Week 35

Well, I won't lie, I'm cold. Socialism has its pluses and minuses. Minus is that heating doesn't come on until November. We have been enjoying about 5C weather outside and 16C inside which is cold when you are sitting studying. Luckily we have a microwave and rice bags as well as thermals and blankets. Can't wait for the winter!

Monday was rubbish weather so we couldn't go to Karosta. Instead we had the elders over for leftover soup and bread. Elder Schmidt wanted some of "Thor's thunder crisp" (aka apple crisp) and a double batch so that is what we made; it was HUGE! The elders couldn't eat it all in one day so we had it the next day at district meeting. In the evening we went out knocking in apartment buildings and met the nicest Russian atheist man. He wanted us to come in and talk but 1. we don't speak Russian and 2. not allowed. We got his information for Elder Palmer who called him. He said, "Oh I don't want to talk to you and make you not believe in God but those girls of yours are so great out on the streets."

We had a really great District Meeting this week about charity and love and what that means and how we get it (Elder Alder does a GREAT job teaching) in which he brought up DC 11:20. I liked it compared to Moses 1:39. Our work is to be obedient (DC 11:20). God's work is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man (Moses 1:39). People will always have their agency and can do what they will. All we can do is be obedient!

After our District Meeting we headed out to Rihard's to stack wood. Being girls they wanted to give us the "easier" job which was totally not easier. Instead of stacking wood in the shed, we were supposed to grab a pile of wood and then haul it up the stairs and stack it in Rihard's hall. And boy did we stack it. And then we ran into the ceiling so we stopped. It was fun and so nice to be working outside like at the farm. The weather was also sunny for this firewood adventure. Afterwards we had a meeting with Presidents and Rihards in which we found out Rihards is engaged! About time! Though it won't be until next July. We are pretty excited for him. We had flying saucers for lunch since we bonded over them last week and then had a lesson with Guna from English (who is the Beldavi's aunt...weird!)

Wednesday we got to watch the first session of General Conference in English. So good! We also had a good lesson with Zenta about baptism and what exactly it is. She had some questions about what if we sin after we are baptized...she is a smart cookie. :) We stopped and said "hi" to Lidija and Ausma. They are both doing fine and we took a muffin to Marika. She came to her door as we were writing a note. We confused her a lot since our meeting with her was scheduled for Friday. We went to a meeting at a non-existent address. The elders always have the most reliable referrals :). We did meet some very nice people along the way though. Santa D. doesn't have cancer and Riksi still has fleas but both are doing well.

Conference was amazing yet again. Talk after talk has been answers to questions (except for the one about having babies...and the chicken drum one) Thursday was a good feeding day at the sister missionaries' apartment. We made pumpkin-carrot soup as well as no knead bread. It was amazing. It made up with the ice berg that we hit that we didn't know existed. One of our older members feels guilty for her son's disability that he may have gotten when he hit his head when he was younger. She feels responsible for not preventing the accident. It was really sad to see her, she has been carrying around this burden for a long time. I cried with her. We were able to see President Uchtdorf's RS talk which was amazing. If you haven't watched it, you should. We made popcorn in a pot (my new favorite snack as of yesterday's practice session) and had a party and watched the Restoration film and then had a testimony meeting after. Aivars Fishmeisters was there and I think his heart is softening slowly. After the party (aka pasakums) we had a lesson with Rita and Sandijs about repentance using the story of the sons of Mosiah. The atonement is real!

On Friday we watched the Priesthood session which was amazing. That is so crazy about senior missionaries! We do love senior missionaries. I'm expecting dad to be off on a mission before I get home. I enjoyed all the talks on missionary work as well. Many speakers spoke to the missionaries. We made banana fajitas for lunch and then had a meeting with Rafaella. She is in her late teens and investigated the church a few years ago. She is thinking she is on the "middle path" of life- not Satan's but not God's path. We were bold and told her that if she wasn't on God's path she was on Satan's and that she needed to decide where she wants to go in life and after this life. We challenged her to pray every day for the peace she had when she was investigating the church and to read Ether 12. It was a good lesson, but not at all what we planned. We had our meeting with Marika and talked for way too long about food. We are officially all bonded now in our love for cooking and Marika came to sacrament meeting, so that was good.

On Saturday another session of GC. Quote of the week: "Oh look! The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has matching pink snuggies!" Elder Palmer is quite the comic. Sunday night when we watched conference he was speaking instead of singing the closing hymn is this old person/Gollum from Lord of the Rings/just really funny voice. Anywho, we cleaned the church as usual and had a very large English class again. We had a leftover fiesta and then went to the beach to see the end of the sunset. It was so gorgeous and it wasn't windy which made it even that more enjoyable. We also had time to search for past church members. None of them lived at their old addresses, but everyone was very kind and helpful, especially with finding buildings. This one man was stopped by a woman who only spoke Russian who was trying to help us. He then looked around, called his wife, and told several other people and called after us several times to redirect us

Sunday was a miracle Sunday. I fasted for Oskars who is having Word of Wisdom problems and felt a lot better about it (I cried about that one too...stupid Satan is just getting everyone). He is going to kick the habit again. Few of the "regulars" were there, but there were so many inactives that haven't been in who knows how long. They all new each other and it was exciting to see them all there. They enjoyed Elder Palmer's great talk about his conversion as well as our impromptu missionary musical number. Ruta G. taught a great lesson about service in Sunday School and I taught about the restoration in Relief Society. Sister Wilson is now basically the Primary President. We are just going to rule the whole church down in Liepaja :). Not really, but it is a blessing to be able to help and use our talents.

Create a great week. Enjoy the weather and being able to control your heating in your homes!

Loves,
Sister Lindstrom