Week 50

Hello from the cold and snowy land of Liepaja. Yes, that is right, I've been here since May 2011 and I'm fine not moving (my luggage broke!) My new companion is Sister Clark from Omaha, Nebraska. She is majoring in physics at BYU. I Love love love love love Sister Clark. You have no idea (well you probably do) how fun it is to be serving with someone who you would have been friends with if you were in high school together. She is incredible at the language, she is smart, obedient, fun, she gets missionary work, she will share ideas and helps me want to be better. Guess what, I'm having fun and working hard at the same time! That hasn't happened in a while. It is super nice to be with a companion that doesn't talk about boys all the time too. Needless to say, I am so happy to be in Liepaja with her. She is a great teacher. She is terrified of talking to people, but once she teaches she is amazing so she is a great fit for Liepaja.

Last MONDAY I got sunburned. Bad. I would have made a great lobster. We ran into Martin the Irish sailor. He was telling us about Kurt Cobain. We used what is called Rimi cash (money you save up for spending money) and bought our groceries with it. Well, all but $1.37 worth, it was pretty fun. I ordered some delightful shrimp and rice tomato soup at Pastnieka Maja and got kicked out of the Catholic Church. Sintija and SW wanted to go inside so we did. It was freezing (I could see my breath!) and they still had Christmas up. The nice lady asked me what our church believed so she got a little lesson. Then she said it was time for her to go so we needed to go to...there were still people in the church. We are still confused. We harvested into this awesome lady Mudra and her cute cat. She took English forever ago and was really kind to us. She gave us apples and maizites and is planning on coming to English. We cut off Eriks rattail at FHE with the Frolavi. By we I mean SW took Crayola scissors to the back of Eriks head. She doesn't like mullets. In other news, Monday evening we taught the Frolavi obedience and Janis and Kristina (baptismal dates) from 2 Nephi 31.

TUESDAY we got transfers after District Meeting. I was so excited! SW was really sad to be leaving. She doesn't like change. I'm glad she finally fell in love with Liepaja though! We taught Valda out of Alma 32. Metaphors aren't the greatest idea with her. We taught Oskars about pride, obedience, and purity (his choices). It made for an interesting study. Some scriptures I liked: Proverbs 16:18, Helaman 3:35, Mosiah 3:19, Jacob 4:10-11, Psalms 24:3-4. We also taught Guna (investigator) 2 N 31. She still seems a little iffy on baptism- isn't faith enough? NO! We also took SW's ring to Maris the ringman on Tuesday. He showed us his ski slope in the backyard; it is pretty fantastic.

WEDNESDAY Ruta the RS President wanted to say goodbye to Elder Davidson and Sister Wilson. Elder Davidson is going to be with Elder Schmidt in Imanta and Elder Alder is training Elder Baxter here in Liepaja. SW went to say bye to Kristina and told about how she felt she needed to talk to her. Kristina said that she had a feeling to go out walking and pause at that street, she didn't know why, just felt like she should. They were supposed to be found, that is why! Aivars Fishmeisters helped us get our luggage to the bus station. He then felt the need to stay with us until our bus came and harass the bus driver to get him to help us with our luggage because Aivars couldn't. It was super great. I felt like it was my grandpa sending me off for summer camp or something. We had the Davis couple pick us up at the Riga bus station. They are so fun and told us lots of stories about the Boswells (they were in their stake) as we had dinner at DaDas with them. Elder Davis was a trooper and helped us get all the luggage up 5 flights of stairs, including past an old bathtub. We picked up Sister McPhee who came up from Klaipeda. She is so funny. She ran XC and likes to wink. She was with Sister Santa Schneidere who know speaks Latvian with a British accent and they slept at the Riga sisters apartment with us.

THURSDAY we got to pick up our trainees! Sister Wilson had a bad morning. She wasn't ready on time, the door to her apartment got jammed, she didn't get all unpacked, we missed the bus, etc. She was a little stressed to say the least. We hid at the other end of the bus. We went to the mission home and I found out that I'm serving with Sister Clark! We came home on the bus with the elders and Sister McPhee and Madson who were going to Klaipeda. Sister McPhee forgot her passport, so we had to do some crazy travel arrangements. We all sat in the back of the bus and talked. I then made my first homemade alfredo, we taught Janis and Kristina about tithing, and then taught Santa D. the Restoration. We are working with her for referrals.

FRIDAY I woke SC up. At 5:30 am. Oopsie! I forgot to change the alarm. I felt so bad. She's still alive though and went right back to sleep. We made soup, taught the trolls about repentance, got Olga to throw away her lighter, taught Liga the Plan of Salvation while sipping peppermint tea, did some harvesting, and had a fun time on the bus ride home. Of course the only person to talk to was a charming young man who wanted to take us out for drinks. I told him we didn't drink. "Not even water or milk?" "Well, you touched the button, you'll have to come drink tonight." "Not tonight buddy, sorry." He was harmless and mostly pretty funny. Oh yes, it is cold, -10C (14 F)! But the sky is blue!

SATURDAY Madara helped us teach Valda. Madara loved going through the temple and just has a new glow about her. While helping clean the church we got to tour the attic; it was so cool! We taught Janis and Kristina a lesson strangely akin to a dream that I had had last week and taught the Beldavi the restoration and focused a lot on receiving answers.

SUNDAY's highlight was contacting at the beach. At sunset (I had cabin fever, okay?!). We talked to this awesome girl, Marta at the beach yesterday...she was from Portugal so it was in English. She is doing volunteer work here and believes in God. The Baltic Sea is freezing over! Mostly the week was spent doing lots of planning and studying, with a lot of fun and Janis and Kristina came to church!

The time is far spent!
Love,
Sis L