tell people they are satanic and make them feel awkward when we pray. It is definitely not God's way.
English class was funny today. The dentist wasn't there but some man who thought we should teach Russian was. Santa came and brought her friend Viktoria. It was so neat to see Santa show her around the church and just their interactions with each other. We were talking to Santa about our coloring homework from Ieva and then she said that she wanted some so we got her a coloring page too! (Although this week Ieva told me that I needed to go gardening in lieu of giving me a coloring page. She is a pretty funny girl.) We cleaned the church, just us four missionaries today and then we had Liga's baptism. I played prelude and postlude and President Scer. had us missionaries sing a musical number. He wanted just the sisters, but we insisted that the elders sing along (and thank heavens too because Elder Clark is the only one who really knows how to sing). Liga had to get dunked twice...poor lady. The first time her legs were thrashing and we thought President was drowning her. She brought two friends. One of them was crying after the baptism and asked, "Can we get baptised right now too?" She took home a Book of Mormon.
Sunday was a day of crepe making! We had 48 people at church today...a record! It helped that we had this gorgeous 17-year-old from Seattle and her exchange friend. They are doing this program where they spend a month at eachother's homes. I was able to translate a really good sacrament meeting for her. One of the talks was in Russian so I had to translate it from the translation a member was telling me. There were definitely a lot of things lost in translation! The District President gave an excellent talk on tithing though. Sunday School was good and Relief Society was almost a wreck talking about the temple. One member started asking about having multiple husbands (since they died) and if she could get sealed to both of them...aye aye aye! We also had Branch council...in Russian. Sunday night we met with Madara because she is having a hard time. Sister Ferrin was able to help her out while I chased around little Elizabeth that she is babysitting on weekends.
I had a great study this morning about our purpose on earth. Here's some homework!
2 Nephi 2:11; 10:23-24; 25:23
Alma 34:31-34
Romans 6:23
Galatians 6:7-9
Abraham 3:25
Matthew 6:33, 16:24-26
The church is true! Christ is our Savior and Redeemer!
Love, Sister Lindstrom
I'm so glad that you all have a wonderful Fourth of July. It sounded much more epic than ours. Rihards showed up to lunch at Fontaine's for hamburgers with a striped jean shirt, an American flag tie, and socks that said USA on them. It was the most awful thing I have ever seen in my life. He said that people kept on staring at him as he was walking. I don't blame them. We ate our hamburgers and fries out on the dock and Rihards got us all talking about music because he wanted to know to what we liked to listen. Sister Ferrin and I were very close to convincing Rihards to get a pedicure with us. Sister Ferrin has been wanting one since April and we didn't have anything to do so we asked him where you can get pedicures. He then recommended the place which he frequents. I may or may not have started laughing. Out loud. He then proceeded to tell us how healthy it is and how it is normal for men and women to get them. He also said if men don't go out they'd still probably do them and not let their wife know. He proceeded to act out a scenario of a husband giving himself a pedicure in the bathroom and trying to hide it from his wife. He's a funny Latvian. We went out with Annika to go visit a Russian less active that lived in the middle of nowhere after we met with Oskars. She wasn't home!! Annika didn't seem to bothered by it and she brought us Fourth of July gifts (as did Rihards). Funny Latvians. I'm pretty sure they were more excited about the holiday than we were with our glowstick bracelets. We are enjoying the cooler (cross your fingers) so far summer weather and fruits. Strawberry season just ended and now we are on to cherries and blueberries at the market.
On Tuesday I found my favorite talk for the month, "One Step After Another" by J.B. Wirthlin. We had a lively district meeting about to be and to do (based off of the talk from the past session of conference). The highlight of my Tuesday was visiting Daina. She is a member who served a mission, but we haven't felt that she likes us very much. Sister Ferrin used her mad friend making skills though and now we are just buddy pals. I was so nervous to go to her apartment at first, but it all got worked out.
Wednesday was a fun day. In the evening we got to play floor ball with the hooligans and Ingus and his brothers (Lauris and Raivo). Maxims my favorite 10-year-old friend was out pretending to be an airplane and then a cat. He then proceeded to make faces at me. I wish he could come play with us, his parents won't allow it. I scored a goal or two even! Woot! I also used my mad phone calling skills and called about 40 former English class participants and asked them if they wanted to come to English or visit with missionaries. I could totally work in a call center. We met with Rita and went over the Plan of Salvation before sports and before that we went and had a little tea time fun at Zelma Golta's apartment. She made us pancakes and we had them with honey and tart cherry jam. It was an interesting lesson...Zelma somehow got on a tangent about this lady in Latvia who would see people's deaths before they happened. Our lesson was on charity and missionary work. I'm still not quite sure how that happened. Liga got interviewed and passed! Woot! She was pretty funny when we were going through them with her before. "Of course I believe that otherwise I wouldn't be here." Well duh!
On Thursday we had planning and I did some piano practicing. Santa is a hoot and a half. We were talking about the plan of salvation and she thought that when we are ressurected it will be like zombies. She then proceeded to act like a zombie. We cleared that up. It is so fun to watch her grow! She is getting happier every day and is letting her sparkling personality show..
Friday was spent trying to figure out our lives....at least how to get to Lithuania! There is a sister from Lithuania serving there and they are having a big party and she can't go because all her friends will be there so she is coming up to Liepaja with me and Sister Ferrin gets to go down to Lithuania for a few days. There aren't a lot of busses or anything that go there so it takes a lot of planning, especially since it is going to a different country! We had an eventful night contacting. We went to Dzintara iela (Gold Street...how fitting). This one old lady, Sofia, let us straight in, regardless of her lack of clothing (Thank you whoever invented bathrobes) and wants to read The Book of Mormon (although she wouldn't take it). She wants to meet with us again so that is exciting. We also had two men invite us in. We couldn't because of the rule of three (curses!). One has had missionaries over before, but he doesn't believe and his wife died. We told him he could live with her again and that we wanted to talk about it. It is hard having to tell people you can't come in and teach them something that would make them so happy! The second man was a Lutheran in his 30s with shoulder length shiny brown hair. He has a family and with Sister Ferrin's looks and my persistant testifying he was like, "Okay, fine. Come in. I'm interested now." The next apartment we got invited into we shouldn't have gone in either. It was this Pentecostal prayer group who were well versed in the Bible and Book of Mormon. Just so you all know, I have a different bad spirit about me, but I told him he couldn't perform an exorcism and that I'd just tell my pastor person about it instead. We did stay for a prayer though. They were so very kind and asked God to forgive us since we don't know what we are doing. The head hancho man (it was this cute 50 year old peppy lady who answered the door) spoke in tongues, asked why we couldn't and wanted to touch my head when he was praying. It was interesting and I was glad to go. I am so grateful that we don't tell people they are satanic and make them feel awkward when we pray. It is definitely not God's way.
English class was funny today. The dentist wasn't there but some man who thought we should teach Russian was. Santa came and brought her friend Viktoria. It was so neat to see Santa show her around the church and just their interactions with each other. We were talking to Santa about our coloring homework from Ieva and then she said that she wanted some so we got her a coloring page too! (Although this week Ieva told me that I needed to go gardening in lieu of giving me a coloring page. She is a pretty funny girl.) We cleaned the church, just us four missionaries today and then we had Liga's baptism. I played prelude and postlude and President Scer. had us missionaries sing a musical number. He wanted just the sisters, but we insisted that the elders sing along (and thank heavens too because Elder Clark is the only one who really knows how to sing). Liga had to get dunked twice...poor lady. The first time her legs were thrashing and we thought President was drowning her. She brought two friends. One of them was crying after the baptism and asked, "Can we get baptised right now too?" She took home a Book of Mormon.
Sunday was a day of crepe making! We had 48 people at church today...a record! It helped that we had this gorgeous 17-year-old from Seattle and her exchange friend. They are doing this program where they spend a month at eachother's homes. I was able to translate a really good sacrament meeting for her. One of the talks was in Russian so I had to translate it from the translation a member was telling me. There were definitely a lot of things lost in translation! The District President gave an excellent talk on tithing though. Sunday School was good and Relief Society was almost a wreck talking about the temple. One member started asking about having multiple husbands (since they died) and if she could get sealed to both of them...aye aye aye! We also had Branch council...in Russian. Sunday night we met with Madara because she is having a hard time. Sister Ferrin was able to help her out while I chased around little Elizabeth that she is babysitting on weekends.
I had a great study this morning about our purpose on earth. Here's some homework!
2 Nephi 2:11; 10:23-24; 25:23
Alma 34:31-34
Romans 6:23
Galatians 6:7-9
Abraham 3:25
Matthew 6:33, 16:24-26
The church is true! Christ is our Savior and Redeemer!
Love, Sister Lindstrom
Monday, July 4, 2011
Week 20
(don't forget to enjoy the pictures at the end of Mari's letter)
July 4, 2011 from Mari
Hello hello from sunny Liepaja! We have actually had a lot of rainstorms this past week but that is fine with me because it keeps the world cool. Modest is hottest has taken on a new meaning and humidity doesn't help. I sure am grateful for air conditioning...next summer!
Monday's preparation day was just what I needed. We went to the beach at Karosta where there are all the old forts. I would have contently sat all day on a pile of rocks looking for sea glass, but we had to go past the beach to the forts so that Elder Clark could see them. It was a lot more mellow of an adventure since we didn't have half the ward this time; just Madara, Rita, and Sintija. Those girls brought Sister Ferrin a piece of cake for her year mark and we all sang to her while inside of one of the forts that had been pushed into the sea. We were able to do another family home evening with the Tolmacovi. We made a Plan of Salvation puzzle for Selina the six-year-old to do. She really liked it and I think that her parents have gotten the hint that they should come back to church. Afterwards we were able to go knocking back at the "dome" (or apartment complex) that we had gone to with Madara a few weeks back. We felt pretty dumb trying to get in. It was unlocked though we thought it was locked and we didn't have the code. A man who lived there in English said, "You just have to turn the handle, it is open." DOH! We felt silly, but we did get in. That lady that we had visited wasn't there, but we talked to a great old man whose dentures were almost falling out of his mouth when he spoke. He kept on telling us that his wife was angry that he was talking to us. It was true, when they shut the door she started yelling at him for talking to "those Mormon girls." Oh how life is funny sometimes.
On Tuesday we went to Mara's house to hunt her down. She was one of our baptismal dates, but we haven't spoken to her for a while now. We didn't find her, but I did speak to this old lady who was looking for a new church because she just couldn't go to the Catholic Church anymore. She was nice and I hope that we see her again. We had a lesson with Oskars which went well. The little girls Sarra and Ieva were there so before Oskar's lesson they made me play hide and go seek with them. They thought I was pretty clever since they couldn’t find me. Sarra tried to stick her hat on Elder Clark's head, it was quite humorous watching this all happen and meeting with Liga was great. We were a little worried about it, but she reads the Book of Mormon every night and has a testimony of Joseph Smith!
On Wednesday I made some of Aunt Joyce's indian fry bread. Boy is it good! It is in between a scone and a tortilla and may be our new "scone" dough recipe, we really enjoyed them. I called all of the former investigators from one of the area books (except those that had been met with in the past 3 months) and we also met some great people contacting in the evening. By the tram was Professor Trelawny from Harry Potter. Minus the hair, a lot smaller, and with the same big glasses and was very soft spoken. She was so great! She was telling us how we should get bikes and do the Tour de France of the Baltics and talk to the people following that and that we should get a small bus to go pick up people from the country and bring them to church. She recommended that we have dances and parties and just share our knowledge with others. My favorite thing that she said was, "God is like the sun. If he shines, he shines on everyone." We talked to a beautiful lady in her 30s who had two children. She called them her gifts from God and she definitely knows what life is about. She sells strawberries at the market and lives across from the church. We are hoping to see her again...we almost got an appointment set up with her. We had sports night tonight with the elders, Rihards, and the hoolies. Rita was there since we had just had a meeting with her but she didn't really play since she doesn't like floor ball (aka floor hockey). I am considerably better at playing hockey now and I am not going to wear a skirt next time!
On Thursday Rihards helped us with Latvian and we had our weekly planning session. Sister Ferrin made some epic canvas book covers for her scriptures and we had a meeting with Santa. We had Rihards along and actually had our lesson about the temples this time. Oh goodness, I love Santa! When we talked about eternal marriage she was just like, "Oh my goodness! Thank heavens my husband is gone. I would never do that with him. He couldn't ever be a member anyway, no way." We had a great lesson with the Beldavi boys and mom about putting on the whole armor of God. Raivo was his hyper little monkey self bouncing around and Lauris is just the cutest little kid.
Friday we met the Boswells. Words cannot express how much I LOVE THE BOSWELLS! President Boswell has so much energy and is so much fun and Sister Boswell is very composed and refined. President Boswell talked about how they got their calling and priesthood keys. He talked about how keys are passed and that he shares the keys to find, nurture, and fellowship with the Branch Presidents so that we need to work with them a lot. He, as President, has been instructed to spend 50% of his time with missionaries and the other 50% with the Branches and the members. He is just so fun, I love him! It seems like the Boswell's theme of missionary work will be based off "What ere thou art act well they part"......As missionaries we should match the grandeur of the message that we teach. Sister Boswell's dad saved that rock that is in the MTC from Scotland that says that. You can look it up about D.O. McKay
Some quotes from President Boswell from others...
Elder Clayton "This is the best run mission that I've ever seen in the church."
Elder D.H. Oaks "It's been my experience that the Lord sends His very best missionaries to the Baltic Mission."
Yeah, the Boswells have rubbed shoulders with lots of prophets and apostles. Sister Boswell has some major connections with them. Her dad was a mission president in Scotland so Elder Lynch LOVES them. On Monday we were also able to visit the ring man. I had him make me a ring out of a spoon and I gave it to Sister Stout today, she loved it. She is currently in a three-some with the sisters in Center. Those lucky masas!
My interview with him (President Boswell) was awesome. It is nice having a priesthood leader who you really feel like they care for you and just get down and dirty to help you be better.
We went to More than Muffins afterwards and got paninis and blueberry muffins and then we all attempted to sleep on the hot bus ride home. God loves us so he sent a storm! It was a huge thunderstorm.
Saturday was busy as always. We visited Ena, taught English, and cleaned the church. Only the Russian Dentist came to our English class today so we went over words and phrases she needs in the dentist office, I was her practice patient, and that was that. We got caught in the rain going to a meeting. It was so fun! I just laughed the whole way. We had a meeting with Liga and it went really well. It was basically a crash course on ALL the commandments that she needs to follow to be baptized. Marika helped which was great. We talked with Marika about missionary work afterwards.
Sunday was a great meeting. I was sitting by Ieva who is learning to read so she loves to sing. She would always belt out, "DON'T FORGET TO PRAY!" I had to try really hard to keep my laughing on the inside because it was so stinking cute! Santa taught the lesson in Relief Society! Our Santa who hates praying in public! I felt like a proud mom watching her, she did a great job. After we broke our fast I had a three hour call-a-thon. I have officially called all the phone numbers in the "Former Investigators- Phone numbers only - Lots of Janes" area book and started going through round two. I was able to practice the piano and singing a little bit at the church before our lesson with Rita. I'll have you know that I am improving. :) Yay for practicing! Poor Rita is not a happy one right now. Her brother is paralyzed for life now and she is mad at the world. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with her.
Happy Fourth of July! Enjoy the air conditioning and fireworks! We are planning on having hamburgers today to celebrate!
ML
July 4, 2011 from Mari
Hello hello from sunny Liepaja! We have actually had a lot of rainstorms this past week but that is fine with me because it keeps the world cool. Modest is hottest has taken on a new meaning and humidity doesn't help. I sure am grateful for air conditioning...next summer!
Monday's preparation day was just what I needed. We went to the beach at Karosta where there are all the old forts. I would have contently sat all day on a pile of rocks looking for sea glass, but we had to go past the beach to the forts so that Elder Clark could see them. It was a lot more mellow of an adventure since we didn't have half the ward this time; just Madara, Rita, and Sintija. Those girls brought Sister Ferrin a piece of cake for her year mark and we all sang to her while inside of one of the forts that had been pushed into the sea. We were able to do another family home evening with the Tolmacovi. We made a Plan of Salvation puzzle for Selina the six-year-old to do. She really liked it and I think that her parents have gotten the hint that they should come back to church. Afterwards we were able to go knocking back at the "dome" (or apartment complex) that we had gone to with Madara a few weeks back. We felt pretty dumb trying to get in. It was unlocked though we thought it was locked and we didn't have the code. A man who lived there in English said, "You just have to turn the handle, it is open." DOH! We felt silly, but we did get in. That lady that we had visited wasn't there, but we talked to a great old man whose dentures were almost falling out of his mouth when he spoke. He kept on telling us that his wife was angry that he was talking to us. It was true, when they shut the door she started yelling at him for talking to "those Mormon girls." Oh how life is funny sometimes.
On Tuesday we went to Mara's house to hunt her down. She was one of our baptismal dates, but we haven't spoken to her for a while now. We didn't find her, but I did speak to this old lady who was looking for a new church because she just couldn't go to the Catholic Church anymore. She was nice and I hope that we see her again. We had a lesson with Oskars which went well. The little girls Sarra and Ieva were there so before Oskar's lesson they made me play hide and go seek with them. They thought I was pretty clever since they couldn’t find me. Sarra tried to stick her hat on Elder Clark's head, it was quite humorous watching this all happen and meeting with Liga was great. We were a little worried about it, but she reads the Book of Mormon every night and has a testimony of Joseph Smith!
On Wednesday I made some of Aunt Joyce's indian fry bread. Boy is it good! It is in between a scone and a tortilla and may be our new "scone" dough recipe, we really enjoyed them. I called all of the former investigators from one of the area books (except those that had been met with in the past 3 months) and we also met some great people contacting in the evening. By the tram was Professor Trelawny from Harry Potter. Minus the hair, a lot smaller, and with the same big glasses and was very soft spoken. She was so great! She was telling us how we should get bikes and do the Tour de France of the Baltics and talk to the people following that and that we should get a small bus to go pick up people from the country and bring them to church. She recommended that we have dances and parties and just share our knowledge with others. My favorite thing that she said was, "God is like the sun. If he shines, he shines on everyone." We talked to a beautiful lady in her 30s who had two children. She called them her gifts from God and she definitely knows what life is about. She sells strawberries at the market and lives across from the church. We are hoping to see her again...we almost got an appointment set up with her. We had sports night tonight with the elders, Rihards, and the hoolies. Rita was there since we had just had a meeting with her but she didn't really play since she doesn't like floor ball (aka floor hockey). I am considerably better at playing hockey now and I am not going to wear a skirt next time!
On Thursday Rihards helped us with Latvian and we had our weekly planning session. Sister Ferrin made some epic canvas book covers for her scriptures and we had a meeting with Santa. We had Rihards along and actually had our lesson about the temples this time. Oh goodness, I love Santa! When we talked about eternal marriage she was just like, "Oh my goodness! Thank heavens my husband is gone. I would never do that with him. He couldn't ever be a member anyway, no way." We had a great lesson with the Beldavi boys and mom about putting on the whole armor of God. Raivo was his hyper little monkey self bouncing around and Lauris is just the cutest little kid.
Friday we met the Boswells. Words cannot express how much I LOVE THE BOSWELLS! President Boswell has so much energy and is so much fun and Sister Boswell is very composed and refined. President Boswell talked about how they got their calling and priesthood keys. He talked about how keys are passed and that he shares the keys to find, nurture, and fellowship with the Branch Presidents so that we need to work with them a lot. He, as President, has been instructed to spend 50% of his time with missionaries and the other 50% with the Branches and the members. He is just so fun, I love him! It seems like the Boswell's theme of missionary work will be based off "What ere thou art act well they part"......As missionaries we should match the grandeur of the message that we teach. Sister Boswell's dad saved that rock that is in the MTC from Scotland that says that. You can look it up about D.O. McKay
Some quotes from President Boswell from others...
Elder Clayton "This is the best run mission that I've ever seen in the church."
Elder D.H. Oaks "It's been my experience that the Lord sends His very best missionaries to the Baltic Mission."
Yeah, the Boswells have rubbed shoulders with lots of prophets and apostles. Sister Boswell has some major connections with them. Her dad was a mission president in Scotland so Elder Lynch LOVES them. On Monday we were also able to visit the ring man. I had him make me a ring out of a spoon and I gave it to Sister Stout today, she loved it. She is currently in a three-some with the sisters in Center. Those lucky masas!
My interview with him (President Boswell) was awesome. It is nice having a priesthood leader who you really feel like they care for you and just get down and dirty to help you be better.
We went to More than Muffins afterwards and got paninis and blueberry muffins and then we all attempted to sleep on the hot bus ride home. God loves us so he sent a storm! It was a huge thunderstorm.
Saturday was busy as always. We visited Ena, taught English, and cleaned the church. Only the Russian Dentist came to our English class today so we went over words and phrases she needs in the dentist office, I was her practice patient, and that was that. We got caught in the rain going to a meeting. It was so fun! I just laughed the whole way. We had a meeting with Liga and it went really well. It was basically a crash course on ALL the commandments that she needs to follow to be baptized. Marika helped which was great. We talked with Marika about missionary work afterwards.
Sunday was a great meeting. I was sitting by Ieva who is learning to read so she loves to sing. She would always belt out, "DON'T FORGET TO PRAY!" I had to try really hard to keep my laughing on the inside because it was so stinking cute! Santa taught the lesson in Relief Society! Our Santa who hates praying in public! I felt like a proud mom watching her, she did a great job. After we broke our fast I had a three hour call-a-thon. I have officially called all the phone numbers in the "Former Investigators- Phone numbers only - Lots of Janes" area book and started going through round two. I was able to practice the piano and singing a little bit at the church before our lesson with Rita. I'll have you know that I am improving. :) Yay for practicing! Poor Rita is not a happy one right now. Her brother is paralyzed for life now and she is mad at the world. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with her.
Happy Fourth of July! Enjoy the air conditioning and fireworks! We are planning on having hamburgers today to celebrate!
ML
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