Week 44

Merry Christmas everyone!

I can't believe that a year has already flown by. With this past week being my year mark I have been thinking a lot about what I was doing last year. What an adventure the past year has been, filled with many ups and downs. Thank you all for your continued love, support, and prayers.

On Monday we went by the Ringman Maris' to pick up some rings. Sister Wilson made the mistake of asking about skiing. A half hour later we left. We are now well versed on skiing in Latvia and in other places in the world, lol. It was actually a lot of fun. Maris loves skiing and is such a fun man. We ate a late lunch with the elders at Olive and had a fun lesson with a lady named Sveta. Missionaries used to live by her and she was just all sorts of fun. "I haven't formed an opinion about your church yet." I had a fun little miracle of listening to the spirit on Monday. Normally I carry around a "personal" copy of the Book of Mormon. It is one of the smaller older versions that I use so that I don't soil a bunch of new ones. I had the impression Monday to take a new Book of Mormon, so I did. I was on tram, on the way home from harvesting debating whether I wanted to talk to this lady or not. I decided to and made a straight b-line for her. She was just the perfect little contact. "You are a missionary? That is so great! I love the Bible. Do you believe in the Bible? I bet you have a special book too? That book contains the fulness of Jesus Christ's gospel and you can study it with the Bible? I bet you teach English too, and I bet it is for free." Sadly she didn't want to meet, but she did take a copy of the Book of Mormon and our phone number.

On Tuesday we had District Meeting in Latvian with Oskars! It was fun having him there. He really enjoyed being with us and helping out. We taught Santa Dike about Family History with Ludmila. Ludmila was the cutest thing in the lesson. She really likes family history and was so excited that Santa would be able to work on her family history. In Ludmila's prayer she prayed that Santa would be able to get a temple recommend and do her family history and it was just super cute. We taught Guna out of Alma 32 and she thinks she has the desire to grow the seed!

Wednesday's highlight was going to Inga's. Inga is a long time investigator who apparently hasn't had a firm grip about what the Book of Mormon is. She didn't understand fully about what the BOM is, where it came from, who wrote it, etc. We cleared that all up and it made a LOT more sense to her. We also helped Inga clean. We were all ready with gloves to get down and dirty but we ended up just helping her fold clothes. She owns a LOT of clothes. A lot a lot.

Thursday was transfers! Elder Palmer is leaving us, but everyone else is staying the same in Liepaja. Elder Burr and Elder Lynch are serving together in Jelgava, in a tri-panionship with a Russian speaking elder from Sweden! I so wish I could be there, but alas, I still haven't found those people I am to teach in Liepaja. We had a branch activity and made Christmas cards.

Friday was a busy day. We taught Rita, a newly engaged 51-year old English and a spiritual thought. We also got to meet with Valda. She is a woman that the elders contacted that has a strong desire to change her life. It was really neat to meet with her and teach her how to pray. She came to church on Sunday and we extended a baptismal date to her then. She is already reading from the Book of Mormon and is just a really sincere and humble woman. We had a fun little bonding time with Alesja during her meeting. We started by talking about families and then she showed us all of her family pictures. We also got to meet with the Beldavi on Friday night. Dace (the mom) was there, so it was nice to talk to her. That woman is a saint, raising four sons on her own!

Saturday's service was helping Rihard's stack wood. It was pretty easy this time since we just had to stay in the house and stack it. We then had choir practice for our Christmas Eve concert, English class, and a lesson with a hopefully soon-to-be-new-member Nadezda. She is the cutest lady and she loves the Book of Mormon. She brought her copy to class and we read some of it together. By we I mean she, and she did it with arm movements and such emotion and would stop and say, "I love this part!" and other things that missionaries love to hear. Sadly, she is going out of town for the holidays. I am excited for January. Liga was mellow this week, she's been sick. She made us cabbage soup (tasted like coleslaw in soup form...yuck!) and I had a cough attack. It was pretty bad, my eyes started watering and yeah. I survived though.

On Sunday Valda came to church! Hurray! Madara is back from her mini-mission and she gave a talk and it was a good sacrament meeting about callings and service.

I can't believe that it is almost Christmas! I look forward to spending the next holiday season with you. Hot chocolate, "It's A Wonderful Life", and all my favorite people.

Sending you Christmas kisses!
Sister L