Week 39

Nov. 14, 2011
We had a fun preparation day last Monday. I bought a new pillow and I am sleeping so much better. Now we just need to kill the mice in the walls! We were going to go biking but it was cold. And Elder Palmer has a phobia of bikes. Instead we had lunch together and then played Texas Hold'em. I almost won! If the elders would have done a better job explaining what cards win, I would have had all the mini-Monopoly money. We had Latvian class with Marika in the evening. She told stories, which was fun.

On Tuesday we ate some of "Thor's Thundercrisp" (throw "Thor" in front of anything and it is a hit) during sister exchanges. This is a new thing. After our district meeting on our purpose as missionaries we got to pick the elders' brains for ideas and get to "vent" (while your companion is still there...don't know how that works) since we never get to have exchanges. We found out that we aren't having fun! Neither of us could answer that we were, so they encouraged us to make missionary work fun. We went to see if that Russian mother whose husband died was home; she wasn't. We therefore went contacting by the ocean. I really need to learn Russian, every single person we contacted was Russian until the end. I started up a conversation with these two nice old ladies that were sitting by the fountain of the dead silent park. One of them invited us home for coffee. We got herbal tea instead :). She started crying on the walk to her house because her husband died and she wants to know if she'll see him again. We get into her home and she has OLD missionary pamphlets and such. She is looking for what happens. She had this book, Dievs nekad nokave... "God is Never Late." I love that title! Anywho, we didn't get home for lunch until 5pm! And we had panini sandwiches, yum! It has been a long time since I had a sandwich, it made me happy. It was not as entertaining as Sister Wilson's night prayer. "I don't know if I'm allowed, but will you please help the mice to die so that we can sleep?" I had a really hard time not laughing the rest of the prayer.

Wednesday morning I had a great study for Santa Dike. I read over the Forget-Me-Not talk by Pres. Uchtdorf because that is what we were going to go over with her. I really liked the "forget not the why of the gospel." I was thinking about what the elders said about having fun. I think I have gotten too caught up in the what and how that I forgot the why. Sister W. and I finally decided to call President Boswell and ask him about having fun because we were just still stumped by it and mostly he advised us to be happy...though he said he knew we were happy. Choose happiness and find the funny things and smile. We made aprons out of pillowcases! That was fun and they are so nice to have. We had a lesson with Inga red hair, like flaming red who is a friend of a member. She is super nice, as is her cute 2-year-old Pavils. He went around chasing the cat and was a gentleman. He got me a chair to sit on and gave me an apple, it was very nice. Inga loves the church and knows that God blesses her. She definitely will be a member...eventually. Sintija drew a picture of Sister Wilson...she loves it! We were out walking around 8pm and admiring a very nice house. This woman popped out onto her roof in her wardrobe and started yelling at us...she thought we were going to graffiti her fence. Apparently sister missionaries look sketchy?? It was pretty funny though.

On Thursday I found out that my best friend Amber's mother died. This was super sad, especially because Amber is on a mission and she has two younger siblings. It definitely was a slap in the face in the way of a big reminder of the "why" of the gospel. It makes talking to people about the Plan of Salvation so different. I am so glad we have the gospel and that the Johnson family was sealed in the temple. Mamma J is just on vacation now in paradise for a while. She was an amazing mother and woman and I will miss her. She always wanted to hang out with me and Amber- come running or go to the movies.

We were taking a bus up to teach Vesma, a woman from our English class and we saw the crazy angel wing man while we were waiting for the bus. Today he was wearing a Ben Franklin wig and green. While he was talking to us I felt like I should call Liga, the lady Sister Ferrin and I found and helped baptize who has been sick. She answered her phone and said she was coming to church! Vesma is thinking about the baptismal commitment we gave her and we had to run, quite literally from her house to catch the bus. I totally almost peed my tights, because I needed to go to the ladies room several hours before. Luckily I didn't, but I did misplace my bus ticket and the controllers came! Duhn duhn duhn! In an effort to save me from a fine, Sister Wilson grabbed another bus ticket to punch it and got a fine for doing so. At that moment I found my bus ticket. Sintija helped us teach Guna (Dace Beldava's sister who comes to English) about prayer. Sintija told Guna that there was an elephant in her chair...Guna was very disturbed and confused. It was an animal cracker.

11/11/11 was a party! Mostly we ate stick things that looked like "1s" and said "Happy 11/11/11!" While contacting I found a potato spiraled out on a skewer that was fried in oil...mmm. Almost better than the homemade corndogs we made. It was quite the endeavor, making corn dogs. I prefer buying them frozen. I think I am officially the unofficial RS President. I have been invited by the District Relief Society to join in on Skype meetings about Relief Society...woot! Should be lots of fun. I don't mind. Some missionaries hate when they aren't doing "missionary work" in their small definitions of tracting and knocking. Sister Scerbinini is sick so she asked us to help the YM/YW make lasagna. I do not have that skill so it was good that we had Sister Wilson there. The youth were all tired and falling asleep, unlike little Ieva who is almost 6 years old. She insisted that I dance with her and tried to get everyone to come and be spectators. On Friday we were able to meet with Dzintra, an inactive that wasn't even on the branch list. She is nice and has a cute red dog named Muša (or Bear in Russian). She really liked us since the dog liked us. The last sister missionaries offended her so it is a good thing that she sees us as "God's children." She loves the Bible but remembered a lot about the Restoration, which is great.

Saturday was a fun day teaching English as always. We have the cutest 7-year-old who comes with her grandparents. She lived in England for a few years and only knows Russian so it helps her with her Latvian. She speaks better than the rest of the class, hands down. While I was working on some Relief Society stuff Sister Wilson watercolored...she found some paint and boy is she good!

Sunday rocked. We had 41 people at church, hurray! Dzintra, the inactive did NOT want to come when we called her in the morning, but we went to pick up the Beldavi boys which was so fun. There is nothing like walking with 2 teenagers holding their little brothers' hands going to church. By the time we got to the church we were quite the parade, Sintija and Eriks joined us on the way and we had a really spirit-filled sacrament meeting. Liga came which just brightened my day. We had a hilarious Branch Council meeting. Presidents was at home with Sarra because she is sick, so he joined us on Skype. Rihards was just being a goofball pretending to eat the microphone among other things. We had a break the fast with the elders, Rihards, and his friend Artis who was visiting from England with his cute little girl Amber. Everyone loved French Toast a la Munns along with scrambled eggs. We went harvesting in the evening. It sure is dark now! We met a lady who wasn't very nice at first but I was being bold and by the end we were friends with her, her cat, and she invited us back for tea. :)

The church is true. I know that we have a Savior who will redeem all mankind. The gospel is real. Don't forget the why of life!

Love,
Sister Lindstrom