On Monday we ate at Pastnieka Maja. I decided that it isn't very fun when you eat at your favorite restaurant all the time because then it gets boring. That was probably the highlight of the preparing part of Monday and then in the evening we were able to meet with some of the hooligans (now called the Brothers 3 after Sister Ferrin prayed a really funny prayer that involved the words, "Please bless the hooligans. Uhh..and by hooligans I mean really nice boys." Only Martins and his little brother Chris showed up. We taught them the Word of Wisdom (which did not go over well in retrospect).
On Tuesday I baked my first no-knead bread (recipe by the mighty Thor). Other than the fact that my cornmeal was a little too "generous" it turned out really well. We gobbled it all up for District Meeting with jam and cheese and all the fixings. We got jaked/boffed/had lots of people not show up for appointments this week. I really do appreciate considerate people who tell you when they are not going to be somewhere they said they were. Anywho we did get a chance to meet with the Brothers 3 (who had jaked us earlier in the day) and we taught them five out of the ten commandments. We taught investigator Santa S. the same and we had a fun time as always with member Santa D. in the evening. We talked about keeping the Sabbath Day holy, so now she knows for sure, no shopping on Sundays! She is such an obedient member. We love her.
Wednesday morning we met with members Annika and Rihards and got all the "dirt" on members. Annika has an incredible memory. She knows what street many of the members live on. We met with them to help us know about who has moved, been offended, etc. I had another brave cooking day...baked salmon! It turned out really well considering it was all being made up as I went along. We had a really nice lesson with Rita on Personal Revelation. We read a section in Preach My Gospel about it and then went to the scriptures. Sports was interesting. The elders were go to Riga on exchanges so it was just us sisters. Ward members Sintija, Rita, Sandijs (he is practically a member), Inguss, and Inguss' little brother Raivo were there. The brothers three showed up about a half an hour late (so not them...they LOVE sports) and so we played with them then. I scored three goals! I wanted to tell Martins that is what he gets for thinking the Word of Wisdom is dumb, but I kept that thought to myself. Sister Ferrin and Raivo were a hoot and a half to watch runnning around chasing each other with a football and later hockey sticks. Sintija (Cynthia) slammed the Relief Society door which somehow set off the fire alarm. Naturally the police had to come and instead of leaving everyone had to come inside and see what was happening. In the end we just let the alarm keep going (it was only the pre-alarm) and we re-taught Martins and taught Davis the Word of Wisdom since they wouldn't leave the church and we still had to wait there. Apparently we were very unclear because Martins thought that we couldn't eat meat. We didn't even talk about meat; I have no idea where he got that from. I also saw a nun on a bicycle with a backpack. And my soul delighted in the sight there of.
On Thursday we got jaked some more. Four times to be exact. And all of them members, how ironic. We were able to meet with our investigator Santa and her sister Alina. We taught the Word of Wisdom which she readily accepted (it is so easy when you don't like tea, coffee, alcohol, and smoking!) and then we had our branch activity that is supposed to be like family home evening but has turned into youth party night already. We played four men on a couch (any one think that I'm writing about BYU yet?). My team won both times. We gave the Frolavi family a tour (Eriks, Sintija, and their dad Uldis). It wasn't so good. Let's just say zombies, eating brains, and killing spiders were involved in our attempted tour. So Eriks went and got his hair cut all by himself. You should not let seven year olds do this. He came back with a "euro-hawk" with stars shaven in on one side and waves on the other. I thought that was pretty great that his dad didn't even know until he exclaimed, "Dad! Look at my star!" "Oh yeah, yeah, nice." (and pats Eriks' head) "No. Look!" (tilts head more) "Oh. That's cool."
We met with inactive Ena. Rita came along and helped. We had a great discussion about the Book of Mormon. Ena remembers a lot, but isn't willing to come to church while she knows she is breaking commandments, so for now we don't have much reason to visit her often since her situation won't be changing soon. Sad day. We got some Finnish ice cream since another member jaked us. Food highlight...corn on the cob. It had many memories of summer even though it was over-ripe and not very good. It was a final farewell to summer because fall is here. It has been raining about every other day and Saturday was our last warm day of the season. We finally got to meet with Olita, the lady who I called, jaked us, we contacted, jaked us again, etc. etc. She loved the church tour! She also wants to meet again. She has a good light about her.
Another great church tour happened on Saturday. We met Liene and her two daughters sitting outside the Catholic Cathedral and brought them to our church. We gave them a tour which their mother loved. They live about 10 miles outside of Liepaja but she wants to come to church next week. We had an eventful lesson with Santa S.'s mom. They came before English so Sandijs was helping us teach the Plan of Salvation. Then Santa D. came early and decided that she was going to sit in on the lesson. She is a character and made the lesson a lot lighter. Santa S.'s mom agreed with all that we taught, but when you are born pra-va-slav-nuh (Russian orthodox) you die that way because it is a sin to change religions. I'm still trying to figure out a nice way to tell people that if a religion isn't true then it is no sin to leave it because it isn't true. Any who, we had another large English class. In the evening we convinced the brothers 3 to watch Finding Faith in Christ. They watched it in English as opposed to Russian, so who knows how much they understood. It was weird watching that film in English! It has been a VERY long time. We finally got little Chris to pray! You just have to bribe him with cookies. He gave a great prayer though and is now to page twenty-four in the Book of Mormon. So there was a huge car rally here and it brought out the likes of Latvians that we have never seen (think the unpolitically correct term "white trash"). It was interesting to see so many different people. There were a lot of activities going around the city. Sandijs and Rita got to pretend to be in a rollover accident. A car company was teaching people how to get out of your car if it has rolled over. They also had "drunk googles" and were talking about drunk driving, so that was good to see. Eww. I did my service for the month. A cat or some other mammal decided to leave very yucky smelly gross fish diarrhea by our door and I cleaned it up. Yuck. I bought myself ice cream for that one. The hallway still reeks a little bit.
No one was at church on Sunday. But the Tolmacovi came, so that was a Sunday miracle. The brothers brought some hooligans and they were very bad and disrespectful during sacrament meeting. We don't know what is wrong with them. It was a nice meeting other than the noise and laser pointer. Elder Holdaway spoke as well as Rita. She is doing so good! Sister Ferrin and I taught Relief Society to three women (and then one left. And one was visiting from Riga). It was a good lesson though...from the talk about to do v. to be. I definitely recommend reading it again. Good stuff. We stopped by Lidija Ruble's house. She isn't coming to church anymore except for on Fast Sundays because she doesn't have enough money for transportation. Sad day. She really appreciated the visit and the lesson on the Plan of Salvation provided by Sister Ferrin. We almost had our meeting with Sandijs' mom so he can get baptized. Alas, he went to Santa S.'s birthday party instead. We actually saw them at the park on the tram ride home so we got off and said "hi."
And that is about all for the week, lots of people didn't show up and lots of making phone calls but that isn't too exciting to write about.
I know that we have a Savior, Jesus Christ. He has been through it all. Our Father in Heaven loves us and wants us to be happy. He has provided us the means to do so. May we always be worthy to live with him.
Sis. L.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Week 27
Me and Sister Hardy, the best office lady in town.
Okay so finishing up last week. Thursday was tea party day. I had way too much tea. Skaidre, a member we visited after Santa Dike, fed us tea as well. She had the HUGEST cat on the planet. The thing must have weighed at least twenty pounds. She is really excited to be more active in the church since she won't be working as much.
On Friday Sister Ferrin got sick so I went on a crazy cooking spree: blueberry muffins, soup, chocolate banana bread, etc. Before she slept off her cold we had the trolls, Ieva and Olga jake us. Poor Sister Ferrin was just lying on the couch until President S. made her move. "People might look in and think 'What is going on there?'" He made her some tea from the leaves of a linden tree. I worked a lot on our little lost sheep project.
Saturday we taught English as well as Elvira Skube, an inactive. She talked. A lot. She has seen some really awful things in her life, it was sad. She doesn't come to our church anymore because someone once told her that she couldn't read her poems at an activity. I thought of the Gardners a lot as I was cleaning the church this Saturday. I thought to myself, "What would Brother Gardner have me clean?" And then I would go and clean it!
On Sunday I was able to go to Young Women and participate in a great lesson about repentance. We talked about forgiving yourself and that if you haven't it probably means that you need more faith in Christ's atonement. We had a lesson with Santa S. (an investigator) and her younger sister. Afterwards I dragged the hooligans in and asked them who was interested in learning about the gospel (They were at church all three hours today). One of them, Davis, is interested in learning more! We had them all watch The Restoration film with us.
Monday we ate at Cafe 21. I got potato pancakes, yum! They have corn at the market now! I haven't bought any though because it costs $1.20 US an ear. Zoinks! I made a chocolate pie...the crust didn't turn out too well. We went to go find inactives. My favorite moment was the neighbor kids of this older lady. "Who are you?" "Missionaries." "Pensioners?" "No. Missionaries." "What is that?" We then had an enjoyable conversation and they told us how their neighbor yells at them to be quiet and now they know that we are not old people who live off governmental subsidies.
Tuesday we worked on making a church tour in District Meeting. President Boswell is so inspired! We have done the tour a few times and with excellent results. You can really feel the spirit and it is just so much fun to use the beautiful building and all of the paintings. I made some creamy cauliflower soup because autumn keeps on showing up about every other day. We taught Davis (16 year old hooligan who we play floorball with) the Restoration. He is a smart kid. And he asks questions when he doesn't understand. I love it.
We had a crazy adventure in the morning on Wednesday. We went to visit a woman who was contacted in 2005. Her name is Martina. Turns out Martina is actually one of the elders' investigators as well as the lady that Madara babysat for. We had a great lesson with her. She is such an amazing mother with high standards for raising her children. She fed us some yummy tea, mate aquante. I guess they drink it all the time in Brazil. She is really interested in learning about the gospel and wants to come to church, she is just insanely busy (3 kids, two jobs, school, a husband at sea, an internship). We actually met the elders on the street coming out of her lesson so we told them what happened and then they shared about a miracle they just had. They found out that this member who was blind can hear now and that her and her grandmother want to come back to church. They also put together the pieces that this man who is deaf could now be taught (before his daughter translated and changed what the missionaries said). "All this time we thought he was a jerk for never answering when we knocked on his door. But he is deaf! He could never hear it!" I'm still wondering how you get in contact with deaf persons then if they live alone. Anywho we went on an adventure with Santa D. (member) to Nadezda (another member who is Russian). We talked with her about hope (after a very long fussy time in companionship study deciding what to teach). Turns out that her name means hope in Russia! God works in mysterious ways! There is a new hooligan, Chris (who as of today has a baptismal date) who complimented me on my floorball skills. This is a huge compliment from a 13-year-old boy. I felt pretty proud of myself. Acceptance by the hoolies! Yes! We met with sweet Liga and taught her about service and callings. She is off to the woods again so she won't be at church.
Obedience to God truly makes us happy. I've been learning that a lot lately. We met with Ieva and Olga. We took them on a church tour and they told us that their boyfriends wouldn't let them come to church (lie) and that they quit smoking 6 weeks ago (we were still meeting with them 6 weeks ago. Another lie. Sigh.) When they left they lit up on church property. Sad day to see that they haven't yet had that change of heart. Annika taught us Latvian today and there was a really special spirit when we took Oskars on the church tour. Teaching Davis the plan of salvation was so fun! He is such a smart kid, he started asking questions and we would just smile and say, "Wait a minute. We're almost there." It really is neat to see how sincere his interest is and to see him working it all out in his head. He has two brothers, Chris (8) and Martins (16), that have came to church with him the past two Sundays. They are always playing in the church parking lot (or in the church). We had our first Branch party that Rita was in charge of. It went well though we didn't have a large branch turn out (but a large hooligan turn out!). We played charades and I just about died when cute 80-something year old Ausma pretended to be a bear and was stomping around in her flowered skirt with her hands above her head.
Friday we did weekly planning and met with Marika, a member since 2002 or so. She opened up a lot and we learned a lot about the war and the occupation. It is sad how so many people got sent away and how many people died, how many families were split up. She told us how her mom thought her brother had died. He had actually gone into hiding so he wouldn't get sent to Siberia and then years and years later they met again. Latvian people have a hard time hearing the gospel in Russian because that is the language they were forced to speak and the language that banned God from their lives. It explains a lot of why so many Latvians are so grateful and so impressed that we as missionaries have learned Latvian so well and so quickly. There was a beautiful lightning storm tonight! Rita and Sister Ferrin were scared and were jumping left and right. I just laughed as we walked home.
Saturday we had a huge English class! Irina, Viktoria's friend (who is Santa's friend) took a Book of Mormon! We taught Davis about the gospel of Jesus Christ and then committed him to baptism! Sweet Ludmilla was the only one who came and helped us clean besides Rita. I took a whack at making rataouille. Not as good as in France, but I still appreciate all the summer vegetables we have here.
Well, karma hit me on Sunday. I always made fun of my mother for sticking out her tongue and making faces when she plays the organ in church. I got to play the piano in church. For someone who hasn't had a lesson since second grade this was quite nerve wracking. Many faces were made and wrong notes played. I survived though and all the missionaries were very supportive. Sister Scebinina gave a great Sunday School lesson from Acts about how everyone is important in the church. I had the opportunity to translate Relief Society for Maria. She lives in Ireland, is from Portugal, and is married to a man from Latvia. It was neat that the focus of church today was the temple and she is planning to go perform baptisms for the dead for the first time next month. Santa D. did a good job teaching about the temple especially since she hasn't been. The ladies who had been didn't delve in too much about the temple, so that was good. We had a crazy mega lesson Sunday night with the elders. Martins, Davis, Chris, Chris, Rita, Rita's friend and the elders. We taught from Mosiah 18 and now we have Martins, Davis, the older Chris with baptismal dates and the younger Chris and Rita's friend thinking about being baptized! How neat is that!
The church is true and God will have it His way.
Love,
Sister Lindstrom
The girls of Latvia. Lindstrom, Wilson, Sutterfield, Ferrin, Madara
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Week 26
Hello Hello from Liepaja (lee-uh-pie-juh). I was just thinking how silly you must think some things are here because you don't know how they are pronounced, like Santa is not like Santa Clause but with a soft a.
I want to explain more about name days. Here in Latvia they have name days. Different names are celebrated every day. If it is your name day it is like a birthday party! Everyone comes to you and you have cake and they can bring presents and it is just a lot of fun. They have lots of memorial holidays. They will often get off work for these and it is required by law to put up a Latvian flag on every building on these days.
On Monday we decided to eat at the restaurant in Hotel Liva with Rihards. We got this amazing cheese bread. It was this gooey crazy wad of toasted bread strips with cheese melted all over. It was much better than the main course which sort of reminded me of KFC. I made Sister Hectle's blueberry dessert with fresh blueberries and we were able to take some of it over to family home evening with the Tolmacovi. With the Tolmacovi we went over the Restoration. The spirit was really great by the end of the lesson. We did some tracting/knocking/harvesting afterwards and there wasn't really anything noteworthy there.
Tuesday was filled with random downpours. District Meeting was filled with tangents. I feel really bad. We had new Elder Schmidt from Canada and we just weren't behaving ourselves too well because things were just too silly. We were very wet by the end of the day. In the evening I had on my big trench coat with hood as I walked onto the tram with its fogged up windows. I felt like a demeantor looking for people's souls. Sadly the only soul that we found last night was a rather old man in a speedo. We did not accept his invitation to come in.
On Wednesday we had a wonderful zone conference in Riga. We talked about the new handbook and some of the chapters within. Quote worthy quotes "There is no church in heaven." (think about that one!...it is all family run) and that things should be "home centered, church supported." Also Elder Burr (who has about a zillion baptismal dates in Imanta), "I'm turning Imanta into Argentina." Odd to think that we have been in Latvia for six months now! The Assistants helped President Boswell introduce our new focus as missionaries for the next little while. Finding the lost sheep! We had a great discussion about Alma 17. We have a goal to get in contact with every church member by October 23. Why? To get wards, stakes, and then a temple. Also, member work is very effective in the Baltics and we spend very little time on it considering how many baptisms it yields.
Baptisms in the Baltics since 2009
14% found it themselves/came on their own
20% found harvesting (knocking doors)
23% contacting
17% from English class
35% from referrals
The Zone leaders talked to us about internalizing goals and making them SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-bound) goals. I'm pretty pumped. President Boswell and I are on the same page. We like trying to create as many smiles as possible and think that less active work is important.
After Zone conference we went with the other sisters and got muffins. Poor Madara is pretty homesick. The bus ride home was enjoyable, we had an entertaining conversation with the elders.
On Thursday I found out that beef is nasty when it goes bad. It turned all gray. Yuck! We didn't eat it. Planning was hilarious. Sister Ferrin was tired, so she was in a horizontal position on the couch, not really wanting to do anything, but being a good sport and planning anyway. I ask her, "So what do you want to teach Santa?" "Celibacy." "What? Sister Ferrin? Sister Ferrrriiiinnnn...." She was out cold. We had an evening jam packed with member lessons. We got to talk to Rita about her goals. I am so excited for her! She is twenty two and has decided to go back and finish high school. Look out class of 2014! She also kind of sort of wants to serve a mission. It is great to see the gospel changing her life. We taught Oskars about tithing, he is a trooper as always. Poor Santa was feeling under the weather so she made us chamomile tea and we had cookies. She made us drink two cups and we had a really thought provoking lesson with her about the atonement.
Friday was filled with lots of cooking and working on the less active/lost sheep project.
I want to explain more about name days. Here in Latvia they have name days. Different names are celebrated every day. If it is your name day it is like a birthday party! Everyone comes to you and you have cake and they can bring presents and it is just a lot of fun. They have lots of memorial holidays. They will often get off work for these and it is required by law to put up a Latvian flag on every building on these days.
On Monday we decided to eat at the restaurant in Hotel Liva with Rihards. We got this amazing cheese bread. It was this gooey crazy wad of toasted bread strips with cheese melted all over. It was much better than the main course which sort of reminded me of KFC. I made Sister Hectle's blueberry dessert with fresh blueberries and we were able to take some of it over to family home evening with the Tolmacovi. With the Tolmacovi we went over the Restoration. The spirit was really great by the end of the lesson. We did some tracting/knocking/harvesting afterwards and there wasn't really anything noteworthy there.
Tuesday was filled with random downpours. District Meeting was filled with tangents. I feel really bad. We had new Elder Schmidt from Canada and we just weren't behaving ourselves too well because things were just too silly. We were very wet by the end of the day. In the evening I had on my big trench coat with hood as I walked onto the tram with its fogged up windows. I felt like a demeantor looking for people's souls. Sadly the only soul that we found last night was a rather old man in a speedo. We did not accept his invitation to come in.
On Wednesday we had a wonderful zone conference in Riga. We talked about the new handbook and some of the chapters within. Quote worthy quotes "There is no church in heaven." (think about that one!...it is all family run) and that things should be "home centered, church supported." Also Elder Burr (who has about a zillion baptismal dates in Imanta), "I'm turning Imanta into Argentina." Odd to think that we have been in Latvia for six months now! The Assistants helped President Boswell introduce our new focus as missionaries for the next little while. Finding the lost sheep! We had a great discussion about Alma 17. We have a goal to get in contact with every church member by October 23. Why? To get wards, stakes, and then a temple. Also, member work is very effective in the Baltics and we spend very little time on it considering how many baptisms it yields.
Baptisms in the Baltics since 2009
14% found it themselves/came on their own
20% found harvesting (knocking doors)
23% contacting
17% from English class
35% from referrals
The Zone leaders talked to us about internalizing goals and making them SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-bound) goals. I'm pretty pumped. President Boswell and I are on the same page. We like trying to create as many smiles as possible and think that less active work is important.
After Zone conference we went with the other sisters and got muffins. Poor Madara is pretty homesick. The bus ride home was enjoyable, we had an entertaining conversation with the elders.
On Thursday I found out that beef is nasty when it goes bad. It turned all gray. Yuck! We didn't eat it. Planning was hilarious. Sister Ferrin was tired, so she was in a horizontal position on the couch, not really wanting to do anything, but being a good sport and planning anyway. I ask her, "So what do you want to teach Santa?" "Celibacy." "What? Sister Ferrin? Sister Ferrrriiiinnnn...." She was out cold. We had an evening jam packed with member lessons. We got to talk to Rita about her goals. I am so excited for her! She is twenty two and has decided to go back and finish high school. Look out class of 2014! She also kind of sort of wants to serve a mission. It is great to see the gospel changing her life. We taught Oskars about tithing, he is a trooper as always. Poor Santa was feeling under the weather so she made us chamomile tea and we had cookies. She made us drink two cups and we had a really thought provoking lesson with her about the atonement.
Friday was filled with lots of cooking and working on the less active/lost sheep project.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Week 25
August 8, 2011
Superclean Monday was fun. I really wish I would have made a snowball though. There was a lot of ice from defrosting the freezer. We went with Rihards and his girlfriend Kristine, to the only legit Chinese restaurant in Liepaja, Ginger. It was really good. I love business lunches. Why? 1. Cheap 2. Limits my choices. It is good for us cheap, indecisive people. I ended up getting soup, rice noodles and chicken, along with a lot of sushi. I was actually quite awestruck that we got that much sushi. It was delicious and made me think of last summer and last time I had sushi... roadtrip! We went around with the elders trying to find souvenirs in antique stores since Elder Clark is leaving! We had quite the adventure trying to get to less active Velta's house (and by house I mean apartment, as always). We thought we'd get a 15 and it would be a short cut. As Elder Lynch says, "She lives on the last street in the last building in the last apartment in all of Liepaja." This isn't much of a stretch. After seeing two number 3 buses pass us we decided to take the next one and stop waiting for the 15. A magical thing happened, we weren't late! We discovered a HUGE shortcut. Velta actually lives really close to some of our other members. She is a very nice lady who has become rather apathetic since her husband died. It was really sad to see that she didn't want the blessings of the temple for both of them. We are just going to work on that desire!
We had a great great great great district meeting on Tuesday. Elder Clark got to leave us with some excellent parting advice. He talked a lot about desire and the path to discipleship. Where are you? Defiance, despair, dread, drudgery, duty, or devotion? It was a lot to think about though we got quite distracted by our next lesson. Referrals from the elders are just always bad. Or they are a lot braver than us. Regardless, we ended up at a home in Jaunliepaja to find the wife and the neighbor taking shots of moonshine through the window (in the middle of the day!). Imants came out, drunk, and told us about how his time in prison and how he could only read The Bible and Book of Mormon. We gave him one and left because he wanted to be a little too good of friends with Sister Ferrin. Thanks elders! Well, we survived and I had an adventure figuring out the lights in our apartment. Sister Ferrin calls me "handy." Astride, that lady who was going to get her eyes fixed jaked us. It was an excellent thing though because we went knocking in her area and got three phone numbers that evening, which is fantastic! Astride isn't interested. She wasn't home/didn't answer the door for another appointment that we set up later saying that she went far far away for a very very long time. Too bad we found her home on Friday. Oopsie! Sometimes I wish people would just be honest, it would be much less embarrassing for them and be a lot more respectful of other people and their time. Never mind that though, there is always a reason and because of her flakiness, we were in the right place to be with other people at the right time this week.
Wednesday was an odd day (do we ever NOT have odd days). I contacted in the same spot for over an hour while Sister Ferrin contacted the same person for over an hour. I was going for quantity over quality. ;P Mostly she got trapped with a chatterbox of an old lady on a bench. It was perfect though because it was right by center and around lunchtime so I was able to speak with a lot of people on their lunch breaks. We went and had lunch with Madara and Santa (the younger). I had fun helping Sarra and Ieva make pizza for the lunch. Leva loved spreading the ketchup and putting on all the toppings. Madara will be serving a mini mission in Riga this transfer and Santa will be in Estonia as a Russian sister. The Branch President's family were very sad to see them go. It was an odd setting apart. We waited around a lot for President to start it. Luckily Ieva kept us entertained by walking around in some stilettos that she found. She immediately had to show "the boys" how pretty she looked in them.
Rita's meeting this evening was great. She is so much happier now that she prays and reads her scriptures more regularly. It is amazing how much the little things help, and they can help a lot! We talked to her about the blessing that she has in her life and then we played sports. There were new hooligans tonight and I was stuck on their team...not very fun. They forgot the whole "team" part of it so my hockey stick spent most of the night as a baton and a sword.
Thursday was transfer day! Sister Ferrin and I are staying put in Liepaja, as is Elder Holdaway. His new companion is Elder Schmidt from Canada. I love the kid (strictly platonically speaking). He is one of those people with GREAT faith, like Elder Lynch. I really admire that and am excited to serve with another missionary who has such great faith as to convert thousands. I also finally found out my reputation as a missionary. Thanks dad. EVERYONE is obsessed that your name is Thor. "Is your dad's name really Thor? Elder Adams said to ask you where you can get your dad's thunder." I am also apparently known for my good cooking and always having treats, so that is a good thing, could be for bad cooking!
Ingus scared us silly Thursday morning while we were walking. He just snuck up behind us and gave us a fright. He is doing well and looking forward to going on the temple trip this month. Ingus wants to be an engineer when he grows up. He will be great! Vineta, our less active is doing well. Her cute four-year-old Martina was just dancing all over the place and thought her little brother was the funniest thing ever when he was getting into trouble. Vineta is a great mother and she knows what she should be doing. As it is for most people here and everywhere, the excuses to not do things just add up and we are not always willing to make sacrifices for what is right. It is one of the constant battles in mortality, our will verses God's.
Thursday was also planning day. We had lots of planning to do with the new transfer. We taught both Oskars and Santa tonight about priesthood organization. Oskars is doing well. His doctor went on vacation so he didn't have the surgery and we removed the lego from Riksi's (Santa's dog) mouth during our lesson with her, so all is well with some of our favorite recent converts.
Friday was another jake-o-rama. We had all of our appointments cancel but because of the first woman who wasn't home, we were able to meet with less active Lidija. We had an interesting lesson with her. We started out on the Gospel of Jesus Christ which somehow got to tithing and sacrifice and obedience. We promised her blessing and even though she didn't have money to pay for the bus to get to church on Sunday, she showed up! I am so proud of her and that she is willing to be more dedicated to the gospel. Friday was part two of planning (we didn't get done!). We also had a miracle. President Boswell asked us to start praying for the Branch President and his family so we have been doing so. Today his wife, Kristina, approached us and offered to help us contact less-active Russian speaking sisters and come translate at their meetings. (This is the woman with two kids, teaches Sunday School, Young Women, Institute, and Seminary). Wow! Hearts are softening and it was just the help that we had been wanting during planning on Thursday.
Saturday was fun. Professor Trelawny (aka Nina) came to English! She is such a nice lady and she caught on really quickly considering she doesn't know the English alphabet or anything. Viktorija was there as well as Rita and Sandijs. Vikotrija and Nina seemed really interested in the Plan of Salvation. We were sad that Rita and Sandijs were a little too hyper during the spiritual thought, but Viktorija (Victoria) took a pamphlet and that is progress! We helped Ludmilla clean the church (she was the only church member who came!) and had a short meeting with Kaspars. I made the mistake of giving Elder Schmidt a cookie. Now every time I see him I hear about how great it would be to have some of those cookies because they are the best he has tasted in his life (They are the Mrs. Field's cookies from your cookbook, mom). I really like them too (possibly my new favorite chocolate chip recipe) and have a personal stash in the freezer. Liga is so awesome! She brought her granddaughter and her granddaughter's boyfriend to her meeting so she could show them the church. She also brought us produce from her garden and we watched the Restoration together to better solidify her testimony of Joseph Smith. She really enjoyed the film and we are excited that she is back from her vacation. She got sick though and wasn't able to come to church. We tried to find Laima, but no one was home so we did some tracting which was fun.
There was actually no one at church this Sunday. It was sad to see so many empty chairs. The meeting was excellent. Angel man was there and he bore his testimony about God's love and 75 cent days at Humana. We got the hooligans that we always play sports with to come to Sacrament meeting. Sintija bore a great testimony as did Elder Schmidt. We only had Santa in the investigator/new member class so we joined with the normal Sunday School class. It was...okay. Relief Society (5 total, including us two missionaries...yikes!) was really good. Daina prepared a great lesson about desires based on the conference talk. The rest of the day was normal missionary stuff, nothing too exciting. We didn't get stuck out in the rainstorm so that was good. Sister Ferrin is still on her taking cat pictures kick. I am starting to really dislike cats. Why? Because it means we have to stop whatever we are doing so she can take a picture. I'm not going to own a cat now. We found that referral from Uldis. He wasn't interested and Uldis was really sad that his friend wasn't open to the gospel. Maybe next time! As Elder Holdaway says, "Sometimes as missionaries we are looking for land. Other times we are moving rocks. I've moved a lot of rocks on my mission. Other times we are planting and sowing and we are also harvesting."
Loves,
Sister L
Superclean Monday was fun. I really wish I would have made a snowball though. There was a lot of ice from defrosting the freezer. We went with Rihards and his girlfriend Kristine, to the only legit Chinese restaurant in Liepaja, Ginger. It was really good. I love business lunches. Why? 1. Cheap 2. Limits my choices. It is good for us cheap, indecisive people. I ended up getting soup, rice noodles and chicken, along with a lot of sushi. I was actually quite awestruck that we got that much sushi. It was delicious and made me think of last summer and last time I had sushi... roadtrip! We went around with the elders trying to find souvenirs in antique stores since Elder Clark is leaving! We had quite the adventure trying to get to less active Velta's house (and by house I mean apartment, as always). We thought we'd get a 15 and it would be a short cut. As Elder Lynch says, "She lives on the last street in the last building in the last apartment in all of Liepaja." This isn't much of a stretch. After seeing two number 3 buses pass us we decided to take the next one and stop waiting for the 15. A magical thing happened, we weren't late! We discovered a HUGE shortcut. Velta actually lives really close to some of our other members. She is a very nice lady who has become rather apathetic since her husband died. It was really sad to see that she didn't want the blessings of the temple for both of them. We are just going to work on that desire!
We had a great great great great district meeting on Tuesday. Elder Clark got to leave us with some excellent parting advice. He talked a lot about desire and the path to discipleship. Where are you? Defiance, despair, dread, drudgery, duty, or devotion? It was a lot to think about though we got quite distracted by our next lesson. Referrals from the elders are just always bad. Or they are a lot braver than us. Regardless, we ended up at a home in Jaunliepaja to find the wife and the neighbor taking shots of moonshine through the window (in the middle of the day!). Imants came out, drunk, and told us about how his time in prison and how he could only read The Bible and Book of Mormon. We gave him one and left because he wanted to be a little too good of friends with Sister Ferrin. Thanks elders! Well, we survived and I had an adventure figuring out the lights in our apartment. Sister Ferrin calls me "handy." Astride, that lady who was going to get her eyes fixed jaked us. It was an excellent thing though because we went knocking in her area and got three phone numbers that evening, which is fantastic! Astride isn't interested. She wasn't home/didn't answer the door for another appointment that we set up later saying that she went far far away for a very very long time. Too bad we found her home on Friday. Oopsie! Sometimes I wish people would just be honest, it would be much less embarrassing for them and be a lot more respectful of other people and their time. Never mind that though, there is always a reason and because of her flakiness, we were in the right place to be with other people at the right time this week.
Wednesday was an odd day (do we ever NOT have odd days). I contacted in the same spot for over an hour while Sister Ferrin contacted the same person for over an hour. I was going for quantity over quality. ;P Mostly she got trapped with a chatterbox of an old lady on a bench. It was perfect though because it was right by center and around lunchtime so I was able to speak with a lot of people on their lunch breaks. We went and had lunch with Madara and Santa (the younger). I had fun helping Sarra and Ieva make pizza for the lunch. Leva loved spreading the ketchup and putting on all the toppings. Madara will be serving a mini mission in Riga this transfer and Santa will be in Estonia as a Russian sister. The Branch President's family were very sad to see them go. It was an odd setting apart. We waited around a lot for President to start it. Luckily Ieva kept us entertained by walking around in some stilettos that she found. She immediately had to show "the boys" how pretty she looked in them.
Rita's meeting this evening was great. She is so much happier now that she prays and reads her scriptures more regularly. It is amazing how much the little things help, and they can help a lot! We talked to her about the blessing that she has in her life and then we played sports. There were new hooligans tonight and I was stuck on their team...not very fun. They forgot the whole "team" part of it so my hockey stick spent most of the night as a baton and a sword.
Thursday was transfer day! Sister Ferrin and I are staying put in Liepaja, as is Elder Holdaway. His new companion is Elder Schmidt from Canada. I love the kid (strictly platonically speaking). He is one of those people with GREAT faith, like Elder Lynch. I really admire that and am excited to serve with another missionary who has such great faith as to convert thousands. I also finally found out my reputation as a missionary. Thanks dad. EVERYONE is obsessed that your name is Thor. "Is your dad's name really Thor? Elder Adams said to ask you where you can get your dad's thunder." I am also apparently known for my good cooking and always having treats, so that is a good thing, could be for bad cooking!
Ingus scared us silly Thursday morning while we were walking. He just snuck up behind us and gave us a fright. He is doing well and looking forward to going on the temple trip this month. Ingus wants to be an engineer when he grows up. He will be great! Vineta, our less active is doing well. Her cute four-year-old Martina was just dancing all over the place and thought her little brother was the funniest thing ever when he was getting into trouble. Vineta is a great mother and she knows what she should be doing. As it is for most people here and everywhere, the excuses to not do things just add up and we are not always willing to make sacrifices for what is right. It is one of the constant battles in mortality, our will verses God's.
Thursday was also planning day. We had lots of planning to do with the new transfer. We taught both Oskars and Santa tonight about priesthood organization. Oskars is doing well. His doctor went on vacation so he didn't have the surgery and we removed the lego from Riksi's (Santa's dog) mouth during our lesson with her, so all is well with some of our favorite recent converts.
Friday was another jake-o-rama. We had all of our appointments cancel but because of the first woman who wasn't home, we were able to meet with less active Lidija. We had an interesting lesson with her. We started out on the Gospel of Jesus Christ which somehow got to tithing and sacrifice and obedience. We promised her blessing and even though she didn't have money to pay for the bus to get to church on Sunday, she showed up! I am so proud of her and that she is willing to be more dedicated to the gospel. Friday was part two of planning (we didn't get done!). We also had a miracle. President Boswell asked us to start praying for the Branch President and his family so we have been doing so. Today his wife, Kristina, approached us and offered to help us contact less-active Russian speaking sisters and come translate at their meetings. (This is the woman with two kids, teaches Sunday School, Young Women, Institute, and Seminary). Wow! Hearts are softening and it was just the help that we had been wanting during planning on Thursday.
Saturday was fun. Professor Trelawny (aka Nina) came to English! She is such a nice lady and she caught on really quickly considering she doesn't know the English alphabet or anything. Viktorija was there as well as Rita and Sandijs. Vikotrija and Nina seemed really interested in the Plan of Salvation. We were sad that Rita and Sandijs were a little too hyper during the spiritual thought, but Viktorija (Victoria) took a pamphlet and that is progress! We helped Ludmilla clean the church (she was the only church member who came!) and had a short meeting with Kaspars. I made the mistake of giving Elder Schmidt a cookie. Now every time I see him I hear about how great it would be to have some of those cookies because they are the best he has tasted in his life (They are the Mrs. Field's cookies from your cookbook, mom). I really like them too (possibly my new favorite chocolate chip recipe) and have a personal stash in the freezer. Liga is so awesome! She brought her granddaughter and her granddaughter's boyfriend to her meeting so she could show them the church. She also brought us produce from her garden and we watched the Restoration together to better solidify her testimony of Joseph Smith. She really enjoyed the film and we are excited that she is back from her vacation. She got sick though and wasn't able to come to church. We tried to find Laima, but no one was home so we did some tracting which was fun.
There was actually no one at church this Sunday. It was sad to see so many empty chairs. The meeting was excellent. Angel man was there and he bore his testimony about God's love and 75 cent days at Humana. We got the hooligans that we always play sports with to come to Sacrament meeting. Sintija bore a great testimony as did Elder Schmidt. We only had Santa in the investigator/new member class so we joined with the normal Sunday School class. It was...okay. Relief Society (5 total, including us two missionaries...yikes!) was really good. Daina prepared a great lesson about desires based on the conference talk. The rest of the day was normal missionary stuff, nothing too exciting. We didn't get stuck out in the rainstorm so that was good. Sister Ferrin is still on her taking cat pictures kick. I am starting to really dislike cats. Why? Because it means we have to stop whatever we are doing so she can take a picture. I'm not going to own a cat now. We found that referral from Uldis. He wasn't interested and Uldis was really sad that his friend wasn't open to the gospel. Maybe next time! As Elder Holdaway says, "Sometimes as missionaries we are looking for land. Other times we are moving rocks. I've moved a lot of rocks on my mission. Other times we are planting and sowing and we are also harvesting."
Loves,
Sister L
Monday, August 1, 2011
Week 24
Sarra, Selina, Leva
August 1, 2011
On Monday we had kebabs. They were quite messy, especially with us all trying to swat at all the bees. There are so many bees here, they are inside the stores, just everywhere. Luckily they don't sting or anything like that. We were able to visit with the Tolmacovi family and talk about the temple. They have plans to go, but they aren't concrete. Brother Tolmacovi has a great desire to go though and we hope that he will be able to with his wife to be sealed for eternity. We went contacting on the bicycle path. My favorite person we contacted was this man visiting from Russia. We ended up getting his name and number, so we were able to send that referral off to Moscow. He is Russian Orthodox, but willing to hear and learn about other religions.
Tuesday was insanely rainy. The elders called us about two minutes before it started pouring to remind us to shut our sky lights (we've only left them open in rainstorms twice). We didn't need to worry about that though because our ceiling is leaking! It has been quite the adventure to try to figure out what to do. Elder Holdaway hosted another wonderful district meeting. This week we focused on asking good questions. It is definitely something that I can work on. Asking good clear questions for understanding, to make them think, for commitment, and the list goes on. Never mind tying them in with scriptures and such. That is the great thing about teaching, there is always stuff that you can work on. We decided to throw Oskars a curve ball for his retention lesson and we watched The Restoration film. He really enjoyed it and ended up bouncing out of the room to summer institute. He is in our prayers currently as he’ll be getting some kidney stones removed from his body August 1. Visiting the active Beldavi family was quite a surprise. We were ready with a fun Holy Ghost/car activity for energetic Raivo and Lauris but we entered a peaceful home. Raivo was asleep on the couch and just Dace (the mom) and Ingus (the eldest son) were home. So we made them do the blindfold activity! It was still a great lesson and we left the game so they could do it with the other boys.
Wednesday I enjoyed studying and being mildly distracted by the nuns taking pictures of this Catholic march that was going on with singing and banners. It just seemed so silly seeing a nun with a digital camera that I almost took a picture of them. We did take a picture of two couples from Sweden. It was so nice to talk to them. One of them reminded me of Sister Call (Julie's mom), just the nicest lady. I love my ancestry! We have such great people and one of the couples lived near Karlskoga, so that was neat. It was stormy by the evening so we played ping pong for sports night. President was pretty hilarious imitating an old lady, and no one got a black eye from a ping pong ball, so that was good. We went into the slightly sketchy Jaunliepaja to go knocking. The highlight was most definitely the umbrella. I wanted to see if it would slide down the banister. It did. For three flights. I was just laughing and laughing and hoping that there wasn't anyone coming because a giant black umbrella would be colliding with them shortly. The second highlight was the eavesdropping neighbor. We were talking to this one woman who was asking us if we believe that we literally become Christ. It was a fairly long conversation and all the sudden out popped out her neighbor. "I've been listening through the door. This is very interesting, say something else smart!" Sadly neither neighbor was interested, but we had a nice conversation about the sacrament. I'm grateful I know what I know.
Picture from President Scerbenins
Thursday was incredibly random. We visited Ena who still does not want to come to church, but knows she needs to. We then spent the rest of the day with the Boswells. They came down to do interviews and so we were at the church for a long time. Sister Ferrin's interview was 1.5 hours. Mine wasn't that long. President Boswell is such a great man though! He tells lots of great stories and he is very spiritually in tune. It was kind of fun to see the things that he knew about me that you know there is only one way he could know. My favorite thing he said to me was, "Well, at my house WE pray for Sister Lindstrom." That really meant a lot. He has some pretty great one liners. "Free agency is the pits" as well as "give them some rope to hang themselves" (rope being agency, hanging being a possible consequence of said agency). So we recommended that they eat at the Pastnieka Maja to which the response was, "Well sisters, why don't you just come with us. But first, what is one thing that we need to see in Liepaja before we leave." A ride in the car to the beach and then to lunch ensued. We all had soup and at least I sat there semi-awkwardly thinking, "Wow. I'm having lunch with my mission president. I wonder how many people have done this. Weird." I guess it is to make up for never getting to go to "eat with the principal" when I was younger. Definitely a step up from McDonalds. We did weekly planning and then got our weekly gut-wrenching laugh attack from Santa. I think I might have to start a page of "Santa-isms." This evening she told us the story of her neighbor when she found out "those Mormon boys" were coming over. "They are going to take you to America to make you work and be one of their wives!" "Great! I'll be wife number 54!" "But America?!!?" "Cool, a free trip!" Oh Santa. Well, I tried my hand at potato pancakes today...still need some practice with this popular Latvian dish, but not bad for a first try and no recipe.
My favorite contact on Friday was this nice lady named Marika who said that she may come to church. I also ran into Elvira, a anti-church less active on the tram. She was actually really excited to recognize me and just talked my ear off. She was having a bad day so I invited her to our Relief Society activity, and you know what, she came! We walked into the church and there she was, sitting on the couch. Everyone was kind to her and she asked for our autographs. She is probably 50 or 60 and she loves to write poetry. She brought some of her work that she has had published. Oh how my heart broke for her. I'm not totally sure, but from what I understand she gets electrical treatment because it works better than pills. It reminded me of "The Bell Jar." That is a sad summer read for anyone who wants to venture off into the world of mental illnesses. Some music was on and that opened a floodgate of memories for her and she cried. My heart just breaks for her. I wish I could understand all the sad stories that she was telling me better. Sandijs (the dry member since his mom won't allow him to get baptized) invited his 14/15 year old friend Santa to the party (not that Sandijs could go). She came and stayed! We got to teach her after we ate the yummy cake that we made. She is looking for a religion right now- baptized Russian Orthodox but thinks that she is Lutheran.
Santa came to English (as well as the other Santa and her friend Viktorija). We taught her a full first before class and she accepted all of it, except the baptismal date. She is going to be in vacation in Ogre (yes, Ogre) for a month. Another Santa-ism was the highlight. We watched Finding Faith in Christ and by the end Santa had on her sunglasses because she was crying. She declared, "Since I got baptized I get like this all the time. This is that Holy Ghost that Rihards gave me!" Um yes, yes, it is. I love "that Holy Ghost" and am so glad for its influence in my life. It was a beautiful day to be contacting on Saturday, nice and sunny but not too hot. We have been so blessed with a fairly cool summer (knock on wood!). My favorite contact was this lady through her window. We were walking by and I felt like we should talk to her and we ended up chit-chatting for twenty minutes or so. She was a funny larger lady. "I don't believe in God. I'm too old to change. (5 minutes later) I'm Lutheran. I go to the Lutheran church sometimes."
Did I mention that blueberries are in season? They made for some great blueberry pancakes to start a lovely Sabbath day. Sunday was a fun sacrament meeting, although we were few in numbers. Madara and Elder Clark both spoke. Elder Clark because he is going home this week and Madara because she is going on a mini-mission! She will be serving in Riga and will be set apart on Wednesday. Sisters Wilson and Sutterfield will be her trainers so it looks like Sister Ferrin and I will be together for the next two transfers (assuming she gets the same trainers for the 12 week training), if not three. They did a trio with Elder Holdaway that was very good. We had a great third hour. It was great mostly because we got to have translation all high-tech. Rihards translated into the little tour guide ear piece thingies so we all got to listen. The beginning he was doing all in English and just being goofy. He was embarrassing his girlfriend Kristine from Imanta. President S. was going over the talk by President Monson from Priesthood session. The best part was when he told the elders to go home and find a wife. Did lots of calling and setting up appointments along with a little contacting after church. Favorite contact was Walters by far. He is a gentleman [yes, a gentleman] from Germany who knows more big English words than little. He was quite interested in knowing about got and finding a connection with him. He talked to us about the energy in water molecules and we just had a splendid conversation which ended with us giving him the church website. He is quite the world traveler and we hope he enjoyed Liepaja. Walking home was also enjoyable. We may or may not have been laughing at the exhorbitantly drunk young man who could not walk straight, nor keep his body straight up and his friend who wasn't willing to help him. Two younger kids then ran by with a giant blown up walrus and Sister Ferrin and I just lost it completely.
The church is true. I am so grateful for this gospel and for my loving family and friends.
Sister Lindstrom
Relief Society Cake Making
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