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