Week 46

Hello hello! It is currently raining and feels like it is March. I'm not complaining. :)

Monday
During Preparation day I played Nerts with Sintija. We then went to her house (the Frolavi's) and had FHE with her and Eriks. Eriks insisted that we play Wayblades...fighting tops! I totally did not win. We met an awesome Russian man (there were many this week), Vassils. He had met with missionaries before and was just so kind. "Has anyone else talked to you in my building? No? That is a shame. People need to. God is important." Sister Wilson made some egg nog...uh....it turned out chunky. Great flavor, bad texture. I prefer the stuff from the store.

Tuesday
District Meeting was pretty funny. We practiced working with members so we had Presidents come in. The elders were teaching us sisters (we being investigators) and Presidents was supposed to be the member. That wasn't clear to him. Elder Alder asked him about life and what he believes Presidents said, "I believe that there are other planets and like, maybe aliens." I chimed in, "Presidents, you are supposed to be the member!" "Oh! Oopsies! Wrong setting!" For service in a team effort Sister Wilson and I cut Sintija's hair in the church bathroom and did a swell job. The highlight of harvesting was this angry anti-Christ lady we knocked into.

Wednesday
We taught Rita, our investigator about prophets very much in depth. I took a nap during our lunch time. When I woke up I thought it was morning and that we needed to go teach Valda. "Why is it so dark outside?" I asked Sister Wilson. "It is 6 o'clock and we need to go teach the Beldavis.'" We had a great time teaching them, regardless of my momentary time warp. Everyone was home and we had a great lesson from Helaman 5 about names and choosing the right. We want people to remember good things when they hear our name so we need to always do good. When we went knocking this super nice Russian lady gave us clementines. Sister Wilson understands Russian and knew that she said, "Wait here, I want to give you a gift." Sadly her ancestors were pareiz-ticigs (Russian Ortho) and so she can't change religions. I was super duper thirsty so I went and got some water at the store (there are no drinking fountains in Europe). I was guzzling it down outside of the supermarket when I heard, "Sister, don't drink the snoggy outside!" "No, it's water! I promise!" We proceeded to have a conversation with another nice Russian whose friend went in and bought us alcohol. "They don't drink because of their faith." He told his friend. I liked this Russian.

Thursday
We taught inactive Alesja and hopefully we will get her to come around to church as soon as she finishes driving school. She is a sweetheart and remembers a lot! We went to Santa Dike's house...it is so different from when I first went there in May. It is clean, there is lighting, and pictures of Jesus...the gospel changes lives...quite literally! Santa is seriously one of my best friends here. She is so funny and we just always joke and talk.

Friday
We headed up to Riga so that Sister Wilson could go to Zone Leaders Council (aka Council of the Gods). I got to hang out with Sister Sandberg, a tall skinny brown haired Russian who is a health nut and reminds me of my best friend. We worked hard and had fun being with eachother. We met an awesome lady, Ludmila on the bus and chatted with her. Sister Sandberg is so good at contacting everyone. She talked to this woman who I thought was stealing tinsel off a tree. She ended up being a really neat lady, quite the saint and we were to meet with her in a bakery a half hour later, but she never showed up. :[ We left a bunch of our contact cards on the Christmas tree. Sister S. and I ran into an unpleasant Russian. He was a communist and didn't want to do anything good with us. We skeedadled out of that situation fast.

Saturday
The bus ride to and from Riga keeps getting longer. Sigh. The highlight of Christmas Eve was definitely teaching Santa's son, Kristaps. He is 21 and likes to live life. We taught himt he basics of what the church believed. He thought is was all very interesting and said he has a lot to think about. He is so smart and made all the connections. We are going to lunch with him and the elders on Monday so he can see that we are "normal" and aren't munks or anything crazy like that. To celebrate the New Year we made corndogs, root beer, and french fries. We didn't stay up to ring in the New Year, nor did we hear everyone else (how I do not know...we were tired).

As usual we taught Valda, our progressing investigator, practically every day this week. She is planning on being baptized on the 21st of January. She went to institute and really enjoyed it.

Sunday
Happy New Year! Church was only 1 hour long and the Blums from Riga were there with cute little baby Sebastian. We were able to teach Sintija about making decisions and receiving revelation about those decisions, as well as Ausma about being more Christ-like. She is so funny. She is sick and hopes that she gets admitted into the hospital. Getting old doesn't look fun. We also did some weekly planning but didn't finish (oopsie).

I know that God's church is on the earth today. He loves all of His children and He still speaks to us today. We are so loved by our Father in Heaven.

Sister L