Week 42

Monday
Thanksgiving take two was definitely a lot less stressful and almost as good. We didn't finish Thanksgiving leftovers until Thursday. Our district had a nice time talking and writing letters. In the evening we went and had FHE with the Frolavi family since they are having some family trials. They are doing well. Afterwards we dropped Jana Gromenko (inactive) and gave her cookies. She let us in for a spiritual thought and for a return appointment!

Tuesday
In District Meeting I was glad for the opportunity to practice teaching about dispensations. As of late I've been going over the first three lessons in PMG and learning a lot and improving my teaching. We went with Lidija L. to do her visiting teaching. We went to visit an awesome inactive member, Mara. She and Lidija butted heads at first, but by the end everyone was sipping tea and enjoying Mara showing us all of the crafts that she has made. Luckily the whispers of inspiration told me to 1. bring Mara's address and 2. prepare a spiritual thought. We taught Santa Dike (recent convert) in the evening about Gifts of the Spirit and you know what, she didn't crack one single joke about it. I was kind of disappointed. Regardless, it was a great lesson.

Wednesday
Everyone decided to cancel on us. It ended up working out though because Lidija called during studies and asked if we could take her daughter to the dentist since she had to work. The dentist was behind schedule and so it all worked out. It was interesting to be inside a school here. It was PURE CHAOS. I have never seen so many little people punching each other and being so loud. It would be pure madness to be a teacher here. I am grateful that we have a more civilized educational approach. We went by Liga's (recent convert...the one who practically took the Book of Mormon out of my hands) even though she had cancelled on us earlier and she let us in! We had cookies and she was so glad to see us that she made us peppermint tea and bread and butter. I have a confession, I kind of like tea now. Sugar is the key. Anywho, Liga invited us to go get 30 centime (60 US cents) massages with her on Monday [in retrospect it was a very nice massage by a machine].

Thursday
We went and had probably our best lesson with inactive Vineta. Her husband was home and he took little Marex (who still doesn't talk) for a little bit and you could actually feel the Spirit really strongly, it was great! We had a lesson with Oskars in his home. Wow. We are just spoiled little people. Oskars lives in a one room home with a wood stove, 2 old broken beds, 2 chairs that he places his clothes on, no fridge, no cupboards, just a small table by a sink and enough dishes to serve himself. We are so blessed to have so much and yet we always want more. There are others who have nothing and are happy. I think we have a big lesson to learn from them. The gospel has made Oskars happy. He was just beaming when he showed us pictures of his family (all now deceased). We went to the town tree lighting ceremony. It was really fun. Different classes from the schools dressed up and sort of had a parade. They sang some traditional folk songs about how it is getting dark and how they have the stars for light but want the sun and so on. It was all really pretty and there were so many cute families. Since the whole cookie thing has been going so well, we decided to try it with an investigator we haven't been able to meet with, Zenta [older, has the grandson with the crazy random disease]. She, along with all our other investigators will be busy pretty much all December.

Friday
Yay for early morning trips to Riga. The handsome ortho was able to fix my new retainers right away. We went around Imanta a little bit- it was weird to be in my old stomping grounds. We then picked up mail and I ended up carrying a very heavy package around all day in the rain and wind. We found a great cafe, Sweetday Cafe, and had some creamy vegetable soup with some good but overpriced chocolate cake with ice cream and fruit. It was pretty epically eclectic. It reminded me of a cafe that Kimmie, Kirstin, and I would have. They were also playing awesome old school (aka Nat King Cole) Christmas music which is my favorite. I love the old stuff!

Satuday
The church got attacked again. More graffiti and three broken windows. Last week they tried to steal the sign. We don't know who it is, but we have a sneaking suspicion that it could be some previous investigators. We had a neat little moment in English class...we were going over how the BOM answers questions to the soul and spent some time showing everyone how to look up the scriptures and they all seemed a lot more comfortable and everyone took a BOM at the end! That NEVER happens! It was super awesome. We went off with Lidija again to help with her visiting teaching. On the way I dropped the phone in a puddle. Never fear, the phone is fine! It wasn't like when Sister Sutterfield ran it through the laundry by any means. The inactive woman we visited, Inese was really great and her whole family (husband and 2 kids) are members. We had a good lesson with her, Lidija talked a LOT this time and Inese actually came to church on Sunday, what a miracle! Do your visiting and home teaching everybody! We had our lesson with Jana. Rubija a member who has been in France picking kiwis (no, she doesn't speak French) helped us with the lesson and I think Sister Gromenko really liked it.

Sunday
The Boswells came to church today which was fun! I translated Sister Boswell's testimony...it is hard waiting for people to finish their thoughts and then translate. I do much better translating as they talk. I was in Primary for singing time with Sister Wilson and then Sister Boswell went to Relief Society with me so I could do my duties there. We then had lentil soup and biscuits to break our fast. We love having the Boswell's over!