Week 37

Another week has gone by. This has been a long transfer for me. And it has been long...7 weeks! We are having transfers on Thursday and we still don't know what is happening. The weather has been so gorgeous as of late. The heating is coming on November 1st, there is still a mouse in the house, but God is still smiling upon us. The weather has been unseasonably dry and warm. I am grateful for that as well as all my other many blessings.

Happy Halloween! Yes they do celebrate Halloween here. We actually saw some trick-or-treaters Sunday night (we still don't know why). It definitely isn't quite as big as in America (no decorations, no special candy to buy, etc.) Happy name day today Grandma Nadine!

On Monday I got to try frikadella soup. Frikadella soup is very popular in Latvia and I had it along with some garlic and cheese bread (also very Latvian and unhealthy) at the 3 Kungs cafe with the elders. The sun was shining so we even got some ice cream after. You know you are in Latvia when you have on a coat and gloves, but you are still eating an ice cream cone outside because it is sunny. We found out today that our Margarita is heading off to Ireland to be a nanny there. We are going to miss her dearly. We met with long-time member Marika Monday evening. Along with helping us with the language she informed us that we need to keep our feet warm otherwise we will get sick (among other tidbits from Latvian culture).

We've been able to do a lot of contacting this week. On Tuesday I contacted the kindest old man from Lithuania. He's been living in Latvia for several years now and he was so fun to talk to. Our District Meeting was on how to be happy. We started off by discussing what our definition of happiness is, what makes us happy, etc. It is an interesting exercise, I recommend trying it. We then read in 2 Nephi 5 about things that help us to "live after the manner of happiness." The highlight of the day was definitely visiting with Guna (our investigator who is a member's sister). We ended up taking Sintija along because we saw her on the way to the meeting. Sintija was a great help and we now know that Guna still doesn't believe the whole authority business.

I have just been on a French kick. I found something that was in the similitude of a "pain au chocolat" at the tirgus (market) on Wednesday. I was fairly impressed. We were late to service at Rihard's because we helped President Scerbinins show the church to a friend visiting from the middle of nowhere, Latvia. I found out at service that I do not remove wallpaper "smuki" (cute) enough. Sister Wilson was informed by Rihards that you shouldn't stand on chairs with shoes on. We just both laughed because we both would have at our respective dwellings in America. Anywho, we made some kicking taco soup. If you want to know what that extra "kick" is, try adding some ginger root to your taco soup. We had a lunch meeting with a nice 63 year old, Karmena. She mostly just likes talking to us young folks and seeing what we think. It was quite the game to see how to sneak in the gospel without her knowing. She fed us tea, honey (separate from the tea), boiled potatoes, and coleslaw. It was all very nice. As always, God helped to expand our stomachs because it was right after our taco soup. We visiting cute old member Ausma when her growly "sveiki" (hey!). Her eye operation went well and she was glad to see us, as was her dancing dog (yes, the dog dances on its two hind legs).

On Thursday we had weekly planning and our weekly meeting with Santa Dike (recent convert). We challenged her to read The Book of Mormon by the end of the year and she is taking the challenge (10 pages a day, I dare you all to do it!). We had a few meetings not show up so we went harvesting/knocking/bothering people in their homes/whatever you prefer to call it. Naturally the first door that opened was also the last. This 89 year old half deaf lady just let us on in and yelled our ears off. She was half deaf and could only understand Sister Wilson because she was sitting closer to her, so I sat back and enjoyed the show. She was a super nice old lady, going a little senile, but that is okay. When we were leaving her neighbor, in broken Latvian, told us thank you for visiting her. That really meant a lot (I'm pretty sure he heard all of the conversation through the ceiling, bless his heart).

Friday morning we taught Vineta (inactive 30 year old with 2 kids) about prayer and it was a nice lesson. We invited Vineta to start praying two times a day. We had more perfect weather for contacting. We had a meeting with Guna at the church to watch the Restoration film. Due to people being late and such, we ended up having Oskars and Santa D. in the lesson with Guna. It went really well and they told her essentially that yeah, it sounds crazy, but you've got to pray and eventually you will get it. We had a lesson with Oskars and Santa helped out. Jinkies, she is just so funny. Today she was talking about how she isn't going to the Celestial Kingdom because she doesn't want to get married. She said the closing prayer and asked God to forgive her for not wanting to get married and to help her have that desire. God love her, she is so great! I'm pretty sure we were all chuckling in that prayer. Santa really has the greatest prayers though, because they truly are conversations with God. She is an example to me! We had a pioneer party at the church. Members got to make forts, hunt rabbits, cross daunting waters, etc. It was quite the event!

I was sick on Saturday. Boo, not fun. I mostly wanted to just chop everything off from above my shoulders, but no worries, I am on the mend. We had cleaning and English as usual and our class continues to grow! They just all invite their friends! We made repentance airplanes with the Beldavi family as we celebrated Elvis' name day. Lauris and Raivo thought the airplanes were the greatest things ever. I personally liked the example of how to repent because I got to steal candy from Sister Wilson and eat it. :)

Sunday was a nice block. I taught third hour to the Relief Society, Priesthood, Young Men, and Young Women. I had a LOT of time and with the Lord's help I was able to keep pulling stuff out of thin air and fully taught all 5 steps of the gospel of Jesus Christ along with the difference between immortality and eternal life. Phew! In other random events, someone stole a 20$ box of cookies from the church. After having a nice Sunday dinner of chicken and rice, we called many people who didn't answer and then went out by the lake to knock on doors there. We met some rather nice younger people. Mostly I think Sister Wilson and her big blue eyes enamour them, but anyway, that is that!

The church is true. God lives.
Love you all,
Sister Lindstrom