Week 43

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...at least decoration wise. :) There are angels "floating" in the river, the bridge is covered with gingerbread cookies, there is a tram that is covered in Christmas lights, the Catholic church has them as well, a giant Christmas tree is in center, and the University has giant white lights and snowflakes on campus. I am perfectly fine with the fact that there is no snow on the ground. No snow = above freezing and with wind chill it isn't too bad. I realized last night that this is the 4th Christmas away from home for me. I am ready to be back home, doing the nativity and driving dad nuts, eating cold cereal Christmas morning after waking up way too early, and of course, slurpees at 7-11 with my favorite people on Christmas Eve. There's always next year though!

Did I mention that I feel like I live in "It's a Wonderful Life"? Currently there is a bank crisis here in Latvija. One Latvian bank went bankrupt and all the time there are huge lines at banks- people trying to get out their money and such.

Last Monday was quite adventurous. We went with recent convert Liga to try out these massaging beds. It was actually really nice. That is the best my legs have felt in years! (Now don't I sound old.) The people there do a great job at brainwashing you into thinking that you need a 30 centime massage every day (aka 60 cents US for about a half hour massage and 30 minutes or so of brainwashing to like their products). The shorter days haven't been bothering me as much as I thought...we've been very busy this week though with various activities. Mostly we just live in a time warp of perpetual gray, the occasional rain, wind, and blue sky. I'm just glad that it isn't super cold. Our windows are quite drafty. Our house temperature ranges from 61 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit. We bought some tape and are going to tape up the windows today and see if it makes it less draft. So anywho, we ate at my favorite Pastnieka Maja. I got fish and rice. It was weird, we ate upstairs, which isn't very cute. There are VERY large pink flowers on the walls and yes...I just like downstairs and outside better. Speaking of outside, there is a boardwalk that leads across some grass to Pastnieka Maja. Elder Alder was sliding on it because it was hail/rain/snowing and he biffed it and fell really hard. He was soaking wet and embarrassed and we all had belly aches from laughing. We made a bunch of playdough ornaments for ward members that we still need to paint.

Tuesday we had quite the weather- more of the rain/snow/hail with wind. I now know why I went to physical therapy for so long...so I could walk backwards and sideways really fast so you don't get pelted in the face by hail going at least 30 mph. I knew there had to be a reason they always made me practice traveling all sorts of directions of that treadmill! Mostly the weather just made me laugh, although I was very wet very quickly. We had lunch with Ruta Jekste, the former RS president who randomly went off to Germany. She is back and is doing well. She really didn't like her job there...they were very restrictive on her freedom. Needless to say she talked our ears off and is glad to be back in the Branch and helping out. She fed us rice with beef and carrots "chinese food!". We dropped off cookies to some members, overall it went well. We were able to see one member, Alesja, who hasn't been to church for 10 years and set up an appointment to talk with her.

On Wednesday we took cookies to inactive Lydia and Dzintra. They were NOT happy to see us. I left the cookies outside their doors anyway. :) Ausma was happy to see us and We had a good lesson with Alesja. She is 20 and got baptized when she was about ten. She is really nice and sweet-tempered and wants to come to church once she finishes learning how to drive. Driving here is a big deal- it is really expensive and the law is soon changing that you have to be 21 to drive here. You lose your license if you ever hit anyone and they have a disciple points and fine system like we do in Utah. We visited a possible investigator, Inga. She is the Branch President Wife's friend. She is a nice lady who needs to make some life changes but will one day be a member. We had a good evening harvesting. Lots of people gave us their phone numbers and said we could come back.

Thursday’s highlights included eating lunch at Zelma's house. She fed us frikadellas with potatoes and sour cream. We eat everything with sour cream here- soup, potatoes, pancakes, meat, salad, pretty much anything and everything. They are proud of their potatoes here. Lots of varieties and a lot more flavorful than Idaho potatoes. We held a Relief Society party in the evening...we made Christmas cards as well as flowers from cloth to wear. Overall it went really well and we are planning on having another activity to make even more cards.

Friday, oh Friday. It was snowing on Friday (it is all gone now). But you see, there is this cute old man who is out every morning and stands by the gate to the old Catholic church and begs for money. He was out today in the awful weather and the priest told him to leave and he was walking across the cobblestone with his cane looking defeated and it was just really sad. I cried for him. We are so blessed to have so much. So so much. There would be many many families living in houses the size we have in Utah. We made a yummy creamy vegetable soup (with far too much onion...oh boy!), and we did a lot of calling of persons on Friday. Presidents sang for us....it was some crazy Russian- 80s techno super weird song about forgiveness. I think he should keep to his opera. It was pretty great though...I just imagined him in a gangster outfit with some electric guitar players with long hair behind him. I gently nudged that he shouldn't sing it for the Christmas party. We had tea and cookies with Liga in the evening and talked to her about tithing. She is excited to pay it and it was just a good lesson overall.

On Saturday we only had 6 or so people at English...all of our Lauma (lingerie factory) students are working 6 days a week to finish a huge order. We had a good lesson with Santa from Enos 1. I really like Enos one, it was a really touching chapter for me. I especially liked the last two verses. We had a choir practice...mostly missionaries and a few members. So far I don't have any solos, so that is good. We are learning some traditional Latvian Christmas songs, as well as other songs like "Go Tell It On A Mountain" in Latvian. We love feeling like a Baptist church! We went harvesting and a young dad set up an appointment with us for next Wednesday...wahoo! Sister Wilson was in need of some chocolate Saturday night and after buying 5 lats worth she set off the alarm. A big security man then came and grabbed her. I had to quickly grab all her chocolate and other articles and go chasing after them. They disappeared! Luckily Sister Wilson is loud so I could hear her. She was in a boxed off security room and apparently her pocket dictionary set off the alarm. Always an adventure!

On Sunday I was able to give a talk about family. It went really well and several members thanked me after, so I guess it was good! I talked a lot about how my family is a great example to me, especially my parents. They have taught me about the importance of family history, how to work, how to serve, the importance of the temple, daily scripture study, home and visiting teaching, family prayer, and so on. I helped Sister Wilson in Primary. The kids were pretty rowdy so we did some pretty silly games while singing. In the end they just ended up making a fort out of blankets and chairs...wild children! We then did normal missionary work- trying to find people and there wasn't anything too exciting there.

Merry Christmas!
Love, Sister L